Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index
Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
From The New International, Vol. XI No. 9, December 1945, p. 258.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The Correction published in the preceding issue concerning the article by Comrade Arlins on the International Significance of the English Elections, seems to have created the unfortunate impression that the Editorial Board takes no responsibility for the article. This is not the case. The Workers Party, and the Editorial Board of The New International, have not yet taken a position, one way or the other, on the specific theory of Comrade Arlins and the comrades of the German section of the Fourth International (IKD) which is commonly referred to as the “theory of retrogression.” This fact was, as our readers know, indicated in the editorial preface to the document of the German comrades, Capitalist Barbarism or Socialism which we printed as a special supplement in October 1944. It is primarily in so far as Comrade Arlins’ article deals with the theory of retrogression that the Correction referred to it as a discussion article. In the same sense, other articles on the same subject will be printed in forthcoming issues – including an article by Comrade J.R. Johnson – as discussion articles. However, in so far as the Arlins article dealt with the national question, we find its position entirely in harmony with our own, again as indicated in our October 1944 preface. A similar harmony of views between us and the German comrades exists in the general estimate of the significance of the English elections and the task of the British Trotskyists. The same may be said about the criticisms made by Comrade Arlins, regardless of their severity, of the political course of the official Fourth International in Europe and in particular the course of the SWP majority. – The Editor
Main NI Index | Main Newspaper Index
Encyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet Archive
Last updated on 18 November 2016