Leon Trotsky: Letter to Max Shachtman

November 30, 1931

[Writing of Leon Trotsky, Vol. 13. Supplement (1929-1933), New York 1979, p. 101 f., title: “Better to Seek the Solid”]

Dear Comrade Shachtman:

I have received your letter of November 19,1931, from Madrid. I hope you have meanwhile taken cognizance of my written responses to the letters from Nin and Lacroix against Molinier. I find the whole business really most unpleasant. The fact that Mill, who for months at a time does not pass along the most important news, rushed to disseminate the letter that Nin wrote in an excited and overwrought state — this fact proves one more time just how little Mill understands about performing his important duties calmly, impartially, and objectively.

I am in complete agreement with you concerning the English question; it is better to gather elements that are numerically small but theoretically as well as politically solid. In the meantime you will have received copies of my letter to Groves, of my critique of the theses of F. Ridley and Aggarwala, as well as of Comrade Glotzer’s letter. I enclose my theses on the international situation in a German translation by Comrade Frankel. The Russian version has been sent to New York. I hope you will get it translated into English for England.

I enclose a copy of a would-be interview for some American newspaper, concerning the Japan-China conflict. I’m sending a copy simultaneously to Eastman with the request that he immediately translate it, sell it for a respectable price, and pass the money on to The Militant: I am not at the moment in position to help The Militant out of its crisis by any other means. I would be prepared to write a second interview on the inevitability of war between the USSR and Germany in case the fascists come to power. However I will do this only if I’m certain that there exists the possibility of selling it to a big, respectable newspaper. I think that Eastman will be able to handle this in New York better than you will in London. I share all this with you only for purposes of information.

Glotzer left behind very good and friendly memories. We all regret that the financial situation makes it impossible for us to see you in Kadiköy.

With best greetings.

Yours

L. Trotsky