After a Verbal Zigzag to the Left, a Profound Shift to the Right

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Summing Up the Tenth Anniversary Events

1. The Stalin faction has carried on the entire “discussion,” that is, the baiting of the Opposition, up until now under the slogan of “Party Unity,” This slogan is now being tom out of the Stalinists’ hands. Ever more numerous are the rank-and-file party members who interpret party unity to mean “Stop baiting the Opposition, stop mobilizing gangs of whistlers, stop expelling and arresting Communists.”

2. On November 7, the Opposition raised the slogan “Against Opportunism, Against a Split — For the Unity of Lenin’s Party.” The Opposition placards bearing this slogan were destroyed under the direction of the Stalinist apparatus. Workers carrying these placards were beaten with cruel fury. And how could it have been otherwise? “Against Opportunism.” That means against Stalin. “Against a Split.” Who is that directed against if not Stalin? “For the Unity of Lenin’s Party.” That is an obvious blow at Stalin.

3. “For a Leninist Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party.” This too was rejected as a slogan for the demonstration by the Moscow apparatchiks. “For a Leninist Central Committee,” they argued, “that will be interpreted to mean ‘For a Central Committee constituted as it was in Lenin’s time.’” Correct! The Stalinists need a Stalinist Central Committee, not a Leninist one.

4. The Opposition joined the demonstration with placards bearing the slogan “Let Us Turn Our Fire to the Right — Against Kulak, NEPman, and Bureaucrat.” These placards were tom from the hands of their bearers and ripped to pieces. The workers who carried them were beaten up. This fact alone completely exposes the real line of the present party leadership. We Oppositionists are often asked: What makes you think there is a danger of Thermidor? Our answer is simple and clear. When Bolsheviks are beaten up because they call for turning our fire to the right, against kulak, NEPman, and bureaucrat, then the danger of Thermidor is at hand. Those who do the beating, those who organize the beatings, and those who regard them with indulgence are Thermidorians or connivers at Thermidor.

5. In the tenth anniversary manifesto and the speeches of the official orators there was reference to the need for intensifying the pressure on the kulak and NEPman. Two years ago, according to the Bukharins, the time was not ripe for that. And now, just at the tenth anniversary, it suddenly becomes time. But why is it, in that case, that on November 7,1927, placards demanding that we turn our fire to the right, against kulak, NEPman, and bureaucrat, were tom to pieces? It is enough to contrast these facts to thoroughly expose the policies of the present leadership. Stalin and Bukharin proclaim intensified pressure on the bourgeois elements in words only. The Opposition wants to apply that pressure in fact. Why, then, do Stalin and Bukharin put the pressure on the Opposition?

6. “Let Us Carry Out the Testament of Lenin.” This is another of the hated Opposition placards snatched from the hands of those carrying it, torn from the walls with rakes, and ripped to pieces before the eyes of the crowd. The hatred for Lenin’s Testament on the part of the apparatchiks becomes all the more furious, the clearer it becomes how profound and far-sighted that document’s appraisal of Stalin was. At meetings and particularly in private conversations, the hate-filled Stalinists say openly that Lenin wrote his Testament at a time when he was ill. This is the latest argument of the apparatchiks in their struggle against Lenin. They simply forget that the Testament was written (December 23, 1922-January 4, 1923) at roughly the same time that he wrote such articles as “Better Fewer But Better” (March 2, 1923), “On Cooperation” ([published] May 26, 1923 [written January 4-6, 1923]), and “How We Should Reorganize the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection” (January 23, 1923). The whole party knows that these articles contain some of the most remarkable expressions of the power of Lenin’s thought. Stalin and Bukharin seek, on the basis of a single, arbitrarily twisted sentence from the article “On Cooperation,” to construct their petty-bourgeois theory of socialism in one country. This does not prevent them from vilifying Lenin’s Testament as the product of a state of illness and virtually a counterrevolutionary document.

7. Portraits of the Opposition leaders have been strictly banned for a long time. It is almost impossible to obtain them in the stores. Displaying them is equivalent to a crime. Nevertheless, Oppositionists in many localities consciously took the risk and hung out portraits of the Opposition leaders from their windows or unfurled them on the streets. They were mercilessly beaten for their daring and the portraits were tom to pieces and ground into the dirt. However, this did not stop other Oppositionists from doing the same.

Stalin’s portraits are not forbidden by anyone. On the contrary, displaying them is one of the avenues to a good career. Nevertheless, portraits of Stalin were not to be seen anywhere, neither in windows nor on demonstrators’ placards. This fact by itself speaks more eloquently than any words. The immortal Broido, former chief of Gosizdat (the State Publishing House), has tried by coercion and extortion to foist Stalin’s portraits upon the country as household items. But there are things that cannot be achieved by naked repression.

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The policies of the Stalin leadership are a composite of brief zigzags to the left and profound zigzags to the right. That was stated in the Platform of the Bolshevik-Leninists (Opposition). In just the past few days the Stalinist leadership — under the lash of the Opposition — made a zigzag to the left. It proclaimed the seven-hour day, pressure on the kulak, insurance for the poor peasant, etc., etc. A few days passed, and in the wake of the verbal zigzag to the left came a decisive shift to the right. The rabid assault on the Opposition placards was dictated directly by the class interests of kulak, NEPman, and bureaucrat, who hasten to take revenge for the slight scare they were given by the anniversary manifesto. The attack on the Leninist slogans of the Opposition was carried out by the worst elements in the Stalin apparatus, in alliance with the very dregs of gutter philistinism. This is one of the most important lessons of November 7, 1927