[p. 50]
Los Angeles, Calif.
Dear Jerry:
This is a quick letter in a hurry. As you know, we are heading into a convention. So many problems and tasks are piling up, they have to be taken one at a time. I am scheduled to make the International report at the convention. I hope I will be able to get some time to concentrate on the article about liquidating the cadres through an "entrist" policy of playing dead in the Stalinist or social-democratic parties. I doubt, however, that I will be able to do it before the convention. I will deal with this question, among others, in my report.
Meantime, we have to concentrate on the task of consolidating our own ranks here in the U.S. and in Britain. That is the main task and we mustn't get diverted from it. After our Convention has given its mandate on Pablo's latest attack, we will proceed with full authority on the international field.
You seem to be doing very well in Britain, and I have no doubt that our own convention will be a big success of party consolidation and preparation for anything to come.
If I were to make one suggestion to you in your fight there, it would be to watch your tactics coolly and carefully at every step. The faction spirit is good for fighting but not for thinking. Do not be provoked into unrealistic actions which might play into the hands of your enemies. Take full practical advantage of the opposition of the Tribune and the Victory for Socialism people to the witch-hunt, and even make a few tactical concessions to facilitate their support.
Keep your actions as legal as possible, consistent with a militant defense of your opinions and your rights. Insist all the time that according to normal, democratic party practices you are not doing anything illegal; that you are members of the Labour Party and intend to remain as such whether expelled or not. Remember the Trotskyist policy in conducting the fight against Stalinism up till 1933. That also was an "entrist" tactic, but not the Pabloite brand. We insisted on our right to be members of the CP, and recruited most of our cadres in the CP, but we refused to let the bureaucrats muzzle us. Cadres cannot be built up and expanded that way; they can only wither away and die.
Appeal against every expulsion. And make sure that a certain number of key people are kept out of the line of fire in the Labour Party for future action.
Do not, under any circumstances, yield to the impatience of some comrades who may want to give up the Labour Party as a bad job and start a new party from scratch. You are in the hard fight right now. But it should be regarded not as the war but as one battle in the war which will be long-drawn-out, and in the course of which you will consolidate the cadres for the future.
All this, of course, is ABC. As far as I can judge from a distance, you are proceeding along this line with good tactical skill, as well as revolutionary aggressiveness and refusal to roll over and play dead at the first sign of right-wing displeasure. That's the right combination for cadre-building.
I wish I could be in England to take a hand in this fight. It has been a long time since we had such an opportunity in the U.S. But I can still remember from past experience how easy it is to get provoked and carried away into tactical excesses which backfire in the midst of a fight.
* * *
The Los Angeles Times prints Cassandra's column from London. It carried the information the other day about your intervention in the racial conflicts in England. I think the slogan of defense guards is alright, but I doubt the wisdom of the demand to prevent the distribution of fascist literature. I recall that Trotsky once warned us against slogans of this kind when we are fighting for free speech for ourselves. We had quite a few fights with fascists in this country years ago. But even fights at their meetings and demonstrations were always conducted and reported as defensive actions against their attacks and provocations. And we never demanded the suppression of their publications. That is a two-edged sword to play with.
[p. 51]
I dealt with this general theme of revolutionary action in defensive form in my debate with Munis in the pamphlet "Defense Policy in the Minneapolis Trial." Do you have a copy of that at hand? I quote extensively from Trotsky in my answer to Munis. I think you will find it worth looking into on this point; and also on the defensive formulation of the question of the proletarian struggle for power. If I remember correctly, Trotsky also dealt with this question in "Whither England?"
Fraternally,
James P. Cannon
PS—Rose has recovered from her pneumonia, but is not yet up to par. She is a strong partisan of your fight in Britain and sends her best regards to you and all the comrades on the firing line.
JPC:jh
encl.