Letter to Daniel Guérin, March 10, 1939

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DEAR COMRADE GUERIN:

I received your letter at the same time as the official letter of Marceau Pivert. I am greatly obliged to you for the exposition of your personal point of view even though – as you yourself foresaw – I cannot share it.

You, unlike Pivert, think there are no “serious differences” between us. I fully admit that there exist inside your party various nuances and that certain ones are very close to the conceptions of the Fourth International. But the tendency that dominates, it seems, in the leadership and which Pivert expresses is scarcely less divided from us than by an abyss. I have become convinced of this precisely by the last letter of Pivert.

In order to determine the political physiognomy of an organization, it is of decisive importance to examine the international continuation of its national policy. That is where I shall begin. In my letter to Pivert I expressed my surprise at seeing that your party was still able, after the experience of the last years, to find itself in political alliance with the Independent Labour Party (ILP) of England, with the POUM and other similar organizations against us and that in spite of a most recent experience: only yesterday Pivert found himself in political alliance with Walcher – against us. Your party is a new party. It still has to take shape, it does not yet have (in a certain sense, fortunately!) a definitive physiognomy. But the ILP has been in existence for dozens of years, its evolution has taken place before our eyes; everything was established in its time, analyzed and in large measure foretold. The POUM went through a grand revolution and in it was able to reveal its real figure. In both these cases we are not reasoning on the future possibilities of a party which is only taking shape; but we are dealing with old organizations tested by experience.

The ILP

Of the ILP it is not worth while speaking at length. I will only recall a very recent fact. The leader of this party, Maxton, thanked Chamberlain in Parliament after the Munich pact and declared to astonished humanity that by his policy Chamberlain had saved the peace – yes, yes, had saved the peace! – that he, Maxton, knew Chamberlain well and he assured that Chamberlain had “sincerely” fought the war and “sincerely” saved the peace, etc., etc. This single example gives a conclusive and what is more a pretty crushing characterization of Maxton and of his party. The revolutionary proletariat rejects Chamberlain’s “peace” just as it does his war. The “peace” of Chamberlain is the continuation of the violence against India and other colonies and the preparation of the war in conditions more favorable for the British slaveholders. To take upon himself the slightest shadow of responsibility for the policy of “peace” of Chamberlain, is not possible for a socialist, for a revolutionist, but only for a pacifist lackey of imperialism. The party that tolerates a leader like Maxton and actions like his public solidarization with the slaveholder Chamberlain is not a socialist party but a miserable pacifist clique.

The POUM

What is the situation with the POUM? According to the words of Pivert, your whole party is “unanimously” ready to defend the POUM against our criticism. I leave aside the question of the “unanimity”: I am not sure that the members of your organization know in detail the history of the Spanish revolution, the history of the struggle of the various tendencies in its midst, in particular the critical work which the representatives of the Fourth International contributed in the questions of the Spanish revolution. But it is clear in any case that the leadership of your party has absolutely not understood the fatal mistakes of the POUM, which flow from its centrist, non-revolutionary, non-Marxian character.

Since the beginning of the Spanish revolution, I found myself in very close contact with a certain number of militants, in particular with Andres Nin. We exchanged hundreds of letters. It is only after the experience of quite a number of months that I came to the conclusion that Nin, honest and devoted to the cause, was not a Marxist, but a centrist, in the best case a Spanish Martov, that is to say, a Menshevik of the left. Pivert does not distinguish between the policy of Menshevism and the policy of Bolshevism in the revolution.

The leaders of the POUM did not pretend for a single day to play an independent role; they did everything to remain in the rôle of good “left” friends and counsellors of the leaders of the mass organizations. This policy, which flowed from the lack of confidence in itself and in its ideas, doomed the POUM to duplicity, to a false tone, to continual oscillations which found themselves in sharp contradiction with the amplitude of the class struggle. The mobilization of the vanguard against the reaction and its abject lackeys, including the anarcho-bureaucrats, the leaders of the POUM replaced by quasi-revolutionary homilies addressed to the treacherous leaders, declaring in self-justification that the “masses” would not understand another, more resolute policy. Left centrism, above all in revolutionary conditions, is always ready to adopt in words the program of the socialist revolution and is not niggardly with sonorous phrases. But the fatal malady of centrism is not being capable of drawing courageous tactical and organizational conclusions from its general conceptions. They always seem to it to be “premature”; “the opinion of the masses must be prepared” (by means of equivocation, of duplicity, of diplomacy, etc.); in addition, it fears to break its habitual amicable relations with the friends on the right, it “respects” personal opinions; that is why it delivers all its blows ... against the left, thus endeavoring to raise its prestige in the eyes of serious public opinion.

Such is also the political psychology of Marceau Pivert. He absolutely does not understand that a pitiless manner of posing the fundamental questions and a fierce polemic against vacillations are only the necessary ideological and pedagogical reflection of the implacable and cruel character of the class struggle of our time. To him it seems that this is “sectarianism”, lack of respect for the personality of others, etc., that is, he remains entirely on the level of petty bourgeois moralizing. Are these “serious differences”? Yes, I cannot imagine more serious differences inside the labor movement. With Blum and company we do not have “differences”: we simply find ourselves on different sides of the barricades.

The Cause of the Defeat in Spain

Following all the opportunists and centrists, Marceau Pivert explains the defeat of the Spanish proletariat by the bad behavior of French and British imperialism and the Bonapartist clique of the Kremlin. This is quite simply to say that a victorious revolution is always and everywhere impossible. One can neither expect nor ask for a movement of greater scope, greater endurance, greater heroism on the part of the workers than we were able to observe in Spain. The imperialist “democrats” and the mercenary rabble of the Second and the Third Internationals will always behave as they did towards the Spanish revolution. What then can be hoped for? He is criminal who instead of analyzing the policy of bankruptcy of the revolutionary or quasi-revolutionary organizations invokes the ignominy of the bourgeoisie and its lackeys. It is precisely against them that a correct policy is needed!

An enormous responsibility for the Spanish tragedy falls upon the POUM. I have all the greater right to say so because in my letters to Andres Nin, since 1931, I predicted the inevitable consequences of the disastrous policy of centrism. By their general “left” formulae the leaders of the POUM created the illusion that a revolutionary party existed in Spain and prevented the appearance of the truly proletarian, intransigent tendencies. At the same time, by their policy of adaptation to all the forms of reformism they were the best auxiliaries of the anarchist, socialist and communist traitors. The personal honesty and heroism of numerous workers of the POUM naturally provoke our sympathy; against the reaction and the rabble of Stalinism we are ready to defend them to the utmost. But that revolutionist is worth precious little who, under the influence of sentimental considerations, is incapable of considering objectively the real essence of a given party. The POUM always sought the line of least resistance, it temporized, ducked, played hide and seek with the revolution. It began by trying to retrench itself in Catalonia, closing its eyes to the relationship of forces in Spain. In Catalonia, the leading positions in the working class were occupied by the anarchists; the POUM began by ignoring the Stalinist danger (in spite of all the warnings!) and attuning itself to the anarchist bureaucracy. So as not to create any “superfluous” difficulties for themselves, the POUM leaders closed their eyes to the fact that the anarchobureaucrats were not worth one whit more than all the other reformists, that they only covered themselves with a different phraseology. The POUM refrained from penetrating into the midst of the National Confederation of Labor [CNT] in order not to disturb relations with the summits of this organization and in order to retain the possibility of remaining in the rôle of counsellor to them. That is the position of Martov. But Martov, be it said in his honor, knew how to avoid mistakes as crude and shameful as participation in the Catalan government! To pass over openly and solemnly from the camp of the proletariat to the camp of the bourgeoisie! Marceau Pivert closes his eyes to such “details”. For the workers who, during the revolution, direct all the force of their class hatred against the bourgeoisie, the participation of a “revolutionary” leader in a bourgeois government is a fact of enormous importance: it disorients and demoralizes them. And this fact did not fall from the sky. It was a necessary link in the policy of the POUM. The leaders of the POUM spoke with great eloquence of the advantages of the socialist revolution over the bourgeois revolution; but they did nothing serious to prepare this socialist revolution because the preparation could only consist of a pitiless, audacious, implacable mobilization of the anarchist, socialist and communist workers against their treacherous leaders. It was necessary not to fear separation from these leaders, to change into a “sect” during the early days, even if it were persecuted by everybody, it was necessary to put forth exact and clear slogans, foretell the morrow and, basing oneself on the events, discredit the official leaders and drive them from their positions. In the course of eight months, the Bolsheviks, from the small group that they were, became a decisive force. The energy and the heroism of the Spanish proletariat gave the POUM several years in which to prepare. The POUM had the time on two or three occasions to emerge from its swaddling clothes and to become an adult. If it did not, it is in no wise the fault of the “democratic” imperialists and the Moscow bureaucrats, but the result of an internal cause: its own leadership did not know where to go or what paths to take.

An enormous historical responsibility falls upon the POUM If the POUM had not marched at the heels of the anarchists and had not fraternized with the “People’s Front”, if it had conducted an intransigent revolutionary policy, then, at the moment of the May 1937 insurrection and most likely much sooner, it would naturally have found itself borne to the head of the masses and would have assured the victory. The POUM was not a revolutionary party but a centrist party raised by the wave of the revolution. That is not at all the same thing. Marceau Pivert does not understand this even today, for he is himself a centrist to the marrow of his bones.

The Game of Hide And Seek

It seems to Marceau Pivert that he has understood the conditions and the lessons of June 1936. No, he has not understood them, and his incomprehension manifests itself in the clearest manner in the question of the POUM. Martov passed through the revolution of 1905 and did not assimilate its lessons in any wise: he showed it in the revolution of 1917. Andres Nin wrote dozens of times – and quite sincerely – that he was in agreement with us “in principle” but in disagreement as to “tactics” and “rhythm”; what is more, unfortunately, he never found the possibility, until his death, of saying once clearly and precisely wherein exactly he was in disagreement and wherein he was not. Why? Because he did not say so to himself.

Marceau Pivert says in his letter that his only difference with us is in the appraisal of the “rhythm” and he mentions in addition an analogous difference in 1935. But exactly a few months later, in June, 1936, imposing events unfolded which revealed fully what Pivert’s mistake was in the question of the rhythm. Pivert found himself taken unawares by these events for, in spite of everything, he continued to remain a “left wing” friend attached to Leon Blum, that is, to the worst agent of the class enemy. The rhythm of the events does not adapt itself to the rhythm of centrist indecision. On the other hand, the centrists always cover their disagreement with the revolutionary policy by invoking the “rhythm”, the “form” or the “tone”. You can find this centrist way of playing hide and seek with facts and ideas throughout the history of the revolutionary movement.

Concerning the problem of the Spanish revolution – the most important problem of these last years – the Fourth International gave a Marxian analysis of the situation at each stage, a criticism of the policy of the labor organizations (above all of the POUM), and a prognosis. Has Pivert made a single attempt to submit our appraisal to his criticism, to oppose his analysis to ours? Never! That is something the centrists never do. They fear instinctively any scientific analysis. They live by general impressions and nebulous corrections of the conceptions of others. Fearing to commit themselves, they play hide and seek with the historic process.

I have not the slightest intention to make extraordinary demands upon your party: it has only just separated itself from the social democracy; it has never known any other school. But it separated itself at the left, in a period of profound crisis, and that opens up to it serious possibilities of revolutionary development. That is my point of departure: otherwise I should not have had the slightest reason to address myself to Marceau Pivert with a letter to which he has replied, alas! by continuing to play hide and seek. Marceau Pivert does not take into account the real situation in your party. He writes that in September, during the international crisis, the party measured up to its tasks. I wish with all my heart that this appreciation were exact. But today it seems to me to be too precipitate. There was no war. The masses did not find themselves placed before the accomplished fact. The fear of the war dominated in the working class and among the petty bourgeoisie. It is to these prewar tendencies that your party gave expression in the abstract slogans of internationalism. But do not forget that in 1914 the German social democracy and the French socialist party remained very “internationalist”, very “intransigent” – up to the moment when the first cannon shot was fired. The Vorwärts changed its position so abruptly on August 4 that Lenin asked himself if that number was not a forgery of the German General Staff.

To be sure, one can only welcome the fact that your party did not enter the path of chauvinism in September. But that is still only a negative merit. To affirm that your party has passed an examination in revolutionary internationalism, is to be content with too little, is not to foresee the furious offensive that will supervene, in case of war, on the part of bourgeois public opinion, its social patriotic and communo-chauvinistic agency included. In order to prepare the party for such a test, it is necessary now to polish and repolish its consciousness, to temper its intransigence, to go to the very end of all ideas, not to pardon perfidious friends. In the first place, it is necessary to break with the Freemasons (who are all patriots) and the pacifists of the Maxton type, and to turn towards the Fourth International – not in order to place oneself immediately under its banner – nobody asks that – but to explain oneself honestly with it on the fundamental problems of the proletarian revolution.

It is precisely in view of the approach of the war that all world reaction and above all its Stalinist agency have all evil spring from “Trotskyism” and direct all their main blows against it. Others receive a few blows in passing, being also treated as “Trotskyists”. That is not by chance. The political groupings are polarizing. To reaction and its agents, “Trotskyism” is the international menace of the socialist revolution. Under these conditions the centrists of various nuances, frightened by the growing pressure of the “democratic” – Stalinist reaction, swear at every step: “We are not Trotskyists”, “We are against the Fourth International”, “We are not as bad as you think”. They are playing hide and seek. My dear Guérin, it is necessary to put an end to this unworthy game!

Personal Sensitivity and Ideological Intransigence

Pivert states in a fairly supercilious tone that he and his friends – apparently in contrast to us sinners – are strangers to considerations of a personal nature or of tendency. Aren’t these words astonishing? How can considerations of a personal and a principled (“of tendency”) nature be placed on the same level? Personal preoccupations and complaints play a very great role among the petty bourgeois semi revolutionists, among the Freemasons, in general among all the centrists, haughty and skittish because they lack self assurance. But considerations “of tendency”, that is the concern with the political program, the method, the banner. How can one say that ideological intransigence is “unworthy” of our epoch when the latter, more than any other, demands clarity, audacity and intransigence?

In Freemasonry are assembled people of different classes, of different parties, with different interests and with different personal aims. The whole art of the leadership of Freemasonry consists in neutralizing the different tendencies and smoothing out the contradictions between the groups and the cliques (in the interests of “democracy” and of “humanity”, that is, of the ruling class). Thus one grows accustomed to speaking aloud about everything save the essential. This false, hypocritical, adulterated morality impregnates, directly or indirectly, the majority of the official labor leaders in France. Marceau Pivert himself is permeated with the influence of this morality. It seems to him that to name aloud a disagreeable fact is an impropriety. We however judge it to be criminal to be silent on the facts that have an importance for the class struggle of the proletariat. There is the fundamental difference of our morality.

Can you, Guérin, reply clearly and frankly to the workers: what is it that links Pivert to Masonry? I will tell you: it is that which separates him from the Fourth International, that is, petty bourgeois sentimental indecision, dependence upon official public opinion. If someone tells me that he is a materialist and that at the same time he goes to mass on Sunday, I say that his materialism is false. He may well exclaim that I am intolerant, that I am lacking in tact, that I am assailing his “personality”, etc. That does not move me. To combine revolutionary socialism with Freemasonry is as inconceivable as to combine materialism with Catholicism. The revolutionist cannot have two political domiciles: one with the bourgeoisie (for the soul), the other with the workers (for current politics). Duplicity is incompatible with the proletarian revolution. Wiping out internal stability, duplicity engenders sensitivity, susceptibility, intellectual timidity. Down with duplicity, Guérin!

Sectarianism

When Marceau Pivert speaks of our “sectarianism” (we do not deny the presence of sectarian tendencies in our ranks and we fight against them) and of our isolation from the masses, he demonstrates again his incomprehension of the present epoch and of his own role in it. Yes, we are still isolated from the masses. By whom or by what? By the organizations of reformism, of Stalinism, of patriotism, of pacifism and by the intermediate centrist groupings of all kinds in which are expressed – sometimes in an extremely indirect and complex form – the self-defensive reflex of expiring capitalism. Marceau Pivert, while preventing a certain group of workers from pushing their ideas to the very end and while thus isolating these workers from Marxism, reproaches us for being isolated from the masses. One of these isolators is centrism; an active element of this isolator is Pivert. Our tasks consist precisely in removing these “isolators”; to convince some and win them to the cause of the revolution, to unmask and annihilate the others. Pivert simply takes fright at the fact of the isolation of the revolutionists in order to remain very close to the pacifists, the confusionists and the Freemasons, to put off to an indefinite future the serious questions, to invoke the incorrect “rhythm” and the bad “tone” – in a word, to stand in the way of the conjunction of the labor movement and revolutionary Marxism.

Marceau Pivert has a low appreciation of our cadres because he has not understood the fundamentals of the questions which are at present on the order of the day. It seems to him that we occupy ourselves with hair splitting. He is profoundly mistaken. Just as the surgeon must learn to distinguish each tissue, each nerve in order to be able to handle correctly the scalpel, so the revolutionary militant must carefully and minutely examine all the questions and draw the ultimate conclusions from them. Marceau Pivert sees sectarianism where it isn’t.

It is noteworthy that all the genuine sectarians, of the type of Sneevliet, of Vereecken, etc., gravitate around the London Bureau, the POUM, Marceau Pivert. The riddle is simple: the sectarian is an opportunist who fears his own opportunism. On the other hand, the range of the centrist’s oscillations runs from sectarianism to opportunism. Thence their reciprocal attraction. The sectarian cannot have the masses behind him. The centrist cannot be at their head save for a brief, passing moment. Only the revolutionary Marxist is capable of blazing a trail to the masses.

The Fourth International

You repeat the old phrases according to which it is first necessary to “convince the masses” of the necessity of the Fourth International and that only afterward must it be proclaimed. This opposition has absolutely nothing real, nothing serious in it, has no genuine content. The revolutionists who are for a definite program and for a definite banner gather together on the international scale to fight for the conquest of the masses. That is precisely what we have done. We shall educate the masses by the experiences of the movement. You want to educate them “preliminarily”? How? By the alliance with the imperialist lackey Maxton or with the centrist preacher Fenner Brockway or with the Freemason friends? Do you seriously think that that public will educate the masses for the Fourth International? I can only laugh bitterly. The well known Jacob Walcher, a vulgar social democrat, taught Marceau Pivert for a long time that “it was not yet time” for the Fourth International, and now he is preparing to pass into the Second International where, moreover, he has his place. When the opportunists invoke the fact that the mass is not mature, it is usually only in order to mask their own immaturity. The whole mass will never be mature under capitalism. The different strata of the mass mature at different times. The struggle for the “maturing” of the mass begins with a minority, with a “sect”, with a vanguard. There is not and cannot be any other road in history.

Without as yet having doctrine, revolutionary tradition, clear program, masses, you did not fear to proclaim a new party. By what right? Obviously you believe that your ideas give you the right to win the masses, isn’t that so? Why then do you refuse to apply the same criterion to the International? Solely because you do not know how to raise yourself up to the international point of view. A national party (even if it is in the form of an initiating organization) is a vital necessity for you, but an international party looks like a luxury, and that can wait. That’s bad, Guérin, very bad!

For an Honest Fusion

Marceau Pivert proposes, instead of the fusion of the organizations, a “united front”. That has a solemn air, but there isn’t very much in it. A “united front” has sense when it is a question of mass organizations. But that is not the case. Given the separate existence of organizations, episodic agreements on one occasion or another are, to be sure, inevitable. But what interests us is not the isolated cases but the policy as a whole. The central task is the work inside the trade unions, the penetration of the socialist and communist parties. This task cannot be resolved by a “united front”, that is, by the diplomatic game of two feeble organizations. What is needed is a concentration of forces on a definite program in order to penetrate the masses with the united forces. Otherwise all the “rhythms” are lost. Very, very little time is left.

Unlike Pivert, you consider personally that the fusion is possible and necessary but, you add, on the condition that it be a loyal, honest fusion. What do you understand by that? The renunciation of criticism? The mutual remission of sins? Our French section conducts the struggle for its conceptions with a definite program and definite methods. It is ready to fight in common with you for these conceptions; it is ready to fight in your ranks for its ideas by the methods which every healthy proletarian organization guarantees. That is what we consider an honest unity.

What does Pivert understand by honest unity? “Hands off my Freemasonry, that is my personal affair.” “Hands off my friendship with Maxton or with Fenner Brockway.” Allow me: Freemasonry is an organization of the class enemy; Maxton is a pacifist lackey of imperialism. How can one not struggle against them? How can one not explain to all the members of the party that political friendship with these gentlemen is an open door to treason? Yet our criticism of Maxton seems to Pivert disloyal or “secondary”. Why these superfluous worries? It is necessary to live and to let others live. In the question of political loyalty we have different, not to say opposite, criteria from those of Marceau Pivert. It must be recognized openly.

When I wrote to Pivert, I did not have great illusions, but I did not abandon the hope of a rapprochement with him. Pivert’s reply showed me that we are dealing with an organic centrist who, under the influence of revolutionary events, will shift to the right rather than to the left. I should be glad if I were mistaken. But at the present stage I cannot permit myself an optimistic judgment.

What is the conclusion, you will ask me? I do not identify Pivert with your young organization. The fusion with it seems to me possible. The technique of the fusion does not depend upon me: that is the business of the comrades who are working on the spot. I am for an honest fusion in the sense indicated above: to pose clearly and frankly before all the members of the two organizations all the questions of revolutionary policy. Nobody has the right to swear an oath on his sincerity and to complain about the pettyfogging spirit of the adversary. It is a question of the fate of the proletariat. One cannot base himself upon the good sentiments of isolated individuals, but on the consistent policy of a party. If fusion were attained, as I hope it will be, and if the fusion should open up a serious discussion, I beg you to consider my letter as a contribution, come from afar, to this discussion.

With my sincere greetings,

Leon TROTSKY

COYOACAN, D. F., March 10, 1939.

P.S. – I should mention even here, if only in passing, that the name of your party produces a curious impression, from the Marxian standpoint. A party cannot be worker and peasant. The peasant class, in the sociological sense, is part of the petty bourgeoisie. A party of the proletariat and of the petty bourgeoisie is a petty bourgeois party. A revolutionary socialist party can only be proletarian. It embraces in its ranks peasants and, in general, individuals coming from other classes to the extent that they adopt the point of view of the proletariat. In a revolutionary government we can, to be sure, conclude a bloc with a peasant organization and create a workers’ and peasants’ government (on the condition that the leadership be assured to the proletariat). But a party is not a bloc, a party cannot be worker and peasant. The title of the party is the banner. A mistake in the title is always pregnant with danger. Breaking completely with Marxism, Stalin preached a few years ago in favor of “workers’ and peasants’ parties for the countries of the East”. The Left Opposition came forward vigorously against this opportunism. Today again we see no reason for violating the class point of view, neither for the countries of the East nor the countries of the West.