The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-02-12
Continued from last issue)
The War Period.

historical importance in the life of
humanity, and as the greatest test of
! international socialism, rendering ap-
| parent the impossible chasm between
opportunism and revolutionary Com
munism. The moment came when
everyone had to show his colors. The
moment came when all vacillation had
to cease once and for all, and when
a definite end had to be put to what
Lenin termed inferior diplomacy, the
diplomacy of having one foot in each
camp.
But did this really come about?
| Did the war induce Comrade Trotsky
to break once and for all with oppor-
tunism and support of the right, and
to renounce the role of defender and
| disguise for the mensheviki, in which
role he had been exposed for ten
years by Comrade Lenin?
Since the time when Comrade Trot-
sky entered our party, serving it well,
and thereby adding many glorious
pages to the history of his own life
and to the history of the party, we
have not considered it possible to en-
ter into this question, But when he
/ NoAANo ~ hBOh AlAAlSCAL W ldlSlly TIE
history and the ideas of Bolshevism.
when he attempts to appropriate to
himself the theology of the party,
when he endeavors to supplant Lenin-
ism by Trotskyism in the theology of
the Russian and international prole-
tariat, then he himself forces us to
put this question.
Did the war actually separate Trot-
sky from the opportunists? Did the
inferior diplomacy cease in the face
of these great events? Not at all
Just as Comrade Trotsky contrived
to combine an arch-revolutionary
left" phrase with cooperation with
the mensheviki in 1905, in the same
manner he managed to combine his
internationalism during the war with
the support of opportunism.
1915
AS early as the summer of 1915,
Lenin wrote as follows:
''In a reactionary war, the revolu-
tionary class is bound to desire the
defeat of its government. This is an
axiom, contested only by the con-
scious adherents or unskilled assist
ants of social democracy. Trot-
sky belongs to these last.
"Trotsky, who as usual does not
agree in principle with the social dem
ocrats on any single question, coin
cides with them in every question in
actual practice. =.
'Martov and Trotsky are anxious to
combine the platonic defense in in
ternationalism with the unconditional
1 NJ fav-
ia (Our DAWN, with the organization
committee central committee of the
menshevikD, or with The Tscheidze
fraction"
At the end OF 1915, Lenin wrote:
I'm reality, Trotsky is supporting
the liberal politicians of Russia, who,
| by their disavowal of the role played
by the peasantry, really mean that
they do not wish to raise the peasant
ry to revolution"
Again:
"Trotsky, and the company of for
eign fiunkeys of opportunism, are do
ing their utmost to patch up the diff
ferences, and to save the opportunism
of Nascha Sarja group by the defense
and praise of the Tscheidze fraction"
1916.
At the beginning of 1916:
"The powerless diplomatists, and
such preachers of compromise as
Kautsky in Germany, Longuet in
France, and Martov in Russia, are
most harmful to the labor movement,
for they defend the fiction of unity
and thus prevent the real and matur-
ed alliance of the opposition of all
countries, the founding of the Third
International"
In March, 1916:
And TrOtsky? He is entirely in
favor of the right of self determine
ton, but for him this is merely an
empty phrase. since he does not de-
mand separation of the nation op-
pressed by the 'fatherland' of the So
cialists in any given case. He pre-
serves silence on the hypocrisy of
Kautsky and his followers"
In October 1916, just twelve months
before our October:
However good the intentions of
Martov and Trotsky may be subject
lively, they are none the less aiding
Russian social Imperialism by their
complaisance."
In December, 1916:
"As early as the year 1902. Hobson
recognized not only the significance
of the United States of Europe (Kaut-
sky's disciple, Trotsky, may take cog
nisance of this), but also the signif-
canoe of fact which the sanctimoni-
GUS followers OF Kautsky in every
country are anxious to conceal: that
the opportunists (social chauvinists)
are cooperating with the imperial
bourgeoisie for the creation of an
imperialist Europe supported on the
shoulders of Asia and Africa.
One Of the conclusions which we,
have drawn from this is the neces-
sity of separation from social chau-
vinism."
1917.
On Feb. IL, 1917. February, 1s17I)
"The name of Trotsky signifies:
Left phraseology and bloc with the
right against the aim of the left"
Six weeks after the February revo-
I..N4 -