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SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1992 19 Thank You Dear editors, Your paper is much appreciated. Is there a source for additional information in reference to the article on page 9 of the December 1991 issue: "50 Years Ago Trotskyists Were Put on trial by Roosevelt Government"?

As a person in his middle 60s (my wife also), we grew up through very interesting times (at the time we weren't aware of any of this). We both grew up in very closed, narrow, provincial surroundings; and even though our parents were working class and survived the Depression, somehow they were Republican in political orientation and anti-union. No wonder I am confused at times.

Many of us have had to stumble into alternatives of analysis and perspective on our own. I sure have had to. We had no mentors, no rebels. I have been struggling with these concepts for 20-25 years, although as I think about my earlier life, certain socialist-communist concepts were there from somewhere, but poorly realized and supported.

It is so easy to be overwhelmed as one progresses to alternative concepts and theories and tries to practice them. We thank you for your paper. It helps a lot.

Frank Roemhild, Bayfield, Wisc.

The transcript of James P. Cannon's testimony in the trial is reprinted in "Socialism on Trial," published by Pathfinder Press. This highly readable book is an excellent introduction to the basic ideas of socialism, as well as an historical document of the period.

-the editors Dialectics Dear editors, "Dialectics" usually means "double talk. " Cliff Conner's articles are different-they actually make sense! I enjoy reading them.

But it seems to me that they have a serious weakness. They give a history of ideas, which is interesting to those of us who like that kind of thing. But they don't make a convincing case that dialectics can have practical results in the real world.

They could make a more convincing case if they discussed Carl Von Clausewitz. He was the founder of modern military strategy-and he founded it on dialectics. His book "On War" is a model of dialectic thinking. More important, it explains WHY you need dialectic thinking to understand a subject like war.

Formal logic is good for dealing with things that don't fight back. In mathematics, for example, you can solve any problem— or prove that it can't be solved— by following certain rules that never change. "2+2" cannot decide not to "equal War is different because the enemy DOES fight back. If you follow certain rules that never change, the enemy will know what you are going to do next, and wipe you out in the next battle.

War, says Clausewitz, "is always the collision of two living forces. ... So long as 1 have not overthrown my opponent, I am bound to fear that he may overthrow me. Thus, I am not in control; he dictates to me as much as I dictate to him."

Clausewitz was not just the founder of modern military strategy. He was also the founder of the Prussian general staff-the brains of the German army. That's important because the Germany army was a political as well as a military force. It was the power behind the throne of the German empire-the vanguard party of the German ruling class. During the time when Marxists were a serious political force, the German army was their most important enemy.

The German army defeated the Marxists politically in 1914, when its appeal to God and country sent the Marxists' followers marching off to World War I. It lost World War I, but then defeated the Marxists again. The revolution that started in 1917 was stopped in Germany in 1919-stopped by the German army.

If you want a revolution that won't be stopped, it behooves you to learn how that was stopped. One thing to learn is that the people who stopped it used dialectical thinking-used it better than the Marxists did.

Ed Jahn, Fairfax, Va.

Anti-Bolshevik Dear editors, For Hayden Perry: Your supposed correction of Chomsky regarding the alleged democratic practices of Lenin and Trotsky suggests that your reading in the period did not go beyond their own accounts. "All power to the Soviets" seems to have deceived you as badly as the folks in 1917.

Long study of many sources convinced me that it was just Lenin's opportunistic slogan on the path to power, which he obviously jettisoned in early 1918. Bolshevism has very little to do with anything democratic.

Read more! I close quoting a cable from Lenin to the front during the civil war: "Take out and shoot all prostitutes that are [distracting] Red Army men."

C'mon, shed your illusions.

A. Fortunoff, Los Angeles, Calif.

Dear editors, On Dec. 28, Abdul Wali Muhammad, editor of The Final Call, died of a massive heart attack in Chicago at the age of 37. He made an enormous contribution in the pages of The Final Call in telling the truth about the Gulf War, and supported the defense of Tahan Jones and Eric Larsen Roger Sheppard, Boston, Mass.

Dear editors, On Dec. 12, John Tisa, who fought in the Spanish Civil War as a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, died of a stroke. He was 77.

Although it was organized and dominated by the Stalinists, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade attracted some 3000 idealistic men and women from the United States, who put their lives on the line in order to fight fascism. John Tisa was one of them. He described those years in his book, "RecallBaltimore P.O. Box 16005 Baltimore, MD 21218 Boston P.O. Box 1046 GMF Boston, MA 02205 (617) 497-0230 Chicago P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657 (312) 327-5752 CIncinnati P.O. Box 20109 Cincinnati, OH 45220 (513) 751-1597

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SociAlist Action

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Abdul Wali Muhammad