Letter to Max Shachtman, June 20, 1930

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Bureaucratic Tendencies

Dear Comrade Shachtman:

1. I see that the delay in your reply was not your fault and I withdraw all my reproaches with my apologies. I do not wish to return to the question of the Paris conference. This is already water under the bridge. What I find intolerable, however, is the bureaucratic procedure used in this and other cases. Three people decide without informing the others about the proposals. But they are no less interested in the matter than the “Big Three,” and when they find out later about many things that were kept from them, that demoralizes and antagonizes them. This does not apply exclusively to the question of the Paris conference — there are within the Opposition rather strong bureaucratic-literati tendencies which can be explained from its development and to some extent from its function as an opposition. But these tendencies and methods are highly dangerous and can be the death of the Opposition if they are not mercilessly rooted out. I will discuss this in greater detail in a circular letter to all groups.

2. I am very sad that the business with the Yiddish edition [of My Life] fell through. There is nothing I can do about it from here at present since Rieder [French publisher] has made claims on it and I am involved in a suit with him and am totally paralyzed for the time being. I see from the most recent copies of The Militant that its appearance as a weekly is threatened. It would be very sad if retrenchment were necessary. If the English edition of the autobiography works out well financially I would be very glad to lend The Militant a hand. For the moment I have no indications aside from the reviews which are more or less promising.

3. You ask about my interpretation of the paragraph in the Chinese platform concerning the possibility of organizational mergers by the CP. In the thesis you cite, it says that the proletarian party must under no circumstances merge organizationally with the party of another class. We inserted the words “of another class” intentionally so that the thesis would not be too doctrinaire, formalistic, irreconcilable. It goes without saying that a labor party, if it has a definite, independent program — independent with respect to communism — is the tool of another class, although it is based on the working masses. Organizational mergers between the CP and such a party are as much out of the question as, let us say, merger with the German Social Democracy. But it is possible that there are or will arise transitional formations which encompass the working masses but have no definite program and no corresponding discipline and hence leave open the possibility of organizational but, in any case, temporary ties. Of course, the objective conditions and the characteristics of the labor party in question as well as the nature of the organizational ties must be concretely investigated and determined. In your example it is a question of establishing ties on a regional level. This, of course, reduces the political danger since the Communist Party as a whole retains its complete organizational freedom and hence also its control over its regional group. It seems to me that this is more like “noyautage” [fraction work], that is, putting out feelers to other organizations, than an organizational merger involving the party. I’ll try to answer the other questions in the next few days since I want to send this letter off today.

4. I’ve sent you two notes dealing with the articles in the New Masses. These bohemians must be pitilessly rapped on the knuckles!

5. Now for the fish line: I need a fishing line, let’s say 100 meters long, good quality and as strong as possible for fishing the sea floor. I am sending you a French sample which of course is not up to American technological standards, but which can serve as an example. If you have any difficulties, you can call on President Hoover, who is also an expert in these things. Just be sure that it is not a “surface” line but one which is made to lie on the ocean floor. You can send me the line as “printed matter” in a simple package with newspapers, etc., so that I don’t have to go through endless formalities with the customs office. When you visit me next time I’ll present you with fish caught with this line.

My best greetings to you and the others.

Yours,

L. Trotsky