The Militant - November 27, 2006 -- Trotsky: War, fascism, and the U.S. class struggle

Vol. 70/No. 45 November 27, 2006

Trotsky: War, fascism, and the U.S. class struggle
(Books of the Month column)

Below is an excerpt from Writings of Leon Trotsky [1939-40], one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month for November. The 12th of 14 volumes, it contains pamphlets, interviews, articles, letters, and statements to the press written during the Russian revolutionary leader’s exile in Mexico from the Soviet Union. The collection covers his writings from 1929 until his assassination at Joseph Stalin's orders in 1940. The excerpt printed here is from a discussion held with Trotsky on Aug. 7, 1940, on a range of questions about the class struggle in the United States. Copyright © 1997 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.

LEON TROTSKY
Question: How will the backwardness of the United States working class advance or retard the growth of fascism?

TROTSKY: The backwardness of the United States working class is only a relative term. In many very important respects it is the most progressive working class of the world: technically, and in its standard of living.

We can look forward now to a change in the economic situation of the United States—a very brusque change, and then when the war comes, to the misery which will follow. Even now, under the program of militarization, with millions upon millions thrown into the war machine, the rapid lowering of the standard of living for the working class will produce a very rapid change of mind in the American workers.

The American worker is very combative—as we have seen during the strikes. They have had the most rebellious strikes in the world. What the American worker misses is a spirit of generalization, or analysis, of his class position in society as a whole. This lack of social thinking has its origin in the country's whole history—the Far West with the perspective of unlimited possibilities for everyone to become rich, etc. Now all that is gone, but the mind remains in the past. Idealists think the human mentality is progressive, but in reality it is the most conservative element of society. Your technique is progressive but the mentality of the worker lags far behind. Their backwardness consists of their inability to generalize their problem; they consider everything on a personal basis.

Now, the war will teach the American workers social thinking. The economic crisis has already begun and in the CIO we see the first reaction of the workers—confused but important. They begin to feel themselves as a class; they see ten to fourteen millions of unemployed, etc. Now the war will continue to teach them social thinking, and this means revolutionary thinking.

About fascism. In all the countries where fascism became victorious, we had, before the growth of fascism and its victory, a wave of radicalism of the masses; of the workers and the poorer peasants and farmers, and of the petty-bourgeois class. In Italy, after the war and before 1922, we had a revolutionary wave of tremendous dimensions; the state was paralyzed, the police did not exist, the trade unions could do anything they wanted—but there was no party capable of taking the power. As a reaction came fascism.

In Germany the same. We had a revolutionary situation in 1918; the bourgeois class did not even ask to participate in the power. The Social Democrats paralyzed the revolution. Then the workers tried again in 1922-23-24. This was the time of the bankruptcy of the Communist Party—all of which we have gone into before. Then in 1929-30-31 the German workers began again a new revolutionary wave. There was a tremendous power in the communists and in the trade unions, but then came the famous policy of social fascism, a policy invented to paralyze the working class. Only after these three tremendous waves, did fascism become a big movement. There are no exceptions to this rule—fascism comes only when the working class shows complete incapacity to take into its own hands the fate of society.

In the United States you will have the same thing. Already there are fascist elements, and they have of course the examples of Italy and Germany. They will therefore work in a more rapid tempo. But you also have the examples of other countries. The next historic waves in the United States will be waves of radicalism of the masses; not fascism. Of course the war can hinder the radicalization for some time but then it will give to the radicalization a more tremendous tempo and swing. The war cannot organically change developments but only retard them for some time—and then give them a push. War, as we have said before, is only the continuation of politics by other means. In this sense, I am sure you will have many possibilities to win the power in the United States before the fascists can become a dominant force.

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