[Marxism] : mperialists using small nations as weapons (was: Marxismand r*********m and imperialist wars
yossi schwartz
ssschwartz8 at gmail.com
Wed Aug 20 23:46:11 MDT 2008
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S. Artesian wrote: ""Regarding military and political support-- I think this
is one of the more artificial, abstract, obtuse distinctions in Marxist
history, since
military support is by its very nature political support. ".
To this Trotsky who is not a live but as a Marxist I see the need to defend
his method against all distortions:
A Good Quotation From Lenin
The present-day epigones, that is, the thoroughly bad disciples of Lenin,
like to cover up their shortcomings on every occasion that offers itself
with quotations – often entirely irrelevant. For Marxists, the question is
not decided by a quotation, but by means of the correct method. If one is
guided by correct methods, it is not hard also to find suitable quotations.
After I had drawn the above analogy with the Kornilov insurrection, I said
to myself: We can probably find a theoretical elucidation of our bloc with
the conciliators in the struggle against Kornilov, in Lenin. And here is
what I actually found in the second part of Volume XIV of the Russian
edition, in a letter from Lenin to the Central Committee, written at the
beginning of September 1917:
"Even at the present time, we are not duty-bound to support the Kerensky
government That would be unprincipled. It is asked: then we are not to fight
against Kornilov? Of course we are. But that is not one and the same thing.
There is a limit to this; it is being transgressed by many Bolsheviks who
fail into 'conciliationism' and allow themselves to be driven by the current
of events.
"We shall fight, we are fighting against Kornilov, but we do not support
Kerensky; we are uncovering his weaknesses. The distinction is rather
delicate, but highly important and must not be forgotten.
"What does the change of our tactics consist of after the Kornilov
insurrection?
"In this, that we are varying the forms of struggle against Kerensky.
Without diminishing our hostility to him even by one single note, without
taking back one word from what we have said against him, without giving up
the task of overthrowing Kerensky, we say: we must calculate the moment. We
will not overthrow Kerensky at present. We approach the question of the
struggle against him differently: by explaining the weaknesses and
vacillations of Kerensky to the people (who are fighting against Kornilov)."
We are proposing nothing different. Complete independence of the Communist
organization and press, complete freedom of Communist criticism, the same
for the Social Democracy and the trade unions. Only contemptible
opportunists can allow the freedom of the Communist Party to be limited (for
example, as in the entrance into the Kuomintang). We are not of their number
.
No retraction of our criticism of the Social Democracy. No forgetting of all
that has been. The whole historical reckoning, including the reckoning for
Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg [6], will be presented at the proper
time, just as the Russian Bolsheviks finally presented a general reckoning
to the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries for the baiting, calumny,
imprisonment and murder of workers, soldiers, and peasants
Of course, if for using the term Scientific Marxism I am accused of
believing myself to be Lenin or Marx or Trotsky, quoting Trotsky who
quoted Lenin I face the danger of instead of a political debate facing
harsher measure.
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