RESULT OF "TROTSKYISM IN. ONE COUNTRY"
By Brnest Germain
The impe*alist ‘attack on Stanleyville, which led. to. ‘temporary loss of the city to the Congo freedom fighters, has divided the world into two.camps.: Pro-imperialists, labor fakers, hypocrites and racialists of all stripes have banded together, shedding crocodile tears over the "white women and children" held hostage by the Gbenye government. . « while maintaining the most shameless silence over the slaughter of Congolese women and .children, butchered in the thousands by Tshombe's gangs, the white mercenaries, Cuban counterrevolution-~ | ists flying American bombers, and the Belgian: paratroopers, . In this. unholy front of foul reactionaries, British Prime Minister Wilson and his cabinet took their rightful place along with Belgian Foreign Minister Spaak. Against all of them a completely different kind of front came spontaneously into being. It includes the African, . : Asian and Latin-American masses, the colonial students in the world's capitals, beginning in Brussels where they faced the worst reprisals, and <-- happily -~ thousands of workers and students in the impertialist countries, in Belgium and Western Germany, in Italy and the USA, who have spoken out angrily against the imperialist aggression and its Phony ‘humanitarian" cover.
Even such: docile figures as .the> official liberal leaders’ of the American Negro movement, including Nobel Prize winner Rev. Martin Luther King, who are completely integrated into White House politics and the ruling Democratic party of the USA, had to take astand, For the first time, they openly challenged the imperialist foreign policy of the rulers of their country, demanding that Washington stop helping the neocolonialist stooge Tshombe,. ne
But there was a tiny, if shrill, voice of dissent in this mighty chorus of disapproval. The Newsletter, published in London by the Socialist Labour League, whose leaders call themselves "Trotskyists," had this to say about the Stanleyville events (in an article signed by P. Desai in the December 5 issue):
"Pacts to the contrary have proved that the Chinese Stalinists, true to their teachings, of the 'storm céntre of world revolution! being in the colonies, have indulged in military adventurism.
"It is thought that they have supported the Congolese rebels, . Their action over the support.of Indonesian paratroops being dropped in Malaysia is an open flouting of the Marxist-Leninist line of developing a revolutionary workers! vanguard | in ‘Malaysia in prepara~ tion for socialist rule. .
"The Chinese tactics have led to misadventure - for the Indonesians and open race conflict in the ‘Congo.
‘tthe shooting of helpless white and coloured women and chil-
dren, in the past week in the Gongo cannot be condoned.
"Pirstly, the avarice of: world capitalism is held responsible.
“"Secondly, Stalinist tactics stain ‘the hands yor the Peking elique, gory with the carnage of. helpless. children,.'
That's the entire analysis proffered. by the Newsletter outside - Of some broader references to the Congo, ‘Pius the following brief . reference further on: os
"Sections of the world proletariat ‘tr ] are in danger of being consumed [1] in an imbroglio of racialist madness."
This position on the Stanleyville events is presented in: a context of fine-sounding generalities about imperialist exploitation and the murder of. Lumumba which are,.of course, true (if you leave ‘out the. factual inaccuracies). - How: should such an outrageous. analy~ sis be. characterized? If we were to follow the example set. by. the Newsletter in its usual diatribes. against the "Pabloites"; i.e,, the world Trotskyist movement (in which: the faction headed by. Pablo. repre- .sents only a small minority today), we would have to say that. it has been: proved once again that sectarianism often: ends up in the, same. bed -with opportunism and. that in this: very serious test of international politics, the self-styled "Trotskyists". of the Socialist Labour League betrayed; and, under- pressure. of the racist hysteria. whipped up by the imperialist press in their.own , country, sold out the Congolese revolution.
Such an infantile, sterile method of. polemics, which. teaches nothing at all to anybody,, belongs to a different school than the. one represented by Trotskyism. To understand: the. nature, and meaning of the Newsletter's position, . we must proceed patiently despite our anger over the insulting epithets thrown at the Congolese revolutionists at the very moment when the united front of world reaction placed them under intense fire... ae
In the first place, when and. where have "helpless. white and. coloured women and children" been shot by the Congo freedom fighters?
Two leaders of the Stanleyville regime, Christophe Gbenye and Gaston Soumilalot, have publicly. stated that not a single white person was killed up to the time of the air drop of the imperialist paratroops at Stanleyville, And the chief plotter of the imperialist. aggression, Belgian Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak, has been ~~ forced to admit the truth of this statement. Spaak. sought only to | wriggle out by claiming that the Belgian and U.S. governments. had. "reason to believe" that the lives of the hostages were in such, dan+ ger that it was necessary to send the paratroops on a “humantiarian rescue operation," mo
In the second place, is it the position of the Newsletter
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that taking hostages is wrong and immoral? Don't the editors. know :: that the Bolsheviks took hostages during the civil war in Russia although there the counterrevolutionists were, if anything, less savage than the practitioners of genocide in the Congo under American and Belgian auspices? Don't the editors know that this“has been a perennial theme in attacks against Lenin and’ Trotsky, the bourgeois and centrist "moralists" pointing with the greatest indignation to the "crime". of .taking-hostages (in order to‘save thousands of innocent lives)? Don't they know that Tshombe's killers, using arms* provided by the Americans and Belgians, have been ruthlessly bombing defenseless villages and towns? Don't they know that the white hostages were taken in hope of preventing the bombing of Stanleyville and that this proved successful, saving the lives of both white and © colored inhabitants from indiscriminate slaughter up to the moment of the | paratroop | operation?
In the third place, while the ‘hlling ofa hundred or more white men, women and children out of vengeance "cannot be condoned,” an attempt can at least be made to understand it. Many ofthe Congo freedom fighters are in their early teens and even younger. During. “negotiations over the hostages, they were suddenly and treacherously attacked by a combination of mighty foreign powers, against whom they had nothing to throw but their bare bodies and weapons’ of the stone “age. With bow-and arrow they had to face tanks and. planes. How should they be expected to react when’ they ‘saw their parents and® closest relatives and friends killed in the most. barbarous’ way, when . they saw their own comrades, who should have been treated.as prison= ers of war under the Hague Convention, summarily executed, “bound ~° together in groups of 40 or 60, thrown into the crocodile-infested river and used as targets by the Tshombe soldiers"? (A Frefch bourgeois journalist described such a scene immediately after the capture of Stanléyville.). Shouldnit one at Ieast understand (although, ‘of course, without "condoning") the fury; the despair, the raging grief of the young Congolese who were Submitted to such an experiénce?’ Cannot it bé Understood why they turned on the whites? And. cannot. it be understood that such a reaction was’-in all likelihood antictipated by the imperialist plotters and coolly calculated as being rather to their own advantage since the “moralists" could certainly be Counted on to indignantly argue’ that the killing of hostages’ °. ~ "cannot be. condoned"? ; aL: certainly. don't. “Neondone" taking revenge on: helpless women “and children, “But on the other hand -- and let the editors‘of the = Newsletter make the most of it -- I feel a thousand times closer to the Stanleyville simbas even when they ‘have done things in despair’. and fury which they would-never do otherwise (only. imperialists ana”. imperialist agents buteher in cold blood!)*than to the disgusting”: ~ “moralists" who'see no difference between the violence of the exploiters; the oppressors, the slaveholders, and the violence of re= bellious slaves, fighting desperately for their freedom-and their *°" lives.
. The Newsletter'ts sudden. abhorrence of "violence" is all the. stranger in view of the way this newspaper took the Socialist Workers party in the United States to task for condemning the act of violence in the. assassination.of.President Kennedy. Look at the spectacle the Newsletter makes of itself: In the United States, to believe the editors, it is unprincipled. to refuse to condone an act of individual terror which to this day remains mysterious, with the smell of foulest racist provocation against the labor movement and its entire radical wing. But-in Britain it is held to be principled Marxism-Leninism to condemn the violence in the Congo whether it emanates from the imperialist and neocolonialist:counterrevolution or from a revolutionary mass iuprising of tens if not hundreds of thous-. ands.of colonial slaves, | mo i: coe
In the fourth place, it is pure nonsense to counterpose, as Desai does, the task of forming "a revolutionary socialist base among the workers" and the strategy of armed uprising.. A party does not appear full fledged; it develops out.of the struggles -of the masses, In a colonial country the primary task is national liberation from. _ imperialism. To imagine that a revolutionary socialist party can be built by refusing to partieipate in the national liberation struggle if it takes the form of. armed uprising is as nonsensical as imagining that a revolutionary socialist party can be built in an industrialized country by refusing to‘participate in. militant strike action. The truth is that the road of armed uprising against colonialism and its stooges can provide one of the main opportunities (if not the most important one!) for building a revolutionary socialist party in a backward country,,. The examples of Cuba and Vietnam offer eloquent evidence to this. And whatever one's position may be about the. present stage of the Algerian revolution, it is quite illusory to dream about building a revolutionary socialist ‘party there in. any way except through the militants who showed their revolutionary qualities by making a revolution!.
In. the. fifth place, it is not only nonsensical but criminal to assert. thet it was the "Chinese tactics" that "led to. . . open race conflict in the Congo." The fact is -- if the editors of the — Newsletter don't mind our pointing to raw facts -- that it was the — imperialist counterrevolutionary aggression that led to the "open © race conflict" (if one is. to be.so careless as to call:it. that). We again remind the Newsletter -- not a single white person: was killed: — in Stanleyville before the air drop of Belgian paratroops! . In ‘the' ..
*In fairness to the Newsletter, it must be said that before the issues were posed at Stanleyville with extraordinary sharpness, a good, al though quite short, article was published on the civil war in the Congo (in the November 21 issue), in which the lying propaganda about the- "savagery" of the "rebel forces" was correctly and. sharply denounced... All the more scandalous was the capitulation two issues. later in face of the hue and cry in the British imperialist press: over the fate of "white women and children," t
face of this fact, to claim that the "race conflict" was the consequence of Chinese tactics" (i.e., guerrilla warfare) is to do nothing less than cover up for an imperialist crime, using nothing less ° than the current ‘propaganda of the imperialist butchers themselves. (Tshombe has held one press conference after another in which he asserts that the "rebels" were armed by China.)
It 1s unworthy of anyone claiming to. adhere to revolutionary Marxism to reprove the People's Republic of China for sending arms in response to the appeals of the Congolese freedom fighters. In fact, the very opposite accusation should be levelled against the Chinese and Soviet governments; namely, that although the "rebels" held Stanleyville, with an airfield equipped for jet landings, for many months, only a trickle of material aid was sent them, and most of it came from Algeria.
A legitimate ‘criticism can be ‘made about that. But this, again, is just the reverse of Desaits drivel about "military adventurism." How can one honestly or intelligently compare the dropping . of a few dozen paratroopers over Malaysia and an armed insurrection © which, at its height, covered and administered nearly one-third of the Congo; that is, three times the area of the British Isles, an insurrection, morever, that has been. enthusiastically supported by the entire population? (Even the imperialist. “witnesses" confirm this in order to justify the wholesale slaughter of town and villages because every one there "supported the bandits"! )
In. the sixth place, it takes immense ignorance, arrogance, or hypocrisy (or’a combination of them) to advise the Congolese that they should organize unions and parties instead. of indulging in. "military adventurism," Doesn't Desai know that anybody trying to organize a free trade union ora strike is immediately jailed? That military terror, worse even than in South Africa, reigns in the Tshombe~controlied territories, people being shot on sight without the least pretense at any kind of trial? Doesn't he know that enocide is-being committed on a.big scale there? Doesntt he know that the generic name for regimes like the one headed by Tshombe is. fascism? Does he really think that a fascist dictatorship can be. effectively fought by organizing a. . . trade union? Does ‘he ‘think that the tortured Jewish, Polish, Yugoslav and Russian peoples in the” Nazi-held territories during World War II made.a "mistake," engaging in "military adventurism" inspired by "Stalinist tacties," when they heroically’ defended their lives with bare hands against the butchers instead of letting themselves be slaughtered without defending them _.. selves? Shouldn't they instead have built ‘trade unions, e « in the. gas chambers? Lo
Do the editors of the Newsletter hold that there is a ‘qualitative difference between the way the Jews, the Poles and the Yugo-~ slavs were.treated by the Nazis, the way the Algerians were. treated by the French imperialists (more than 1,000,000 Algerians were killed), and the way the. Congolese people are being treated today by:
-Tghombe (whole tribes have become infected with "Mulelism" and must be exterminated, declares the imperialist press in Belgium)?
And when this mixture of ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy is advanced under the label of a "Marxist-Leninist line," the great founders of the revolutionary working-class movement are slandered most unconscionably! For: they, especially Lenin, who lived to see the first uprisings of the colonial peoples against the imperialist yoke, had a different concept of the duty of a Marxist in face of the colonial revolution, Here: is what Lenin wrote explicitly in the Theses on the National and Colonial Question, adopted at the Second World Congress of the - Communist: International:
"The - Communist parties: “mae . - support -by actions [my emphasis] the revolutionary movenient “in the dependent nations or. those that do not enjoy equal rights (e.g., in Ireland, among: the- a American Negroes, etc.) as well ‘a's. in the colonies.
“without this latter, especially important condition, the struggle against the oppression of independent nations and colonies and for recognition of their right to form a separate state, remains unreal, as is evident among “the Parties of the Second | International. " oe And here is what Lenin wrote, even more emphatically, in: the "“Twenty-One Conditions for Adriission into the Communist Internation-al, " also taken up at the Second World Congress” of the Comintern:
Many party wishing: to belong. to the Third Interriational, As. obliged’ ‘to: denounce without reservation the machinations. of: tits” own! imperialism in the colonies, to support every liberation move< ment “inthe ‘colonies not only.by words a cGL “kmy emphasis], to demand that. its own imperialists be chased out of these colonies, to create in the hearts of the workers of its country really fraternal sentiments towards the toiling population of the colonies and the oppressed nations, and to conduct systematic agitation among the troops.of its country against any suppression of colonial peoples."
To talk about "Chinese tactics" that have led to "open race conflict" and to hands "gory with the carnage of helpless children"; to talk about "military' adventurism" and all the rest, is not designed to create "really fraternal sentiments" in the hearts of the British workers towards the Congolese freedom fighters, The :Newsletter does not even point out‘how the freedom fighters are seeking to "chase out" the British imperialist interests in the Tanganyika Concessions Ltd. It does not even mention the collaboration of the British government in permitting Ascension Island to be used as a springboard for the attack by Belgian paratroopers. Far from calling for action to support the Congolese freedom fighters, the Newsletter did not even support them verbally -- it injured their. cause.
on the evidence of this article at a decisive moment in the history of the Congolese freedom struggle, no other conclusion is
possible: the Socialist Labour League would not have been eligible. for admission to the Comintern under the rules proposed by Lenin.
Of course the SLL makes. a special claim to being "Trotskyist." But there was no difference between Lenin and Trotsky on this ques-.. tion... In the last important political.document which he wrote before. his assassination, the Manifesto of the Emergency Conference of the Fourth International, Trotsky said the following:
7 "the perspective. of the Permanent Revolution by no.means implies:that backward countries must await the signal of advanced countries, or that colonial peoples must patiently wait till the proletariat of the metropolitan centres frees them, Help comes to him who helps himself, The workers must develop the revolutionary struggle in.each colonial or imperialist country, where favorable conditions exist, and thereby give an example to the workers of other countries, only’ initiative and activity, resolution and temerity, can really materialize the slogan: Workers of the world, unite!"
In that sense the July 26 Movement of Fidel Castro, the heroic fighters of the Algerian revolution, the followers of Pierre-Mulele in the Congo, of the Trotskyist Hugo Blanco in-Peru, and the Bolivian =: Trotskyists at Sora-Sora, are much closer to the tradition of Lenin and Trotsky, at least.so far.as their.understanding of the colonial revolution B088, , than the editors. of the Newsletter, . wy
On the level of theory, the source of the Newsletter's grossly incorrect position on the imperialist attempt to smash the regime of the freedom fighters by the assault on Stanleyville lies in utter lack of understanding of the colonial revolution, This has shown up in all the major policies of the Socialist Labour. League for more than five years: = in relation to Algeria, to Cuba” and now the Congo.
a “To bea genuine Trotskyist, it is not enough. to offer lip ser- | vice to the theory. of the permanent revolution; the theory must be applied concretely to the present world situation. Those who are incapable of doing this are incapable of understanding what's going on in the biggest part of the globe today. Worse ‘than that, those who try to "prove" from the theory of the permanent revolution that victory for the colonial masses is impossible "as-long as the proletariat in the. metropolitan countries has. not. arisen," greatly injure the Trotskyist movement and the image of Trotsky personally... They reduce the theory of the permanent revolution tothe sterile carica-) | ture which the Stalinists at one time "refuted" year in arid. year out” in view of their incapacity to refute. Trotsky's: real ideas,
On the olitical and. organizational level we see in the gross. blunder committed by the Newsletter an example of what comes from.:. the illusion’ that Trotskyism canbe can:be built “in one country" no matter: what happens elsewhere, It is materially impossible for a group of revolutionists,. whether in: Britain, France, Germany, or any. country in the -world -- however talented and devoted: they may. be -- to reach...
a correct analysis of the social and political development and struggles of all countries in the world, It was still possible to achieve this when only a couple of dozen countries in the world played a "significant" role in international politics. This period has forever ended. Today "world politics" is shaped by 120 countries, including such tiny dots on the map as Zanzibar.* No genius or group of geniuses can completely appreciate developments in all these countries simply by reading the newspapers and books available in London, excellent as these may be. A much surer way, one in accordance with the Marxist method of knowledge, is to participate in a world-wide organization of revolutionists who learn the reality in their coun= tries through co-ordinated revolutionary activity.
It is because the leadership of the Socialist Labour League has deliberately refused to participate in the reunification of the world Trotskyist movement, taking the opposite course of cutting their ties with the majority of the International Committee, and rationalizing their withdrawal into isolation with the fantastic theory that this was a step toward "reorganizing" the Fourth International, that the SLL is today unable to understand the colonial revolution, the real world situation as a whole, and much else that océurs outside the British Isles, "Trotskyism in one country" then periodically shows where its logic leads as in the position of the Newsletter on the Stanleyville events.
The Socialist Labour League has young and devoted members who sincerely and honestly want to build a revolutionary organization, They suppose that it is sufficient to be as active as possible and to learn theory, primarily as it is presented by the Newsletter or taught by the leaders of the SLL. They are denied the immensely fruitful experience of participating in a revolutionary-socialist Internation-
*Incidentally the Newsletter first sneered in arrogant fashion at the revolutionists there. "Rag-bag nationalists take over Zanzibar," a three-column headline proclaimed. "The comic-opera militancy of the coup's tinitiatort John Okello," said the Newsletter [January 18, 1964], "is no more than a cover-up for the fact that the new government has no policy for the solution of Zanzibar's acute economic crisis and for the alleviation of poverty amongst its working and peasant classes." Some four months later, in the May 2 issue, the Newsletter returned to the subject. A headline informs us that the union of Zanzibar and Tanganyika constitutes nothing less than formation of "a new bloc against Communism." It is insinuated that the Zanzibar revolutionists sold outs; Babu, for instance, being "convenlently out of the country whilst negotiations for unity were going on." These "rag-bag nationalists" and "comic-opera" militants have singular powersl As clowns they amuse the editors of the Newsletter; as betrayers they furnish them with a convenient text for moral sermons. Unfortunately such rag-bag, comic-opera analyses of events in the colonial revolution appear with dreary frequency in the News- ‘letter.
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al, without which it is impossible to build an effective party under present world conditions, particularly in an imperialist country. Experience will show them again and again that it is impossiblé to develop, or even retain, revolutionary theory, revolutionary Marxism, outside of a world movement . Experience will teach them again and again that a real revolutionary party can be built only Py turning away from the blind alley of "Trotskyism in one country" and linking up with the ranks of the world Trotskyist movement.
December 15, 1964
Directeur-Gérant: Pierre FRANK. teur):"