All Round Confusion

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ON Co po on The criticisms that Trotskyists make of the regime in the USSR are fundamental. But they flow from a completely different class standpoint than that of the French, Italian or Spanish Communist Party leaders.

These bureaucrats stand in medity in defence of both caritalism and the Stalinist bureau*ati apparatus.

Only Trotskyists stand for the faht for complete political irsependence of the working class.

DEFENCE

And at the same time only Trotskyists uphold the principle of unconditional defence the nationalised property relations in the USSR, which i remain the living gains made in the revolution of October 1917.

Trotskyists alone call clearly and prepare consciously for political. revolution to oust the parasitic Stalinist bureaucracy that feeds off those gains.

We must stress that there is rishing progressive about either the satements or the related actions of CPs within the capitalist c: intries.

They may make criticisms of the lak of democratic rights in the Seriet Union-but purely in order to preserve and strengthen their orn position.

Nor can their statements have the galvanising impact attributed to them by Ernest Mandel, leader of the majority of the so-called •United' Secretariat of the Fourth "the statements of the 'Euro Communists' in favour of political pluralism and democratic freedoms are avidly received, not because they recognise capitalism and the bourgeois state, but because these statements are seen as an alternative to the present form of political rule in Eastern Europe and the USSR".

ENDORSEMENT

3u: the July 21 issue of In c.I1 d-- raad aantee fram neluding sitions of Stalinisn the two part analysis of 'Trotskyist' tendencies ope - Hungarian CP chief Kadar endorsing 'EuroCommunism'!

In what way, then, can "EuroCommunists' be seen as a threat to the Stalinist state bureaucracies?

Mandel goes even further, however, claiming that in Eastern Europe the "central question ... remains that of proletarian democracy"

PABLO

Such statements hark back to the start of the 1953 split in which Pablo was arguing for Trotskyist forces simply to "integrate themselves" into the newly purged monolithic Eastern European CPs and wait for revolutionary eventsabandoning the fight for Trotskyist parties to lead political revolution in order to overthrow the The fight for clarity on Stalinism today is thus continuously driven back consideration of unresolved problems of the past.

In Britain Mandel's position is aped by the majority of the International Marxist Group, who have enthusiastically carried extracts from the book by Spanish CP leader Carrillo.

Diplomatically skirting around the obvious counter-revolutionary history of this former GPU agent accused of torturing Trotskyists during the Spanish Civil war, they haul the decision of Carrillo to rehabilitate Trotsky and Trotskyism'.

The IMG assure us that Carrillo's book will 'open up an important discussion' among Spanish CP militants.

'It is with these militants that revolutionary șocialists will have to conduct a dialogue' they proclaim.

In pursuing such a 'dialogue' the IMG in Britain have arranged a series of so-called 'debates' with veteran Stalinist hacks including noted anti-Trotskyist Monty Johnstone, while reprinting and uncritically reporting large chunks of material and speeches by both sides in the current split in the Rritich CP barred by reactionary legislation