Leon
Trotsky: Berenguer’s Resignation
February
15, 1931
[The
Spanish Revolution (1931-39).
New York 1973, p. 91 f.]
I
recollect that I wrote to you by way of "speculation" how
good it would have been had the boycott forced the monarchy to its
knees, or at least to one knee. Now this is an accomplished fact. The
immediate political significance of Berenguer’s resignation is not
great, in and of itself, but its symptomatic significance is
tremendous. The impotence of the monarchy; the degeneration of the
ruling cliques; their lack of self-confidence; fear, fear, fear of
the people, of the revolution, of the morrow; their attempts by means
of extreme concessions to forestall the most terrific consequences:
these stand out in the resignation of Berenguer and the
semi-capitulation of the king. Marvellous! Truly marvellous! One
could not imagine anything better! The superstitious respect for
power in the consciousness of the people will be relentlessly
undermined by all this. A wave of satisfaction, of confidence, of
daring will go through millions of hearts, warming them, inspiring
them, spurring them on.
The
general revolutionary situation in which the proletarian party must
act is now eminently favourable The whole question now lies with the
party itself. Unfortunately, the communists were not the stars in the
boycotters' performance. That is why they did not achieve any
important victories in the campaign of the last two or three months.
In periods of stormy revolutionary flux, the authority of the party
grows rapidly, feverishly — if, in decisive turns, at new stages,
the party immediately advances the necessary slogan, whose
correctness is soon confirmed by the events. … In the course of the
last few weeks and months, opportunities have been allowed to escape.
But it does no good to look back now. We must look ahead. The
revolution is only beginning. We can win back a hundredfold what we
have allowed ourselves to lose.
The
constitutional-parliamentary problem is becoming the centre of
official political life. We cannot adopt a nonchalant attitude toward
this. The slogan of the revolutionary constituent Cortes must now be
advanced, to my mind, with double force.
We
must not recoil from using distinctly democratic formulations. For
example: universal suffrage without discrimination because of sex,
from the age of eighteen, with no restrictions. Eighteen years for
Spain, a southern country, is perhaps even too old. We should stake
everything on the youth. …
… The
question of the united front of all communist factions, the official
party included, will inevitably come up on the agenda. The masses
will feel in the coming weeks and months the strong need for a united
and serious revolutionary leadership. Squabbling among the communists
will irritate the masses. They will force unity — not forever,
because events may once more fling the various factions in different
directions. But for the coming period, the rapprochement of the
communist factions seems to me absolutely inevitable. Here too, as in
the question of the boycott, as well as in every other live political
question, that faction will win that takes the initiative in uniting
the communist ranks. The communist left must itself become united and
organized to be able to take the initiative. It is necessary to
create immediately a well-organized faction of the Left Opposition,
no matter how small it may be to begin with, which will publish its
own bulletin and its own theoretical organ. Of course, this does not
exclude the participation of the Left Communists in broader
organizations; on the contrary, it assumes it, but at the same time
organizing the Left Opposition is the indispensable condition for
this participation.