The Fight for Marxism: two speeches and an article

[p035] by the editors to two speeches and an article by Leon Trotsky TWENTY-FIVE years ago Leon Trotsky was assassi- nated in Mexico by an agent of the Russian Stalinist secret police. Today, Trotsky’s ideas, the ideas of Marxism, developed in the modern epoch by Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolsheviks, are the inspiration of a new revolutionary generation of socialist youth, not only in Britain but internationally. For 40 years and more, the theories and the revolu- tionary activity of Trotsky and his followers have been slandered and distorted. Stalin not only developed the greatest campaign of lies in political history, brand- ing Trotskyism as an agency of big business and fascism. He led the bureaucratic leaders of the degenerated Soviet state in a bloody ‘liquidation’ of all those Bolsheviks suspected of opposition to the Stalinist tyranny. But the ideas of Marxism, the revolutionary pro- gramme of Lenin and Trotsky, the necessity of the Fourth International, correspond to the deepest needs of the working people all over the world. Capitalism is continually faced with the resurgence of the struggle of the working class, as the decay of capitalism poses everywhere the need for the socialist transformation of society under workers’ state power. The ‘revival’ of interest in Trotskyism in recent years is no historical accident. Stalinism and _ Social- Democracy have now revealed themselves as political trends which support the continued existence of capitalism. What appeared to be immovable strength and solidity in the 1930s, during Stalin’s purges, has been revealed as a regime of permanent crisis. The FOURTH INTERNATIONAL, JANUARY 1966 workers of Eastern Europe, particularly Hungary, have shown that they are fighting to take their place along- side the workers of the capitalist countries in the world revolutionary struggle against capitalism and those who serve it in the labour movement. In Britain and the other capitalist countries, the Labour and Social- Democratic parties have governed on behalf of the employers. The Stalinists in France and Italy have collaborated with them, and have everywhere adopted the line of ‘peaceful, parliamentary roads to Socialism’. In no country do the young workers of 1965 give their support to these treacherous leaderships of the labour movement. The road of international revolu- tionary struggle is the only one which answers the needs of youth. Behind this banner, the Young Socialists in Britain have in fact inflicted heavy blows on the official Labour bureaucracy, and begun to build a movement which seriously challenges the employers. Their struggle is the struggle of the revolutionary youth of Vietnam, of Greece, of South Africa, of the Congo, of the United States and many other countries, who have already shed their blood in battle against imperialism. For this youth, the scientific world outlook of Marxism is the first necessity. This is why the writings of Trotsky are being read with growing interest. Not only the experience of the Russian Re- volution, but also the struggle of Trotsky against the Stalinist degeneration of the first workers’ state, and his fight to build the Fourth International, contain priceless lessons for the construction of the revolu- tionary movement today. We publish here two speeches and an article from Trotsky’s days in the young Soviet Republic, in the period 1924-26, when the Stalin faction had already begun its campaign to denigrate and drive out Trotsky. At that time Trotsky was still part of the top leadership of the Soviet Communist Party, the Soviet state, and the Communist International. All of these items are of the greatest relevance to the development of the Marxist outlook among the revolutionary youth of today. ‘Young People, Study Politics’ is a speech delivered on April 29, 1924, on the Fifth Anniversary of the Com- munist Young Workers’ Home. In this speech Trotsky explains that it is not enough for young people to have . enthusiasm, or even to have the material weapons with which to fight. Above all, they must understand the political forces in the class struggle internationally, which determine the situation in which they find them- selves. Thus, Trotsky explains how Europe and the world in 1924 found Social-Democracy in a position of openly serving capitalism against the Soviet workers’ republic. ‘Menshevism’, that opportunist trend in the Russian labour movement against which the Bolsheviks had had to struggle, had now merged with international Social-Democracy as an enemy of the working class. Trotsky urges upon his audience the need to make a real study of the political roots of the struggle in which they are engaged. He indicates the process by which Social-Democracy, at one stage of history a force for

[p036] INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITORS socialism and the struggle against militarism, turns into its opposite and becomes counter-revolutionary once the epoch of social revolution begins. The second item in this collection, ‘The Significance and Methods of Anti-Religious Propaganda’, was published in English in 1925 in the volume ‘Labour Speaks for Itself on Religion’ (edited by J. Davis). Here Trotsky brings together in a brief and lucid article the essential views of Marxism on the question of religion. He explains that religion is the product of the conditions of insecurity produced by man’s failure to control the economic system upon which his life depends. In primitive societies this was above all a helplessness before the forces of nature, but in all class societies the main root of religion is the oppression of the masses by the ruling class. Religion is a way of confirming and sanctifying the ‘dependence’ of the masses on economic and social forces over which they have no control. Consequently, the struggle against religion as such must be seen as part of the struggle to change the material conditions out of which religion grows. Our starting-point must be the struggle for workers’ power and socialism. ‘Only the abolition of the earthly chaos can end for ever its religious reflection.’ Today, as this struggle for socialism threatens the old rulers and their bureaucratic servants in the labour movement, there is an attempt to revive religion. ‘Christian unity’ is the cry, and the Pope of Rome becomes a performing ambassador at large, as always adapting the Catholic Church to the needs of the ruling class, this time in the final international struggle to preserve capitalism. Naturally enough, the more the class struggle mounts in intensity, and the reconstruc- tion of the Fourth International proceeds, the Stalinist bureaucracy itself seeks a new understanding with the Roman Catholic Church. The role of religion today is thus clearer than it has ever been. All the more urgent is the study and understanding of the Marxist approach to this question. Finally, Trotsky here tackles another vital question of the transition to Socialism: must backward coun- tries go through the stage of capitalism before they can build socialism? He talks particularly about Soviet Georgia, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of its foundation, and explains how all countries are today drawn into the world struggle against imperialism, how the revolutionists of all nations must understand the political trends which determine the international struggle of the proletariat. Once joined in this battle, the peoples of backward countries place their feet on the path to socialism, in alliance with the workers of the advanced capitalist countries. The theme of all these writings is the development of the Marxist theory of dialectics and_ historical materialism in the struggle of the working class. This scientific world outlook represents the richest and most advanced consciousness of humanity, which must be embraced and carried forward by the new generation of young workers in the class struggle. This will be the fulfilment of Trotsky’s heritage. 31 YOUNG PEOPLE ~—OTUDY POLITICS! By L. D. Trotsky (Speech at 5th Anniversary celebration of the Communist Young Workers’ Home, April 29, 1924. Translated by Brian Pearce from ‘Collected Works’, Vol. XXI, pp. 347-353, Moscow, State Publishing House, 1927)

[p037] INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITORS socialism and the struggle against militarism, turns into its opposite and becomes counter-revolutionary once the epoch of social revolution begins. The second item in this collection, ‘The Significance and Methods of Anti-Religious Propaganda’, was published in English in 1925 in the volume ‘Labour Speaks for Itself on Religion’ (edited by J. Davis). Here Trotsky brings together in a brief and lucid article the essential views of Marxism on the question of religion. He explains that religion is the product of the conditions of insecurity produced by man’s failure to control the economic system upon which his life depends. In primitive societies this was above all a helplessness before the forces of nature, but in all class societies the main root of religion is the oppression of the masses by the ruling class. Religion is a way of confirming and_ sanctifying the ‘dependence’ of the masses on economic and social forces over which they have no control. Consequently, the struggle against religion as such must be seen as part of the struggle to change the material conditions out of which religion grows. Our starting-point must be the struggle for workers’ power and socialism. ‘Only the abolition of the earthly chaos can end for ever its religious reflection.’ Today, as this struggle for socialism threatens the old rulers and their bureaucratic servants in the labour movement, there is an attempt to revive religion. ‘Christian unity’ is the cry, and the Pope of Rome becomes a performing ambassador at large, as always adapting the Catholic Church to the needs of the ruling class, this time in the final international struggle to preserve capitalism. Naturally enough, the more the class struggle mounts in intensity, and the reconstruc- tion of the Fourth International proceeds, the Stalinist bureaucracy itself seeks a new understanding with the Roman Catholic Church. The role of religion today is thus clearer than it has ever been. All the more urgent is the study and understanding of the Marxist approach to this question. Finally, Trotsky here tackles another vital question of the transition to Socialism: must backward coun- tries go through the stage of capitalism before they can build socialism? He talks particularly about Soviet Georgia, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of its foundation, and explains how all countries are today drawn into the world struggle against imperialism, how the revolutionists of all nations must understand the political trends which determine the international struggle of the proletariat. Once joined in this battle, the peoples of backward countries place their feet on the path to socialism, in alliance with the workers of the advanced capitalist countries. The theme of all these writings is the development of the Marxist theory of dialectics and _ historical materialism in the struggle of the working class. This scientific world outlook represents the richest and most advanced consciousness of humanity, which must be embraced and carried forward by the new generation of young workers in the class struggle. This will be the fulfilment of Trotsky’s heritage. 31 YOUNG PEOPLE, oIUDY POLITICS! By L. D. Trotsky (Speech at 5th Anniversary celebration of the Communist Young Workers’ Home, April 29, 1924. Translated by Brian Pearce from ‘Collected Works’, Vol. XXI, pp. 347-353, Moscow, State Publishing House, 1927)

[p038] 32 CoMRADES! Not long ago, we released from the Red Army on indefinite leave the class of 1901. On this occasion we carried out in a number of places an inquiry among the men being discharged, questioning them as to what they had learned in the Red Army. From among the answers they gave one in particular struck my attention, a very brief and expressive answer. I have already quoted it at several meetings. One of the Red Army com- rades answered thus: ‘I have learnt about the machine-gun and about politics.’ Remember that answer, comrades! It is a very good one; in my opinion the thing could not be better put. Since he is a revolutionary soldier he is obliged to Know, as Suvorov said long ago, his military art; he is to know his weapon and how to use it, otherwise he would not be a soldier. In this case, evidently, we are dealing with a machine- gunner, whose weapon is the machine-gun. ‘I have learnt about the machine-gun, and besides that, I have learnt about politics,’ he says. What does it mean when he says that he has learnt-about politics? It means that he has learnt to under- stand why he was given a machine-gun. So long as he only knows about the machine-gun he is just the slave of that weapon, and cannon-fodder in somebody else’s hands, but when he knows what purpose under certain conditions that machine-gun is to fulfil in the Red Army, he is a revolutionary fighter, a conscious citizen. This applies not only to a soldier in the revo- lutionary army, it applies to every kind of service in our workers’ and peasants’ country. ‘What have you learnt?’ we must ask the young proletarian when he leaves the factory training-school. ‘I have learnt about the hammer, the pincers, the plane and about politics.’ And about politics! You know that in bourgeois countries there is a hypocritical and base notion that the army and the younger generation stand outside politics. This very day, in another connection, I have been looking through Volumes 2 and 3 of Comrade Lenin’s works. (This is in general, comrades, a very useful occupation— whether one has any special reason for doing it or not—for everybody who has the opportunity to undertake it.) It so happens that my eye fell upon a number of Lenin’s plain, extremely sharp and merciless obser- vations regarding this base and hypocritical con- ception about the younger generation being outside politics. We know that the army is in all countries an instrument of politics, or rather, that it serves political ends. When it is said that the army is outside politics, that means: you, soldier, master your machine-gun—politics, however, will be FOURTH INTERNATIONAL, JANUARY 1966 looked after by somebody else on your behalf, i.e., obviously, by the ruling class. The bourgeoisie carries out a division of labour. Politics is in its” charge; the workers and peasants in the army are cannon-fodder, slaves to the machines of destruc- tion. And it is exactly the same so far as the younger generation are concerned, the young workers and peasants, that is. Politics fill the air; it is not possible to live outside of politics, without politics, any more than one can live without air. But the bourgeoisie cannot reveal its political face to the young people. It cannot say: there you are, the 12- or 13-year-old son of a worker; you have been born into the world in order that, after serving an apprenticeship to some trade, you may go into a factory and there to the end of your days create with your sweat, blood and marrow, surplus-value for the lords of life, the bourgeoisie, which out of this surplus value will create ‘its bourgeois culture, its luxury, art and learning for its children. The bourgeoisie cannot openly expound such politics to the young workers. It puts over its politics by way of. circumlocution and allegories, imperceptibly or half-perceptibly, through its schools, its churches and its press. And this work of the imperceptible bourgeois education of young people, or rather the education of young workers and peasants in the interests of the bour- geois state, is concealed behind the slogan: ‘the younger generation is outside politics’, And that is why Vladimir Ilyich so relentlessly and implac- ably fought against this base hypocrisy. Young people live in society, they are born into definite conditions, they step forward into life’s arena in particular historical circumstances, and the sooner these youngsters open their eyes to the world around them, the better and more profoundly they grasp the conditions in which they live, the easier will their path through life prove to be. You, young comrades, are living in a workers’ and peasants’ state. This does not mean that your path through life is a very easy one in the years of your apprenticeship. But I think, nevertheless, that it is already considerably better than it was for the elder generation of the working class in their apprenticeship years. I don’t know whether anybody in our country has collected together the works of literature—Chekhov’s stories, for instance —which deal with the years of apprenticeship, the gloomiest in the life of the working masses. I think that all these stories, sketches and memoirs of the years of apprenticeship through which every worker has passed, should be collected and published and made one of the reference books for young people. It is necessary to learn to hate the old order which