SOCIALIST APPEAL AUGUST 31, 1940 54 Trotsky Foresaw His Assassins Trotsky Last Word Would Use Trotskyist Label To Workers Of USSR FROM ALL CORNERS SALUTES TO TROTSKY From the Socialist Labor Party Leon Trotsky predicted that press the new myth that the Trotsky concluded the press Stalin GPU would arrange GPU is concocting in Mexico. interview of August with for the assassins to label them It will appear that the GPU the following predictions: The following message to the Soviet selves as Trotskyists. just desires to convince humanity Will not GPU demand workers was written by. Trotsky at the end as the GPU agent who mur that David Alfaro Siqueiros is of Siqueiros, under pain of of April and sent by various means into dered Trotsky is now attempt my agent. And that by my inideath, that tomorrow he de.
ing to do.
the Soviet Union.
tiative organized the as. clares himself to have been For the express purpose of sault! What preoccupies me secretly a Trotskyist? Will Only a few days before his death, Trot.
making this prediction. Trotmost is the attempt of the not Siqueiros declare that he sky had the heartfelt satisfaction of learnsky invited the press to his GPU to revive the theory of killed Bob Harte in the course ing that at least one of the means used two self assault, a thing which is of a self assault (i. e. a had successfully carried his message to was very difficult since the body of staged affair. Will not David Soviet workers.
The two chief figures who Robert Sheldon Harte (Trot Serrano confess that he has The message was first published in Eng.
organized the May 24 attempt sky secretary, murdered by been simply an agent of the lish in the SOCIALIST APPEAL, May 11, to kill Trotsky were already Dies Committee for the or1940.
known then: David Serrano, been found and since the con ganization of political assasmember of the Political Buro fessions of those arrested. sinations? Isn EL POPU.
of the Communist Party of But the GPU has in its LAR (Toledano organ) alGreetings to the Soviet workers, collective Mexico, seized and arrested by hands Siqueiros and, through ready preparing an editorial farmers, soldiers of the Red Army and sailor the police and now awaiting the lawyer Pavon Flores, act. article on the same theme? of the Red Navy!
trial; and David Alfaro Si ing as intermediary, they have We know in advance its style Greetings from distant Mexico where found queiros, a Stalinist of fifteen hold of David Serrano. Serraof patriotic indignation! Well, refuge after the Stalinist clique had exiled me to years standing, president of no was six years in Moscow, let them try it! Moscow has Turkey and after the bourgeoisie had hounded the Mexican equivalent to the from where he was sent to had for a long time its classime from country to country!
Abraham Lincoln Battalion Spain, and nobody goes out of cal system for affairs of this (Spanish Civil war veterans. Russia without the authoriza kind. We await with serenity Dear Comrades! The lying Stalinist press has for whom the Mexican police tion of the GPU. Serrano par the new intrigue. We shall been maliciously deceiving you for a long time are seeking. In addition nine ticipated in Spain as an agent help the investigation to dis on all questions, including those which relate to other Stalinists are awaiting of the GPU and came as a cover the logic of this mas. myself and my political co thinkers. You possess trial, among them Serrano high agent of that body to querade.
no workers press; you read only the press of wife; these nine have admitted Mexico. That is the reason This classical system is the bureaucracy, which lies systematically so as their complicity.
why he entered the Political to keep you in darkness and thus render secure Here is what Trotsky told now being followed by the Buro of the Central Committhe rule of a privileged parasitic caste.
the reporters August We tee of the Mexican Communist GPU assassin who murdered quote verbatim from EL UNIParty.
Trotsky. He, too, labels himThose who dare raise their voices against the VERSAL, Mexico City daily, It is very important for self Trotskyite. At what universally hated bureaucracy are called TrotAugust 7: these gentlemen to throw all moment the blow would fall, skyists, agents of a foreign power; branded as The object of my invitation the blame on Siqueiros and for Trotsky could not know. But spies yesterday it was spies of Germany, today to the press. said Trotsky, is them to say that everything the alibi of the assassin, he it is spies of England and France and then sent in order to point out to the was organized by him.
predicted in advance.
to face the firing squad. Tens of thousands of revolutionary fighters have fallen before the muzzles of Mausers in the USSR and in countries abroad, especially in Spain. All of them were depicted as agents of Fascism. Do not believe this abominable slander! Their crime consisted of defending workers and peasants against the The Socialist Labor Party pub was to be slain for private rea moved to withhold at this time brutality and rapacity of the bureaucracy. The lished this week a statement on sons. It was a clumsy and futile the justifiable criticism we level entire Old Guard of Bolshevism, all the collaborathe death of Leon Trotsky in the dodge and might as well have led at the principles he supported tors and assistants of Lenin, all the fighters of editorial column of the party or been written on an Ogpu letter in life.
gan, the Weekly People. head. Between the Socialist Labor the October revolution, all the heroes of the Civil The text of the statement fol. This is not the place to re Party and Leon Trotsky there war, have been murdered by Stalin. In the anJows: view Trotsky life nor to assay were important points of differ. nals of history Stalin name will forever be re In the Kremlin there is bound his deeds. No brier, hasty sketch ence a difference which is irrecorded with the infamous brand of Cain!
tant Bolshevik enemy of Stalin to immensely eventful and his deeds any doubt in our minds that Leen NOT MADE FOR BUREAUCRATS escape for a time the malevolent too multitudinous. We are not un. Trotsky was a man of single mindThe October revolution was accomplished for fury of the Ogpu is dead. None aware of Trotsky extraordinary ed purpose, selfless, and devoted the sake of the toilers and not for the sake of but the gullible will believe that talents and of certain qualities wholly to the cause of working new parasites. But due to the lag of the world Leon Trotsky did not die at the which have made him, pathetic class emancipation as he saw it. revolution, due to the fatigue and, to a large celebrants hands. It was the ruth. exile though he was, a world Accordingly, the Socialist Labor measure, the backwardness of the Russian workless, vengeful enemy who pursued gure. Even the capitalist press Party leaves for another occasioners and especially the Russian peasants, there France to Norway and from Nor. But it has seized upon the occa Trotsky and dips its colors in hon raised itself over the Soviet Republic and against way to Mexico, whose hand plungsion of his tragic end to vent its or of a departed champion of the its peoples a new oppressive and parasitic caste, ed the deadly weapon in the ex. malevolence by hurling bucketfuls working class one who, with whose leader is Stalin. The former Bolshevik Ile brain. The letter carried by of scurrilous defamation on his whatever mistakes, gave his life party was turned into an apparatus of this caste.
the wretch who played the role memory. So mean and contempt and all to working class emanci. The world organization which the Communist of assassin declares that Trotsky ble are these attacks that we are pation.
International once was is today pliant tool of From the International Workers Front the Moscow oligarchy. Soviets of Workers and Peasants have long perished. They have been reMarceau Plvert of the Workers jological by products of the first ceeded in escaping several attacks placed by degenerate Commissar s, Secretaries And Peasants Party of France wave of imperialist war and revo from the same source and agents. PSOP) and Julian Gorkin of the lution which shook the old capit Following the murder of Leon But, fortunately, among the surviving conWorkers Party of Marxist Unifi alist world.
Trotsky, the revolt of free con quests of the October revolution are the nationcation of Spain (POUM) released But the revolutionary socialist sciences which have enough of alized industry and the collectivized Soviet econthe following resolution in Mexico organizations which within the Stalinist crimes must reflect it. omy. Upon this foundation Workers Soviets can City in the name of the Interna labor movement opposed Trotsky sell in a powerful movement of build a new and happier society. This foundation tional Workers Front. The revolutionary socialist or him in denouncing the crimes of restore the human values of 20 cannot be surrendered by us to the world bourganizations which belong to the his assassin. The murder of the cialism. All honest militants, all geoisic under any conditions. It is the duty of International Workers Front companion of Lenin is a further independent workers, must unite revolutionists to defend tooth and nail every Against War and to the interna episode in a series of frightful to pitilessly drive fascist methods position gained by the working class, whether it tional Marxist Revolutionary Cen: extortions which all the workers from their ranks. Through the involves democratic rights, wage scales, or so ter bow in sorrow before the great of the world must consider as the world conflagration which posen colossal a conquest of mankind us the nationalizamemory of Leon Trotsky, brutally expression of a virulent sangrene: the problem of the socialist revotion of the means of production and planned assassinated by the Stalinist GPU. Stalin and Stalinism have intro lution, all the healthy forces of economy. Those who are incapable of defending It is for those whose political duoed into the labor movement the proletariat will find themselconceptions were sharply criticized the immorality, the duplicity, the ves united on this inflexible sto conquests already gained can never fight for new ones. Against the imperialist foe we will deby the former leader of the Oc techniques ot destruction of gan: tober revolution to stress the im. shameless men, as in the most To defeat Hitlerite fascism and fend the USSR with all our might. However, the perishable traits of the great de barbaric epochs of history and in capitalism in general, it is neces conquests of the October revolution will serve ceased: indomitable energy, irre the most savage society. sary to pursue and destroy all the people only if they prove themselves capable ducible doctrinal intransigence, The fascist butchers who are traces of Stalinism in workers of dealing with the Stalinist bureaucracy, as in unshakeable confidence in the final pillerying Europe have nothing on organizations.
their day they dealt with the Tsarist bureauvictory of the revolutionary pro the butcher of Moscow. All oppo Workers International Front cracy and the bourgeoisie.
letariat. Those who were in dis. sitional tendencies are struck by If Soviet economi (FOI) and International Revohad been conducted in Agreement with Leon Trotsky and the daggers of his henchmen or his organization will nonetheless the revolvers of his police. There lutionary Marxist Center never forget the magnificent ex. was the anarchist Berneri, the (CMRI. POUM (Spain. Indeample of his combativity, the socialist Mare Rein, the Marxist pendent Labor Party (Great depth and amplitude of his theor. Internationalist Kurt Landau, the Britain. Revolutionary Sociaothical works, the exceptional con leader of the POUM Andres Nin. list Workers Party (Holland. Friends. Comrades: In the first instance tribution of the Marxist writer to There were the Russian Old Bol Independent Labor League of the whole of the working class sheviks, the Polish, the German, America (United States. In.
want to comment upon some rumors to the effect movement.
the Hungarian, the Czech com Socialist Party (Italy. Comthat the body of Leon Trotsky will be taken away Even his mistakes were pro munists. And Anally today munist Party Opposition, Marxfrom Mexico to be kept away from Mexico, Re.
grehalve, because they compelled there is Leon Trotsky, the accus ist Internationalists, Der Funpresenting the widow and those who have fought the revolutionary vanguard to 11 ing witness and survivor of the ken (Germany. Independent shoulder to shoulder with Trotsky for his ideas, quidate certain inevitable method. generation of October, who suc. Socialist Group (Sweden. wish to assure the Mexican people and those who represent the Mexican people, that no matFrom the Independent Labor League ter where the body might go temporarily, it will Jay Lovestone, on behalf of the movement. We need but look at ultimately remain here in Mexico, the country The Independent Labor League Independent Labor League of the Stalin Hitler pact to see the of America conveys its heartfelt that he loved and with the people whom he loved.
America, on August 22 issued the possible tragic and sinister rami condolences to Comrade Mrs. Justice demands that the country which gave following statement on the death fications.
him asylum at a time when every other country of Leon Trotsky: slammed its doors in his face, should be the We condem the murder of country where the remains of Leon Trotsky will stay, as an honor to the Mexican people and to against the ranks of the internathe government of President Cardenas, who gave tional labor movement and all The bloody arm of Stalin has measure of devotion marches on.
him this asylum.
humanity. No matter how much at long last succeeded in striking Its victory will be his greatest Throughout the world, at this moment, all the one may differ with Trotsky political conceptions and our or down the co leader and organizer monument.
poor people, all the oppressed, all those who toil ganization has continually and of the October Revolution. The So for a living, must weep. For they have lost their consistently been opposed to Trot cialist Union Party, despite its greatest champion; they have lost him when iskyism yet it must be underlined well known basic differences with Trotsky Last Work they need him the most.
that Leon Trotsky ranks amongst Leon Trotsky, joins with his comMANIFESTO OF THE In this the darkest hour in the history of the outstanding historical figures rades of the Socialist Workers FOURTH INTERNATIONAL mankind, when tens of millions of human beings In the revolutionary movement of Party in mourning the tragic and are being sacrificed upon the altar of a war which all times.
on the untimely passing of one of the is not a war of the common people, the one in This murder is a crude job, greatest fighters for proletarian IMPERIALIST WAR dividual who could penetrate the darkness was perpetrated by Stalin through his emancipation of our epoch. We and the slain.
OGPU which has been functioning condemn with loathing and revul. PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION The great mind of Leon Trotsky, the mind more and more as an Internasion his foul murderer, the butch: 48 pages cents per copy that pushed aside everything inconsequential, the tlonal Murder, Inc. It is a conser Stalin. Trotsky memory will Order from mind that went to the heart of things, is no tinuation of the purge policy in live in the hearts of workers ev.
Russia, the murder of the POUM erywhere long after his stalinist PIONEER PUBLISHERS more with us.
leader, Nin, in Spain, the assas traducers and defamers are for 116 University Place The voice that represented human progress bination of the Spanish revolution, solten. Trotsky is dead. The has been silenced. The pen that wrote so conNew York City and the degeneration of what was workers struggle for emancipation vincingly for right and for justice will write no once the international Communist to which he gave The last full more.
We reproduce below some of the messages received through the offices of the Socialist Workers Party followthe interests of the people; if the bureaucracy ing the assassination of Leon Trotsky in Mexico City.
had not devoured and vainly wasted the major Many others bave gone direct to the home of the late portion of the national income; it the bureaucracy had not trampled underfoot the vital interests Bolshevik leader in Coyoacan but there has not been time of the population, then the USSR would have enough for them to be forwarded bere for publication.
been a great magnetic pole of attraction for the toilers of the world and the inviolability of the Natalia Trotsky, Coyoacan: The Executive Committee of Soviet Union would have been assured. But the the Fourth International knows there is no consolation that can be offered you for the loss you have suffered. The gaping hole infamous oppressive regime of Stalin has deprived the USSR of its attractive power. During left in our ranks by the loss of Trotsky cannot be filled any more than the wound inflicted upon you can ever be healed. Trotsky the war with Finland, not only the majority of parting injunction to us was to go forward and these words are the Finnish peasants, but also the majority of the Finnish workers, proved to be on the side of now fixed upon our banner. To you we pledge our solidarity, our their bourgeoisie. This is hardly surprising since friendship, our devotion.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE they know of the unprecedented oppression to which the Stalinist bureaucracy subjects the Fourth International.
workers of near by Leningrad and the whole of FROM CHILE the USSR. The Stalinist bureaucracy, so bloodthirsty and ruthless at home and so cowardly Socialist Workers Party, New York: Condolences on the before the imperialist enemies, has thus become death of our venerated comrade Trotsky. We declare that we the main of war danger to the Soviet shall make a reality of his last words: Forward the Fourth In.
Uniom.
ternational!
The old Bolshevik party and the Third InHENRIQUEZ AND SILVA For the International ternational have disintegrated and decomposed.
The honest and advanced revolutionists have orWorkers Party of Chile.
ganized abroad the Fourth International which has sections already established in most of the FROM GREAT BRITAIN countries of the world. am a member of this new International. In participating in this work British workers horrified foul deed. Convey Natalie deepest remain under the very same banner that served sympathy. We pledge to revenge crime by carrying on struggle.
together with you or your fathers and your older JACKSON brothers in 1917 and throughout the years of the For the Militant Labor League Civil War the very same banner under which of Great Britain.
together with Lenin we built the Soviet state and the Red Army.
FROM CANADA EXTEND REVOLUTION With deep sense of personal loss, the Canadian section of The goal of the Fourth International is to the Fourth International extends profound sympathy to Comrade extend the October revolution to the whole world. Natalia. In the midst of a wartime reaction our determination and at the same time to regenerate the USSR by to press forward to victory is renewed by the last words of our purging it of the parasitic bureaucracy. This can great comrade and leader. The weapon of the assassin can never be achieved only in one way: By the workers, wipe out the heritage that Comrade Trotsky has left us.
peasants, Red Army soldiers and Red Navy sailRICHARD ors rising against the new caste of oppressors For the Socialist Workers and parasites. To prepare this uprising, a new League of Canada.
party is needed bold and honest revolutionary organization of the advanced workers. The FROM CHINA Fourth International sets as its task the building of such a party in the USSR. In the name of our Chinese comrades in the front ranks of Advanced workers! Be the first to rally the struggle against the Japanese imperialist invader send our to the banner of Marx and Lenin which is sorrowing greetings in this hour to Comrade Natalia Trotsky and now the banner of the Fourth International! our pledge to the Fourth International that we shall continue the Learn how to create, in the conditions of Stalin struggle for the workers revolution in China and for the world ist illegality, tightly fused, reliable revolu hary revolution of which Trotsky was so valiant a symbol.
circles! Establish contacts between these cireles! LO SEN Learn how to establish contacts through loyal For the Communist League of China.
and reliable people, especially the sailors with Fourth International. Our your revolutionary co thinkers in bourgeois lands! FROM THE triumph will be his monument.
It is difficult, but it can be done. Stevens, Chairman.
The present war will spread more and more, TWIN CITIES: piling ruins on ruins, breeding more and more FROM sorrow, despair and protests, driving the whole Dear Comrade Natalia: The world toward new revolutionary explosions. The comrades of the Minneapolis and PORTLAND, OREGON: world revolution shall re invigorate the Soviet St. Paul branches of the Socialist working masses with new courage and resolute this hour. You have lost your ing class movement received the Workers Party grieve with you in On Aug. 21 the world workness and shall undermine the bureaucratic props dear and devoted companion. We of Stalin caste. It is necessary to prepare for have lost our noble and devoted death by assassination of the this hour by stubborn systematic revolutionary companion. We shall honor his team work. The fate of our country, the future of our memory by carrying out his dy founder and guiding genius of people, the destiny of our children and granding injunction to us: Go forward was a man who gave the entire children are at stake.
with the Fourth International.
Twin City Membership. years of hardship, exile, and perspan of his adult life, nearly 44 Down With Cain Stalin and his Camarilla!
Down With the Rapacious Bureaucracy!
secution, to the cause of building Long Live the Soviet Union, the Fortress a new and better world social of the Toilers!
FROM CLEVELAND: order. Just as his death fills us Long Live the World Socialist Revolution!
with bitter sorrow, so should it alFraternally Ohio Michigan Joint Commit so be the source of inspiration and tee Conference at Cleveland, re courage to carry on with the LEON TROTSKY presenting Flint, Detroit, Toledo, movement for which he gave his WARNING! Stalin press will of course de branches, joins with you in International must realize that it Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown life. Every member of the Fourth clare that this letter is transmitted to the USSR mourning the loss of our great was indeed a rare honor and priby agents of imperialism. Be forewarned that est thinker and teacher. We vilege to be able to refer to Leon this, too, is a lic. This letter will reach the USSR pledge ourselves to fight to the Trotsky as Comrade.
through reliable revolutionists who are prepared very end for the victory of the Portland, Oregon, Branch.
to risk their lives for the cause of socialism. Make monstruowanoreer copies of this letter and give it the widest pos To Understand the Methods of the GPU, sible circulation.
Read these Analyses of the Moscow Trials: THE CASE OF LEON TROTSKY: Report of hearings on the charges made against him in the Moscow trials But even as our grief is profound, so deep is Preliminary Commission of Inquiry our rage and our hatred our hatred of the mon JOHN DEWEY, Chairman ster who, from his throne in the Kremlin, plotted and ordered the murder of Trotsky, a man whose NOT GUILTY character and ideas were diametrically opposed Report of the Commission of Inquiry into to the Kremlin despot.
the charges made against Leon Trotsky We shall never forget, and the future genein the Moscow trials rations will never forget that the betrayer of the JOHN DEWEY, Chairman great Russian October Revolution the revolu(Both published by Harpers)
tion that represents the beginning of the libera 50 for the two books for a limited time only tion of all mankind is the murderer of Leon PIONEER PUBLISHERS 116 UNIVERSITY PLACE Trotsky.
NEW YORK, Stalin and his fellow bureaucrats, yes, all the tyrants of the world are happy now. They can sleep more soundly tonight, for the man who was their mortal enemy has gone from this earth. SOCIALIST APPEAL But let not Stalin be unrestrained in his joy, For the man whom he murdered has left ideas, VOL. IV No. 35 Saturday, August 31, 1940 and ideas cannot be murdered. These ideas will grow more and more powerful, for they are ideas Published Weekly by the representing the future of mankind, Millions of SOCIALIST APPEAL PUBLISHING ASSN.
toiling masses the peasants and the workers of at 116 University Place, New York, Telephone: Algonquin 8547 the whole world will ultimately embrace these ideas, and then Stalin, Hitler and all the tyrants Editorial Board will be helpless. For the millions of masses sufferFELIX MORROW ALBERT GOLDMAN ing the agonies of war and of poverty will one day destroy the world of Stalin and destroy the world General Manager: of Hitler. They will build a new world a world JEFFREY based upon the ideas of Marx, of Engels, of Lenin and of Trotsky. They will build a new Subscriptions: 00 per year: 00 for six months.
world of peace, of true equality, of brotherhood.
Foreign. 00 per year, 50 for six months. Bundle of real democracy a world of Socialism.
orders: cents per copy in the United States: centa We pledge our loyalty to the ideas of Trotsky per copy in all foreign countries, Single copies: centa. to fight for those ideas, no matter what the consequences may be. And in this fight against Reentered as second class matter December 4, all tyrants, against all forms of oppression, the 1989, at the post once at New York, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
ideas of Trotsky will conquer.
GOLDMAN FUNERAL ADDRESS 617 pages 422 pages Trotaky as an dastaraly crime From the Socialist Union Party