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From Socialist Appeal, Vol. III No. 85, 7 November 1939, p. 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Additional proof of the Stalinist support of Hitler in the present war is supplied by a recent article of Harry Gannes. (Daily Worker, October 20, 1939).
In his zealous defense of the Communist Party’s policies of yesterday and today, Gannes succeeds in showing how at each stage his party’s course is determined by the reactionary needs of the Kremlin bureaucracy.
Before the outbreak of the present war, the apologist explains, the task was the establishment of a “peace front” of England, France and the Soviet Union against fascist aggression. If war had resulted from this alliance “two factors would then have existed which do not and cannot exist in the present war. First, the alliance would have had a genuine defense program against aggression”; and second:
“The whole character of the war by virtue of the action of the Land of Socialism would have changed the character of such a war, limited the objectives of the Anglo-French imperialists and worked against their domination of the world.”
In other words, if Russia were allied with Anglo-French imperialism in the present war it would be the duty of the working class in all countries, according to Gannes, to support their respective reactionary governments in the war. And therefore if tomorrow the Stalin-Hitler alliance is replaced by a Stalin alliance with the “democracies” the Communist Party will once again become the staunchest supporter of Chamberlain, Daladier, Roosevelt and the pro-“democratic” warmongers.
In such a war however, would these robber governments cease being imperialist, predatory regimes? Gannes contends that their imperialist aims would be “limited” by the Soviet Union. How? Would they liberate the hundreds of millions of colonial peoples they now oppress? Would England for example, give national independence to the Indian people? Would Roosevelt end his brutal military domination over Puerto Rico? Would Stalin force the British and French armies to bring national freedom to the oppressed peoples of Europe? What poppycock! Look at how Stalin’s ally, Hitler, is “liberating” the Polish people!
If Russia were allied to England and France, the only limitation on their war aims – as is clear from Gannes’ own analysis – would be that at that particular moment they would not be attacking Russia. Their war would still be reactionary, imperialist. For from the viewpoint of the class conscious workers these governments can conduct only a reactionary war which can have nothing in common with genuine democratic and working class interests and aims.
How hypocritical therefore is the present Stalinist “support” to the growing movement for Indian liberation! If Stalin were united with Chamberlain in the war, the Communist would be in the forefront of the suppression of the colonial revolt. Their struggle “against imperialism” is obviously motivated exclusively by the fact that Stalin is on the other side of the struggle. That is why they condemn the military enemies of Stalin and Hitler, and defend the Stalinazi war alliance and “peace” plea.
Gannes makes this crystal clear when, after stating that “both sides” in the present war are responsible for its outbreak, England and France alone are responsible for its continuation. The Soviet Union (and thereby the Communist Party), he writes, “accuses Anglo-French imperialism of bearing the responsibility for continuing the war ...” Hitler is exonerated from responsibility for the continuation of the war because he offered “peace”! What a shameful defense of Hitler! The whole world knows that Hitler sued for “peace” because he had already achieved his immediate aim (the conquest of Poland), and also because he wanted to show the German people that he was being forced to fight against his will.
Gannes adds that “the Anglo-French warmakers hoped by war to reshuffle the German ruling reactionary cliques in order to bring about another more dependable anti-Soviet set-up.” Isn’t this a good basis for a united front with Hitler against Chamberlain and the “more dependable (German) anti-Soviet” clique? Tomorrow we may be told more openly that Hitler is fighting a defensive war against the anti-Soviet forces and therefore should be supported by the workers of the world. The unscrupulous henchmen of Stalin are ready to corral the masses for any dirty job assigned to them by their master.
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Last updated: 14 April 2018