From: "Harald Beyer-Arnesen" <haraldba-AT-online.no>
Subject: AUT: Re: Trotsky, Cohn-Bendit
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 08:27:53 +0200



----- Original Message -----
From: "Nate Holdren" <nateholdren-AT-hotmail.com>
To: <aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: 16. oktober 2002 04.16
Subject: AUT: Trotsky, Cohn-Bendit


> Greetings listmates-
> I'm reading Cohn-Bendit's _Obsolete Communism_ (yes I know about his later
> carreer, no diatribes please).
> He quotes Trotsky saying all these horrible things, it's really great, but
> he doesn't cite a source or anything, other than remarks Trotsky made to
> some party congress (#9 I think) and that he wrote some of this in
> DIctatorship vs Democracy, which I can't find.
>
> Leon says things like "the workers must not be allowed to roam all over
> Russia. They must be sent where they are needed, called up and directed
like
> soldiers. Labour must be directed most intensely during the transition of
> capitalism to socialism" and ....

I had decided to keep out of this thread this time. Actually I also
think you would do better to learn and understand the history,
but ...  as I am sure you do not need me to tell you that, and I
suspect that the quote from the English translation of
Cohn Bendit's  book is not translated directly from Russian
but from French, I'll reproduce the extraxt given in Robert
Vincent Daniels: "The Conscience of the Revolution. Communist
Opposition in Soviet Russia" (Westview Press, 1988),
page 121. It also put it somewhat more in context. It is by the
way from Trotsky's speech 30. March 1920 at the 9th party
congress

"If we seriously speak of planned economy, which is to acquire its unity of
purpose from the center, when labor forces are assigned
in accordance with the economic plan at the given stage of developement, the
working masses cannot be left wandering all over
Russia. They must be thrown here and there, appointed, commanded, just like
soldiers".  It is in the same speech, he says "Desertes from labour
ought to to be formed into punitive battalions or put into
concentration camps".

Actually § 9 of a decree, signed by a certain Lenin, from 14 November
1919 already stated  that:

"Particular obstructive workers who refuse to submit to disciplinary
measures will be subject, as non-workers, to discharge and
confinement in concentration camps."

     (James Bunyan: "The Origin of Forced Labor in the Soviet State,
    1917-1921. Documents and Materials" (John Hopkins Press,1967),
     page 88; and George Legget: "The Cheka: Lenin's politcal police"
    (Clarendon Press, rev.utg. 1986), page 179)

Earlier that year, on April 15,  Izvestiya had printed the decree for
the establishing of self-financing, forced labour camps in all
Soviet provinces, intended for workers who did not follow labour
regulations. First try at escaping increased the sentence tenfold,
and second try could be punished by death. The camps were
initially run by the Cheka, who also had the "adminstrative right"
to confine workers to both kinds of camps. The concentratizion
camps, which had been establsihed during the period of Red
Terror the year before, were unlike the forced labour camps, first
put in use for emplyees, and such categories as "gentlemen without
employment". A decree of 19 November 1919 had also imposed
forced labour and old feudal transport duties in the country-
side. § 8 stated: "If necessary, Internal Securty Troops [VOKhR]
as well as local Extraordinary Commisions [the Chekas] will be
called upon to render energetic assistance to organs of the
People Commisariat for Internal Affairs in enforcing compulsory
labour regulations." )

In the book "Terrorism and Communism" Trotsky states,
among other things that: "The principle of compulsory labor
is absolutely beyond dispute for a communist". And. "The
only practical solution of the economic difficulties is to
view the population of the entire country as a reservoir of
labor power - almost an inexhaustable source - and to
introduce strict order into the registration, mobilzation, and
utilization of that labor power ..."

Another book not mentioned which has longer extracts
opf Trotsky quotes us Isaac Deutscher's: "Soviet Trade
Unions: Their Place in Soviet Labour Policy" (Royal
Institute of International Affairs, 1950)

There you also find this bit on "workers democracy" by
Trotsky at 10th. Party Congress (8.-16. March 1921)

"The Workers' opposition has come out with dangerous
slogans, making a fetish of democratic principles. They
place the workers' right to elect their their representatives
above the party, as if the party were not entitled to assert
its dictatorship even if that dictatorship temporarily
clashed with the passing moods of workers' democracy"

Actually this "passing mood" had lasted since the spring
of 1918. But this is a long history that began early, and is
far worse than the above quotes indicate. And Lenin was
just as much directly implicated as Trotsky.

Personnally I find this extract from a report  presented by a
high ranking soviet bureaucrat at the 8th Soviet Congress
in December 1920 quite instructive in revealing some of
the mindset:

"We started with free employment and, through a number
of stages, made the transition to mass labor mobilization,
based on the principle of universal compulsory labor. This
enabled us to enlist and distribute the labor force on all-
national scale and in the interest of the national economy
as a whole, which was being organized on a new foundation...
Step by step the entire labor force of the country became
encompassed by a single leadership and principle. The
labor force of the Republic was nationalized and, having
become the property (sobstvennost) of the state, was carrying
out the orders and the objectives of the state. As this process
of socialization of the labor force was taking place, a single
organ was established to consolidate this colossal work...
which paves the way to the communist organization of labor."

    A.Anikst, Organizatsiya rabochey sily v 1920 godu, Moscow
    1929, page 63.  In James Bunyan: "The Origin of Forced Labor
    in the Soviet State, 1917-1921: Documents and Materials "
    (John Hopkins Press, 1967) page v.

Notice that he says that "the labor force ... was nationalized"
and had "become the property (sobstvennost) of the state".
Apart from that it was mostly the organization of death and
exploitation, paving the way to massive famine.

This is history now. But these are none the less a few of
many good reasons why Leninism stinks, and as long
people keep on celebrating  Red Fascism and
counter-revolutionary leaders ...


Harald























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