BY BERNIE SENTER  
MIAMI—The republication of The Case of Leon Trotsky by Pathfinder Press makes available this long out-of-print Marxist classic of the workers movement. The book is the verbatim transcript of Trotsky’s testimony before the hearings of the Dewey Commission of Inquiry held in Coyoacan, Mexico, April 10-17, 1937. The commission, chaired by prominent U.S. philosopher John Dewey, was investigating the charges against Leon Trotsky, a central leader of the Russian Revolution, in the Stalin-organized Moscow Trials of the 1930s.

Today’s readers will find a treasure chest in this edition of the book, which is adorned with a beautiful cover, larger type size, and new text layout—making it more accessible for reading and study. The lively cover painting of the commission is by the New York artist Dorothy Eisner, who attended the Dewey Commission and assisted in its work.

In a single volume Trotsky’s testimony provides a unique sweep of the concrete application of Marxism to the momentous events of the 1930s and the Russian Revolution of 1917. The issues dealt with are deeply connected with social and political questions posed today.

The regime of Joseph Stalin organized the trials as part of a political counterrevolution by a privileged caste in the Soviet Union that led to the reversal of the internationalist revolutionary course of the Bolsheviks under the leadership of V.I. Lenin. Central leaders of the revolution were framed up and executed on charges of terrorism, sabotage, and collaboration with Berlin and Tokyo to precipitate war and reestablish capitalism in the Soviet Union.

After a five-month international investigation, the commission concluded that Trotsky was not guilty of the charges against him, and that the trials were a frame-up. Its findings were published in Not Guilty, a sister volume to The Case of Leon Trotsky that is soon to be brought back into print by Pathfinder.

The findings of the commission and the campaign by the workers movement to expose the trials struck a heavy blow to Stalinism. Trotsky’s testimony in defense of the conquests of the October 1917 Russian Revolution and the campaign to expose the Moscow Trials helped steel a new generation of working-class militants attracted to a communist movement that fought to maintain Lenin’s revolutionary course.

Trotsky tells how the Stalinist bureaucracy evolved and gives a full presentation on the fight against this development. His detailed testimony describes and analyzes the irremediable contradictions of the Stalinist regime that would lead to its collapse.

Trotsky explains both how the frame-up trials were based on forced confessions and fabricated facts; and how central leaders of the Russian Revolution were pressured into “confessing.” By the time of the fourth Moscow Trial of 1938, virtually all members of the Bolshevik Party’s Political Bureau in 1917, with the exception of Stalin, had been framed and condemned to death.

At the heart of the book is Trotsky’s defense of a revolutionary working-class perspective, and the example of the Russian Revolution, as humanity’s only way out of the economic and social crisis, fascism, and wars bred by capitalism and imperialism.

In his testimony before the Dewey Commission, during the Spanish Civil War, Trotsky argues that world war is not inevitable after the victory of fascism in Germany in 1933, and the sharpening interimperialist rivalries. If the revolutionary developments then taking place in Spain resulted in a victory for the working class, that would be the greatest brake to the imperialist war drive, and open up further revolutionary developments in Europe and Asia, he said.

Trotsky argues in an extended exchange in the testimony that the Spanish workers had the opportunity to take power several times. But the fascist forces in Spain could only be defeated by building a working-class party on a principled political foundation that would give no political support to the capitalist regime, at the same time fighting against Franco. The Stalinist, anarchist, and social-democratic forces, on the other hand, had shackled the fighting capacity of the workers and peasants through their participation in the capitalist government.

“The key to the situation in the Soviet Union is not in the Soviet Union, but in Europe,” explained Trotsky. “If the people in Spain are victorious against the fascists, if the working class in France will assure its movement to Socialism, then the situation in the Soviet Union will change immediately.” Trotsky noted that such a victory would give a mighty revolutionary inspiration and impulse to the German workers.

Trotsky was asked during the investigation, “What is your opinion about the desirability of war as furthering the interests of Socialism?”

He answered, “It is almost the same as if the question were asked: What is your opinion of cholera and epidemics for human civilization?… To wish a war—it is absurd from every point of view.”

Trotsky returned to this point during his summary remarks:

“War has in fact often expedited revolution. But precisely for this reason it has often led to abortive results. War sharpens social contradictions and mass discontent. But that is insufficient for the triumph of the proletarian revolution. Without a revolutionary party rooted in the masses, the revolutionary situation leads to the most cruel defeats. The task is not to ‘expedite’ war—for this, unfortunately, the imperialists of all countries are working, not unsuccessfully. The task is to utilize the time which the imperialists still leave to the working masses for the building of a revolutionary party and revolutionary trade unions.”

This book offers invaluable lessons to workers, farmers, and youth engaged in the class struggle, and seeking to understand the dynamics of today’s world.

Dave Prince contributed to this review.  
 
 
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