The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-04-14

| time Comrade Lenin was at first op-
posed to his admission. When the
question of Comrade Trotzky's entry
into the editorial staff of the PRAY
da" arose, the voting was as follows:
Comrade Kameneff and / were in
favor Of his admission, Lenin against
It.
After Trotzky had become mem
Der of the editorial staff, Lenin OBJ
served with smile: "You have be-
trayed me. Well, we shall just have
to increase the stan by two workers
more, in order to have majority
against you and Trotzky in any case"
So little confidence had Lenin in
Trotzky.
Trotzky's Incompetence.
Now, comrades, you all know what
brilliant service Trotzky rendered
after this, especially in the October
days. Then came Brest-Litovsk.
Again the pendulum swung back.
Trotzky insisted on the formula Of:
Neither war nor peace" Trotzky
suddenly became left" Communist
in company with Bukharin, Radek,
and other comrades. What was the
mistake committed by Trotzky dur
ing the Brest-Litovsk period?
That he overlooked the peasantry.
He was anxious to carry on a revo-
lutionary war at time when the
whole peasantry did not want to hear
anything Of war. The old army,
which was a peasant army, was in a
state of complete dissolution, and
could not be forced to fight by any
means. Despite this, Trotzky had a
beautifully worked out plan Of his
revolutionary war in his pocket, a
plan with only one fault, the fact
that he had no soldiers for the revo-
lutionary army, for these we're the
peasants who would not tight.
Then came the trade union ques-
ton in the year 1921. What was the
position of the Soviet power at that
time? Instruction in Kronstadt,
risings among the peasantry in ST.
IBERIA and in the Tambov government.
What signalized these events? The
protest made by the peasantry
against the limitation Of agricultural
productive powers by our war COM
munism. And what was Trotzky's
recipe for helping this? Further
limitation, more effective Imitation
Again he overlooked the real lever
moving the interests of the peasan-
try, and at the same time he over
looked the demands of the working
masses, still closely bound up with
those of the peasants in Russia. At
that time we fought a severe contest
as to the role played by the working
class, and its relations to the peasan-
try.
And now we have got into a dis
cussion on the same subject for the
third time, for Trotzky, whilst cate
gorically insisting on the necessity
Of his plan, again overlooks the
needs of agriculture. The basis Of
our economics is represented by the
country, by the peasantry. This basis
consists Of our hundreds Of millions
Of pools of bread.
Another bone Of contention be-
tween us and sTrotzky is the ques.
ton Of the concentration of state eco
Monies. theoretically, the demand
for increased concentration in state
industry is perfectly correct. But
here again matters look somewhat
different viewed in a concrete politi-
cal light. For instance, we possess
number of firstclass large works,
as the Putilov Works at Petrograd,
or the Bryansk Works, which are I'M
profitable enterprises from the finan-
,ial standpoint.
Trotzky's Solution.
What is to be done with such I'M
dertakings? Trotzky answers brief
ly: Close them.
But we, the majority Of the Politi-
cal Bureau, declare that we do not
think of closing them. There are ex-
ceptional cases, in which we must
grant subsidies, even this is not in
! dSOOA udhSC Will Tic liulutuldJ6 inter-
ests of the state budget. The un-
profitable enterprise despite its un-
probability, must be held above
water by artificial means.
Why this? The reply is simple.
Because these works keep occu-
pied 5000 workers forming a picked
troop Of proletarian revolutionists.
These are centers of capitalization
II all. But Tcotzky nervously op-
posses US, he cafegorically demands
that the works be shut down, AID
continues to lombard us with his
question of: Where is your plan?
What economic system arc yoL pur-
suipg?
/ believe, comrades, that the pic
ture which l have so far drawn for
our disagreement with Trotzky will
have shown you that our differences