FOR THE
REVOLUTIONARY PROGRAM OF OCTOBER!
{The following is the text of a declaration issued November 6 by the United Secretariat of the Fourth International, the world party of socialist revolution founded by Leon Trotsky in 1938.]
* * *
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the October revolution -- an immensely important historical event that continues as a powerful impulse to this very day. The Russian proletariat, led by its revolutionary party, the Bolshevik party, took power and established the first workers state in the history of mankind. A new chapter opened in the struggle to end the exploitation of man by man.
For the world revolutionary movement the celebration of this event goes far beyond any formal ceremony or tribute to the material progress of the USSR. We can neither hide nor ignore the confrontation that exists between most of humanity and the forces of a still dominant imperialism today. While the domain of capitalism has been considerably narrowed since October 1917, it has succeeded in developing in compensation ever more deadly instruments of mass destruction and ever more subtle means to demoralize and neutralize its opponents. To say that these will not succeed against the evergrowing army of resistance is not to say that they cannot make this struggle more costly and more protracted than it need be.
And for this reason above all, this year's celebration of October must begin with an appreciation of things as they are -- the actual world battleground on which the great gains of the October revolution are not the least of the stakes. We find nothing in common with those who mount the commemorative platform to pay ritual homage to a revolution fifty years ago and mouth meaningless pacifist prayers to "peaceful coexistence," in their eyes the alpha and omega of all wisdom. It is fitting that they share the platform with the declared and undeclared enemies of October.
The Bolshevik leadership of October were men of a different caliber -they were revolutionists. They had no illusion about the task they began. They said that oppressed humanity must take the road of armed revolt against their oppressors. Having said this they took the responsibility to lead the armed workers and peasants and establish the Soviet power. The word and deed were in perfect harmony. This was the essence of October's lessons. The Bolsheviks understood the reality of our time and recognized that either humanity took the road of permanent revolution or there would be a permanent slaughter of humanity. Is there any doubt that the balance sheet of the past fifty years has proved them right? Need we recapitulate the heavy losses in life, the agony and suffering that were paid for the mistakes and betrayals of the bureaucracy that usurped October and their counterparts in the West? Cannot this be considered the true payment for the illusion of accommodation with imperialism? In our time the emergence of the workers state of Cuba, led by a revolutionary leadership that took the road of armed struggle, shows most dramatically that the fundamental lessons of the October revolution live on in an increasing number of revolutionists.
For us today the celebration of October has two aspects. In the first place it consists of real and actual participation in the confrontation between the American imperialist colossus and the Vietnamese liberation fighters, in the struggle between the gathering forces of revolt in the western hemisphere and the Pentagon. This mortal combat has direct bearing on the fate of the already established workers states, including the Soviet Union itself. Can any but the most blind "peaceful coexistence" worshipper doubt that an imperialist victory in Vietnam today would pose an immediate threat to the Chinese workers state, to Cuba and eventually to the Soviet Union itself? In face of this we must say again and again: the failure of the Soviet leadership to make an unambiguous declaration of solidarity with China in the event of an attack constitutes the greatest encourage-— ment to the American counterrevolutionary strategy. True heirs of Stalin, they are moved by the same fears, the same myopia, the same narrow and conservative selfinterest. They constitute a source of great danger to the world revolutionary struggle as well as the future of the Soviet Union itself.
The second aspect of our appreciation of October on its fiftieth anniversary is an increased vigor in the struggle for the defense of the ideological and political heritage of the October pioneers against all bureaucratic and opportunistic deformation and betrayal. A new generation of Soviet workers and intellectuals are pressing to bring this bureaucracy to account. We need only note the intense interest shown in the new literature that seeks to "tell it how it is." The response of the bureaucracy in tightening the censorship and repression of writers like Alexander Solzhenitsyn mocks the fiftieth anniversary of October. The new spirit of independence and unquenchable thirst for the truth is making its
way inside the Soviet Union and the other bureaucratized workers states. Above all on this anniversary the demand must be raised to restore the writings of the Bolshevik pioneers to the new generation. Down with the censorship. Lift the ban on the rich heritage of October contained in the speeches and writings of Leon Trotsky, Zinoviev, Bukharin, etc.
The hateful police controls that weigh so heavily upon the Soviet people are the ugly heritage of the Stalin epoch. Together with all the other filth of bureaucratic oppression and privilege, they must be swept away by a political revolution. The time is at hand to restore the Soviet democracy that marked the early years of the Soviet power. In its place must come an even higher level of proletarian democracy that puts the planned economy and the state under workers management. This will release a great surge of creative energy and genuine enthusiasm that will in its effect be a decisive blow to the domination of world imperialism. It will remove the demoralizing taint of Stalinist thought and practice that has been used so effectively in the West to discredit the program of October
in the eyes of the Western working class.
It will, at one blow, rob the treacherous
labor bureaucracy of the West of its
single most important weapon and mark the
end of its influence and control. It will
mark the forging of an invincible alli-
ance between the Soviet masses and their
power with the overwhelming majority of
mankind. This bright prospect is on the
horizon. Its realization is within the
grasp of this generation.
The Fourth International makes
this appeal to the Soviet masses and to
the world proletariat in order that the
celebration of October may be used as a
revolutionary weapon to assist in the
building and strengthening of revolu-
tionary leadership throughout the world.
Long live the October revolution!
Long live the revolutionary fight-
ers of all the world!
Long live the revolutionary pro-
gram of Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolshevik
team of October!