U.S. socialists travel to Moscow, press fight to clear Trotsky's name

Scan page 15

March 5 Memorial rally of 500 in Moscow's Gorky Park calling for expansion of democratic rights. Sign reads: "The crimes of Stalinism are crimes against humanity."

By CARL FINAMORE Moscow is cold, rainy and overcast in March. But political and intellectual life in that ciy is in full bloom. Pre-election campaign meetings, rallies, and demonstrations reached an unprecedented level on the eve of the March 26 national elections.

A new election law passed last year made it possible, if still quite difficult, to nominate candidates who are not part of the government structures. Even the Communist Party (CPSU) daily newspaper, Pravda, reported that there would be complete freedom to campaign for these "unofficial" candidates.

This was the time chosen for a 10-day early March visit to Moscow by a delegation of U.S. Trotskyists-Susan Weissman, Paul Siegel, Ralph Schoenman, and Carl Finamore. We were joined during the final days of the trip by Vlady Kibalchich, son of Victor Serge, a leader of the Left Opposition during the 1920s and '30s. [See box for identification of tour participants.] One of the main objectives of the trip was to deliver a letter to the Soviet authorities from the family of Leon Trotsky. The letter requested that Trotsky's name be cleared and that his works be published freely in the Soviet Union. [See reprint in this issue.] We quickly arranged a meeting with Otto Latsis, Deputy Editor of Kommunist, the theoretical journal of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Latsis agreed to give the letter to the CPSU Central Committee for discussion, but did not promise an official response from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Latsis also informed us that some of Trotsky's writings would soon be published by the government publishing house. But the partial, edited publication by the Soviet government of Trotsky's views concerned us. The official government biographer of Stalin, General Dimitri Volkogonov, has already written that Trotsky was the "Demon of the Revolution" and would have been worse than Stalin.

Every week, we were told, excerpts of Trotsky's writings or reports about Trotsky's views appear in Pravda and other major Soviet publications. These reports deal almost exclusively with the period of war communism during the civil war, when Trotsky called for the militarization of labor after his own proposals for an NEP-type program (limited concessions to the medium and large farmers) were rejected.

Certain problems were readily apparent. Miri The presentation of Trotsky's views was being organized by the same political machine that he had so eloquently indicted over 60 years ago.

The selection of excerpts, the failure to place them in the context of the party debates at the time, and the refusal to publish Trotsky's full views have greatly distorted Trotsky's role and ideas in the minds of many Soviet people today. We often encountered the view that Trotsky-and even Lenin-were the intellectual precursors of Stalinism. the history of the anti-Stalinist opposition.

Meeting of Writers Union Almost immediately after our arrival, we identified ourselves not only as representatives of Trotsky's family but as political supporters of his views. We encountered absolutely no fear or apprehension. On the contrary, there was tremendous interest in what we had to say.

As a result of this approach we stumbled on an important meeting we otherwise would have missed. People found out about us and said, "Oh you're the Trotskyists, well you should go the writers' meeting, it's going on (continued on page 12)

Soviet coal strike The day prior to our arrival in the Soviet Union, on March 2, thousands of coal miners in the northern city of Vorkuta went on strike to protest the changes in production norms brought about by Gorbachev's perestroika reforms.

The miners demanded a six-day workweek (since 1985, they had been working with no days off), a 40 percent pay increase for the night shift, and the dismissal of many company administrators. To fight for these demands they formed an independent union and called it Solidarnost, a direct reference to the independent workers' movement in Poland.

On March 4, 104 miners began a hunger strike underground. That same day the Soviet Minister of Coal Production traveled to Vorkuta to settle the conflict. He agreed to most of the strikers' demands. He fired the mine director and agreed to the wage increases, retroactive to Jan. 1. The strikers, through their new independent union, had won.

That the first coal strike of this magnitude should take place in Vorkuta is not altogether unexpected. Vorkuta has a long tradition of anti-bureaucratic struggle. It was here that tens of thousands of supporters of Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition were sentenced to forced labor camps by Stalin in 1936. These Trotskyists resisted valiantly, waging a 132day hunger strike before they were mercilessly gunned down in 1938.

It was also here that a gigantic uprising of anti-Stalinist dissidents—primarily Ukrainian nationalists-took place in 1953.-C.F.

----- pull-quotes -----

dari Finamore Soclalist Action participate in the current discussions about