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On 29 Jun 2019 at 8:15, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
> http://links.org.au/anatomy-revolution-trotsky-marxism-pre-revolutio
> nary-spain
This article, and part 2,
http://links.org.au/anatomy-revolution-trotsky-marxism-test-events-spain,
hide a number of crucial facts that discredit Trotsky's stands and actions.
With
regard to Trotsky, it is hagiography. Take for example, its description of
Trotsky's
attitude to POUM, and of his attitude to the right to self-determination of
Morocco.
Let's start with POUM.
Part 2 tells us that "This decision [POUM's participation in the Popular Front]
provoked a political and organizational break with ILO, although Trotsky
remained
open to communication with the POUM through the Civil War."
This passage creates that impression that Trotsky was a principled comrade
despite differences. In reality, Trotsky sought to crush POUM through the most
unscrupulous and uncomradely methods, calling them criminal betrayers of the
working class, and calling Victor Serge a "strikebreaker" for maintaining
contact
with them. After a careful study of Trotsky's stands, I wrote
"An example of Trotsky's version of centralism can be seen in his fight
against
the Spanish Trotskyists of POUM. Because of its role in the Spanish Civil War,
POUM is one of the best-known of the Trotskyist parties of that period. In the
mid-30s, it achieved a certain mass support and was larger than the rest of the
world Trotskyist movement combined. But due to differences between Trotsky
and POUM's leadership, it was regarded with hostility by the official world
Trotskyist organization. The differences weren't dealt with by comradely means
but by raw sectarian pressure; Trotsky sought to destroy the POUM. He
denounced its leadership in harsh terms as bankrupt, criminal, betrayers of the
working class. In 1936 the International Secretariat sent people to Spain to
form a
Trotskyist 'section' in Barcelona with the intention of replacing POUM; it
spent a
good deal of its time issuing material denouncing POUM, but accomplished
little.
And Trotsky promoted the development of factional work within POUM. (See note
28)
"Meanwhile Trotsky and the International Secretariat (IS) pressured Trotskyists
elsewhere to denounce POUM; for example, Trotsky turned on Victor Serge and
others, calling them 'strikebreakers' for their friendly relations with POUM.
The
intervention by the IS in the factional disputes of various other Trotskyist
sections
was made dependent on the attitude of the local Trotskyist leaders towards
POUM; it wasn't sufficient for Trotskyists to have criticism of POUM's
policies,
they had to be hostile to POUM. For example, the Belgium Trotskyist leader
Vereeken was critical of the POUM leadership, but wouldn't call them 'traitors'
or
'renegades'. As a result, while Trotsky and the IS agreed with Vereeken on the
main local dispute of the moment among Belgium Trotskyists, they denounced
him [Vereeken] anyway, saying he 'wants to separate the Belgian question from
the Spanish question'. World Trotskyist organization amounted to mechanical
dictation against its local sections. (See note 29)
"The murderous Stalinist repression against POUM put Trotsky's attacks on it
into
the background. The Stalinists killed large numbers of members and leaders of
POUM, and viciously slandered POUM in order to justify these murders. But
Trotsky's campaign against POUM illustrates his own attempt to deal with
differences by suppression.
"Overall, Trotsky as leader of the Fourth International didn't pay serious
attention
to building up durable organization, but reduced matters to centralism alone,
and
he created a repulsive form of centralism. From an organizational point of
view,
the world Trotskyist movement of that time, and since then, has displayed two
contrasting aspects. The many splits--along with the theorizing on factionalism
that will be mentioned in a moment--gave rise to a loose splintered movement,
while the official movement around Trotsky, and some of the subsequent
Trotskyist organizations, was rigidly and bureaucratically centralized. This
was not
party-building, but a caricature of it."
Notes:
(28) See Vereeken, Chapter 11 "The Spanish Civil War" and Chapter 13 "The
final break between the International Secretariat and the POUM", The GPU in the
Trotskyist Movement. Trotsky defended carrying out "factional work" within POUM
and other dissident Trotskyist organizations in "Once More on Comrades
Sneevliet and Vereecken", Writings of Leon Trotsky (1937-38), p. 33. (Text)
(29) For Trotsky's denunciation of Serge as a
