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Letter to B. J. Field, Extracts, July 10, 1933
| Author(s) | Leon Trotsky |
|---|---|
| Written | 10 July 1933 |
Dangers Threatening the CLA
[Trotsky expresses his thanks for a letter of June 27 and for efforts concerning his article. Mentions that he has sent Eastman a new article, âWhat Is National Socialism?â in Russian. Since Eastman lives outside the city, he is concerned about the handling of the article and in any case is sending along an English translation. He announces that he will be sending an article, âJapan Heads for Disaster,â in a few days.
[Reports on the unexpected granting of a French visa for medical treatment and for eventual residence in Corsica. He asks that the news not be made public.]
In any case this means a big change in our mode of existence. We hope that we will set out in a week. I believe it will be much easier to get an American visa once we are looked upon as âwelcomeâ in France. âŚ
Now on internal questions in the League. To begin with, I must tell you that for months I have warmly sympathized with the plan to move the headquarters to Chicago. As things now stand, the League is surely headed for extinction. We cannot mark time interminably and devote the greatest part of our energies to the internal struggle. Unless a really heroic turn is made, even a third group will not help. Despite its best intentions, it can become a new element of divisiveness. There are examples enough of this in the past. Of course the great leap Cannon is proposing involves risks. Great dangers cannot be circumvented without risk. The New York organization will after all remain in New York and it follows that it will have to exhaust all the great possibilities that New York has to offer. Even if Cannon is guided by factional considerations, that doesnât change anything: his factional considerations are driving him in a progressive direction. And if his group recruits new miners in order to strengthen itself, so much the better. In New York the faction fight consists of each faction sabotaging the other. If the center is moved to Chicago, the struggle will be transformed into a contest. And this is a step forward.
[He continues on the important question of a mass paper and the preparations for such a paper.] But everything that is happening now is only a preparation for extinction.
Even if you have great reservations about the practical results of Cannonâs initiative, in my opinion you cannot restrain him. In this situation I personally would say: The present situation is intolerable. Cannon wants to make an attempt in a new and progressive direction. We have reservations about the method of carrying out this initiative, but we want to make it easier to carry out, not more difficult.