tiative, and bureaucratic flunkeys capable What Next?
On the Campaign Against the Russian Right Wing only of initiative for betrayal. At the Right. The Red Fleet Visits Greece We have received the following letter from our comrades of the Greek Opposition: The police to By the time this issue is off the press, into quality.
the campaign against the Right wingers will The Soviet and Party bureaucracy raised probably have been completed by decisive Stalin on the wave of reaction against organizational conclusions: the removal of the October revolution, against War Rykov, Tomsky and Bucharin from the Cen Communism against the convulsions and tral Committee (perhaps Rykov only from dangers rooted in the policy of international the Political Dureau. Whether matters revolution. In this lies the secret of Stalwill come to the expulsion of the Right in victory. Beginning with 1924, new wing leaders from the Party and to their generations were being reared, and the old administrative punishment at the next ones were being re educated in the spirit stage, depends partly upon the conduct of of the theoretical and political reaction of the Right leaders but primarily on the a national reformist character. Stalin extent of the acuteness with which the Left reservations. reservations of a cauStalinist staff will feel the need of making tious Centrist did not interest anybody.
a turn to the Right. For this is how mat What entered the consciousness was: ters now stand at the top. Just as the quietly, bit by bit we will build up socialsmashing of the Left Opposition at the Fif ism without any revolutions in the West; teenth Congress in December 1927 immedi one must not skip over stages; the slower ately preceded the Left turn, which offici you go the further you get: why not conally opened on February 15, 1928, so the clude a bloc with Chiang Kai Shek, Purcell, inevitable turn to the Right will have to Raditch? Why not sign the Kellogg Pact?
be preceded by an organizational smash. Even a piece of string may come in handy ing of the Right Opposition. Why must it on a trip) And above everything down be preceded? Because it this turn should with the permanent revolution. not the be made with the presence of the Rights in theory. with which the majority of the the Central Committee, the latter would de bureaucrats are not in the least concerned, clare their solidarity with the turn, and but the international revolutionary policy by that, would not only make their expul with its disturbance and risks, when here sion from the Party difficult but in general in the there is something real would additionally mar the perfection of at hand.
the general line. But this is only one side This is the philosophy upon which was of the matter. There is also another, no reared the Stalinist apparatus, numbering less important.
millions of people. The majority of the real Stalinist bureaucracy feels deceived by Who is to Be Responsible for the last its leader since 1928. peaceful growing Long before the decisive organizational over of the October regime into a national crushing of the Left Opposition, a new split state capitalism did not and could not take was being prepared in the bosom of the place. Coming to the edge of the capitalist leading majority of that time, without precipice Stalin even though he is no which the turn to the Right could not even lover of jumps made a breakneck jump be thought of, not to speak of the fact that to the Left. The economic contradictions, there would be nobody to blame for the the dissatisfaction of the masses, the tireRight wing course of yesterday. And now less criticism of the Left Opposition, comwhen the inevitable turn of the general pelled Stalin to make this turn in spite of line to the Right is being delineated on the the partly active and primarily passive rehorizon, one must presume, a priori, that sistance of the majority of the apparatus.
a new split is taking shape in the ruling The turn took place with a gnashing of the group which will be revealed only after teeth of the majority of the bureaucrats.
the turn to the Right. It cannot be other This is the most direct reason why the new wise. For, on the one hand, not only in stage of monolithism was accompanied the Party there is no need to speak of by an open and cynical establishment of this but even in the apparatus itself, there the plebiscitary personal regime. Only by are elements who took the ultra Left zig utilizing its last iuerita can Stalin still zag seriously as a systematic Left course: carry out the smashing of the Rights and these elements will resist the approaching also the new turn which will cost him imturn. On the other hand somebody has to measurably more than all the preceding bear the responsibility for the dizziness ones.
and for the turns on a State wide scale. About a year ago we said that a new And one can even guess beforehand theosqueak is being heard in the apparatus.
retically atong what line the split will pro Since then the squeak has become a clatceed, or more correctly has already pro ter. What import has the fact that Syrzov, ceeded, by applying the method of elimina placed in a high post for the purpose of tion. To attribute the excesses in indus easing out Rykov, turned out to be the head trialization and collectivization to Vorosch of the socalled two handed. that is peoilov and Kalinin, is impossible. For every. ple who vote officially for Stalin, but think, body knows well enough where the sym and if they can also act differently. How pathies of these two captives of the Left many such Syrzors are there in the apparzig zag are directed. To attribute the re atus? Alas, these statistics are inaccesissponsibility for the political dizziness to ble to Stalin. They can be revealed only in Kuibischer, Dudzutak or Mikoyan, is im action. The oflicial press characterizes possible, because liere too, nobody would Syrzov as a Right winger. The fast that believe it: for political dizziness some Syrzov sought a bloc with the Left Centhing akin to a political head is required. trists of the type of Lominadze and SchatzThus there remains only one Molotov.
kin not only marks an extraordinary conThe conclusion arrived at by the meth fusion in the ranks of the apparatus but od of elimination is substantiated by sev also shows that Syrzov is one of those diseral boscow sources. We are informed orientated Right wing apparatus men who that, for a considerable time Stalin has have, however, become frightened at the been very diligently spreading rumors Thermidor.
through various channels that Molotov has The Faction of Toadies become conceited, and that he is always There are also others. They are those obedient, and interferes with him. Stalin, who vote against Syrzov and Lominadze in conducting a completely infallible gen demand the expulsion of Rykov and Bucheral line pulling at his coat sleeves from arin, swear fealty to the only and beloved the Left. The mechanics of the new zig leader, and at the same time think a deep zag are thus clear in advance because they thought: how to betray to the best advanreproduce the past we already know. But tage. These are the Agabekova and others.
there is also a difference which consists of The toadies of the revolution, its bureaurevealing the mechanics and accelerating cratic flunkeys, have succeeded in showing their tempo. An ever greater number of themselves sufficiently in foreign countries.
people know how it is done and by what Jumping over the fence, they soon sell phrases it is covered. It is becoming clear themselves to the new boss. How many of to ever broader circles of the Party that them are in the Soviet apparatus inside the the basic source of two handedness is the country? It is harder to count them than general secretariat, which systematically to count the frightened Rights and the deceives the Party: it says one thing and honestly confused Centrists. But there are does another. An ever greater number of many of them. Stalin successes, with all people come to the conclusion that Stalin his zig zags systematically settled down in leadership is too costly to the Party. Thus, the apparatus in the form of a faction of in the mechanics of the Centrist zig zags toadies, who remained devoted without and the apparatus crushing, a moment ar adulation even five minutes before comrives when quantity has to be converted plete betrayal. Fór any kind of independent political, and what is more, historical Bucharin has repeated another rite of re role this human abomination is absolutely pentance. The others will probably follow incapable. But it can well play the role after him. Very little of the nature of of a banana peel upon which the plebiscithings will be changed by this. But the tary perfection of Stalin will slip.
character and the order of administrative Once slipping, the Stalinist apparatus punishment may turn out to be different. will no longer find its previous balance.
There is no need of saying that our policy It has no support of its own under its feet.
does not in the least depend on the waver Will it find support to the Right? No. Two ings within the framework of the apparatus sectors are there: confused and even desautonomy as a whole.
pairing opportunists, incapable of any inithe Centrist elements will find no support.
And at the Left? Only here, from the Left wing is it possible to repel the Thermidorian Bonapartist danger, aggravated by the policy of the Centrists. Does this mean a bloc with Stalin? The struggle of the Bolsheviks against Kornilov who directly attacked the Provisional Government was that a bloc with Kerensky? In the face of direct counter revolutionary danger, a common struggle with that part of the Stalinists which will not prove to be on the other side of the barricades, is self understood.
But this is not the main question. The moment the apparatus split by contradictions and falsehoods, begins to rock, the situation can be saved not by any parts or particles of the apparatus itself but by the Party, the vanguard of the proletariat. Here is the task! Meanwhile the Party as an organizational whole is non existent. The accumulation of flunkeys in the apparatus has meant the destruction of Bolshevism and the Party. In this lies the historical crime of Stalin. But the elements of the Bolshevik Party are extraordinarily numerous, alive and indestructible. No matter how much the apparatus should strive to set them by their ears, the worker Bolsheviks draw their own conclusions from heavy lessons. Tens of thousands of old Bolsheviks, hundreds of thousands of young potential Bolsheviks will arise in the moment of danger. The bourgeois restoration which will attempt to stretch out its hand towards power will be left without hands.
The Task of the Opposition The Left Opposition is the vanguard of the vanguard. In relation to the official Party the same qualities and methods are demanded of it which under normal conditions are required of the Party in relation the class: an unwavering principled hardness, and at the same time a readiness to move together with the masses, even the smallest step ahead.
In the Party, the voice of alarm must be raised in the nearest future. The Party must begin to find itself. This is inevitable. It flows from the whole situation.
By what road will this process go forward? It is impossible to foretell. But matters will come to a deep internal realignment, that is, to the selection and welding together the rea ary pro letarian Party from the human dust trampled underfoot by the apparatus.
In the face of the sharp convulsions and acute changes in the situation, it would be doctrinary to bind oneself beforehand by any sort of partial unprincipled organizational technical slogans to which the slogan of a coalition Central Committee is partially related. We wrote on this subject several weeks ago, on the eve of the last campaign against the Rights. Since then much has changed. But we think even now, that the slogan of a coalition Central Committee may appear to the broad circles of the Party as the only one capable of finding a way out of the chaos. It is understood that the coalition Central Committee in itself would not solve anything; but it could make it easier for the Party to solve the tasks before it, giving it the possibility to find itself with the least possible convulsions. Without a deep internal struggle this is no longer possible; but we must do everything to exclude from this internal struggle a great service to the Party in the most critical moment. It is not the Bolshevik Leninists who will assist such an agreement. But making it they can now less than ever before, renounce their traditions and their Platform. We must say outright: there is no other banner at present. The Red Fleet of the Black Sea.
rived Phalerus on October 11; it remained there until the 14th. We profited by the occasion to distribute Oppositiu.
leaflets in Russian among the sailors. group of 50 comrades, supplied with leaflets, endeavored to board the ships. Our comrades approached the Soviet ships.
boats to the tune of the International.
the Fleet Commander issued the ord prevent them from boarding. parle of leaflets was then thrown aboard Tcheraonetz Ukrainy. The officers of this ship prohibited the sailors from reading them and threw them into the sea. About a hundred comrades on Phalerus shore threw leaflets into the motorboats that bore the sailors.
arrested three comrades, but the distribution of leaflets to the sailors and workers of the port (in Greek) continues nevertheless. Other groups, scattered in the streets of Athens and Piraeus, especially in the sections visited by the sailors (the Aern.
polis, museums, etc. conducted the garn work. In spite of the prohibition by th: officers, more than 100 sailors took Teaflets. Many of them showed a liv sympathy which they tried to conceal he.
fore the officers.
In this leaflet, our Greek comrades explain to the Soviet sailors the real situation in the Greek Communist Party and the whole international Communist movement. They point out the internal and external dangers threatening the and vow to defend with all their might the and the October revolution.
They invite the Red sailors to speak out against the errors and crimes of Stalin who deports Rakovsky and puts Bessedovsky in his place: who shoots the Left Oppositionist Blumkin and replaces him with the traitor Agabekov.
It is very characteristic that the sall ors received the leaflets with sympathy, while the Red Fleet Comman prohibited the workers who sang the International from getting aboard.
Our comrades of the Greek Opposition fraternized with the worker sailors of the Red Fleet. Their example should be followed everywhere by Oppositions who have the opportunity of making contact with the sailors of the proletarian country. 00 HOW STALIN FOUGHT BLOOD LETTINA in the concluding remarks on the poll tical report to the Fourteenth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 1925. Stalin declared. The Leningrad Provincial Committee passed a resolution demanding the expulsion of comrade Trotsky. We, that is to say, the majority of the Central Committee, were not in favor of such a step. Quite right. After a struggle, we were able to persuade the Leningrad comrades to delete the sentence about expulsion fronx their resolution. little later, when the plenum of the Central Committee met, the Leningrad members, supported by comrade Kamenév, proposed the immediate exclusion of comrade Trotsky from the Political Bureau. We could not accept this preposal of the opposition either. We were in a majority on the Central Committee.
and were content to remove comrade Trotsky from his position as people commissary for war. We did not agree with comrades Zinoviev and Kamenev, for we knew that the policy of lopping off might entail grave dangers for the Party. The method of lopping off, the method of bloodletting (it was blood letting they wanted is dangerous, and infectious. Today, you lop off one limb; tomorrow, another, the day after tomorrow, a third and what is left of the Party (Applause. 0 IN THE NEXT ISSUE!
This issue has been considerably delayed because of the difficulties entailed by moving from our old headquarters to the new. In addition, the Militant has been compelled to omit a considerable amount of material of importance. for lack of space. Next issue will contain among other other things an article analyzing the thesis of the recent Plenum of the Party Central Committee, an article on the Bank of the United States crash and the Party policy of organizing the shop keeper depositors a review of the recent events in China, an article by comrade Trotsky on Thermidorianism and Bonapartism etc. etc. OPEN FORUM EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT at the Labor Temple 14th Street and Second Avenue JANUARY ALIGNMENTS FOR THE NEXT WAR. Max Shachtman.
How close is the next world war? What will be the line up of the imperialist powers? What role will the United States play in it? What will be its effect on the Soviet Union? These are some of the points that will be discussed at the lecture.
Admission 25e Come Early Unemployed admitted free upon presentation of Unemployed Council card.
Auspices: New York branch of the Communist League o America (Opposition.