AUGUST 31, 1940 SOCIALIST APPEAL Assassin Confession Uncovers Hand Of GPU In Murder TROTSKY LAST MARCH Uses Pattern Of TEXT OF JACKSON CONFESSION Moscow Trials The following account is an nessed this scene. Every one re through Albert Goldman, Trotexcerpt from a dispatch from mained breathless when the wid. sky representative, who came Gentlemen: We publish below the complete text of the confession fognd Mexico to THE DAY. New ow with trembling hand touched here by plane from Chicago, that in writing this letter have no on the assassin by the Mexican police. The text we publish is a York Jewish daily, on August the casket and appeared to desire the body will be finally interred (Continued from Page 1)
other object in the event an accl. literal translation of the original Spanish text.
24, written by Jean Jaffe. to jar it a bit as though she in Mexico.
dent comes to me than to explain The police mentality of the GPU was skillful in all technical Fifty thousand people have said wanted to wake up her husband Many followers of Trotsky are went fully into the accusation that Trotsky sent emissaries to to public opinion the motives measures required to murder Trotsky. But the police mind could goodbye to Trotsky as he lies wait from his sleep.
not plausibly paint a perverted picture of Trotsky ideas. They ing for his last journey. to etern. For a half hour Natalia Trotsky tainty that the day will come Russia for the purpose of assassinating Stalin and other leaders which induce me to execute the.
could mangle Trotsky: they could not mangle Trotsky ideas!
nesday evening to Thursday morn. not move. She did not move at be carried to the Kremlin in Mosly established that Trotsky was unalterably opposed to assassina in Paris where made my studies ity. whole night, from Wed. stood over the body. Her ltpe did when the bones of Trotsky win of the Kremlin bureaucracy. In its findings the Commission clear act of Justice which propose That is why the erude confession we print below, instead ing, a giant procession of people, all. She spoke without words. cow, from where he led the Rus tion and demonstrated with factual evidence the falsity of the of journalism made the acquaintof covering up Stalin tracks, reveals the GPU signature of Stawith heads bowed and downcast The last words to her husband sian Revolution and the Red Ar.
ance with boys of my age who lin. the organizer of the assassination.
eyes, filled by the great revolution and comrade. From time to time my. They say that Trotsky has defendants accusations.
fought in different left organiza ary as he lay in a cold casket she placed on his face her black to be near Lenin together with REPEATS STALINISTS MEXICAN SLANDERS tions and little by little they won me and only some months after. Nevertheless did nothing to surrounded by a rainbow of flower gloved hand.
whom he made the revolution. Absolutely conclusive in identifying the Jackson con me to their ideas. was content wards did begin to visit the prevent full clarity since wished. rend the mourners procession spontaneously the song of the in their last respects to Trotsky were fession as a GPU fabrication are iis references to the attitude of means of livelihood since this per indication or Leon Trotsky who ness and hate of this man would people and masses for whom people lifted their clenched fista revolutionists who were in Russia Jackson repeats the identical slanders found previously in the rectively against the present sys. little, some indications of what began to ask, among other Trotsky has fought his whole life in a revolutionary vow; immedi in 1917 and who saw Trotsky in press of Stalin agents in Mexico and the United States.
things, the means to employ in From the depths of the Mexican ately after thundered the cry: Moscow, Kharkov, Petrograd and Jackson making the same crude effort as the other Stalin chen when began to meet the For me it was a great disillu order to be able to enter Russia.
dark skinned, peasants and linis The cry was repeated them had gone to Russia from the agents to prejudice the Mexican people against Trotsky writes the justice of their ideology and myself face to face with a political have to answer tar beda since ang United States to participate in that Trotsky spoke with contempt of the Mexican revolution and wholeheartedly joined their or chief who was directing the strug means would be good in order to cultural tollers, and young be many times in unison.
spectacled students with revolu Over the casket hangs the flag the revolution.
tionary storm in their hearts; In with Trotsky last words before They still remember the herole is that Trotsky repeatedly expressed himself in terms of the ried into the revolutionary cause ing class found myselt before count not only on the support of dian women with infants in their his death: AM SURE OF THE period. when legends arms and pale raced intellectual VICTORY OF THE FOURTH IN throughout Russia about Trotsky greatest admiration for the Mexican people and of his gratitude a umy enersy and all my fath. a man who desired nothing more a great nation, but also on the personality. When his lion voice to President Cardenas and the government of the Mexican re and would have kiven the last tres of vengeance and of hate and liamentary committee.
Workers and representatives on the widow, outside, trembled, aroused the masses, when his public for extending hospitality and refuge to him. Trotsky de drop of my blood for the needs who did not utilize the workers as she heard the votos of these countenance was like a torch dur fended Mexico in the press of the entire world when the world of the cause. began to study struggle for anything more than water which alled the glase too This, for me, was the drop of the Spanish middle clase.
All of them passed and stopped Mexican men and women giving in the great civil war and when bourgeoisie denounced Cardenas oil expropriations.
all that had been written on the a means of hiding his own paltri full and from this moment no for a moment and cast a sad this last homage to the Trotsky his writings awakened millions of The confession also repeats the slander, so frequently in order to better instruct myself from that moment remained Trotsky had no other object in different revolutionary movements ness and despicable calculations. doubt existed in my mind that minds.
slance upon his tortured and they loved.
punctured face, which looked MEXICAN PEOPLE WANT HIS FUNERAL PROCESSION found previously in the press Stalin agents, that Trotsky and develop mysell, and in this chilled by his skill in sowing dis his life than to utilize his folintervened in Mexico politics and in favor of Almazan. No hon way be more useful to the cause. cord in our own party, setting lowers calm, peaceful and tranquil.
LAST RESTING PLACE HERE WAS GIGANTIC tranquil after a great stormy life. gained the general impres The funeral procession was gest man could possibly make such an accusation because the At this time became acquaint some against others, the leaders sonal ends and paltriness. Above Here and there one could notice sion that Trotsky remained a itnen in which he was wrapped are man in the street know quite casket slowly passed through the ed with the utmost loyalty by the pledge he made to refrain from aftene serious conteversticiones who day which brought into our own contacts which he hand with others but his face was calm, without a little of his role in history, his streets, the roofs and win such intervention. President Cardenas last year personally ans posed that make a trip to Mex: rankena tangle and confusion, so tain leaders of the capitalist coupe sign of struggle.
rich political career, and his writ. dows were black with people.
wered these charges against Trotsky, who, he affirmed, had hon ico in order to meet Trotsky of the party lost their time in that perhaps the Stalinists were ings. Trotsky could not come On the way to the cemetery, WREATHS FROM ALL As is natural. this trip filled me discussing among themselves ques not so far from the truth when PARTS OF THE WORLD closer and acquaint himself with from time to time the cry was orably and scrupulously observed this pledge.
the Mexicans because he to echoed: TROTSKY LIVES. The official participation of the Mexican government in with enthusiasm, since it was a tions of a personal and secondary they accused Trotsky with preces The flower wreaths have come lead a confined life as in a prison, DOWN WITH STALIN, DOWN Trotsky funeral. President Cardenas kind offer to have the dreamed, and accepted with all plane all the problems of the work. class as if it were a dirty sock.
thing for which had not even order relegating to a secondary cupying himself with the working from all corners of the world and from different personalities and lowed into Mexico on the one con First of all, because he was al.
WITH THE GPU!
government bear the costs of the funeral are themselves suf my heart. This comrade supplied ing class, which ended by disanAfter my conversations with groups. Here a flower wreath diyen that he could that parected pass through the meter to ficient refutation of the crude lies concocted in the confession. me with all the means, expenses matins many of the members of the trip, papers, etc. It must who, like me, had come the him was astonished from the Mexican President. Car pate in the political life of Mex the government owned cemetery. LEGATION DISPROVES ASSASSIN FACTS denas, who had given Trotsky his ico. Secondly, he was always in Hundreds remained outside.
last home in Mexico City after danger of assassination by his po themselves entirely to the cause thing that was Mexican. Natur4. Many of the assassin statements about his Belgian own papers, it would hweh hey movement in order to consecrate what contempt he spoke of the he was deported from Europe: litical enemies.
Mrs. Trotsky stood near the cas hackground, his connections with the Trotskyist movement in Impossible for me to go because After various conversations itally all his sympathles are in fa ket during the eulogies. The speak of mobilization.
here wreaths from a great numwas at last plain to me what they or of Almazan, but aside from ber of workers unions; wreaths were terribly disappointed when United States, and three Mexicans, be impossible to refute them, thanks to the fact that Stalin conversations which had with there was sown in me the most threw everything into the samg Mexicans, nevertheless, ers were: Albert Goldman of the Paris, etc. are undoubtedly made with the assurance that it will Before going, with the many expected of me. It was then that him and some of his followers the from student groups, writers, in rumors spread that Trotsky body among them Trotsky Spanish partner, Hitler, has occupied Belgium and Paris.
tellectuals, thinkers, from all who would be taken to New York and secretary.
have appreciated Trotsky vol that the funeral would take place However, the Belgian Legation in Mexico City, after stand very well that they expected greatest contempt for this man in Cardenas, the Mexican police, The Mexicans at the cemetery When saw the stant mass go martyr has to in this resting poic deaths of revolutionary mar. nounced that his story about his Belgian background is false. he did not make anything precise to Russia in order to organize en meng about what the most fama boat there. The Mexican feel that the were still. They are used to he sending an official who closely questioned the assassin, has an simptomicinath mo parte a nut whom had formerly believed. who he said were completely by the casket, felt that the Mex. place in the land that gave him tyrs and each death is a sign for summary of the flaws in his story appears in a cable in the to me. made the trip, first to there a series of attempts against Lombardo Toledano and Avila og ican masses enme, not to mourn asylum.
them that the struggle goes on New York Times, August 27: after a great Russian revolutionthe United States, and then to different persons and in the first macho, who he expected would Mrs. Trotsky has calmed the trom generation to generation, ary politician, but have felt that Mexicans and issued a declaration from man to man. He (the Belgian Legation official) said Jackson does not Mexico.
place against Stalin. This here lles a man who fought for speak with a Belgian but rather with a Swiss accent; that the recently arrived here they told against all the principles of a der to leave a free field to AlmsQ. the oppressed and downtrod: den also for them, the Mexicans, him lives at the address where he says his mother lives; that it tance from the house in Coyoncan considered open and loyal, and sure there was under way tomate who have now awakened to a new in order to call no attention upon contrary to all my principles. plot in this sense, that otherwise life. They mourned the martyr, is untrue that he studied at the Loyola Jesuit College in Brushe would not have spoken thus, the fighter, the idealist.
sels, since of two Jesuit colleges in that city neither bears that since he liked very much to give The walls of the funeral parlor name, and, finally, that all investigations had failed to confirm himself the importance of a propbwere covered with red flags with that he is a son of a Belgian diplomat.
et. It would not be prudent to the emblem of the Fourth International, the revolutionary organ: The assassin was never at any time a member of the confide thus. ization which Trotsky has organ.
Fourth International, either of the French or any other section.
This is not astonishing when one recalls that he has the same ized and to which he has devoted As a matter of fact, it will easily be established by the testihis writings and flery manifestos hate towards the members of his mony not merely of Trotskyists but also of non Trotskyists, that party who are not absolutely in On a number of the tlaes were also the emblems of Mexican trade Jackson game was to pose as one little versed in politics. At no accord with him. It is for this unions, time did he claim to be a member. He presented himself as one that when he is speaking of the Minority of the party, he instNATALIA SAYS HER in general sympathy with the movement, but with interests and muates the possibility of a struggle LAST GOODBYES business affairs which occupied his time. The picture he now of another order than political.
Natalia Trotsky, the wife who presents of himself, as a devoted disciple devoting all my When he says that the Minorities accompanied him on all his wanenergy is of a piece with the rest a crude fabrication.
wish to attack him one of these derings, is shattered and forlorn.
All day Thursday, the doctors had During the two years that he was planning the murder he days, this means that he is going to begin among them a bloody administered opiates to quiet her.
had good reason to avoid the status of a member and to present war.
Just before the funeral she came himself as one extremely busy with other matters. Thereby, for One day, speaking of the for in dressed in black and supported example, he avoided contact with the Trotskyist organization and tress which his house had become on the arm of General Hidalgo, a the burden of daily work, which would have been placed on him he said it is not only to defend Mexican diplomat, who was one avoided all conditions under which he might have let slip myself against the Stalinists, but of the closest friends of the Trotalso against something which would have led to suspicion of him. His pose as the Minorities.
sky family which meant that he desired the Natalia Trotsky approached the the sweetheart of a girl through whom he came to have some casket slowly and looked on her Trotsky and his son Lyova. Leon Sedoy. who expulsion of various members of general sympathies for Trotsky this was the necessary pose to the party. Precisely in connection dead husband through her black died in a Paris hospital in 1938 under the facilitate horrible task with this house, which he said vell. It was a moment of deep pill!
shadow of GPU assassins. The vague generalities, lack of definiteness in designatvery well had been converted into est anguish to all of us who wit: ing places, names and dates, also testify to the false character a fortress, asked myself very often, from where had come the of the confession. When did Jackson join the Fourth Internamoney for such work, since in tional? Who was the member the Bureau of the Fourth Interreality the party is very poor and national who proposed that he make a trip to see Trotsky? Who in many countries do not have told him to remain at some distance from the Coyoacan house?
the possibility of bringing out a daily paper, an indispensable All these questions and many others are conveniently left unmeans for the struggle. Where answered.
did this money come from? Per The confession found on the cernible in the Jackson contes sky who had become disgusted. THE GPU CLOVEN HOOF!
haps the consul of a great foreiga person of Frank Jackson. the sion.
nation who often visited hint Klement was presented there posed nefarious plots against Jackson tries to picture himself as an honest man. Why, could answer this question for us assassin, was similar to the docuin. like Jackson, and like almost Stalin and his supposed traffick then, when he was disillusioned with Trotsky, did he not openly In order to demonstrate the ment which the GPU fabricated all the defendants in the Moscowing with foreign powers against make public that fact? Why did he not expose Trotsky? The slight interest which he has for after it murdered Rudolf Klement trials, as an ex follower of Trot the Soviet Union. Back in 1938 everything not connected with secretary of the Fourth Internaof course, this enemy power was fact is, that up to the very last he assured everybody who knew himsell, add that was promis tional.
still Nazi Germany and the GPU him of his great personal admiration for Trotsky. When his ed to a certain young girl whom had Klement accusing Trotsky of friend Sylvia Ageloff took a position on a political question conI love with all my soul, because Klement, a young German revobeing in league with the Gestapo. trary to that of Trotsky, Jackson claimed to be in agreement 203 she good and loyal. When lutionist, disappeared from Paris Klement, totally unlike Jack with Trotsky.
told him that could not go to on July 13, 1938. S! weeks later son, was in reality veteran The cloven hoof of the GPU comes out with utter cruTrotsky Gardening At Coyoacan Russia because wished to get his headless and legless body was worker in the ranks of the Fourth dity when the confession states: came to the conclusion married first, and would not go without my wife he became very fished from the Seine and was positively identified by two leadof devoted service both to Trotsky that perhaps the Stalinists were not so far from the truth. money but their lives as did Robert Sheldon Harte, murdered nervous, and told me that had ing representatives of the Work and the Fourth Internationalist The sycophantic servants of Stalin did the same thing in the by the May 24th attackers. And his was but one name on a long to finish with her. could not ers International Party, French movement. The letter sent in his Moscow Trials, when every defendant and witness was made roll of our honored dead, murdered by Stalin.
marry a person such as she, who narfe was clearly established as to see the light at the end and say that Stalin had been right.
seconded section of the Fourth Interna11. Sylvia Ageloff denunciation of Jackson as a dirty is probable that after my set she Minority rabble. It tional.
en forserybut and writing experts Here we see the police mind at work: murderous toward those GPU agent is sufficient characterization of the assassin con may not wish to know me any Two days after Klement dis appearance, one of the leading expert testimony, the letter gave whom they are instructed to pursue, slavish in their servility cluding paragraph that it was also for her sake that he mur more, nevertheless it was also for French comrades had received a full internal evidence of its origin toward their masters.
dered Trotsky. Far from Trotsky interfering in their marriage. her sake that decided to sacrt Carbon copy of letter purporin its use and juxtaposition of This particular morsel was so crude that the editors of Sta it was Jackson appearance on the scene as her husband which chief of the workers movement tedly sent by Klement to Leon names, and in the nature of the lin U. organ, the Daily Worker, a little more politically enabled the assassin to get into the house.
charges suddenly discovered by minded than the GPU assassin gang, while quoting the sentence Trotsky. It was postmarked Per who caused only damage to it, and We make these observations immediately after reading the am sure that later, not only the piguan, on the anish Klement.
w! 11 now frontier.
In the case of Klement, the ac tirely, as if it had not been in the original confession. Daily sis and investigation. But the first reading is sufficient to see when they will see that the bloody in which the bow to Stalin appeared, cut this reference out en confession and before it has been submitted to detailed analy party, but also histor letter from Klement reached Trotsky on August 1, Moscow trials, that Trotsky wwe Worker, August 26. what it is. Albert Goldman declared in Mexico City as soon as enemy of the working class is 1938 after travelling circuitously in league with Hitler, came as a 10. The reference to money which the consul of a great the confession was translated to him: gone.
via New York. This document, preposterous sequel to the stre foreign nation could account for is still another repetition of If anything was necessary to convince every intelligent In case anything unfortunate which Trotsky analyzed exhaus nuous months Klement himself the Moscow trials pattern. Every penny of the costs of our ef person that the murderer of Leon Trotsky was an agent of Sta occurs to me ask the publicatively (see Socialist Appeal, August 20, 1938. bore all the famhad spent in helping to expose forts to preserve Trotsky life was secured from the comrades lin GPU, it is this letter which was obviously prepared by the tion of this letter.
Moscow charges as fraudulent JAC.
Iliar pattern marks so clearly disRUDOLF KLEMENT lies.
and sympathizers of the party who were ready to give not only GPU in advance for just such an emergency.
August 20, 1940, Klement Letter Also Pointed to the GPU Guilt in Murder The