As for these quarrels of sects and sub-sects, I am and always have been a complete stranger to them. I cannot help that - writings are produced with the intention of circulation, ideas belong to everybody. In this remarkable article by Trotsky there is only one short passage which actually replies to me. Serge plays with the concept of revolution, writes poems about it, but is incapable of understanding it as it is. Public trials are possible only in conditions of a stable regime.
Civil war is a condition of the extreme instability of society and the state.
Since the majority of regimes at the present time can scarcely be classed as stable, Trotsky is in this passage supplying all reactionaries with an excellent argument for replacing normal courts of justice by secret courts-martial. However, we shall soon see that his argument is strictly worthless. By comparison with this inquisitorial process, the 'closed door' status of any court in which the judges and the defendants are face to face, and to which defence counsel are admitted, appears to overflow with safeguards. Either here Trotsky is gerrymandering the historical facts mid the whole basic problem, or else the verb 'to gerrymander' has lost all its meaning in this or any language. He cannot be unaware that in all the different kinds of case that it dealt with, the Cheka made a frightful abuse of the death penalty.