With the Masses in the War
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-06-03Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 13 →
A letter, signed Richard Dean, Oxford. Transcribed from the scan of page 13 (23 Oct 2026) after a reader report: the machine split had run the five pieces on this page together.
Proofed text: read against the scan word by word; spelling, punctuation and wording are as printed.
Scan page 13
I REFER to Donnie Brooks' letter in last week's Socialist Organiser entitled "Wrenching quotes from Trotsky". The purpose of the letter was to discredit the quotes from Trotsky used by the vast majority of the Trotskyist movement to illustrate Trotsky's view that it is sometimes necessary to support reactionary third world regimes when they are attacked by imperialism.
Comrade Brooks uses the usual method of discrediting historical quotes by asserting that they are "out of date", "torn out of context" or whatever.
Naturally all historical quotes have the weakness caused by the passage of time. Certainly there can be no perfect parallels. The point however is whether they hold true or not and in this case they undoubtedly do.
Repeatedly, on numerous conflicts and projections — China, Brazil and Mexico — Trotsky argues that it is perfectly possible to stand on the side of a reactionary regime which is thrown into conflict with imperialism.
The similarities or otherwise between the Falkland war and the Japanese invasion of China can be debated. What cannot be debated is that Trotsky stood on the side of the Chiang Kai Shek regime. He did not start with the nature of China's regime, but its relationship to imperialism.
Leadership
Starting from that position, Trotsky concluded that in such a war revolutionaries must work and organise within the anti-imperialist masses in order to fight to re-establish themselves in the leadership of the masses.
This is where Socialist Organiser's position of defeatism on both sides, which comrade Brooks implicitly defends, is so dangerous. In Argentina, SO calls for the working class to fight against the war, in other words against the aspirations of the anti-imperialist masses.
It would call for the blacking of supplies to the war effort and for the withdrawal of the Argentine troops from the Falklands in the face of the British offensive — which would hand victory on a plate to Thatcher.
Such a position is alright if like SO you are neutral on the war. But in Argentina and in Latin America as a whole, it would isolate revolutionaries for many years to come.
Revolutionaries in Argentina should follow Trotsky's advice (even if it was written as long ago as the Transitional Programme) and fight for leadership inside the anti-imperialist masses. Only in that way can they turn it into a real struggle not only against imperialism but against Galtieri and Argentine capitalism.
RICHARD DEAN, Oxford