NOTES of a JOURNALIST. Who Is Responible for the «Turns. Yakovlev General Line the he) by ALFA The Right Wing Moves Closer to Social Democracy The Responsibility for the Turns al economy in the very recent past, and Kulak exploiting elements the task of an cent times when Yakovlev, in the capacity in the struggle against that same offensive against the Kulak. Ibid xlvi. of a member of the Central Control ComLies with. Trotskyism Trotskyism.
Consequently, even the possibility of mission, exiled the Opposition to the East It is known that the Opposition is Characterizing the dispersal and back limiting the growth of the Kulak elements for an assault upon the rights of the Kupulling to the Right. that it is against Wardness of peasant economy, Yakovlev was made dependent by Yakovlev upon lak and the bureaucracy, and for the ensocialism and collectivization. It is no less wrote at the end of 1927: These data are solution of the basic and most difficult deavor to accelerate collectivization. In the known that the Opposition is for compulquite sufficient to characterize the drama task. the socialist transformation of peastruggle for the official course of that time, sory collectivization.
of the small and tiniest economy.
And being that the On the course towards the strong peasant. sant economy. As for the liquidation of tre selection and training of the apparatus, as is the cultural and organizational level Kulak as a class. Yakovlev did not even against the conscienceless and spiteful critfurther well known, were in the past years of peasant economy as inherited by us from raise the question. All this was two years icism on the part of the Opposition the czarism we will in no way succeed in ad.
actual words in the article mentionedin the hands of the Opposition, then with it, ago.
naturally, lies the responsibility for the yancing in the sphere of socialist develop Speaking of the necessity for the gradYakovlev considered that the collective turns. At any rate this is all they talk ment in our country with the necessary ual transition from commercial cooperation farms will for a long time yet undoubtedabout in Pravda. It you do not like it, do speed. On the Question of Socialist Re to productive cooperation, that is, to colly be only Islets not even islands, but not listen, but do not interfere with the construction of Agricultural Economy, ed lective farms, Yakovlev wrote: This Is islets. In the sea of peasant economy. general line.
ited by Yakovlev, page xxiv. only road of cooperative development which for the socialist reconstruction of which more than once decade will be needed. If In the preceding issue we quoted the Two years ago when 75 percent of the really secures naturally, not in one woofficial Platform of the Opposition pub collectives were as yet made up of the poor, three years, maybe not in one decade the two years ago, Yakovlev proclaimed, in lished in 1927 in regards to collectivization. the present commissar of agriculture, Yak socialist reconstruction of all of peasant conorast to the Opposition, that even the But let us go way back of 1927, to the ovlev, evaluated their socialist character simple limitation of the Kulak can only be economy. Ibid, page xii. Let us notice period of military Communism when civil in the following manner. carefully: not in one two three years, maya passing result of socialist reconstruction war and famine necessitated a rigorous of all of peasant economy in the course of The question the growth in the be not in one decade.
policy of bread requisitions. How did the collectives of the communal and not individ Collective farms a series of decades then today, in the capand communes, Bolsheviks in those severe years paint the ual elements of capital, even at the present Yakovlev wrote in the same work, are acity of people commissar of agriculture, he undertakes to liquidate the Kulak as perspective of collectivization? In a speech time, perhaps particularly at the present at the present time and will for a long devoted to the peasant uprisings on the a class in the course of two or three sowtime is still a quegation of struggle; in many time yet undoubtedly be only Islets in the ground of the requisitioning of bread, coming campaigns. By the way this was yesinstances private individual accumulation sen of pensant economy, since a pre condi.
rade Trotsky spoke on April 6, 1919: terday: today Yakovlev expresses hintself hides under the communal form, etc. Ibid, tion for their vitality is first of all a trein theses much more enigmatically. and These uprisings gave us the possib page xxxvid. mendous rise of culture. Ibid, page xxxvii, ility to realize our geatest ideological and this sort of gentleman which is incapable Defending against the Opposition the our emphasis. of thinking anything through seriously, organizational strength. But alongside right of the Kulak to live and breath, YakFinally, in order to present the basis of this, it is understood, the uprisings were ovlev wrote: for the perspective of decades, Yaakovlev still less capable of foreseeing anything, also a sign of our weakness, because they accuses the Opposition of. conscience The quintessence of the tasks is the emphasized that: leszness. and on the basis of this accusadrew into their wake not only the Kulaks socialist transformation of peasant econ The creation of a mighty, rationally Two tion arrest. exile and even shoot.
but also. we must not deceive ourselves omy into a cooperative socialist economy organized industry, capable of producing on this score a certain part of the middle years ago beause the Opposition pushed. precisely this small and tiny economy not only the means of consumption but also and intermediate peasantry.
them on to the road of collectivization and This can be which middle peasant economy is at bottom.
the means of production, which are imexplained by the general reasons which This is our basic and most difficult task.
perative for national economy this is industrialization; today. because it restrains the collectivizers from adventurism.
have been depicted by me by the back While solving this task we may in passing, pre condition for a real cooperative social.
wardness of the peasantry itself. We must by measures of economic and general policy, ist plan. Ibid, page xliii. Here it is, the pure culture of bureaunot however, blame everything on the solve the task of limiting the growth of This is how matters appeared in re cratic adventurism.
backwardne:43. Marx said on one occasion that a peasant not only has prejudice but also judgement, and one can appeal from the prejudice of the peasant to his judgement, to lead him towards a new order on the basis of experience. The peasantry Since the formation of organized Right Communism. The Sellier group has organ he greets it by writing (Revolutionary Age, should feel by deeds that in the working wing groups in the Communist movement, ized a purely parliamentary Workers and No. 18. class, its Party, in its Soviet apparatus, we of the Left Opposition have conter rty doptin leg nately The campaign for trade union unity it has a leader, a defender; the peasant that an independent existence for any the Stalinist theories of such parties for in Czecho Slovakia has taken another step should understand the requisitions to which length of time of a current in the labor the Orient. The absence of the very word forward under the driving force of the we were forced, should accept them as movement that swings between Commun Communist in their name is simply sym Communist Oppositiin movement.
something unavoidable; he should know ism and social democracy is out of the bolic of the whole character of this move But why was this unity not realized that we are entering into the internal life question. We pointed out that the Right ment. The policy of vacillating between the with the Red trade unions, still containing of the village, that we examine for whom wing groups (Brandler, Lovestone, Sellier, Communists and socialists, however, is very some 50 60, 000 members and affiliated with it is easier, for whom it is more difficult, Hals, etc. were developing to a logical short lived in France. Already, one of the Since when must unity be that we make an internal differentiation conclusion the theory of Stalin Bucharin the leading members of the in achieved by capitulation to the yellow banand seek the closest friendly bonds with according to which a socialist society could France, Amedee Dunois, has formally Joined ner of Jouhaux and Co? No answer to the middle peasants be constructed on a national scale. We the Socialist Party That this new draft this from Lovestone. The fact remains This we need first of all because as warned that all theoretical thought and of Frossards will yield up many more than that confronted with the choice of unity long as in Western Europe the working historical experiences spoke for the idea one Dunois to the is manifes to any with the revolutionary trade union center class has not gained power, as long as that these Right wing groups must neces body that reads its journal, Ca Ira.
or with the Amsterdam center, Hais chose our Lett flank cannot lean on he prolet sarily go the whole way to the organized The Czech Right Wing Travels Fast Amsterdam.
arian dictatorship of Germany, France and social democracy, return to the Stalinist But the most striking instance of the The international Right wing hails this other countries, so long are we compelled camp, or so far as the workers in it are flight to social democracy by the interna as an achievement for their policy of trade to lean our Right flank on the Russian concerned find in the program of the Left tional Right wing is furnished by its union unity. And it is. Their policy of middle peasant. But not only in this per Opposition the only revolutionary solution Czecho Slovakian section, one flank of unity for its own sake results in practise iod, no, also after the decisive, inevitable of the crisis in our movement.
and historically pre determined victory of which has formally joined the socialist in capitulation to reformism instead of the To dispute this at the present time is party bag and baggage. We refer to the the working class throughout Europe, for realization of the revolutionary united front.
to turn one back deliberately upon events us, in It is interesting to note, parenthetically, country, there will remain the socalled Brunn Opposition led by Dr.
and establghed facts. The recent period Ecer and Kovanda. These eminent comthat Hais treachery is too much for the important enormous task of the socializahas produced a quantity of aditional evition of our agricultural economy, transpanions of Lovestone and Brandler have stomach of at least one Right wing leader, dence to confirm our analysis.
forming it from a scattered, backward, pea.
now gone to the masses in precisely the Neurath, who does not deceive himself that Heavy Defeat for Brandlerism manner we foretold some time ago.
the unity is a great step forward, but sant economy into a new, collective group, In Germany, the Right wing led by writes, in a bitter letter of reproach to Communist economy. Can this greatest Erandier and Thalheimer has just suffered That is not all. The second partner in transition in world history be in any way the Czech Right wing the trade unions led Hais: An unconditional amalgamation a crushing defeat in the Saxony elections.
completed against the desires of the peaby Josef Hals which split away from the with the o. reformisti federation)
While the comrades of the Left Opposition santry? In no way. Not measures of vioR. have now been formally brought would have the practical significance of the reserving their duty of criticism carlence will be needed here, not measures heaviest blow against the revolutionary into the Czech national reformist trade ried on a campaign to have the Saxon of compulsion, but educational measures, union federation, e. the Amsterdam Inproletariat of Czecho Slovakia.
workers vote for the Communist list, the As for the third, pure Opposition measures of influencing, of support, of good ternational. Lovestone is not a bit put out Brandler group again sought to split the example, of encouragement these are the by this open capitulation; on the contrary, group of the Right wing in Czecho Slovakia, methods by which the organized and enrevolutionary ranks by setting up their own It has also contributed its quota to the 80 candidates. The result was that after cial democratic party in the form of two lightened working class speaks to the middle peasant. Trotsky, Vol. XVII, pages weeks of boasting, the Brandierites lost of its leaders who, at the recent conference 119 120. one third of the votes cast for them at the of the former, announced their formal retirement from Communism and return to Yakovlev «General Line»
subsequently created in the ranks of the the old, solid. loveRight wing is evident from a reading of the One of the most loyal pillars of the Who is Disintegrating and How?
Every self respecting bureaucrat has Brandler press itself. The Right wing work Stalinist regime is the feature writer of Our reader will recall the announcehis general line. sometime full of the ers, captivated by the fantastic ideas of Pravda, Saslavsky. When one reads how ment by Lovestone made all the more unexpected. The general line of Yakoy Brandler and Thalheimer that the masses and what Saslavsky writes about counter vociferously because there were no facts lev has always consisted of serving the or Communistic workers would swing revolutionary Trotskyism, memories of 1917 to base it on that the Trotskyists are command but winking to the Opposition. along, were left speechless by the Saxony rise to confront one. In those days Sas disintegrating. The events of recent He ceased his winking when he understood results.
lavsky wrote articles too, in fact quite months speak eloquently. They show who that it 18 a serious matter, and for a The upshot is a thoroughgoing reval similar ones, almost with the same words. is really disintegrating, and where the parresponsible post the command demands not ulation of values in the Brandler group. Only not in Prayda. Against the German ticles are going. The Right wing is either only the hands but the heart as well. More outspoken voices are being heard for agent, Lenin was Saslavsky motto then. capitulating to Stalin, as in Russia, or to Yakovlev has become people commissar a second Party, or for unity with the Left Lenin demanded at that time that the mass the social democracy. The Left Opposition, of agriculture In this capacity he pre social democratic splitters chipped off the es be told of the kind of knaves the Mil denounced by Lovestone as counter revosented the Sixteenth Congress with a the paretn body.
The path adopted by the iukovs and Hessens. Saslavskys and Dans lutionaries. disintegrated Trotskyistka sis on the collectivization movement. One Brandlerites of moving away from the offi are! Yes, Saslavsky has remained his old to which Lovestone now addresses hypoof the basic reasons for the rise of agri cial Party and from Communism leads self. But what a threatening symptom that critical, humble and public appeals for cultural economy, the thesis declares, is logically to the advanced step already the hounding of Bolshevism can now be a united front (and not so public appeals the crushing of counter revolutionary taken by their French allles (Sellier, Dun carried on by the same Saslavsky in the to and capitulatory negotiations with Trotskyism. It will therefore not hurt ois, Gelis Co. and further.
columns of Pravda only because he now Musteite leaders. marches forward with to recall how the present leader of the col In France, as we have already reported, writes Trotsky instead of Lenin and renewed strength towards revolutionary lectivization put the question of agricultur the Right wing has broken completely with instead of Bolshevism Trotskyism. unity. n.
1928 Landtag elections. The demoralization Saslavsky Doesn Change