Overheard on the Net: Trotsky and the Spanish Civil War
Edition No. 901
EDITED BY PATRICE GREANVILLE
Dispatch first iteration Nov 30 2017 | Collated and edited by Patrice Greanville
MAIN COMMENTERS: • Luciana Bohne • Chris Driscoll • Gio Con
Trotsky
Luciana Bohne Leon Trotsky, 1937, bases conclusions on false premises. He asserts that the Popular Front's goal was to save capitalism. This is false: the goal was to defeat fascism.
This false premise is not simply "false" in the sense that T. makes a mistake of analysis. This false premise is conscious and deliberate.
Because the Popular Front was a policy assumed by the Comintern in 1935 in Moscow by the world communist parties with the explicit task of defeating fascism and T calls this policy a defense of capitalism, he can then implicate Stalin in the Popular Front's supposed devious plot to save capitalism.
So Trotsky portrays Stalin as the "gravedigger" of the revolution in Spain--as in Russia in 1917, he adds for good measure (it should be noted here that T became a Bolshevik in August 1917 and Stalin had been one from the beginning, had been paymaster of presses and party agents--knew them all personally--, had Lenin's trust, and organized a network of bank robberies to fund party activities).
The "socialist revolution" in Spain was in T's mind. It hadn't happened. In reality, Spain had effected a bourgeois "revolution" and the fascists had engineered a military coup against it. These were the MAJOR fronts of the Spanish Civil War.
Enjoy the last sentences: the petty ad hominem alone should alert you to Ts questionable personal "objectivity" and snobbery. Stalin could be accused of many social solecisms but not of having a sluggish mind. Neither FDR nor Churchill found him slow on the uptick.
Trotsky: "By setting itself the task of rescuing the capitalist regime, the Popular Front doomed itself to military defeat. By turning Bolshevism on its head, Stalin succeeded completely in fulfilling the role of gravedigger of the revolution.
Bolshevism (the Russian revolution and Marxism) demonised using an image that looks like Trotsky. Most anti-communists hated Trotsky, along with other original revolutionaries like Lenin, Stalin, etc., for overthrowing Tsarism and unleashing a popular revolution across Europe.
Hmmm? Trotsky? March 1917? I think he was in New York with the leaders of the Socialist Party of America. In any case, he was still in exile, like Lenin. Luciana Bohne, I think you have the essential details right here. As you may remember, I am no fan of Popular Front, and in many cases, especially here in America, it was a disaster for the working class, but in Spain, it was the only rational option for the working class. The choice was clearly between the Republic and the fascist take over of the country, and working-class forces joining the fight against fascism was the only choice. Any other choice would have been insane. Even with that, the Republic's forces were outnumbered and outgunned by the fascists who had the support of the global capitalist-imperialist class and the military aid of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. A popular front under such circumstances was essential, although it wasn't enough in the end. The valiant Soviet people did the right thing and they were the only major nation to support the Republic. Special shame goes to the U.S. Empire, The British Empire, the French Empire, all of whom fucked the Spanish people during the Civil War.
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