On Aug. 25, commemorating the anniversary of Trotsky’s…
2004 2004-09The page as the paper published it (Wayback Machine) →
From the paper's own web edition, recovered from the Internet Archive: the text as the paper put it online, not machine-read. The printed issue of September 2004 is not held.
On Aug. 25, commemorating the anniversary of Trotsky’s assassination by an agent of Stalin in 1940, the same author wrote another article hailing the murdered Russian revolutionist as the prophet of a rising socialist revolution in Latin America.
In this article, Celia Hart was also inspired by the victory of the Chavez government in Venezuela, which was certainly a blow to imperialism and a great encouragement for revolutionary Cuba. On the other hand, she has not yet analyzed the Chavez government’s failure to challenge capitalism as such and what that means from the standpoint of the concept of permanent revolution, which maintains, as Cuban revolutionary leaders themselves have said, that a revolution is either a socialist revolution or a caricature of a revolution.
The following are major excerpts from Hart’s article. The English translation is by Socialist Action.
On Aug. 20, it was another year since the atrocious assassination of Leon Trotsky. I do not know if anyone bothered to put a flower in front of the Hammer and Sickle flag that waves over his tomb. It doesn’t matter. Maybe we are not ready to bury him....
A lot of people keep telling me, “You want to revive Trotsky.” I keep telling them more and more forcefully, “They will have to murder him again and this time with more sophisticated instruments.” That’s the way it is. On this Aug. 20, 64 years after his death, the old Leon is more alive than ever. And it is not because more people remember him, but because more people need to remember him....
A few days ago, Latin America began to wake up. We were Sleeping Beauty and now we have gotten enough kisses to raise our eyes. ... The time for reforms and for coexistence with the bourgeoisie is coming to an end....
I am convinced that the fall of the Berlin Wall was a stroke of good fortune. It is a shame that it did not take place before. The marvelous writer, Eduardo Galeano, said that more or less: “This dead thing does not belong to us, so why should we weep for it?” It opened up the way for revolutionary action without interference from Moscow as the boss of the world left....
Who is the left? What option does it represent? Who killed Trotsky? Did the enemy kill him? Where do we put Stalin, on the right or on the left?
Aug. 20 offers us some trails. We arrive on the scene of the crime, and we see the deception in which we have lived for more than seven decades. Why did they never talk about Aug. 20 in the so-called Socialist countries? Because Stalinism took over everything. It is a status quo that has not disappeared. It is a virus that continues to infect us subtly....
I keep on saying that truth in history is as elemental as nature. Although you don’t know Newton’s “Principia,” don’t topple his glass of wine because the force of gravity will take care of it. Likewise, although you do not know about the crimes of Stalin, don’t try to establish socialism in one country, because like the glass of wine, it will spill the hope of entire generations.
Che did not believe in Stalin, although he said so once. He struck for the happiness of our continent for reasons that have more to do with Aug. 20 than any other thing, whether Che knew it or not.
Stalinism, more than Stalin himself, which is already saying enough, has confused us all. They killed Trotsky, and history almost did not notice. It took the fall of the USSR and European socialism for us to raise our eyes and see that the glass of wine had fallen and stained the carpet, and that it is very difficult to get the stain out.
One of these stains fell in Mexico 64 years ago, on the head of the best of Leninists. Stalinism made us believe that this was in the name of the revolution. But it was precisely the only possible revolution that they tried to assassinate....
“Alone at last,” after seven lost decades, we have to consider what this Aug. 20 means. No, not a word about the virtue of Stalinism in the Second World War! Stalin handed us over to the fascists on a silver platter.
Or that the USSR aided the young Cuban Revolution! No. My revolution survived, despite everything, including the USSR. Fidel said that once when we were living with hunger and uncertainty precisely when the Soviet Union fell apart....
Supposedly, Stalin determined the history of the USSR. What remains of this country but the mafia, corruption, disillusion? Supposedly, the USSR aided Cuba in its struggle against imperialism. No way. The Cuban revolution was saved by the Cuban people and the internationalist principles of Jose Marti, Che, and Fidel. So, what saved the USSR?....
It could not save socialism within its own borders, simply because that is impossible. Socialism in one country is impossible, just as no one can willfully stop the expansion of the universe.
A better world is not only possible, it is an urgent necessity, if we do not want to go backward to barbarism. Whether you like it or not, socialism ... is the only alternative. I have heard enough of people telling me that socialism is damaged goods. Socialism has not yet triumphed. Socialist revolutions have triumphed, although not many. I am proud of having grown up in one of them.
Socialism is the future; the good news is that it has not yet happened. So, let us give a vote of confidence to the chief of the Red Army. Let him take the platform. From what he said, I propose only two principles, internationalism and permanent revolution....
By nature young people love revolution. All young people carry in their souls the seeds of change and self-sacrifice. But no young people can be won by half-truths that are always lies, by useless sectarianism, and patrioteering....
It is not enough to know the truth. In the speech by Engels that I quoted, he said, “Marx was above all a revolutionist” Che said the same, “Better to cease to be than to cease to be a revolutionist.” The number one task of Communists is to commit the youth to the world revolution. Without this youth there is nothing we can do. With it, we can take heaven by storm.
Aug. 20 is the day to unsheathe our sword. Stalin is dead in a part of the world he thought he could dominate. Let us dump Stalinism in the same tomb. Trotsky, on the other hand, is fighting, together with Marx, Lenin, and Che.
The article above first appeared in the September 2004 issue of Socialist Action newspaper.