PART NINE

Lenin's confidence in Trotsky-based on political agreement about the prospects of world revolution—was greatly enhanced by the final agree. ment over the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty.

In his reply to the debate on the political report of the Central Committee (March o, 1918) which the editors of •Against Trotskyism' reproduce—Lenin pays a balanced and generous tribute to Trotsky while not sparing his lack of tactical judgement.

'Now I must say something about Comrade Trotsky's position. There are two aspects to his activities; when he began the negotiations at Brest and made splendid use [sic] of them for agitation, we all agreed with Comrade Trotsky ... Trotsky's tactics were correct as long as they were aimed at delaying matters;

are no facts, only potentialiwas announced that the state ties, and we cannot take of war had been terminated potentialities into considerabut peace had not been con- tion. [Shades of Socialism in cluded.' (P. 149, ibid).

one country!] What has this appreciation in common with the Stalinist 'If the Germans - begin an slander that 'Trotsky main- offensive it will strengthen the tained an anti-Leninist stand, counter-revolution in our criminally exposing the newly- country? emerged Soviet Republic to Zinoviev: 'We are confronted mortal danger'? Nothing what- of course by a serious surgical ever! operation because by signing What the dialectic of the peace we shall strengthen debate did show, however, was chauvinism in Germany and that those who supported for some time weaken the Lenin in the early stages, like movement throughout the Stalin and Zinoviev, did so for west. The other prospect entirely different and opposed looming before us is the desreasons. public' (Minutes of the Cen- truction of the Socialist ReUnlike Lenin, Stalin and Zinoviev supported peace at tral Committee of the RSDLP any price because they were (B) August 1917—February completely sceptical of the 1918. Russ. ed. Moscow, 1958 European working class. pp. 171-172.)

At the January 11 CC meet- Lenin's comments on the ing, Lenin criticized Trotsky speeches of his two supporters for proposing 'an international not only reveal the enormous political demonstration' from gulf separating Lenin's intranthe tribune at Brest, but at sigent internationalism from the same time dissociated him- the national-reformism of Staself far more sharply from the lin, but also refutes the perremarks of Stalin and Zino- vasive Moscow lie that Lenin's viev who opposed Trotsky foreign policy was based on Stalin: 'No revolutionary move. ment exists | In the West. .

the conclusion of peace will for a time weaken the movement in the west.

If we believe that the German movement can develop immediately, in the event of an interruption of the peace negotiations, then we must Litovsk treaty without declaring hostilities. In short to declare a state of 'neither war nor peace'!

Were we to use the historical method adopted by the authors of this book, it would be possible to show without difficulty that Lenin, in the course of the war with Poland two years after Brest-Litovsk, did far more 'damage' than Trotsky's position at Brest-Litovsk.

Lenin's policy on this question, incidentally, gives the lie directly to all those Stalinist pundits who try to portray him as a pioneer of the idea of 'peaceful coexistence between states with different social systems' Nothing was further from Lenin's mind in the struggle with Pilsudski, which broke out on May 1, 1920. he Polish troops invaded the Ukraine on that date, urged on by the British government and Winston Churchill. Within six weeks, the Poles were in full retreat.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

THE MURDER OF A REVOLUTION sister Li 278. T pagan.

Barker Ltd. £2.75. 164 pages. FART THALE On April 10, 1919, the Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the First Bavarian Soviet Republic, Dr Lipp, sent the following telegram to Lenin:

"The proletariat of Southern Bavaria happily united Socialists plus Independents plus Communists firmly joined together as a hammer; at one with peasantry. Liberal bourgeoisie completely disarmed as agent of Prussia.

*Bamberg seat of the fugitive Hoffman who took the toilet key of my ministry with him. Prussia's policy abetted by Hoffman aims at cutting off from the north, from Frankfurt and the Ruhr coalfields, while making the Entente suspect us as bloodthirsty depredators.

'At the same time the hairy gorilla hands of Gustav Noske are dripping with blood. We want peace for ever. Immanuel Kant "Concerning Eternal Peace" 1795, "Theses", 2-5' Lenin kept his reply brief and businesslike-—ignoring the reference to the hygienic nuisance at Lipp's ministry, as well as Lipp's desire to inject Kantianism into the class struggle:

'Please send us details about the accomplished revolution in Bavaria. Please inform us of the course of developments and whether the new order is everywhere fully established. What is the position in Bavaria concerning the agrarian programme the council government? Lenin.' Lipp's claim to have 'unity' with the Communists was false. The Bavarian Communists had nothing to do with that bizarre outfit. Before the end of April, 1919, Hoffman, the Special Democrat leader (who had been in charge of military affairs in Eisner's government) launched a military offensive against the 'Soviet' regime with the aid of reactionary generals.

The assortment of AnarchBOOKS BY TROTSKY Where is Britain Going? ists, 'left' Social Democrats and mental home inmates who constituted the First 'Soviet' Republic were totally unequipped to face such an attack.

This time the Communists —now under the leadership of Eugen Levine-came to the fore. The Second Bavarian Soviet Republic was born.

Eugen Levine was a Russian Jew who had been imprisoned for his part in the 1903 Revolution. He had played a key part at the foundation conference of the German Communist Party (in late December 1918) and had subsequently been sent to take part of the Bavarian Party.

His major political step in Bavaria was to establish a clear-cut demarcation between Communists and Anarchists.

He had done this up to and beyond the proclamation of the First 'Soviet' Republic on April 6. That 'Soviet' lasted precisely one week.

The Communists, however, had no choice but to head the working class against Hoffman's military onslaught, however unfavourable the circumstances.

And the circumstances unfavourable.

In Germany a workers' uprising had just been bloodily suppressed in the Ruhr and the left was heavily under attack in Brunswick. Counterrevolutionary forces had invaded Hungary from Rumania, while the Soviet Union was still debilitated by civil war.

By contrast with the Social Democrat Hoffman, who now openly served the bourgeoisie, and the 'left' Social Democrat Eisner, who had cringed before them, the Communists called an immediate General Strike to intimidate the bourgeoisie in Munich and to provide the forces to meet the aggressors from Bamberg.

Another measure never dreamed of by Eisner nor the Anarchists was also put into immediate effect. The bourgeois police was disbanded and replaced by a Red Guard of armed factory workers, under Rudolf Egelhofer (26), a veteran of the Kiel sailors' mutiny.

An enormous response was won from the working class. Soldiers of the White Army refused to fire on the Communist troops. In Dachau, factory workers - men and women-ran among Hoffman's troops and persuaded them to allow the Red troops to enter the town.

But the Social Democrats in Berlin were determined that capitalism should survive. Ebert's 'law-and-order' expert Gustav. Noske informed Hoffman on April 17 that he was prepared to send up to 20,000 troops into Bavaria.

ernment to hand the case to an independent outsider prosecutor with no links to the administration.

Hughes's name came into the Watergate testimony when convicted conspirator James McCord told a Senate committee that he was told Hughes would provide the plane that would take him away from a PAGE Left: A Red Army machine gun post in the inner city of Munich. They defended the city, building by building, against Freikorps and Thule soclety.

Meanwhile Colonel Ritter YUL panion of the Bavarian companion Social Democrat leader Erhard Auer, was forming the Bavarian Freikorps. Among its officers was Captian Ernst Rohm, the subsequent head of the Nazi stormtroopers. Another member of its ranks-enrolled via the anti-Semitic Thule Society which Eisner had refused to ban—was Rudolf Hess.

The actual encirclement of Munich was under the strategic direction of General Luttwitz, who a few weeks earlier had killed 1,200 workers Berlin.

At this point, the most 'left' of the Independents who had been in the leadership of the Soviet Republic with the Communists deserted.

Their leader, Toller, who all along had favoured lenient measures against the White officers, demanded negotiations with the Whites, called for 'a revolution of love, not hate' and denounced the Communists:

'These men base their decisions not on our circumstances, but on conformity to the teachings of Russian Bolshevism . . . whenever alien elements take over leadership of a revolution, dictatorship results!

On May 1, 1919, the Red troops defended Munich building by building. The Thule Society-a precurser of organized fascism - launched what it called the 'Cleansing of Munich of the Red Scum' Some 186 'executions' took place on the first day alone. The massacre lasted for SIX days and just under 1,000 people were murdered.

Throughout, the slaughter received the approval of the Papal Nuncio Cardinal Pacelli, later to be Pope Pius XII.

It was the same Pope Pius XII who, on October 16, 1943 acquiesced in the mass round up of Jews in Rome by the German Army and their deportation to Auschwitz.

On May 13, 1919, the Social Democrat Hoffman returned to Munich and resumed the functions of government.

Social Democracy in Bavaria, as in Germany and Austria, clung to the coat-tails of reactionary militarism. When it was no longer needed it was contemptuously flung aside. Thy, in sin its leat Democracy both and right varieties proved to be the most abject servant of imperialism.

Only the construction of revolutionary parties, steeled in theory and practice, will be able to lead the working class to the capture and retention of power. With such parties, sections of the Fourth International, the task taken up by the heroic Communist Party and Red Army of Bavaria will be carried victorious conclusion. LBJ