League Replies to Weisbord Letter «Soci lism in One Country»
OL Right wing should work together. and less ambiguous re statement of comrade ternally. sometimes of an acute nature. Cainly DOL Lnose of second and tenth or SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1932 THE MILITANT PAGE that the addition of the Welsbord group Archives of the Opposition would add to the forces of the League, even if not fundamentally, and by that increase its capacities to expand its sc (Continued from previous issue)
We print here the final Installnient of the views of the Left Opposition among tivities in direct and more extensive par.
Welsbord denied the existence of Cen the statement of the National Committee the miners in the present strike and new. ticipation in the class struggle as well trism in the Communist movement and of the Communist League of America union situation.
as an the other phases of its work. The central theory Staliuism, States will continue, and this competition characterized the Stalinists and Love (Opposition. on the Welsbord group In the first years of its existence, the THE TACTAC OF THE around watch revoive or from which em: will perpetually disturb the internal barstoneltes indiscriminately as Right reply to comrade Trotsky.
League was of necessity obligated to bend WEISBORD GROUP IN anate all the false policies which a demony of their relationships, for under wing groups, and then to make confuall its energies to the task of marking OTHER QUESTIONS leuds, is the idea of socialism tu cue the present conditions of the life of manslon worse confounded he placed the Wetsbord letter raises a number or country. At one time, in the early days kind, it is impossible to conceive of Communist League in the same category. ever against the recurrence of the utterly itself off organizationally and, above all, That is why he had so much dificults false conceptions entertained by Wetsbord me close proletarian movement or especially questivus walcu we do not uobesider of the stress on these two time repuesto state as economically isolated and indo is also the principal reason why he de the ideological stream of the League. Was well as from all confusionist and awach is calculated not for a solutiou oru Alarxism, Stalin, when confronted imagine the existence of a national so.
in deciding which group to join. That or against the introduction of them into from the Right wing and the Center, luuuumental sor the present discussion, gut this nationajustic revision pendent. In fact, it is impossible to with an overwhelming array of excerpts cialist State amid States organized upon manded that the Left Opposition and the consider necessary more candid and cidental streams. We had struggles iute questions in dispute, under trom the socialist classics, admitted that the individual system.
why he himself tried it, in the Textile Weisbord position on this point.
the quintessential the question of the possibility or Fortunate is Yashchenko that he did structing a socialist society in one counin order to attain the necessary degree uer, Duc Bowly cor questions of Unity Committee. with such disastrous THE QUESTION OF MASS WORK results.
of clarification in principle against the churication of the base The formula behind which Welsbord advocates and tendencies of a second Prepet. That is why we omit from Uy was first ruised by Lenin in 1915. Tuo not live and write under the Stalinist The present attempt to evade a serious continues to take refuge from the attacks Communist party. Bainst semi syndicalist Culus aeratiou or even mention, on this plication was that up to that time the dispensation! For what he, as well as correction of this basic error by denying upon his falso positions in principle, is elements, and other currents of an equalOCCILIUM, many OE the points dealt wita prevailing conceptions Martiau cirall Murxists, took for granted as impos.
that it was ever meant that way, or by mass work. The Opposition has never ly destructive nature. Especially, these in the letter Weisbord. It is impo cles rancouuter to the theory. Since thesible, has not only been made possible maintaining that the whole question been and is not today able to agree weircumstances inexorably and necessarily able to permit these issues to push to expuision of the Oppoalciou from the by decree of the Secretariat, but those seems to be one of name (as though any sense or to any degree with the shaped the main characteristics of thel Le buckrouud tuse which we consider Party, Stalin and his satellites have riu wino question the correctness of the new precise attitude toward a political tend standpoint in this question advanced by League activity.
pruary Thus, Weisbord raises among themselves or the need of any upologetic theory are free to meditate on their for the theory, or of any qualculous. doubts in the prisons and places of exile ency is possible without defining it) does Weisbord prior to his recent statement.
decisive quest is now advanced, not us revelation to which the bureauerney dispatches the There is no doubt that conditions are what we desiguatus as not square with the previous program in Welstord conception, the question of now maturing for a turn. The intensive tous of dispute with the opposicionarst handed down from Mount Stalin in Left Opposition.
matle declarations on the subject, con: the Opposition work among the masses propaganda work carried on by the creato points from Wach wee come 1924, wor even as an innovation arst. In tinuously repeated in the contlict with was made an inseparable part of his idea League has borne trult in the consolidaus an example: 1s it wotective that troquced into Marxism by Lanin 1916, us and contrasted with our sectarian of a bloc between the Marxian Left and tion of the initial cadre of the Laft Op u Lugue suould be run by people who put it all essential loundation stone of ism in rejecting thetn. In his article in the Right wing liquidators. It is for position which is the pre requisite for the voluntarily turn over the name ud aurxism as such.
the Militant for September 15, 1930 this reason, and not because of our sec novement to develop in the direction of restu ox members and sympathizerd We have frequently hud ocension to On Hopelese Idiots Weisbord expounded his theory as tol tarlan opposition to mass work that mass action. The latter is an imperative subscribers to their paper, to the United present our rewers with countless quolows: the League steadily rejected, and sin necessity. But it stands In no contradic states government of Marx, Engels On August 24, 1010, Leul wrote. However, it seems that comrade Trot does, the crude program advocated by tion to our past concentration upon pro This is a sample of that distorted, indtations from the is, sky is incorrect in designating the strug Weisbord. As Trotsky wrote in January pagandistic activities on the contrary: crous and luise eriticism which mud and Lenin which categorically contradict one between Right and Centrist tendenc individual ones (in the literal sense of the basis of what has gone before it. As against him. What he refers to is the Aucharin and Stalin are available which working class. There is no uniddle brouud.
the national groups around them) 28. Certain comrades to be sure, only be made could be accomplished only uponumus und beughtened the antagonisms ochuru Wand Stars. Avaliable capitatists, or the dictatorship of the in reality a struggle between two formal Lovestopeites in the name of. mass tant declared in speaking about the era of proor of circulation, etc. with le impossibility of soustructing an in llectuals and petty gentlemen, who have of the Right. But philosophically and work. It is hard to imagine a more pansion of the press of the League. the uulnorities at the time of applying for dependent, national socialist society. learned badly in bad books, dream about politically the conception of a Centrist ridiculous, a more inept, a more sterile The roots of our movement are convenient second class mailing privileges to this dengthy collections were middle ground. Nowhere in the world COMMUNIST wing is wrong. Centrism project than this. Do these people spreading wide and going deep in which was bort done by the entire labor sent here signincaut passage from the is there a middle ground or cane bero can be used as designating but not Communists. This was Lenin the Bolshevik party? Have they read the the conditions are maturing for a transly four years ago, at the time the Muilashchenko, Socialisin and luternation bourgeoisie, covered with the pompous Socialists know at least a little of the history of these developments we see the proof that press in this country for decades. Near pant by Le one. Either the dictatorship of the the illusion that the Centrists are more respondence of Marx and Engels? Or has our organization. There is reason to be rutes, the initial orders from various parts quoted approvingly in the history of the power of the people, the Constituent usage of the term. Practically, it gives works of Lenin? Do they know the cor formation of the form and character of any applied for second class status and sm. published in Moscow in 1907, audhrases of and Mensheviks about. ship of the proletariat. He who has not trists are more easily swayed and have ment passed them by without leaving a breaking out of the narrow conines of postul authories in compliance with gov no real policy of their own. From the economic point of view, the learned this from the history of the whole It is quite obulous from the foregoing majority of the American League bas At no stage in our development has our con. This bus been done by all working characteristic teature of socialist orgum. nineteenth century is a hopeless idiot.
that between this viewpoint and that of nothing in common with such Ideas.
alm and perspective been akin to a sec class papers, without anyone, at any time, matou is unity in economic relationsmaps. Works, Volume XVI, MC 301. the Left Opposition there was no mere And again, in his recent letter to tarlan absention from the general class nuving nude an issue of it in the labor. place or tue exteut system of produc What about the dictator difference in words but in analysis, and Welsbord, comrade Trotsky again points struggle, nor was our propaganda work movement for such an issue would have wouuevow or order, pun, and methou, hl which Stulin and Bucharini consequently in the conclusions deriving out that mass work as such does not ever conceived as an end in itselt. We met with the ridicule which Welsbord entirely suorulnated to chance, competicluded in the program of the Communist from it. On the basis of this formula exist as a question to be disputed in the regarded it as the absolutely essential present accusatou justly merits. He could con and the struggle of interests International? It is obvious that the repeatedly made, comrade Trotsky was dissolubly bound up with a correct post proach to the masses in a revolutionary communist petitions to put candidates on the work of production will then be in the dictatorship of the bourgcols and the entirely correct in saying to Weisbord: tion in principle, which Weisbord dia sense.
the ballot, for they are sigued, with names ne bands or the whole community, us dictatorship of the proletariat, must You are concerned to face the differ not possess and which, consequently, We do not find ourselves in agreement and adaresses, by thousands of workersuutied economy, and it will be directed stand somewhere between the two. But ence between the official party, the Right vitiated his whole conception and ren with that part of comrade Trotsky let sympathetic with the radical movement. oy au central authority. The near Lenin declares to us that there is no wing fraction (Lovestone group) and dered it sterile and reactionary ter to Welsbord. If it is to be given the in. We do not like the olicial regulations, est thing to such a colectivity can only middle groutid. that only petty gentle even the American League. This makes Mass work must be on the basis of terpretation placed on it by the latter, but without the strength as yet to abol be the state, although even the establishmen who have learned badly can dream it easy for you to remain in an eclectic definite principles and methods. Until which says: Let us admit, for a minute su them we adapt ourselves, for the ment of an isolateu socialist state does about a middle ground, position and defend your right of a bloc the time that, in a number of fundament that the American League lacks this orsake of legal agitation, to bourgeois not of itselt imply the introduction of hopeless idiots. Our it be assumed. with the Lovestone group.
the questions a necessary unanimity wiu that possibility in mass work, am ready statutos, frankly ander out question, on comme site in that case competition and these two categories had a hand in the The reply of the Welsbord group to to attained, disputes on mass work will to admit that your group would be able in Trotsky letter emphatically denies the inevitably remain lifeless.
that respect (1. e, mas work) to com which we allegedly have no position. This the economie struggle betweeu the various program of the Communist International?
implications of this estimate, and And several months ago, comrado Trot plete the work of the American League. is not true. The League bas taken a further denies ever having proposed a sky pointed out in his letter to Wels. Even in this hypothetical form it is nec position on the fundamental aspects of bloc with the Right wing. Again the pre bord, just as we had done in our dis jessarily based upon representations of the Negro question. The accusation of this we have nothing to retruct. The sent contention is refuted by the previous cussions with him: Welsbord rather than upon our concreto Weisbord is true exactly, and only, in Left Opposition distinguishes itself by directly with them, attempting thereby declaration and proposals. In this Before one turns to the masses, one experiences with him.
so far as the League has not taken au scrupulous adherence to the funda once more to apply the well known tactic same article in the Militant referred to must construct a above there follows from this analysis begins as a propaganda group and de Committee. constituted as an anti party the slogan or self determination in the all circumstances and can not tolerate the disruptive strategy which violated the pelnclple base in this respect the Textile Unity stand on one phase of the Negro problem: mental concepts of class solidarity under of the united front from below. This of the groups the following conclusion: velops in the direction of mass actlon. bloe between (Weisbord and the Love Black Belt. a subject upon which the slightest departure from them its whole essence of the engagements he undertook and the warning of comrade At the same time all Communist (Militant, November 23, 1981. stone group, is a shining example. Had League has been conducting an internal ranks.
Trosky that before everything, you must groups must work together on the basis The Communist League at no time op the League adopted the insistent propos discussion and will soon come to a con UNITY MANEUVERS OF keep clearly in mind that the road to mass work as such, but we always als of Welsbord for mass work as conclusion. It is certainly not the merit of WEISBORD of the recognition of the Communist posed the question as part and parlstrued by him, it would have discredited the League that it has spent such a procharacter of each group. The Communist Majority Opposition group and the Com cel of the means of the organization, its itself, blurred the lines between itselttracted period in arriving at a conclusion group has made toward the International The partial turn which the Welsbord the International Left Opposition leads through American League; a second munst League group by working togeth. resources, the concrete situation of the and the Right wing Instead of making on this question, but it Weisbord had Lett Opposition, and thereby toward the road does not exist bas very properly er can help to reestablish mass work and moment, the relation of forces and above them stand out more clearly and raised used greater deliberation and caution, it communist League, has to a consider encountered the solid rejection of all the to resist the violent tactics of the party all, the fundamental principles of our the authority of the Lovestone faction is possible that he would not have arrivable extent been vitiated by the paltry Officialdom. They can help to separate faction. This is evidenced by even a Yet this is precisely what Weisbord dia ed at so thoroughly false a position as maneuvers in which he has since en proach the League in the spirit of unIf Weisbord sincerely wishes to Apthe Communist movement as a whole from cursory knowledge of the past of the by his against our most com he has in his own thesis. Neither the suged in the name of unity with us.
the Mensheviks and can deal a death blow League. In Minneapolis, virtually at the radely contrary advice. The influence American party nor the ever con He begun with proposals to us for this strategy and retrace his steps in this ity. It will be necessary for him to alter to the theory of Fascism and social Fas inception of the League, when all our he had among the textile workers of sidered this phase of the Negro question united fronts on single and subsidiary cism, thus winning the advanced workers energies were bent upon the ideological Paterson went entirely to the profit of here of such decisive importance, from questions when the problem respect. The Communist League is an with was the organization and must be dealt to a Leninist conception of party dem and theoretical front, the Opposition even the Right Wing partner in the bloc, and 1019 to 1028, as to utter a single word claritication of his principled position to seriously as such through its duly conocracy.
of Communist groups (only this. can date for Mayor in opposition not only to The was the springboard for ago by the stalinist apparatus as thelr his group in which, as comrade Trotsky stituted organs, raise those stundamental principles the bourgeois candidates but also to the the Right wing to the position it sub improvement upon the Leninist stand advised, he would attentively revise emphasizes that it is desirous of consumThe National Committee of the League Leninist organization that can reconsti. Stalinist nominee, a step taken upon the sequently gained in the Paterson strike point.
tute an International of Lenin. basis of our estimation of the concrete Welsbord bears a share of the responsiIf this is not a bloc with the Right conditions of the time and place. This bility for this, although it must be said exaggerated or non existent issues, is politicul faults but also the historical with the Welsbord group with the great More important than these secondary, cover by that not only your manifest mating the unity of the Left Opposition wing, what would such a bloc look like holds for several other campaigns under that he later broke the alliance and tried, such a question as Weisbord conduct and principled roots of these faults. He est celerity, of putting no petty obstacles would have compromised itself before the the case of the three indicted New York to repair the damage. But the damage Daign, and toward comrades bekenis cawan tercaleta ubile meeting to waitemen: litating the rapproachment to the extent his own he called a public which mem that Communist workers and before the In Marine Workers, despito the active op Itsell, and the policy which inevitably organization with whom he was in dis bers of the League were invited to dis is ready to have aside small and ternational Left Opposition by the acposition of the official party (and unfor produced it, is the important aspect of pute. In the former case, Weisbord took cuss the question. Without any formal secondary gestions for the moment, to ceptance of such a platform! It ought tunately, of Weisbord himself. the the whole point.
a position which, from the class stand proposals to the National Committee of refrain from converting them into condto be perfectly clear now to everyone, League took the initiative in organizing We do not believe that the Welsbord point, including Welsbord, that the League the movement for the defense and bear roup has a special formula for work in with the basic principles of class solid claration of a change in his position, he tions for unity, in the sense that within taining that such conceptions had noth chall. In Tilinols, not for the first time, make, and we are in general opposed to of bringing his own comrade into court, League over the head of the National normal processes of internal democracy we saw in this the crux of our conflict own Independent campaign to advance subject. By this we do not alm to deny from the League, and rightly 50. From invited to Ulscuss the question of unity aivide Wetsbord from the League. But ing in common with the Left Opposition. then Leuenbier even now engaged in to the conceptions expounded by him on this called forth the sharpest condemnation Committee with the request that he be will permit a discussion and satisfactory with him and still see it that way. Most RS www on the basic questions, the National of the other differences flowed from this.
In our reply (Militant, September 15, of British India, and far below the It is above all this poverty in raw ma Committee cannot and does not propose 1930) we said: 4, 070 tons for Great Britain and the terials that makes Japan a debtor na to make the slightest concession which It is with comrade Welsbord pro27, 500 tons for the To make mat tion, hyper sensitive to world market would only militate against tho soundposals on the various groups in the move ters worse the coal that Japan does conditions, unstable financially owing to ness and future progress of the Opposition.
possess, while good as bunker coal on ditficulties of international payments.
ment that the Left Opposition has its Its Rise from Feudalism to Capitalist Imperialism sharpest disagreement. Advocacy of such ships, is unfit for coking and therefore III. The Imperialist Struggle for Markets the National Committee views the proImpelled solely by these considerations, views by a leading comrade is contrary unit for steel production. The high to all we stand for.
Japanese foudal capitalism entered the blem from the point of view that the That is false and the Development of the Proletariat cost of coke is a major problem for the world arena even later than German im next step must now be taken by the from beginning to end.
By Jack Weber Japanese steel industry and renders hor porlalism and her strugglo for markets And further: competition in this field utterly Impossi commenced at the very birth of her Welsbord group. This step and what How can we, the Marxist wing of (Continued from last Issue) obtain a higher concentration of metal ble under present technology.
The cost capitalists, particularis fui competition follows from it, we conceive as follows: the movement, unite with the semi Men II. The Dearth of Raw Materials Thus no solid metallurgical basis exists of coke per ton of pig tron fa 1027 was with the powers in China. The Weishord group, on the basis shevik wing (a bloc which under present conditions would mean a movement country can aspire to a place of first ance. Nevertheless, despite the cost Only in China (with its 2, 200 tons perform a fabulous market.
Without ample coal and iron reserves no for a steel Industry of enduring import. 83. 25 in the US and 50 in Japan. India, with half the world population, of the present statement of the Commun movement)
in order to separate the Lacking in adequate home reserves of dustry through tax exemptions, high sub the Far East and even there not in large other power Japan depends on foreign more satisfactorily constitute a revision directed against the official Communist rank among modern industrial powers, handicap. Japan maintains her stoel in capita reserves) is there coking coal to pre empted by England. More than any to comrade Trotsky and elaborate such a Communist movement as a whole from those, essentials, Japanese capitalism is sidles and protective tariffs, obviously amounts.
markets, for no other country exports of its ideological baggage, especially on Coal mining is far more difficult in so large a percentage of the total produe, the questions of Centrism and the bloc the Menshevik. How can a bloc with under the imperative necesslty of Import for armament purposes. The government the Right wing re establish mass work. ing them from abroad. In this respect arsenal founded at Yawata in 1900 pro Japan than in the other capitalist countlou of goods. The desperate efort of with the right wing. We do not regard when it is the whole philosophy of the and more generally, Japan ranks with duces 2 the steel used by Industry but tries as the seams lie much deeper and Japanese imperialism to subjugate its letter to comrade Trotsky as adeRight wing that has brought the Com Italy operates at a serious loss each year in are thinner. Less machinery being used, China as a colony to function as market quate, for the reasons outlined in this munist movement into such isolation from spite of the high rates charged for the the output per miner is less. Thus each and as source of raw material, is the re statement. and we deem a restatement by the masses (Chinese revolution, British In 1928 Japan prodneed of the total steel products. for example, round steel minor produced 10 ton per day in 1925 dection of the stilling action of capitalist the Welshord group an essential prelimgeneral striko, India, etc. etc. into optron ore the consumed. Of the 92 she bars costing 13 to 61 per ton are sold as against 1. tons for the US No world economy on the further growth of thary to further steps of unification.
now trying, ineffectively, to issue by ones and the remainder mainly from capitalists submit quite willingly to this the output being a shroat, but the is also essential to capitalism and the Welsbord gronwhich we propose in means of the ultra Leftist rope. Chins and Straits Settlement.
to being in the Chinese capitalists desire to exploit the the preceding point, the National Com Such a polley, combined as it is with known Iron ores of the Far East, In tarism which aims Orst of all to seize Textiles home market themselves. Young as 18 mittee will request representatives of the comrade Welsbord entirely false esti cluding Japan, Korea, Manchuria and those parts of Asia which can supply Barred from rapid progress in the Japanese capitalism, it has already pass Communist League of Struggle to be mate of Centrism (his denial of it, in China, are so small in quantity that it basle raw materia heavy Industries by her lack of the nec through many crises fact. is the shortest road to destruction Japan were to consume these ores at had to selected for the purpose of holding a The Problem of Coal essary raw materials, Japanese capitalism limit its productive capacities again and joint meeting at which a formal discusfor the Left Opposition and a disavow the per capita rate of the the en Measured in terms of coal produc has been forced for other reasons as again due to the competition for marsion of the respective standpoints of the al of its historical function. tire body of ores would be exhausted in tlon, Japanese Industry is far from an well to turn to the lighter textile in. kets. Japanese capitalism is faced with. League wd the Welsbord group may be From the preceding alone, it is obvious 15 years. Manchuria has reserves whose advanced stage. The output is 2 ton dustries. Yet even hero Japan is forced the task of carving out its own markets discussed with the aim of arranging both that Welsbord has not sufficiently reveal metallic content is equal to that of Ger. per capita as compared with over 1 to import cotton, the raw material of by seizing China or by wresting colonies the remaining points of difference which ed the source of his own fundamental many or of Great Britain, but these orestons for the and over for the greatest importance to her manufactur from the established powers. This exter we hope will be reduced to a minimum crror in this key question, the nature are of such low grade that they are hard United Kingdom. Even if we include ing Supplied with an abundance of raw nal struggle manifests the desperate ef at that stage and any organizational de of it, or even the fact that it existed in ly reckoned as ores in the Large hydro electric power (converted to tons silk, Japan nevertheless not a great fort of the feudal capitalist combination tails that may be involved.
the form in which he really presented outlays are necessary for the extra op of coal) Japan position is not improved. manufacturer of silk but rather a source to maintain the inner exploitation of the and interpreted it. Without clarity oneration of preparing them for use since the coal reserves of all Japan are only of raw material for the sllk in workers and peasants. NATIONAL COMMITTER this score, there is no assurance whatso they must first be chemically treated to 118 tons per capita, less even than those dustry.
COMMUNIST LEAGUE OF (To be continued)
AMERICA (OPPOSITION)
in JAPAN ist and