Letter to Albert Glotzer, March 14, 1933

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Advice for the CLA Minority

Dear Comrade Glotzer:

I haven’t written to you for a very long time. The reason for this is not only that I have been involved in work that I could not put off, but also because I wished first to get a more or less clear picture of the situation of the American League. I now feel that I am clear on things to some extent. I have written very briefly to Shachtman on the matter and I can only give you the same advice: Do not in any case or under any circumstances exacerbate the situation in the League. The International Secretariat will, I hope, intervene in the American question within a few days. Any impatience on the part of your group would make a split very likely. And a split without a clear political character is the most dangerous kind of miscarriage, one which can kill both the mother and the child. It also seems to me that it is wrong to hope for a national convention that will “put everything right.” Under present circumstances the convention could only bring about an unimportant shift in the relationship of forces. Whether your group has five and the other group four on the central committee, or the other way around, is rather unimportant since each group is dependent on the other if things are not to be driven to a split, i.e., a catastrophe. Patience, dear Glotzer, you must prepare yourself for long-term work.

You will say to me: “And the others, the Cannon group?” Of course this applies equally to both groups. You have mounted a stormy protest over Comrade Swabeck’s trip. Completely without reason. This trip was of great value for the leading European comrades, for us here, and for Comrade Swabeck himself. I am sure that Comrade Swabeck will, for his part, contribute to bringing the League back to normal footing.

There is one thing that you must be clear on: If it should come to a split, the League would be reduced to two quite unimportant grouplets, which, in the best of cases, could belong to the International Left Opposition only as sympathizing groups, something like the arrangement in Czechoslovakia.

I await your answer with great interest.

With best greetings.

Yours,

L. Trotsky