 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|  |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
World War II and Trotskyist Defense of the Soviet Union (Quote of the Week) Writing one month after the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union by Hitler’s Germany, the then-Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party (SWP) published a program of demands to reinforce the defense of the Soviet workers state, which had undergone degeneration under the Stalinist bureaucracy. That declaration, from which the following is excerpted, was published in the same issue of the Militant that announced the U.S. government’s indictment of 29 SWP and trade-union leaders—18 of whom were jailed—for their revolutionary proletarian opposition to American imperialism as it prepared to enter World War II. We stand for the unconditional defense of the Soviet Union, as everyone knows who is acquainted with our party’s position. The Stalinist leaders are desperately trying to fool their rank and file into believing that the Trotskyists do not defend the Soviet Union. The word “unconditional” is plain enough. It means that we set no conditions whatsoever before we defend the Soviet Union. We do not demand that Stalin make any concessions to us before we defend the Soviet Union. We defend the Soviet Union because the foundation of socialism established by the October revolution of 1917, the nationalized property, still remains and this foundation it is necessary to defend at all costs. The Trotskyists in this country, in the Soviet Union and everywhere in the world say to the Soviet government: Place us in the most dangerous posts, we are ready and shall unhesitatingly accept…. In this situation the Soviet Union, alone of the existing states, can undermine Hitler by pledging to the German workers that the defeat of Hitler will not mean a second and worse Versailles but will begin the creation of the Socialist United States of Europe. The imperialist states cannot possibly make this pledge to the German workers. Only the Soviet Union, the Workers’ State, can thus cement revolutionary unity with the German proletariat. —“For Unconditional Defense of the Soviet Union: A Program of Victory
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
