The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 1, 1927, Page 8

Trotsky Speaks to American Delegation- The Interview with Leon Trotsky (Continued from page 1) reasons fer this. The first reason is that our whole - social system has existed only ten years, whereof the first few were years of civil war. The second reason has already been mentioned, namely, mutual distrust engendered by the contrast between our social systems. The third reason is the extreme disorganization of the world market and the extreme instability of international and national economic conditions. When in Germany huge firms like the Stinnes’ Company collapse, the matter is regarded as quite in order. When hundreds of big firms re- cently collapsed in Japan, the event was regarded as a normal phenomenon. If, however. a foreign concession holder in our country does not happen to make a three-fold profit right away, the fact serves very well as proof of lack of vitality in the economic system of the Soviet Union. The fifteenth question: “What are the tasks of the Soviet Govern- ment in the matter of foreign policy?” Our first task is the preservation and prolonga- tion of peace. We believe that we share this task with the working masses of the whole world. If anybody asserts in the bourgeois press that a por- tion of our Party desires peace, while the other portion wants war, we would advise you not to give credence to the imputation. The effort to maintain peace is founded upon the principles of our system as a workers’ and peasants’ State and is to us a law of social and cultural self-preservation. The sixteenth question is: “Can the Soviet Union catch up with the progressive capitalist countries, and within how long?” That we are making progress is proved by facts. We have no doubt that we shall continue to make progress. That portion of the national income which formerly went to the monarchy, the nobility and the bourgeoisie can now be used mainly for the develop- ment of productive forces and,for raising the mate- rial and cultural level of the working masses. The centralized economie management creates gigantic advantages. Can we catch up technically and cul- turally with the capitalistic countries and within what period? This question cannot be answered off hand, especially in regard to the matter of time. The distance between us and the leading capitalist States is still very considerable. Our task consists of the proper exploitation, in the first place, of the - means we have at home and then of sources of help abroad, which the international capital and goods market—-not, of course, gratis—can open to us, thereby year by year reducing this distance. Be- fore answering the question of how iong it will take us to catch up with the capitalistic countries, one should know what is going to happen to these countries in the meanwhile. They are not halting ata particular spot and waiting for us to overtake them. At the moment, capitalist countries in Europe have about reached their economic level of pre-war times. At the same time, the fight for sales markets and sources of raw material has again broken out in a more acute form, i. e., the same fight as thirteen years ago led to the imperialist war. In the capitalist coun- tries further promotion of the productive forces will automatically entail a fresh war, and the new war will bring about revolution, first of all in Europe— the United States still have a respite. In general, the coming epoch will be an epoch of tremendous economic and social upheavals. It is difficult to predict at what technical and cultural level the capi- talist countries will come to a halt. One thing, how- ever, can be said: Successful revolution, say in Ger- many or in England or | still more throughout Europe, will in conjunction with our Soviet system and our natural wealth extraordinarily accelerate in this country, as also in Germany and England and the whole of Europe, the development of pro- ductive forces on a new, socialistic basis. Such a development of events would naturally hasten the revolution in the United States and snorten the re- spite which history has granted to it. e. This result will be all the more surely and com- pletely achieved as we progress more successfully in the course of socialist development, without wait- ing passively for the proletarian revolution in Europe and still less with folded arms for our rec- ognition by capitalist America. To this task—our advance along the path of socialistic construction by the use of our own resources—our greatest ef- forts are devoted. Under Point 17 you ask: Might one say that the living church works hand in hand with the gov- ernment? I very much doubt that that can be said. The Soviet Government does not need the support of a church; on the contrary, it is trying to liberate the workers from every religious influence. As far as the so-called “living church” is concerned, the na- ture of my occupation and of my intellectual inter- ests deprives me of the opportunity of observing it, The eighteenth question: “What is the most importantetask in mat- ters of economy?” The Americanization of our. technics by rein- forcing the foundation of socialism and promoting the welfare of the masses. We should, however, raise no objection to the sovietization of technics in America. If American technics were conjoined to the social system of the Soviets, the result would be a colossal growth of the cultural power of hu- manity in general. Nineteenth question: “What is the most important achievement of Communism in the Soviet Union since 1921-7 During the period since 1921 we have recon- structed our industry and in production as a whole we have about reached pre-war level, Socialism has thereby proved for the first time in the history of mankind its capacity to increase the productive forces of a country. This question is dealt with in a book of mine which has also been published in America, namely, “Towards Socialism or towards Capitalism?” In conjunction with the question of danger of war I would revert to the question of the differences of opinion within our Party. ‘The fact of these dif- ferences of opinion naturally effects public opinion differently in the various classes and various coun- tries. The press makes a sensation out of it. The American press is one of the most prominent in this regard, if not quite the most prominent. You know this better than I. We can only advise you to take the reports of your press with a grain of salt. In the first place, we would ask you to con- vince yourselves during your stay with us that it is a matter of differences of opinion within the same Party as was welded together by the prelude to the THE BRICKLAYER I wander homeward at evening, Fatigue is a comrade who sticks; And my apron sings for the darkness A strong red song of bricks. It sings of my ruddy burden That I carried so high, so high Up to the very housetop, The roof that they calf the sky. My eyes were a carousel turning, The wind had a foggy tone, And morning, too, like a worker, I wander homeward at evening, Fatigue is a comrade who sticks; And my apron sings for the darkness A strong red song of bricks. —_—_—. SS A ata Oe Two Russian Poems of Vasily Kazin illegal fight, by the fights of the October Revolu- tion, by the civil war, by socialistic constructive work and by iron internal discipline. It is not likely that such results will emerge from these differences of opinion as our enemies hope for or might hope for. What separates us is incomparably smaller than that which unites us. Several of the newspa- pers abroad, which are most opposed to us, or most calumnious or most misled in regard to us, have even tried in one way or another to link up the per- spective of war with the struggle within our Party. Such reflections or hopes are fundamentally false; they are a mixture of deceit and stupidity, Our Party, as I have already said,‘is united in its en- deavor to maintain peace. If, however, we are at- tacked for the purpose of preventing the carrying out of socialistic construction and our cultural de- velopment, our Party will fight with the same unanimous enthusiasm as characterized it at the barricades in 1917 and during the civil war of the succeeding years in order to preserve the achieve- ments of the October Revolution. We are still the same revolutionaries who raised the standard of re- volt against absolutism, against the bourgeoisie, against war. And if our enemies believe that in the government offices we have since that time be- come dull-witted and lazy, they will soon discover that they are greatly mistaken, A supplementary question: “Quite apart from any question of internal party policy, we are so greatly interested in the securing of better relations with Russia that we should like to know whether the day has not arrived on which Soviet -Russia may allow freedom of opinion not only to workers but also to those who are not in agreement with the policy of the government?” We would sign such an undertaking today, if those here present would sign a parallel undertak- ing to the effect that throughout the world our enemies, who have at their disposal immense ma- terial means, would not interfere in our internal life for the purpose of helping the exploiting classes to overthrow the Soviet system and bring the coun- try back into the path of capitalism. When; about the middle of the last century, the American radicals were fighting against the slave- owners in the southern states for the abolition of slavery, there were, not only in the south but also THE CARPENTER’S PLANE. Smoothly riding, Bravely gliding, Like a swan my plane swims by. Now she hurries Thru the flurries Of the shavings as they fly. Sail unbowed one, Proud one, proud one, Though the river-road be rough. Warmth is streaming Through the creaming Waves of shavings that you slough. Now she’s sweeping Past the leaping Swishing waterfalls with ease. * Ah, my beauty, Do your duty, While the foam seethes round my knees, Vasily Vasilevich Kazin (Born 1898) A graduate of the literary studio of the Moscow Proletkult over by Andrey Bely, Kazin is a charter member of the association of proletarian writers founded in Moscow in 1920, w! name of Kuznitza (Smithy). He published one and a long poem in 1926, He has taken part Movement. —Poems and biographical note reprinted courtesy, of the In- ternational Publishers, N. Y., from th aeoy teed "ea Poetry—An An * chosen and trans by Deutsch and Avrahm Yarmolinsky. Carried up a red brick of its own. ee) am eee oe, nen Babette