[p. 50]
1902 Hyperion
Los Angeles 27, Calif.
Copy to Burns [Healy]
Dear Joe:
I was pleased to note that this week's Militant featured a story about the fight of our British comrades. I think it would be a good idea to have such running informative reports as a more or less regular feature of the paper in the next period.
These true news reports of a proletarian Trotskyist organization on the firing line should inspire our own comrades and also encourage the British. At the same time, this factual publicity should be a very effective way of answering the Pabloite attack on the British organization in all international circles where the Militant is read.
In view of the Pabloite attack, it is important to emphasize the point that the British comrades are not abandoning the Labour Party but, on the contrary, fighting to remain in its ranks as a revolutionary tendency; appealing against every single expulsion and demanding reinstatement; and urging all revolutionary workers to join and work in the Labour Party for a genuine socialist policy. This is revolutionary "entrism" as Trotsky taught it. Pabloite "entrism"—which in practice means to play dead—is not the same thing. Cadres cannot be built that way; they can only be demoralized and eventually liquidated. This is an old story. I am making notes for an article on this subject.
Fraternally,
James P. Cannon
JPC:jh