Trotsky's response to the development of World War II:
Attack Stalin as the main danger


From mim3@nyxfer.blythe.org Mon Oct 16 01:38:19 1995
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 01:38:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maoist Internationalist Movement <mim3@nyxfer.blythe.org>
To: marxism@jefferson.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Re: An End to Sectarianism

This article of Proyect's makes three implicit assertions that are
simply not true: 1) Just because "Trotskyist and Maoist" groups are
small in Europe and the United States, Maoism is small, sectarian and
uninfluential elsewhere.  2) Organizations with large numbers have a
proven record of greater historical impact than those with smaller.  3)
The dissolution of "sects" or organizations to form mushier organizations
with a de-emphasis of lines of demarcation is really something new with
the fall of the Soviet bloc.

Proyect's equation of Maoism and Trotskyism is Euro-centered.  Trotskyism
never had any influence over real life revolutions outside Russia. Maoism
did. These and other assertions I offer as things to keep in mind during
study. They can't be settled by reading one post.

While we are on the topic of sectarianism, I came across the following of
Trotsky as explained and then quoted by his admirers of Merit Publishers:
"In the Russian Bulletin of the Opposition (82-3), February-April,
1940, the following long paragraph appeared in place of the opening two
sentences of the Sunday Express version: '...I consider the main source
of danger to the USSR in the present international situation to be
Stalin and the oligarchy headed by him. An open struggle against them,
in the view of world public opinion, is inseparably connected for me
with the defense of the USSR."  (Writings of Leon Trotsky: 1939-1940
(NY: Merit Publishers), p. 124)

That's 1940 folks. There we have the thinking of Trotsky who puts his
political fight with Stalin above the war against Hitler. In 1940 he
is saying Stalin is a greater danger than Hitler and he is calling for
civil war in the Soviet Union, while Hitler's troops are waiting to
pounce. [1998 postscript: By 1940, Hitler's troops were already menacing
the Soviet Union from Poland.]

Now let's forget the leadership. Would anyone care to explain why the
Soviet masses should not want this Trotsky character shot immediately? The
price that the Soviet masses were to pay for Trotsky's putting his views
above the interests of the Soviet masses was much more important than
the mere lives of either Stalin or Trotsky.

SWP and other Trotskyist claims to have "defended the USSR" will come
under closer examination later.


Pat for MIM