Leon Trotsky: Letter to the International Secretariat

March 23, 1935

[Writings of Leon Trotsky, Vol 7, 1934-1935, New York 1971, p. 210-218, title: “The Situation in the Stockholm Youth Bureau”]

To the International Secretariat

Copies to Members of the Plenum

Copy to Comrade Held

Dear Comrades:

The situation with the Youth Bureau of Stockholm has become absolutely intolerable The bureau transformed itself in fact into a private affair of the SAP. At the conference of the IAG, the official representative of the Stockholm Bureau attacked Comrades Sneevliet and Schmidt, who defended the slogan of the Fourth International. And this slogan, it must not be forgotten, is at the basis of the youth organization to which we have given our adherence. The people of the SAP continue their usual game. They sign some document in favor of the new International; then they combat the policy that flows from it In truth, we are the only enemies for the SAP to combat We do not take it tragically as long as the SAP acts in its own name. But how can we tolerate it when a representative of the Youth Bureau permits himself to attack the qualified representatives of the program of the Fourth International? Is it tolerable that the SAP, which does not represent a great thing either ideologically or politically, should climb on our back to combat us more easily?

The leading position of the SAP in the Stockholm Bureau is explained by the fact that since the youth conference de Kadt, taking advantage of the imprisonment of Comrade Schmidt and usurping the representation of the OSP, supported the SAP against us and assured it a leading post And in turn, the young man of the SAP had utilized the mandate of de Kadt to attack Schmidt because Schmidt did not want to betray this program.

There are still the Swedish [Socialist] youth. Unfortunately, we know them very little. But what we know of the leading tendency of the party does not inspire us with any confidence. I recall that the leaders of the Swedish youth did not want Held, although a member of the bureau, to reside in Stockholm so that he would not be able to penetrate their organization. Thus, even before the beginning of the collaboration, the leaders of the Swedish youth have shown a ferocious hostility towards our tendency and our ideas. The SAP leans on this hostility. That is natural. But how can we cover up and even support this absolutely rotten combination? Comrade Held is at Oslo, and the young man of the SAP comes to the Paris conference to attack us. I ask myself, what does the SAP and particularly its youth represent? They claim to have 5,000 members in Germany. This cannot be checked. We have contact only with the clique of emigres, who are opportunist maneuverists and not Marxists. In various countries they hang on to bureaucratic cliques and to individuals of the type of de Kadt to combat the program of the Fourth International.

I do not want to make comparison of the ideological forces. As a tendency, we have a tradition, a doctrine, literature and program. The SAP has nothing. Let's take the quantitative side. The unified Dutch party has its 5,000 members, which can be very well checked. As far as I know, the majority of its members are youth.

Our French section has developed great work among the youth. Its exact influence can be measured by exact numbers at the last conference of the "Entente of the Seine" (at this conference the SAP people combated us by getting one-thirtieth of the members).

Our Belgian youth already are developing important work in the JGS. The youth organization of the WPUS represents a considerable force already and is developing successfully. I pass over our youth in Latin America, China, Sweden, Spain, etc. I cite only the facts that can be checked.

And the USSR? If one takes into consideration only the expulsions of the " Trotskyites" for the last couple of months, we have the right to affirm that our numerous forces there, without speaking of the ideological and political traditions, are many times more important than the forces of the SAP and the Swedish youth together.

What interests, then, have we in covering up by our authority the work of the SAP directed against the Fourth International and especially against us as a tendency? I have reproached our youth for being too indulgent and indifferent toward the youth conference. I must state that the supineness still continues. They have created a sub-bureau in Paris where our youth, which represents something serious, are represented on an equal basis with B. Goldenberg, who represents nothing but Menshevik confusion. They are even getting ready to edit together with Goldenberg a pamphlet on the Second and Third Internationals. The light-mindedness here surpasses all limits. We have already signed a common document with the SAP that it has betrayed and attacked. How can we criticize in a common document the Second and Third Internationals if we are not in agreement on the necessity of a Fourth? By such proceedings one makes ridiculous questions of historic importance. Our youth need tempering, need militancy suitable to our epoch. Where will they get this tempering if they let themselves be terrorized by maneuverists of an insignificant clique? This conduct will end up by compromising us internationally and decomposing the cadres of our own youth.

The vigorous intervention of the International Secretariat and of the plenum seems absolutely imperative. Here are the first measures that seem to be absolutely indispensable:

1. All our youth sections must pronounce themselves clearly and mercilessly on the attitude of the representative of the Stockholm Bureau at the Paris conference; it is necessary to condemn him officially and disavow him formally. The disavowment must be published in all our organs.

2. The Stockholm Bureau must be reorganized. The minimum program of the organization demands that the bureau be completed by a representative of the Dutch party and a representative of the French section. The bureau of five must fix its place of residence and name its secretariat

3. The sub-bureau of Paris must be liquidated immediately.

If the SAP or the Swedes are not in agreement, the worse for them. We will find our task without august direction.

Given the nefarious work that the SAP is now carrying on in France, it would be absolutely criminal to drag out this affair and to continue the ambiguity. I ask with the greatest insistence that you take up this question as soon as possible.

Crux [Leon Trotsky]