Leon
Trotsky et al: Letter to the Presidium of the Seventh Enlarged Plenum
of the ECCI
December
14, 1926
[Leon
Trotsky, The Challenge of the Left Opposition (1926-1927), New York
1980, p. 190-194, title: “Why
the Opposition Will Vote Against the Resolution on Stalin’s
Report”]
To
the Presidium of the Seventh Enlarged Plenum of the ECCI:
Dear
Comrades:
Before
passing to a vote on the resolution on Comrade Stalin’s report, we
request that you read the following statement on the reasons for our
vote. We ask that this statement be published in Pravda,
in International
Press Correspondence,
and in the stenographic record.
Explanation
of Vote
In
voting against the resolution on the report by Comrade Stalin, we
consider it our duty to give the following reasons:
1.
We once again reject, categorically, the accusation that our speeches
were factional. We again state that whoever tries, directly or
indirectly, to solidarize with us while at the same time denying the
proletarian character of our party and our state and the socialist
character of construction in the Soviet Union will be ruthlessly
opposed and rejected by us.
2.
All our criticisms have been directed against errors and deviations
from the proletarian line, and dictated by our desire to maintain,
assure, and reinforce the revolutionary proletarian policy of our
party and its inseparable ties with the international revolution, in
accordance with the teachings of Lenin.
3.
We resolutely and categorically reject, as completely contrary to the
facts, the accusation that we do not believe in socialist
construction in the USSR. In reality, we unshakably believe, as in
the past, that the proletariat in the USSR, under the direction of
the Communist Party, will overcome all difficulties and with the aid
of the international proletariat will build socialism in the USSR. In
stating that we are against the theory of socialism in one country,
we are only continuing to defend the ideas Lenin defended, which are
the basis of all the programmatic resolutions of the Comintern up to
now.
4.
We resolutely and categorically reject the totally unfounded
accusations of pessimism and lack of faith:
(a)
When we try to draw our party’s attention to the increasing danger
of the kulaks, it is not to capitulate to this
danger, but to advise the party to base itself on the poor peasants
and rural workers and permit them, with the help of the proletarian
government, to more easily bring the middle peasant into the struggle
against the kulaks. It is not true that we proposed to “pressure
the peasant” in favor of industrialization. What we want is to
maintain the alliance of the workers and peasants as our most
cherished achievement. Without this alliance, the proletarian
dictatorship in the USSR would be condemned to perish. But we say
that our base of support in the village is the agricultural worker
and the poor peasant; our ally
in the village is the middle peasant; our class
enemy
in the village is the rich peasant (kulak);
(b)
When we insist on and call the attention of our party to the growth
of private capital, it is not to capitulate to it, but so that a
complete system of vigilance measures can keep private capital in a
strictly subordinate position;
(c)
When we speak of the inevitable position of dependence of our
socialist economy on the world capitalist economy in a period of
reconstruction, it is not to capitulate to this but to insist on a
more appropriate distribution of the national income in the interests
of state industry, an acceleration of the rate of development by
every means, a rise in the material standard of living of the working
class, and its education in the spirit of a profound understanding of
the inseparability of the fate of our socialist construction from
that of the international proletarian revolution.
5.
We reject any accusation that we doubt the class character of our
state and the socialist character of the society we are building. We
in the Opposition have up to now worked with other comrades and under
the direction of the CC in all branches of socialist construction: in
the development of state industry, in establishing a stable currency,
in strengthening our economic plans, in attaining a predominance of
socialist tendencies. We could name dozens of the best-known
militants who are in the Opposition and at the same time have carried
out, not without success, one or another state task. The same will be
true in the future to the extent that the Central Committee entrusts
us with work of one kind or another.
6.
It is not true that we are opposed to the tactic of the united front.
We are for
it. But we are opposed to agreements with Thomas, Pugh, and Purcell
when they despicably betray the British miners.
7.
It is not true that we are opposed to work in the reformist trade
unions. No, we are for the participation of Communists in the most
reactionary unions, in accordance with the teachings of Lenin.
Communists ought to be wherever there are organized workers.
8.
It is not true that we looked indulgently on “ultra-left” views.
We struggle and we will struggle against all ultra-left errors. But
we demand, in regard to honest revolutionary activists, even
“ultra-left” ones, that the Comintern take the attitude taught by
Lenin. We demand, in accordance with the teachings of Lenin, that the
Comintern expose and denounce the right-wing leaders, diplomats, and
parliamentarists who skillfully disguise their right-wing actions and
plans with fine-sounding phrases.
9.
We remain enemies of the Social Democracy, as we were in Lenin’s
time. We consider the Social Democratic leaders to be the greatest
enemies of the labor movement. It is not true that the Social
Democracy has changed its attitude toward us, the Opposition. No, it
continues to hate us as in the past (and even more) and to attack us
as only the petty bourgeoisie is capable of attacking intransigent
proletarian revolutionists. The bourgeois and Social Democratic
press, viewing with irreconcilable hostility the policy
we defend, sometimes tries to make use of our criticisms.
It has always been that way.
10.
It is not true that we deny the fact of a partial stabilization of
capitalism. We recognize it. We wrote of it in a series of articles
on the British strike. What we deny is that this stabilization is
destined to last for decades. We leave this profession of faith to
Otto Bauer and Company. We retain the viewpoint of Lenin, who
considered our epoch to be one of world revolution.
11.
Thus it is evident that we are not guilty of the slightest “Social
Democratic deviation.” We are profoundly convinced that the future
will prove that such an assertion cannot withstand the least
criticism.
12.
It is not true that we defend “Trotskyism.” Trotsky has stated to
the International that on all the fundamental questions over which he
had differences with Lenin, Lenin was right — in particular on the
questions of permanent revolution and the peasantry. We defend
Leninism.
We struggle above all against any revision of Lenin's teachings on
the international
revolution.
13.
It is not true that we accuse the majority of our party of
representing a “right-wing deviation.” We believe only that in
the AUCP there are right-wing currents and groupings which now have a
disproportionate influence, but which the party will be able to
overcome.
14.
We will carry out to the end the obligations we assumed in our
statement of October 16, 1926. But we have full right to defend our
principles. We stated this in this same October 16 document and no
one contested this right. In the seven years of the Comintern’s
existence, all differences of opinion that existed in any party,
including the AUCP, have always been given a hearing in the
Comintern, and any minority whatsoever had the right to defend its
point of view and its principles. If the expression of a point of
view before a leading body of the world Communist Party is considered
to be factionalism, then what other means exist to defend ideas
within the limits of the general decisions of the Comintern? We
will defend the unity of the AUCP
and the Comintern. We will struggle against factionalism.
15.
The continual attempts of our enemies to exploit the slightest
difference of opinion in the party should not be a reason to cease
all self-criticism. If the conferences and congresses were supposed
to be based on unanimity assured in advance, there would be no point
in convening them. The regime of the Comintern, and that of each
individual party, should, in full accordance with our program and our
statutes, assure real possibilities for self-criticism that will not
develop into factional activity or disrupt unity of action.
16.
In our opinion, the proposed resolution not only gives an incorrect
and tendentious characterization of the opinions which we defend and
which, we are unshakably convinced, are in complete accord with the
traditions of Marxism and Leninism — but it also could worsen the
situation within the Comintern, further limiting the already
insufficient possibilities for criticism within the party. We have no
doubt, moreover, that even while adopting this erroneous decision,
the Comintern will remain, as in the past, the only organization
capable of correcting the errors of its different sections, and its
own errors, basing itself on the experience of the revolutionary
struggle of the world proletariat.
17.
This profound and unshakable confidence gives us the right and duty
to submit entirely to the decision that you will make and to call
upon all the comrades who consider themselves in agreement with us to
do likewise.
G.
Zinoviev, L. Kamenev, L. Trotsky