The recent trial of Basque nationalists and the assassination of Pierre Laporte both bring up the question of the attitude of Marxists towards terrorism as a [illegible]. Most of the commonly quoted Marxist writings on the subject [illegible] political considerations. For example, Trotsky's testimony to the Dewey Commission was concerned to rebuff charges that he was supporting terror as a political tactic against the Stalinist leadership inside the USSR. He therefore stated very clearly the arguments against terror as a political weapon while he did not discuss to the same extent the position of solidarity which Marxists adopt towards, for example, oppressed national groups who resort to the use of terror against their imperialist rulers. Similarly Lenin's polemics with the Narodniks were heavily influenced by the need to combat the view that terror was in itself a sufficient weapon to change society. For this reason we print here two short articles by Lenin and Trotsky on the subject of terror which were written in very different circumstances. Both articles show that the attitude of Marxists towards terror and towards terrorists is far [illegible] presented by those who condemn terrorist actions and forget the obligation of Marxists to defend those who are struggling against exploitation and [illegible] even when those actually engaged in the struggle adopt methods which Marxists know will not attain the aims which are being fought for.
TROTSKY: FOR GRYNSZPAN
This article was written by Trotsky on the occassion of the trial of Herschel Grynszpan, who killed a Nazi official in the German Embassy in Paris on 7th November 1938. His trial was postponed indefinitly when France and Germany declared war in 1939. After the occupation of France, he was transferred to a concentration camp in Germany and his subsequent fate is unknown.
[Reprinted from Socialist Appeal, 14th February 1939.]
It is clear to anyone even slightly acquainted with political history that the policy of the Fascist gangsters directly and sometimes deliberately provokes terrorist acts. What is most astonishing is that so far there has been only one Grynszpan. Undoubtedly the number of such acts will increase. We Marxists consider the tactic of individual terror inexpedient in the tasks of the liberating struggle of the proletariat as well as oppressed nationalities. A single isolated hero cannot replace the masses. But we understand only too clearly the inevitability of such convulsive acts of despair and vengeance. All our emotions, all our sympathies are with the self-sacrificing avengers even though they have been unable to discover the correct road. Our sympathy becomes intensified because Grynszpan is not a political militant but an inexperienced youth, almost a boy, whose only counsellor was a feeling of indignation. To tear Grynszpan out of the hands of capitalist justice, which is capable of chopping off his head to further serve capitalist diplomacy, is the elementary, immediate task of the international working class!
THE STALINIST CAMPAIGN
All the more revolting in its police stupidity and inexpressible violence is the campaign now being conducted against Grynszpan by command of the Kremlin in the international Stalinist press. They attempt to depict him as an agent of the Nazis or an agent of Trotskyists in alliance with the Nazis. Lumping into one heap the provocateur and his victim, the Stalinists ascribe to Grynszpan the intention of creating a favourable pretext for Hitler's pogrom measures. What can one say of these venal "Journalists" who no longer have any vestiges of shame? Since the beginning of the socialist movement the bourgeoisie has at all times attributed all violent demonstrations of indignation, particularly terrorist acts, to the degenerating influence of Marxism. The Stalinists have inherited, here as elsewhere, the filthiest tradition of reaction. The Fourth International may, justifiably, be proud that the reactionary scum, including the Stalinists, now automatically links with the Fourth International every bold action and protest, every indignant outburst, every blow at the executioners.
It was so, similarly, with the International of Marx in its time. We are bound, naturally, by ties of open moral solidarity to Grynszpan and not his "democratic" jailers, or the Stalinist slanderers, who need Grynszpan's corpse to prop up, even if only partially and indirectly, the verdicts of Moscow justice. Kremlin diplomacy, degenerated to its marrow, attempts at the same time to utilise this "happy" incident to renew their machinations for an international agreement among various governments, including that of Hitler and Mussolini, for a mutual extradition of terrorists. Beware, masters of fraud! The application of such a law will necessitate the immediate deliverance of Stalin to at least a dozen foreign governments.
The Stalinists shriek in the ears of the police that Grynszpan attended "meetings of Trotskyites". That, unfortunately, is not true. For had he walked into the milieu of the Fourth International he would have discovered a different and more effective outlet for his revolutionary energy. People come cheap who are only capable of fulminating against injustice and bestiality. But those who, like Grynszpan, are able to act as well as conceive, sacrificing their own lives if need be, are the precious leaven of [illegible].
SEEK ANOTHER ROAD
In the moral sense, although not for his mode of action, Grynszpan may serve as an example for every young revolutionist. Our open moral solidarity with Grynszpan gives us an added right to say to all the other would-be Grynszpans, to all those capable of self-sacrifice in the struggle against despotism and bestiality: Seek another road! Not the lone avenger can free the oppressed but only a great revolutionary movement of the masses which will leave no remnant of the entire structure of class exploitation, national oppression and racial persecution. The unprecedented crimes of fascism create a yearning for vengeance wholly justifiable. But so monstrous is the scope of their crimes, that this yearning cannot be satisfied by the assassination of isolated fascist bureaucrats. For that it is necessary to set in motion millions, ten and hundreds of millions of the oppressed throughout the whole world and lead them in the assault upon the strongholds of the old society. Only the overthrow of all forms of slavery, only the complete destruction of fascism, only the people sitting in merciless judgement over the contemporary bandits and gangsters can provide real satisfaction to the indignation of the people. This is precisely the task that the Fourth International has set itself. It will cleanse the labour movement of the plague of Stalinism. It will rally in its ranks the heroic generation of the youth. It will cut a path to a worthier and a more humane future.
LENIN: ON THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE AUSTRIAN PRIME MINISTER
The following extract is from a letter Lenin wrote to Franz Korttschoner in October 1916. It deals with the attempted assassination of the Austrian Prime Minister. Notable is the way in which Lenin attacks terrorist action but at the same time emphasises that for Marxists the question of individual terrorism is a purely tactical question and it is for tactical reasons only that he does not support the attempted assassination. He also stresses, in a section of the letter we have not included, the necessity for conducting a defence of the attempted assassin. He therefore finishes the letter by stating that, "I fear that the Austrian Government will pronounce Frederich Adler insane, and will not allow a trial. But if he is brought to trial then a distribution of leaflets must be organised without fail."
I would ask you to send us information about Friedrich Adler's action [attempted assassination of the Austrian Prime Minister, Count Sturg, 21 Oct., 1916).
The local papers here (the "Berner Tagwacht" and "Volksreicht"; do you receive both, or neither?) extol this act. "Avanti" (do you ever see it?) says Friedrich Adler is the author of the well-known manifesto of the Austrian Internationalists. Is that so? And how can one speak openly about it?
(1) Did Friedrich Adler mention his plan to anyone?
(2) Did he hand over to some friend his documents, letters and announcements so that they might be published later on?
(3) Is it true (as the Vienna "Arbeiter Zeitung" says) that he was in the minority everywhere (in the Railway Club and other places), and how great was that minority?
(4) Is it true that his position in the organisation became "intolerable"?
(5) Did he have only seven votes to support him at the last Party Conference?
(6) At the last two meetings of trusted members [the Social Democratic Party Executive] he very bluntly attacked the Party and demanded demonstrations (and what sort of demonstrations?).
Please write as fully as possible about these questions and send more information to me about Friedrich Adler. Unless you give us special instructions, we shall print in our newspapers everything we receive from you (and we shall also publish it in the local German press, as our editorial material).
As far as the political value of this act is concerned, we obviously keep to our confirmed opinion, based on many years' experience, that individual terroristic acts are impractical means of political strife.
"Killing is no murder" our old "Iskra" (No. 20) said about terroristic acts. We do not at all oppose political killing (in this sense, the servile written statements of the Opportunists in "Vorwarts" and the Vienna "Arbeiter Zeitung" are simply revolting), but as revolutionary tactics, individual attempts are both impractical and harmful. It is only a mass movement that can be considered to be a real political struggle. Individual terroristic acts can be, and must be, helpful, only when they are directly linked with the mass movement. In Russia the terrorists (against whom we always fought) made a number of such attempts, but in December, 1905, when the cause had at last reached the point of being a mass movement, a rising, and when it was necessary to help the masses to use force, then the terrorists were not there to do it. That is where the terrorists fail!