The Serge Trotsky Papers by David Cotterill;

Author:David Cotterill;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ingram Publisher Services UK

[copy unsigned]

Victor Serge. ‘Notes on the Spanish Drama’. From Les Humbles55

It is necessary to say what nobody is saying: to break the web of voluntary and involuntary complicities. A peculiar silence surrounds certain features of the Spanish drama: those features in particular which relate it to the drama going on in the USSR. The technology of modem news-diffusion works superbly in its propagation of lies for vested interests. Nonetheless, serious things are happening, and we ought to be forewarned of the surprises of tomorrow and the next day. For those who can find security by closing their eyes, history has its own surprises in store – very unpleasant ones.

Three great ideological tendencies have dominated the Spanish Revolution.

First Position: That of Stalinist Communism and the liberal right of the bourgeoisie. (It should be realised that the Stalinists have a strong influence over the much-infiltrated Socialists, especially over the Republican government at Valencia which is totally dependent on Soviet support.) ‘Spain is in the midst of its bourgeois revolution: the task is now to open the path to capitalist development. Spain is engaged in a war against the fascist powers for the cause of the democracies (ie, bourgeois democracies). The Sacred Union; the strong state; the regular army; and respect for property. Whoever speaks of Socialism or the Socialist revolution is playing the game of the enemy, is an agent of the enemy. We must stay within the ground of the Republican constitution and carry on the fight against Fascism: after that we shall see.’

Second Position: That of the radical bourgeoisie and of the centrist and reformist Socialists who are attached to the Socialist ideal and accustomed to the defence of piecemeal working-class interests (Azaña, Companys, Prieto). ‘It is impossible to go back to the Republic which existed before the military rising. Profound structural reforms must be undertaken for the benefit of the workers. All the same, the tiger of popular revolt must be kept well caged. Large-scale reforms, certainly: but no discussion of a Socialist system, so that we don’t frighten off the middle classes or set the capitalist world against us.’

Third Position: The revolutionary one, that of the FAI, the CNT and the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista). It is impossible to separate the war from the revolution since it is impossible to win without giving the workers solid reasons for shedding their blood. The real choice before us is: Socialism or Fascism. We are not going to fight for the Republic which put Franco, Quiepo56 and Mola in charge of its army; which in past years massacred the anarchists at Casas Viejas and the Socialists at Oviedo. We want a different republic. Agrarian reform; workers’ control of production; nationalisation of the main industries and of transport; workers’ control of the armed forces. For the tasks of reconstruction, note particularly that there must be rationing and the institution of a planned economy; an economy planned, that is, for the benefit of the nation of those who labour, not for the profit of the capitalists when they return from their bolt-holes abroad.

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