[Marxism opposes Individual Terrorism, London ²1982, p. 1-8]
We are reprinting here three articles on the socialist case against terrorism which are of great relevance today and should be of considerable interest to active members of the labour movement.
The first article, “Why Marxists Oppose Individual Terrorism“ by Leon Trotsky, first appeared in Der Kampf (Struggle), the theoretical monthly of the Austrian Social Democratic Party, which at that time claimed to base itself on Marxism. The second article, “The Bankruptcy of Terrorism“, also by Leon Trotsky, first appeared in the Polish social democratic paper, “Przegląd Socjaldemokratyczny“, in May 1909.
The third article reprinted here, “Marxism Opposes Individual Terrorism“ by Peter Taaffe (Editor of “Militant“), which relates the fundamental ideas dealt with in Trotsky’s articles to present-day developments and problems, was first printed in the British “Militant” No, 278 (7 November 1975).
The march of events in Ireland, Spain, Argentina, Italy and other countries has confirmed the analysis made in this article. In Ireland, the blind alley of individual terrorism has been confirmed again and again. Yet in the wake of the hunger strike and subsequent death of Bobby Sands and other Republican prisoners, the Provisional IRA leadership have resorted once again to individual terrorism.
A bombing campaign has been conducted in British cities. There has been a systematic shooting campaign against policemen, troops, Ulster Defence Regiment men etc. in Northern Ireland. This was followed in November 1981 with the assassination of Unionist MP Robert Bradford. This action clearly demonstrated that at least a section of the Provisional IRA leadership were prepared to push Northern Ireland to the brink of civil war. It seems that the Provo leadership imagines that out of the ashes of a civil war, a united Ireland will arise. They have learnt nothing from the bloody experience of the last 12 years in Northern Ireland.
Either a situation similar to the Lebanon, particularly Beirut, with a patchwork of Protestant and Catholic enclaves or the outright expulsion of a quarter of a million Catholics would be the result of a civil war. This in turn would set the scene for constant bloody conflict along the lines of Lebanon, that would put in the shade the horror of the last 12 years. The very fact that the Provisional leadership could contemplate taking such a road is itself a confession of the complete failure of its methods and programme. They have abandoned their flirtation with “political action“ proclaimed at the time of the hunger strike.
In the wake of the hunger strike, the statement of the Republican prisoners said “one of the primary lessons to emerge from this second hunger strike, is that the nationalist community (that is the Catholics) is politically inconsequential and impotent in the context of the six county statelet.
“Despite the electoral successes, despite the hundreds of thousands at hunger strikers funerals, despite massive and unprecedented displays of community support and solidarity, the British government adhered rigidly to the precept that ‚might is right‘ and set about hammering home the point that nothing is really changed since the fall of Stormont, or from the inception of this state. That is nationalist Ireland must always be subjected to the British and Loyalist veto.“
How prophetic was Trotsky when he wrote: “By its very essence terroristic work demands such concentrated energy for the ‚great moment‘, such an overestimation of the significance of individual terrorism, and finally, such a “hermetic“ conspiracy, that – if not logically, then psychologically – it totally excludes agitational and organisational work among the masses.“
In the wake of the hunger strike this has precisely been the approach of the Provisional IRA leadership. We commented at the time on this statement of the Provos, “what is this but a confession of failure?“
“For more than ten years of the Provos‘ ‚military‘ campaign, they have failed in two key objectives. They have failed to undermine the power of the capitalist state in Northern Ireland, and they have failed to mobilise even the Catholic working class of the North into a force capable of achieving real change.“ (“Militant“ 16th October 1981).
Does the above statement of the Provos not also indicate that the Provo leadership have completely written off the Catholic working class of the North of Ireland? We predicted from the outset that this would be the logic of the Provisional’s campaign.
Their campaign, far from undermining the British state, or the British ruling class, has enormously reinforced their power in the North and given them the excuse to bolster the forces of repression to be used, not just against the Northern Ireland working class, but at a later stage against the British working class as well.
The assassination of Bradford was calculated to drive the Protestant workers into the arms of reactionary bigots like Paisley. It has given him the perfect excuse to launch his campaign for a “third force“. However, Paisley has not succeeded in capturing mass support from the Protestant working class. His marches and rallies found only a limited echo amongst the working class. It was mostly in the rural areas that support for his mass demonstrations for a ‚third force“ found an echo in November 1981. The right wing loyalist murder gangs were given the excuse to begin an assassination campaign against Catholics. However there is undoubtedly a mood of hostility towards any repeat of the “tit for tat“ murders which plagued Catholic and Protestant workers in the 1970s. Despite the methods of the Provisional IRA, and the activity of loyalist murder gangs and Paisley, if a bold lead was forthcoming from the labour movement the ground would be cut from under the feet of the sectarian bigots.
But the leaders of the trade unions in the North of Ireland have remained completely impotent in the face of this renewed challenge to the labour movement and the lives of Catholic and Protestant workers. And the basis is there for a class campaign to eradicate sectarianism. Despite the recent attention given to sectarian issues, united struggles of Catholic and Protestant workers on class lines are still taking place in Northern Ireland.
In “Militant” (27 November 1981) Peter Hadden, Secretary of Northern Ireland Labour and Trades Union Group, wrote: “Last week, two trades councils called local stoppages and protests. In Derry, the Trades Council organised a protest in support of women occupying a shirt factory threatened by redundancies. Newrey Trades Council organised a successful protest strike against the local ‚Grunwick‘ style employer who had sacked workers for joining a trade union.
“These issues got little or no mention in the press either in Northern Ireland or Britain. The media’s coverage has created a distorted and one sided impression of the situation in Northern Ireland. The potential of the working class movement is generally ignored. This week there was a feast of publicity for Paisley. In contrast there was total media silence on the half day general strike organised by the trade unions against the Tories on 2 April 1980. Yet at that time the major industries were shut. 10,000 Catholic and Protestant workers stood shoulder to shoulder in Belfast. Almost 10,000 – not 600 as on Monday (when Paisley called for a demonstration) – marched in Derry. All over the North there were rallies and demonstrations. It is the trade union movement which has the power to eliminate sectarianism by drawing together both Catholic and Protestant workers in united action.“
In 1981, this was recognised by the British labour and trade union movement. The decision of the Labour Party Conference in October 1981, was a milestone in the attitude of the British working class and labour movement towards Ireland. That conference recognised that only class action, and the formation of a mass Labour Party based on the trade unions in a struggle against capitalism, was capable of eradicating sectarianism. It is towards the working class and an aroused labour movement that the workers in Northern Ireland will turn and not the proponents of individual terrorism in the period that is opening up.
Spain
The baleful effects of terrorism since 1975 have also been shown in a number of other countries. In Spain the threat of a coup against the present semi-democratic regime and a return to dictatorship has been dangled over the heads of the Spanish workers. Moreover, the virtually unreconstructed police and army of the former Franco dictatorship have been allowed to unleash a wave of repression against workers and those in opposition to the regime. In 1981 a young mother had her brains dashed out by a rubber bullet, fired at point blank range during a peaceful demonstration. An unemployed Moroccan labourer was murdered by police in Madrid for no apparent reason. A youth who dared to argue with a policeman in plain clothes was shot down.
The torturers, inherited from the Franco regime, have been able to continue to act with impunity. Thus the policeman responsible for the torturing to death of ETA (Basque terrorist organisation) member Arregui just before the coup of February 1981 was allowed to quietly leave jail. In Almería in the South, three young workers were murdered by the Civil Guard.
They were arrested without warning by the Civil Guard acting on false information that they were members of ETA the Basque terrorist organisation. The police claimed that their car went over a cliff, and ended up at the bottom of a ravine. However, upon examination it was found that all three bodies were riddled with bullets, and one of them had its hands and feet missing!
At the same time, the conspirators involved in the coup of last year have been treated with kid gloves. Tejero, the main conspirator, was kept in Madrid in conditions comparable to a first class hotel. He was allowed at one stage 300 visitors a day, TV and unlimited access to the phone etc. The ultra right army officers who criticised the King and “democracy“ have been slapped gently on the wrists by their superiors and kept in barracks for a couple of weeks.
Other army officers who have looked towards the workers‘ organisations, or criticised the reactionary nature of the police or army tops have been either summarily dismissed from their position or given harsh sentences. Editors of even capitalist newspapers have been given gaol sentences for criticising the King and the army! Add to this the continued repression in the Basque country and it can be seen that fertile soil for terroristic moods exists amongst a section of the youth especially.
However, in Spain individual terrorism offers no way forward for the working class. This has been shown again and again in the course of the last six years. It was not the actions of ETA or the other terrorist groups but the movement of the Spanish working class which shook the Franco regime to its foundations. It was this gigantic movement which compelled the Spanish capitalists to carry through reforms from the top in order to prevent revolution from below.
At the same time, enfeebled Spanish capitalism has only been able to maintain itself because of the complete bankruptcy of the leaders of the workers‘ organisations, of the Socialist Party (PSOE) and the Communist Party (PCE). Lenin pointed out that ultraleftism – and individual terrorism is one expression of this – is payment for the opportunism of the leaders of the Spanish workers‘ organisations – PSOE and PCE – who have acted as a gigantic brake on the movement of the Spanish workers.
They have refused to conduct an energetic campaign against the unbridled terrorism of the capitalist state machine. Yet, when the capitalists have rushed forward with ‚emergency‘ legislation to combat ETA they have enthusiastically supported this legislation. The complete capitulation of the labour leaders was illustrated by the words of Felipe Gonzales (leader of the PSOE) recently when he stated that he would be prepared to support any legislation ‚against terrorism‘ passed by the present (capitalist) goyvernment – even before seeing what its content was.
It is this grovelling before the capitalists which is grist to the mill of the fascists and reactionaries in the army. Only the Spanish Marxist journal ‚Nuevo Claridad‘, has come out with a clear programme for combatting the reactionary and fascist element in the army. It has demanded:
=> A purge of all the fascist elements from the state
=> Disbandment of all fascist bodies, e.g. the Civil Guard and the police
=> People’s trial of all those responsible for fascist atrocities
=> An independent labour tribunal to establish the facts of all these cases.
It has also demanded that the PSOE and the PCE leaders should call a 24 hour general strike in support of these demands. New elections should be held to bring to power a government of the workers‘ parties based on a socialist programme.
At the same time the Spanish Marxists have consistently emphasised the incapacity of the terrorism of the ETA to combat the repression of the Spanish state. On the contrary events have shown that this has played into the hands of reaction and has allowed the Spanish capitalists and the Basque capitalists to bolster the forces of repression. These will be used not just against the guerilla or terrorist groups but against the workers‘ organisations.
Only the mighty Spanish working class organised on a programme for socialist change can defeat reaction and stop in its tracks the conspiracies of Spanish capitalism.
[Italy]
In Italy terrorism is now almost endemic. There were 474 acts of terrorism in 1974, 628 in 1975, 1,198 in 1976, 2,128 in 1977, 2,395 in 1978 (the record year), 2,366 in 1979, 1,264 in 1980 and 791 in the first 11 months of 1981. The terrorists find recruits from the millions of despairing unemployed petty bourgeois youth and also from sections of the lumpen proletariat. The very fact that terrorism can hold some attraction to these youthis itself an annihilating condemnation of the leaders of the Italian labour movement, particularly of the Communist Party leaders. For 12 years now Italy has been in a pre-revolutionary situation. The middle class including the students at first looked towards the CP to show a way out of the organic crisis which has wracked Italy.
Instead the PCI leadership of Berlinguer has propped up one corrupt Christian Democratic government after another. The revulsion at the reformist degeneration of the CP leaders is reflected in the growth of the terrorist organisations.
However the ‚Red Brigades‘ have enormously assisted the Italian capitalists in putting on the statute book ‚anti-terrorist‘ legislation which will come in useful in their confrontation with the powerful Italian labour movement in the next decade. It is from within the workers‘ organisations that a Marxist opposition will come to challenge the reformist leaders of both the CP and the Socialist Party and crisis-ridden Italian capitalism.
[Argentina]
Events in Latin America have also underlined the incapacity of guerillaism or individual terrorism in the struggle against the military dictatorships which straddle virtually the whole continent.
In Argentina, for instance, our prognosis in 1975 has unfortunately been borne out. The regime of Isabel Perón was overthrown and replaced by the bonapartist (military-police dictatorship) regime of General Videla. The imprisonment, murder, and systematic torture of workers, trade unionists, socialists etc, has been pursued by Videla and Viola and Galtieri who followed him. The regime itself admits that at least 10,000 ‚guerrillas‘ were wiped out by it. The real number who perished is probably three or four times this figure. The policies and methods of the ERP and Monteneros contributed to creating the conditions for the Argentinian junta to seize power.
This has created a nightmare for the Argentinian workers and peasants. Mass unemployment, inflation in excess of 100% a year and real hunger is the lot of the majority of Argentinian workers. However, the military dictatorship in Argentina as with the neighbouring regime of Pinochet in Chile is not at all stable.
The movement of the Argentinian workers, who have an enormous revolutionary tradition, will undoubtedly revive in the next period. But if they are to be victorious this time over the Junta and the cabal of big ranchers and capitalists which stands behind them, then the new generation of workers must learn from the events of the past, particularly those leading up to the Generals‘ seizure of power in 1976.
This will show that Marxism and not individual terrorism is the key to the victory of the Argentinian revolution.
The methods of the Montoneros and ERP only facilitated the task of the reaction in wiping out a whole generation of potentially important workers leaders. The development of a powerful Marxist tendency in Argentina as in the rest of Latin America, Africa and Asia is the only guarantee that the mistakes of the past can be absorbed and the working class go on to victory against capitalism in the next period.
Although Britain has escaped the growth of terrorism – excluding the repercussions of terrorism in Ireland – this country will not necessarily be immune in the future. The 1981 riots showed the despair of a generation which is faced with mass and permanent unemployment.
In the wake of these events the semi-official mouthpiece of the capitalists ‚The Times‘ conducted a survey which showed that 30% of the youth believed that “violence was legitimate“ to achieve political ends!
More than half said the economy was not “working“ and moreover there was no hope of any substantial change in the future. This indicates the degree of hopelessness which exists amongst unemployed youth, particularly in the inner-city urban areas.
It is also a criticism of the right wing leaders of the labour movement. If the power of the mighty British labour movement had been deployed – for instance a one day general strike organised by the TUC to oppose Tebbit’s anti-union bill – then the discontent of the youth would have been channelled into a positive campaign to force a general election and bring down the hated Tory government.
It is possible that a section of the youth, despairing of the labour movement ever showing a way out, could take to the road of individual terrorism.
On the other hand the presence of a strong Marxist tendency rooted within the mass organisations of the British workers can act as a powerful antidote to this disease. One of the factors for the growth of terrorism in other countries was the weakness of Marxism.
Therefore the strengthening and building of support for Militant is absolutely crucial in innoculating the youth against the disease of individual terrorism.
A study of the ideas of Leon Trotsky, as with all the writings of the great teachers of Marxism, is the indispensable means whereby a new generation of workers can be politically armed for the great battles which impend.
January 1982
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