THE MILITANT Published Iwice a Month by the Communist League of America Opposition)
VOL. IV, No. 11 Whole No. 70 NEW YORK, JUNE 1, 1931 PRICE CENTS Next Month The Weekly!
RALLY to the DEFENSE of the SCOTTSBORO BOYS!
Au Appeal to Our Readers United Working Class Front Will Prevent a Legalized Lynching The Scottsboro case affords the party an opportunity, which it has seized, to draw nearer to the masses of Negro workers. It involves nine Negro working class boys.
The charge is the usual one rape. The defendants are transparently innocent. The trial was a farce. Elementary democratic rights were violated. Although the defendants were all minors, defense counsel did not consult their parents for permission to conduct the defense. Their parents were not even notified of their arrest and trial.
Only one week notice before trial was allowed by the trial judge. Trial date was set for fair day. Motions for change of venue were peremptorily denied. The trial was held in a lynching atmosphere. brass band greeted the verdicts of guilty. The itestimony of the two raped ladies was unreliable in the extreme. Only fifteen days elapsed between arrest and conviction.
The defense counsel did not investigate the case, produced no defense witnesses other than the defendants to upset this unreliable testimony and refused to ask the jury for acquittal.
All this makes it possible to appeal to broad masses of Negroes on the basis of their racial persecution, to smash this capitalist frame up. This the party has done by giving leadership in the growing protest and defense movement to the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, and by appealing to all classes of the Negro population, and the entire Negro press to join in the fight.
In the movement thus set afoot it is necessary to conduct elementary class edueation, linking the issues in the case with larger working class issues, patiently explaining that this case is a fraction of the persecution launched by the capitalist class against Negro masses, which is itself part of the general offensive of the capitalist class against the entire working class. Only in this way can the Communist party gain influence over and prestige among the Negro masses and lead them in struggle for democratic rights (social, political and economic equality. and against lynching, this basis can the party draw into the movement the larger masses of white workers. By this correct tactie the party can make a large step forward in uniting white and Negro workers in common struggle against the capitalist class. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that on this presentation of the case to the working elass a united front movement be organized. And it is precisely in this respect that the party has seriously blundered. Instead of using the racial issue as approach and appeal subordinate to the larger working class issue involved it is emphasizing the secondary issue above the major issue.
The growing restlesness and discontent of the Negro masses creates a fertile field for the spectacular issue quick resultsmethod of the party leadership. Emphasizing only the racial issue in the Scottsboro case makes the issue more sensational and looks toward quicker If less valuable results than the slower method of class education through emphasis on the general class issue.
This incorrect emphasis has had the effect of weakening the party united front.
While it is rallying Negro churches, lodges, and the Negro press, it has failed to make any appeal for a united front to workers organizations, of unions, etc.
Nor has an appeal been made to the labor press generally. The impor(Continue on nige 5)
And only Ten Commandments of the Spanish Communist By LEON TROTSKY With this issue there is only one month left until the Militant appears as a regular weekly organ of the Communist Left Opposition. Will our readers support us in making this step a reality and help to maintain the Weekly? This is an important question addressed directly to you.
We feel that the Milltant has already during its brief span of existence established itself as a revolutionary instrument of incalculable value. To obtain further proof of this our readers need only look through this present issue and notice as an example the information and analysis we are able to present about the revolutionary developments in Spain. These are events of worla shaking importance. Nevertheless, in the United States, the Militant is the only revolutionary organ which clearly and precisely explains these events to the working class.
This, however, is not an isolated instance. Our readers will recall, during the period the existence of the Militant, the fact that on its pages could be found a rev.
olutionary interpretation of events of the class struggle and a correct Marxian analysis and guide for the working class. This is no small accomplishment. Yet our efforts have been limited because of the semimonthly appearance. How much more effective Weekly appearance will become, may be seen by all. It will be possible give the Weekly Militant a more popular character without its suffering the slightest by way of decrease of its present theoretical value. It can become an all the more effective medium for discussion of the problems of the revolutionary workers.
In this sense, we aim to have the Weekly Militant devote more attention to the every day events of the class struggle.
Not merely to report them, not at all to exaggerate them and thus create false 11lusions, but to state plainly the facts, to endeavor to make correct analyses and to serve as a guide for the further course of the struggle.
We recognize that the present crisis and unemployment may prevent many work ers from helping to the extent they would desire. Nevertheless, there are ways in which all can help. No matter how hard the depression hits our ranks we can, most all of us, afford a small donation to help bring the Weekly Militant into existence and help to spread the views of the Left Communist Opposition. Our readers can help also in enlarging the circulation of the Militant. That itself is an important pre requisite for its weekly appearance.
Those of our readers whose subscription has expired or is about to expire can lend a helping hand by renewing immediately. And would it be too much in addition to this also to ask each one of our readers to endeavor to secure one new subscriber? We should remember that with a substantially enlarged circulation, the future regular appearance of the Militant as a Weekly will be guaranteed.
But when you endeavor to secure new subscribers you can also make good use of the splendid propaganda literature we have on hand. In addition to the various pamphlets written by comrade Trotsky, which we have announced in the Militant from time to time, we now also have on hand the Real Situation in Russia. and the Permanent Revolution. sale of one of these pamphlets or books helps to spread the revolutionary understanding, helps to spread the views of the Left Opposition, and also helps to build up the fund which will sustain the Weekly Militant.
These are some of the ways in which our readers can help make the Weekly Militant a reality. If you are in agreement with this step, if you feel as we do that the Weekly Militant will mark one of the important milestones toward the revolution, then we appeal to you to lend us your support. Can we expect to hear from you by return mail? The monarchy has lost power, but it hopes to win it back. The possessing classes are still firm in the saddle. The bloc of the republicans and the socialists has based itself upon the republican upheavel in order to hold back the masses from the road of the socialist revolution.
Ne faith in words. Give us deeds! In the first place: arrest the most prominent leaders and supporters of the old régime, confiscate the property of the dynasty and its most compromised lackeys! Arm the workers! The government, supporting itself on the republicans and socialists, will make every effort to extend its base to wards the Right, in the direction of the big bourgeoisie and will seek to capitulate in order to neutralize the church. The government is an exploiters government created to protect itself from the exploited.
The Proletariat is in frreconcilable opposition to the government of the socialist republican agents of the bourgeoisie. The participation in power of the socialists means that violent clashes between the workers and the socialist leaders will increase. This opens up great possibilities for the revolutionary policy of the united front. Every strike, every demonstration, every approach of the workers to the soldiers, every step of the masses towards the real democratization of the country will henceforth collide with the resistance of the socialist leaders acting as men of order It is therefore all the more important for the Communist workers to participate in a united front with the socialist, the syndical.
its and the non party workers, and to draw them under the leadership. The Communist workers today constitute a small minority in the country.
They cannot aspire to power immediately.
At the present moment, they cannot set themselves as a practical task the violent overthrow of the republican socialist government. Any attempt of this sort would be a catastrophic adventure. The masses of workers, soldiers and peasants must pass through the stage of socialist republican illusions in order to rid themselves of these Illusions all the more ra dically and conclusively. Not to be trapped by phrases, to look the facts straight in the face, stubbornly to prepare the second revolution, the proletarian revolution. The task of the Communists in the present period is to win the majority of the workers, the majority of the soldiers, the majority of the peasants. How can this be done? By carrying on agitation, by training cadres, by explaining patiently (Lenin. by organizing. All this on the basis of the experience of the masses and the active participation of the Communists in this experience: a broad and audacious united front policy. The Communists do not take any step, with the republican socialist bloc or with any part of it, which either directly or indirectly could restrict or weaken the Communist freedom criticism and agitation. Everywhere the Communists will tirelessly explain to the masses of the people that in the struggle against every form monarchist counter revolution, they will be in the front ranks, but that for such a struggle no alliance is needed with the republicans and the socialists, whose policy will inevitably be founded on concessions to the reaction and will tend to cover up its intrigues. The Communists issue the most radical democratie slogans; complete freedom for the proletarian organizations, freedom of local self administration, election of all officials by the people, admission to suffrage of men and women from the age of eighteen, etc. formation of a workers milita and later on of a peasants milita. Confiscation of all properties of the dynasty and of the church for the benefit of the people, above all of the unemployed. the poor peasants, and for improving the conditions of the soldiers. Complete separation of church and state.
All civil rights and political priveleges to the soldiers. Election of officers in the army. The soldier is not an executioner of the people, nor an armed mercenary of the rich. nor a raetorian but a revolutionary citizen, blool brother to the worker and the peasant. The central slogan of the proletariat is that of the Workers Soviet. This slogan must be proclaimed, tirelessly and constantly popularized, and at the first opportunity we must proceed to realize it.
The workers Soviet does not mean the immediate struggle for power. That is undoubtedly the perspective, but one which the masses can attain only through their own experience and with the help of the work of enlightenment of the Communists. The workers Soviet today means the assembling of th scattered forces of the proletariat, the struggle for unity of the working class, for its independence. The workers Soviet takes up the questions of strike benefits, of feeding the unemployed, of connections with the soldiers in order to prevent bloody encounters with them, or connections between the city and country in order to assure the alliance of the workers with the poor peasants. The workers Soviet includes representatives of the army corps.
It is in this way and only in this way that the Soviet will become the organ of the proletarian insurrection and later on the organ of power. The Comunists must immediately work out a revolutionary agrarian program.
Its basis must be the confiscation of the lands of the privileged and rich classes, of the exploiters beginning with the dynasty and the church, for the benefit the poor peasants and the soldiers. This program must be concretely adapted to the different parts of the country, In every province, each with its own economic and historic peculiarities, there must immediately be created a commission for the concrete elaboration of the agrarian program, in close cooperation with the revolutionary peasants of the locality. We must know how to hear voice of the peasants in order to formulate it in a clear and accurate manner.
10. The socalled Left socialists (among whom there are many honest workers) will invite the Communists to make a bloc and even to unite the organizations. To this the Communists answer: We are ready in the interests of the working class and for the solution of definite concrete tasks to work hand in hand with any group and with any Proletarian organization. Precisely towards this end do we propose to create Soviets. Workers representatives belonging to different parties, will discuss within these Soviets all the timely questions and all the immediate tasks. The workers Soviet is the most natural, the most open, the most honest and the healthiest form of this alliance for common work. In the workers Soviet, we Communists will propose our slogans and our solutions, and we will endeavor to convince the workers of the correctness of our course. Each group must enjoy full freedom of criticism in the workers Soviet. In the struggle for the practical, tasks proposed by the Soviet, we Communists will always be in the front ranks. This is the form of collaboration which the Comunists propose to the socialist, the syndicalist and the non party workers.
By insuring unity in their own ranks, the Communists will win the confidence of the proletariat and of the great majority of the poor peasnts, they will take power arms in hand, and they will open up the: era of the socialist revolution.
Kadikoy, April 5, 1931 THE MILITANT.