extracts: hands - only to be fiercely opposed by the The class line of the Trotskyist view is per- "All the ruling classes of the capitalist countries are bandits. Their war, whatever the pretensions and hypocritical slogans, will be a war between bandits. It will not he a workers" war, but on the contrary the workers, and the exploited in general, will be its victims. It will not be a war for democracy, since true Page 27 Stalinist and social democratic parties. "A Bandit War" from two Fl Manifestoes: perialist allies: as a gesture in this direction. perialism hegan to suffer military defeats to demonstrate his 'respectability" to his im- and as a symptom of his hostility to the spread struggle, he dissolved the As the war progressed, however, the im- position of draconian altacks on trade unions gence of class struggle - in battles over wages Trotskyist analysis. And, ar German im- capitalist state power and other democratic rights, and the reemer- Third International (Cominter) in 1943. soon vindicated and conditions - across Europe, and of revolutionary class struggle and opposing the class col- laboration of the 'war effort in the Allied "democratic' credentials of the imperialists, and their insistence that only a mobilised tion, establish genuine peace and democracy of the social democratic parties and Stalin's total opposition to revolutionary struggle in imperialist countries, were a small, per- working class could, through revolutionary ac- in Europe, clashed head on with the reformism SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18, October 1989 Their rejection secuted minority.
democracy for the masses can be won only in the struggle against capitalist the democratic rights which tended, as the example of the Spanish Civil War has by militant, the masses still enjoy can- not he preserved or ex- revolutionary class strug domination. Even except gle for socialism. shown,
It will not be a war in workers, since the attacks on the social conquests of the French worken of June 1936, especially the 40-hour week, show that the interests of
(Loon Trotsky Discussions with Trotsky, following explanation, directed specifically at That's why we must try to separate the workers from the others by a programme of eduction, of workers' schools, of workers" al- ficers, devoted to the welfare of the worker We cannot escape from the defend the United States with a workers' army, government, etc. If we are not pacifixis, who class and officers.. In this epoch, every great the trade unions. This kind of approach would give us access to the workers, who are 95 to 98 ready for revolution. But you aren't ready. But both of us want our own workers' officers in this situation. We want special workers* Trotsky claborated further on this approach in soveral articles and interviews, including the "Now the national feeling is for a tremen- dous army, navy and air force.... To some ex- militarisation, but inside the machine we can The American workers do not want to be conquered by Hitler, and to those who say 'Let us have a peace programme, the worker will want a peace programme. Therefore we say: We will with workers" officers, with a workers' wait for a better future, and if we are active revolutionists, our job is to penetrate into the Furthermore our comrades should be the best soldiers and the best officers and at the same time the best class militants. They should provoke in the workers a mistrust of the old tradition, of the military plans of the bourgeois question, national or interational, will be resolved with arms - not by peaceful means. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 18, October 1989 percent patriotic even at the present time. .. .."Wc can say to the workers, We schools which will train us to be officers. tent this will also be true of the workers. reply But Hitler does not United in opposing revolution: Churchill with Molotov as the 'allles' begin to divide up the territorial spoils whole military machine.... the situation in the USA: June 1940) each country, and of soldiers with soldiers on the opposite side of the battle front; we mobilise the women and the youth against the war; we carry on constant, persistent, tireless tories, in the mills, in the villages, in the bar- (Leon Trotsky, Manifesto of the Fourth In- lerational on the imperialist war and the Carrying such a line into practice meant nising the need to fight with and alongside the working class - in the army in war as the marxist fights in the workplaces in peacetime. Trotsky, in conjunction with leaders of the US boldly set out the basic line for the small forces of revolutionary the "Militarisation now goes on on a Iremen- dous scale. We cannot oppose it with pacifist phrases. This militarisation has wide support hatred against Hitler mixed with confused class sentiments. They have a hatred against The bureaucracy utilises this to say help the pletely different... We must oppose sending untrained boys into battle. The trade unions must protect the workers in peaceful times and For instance in the trade union we can argue like this: Tam a socialist and you are a patriot. Good. We will discuss this difference hetween us. But we should agree that the workers he trained at govemment expense to becore mintary experts. Schools should be set govemment expense hut under the control of rejecting pacifism and sectarianism and recog- among the workers. They bear a sentimental defeated gangster. Our conclusions are com- protect their industrial skill, but they must now demand the possibility of learning the military known as up in connection with the trade unions proletarian world revolution, May 1940) preparation for the revolution - in racks, at the front, and in the feeL... marxism in what became "proletarian military policy": Socialist Workers Party the victorious brigands. art from the state. transformation of the imperialist war into a war Hitler, who destroyed all social gains of the German and Austrian working class, is leading the struggle in the name of capitalism against the interests of the peoples of Europe. In the midst of war threats we emphasise once again that the main enemy is in one's own country: The working class has no fatherland to defend to the war makers and to imperialist war - we say - but the continuation of the class struggle in every situation and the utilisation of the war crisis for the overthrow of capitalist rule, Le., the overthrow of the war and of capitalism it- (Manifesto: Against Imperialist War!, ....We do not forget for a moment that this war is not our war. In contradistinction to the Second and Third Interationals, the Fourth In- fortunes of the capitalist states, but on the of the workers against the capitalists, on the overthrow of the ruling classes of all countries, The shifts in the battle lines at the front, the destruction of national capitals, the occupation of territories, the downfall of individnal states. represent from this standpoint only tragic episodes on the road to the reconstruction of Independently of the course of the war, we fulfill our basic task: we explain to the workers the irreconcilability between their interests and the interests of bloodthirsty capitalism; we mobilise the toilers against imperialism: we propagate the unity of the workers in all war- and neutral countries; we call for the fraternisation of workers and soldiers within compatible with the defence of the fatherland except where it conquers and rules. No support adopted at founding conference of Fourth In- temational builds its policy not on the military on the world socialist revolution. elementary economic and social interests of the masses - their daily bread and their freedom - is in- of the bourgeoisie. temational, 1938) modem society Page 28 self!"
FEATURES the Red Army .. That is why it is the duty of every worker and revolutionist to leam how to manipulate (Leon Trotsky, uns skilfully."
Saxony, in the In the final stages of the war, the political situation became increasinly dominated by the renewed strength and combativity of the working class, not only in the defcated axis powers (Gennany Japan, Italy) but also notably in the USA and Britain, and in the renewed strength
strike wave convulsed almost the whole of undertook the task of channelling discontent into relatively 'safe' road of reforms legislated through Parliament. In the USA, a massive hasic Industry, and trade union membership reached a new peak, only to soe union leaders The class struggle had not ceased during the war: the capitalists had continued to pile the workers to be exploited cconomically and as cannon fodder, and clusions from their bitter experiences. The commitment of the social democrals to reforming (and preserving) capitalism had not tionary treachery of the Communist Parties: the task remained one of seeking to build a new, revolutionary leadership with genuine and mass roots in the workers" movement of cach country. This aspect of the Trotskyist analysis was vindicated after the war - and John Lister many of them had drawn revolutionary con- changed any more than the counter-revolu- Britain's