Leon
Trotsky: The Creation of Soviets
December
12, 1930
[The
Spanish Revolution (1931-39).
New York 1973, p. 64 f.]
What
are the perspectives then? … As far as I can tell from your last
letter, all the organizations and groups are drifting with the
current, that is, they are participating in the movement to the
extent that it drags them along. Not a single one of the
organizations has a revolutionary program of action or a
well-thought-out perspective. …
It
seems to me that the slogan of soviets is suggested by the whole
situation, if by soviets we mean the workers' councils that sprang up
in Russia: at first, they were powerful strike committees. Not one of
the early participants imagined that the soviets were the future
organs of power. … Of course, soviets cannot be created
artificially. But during each local strike that includes a majority
of the trades and takes on a political character, it is necessary to
encourage the creation of soviets. This is the only form of
organization, under the circumstances, that is capable of taking the
leadership of the movement and of imposing on it the discipline of
revolutionary action.
I
tell you frankly, I am very much afraid that the historians of the
future may have to accuse the Spanish revolutionists of not having
known how to take advantage of an exceptional revolutionary
situation.
|