[p. 30]
Dear Jim:
I have just received a copy of Goonewardene's letter to you. This follows within a few weeks, a similar sort of declaration from the Pabloites' IEC. A copy was sent to New York from this end, and I expect you have received it.
Towards the end of the Spring 1954, you will recall that we had some political communications with the LSSP in which they moved close to the line of orthodox Trotskyists regarding Pabloism except in relation to the reasons for the "Open Letter." They subsequently produced a statement on Pablo's "The Rise and Fall of Stalinism" which in essence agreed with ours. They also supported a postponement of Pablo's so-called Fourth Congress. Now all this seemed to indicate an agreement with us and during their stay in Britain we went out of our way to forge a close political association with them.
On their return, it was noticeable that Goonewardene himself did not want to associate much with us, and bit by bit we found out that they did not present their political document at Pablo's conference, but in turn voted for his, with the exception of some amendments. This was a shock to us, but when we met Colvin de Silva he asked us to help them to overcome the difficulties. Accordingly we had long discussions and agreed to the idea of the parity committee, with the understanding that they would come to Europe and participate in its work. Needless to say they forgot all about this arrangement when they went back to Ceylon. As you know, it wasn't long before the parity committee was revealed as a smokescreen for all sorts of maneuvers by Pablo and Frank. As you know we broke off relations with it. Before doing so, however, we wrote to Goonewardene asking his opinion, but he didn't even have the courtesy to reply. Comrade Peng wrote on a number of occasions and beyond receiving one or two noncommittal notes, nothing else happened.
Now this new approach is from start to finish prompted by Pablo and Germain. Goonewardene is only carrying out what they request and as usual he does it in a two-faced fashion. No one more than Tom [Sam Gordon] and myself have been so conciliatory to the LSSP leadership, but we are forced more and more to the conclusion that people such as Goonewardene act in a manner which at all critical times helps Pablo.
This present "unity" offensive talks peace at a time when the forces of orthodox Trotskyism are making progress everywhere. I have written at some length to New York on the situation here and no doubt you will have seen some of my letters. The interesting thing is that we have had Pablo here for at least two weeks touring around sowing confusion, trying to chip off some of our new people, and meeting Stalinist dissidents. He turned up at a Peter Fryer meeting the other evening and took the floor. All he has succeeded in doing is stringing together around Grant a number of old sectarians into one of his "sections." We now have definite information from ex-Stalinists that his old "section" led by Lawrence works closely with the Stalinist leadership at a time when everyone else is breaking away from it.
Pablo formed an open organization here called the Revolutionary Socialist League with a paper which he produces in Paris called the "Workers International Review." The handful of people he has in the L[abour] P[arty] publish a duplicated bulletin called "Socialist Current." These latter disciples urge all and sundry to join the LP whilst the RSL urges everybody to join the "Fourth International." Besides fighting us they try to make Trotskyism a laughing stock in front of dissident CPers. All in all it hardly goes to create an atmosphere conducive to unity.
At this moment when there is a great shake-up in the Stalinist world, a lot of revisionist currents, Shachtmanites, state-capitalist, etc. move around talking about "regroupment" and "unity" in order to prey upon the Stalinists blind faith to such phrasemongering in the past. Invariably they seek to push us into the position of opposing such "unity" and "regroupment" in order to gain a factional advantage. Party to party, movement to movement, they cannot compete with us, so they get up to tricks. My opinion is that Pablo is also playing this game, but with one exception, and that is the continuous pressure of a number of people still trapped in his ranks.
It would be very wrong of us to fall for this kind of stampede game. Experience teaches us here that the best Stalinist workers are thinking a lot and will listen to correct arguments. All that is required is patience and principles when discussing with them. They are not impressed with "fake unity" because they have seen enough of it. One example goes to show this. Peter Fryer, ex-London foreign correspondent of the "Daily Worker" was approached by Grant at a meeting last night. Grant led off with a tirade about "unity" of Trotskyists, etc. knowing that Fryer worked sympathetically with us. Fryer told him that despite all this he thought that there were principled differences which could not be glossed over. One of these, Fryer insisted, was on how to approach the CP and he stressed the correctness of the way our group did it as against that of Pablo. We don't have to worry if our arguments are correct and we avoid getting involved in organizational maneuvers.
The fact is that with all Pablo's pretence his movement has not the same significance as it had even three years ago. This is an entirely different situation, with more and more potential cadres coming our way. By unity, Pablo would like to attach his little groups to us so that they could embark on factional work when it suited him. Our experience of this man's politics leaves us with our eyes wide open. We paid one price for his nonsense—we don't intend to pay another.
One final point. A leading comrade of ours has just returned from Ceylon, and he tells us that there is considerable resentment smouldering against the parliamentary opportunism of the leadership, as well as other things. For this reason also, we must speak clearly on all the questions.
We all hope you are feeling well, and that your eyes are improving. Everyone looks forward to your reply to Goonewardene. Proofs of "Notebook of an Agitator" are on the way.
Warmest regards,
/s/ Burns [Healy]