PAGE THE MILITANT SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1932 For the Release of the Stalinist Zig zags on the Question of the «United Front»
by LEON TROTSKY stand the point o view of the never.
there is have a certain right to feel aggrevled to Gitlow, said the Communist Intern The Alabama attorney general has a teenth century who proved themselves entirely incap by arousing the workers against Bruening decrees on the part of the Government. And in principle objections to another deal with should be sustained, the boys will be on the instant, in their defense, and make clean Communist party have to say within this sphere is not missable in the name of Marxism. The the Stalinists and the Right wing to the united front of working class or After he has united the proletariat for us, then we judging by the accounts of the Communist party itself.
ganizations.
its duty.
EDITORIAL NOTES Scottsboro Boys It is now a little more than a year since the nine Scottsboro boys were tried UNGRATEFUL GOVERNMENT lose by keeping the unity negotiations on the fake charge of rape and senOne of the most pathetic cases of hard behind a veil of secrecy. Gitlow is tenced to death by electrocution. In the luck and one of the most instructive right, even if the discovery is several past year they have suffered much of lessons In recent days is the denial of months late and was made only after the agony of Sacco and Vanzetti, of of the citizenship to Saralieff, editor of the veil of secrecy had already been Mooney. They are Innocent the Bulgarian paper, by the Uni torn aside.
charges made against them. They are (Continued from last issue)
ted States District Court of St. Louis, in his contribution to the public dis the victims of a dastardly frame up. They it serves our purposes better to let them be the first Saralleff, true to the teaching cussion of the matter which was no have been beaten by their Jallers. They On October 14, 1931, Remmele, one of the three to attack: that will solidify the entire working class told the court that he was for the over. longer a secret, Gitlow supplied some sat in a court surrounded by a bowing official leaders of the Communist party, said in the around the Communists. In my opinion the Gerpeaceful means. But even this under. For one thing the vertics, what The Music by oficials working hand in glove Reichstag, Herr Bruening has put it very plainly: mans should be restrained and not encouraged.
In his pamprlet, THE MASS STRIKE, Langner capitalism within the legal rules and that Stachel is the leading spirit in the to forswear the and place their Front of the proletariat will be established and it will writes, The assertion (Brandler s) that a battle in limits laid down by the ruling class it unity maneuver. That is quite in har fate in the hands of the make clean sweep of everything. Violent applause October (1923) would have resulted only in a deciself did not gain for him the coveted mony with the proceedings as a whole. They have been forced, not figuratively from the Communists. Bruening scaring the boursive defeat. is nothing but an attempt to gloss over citizenship. With that contempt lackeys whose services are not needed at stone in all his perfidious work within word, te even in the shadow of the ele escoisie and the social democracy with such a perspec opportunistic mistakes and the opportunistic capituthe moment, for which the masters ever the Party. In the eyes of the worker. tric chair. They were placed in a cell tive that is intelligible. he thus safeguards his sover lation without a fight. Page 101) That is absoe noted, the District Court booted him Communists he was no less a symbol of directly opposite the execution chamber eignty. Remmele solacing the workers with such a lutely correct. But who was the instigator of the and his servile application aside and petty bourgeois politiciandom than and forced to witness a number of elec perspective that is infamous: he thus prepares the capitulation without a fight. Who was it that rewithheld to quote the Conven Lovestone himself. Stachel initiative trocutions. Anxiety and hope which in. way for Hitler domination, for this perspective in strained instead of encouraging In 1931 Stalin tion resolution the important privilege in the matter characterizes the whole evitably accompany appeals to the bosa: its entirety is false to the core and bears witness to only amplified his formula of 1923: let the Fascists tices violations of the legal rights of ot regard for the interests of the move hand of the organized capitalist class the dialectics of revolutionary struggle. Should the us. Naturally it is much safer to attack Brandler The Weekly Poople, which never no bourgeois tricks, devoid of principle and they have felt the awful weight of the un utter misunderstanding of mass psychology and of assume the power, they ll be only clearing the road for revolutionary workers excepţ, inferentiment. By the aid of such methods, and directed in full against them. proletariat of Germany, before whose eyes the develthan Stalin: the Langners understand that quite well ally at least, to condone the violations, through the instrumentality of such It was the and the opment of events now proceeds openly, permit Fascism.
is having spasms over the Saralled case, people, a business transaction between which organized and set afoot the work to come into power, e. should it evince a most fatal It is, they protest, unjust even accord adventurers can be ratifled; but a uniting class movement of protest and is blindness and passivity, then there are no reasons out the influence of the outspoken protests from the In point of fact, in the last two months not withing to capitalist ethics. If you under cation of the Communist proletariat tense. Not the least part in balting the whatever for the assumption that after the Fascists Left a certain change has occurred: the Communist you to admit Gitlow revelations so further than be attributed to the fighting demonstra are in power, this same proletariat will shake off its party no longer says that Hitler must assume power ground for their dignitled complaints. comrade Stachel. Only a few days tions of white and black workers au passivity immediately and make a clean sweep. in order to shoot his bolt quickly; now it lays more Those who agree to restrict their opera ago the same stachel wrote in the Dally over the country, and to the militant Nothing like this, for instance, happened in Italy. stress on the converse side of the question: the battle tions to the narrow groove marked out by Worker that the Lovestones were for protests abroad.
Remmele reasons completely after the manner of the against Fascism cannot be postponed until after Hitof their energies in condemning those tariat. But that only signified a bitch dabute toxecution till stands at June 24 French petty bourgeois phrasemongers of the nine ler assumes the power; the battle must be waged now who refuse to make such an agreement, in the negotiations. Stachel, according able of leading rewarded. The denial of citizenship to unity proposition. And he also saia further stay, despite the Court nevertheless, quite firmly that should Louis Bonaparte omical and political arenas. That is absolutely. com. of the addition to that it is a dirty trick. The the Right wing renegades.
Gitlow executed on the 24th of June.
To the and we say: No sweep. However, the people that had permitted the to be gainsaid. Here we have no disagreements whatthreat of the convention resolu. writes. to The (Stachel) let it be known that time must be lost Every nerve must be adventurer Louis Bonaparte to seize the power proved, ever. Still the most important question remains. how force a reversal of this most unjust de the letter of January 15th was received strained to racuse the entire working sure enough, incapable of sweeping him away there to get down from words to business?
cision is fully justified by the outrage, by the Communist International without class to demand the immediate and un. after. Before this happened, new major events, hisThe overwhelming majority of the members of the Legal rights have a great value for the any comment from the members of the conditional release of the nine Scottsboro torical quakes, and a war had to occur.
Communist party as well as a considerable portion of working class in the period when it is Political Committee, who had forwarded boys Approaches must be made to their The United Front of the proletariat is achievable the officialdom we haven the slightest doubt sinita policies, and every encroachment on well, they will have to make plents It their leaders date to oppose the for Remmele, as he has told us. only after Hitler cerely want to fight. But the facts must be paid these rights has to be resisted in the or comment before the amair is ended. movement he will rise over their heads assymes power. Can a more pathetic confession of openly: there no fighting being done, there is no sign most determined manner. The Marxists And what is far more important the clear, the key to the problem of setting and Co. are incapable of uniting the proletariat, we scot free. The Christmas truce was not broken. The is crime of the consists in the fact gether have imposed upon the Commun Action and timely action! Call the will show ourselves in our true stature. Remmele foldid not achieve any serious successes to date. The that they. like so many others who in ist movement, coincided with the strangu united front conferences! Make them lows this up with a boastful announcement, We are workers see this. Shrieking alone will not convince voke the names of Marx and Engels in lation of Party democracy and the suporder to betray their teachings make a pression of rank and tile opinion. The senutne united fronts on these united the victors of the coming day, and the question is no them.
fetish and a final method of capitalist Party members haven spoken yet, but fronts the Left Opposition will discharge longer one of who shall vanquish whom? This ques The Communist party places on the shoulders of tion is already answered. Applause from the Com the social democracy the responsibility for the passivlegality instead of rogarding it, as Marx their voices will ring out all the louder and Engels did, merely as a field for the for the long enforced silence. The evil mommunists. The question now reads only, At what ity of the masses. In a historical sense that is inpre revolutionary organization and mob. consequences of the splits accumulate, Picnic moment shall we overthrow the bourgeoisie? Right dubitable. But we are no historians, we are revoluslization of the proletariat. It is just and with them grows the aspiration of such a decision as that in the Saralier the workers for unity. This aspiration to the point! As we say in Russian, that pointing tionary politicians. Our task The New York members and sympathnot one of conductcase flagrantly Illegal decision in will not be thwarted by the machinations Izers of the Left Opposition will greet one finger and hitting the sky, We are the victors ing historical researches, but of finding the way out.
its owne constitutional provisions that while the real issue at the bottom of Goodman from prison at a picnic to be Front. Herr Hitler will supply us with it tomorrow, existence took up formally the question of fighting demonstrates the fallacy of legalistie fet. the disruption the departure from the held Sunday, May path, at Tibbetts when he assumes power. Which still means that the Fascism (especially in articles by Rosenfeld and Seyworkers to make the fullest use of legal Opposition. left out of consideration. This affair will also mark the clone of victor of the coming day will be not Remmele but Hit dewitz) made a certain step forward by timing the ity for propaganda and organization, told The rank and file inquiry into the nego the intensive drive for the Opposition ler. And then, you might as well carve it on your counter attack coincidently with Hitler assumption the bourgeoisie to be the first to shoot. tations between Lovestone and stachel press, The Militant, Unser Kamt, Young nose, the moment for the victory of the Communists of power. Its press now demands that the fight to Neither he nor any other revolutionist may well be the starting point for the Spartacus, and Communistes. Our goal will not arrive so soon.
repel Fascism be begun immediately by mobilizing the ever doubted for a moment that they necessary and long delayed discussion of is one thousand dollars.
would shoot. e, violate their own the basle causes of the splits and the we are a good distance from this amount. Remmele feels himself that his optimism limps on workers against hunger and the police yoke. We adlegality when it served their purpose, principled way to unity.
The life of the weekly Militant depends its left leg, and he attempts to bolster it up. We mit readily that the change in the policy of the That is why Marx and Engels always The Left Opposition will present its on the raising of this sum.
are not afraid of the Fascist gentlemen. They was brought about under the influence of Communmaintained that the emancipation of the unity proposals from this point of view. There will refreshments, games and will shoot their bolt quicker than any other govern ist criticism: one of the tasks of Communism precisely workers by purely legal means is an im. We are not in the least interested in any rowing, possibility The Place: Tibbetts Brook Park Take ment. Right you are! from the Communists) And consists in pushing Centrism forward by criticizing it This fundamental tenet of Marxism dark of the moon. We have no use for Lexington Avo. Subway for proof: The Fascists want paper money inflation, dual tendencies. But that alone does not suffice: one which Marx and Engels defended to the propositions whispered out of the cor Woodlawn Jerome to last stop, and that means ruin for the masses of the nation; con must exploit politically the fruits of one own criticlast days of their lives has been confirmner of the mouth by some furtive Stachel Woodlawn. From there one can sequently, everything will turn out for the best. Thus ism by proposing to the to pass from words ed by all the experience of the interne or other. We have no capitulators to tional proletariat. It is not. small we want to be united with the Party take a trolley to the Park. Com the verbal inflation of Remmele leads the German to action. One must subject the to a public offer and no concessions to demand.
rades will meet at the Woodlawn workers astray.
and a clear test; not by analyzing isolated quotations point about which Marxists may have station at 10:00 Plot Time: Sunday, May 20th from 10:00 Here we have before us a program speech of an that not enough but by offering to make an different opinions. On the contrary, it is to wage the revolutionary struggle in till dusk.
official leader of the party, it was issued in immense agreement towards taking specified practical steps the revolutionary Marxists and the be discipline. At the same time we insist lucie numbers and was used in the Communist membership against the foe. Should the lay bare its drive: appended to the speech is a printed blank for incompetence, the higher the authority of the Commeans reject legality. but they utiliza principles of the Comintern and to ad. From Left Oppositionists enrollment in the Party. And this very program munist party would rise, the sooner an intermediate for the revolution by force and to propa democracy. Nothing more, nothing less in South America speech is based part and parcel upon capitulation to party would be liquidated. What there to fear?
gate the idea of its inevitability. The Such proposals need no vell of secFascism. We are not afraid of Hitler assuming However, it is not true that the does not necessity of doing so lles at the root recy. They can and must be discussed power. What is this, if not the formula of cowardice seriously want to fight. There are various tendencies of the whole of Marx and Engels teach openly, as every genuine and principled and had acquired some knowledge of the turned inside out. We don consider ourselves within it. For the moment, so long as the matter is the their deception of the work split ought to be. For it is only when our light, educating ourselves and other capable of keeping Hitler from assuming power; worse reduced to abstract propaganda for a United Front, ers with the idea that capitalism can be the questions are fairly put and under workers who after that had come to our yet: we, bureaucrats, have so degenerated as not to the inner contradictions lie dormant. Once the battle overthrown by purely legal methods stood by the members, when they conside. We were able to organize a Lenin dare think seriously of fighting Hitler. Therefore, is begun, they will become apparent. The Communist alone brings their betrayal of Marxismo sciously act upon them, that the unity of ist Centre, teaching the works of Marx we are not afraid. What don you fear: fighting party stands to gain alone thereby.
But there still remains the most important question clalon in the Saralief case gives an ironic caxity of split clearly determined. The After our work had begun to bear frult, against Hitler? Oh no! they are not afraid of.
refutation to the legalistie dogma of the stalinist and Right wing bureaucrats and we were beginning to get results. Hitler victory. They are not afraid of refusing to as regards the Should it reject those pracbave dragged the Party into the ditch the official party under Rodriguez load fight. They are not afraid to confess their own cow tical propositions which the accepts, new by unprincipled maneuvers and intrigues. ership, began to attack the workers of ardice. Shame! Out upon it!
situation would arise. The Centrists, who would preTHE NEGOTIATORS They will not get it out by these means. our centre. It would occupy too much In one of my previous pamphlets wrote that the fer to straddle the fence between the and the space and time to go into detail here Stalinist bureaucracy was baiting trap for Hitlers. in order to complain first about one and then The letters of The Militant exposing the unity horse trade which the Stalinists ST. LOUIS, ATTENTION The Communist journal about the other, and to gain in strength at the expense and activities of the in Colombia. in the guise of state power. Study Class on the Fundamentals As the International pursues the same ists, who fit from Münzenberg to Ullstein and from of both (such is the philosophy evolved by Urbahns)
haberdade Wholesome element en as the St. Louis branch, Communist League same results, which are suficiently well Trotsky vilifies the Communist Party. Isn it mid air, because it would immediately become apparent of Communism is being organized by tactics everywhere, they produce the Mosse to Münzenberg, announced immediately that these Centrists would find themselves suspended in have had a wholesome effect all the way of America (Opposition) with Martin known to you.
tarian elements in the Party on guard Militant who are interested should come with the views which tho Lett Oppost for Communism, out of his hatred for the German struggle. Isn that an important gain? The workin side of the unity question which the down to the Crunden Branch Library tion holds, we have been able to confirm proletariat, out of his passionate desire to save Ger ers within the from then on would definitely bureaucrats left out of account in their Auditorium, 14th and Cass Avenues. The our original position as just and correct, man capitalism yes, Trotsky foists plan of capi lean towards the pending deal unity of Moreover the refusal of Wels and Co. to accept the study class will meet every Friday eve since it is based on the same principles tulation upon the Stalinist bureaucracy. But in realCommunists with the Left Opposition. be no tuition charges.
the workerning from till 10 There will and needs as that of the Left Opposition ity only gave a brief summary of Remmele pro program of joint action, agreed to by the In addition to that, the publication of the letters served to convince the dipwhich we feel ourselves linked up. The gram speech and of a theoretical article by Thaelmann. would not let off the social democrats scot free either The VORWAERTS would be deprived immediately of the lomats of the Lovestone group at least literature which we have received from Where does the vilification come in?
THE MILITANT that the secret game is up that the mat Published weekly by the Communist you, we are spreading among the work Moreover both Thaelmann and Remmele are only chance to complain about the passivity of the ter cannot be arranged behind the League of America (Opposition)
ers of the Leninist Centre as well as holding steadfastly to the Stalinist gospel. Let us re The gravitation of the social democratic workers toscenes. The Stalinists are no doubt also at 84 Fast 10th St. mittee of the party, for whose support call once again what Stalin propounded in the autumn wards the United Front would increase immediately; overcome with somewhat the same conEDITORIAL BOARD viction, but they have been too busy answe are carrying on a dally struggle of 1923 when everything in Germany was as now. and that would be equivalent to their gravitation towering questions lately to find time to Max Shachtman James Canton This, in spite of the campaign of slander poised on the razor edge of a knife. Should the wards the Isn that plain enough?
issue any statements.
Maurice Spector and calumny being organized against Communists on the given plane) wrote Stalin to At each one of these stages and turns the Arne Swabeck in the latest issue of the Workers Entered as second class mall matter agreement with the views of us more than before because we are an Zinoviev and Bucharin, strive to seize power without would tap new resources. Instead of monotonously Age, Gitlow announces the conversion of November 28, 1928, at the Post Omcee Opposition. We wish to remain in con the social democracy? are they sufficiently mature for repeating ever the same ready made formulas before his group to the idea of letting the Party New York, Under the act of stant communication with you so as to this? that the question as see it. Should the one and the same audience, it would be enabled to members, whose interests were being March 3, 1879.
bargained off over the conference table, keep up with events and to correctly re the power in Germany at this moment fall, so to speak, set new strata into motion, to teach them through acSATURDAY, MAY 21, 1932 present the position of the left in this and should the Communists catch it up, they ll fall tual experience, to steel them and to strengthen its have a little information about it. The Vol. 7, No. 21 (Whole No. 117)
Communist Party (Majority Group) 18 Subscription rate: 00 per year: forsible consequence of misinformation country, Spaineerder motion of a telom. Powthrough with a crash. That at best. If it comes hegemony among the working class.
of the opinion says Gitlow that there eign 50. To conta per copy.
With Communist greetings, to the worst they ll be smashed to pieces and beaten TROTSKY.
Bundle rates, cents per copy.
PEDRO back. Of course, the Fascist aren asleep, but Bourgeois publishing houses in Germany. Ed.
To. date kind of secret conferences held in the (Continued from page 3)
SMOKED OUT and the Lovestoneltes were negotiating around. The information put the Payer as instructor. All readers of The Now that we have become acquainted really self evident that Trotsky, out of his version that the itself is sabotaging the revolutionary prole Martin Abern 18 nothing to gain and a great deal to