PAGE TRE MILITANT SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 1932 EDITORIAL NOTES The World Crisis and Its Revolutionary Implications the country.
the France, which the ages of the doctrine. These radical changes permisin any case, there is no threat of an how It is the aim of the present lines to the fate of all of China. In this sig indicate if only In its general outlines By LEON TROTSKY autie historical struggle, the Soviet goyTHE THREAT OF ILLEGALITY changes in the life of the American. the composition of the political world American capitalism is already giving working class, it is not permissible to situation today, as it has resulted from In the pre revolutionary situation, the parties are to be expected, as well as ernment cannot be neutral, take the third party, etc. same position with regard to China as advance notice of the bloody answer it torget or a moment that we alone will the fundamental contradictions of decay most dulc witted of conservatisms had new attempts to create is preparing to the slaves whom it dentes nut and cannot be the authors of these capltallsm, complicated and sharpened acquired tremendous political predom. With the first signs of a rise in the conto Japan. It is duty bound to stand comthe unflinching a living within thelr slavery. In the changes and these events. The future by the severe commercial, industrial and inance. It will in all probability take Juncture, the trade union movement will pletely and fully on the side of loyalty of the Soviet government to the roar of gunfire at Detroit it sald to the or American Communism is bright with financial crisis. The following. hastily more than one month, perhaps more than uutely sense the necessity of tearing Chinese people. Only workers whom it has thrown onto the promise, but we will move toward that sketched reflections, før trom embracing one year, for the political super struc itself loose from the claws of the de protect the streets: We cannot employ you and wo great future only in so far as the work all countries and all questions, are to ture to become adapted to the real ecospicable of bureaucracy. At struggle for the liberation of the opwill unfold themselves for Communism.
Soviet Union on the Eastern frontier will not provide for you, and if you ing masses move with us at every step. be the subject of serious further, col nomic and International situation of the the same time, unlimited possibilities pressed peoples can really protest we will shoot you. The mass. The material conditions are long ripe lective treatment.
There is no ground for assuming that The Spanish Revolution has creatIn the past, America has known more against Japan, England, France, the acre at Detroit was followed a few days for a tremendous upurge of militant la Under what forms the Soviet governlater by the murderous attack on the bor. This we know and this is the found the general political premises for the the collape of the national bloc and than one stormy outburst of revolution United States.
Chicago demonstration of the Commundation of our perspectives. But the immediate struggle for power of the pro Intively near tuture will lend directly ments. Every time they died out qulek ment will support the struggle of the Ists before the Japanese Consulate. workers do not react automatically to letariat. The syndicalist traditions of to the proletarian revolution (It is ily, because America at every time enterHere, as in Detroit, the police were the material pressure upon them, and the Spanish proletariat have at once reclearly the aggressors. The demonstra there is no rule by which to foretell the realed themselves as one of the most matter of course, that there can be no new phase of economic upswing pends upon the concrete historical cir surrender the Chinese Eastern Railroad tion was designed as a peaceful one, with extent and tempo of their movement in important obstacles in the way of the other revolution in England) or to the and also because the movements them cumstances. If it had been insane to The triumph of Fascism. On the contrary, selves were characterized by crass emvoluntarily to Japan before, then it would Communist direction it could not be advance. That must be judged and esdevelopment of the revolution.
otherwise under the given conditions, for timated as it actually unfolds or, at Comintern was caught unawares by the probability that on her path to the rest. These two conditions belong to the past. be just as insane to subordinate the entire polley in the Far East to the prosubstitute the futile violence of an in clear sighted study of the mood and tem impotent at the beginning of the revolu. through lengthy period of the radical not consider it excluded in advance. dividual or of a smați group for the per of the workers must precede and then recupled a tealse position, on all the democratic and social pacifist demagogy will have to be based, not on the internal There are many indications that the he.
intervention of the masses who are not regulate the daily tactics and working experiences have shown let it be re These can therefore be no doubt that of world economy. American capitalism this question bears consciously provo yet active.
We do not credit the story, by means it really alms to accelerate and industrument of the disorganization of the grant British Communism ample time to perialism of an uninterrupted growth of provocation, stands ruling France. The of which the police murderers are atence the collisions of class forces.
tempting to cover themselves, that the Unemployment on the one side and vanced workers, the present Comintern of the proletariat at the moment it will of the entire world, of military contiets of the Soviet Union in the East. All and boats Communited nattator at that was reductions on the other and welsh wadership representsThe extraordin be confronted with the solution. From and convulsions. On the other hand, in the more firmness and far sightedness Such. Individual reactions to the regime in class of America and ruthlessly lagging behind the events, the politically that we can afford to continue losing the American proletariat possess ra ernment.
is required on the part of the Soviet govof brutal repression are of course possi changing all the accustomed conditions dispersed character of the herole strug. time with disastrous experiments and ther, could possess, provided with a cor The fundamental conditions of ble; one may say inevitable. Even and standards of life. But in spite of gles of the laboring masses, the actual Centriat xls ngs. In the present world rect policy to longer the old melange Bast: its immense expanse, its countless that had been the case in Chicago, the that and this is the most singular and assurances of reciprocity between anar situation time is the most precious of of empiricism, mysticism and quackery human masses. Its economic backwardpolice who forcibly deprived the manlinescapable fact in the situation the cho syndicalism and social democracyfestants of their rights would bear the workers have not yet begun the inevit. these are raw materials.
fundamental politiral but a scientifically grounded, up to date ness rive these processes their slow, their drawn out and crawling character.
whole responsibility. But their attempt to pin the accusation on a known Comable movement of revolt. Under press conditions that made it possible for the Comintern had placed a year and a half the to predict with certainty that the ure of conditions that become more and republican bourgeoisle, in league with immediate and acute danger to the exstart. It is a transparent subterfuge to going a profound mental change. But appartaus of repression, and by dealing actuality the most conservative country. proletariat will no more to be the form the main events will develop in Europe muntsa discredits their story from the more intolerable the workers are under the social democracy, to establish an or two years ago in the foremost ranks inevitable and relatively rapid, revoluof the revolutionary upeurge. is in tionary transformation of the American istence of the Soviet Union from the Justity themselves and to frame up the the outward signs of this change are not the insurgent masses blow for blow, to not only of Europe, but perhaps of the er, casily extinguishable bonfire. but Here, great opportunities may arise.
party, They are proceeding in the same way It is like the slow accumulation of steam political pxwer in the hands of the entire world. The relative stability of the beginning of a veritable revolution but from the same source also, kreat yet manifest to any appreciable extent concentrate a considerable amount of the capitalist regime in France has its ary conflagration. In America, Commun dangers threaten. For the present, only at Detroit. The four victims of their in a sealed boller that has not yet reach government.
gunmen had not been laid away before ed the explosive polnt. The explosion By this example, we see that Fasclumness. The crisis has less telling effects tidence.
roots, to a large extent, in its backward ism can face its great future with con Japan has tied its hands in the Far munist leaders and set the legal machined; but it is not storm, but rather the of the bourgeoiste in its struggle against financial feld, Paris even attempts to uria led to the Russo Japanese war; the The Canrist adventure in East. The Soviet Union must, for the Manch present, keeps its hands free.
wyn in motion to grind out wholesale in dead calm before storm, that character the revolutionary masses. The regime vte with New York. The present finanwar to the 1905 revolution. The preL. TROTSKY dictments. They are drawing the noose izes the present situation.
existing in Spain today corresponds bestial prosperity of the French bourge sent Japanese adventure in Manchuria From. Germany the key to the tighter around the workers vanguard. The sporadie movements which are to the conception of the Kerensklad, olsle has its direct source in the robbery can lead to revolution in Japan.
International Situation. They are starting to isolate it from the up here and there are organized by that is the last or the one before the of Versailles. But it is precisely thel.
At the beginning of the century, the to outlaw its activities. The labor pas the most part, carried through by them bourgeoisle can only set up in its strug chlet threat to the entire regime of the could still successfully serve the Inter slvity that has attended the Kentucky in almost every case. In these actions kle against the revolution. But this French republic. Between the size of eats of the young Japanese capitalism.
prosecutions and convictions only enthe Communist workers are distinguish kind of government does not necessarily the population, the productive forces and But in the course of the last quarter ofssued now for material reasons. The (Continued from page 3)
courages a similar procedure after every ing themselves by their courage and resignity weakness and prostration.
skirmish in other places. The ruling solution. Thereby they are storing up the absence of a In the national income of France on the a century, capitalist development has pamphlets Against National Communcapitalists and their Governmental bire capital and prestige for the future. But party of the proletariat, combination position on the other, there is a crying to the old social and political forms. Sous and How Can National Socialism strong revolutionary one hand, and her present international brought extraordinary decomposition in ism. Shall Fascism Really Be Victorlings, shivering in fear at the coming the masses are not moving with the of semt reforms, left phrases and sea contradiction which must inevitably lead since that time, Japan has more than Be Defeated. have all appeared storm of labor rebellion, would like to communists In this disparity there is tures stil more to the left, and of re to an explosion. To maintain her shortance been on the brink of revolution.
cut off and proscribe the conscious and a great danger that the vanguard will prisals can prove to be of much more lived hegemony. nationalist as well as But the latter lacked a strong revolu. have all appeared editions of 15, 000 and in suite cufate section of the class and de become exhausted and demoralized and effective service to the bourgeoise than radical socialist Franere informed toniretionary class to evelopment as kohen parte have been completely sold out. The second edition. The latest pamphlets prive the germinating mass movement of unable to handle the legal spokesmen and organisers.
when it breaks.
pend upon the support in the entire on it by the developments. The Man present sphere of influence of the left Needless to The Communist workers are not the has not yet concluded. It has not solved the most archaic forms of exploitation, revolutionary catastrophe of the Japaneditions of 25, 000. This is a significant The menace of illegality for the Communist movement is undoubtedly grow working class. They are only its con its most elementary tasks (the agrarian, of the abominable Rumanian clique, of ese regime.
Ing, and it calls for the most serious scious section, and at present in Amer. the church and the national questions) the decadent Pilsudski regime of the step forward.
Present day China, no matter millDue to the reasons mentioned above, prescription by the aid of which the inslgnificant section. The Communist the revolutionary resources of them try to unholdene (Gemember mental of the Kuo Min Tang cliques, greatly Arst. appear more than once a month.
enfeebled it may be by the dictatorship the Permanente Revolution could not, at Party can be guaranteed a legal exist workers alone cannot fight to real class More than it has already even the the Germanetratione Geolish corrido differs from the China which Japan, fol. We had to overcome certain pessimistie isolation of the Party, with the inten the workers and in their front ranks. to kive. With regard to the proletarian East Prussia, to ald Japanese interven lowing the European powers, despoiled sentiments against a more regular ap sification of war danger increasing, and the task of the Communists at the mo revolution, however, the present interntion in Manchuria, to spur the Japanese in the past. China has not the strength pearance. Nevertheless, we have suewith a powerful ruling class paniestrick ment is to prepare the workers for the al situation in Spain may be character military clige against the u. to drive out the Japanese expeditionary ceeded in issuing the paper as a semimovement come, but not yet matured task is the patlent work of explana more than that it is quite probable the liberation movement of the colonial sciousness and activity of the Chinese an unquestionable success for the and merged with the vanguard, the rev. tion. of agitation and propaganda to that the offensive development of the peoples, etc. The contradidetion bejeople have grown enormously. Hun animation, although this result is by no olutionary wing may be driven under win the workers over course of Spanish revolution will take on a more tween France secondary role in world have gone through military training means up to the mark of political necesdreds of thousands, millions of Chinese ground in spite of anything can do. struggle. There is no substitute guarantee legality. But within certain leap over it. renovation of the Party as it were. a new credit account for more distinct every month, will hear armies. The Japanese will feel them at present.
There is no prescription that win the presele task and there ds no way to manner, the historical process opens up. prekenskong in world politick will become the Chinese will always improvise new sits. We are campaigning for a weekly limits it can be safeguarded and stren tactics in this sense is an absolute Dec Spanish Communism.
dangers upon dangers, upret her inter selves besleged. The railroads will be The successes achieved are the fruits gthened by correct policy. The ex essary. Only in this way can it prepare The situation in England can nal stability, promote restlessness and of far greater service for war than for of a systematie work of preparation, perience of 1919 21 must be recalled and the coming workers movement and en likewise be termed with a certain de discontent among the masses of the peo economic purposes. More and more new which brought about the most effective its lessons assimilated by those nilitants trench itself within it.
gree of justification, as pre revolution ple and create ever deeper political de troops will have to be sent out. The ntilization and application of the forces who have been drawn into the move FALSE SLOGAN ary, provided it is strictly agreed, that Manchurian expedition spreading out will of which we disposedl. We rangements. These processes will ment, ander legal conditions, since that he revolutionary fighting spirit of the a period covering several years of part. doubtedly become manifest to early hainism, increase the discoutept inside on without any material assistance from must embegin to exhaust Japan economic orphasize that all our work was carried time. The first of these lessons is to Communist workers who demonstrated al ebbe and and tides can elapse be the next parliamentary elections.
value legality; and, without surrender before the Japanese consulates last Sat tween the pre revolutionary and the im On the other hand, however, all in the country, sharpen the contradictions the outside. In view of the fact that ing a single point of revolutionary doc urday is not to be questioned. The firm mediately revolutionary situation: The dications compel us to assume that, if no and thereby, accelerate the revolutionary there are more than 6, 000, 000 unemplogtrine or evading a single duty, to fight will to fight against the imperialist war economie situation in England bab reach great events take place outside of the crisis.
ed in Germany today, these material effor it to the end. retreat into illegal mongeres was their animating impulse. ed extreme acuteness. In China, the necessity of a deter forts are even worthy of a much higher ity under the present conditions, or even and that is all the greater reason for a super structure of this arch conserva in Germany or the reverse: the victory mined defense against the imperialist evaluation. Without overlooking any of under much more aggravated ones, would protest against the manner in which the tive country extraordinary lags behind of Fascism. the development of the in invasion will also bring with it serious the shortcomings still persist, it is, signify a retreat from the coming class energies of the militants are being mis the changes in the economic basis. Beternal relationships in France iteelf will internal, political consequences. The nevertheless, undeniable, that the Gerbattles.
directed by the false tactics of the Party fore taking recourse to new political in the next period, take a relatively nor Kuo Min Tang regime arose out of the man opposition has overcome the stage THE SITUATION AND ITS TASK leaders. It is cruel irony that the forms and methods, all the clases of mal course which will open up for Com national revolutionary mass movement of sectarianism and that it is on the lutionists, Inspired by a hatred of ther and again to ransack the old store considerable period of preparation in or the hourgeois militarists (with the aid American Communist tactics is to main own imperialists, could give the out rooms, to turn the old clothes of their der to consolidate itself prior to the ad of the Stalinist bureaucracy. Precise sections in the International WELL at least em ward appearance of an legal, position until a significant work demonstration. and be so described by out. The fact remains, that despite tionary situation. anti Japanese grandfathers and greatmothers inside vent of the pre revolutionary and revolu ly for this reason, the present regime, In further articles, there will era mas movement has caught up with the capitalist press. Such a direction of the dreadful national decline there does shaky and full of contradictions, is in be a more detailed report of the newly the conscious vanguard and joined with the struksle does not in the least hamper not exist in England as yet, elther aerful country of capital, the present the necessity of a defense against the In the United States, the most pow. capable of initiating a revolutionary war. organized groups and connections.
it in a common struggle on the concrete the war plans of American imperialism. revolutionary party of any significance crisis has laid bare frightful social con Japanese luvaders will turn more and CLASS IN MARXISM questions of the day. Then the sup. On the contrary it gives them unwitting or its antipode the Fascist party. tradictions with It is not yet too late to join the class pression of the Party will be a thousand support.
times more difficult. The numerically Thanks to these circumstances, the bour. After an unprecedented period of pre and nourish the revolutionary senti in Marxism taught by comrade Swabeck weak Party, isolated and fighting virtual ple; we ought to expose and denounce using the majority of the people under with its fireworks of millions and bil policy, the proletarian vanguard can, unst. Comrades and sympathizers are in of course we support the Chinese neo seotste has had the opportunlty of mob. sperity which amazed the whole worlaments of the masses. With correct clock, at our headquarters, 84 10th supported by a Workers mass movementedly wrong to concentrate the anti war the most hollow of all possible slogans. ed a period of unemployment for mil that was so tragically lost in the course already covered included discussion of is a power.
campaign in America against the governIf we are going to find our way in agitation. but in our opinion it is deeldlions of people of the most appalling of the years 1924 1927.
physical destitution for the toilers. Such The present events in Manchuria Brumaire, the Communist Manifesto, the Class Struggles in France, the 18th the charged social atmosphere of these ment of Japan. And this is precisely it contribute to it? In the event of war a gigante social convulsion cannot fall prove particularly how naive those gen. Gotha Program days, the first obligation laid upon us the impression that, in the present situs with Japan the Communists will be dis to leave its traces on the political detlemen were, who demanded of the Sov.
Is to see things as they are. History tion, the demonstrations before the Japarmede if the American Imperialists canvelopment of the country. Today it is let Union the simple return of the Ch. they are more than half, will be deSome of the remaining sessions, and assigns an enormous role to the con anese consulates are bound to create in say: You were more eager than we still hard to ascertain, at least from the nese Eastern Railroad to China. That voted to analysis and discussion of the scious revolationaries who foresees the the minds of the masses. In actions of were; you demanded the expulsion of distance, any measure of important rad would have meant surrendering It volun. dispute with the anarchists, the dispute line of march theoretically, but it does this kind only the salient facts stand the Japanese diplomats while we were icalization in the American working tarily to Japan, in whose hands the with the Utopians, historienl material not allow us to force events by our own out. The subsidiary slogans, the other stin striving for peace.
masses. may be assumed that the railroad would have become a weapon ism, and dialecties. We repeat: it is not wishes. Marxism is no doctrine of socissues which are linked up with the al miracles wrought by small minor main event, are lost in the shuffle. How this is the revolutionary The enemy is in our own oeuntry! masses themselves have been so startled against China as well as against the yet too late to join this class. The fee is slogan of by the castastrophie upheaval in the con If anything at all had hitherto small. The next session is Thursday, ities. It has nothing in common with quickly wrongly formulated slogans exput we are convinced that we are near son of the Saturday demonstrations as of the proletarian struggle against im ment, that they have not as yet been able anything may still hold them within the putschlam. Even if one is convinced act their penalty! The popular impres Liebknecht and Lenin, the guiding line Sunetore, do stunned and crushed by un prevented the Japanese military cliques March 2010 the threshold of great events and great an anti Japanese affair is the price perialist war. Those who forget this BACK NUMBERS OF already paid for the asinine slogan of for one moment are already on the tob to draw even the most elementary polt. boundaries of caution today, it is the MILITANT WANTED the Party leadership: Drive the Japan oggan to social patriotism. The protetical conclusions from the calamity that fact that the Chinese Eastern Railroad THE MILITANT We are preparing files of the ese diplomats from the country! tariat in every country has to wage its has sefallen them. This requires a cer is the property of the Soviets.
Miltant for Minding.
Published weekly by the Communist In this slogan there is the basis for own specific fight against its own imper tain amount of time. But the conclu Cannot the Manchurian adventure We plan to a complete disortentation of the prole Salists and work for their defeat. The slons will be drawn. The tremendous or the Japanese, nevertheless, lead bind in one volume all the issues League of America (Opposition)
tarian straggle around the question of central task of the American Commun economic crisis, which has taken on the war with the It is under from Vol. 1, No. to Volume IV at 84 East 10th St.
the coming war. It fits in with theists in the question of war is the sys character of a social crisis, will inevitstood, this is not excluded even with No. 12, the last issue of the semiEDITORIAL BOARD pseudo pacifist policy of American im tematic exposure of the policy of Amer ably be converted into a crisis of the the wisest and most cautious policy on monthly Multant. We are missing Martin Abern James Cannon perialism in the East and facilitates its ica which masks the most monstrous im political consciousness of the American the part of the Soviet government. The the folloing numbers: Vol. I, No. November 15, 1928. Vol. 2, No.
Max Shachtman Maurice Spector work of delusion at home. The Japan perialist designs with the phrases of working class. It is quite possible that internal contradictions of feudal capitalArne Swabeck ese are mad with militarism; they are pactism. The fire of the Communists the revolutionary radicalization of the 1ste Japan have obviously unbalanced Feb. 18th 1920; Vol. 3, No. 31; concentrated mainly on this broadest layers of workers will revealſ her government. There is no lack of Entered as second class mall matter provoking world war: but our own must Oct. 1, 1930; Vol. 4, No. 2, JamuAnd from the ary 15th, 1931. Vol. 4, No. 4, Feb.
November 28, 1928, at the Post Office. government strives for peace, and if it Hoover policy if it is to serve the initself, not in the period of the greatest Instigators (France. New York, Under the act of is finally freed into war it will be the terests of the proletariat. The anti Jap decline in the conjuncture, but on the historical experiences of Czarism in the ruray 15th 1931. Vol. 4, No. 10, contrary, during the turn toward revival Far East, we know what an unbalanced March 3, 1879.
fault of Japan this is the imperialist anese slogan contradicts this task, con May 15th, 1931. Just as soon as In either case, the present military bureaucratie monarchy is capSATURDAY, MARCH 19, 1932 propaganda for the coming year which uses and disorganizes the struggle and and upswing.
we receive these numbers we will crisis will open up new epoch in the able of Vol. 5, No. 12. Whole No. 108) is weeping into the minds of the Amer even contains the germ of chauvintat de be able to proceed fwth our bind.
with life of the American proletariat and of The struggle unfolding in the ing plans and offer the bound volSubscription rate: 00 per year; for Sean people day by day. Does the Anti viations. The slogan should be the people as a whole. Serious regroup East is, it is understood, carried on not umes for sale.
eign 50. Five cents per copy. Japanese agitation of the Party coun drawn before it does further barm.
Bundle rates, cents per copy. teract this poisonous delusion or does ments and clashes among the ruling for the sake of the railroads, but over orunpen position Far