The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-02-14
Leninisln or Trotskyism

the dictatorship? Is it not a petty
bourgeois deviation?
So long as the party is perfectly
sound and everything goes we'll, Com
rade Trotsky quietly performs every
task which falls to him; but as soon
the party encounters any obstacle, as
son as it has, to adjust it's rudder,
then Comrade Trotsky at once springs
forward in the role of savior and
teacher of the party, but invariably
points out the wrong way, since he
has not absorbed the principles of Boil
shevism.
Our Errors
Comrade Trotsky has another trump
in his hand against Bolshevism This
trump consists of certain errors COM
mitted by some few Bolsheviki (above
all by me and Zinoviev, then those
of Rykov and Nogin) in October, 1917
The errors of the Bolshevik are natur-
ally invariably exploited by our
enemies. Comrade Trotsky did not
resort to his trump so long as he hop
ed to induce the party to deviate to
the path of Trotskyism by means of
the discussion of this or that practical
question. But after four attempts
Brest, trade unions, discussion on the
economic plan, and the last discussion
had shown that he cannot persuade
the Bolsheviki Party to deviate from
its path, after he had learned from
the party at the XIII party conference
that we, the Leninists, do not require
our theory to be corrected by Trotsky-
ism, then he brought forward this
last trump.
He is of course not the first to do
this. These errors have been exploit
ed often enough already by our enc
mics, but both errors and exploitation
were simply buried beneath the thun-
ders of the proletarian revolution.
| At the time neither the errors them
selves nor their being made use of
by hostile quarters resulted in any
practical consequences. 1t is only
since then that these errors have been
raked up again maliciously by those
who had deserted communism: Levi,
Frossard, Balabanova. Levi and Eros
sard are now being followed by Trot-
sky.
Vacillations were unbelievable. Lenin
armed himself against them with all
the power and passion of leader who
sees that his co-workers are liable to
carry confusion into their own ranks
by vacillation at decisive moments. He
exposed every vacillation relentlessly,
and in critical and decisive moments
he did not shrink from the severest
words or propositions. And he was
right, right to the end, without reser-
walton.
| But when the moment for calm dis
cussion arrived, the moment for the
avoidance of the repetition of similar
errors in other Communist Parties,
then Lenin characterized these errors
very accurately When Serrati at
tempted to cloak his withdrawal from
communism by these errors of Zinov-
lev and Kamenev, Comrade Lenin
wrote; Before the October revolution
in Russia, and Immediately after it. a
number of excellent communists COM
mitted errors which we do not like to
remember now. Why do we not like
to remember them? Because it is
wrong to call to mind errors which
have been made perfectly good, unless
there is more special reason for do
ing So"
Special attention must be accorded
to the manner IN which Lenin formul-
ated our errors: "In the period of
which l speak they vacillated, fearing
that the Bolsheviki were isolating
themselves, were rushing too reck-
lessly into rising, were too unwill-
ing to meet the advances of a certain
section of the 'mensheviki' and So
cial revolutionists.' The conflict went
so far that the comrades named re-
signed demonstratively from all re-
sponsible positions both in the party
and in the Soviet work, to the great
joy of the enemies of the Soviet revo-
luton. The affair eliminated in a
very severe criticism in the press, on
the part of the c. c. of our party,
agaxlst the resigning comrades. And
after a few weeks, at latest after a
few months, all these comrades re-
cognized their error and returned to
their responsible party and Soviet
positions"
Is this description of Lenin in any
way similar to the malicious attempt
made by Trotsky-ridiculou in its
malice-to twist this fright" wing into
an actually "menshevist" wing in the
Bolshevist Party? But this appears to
be Comrade Trotsky's fate: In order
o attain his objects he is invariably
! obliged to overcome" Lenin, Lenin-
ism, and the Leninists.
| Ito be continued)
/