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Fra International Socialism (1st series) nr. 38-39

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Contents 38-39 – Special Issue: Fascism, Stalinism and the United Front, 1930-34 by Leon Trotsky

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Fascism, Stalinism and the United Front, 1930-34: Introduction

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This issue of International Socialism is in many ways a departure from our established practice. It is the first time we have used our space to reprint sizeable chunks of the writings of any of the major Marxist thinkers, let alone devote a whole issue to this task. The reasons we do so now are partly technical: the difficulty of producing and selling a normal issue at the time of year when many of our readers are on holiday. But this also enables us to do something we have long wanted to: to make readily available a considerable portion of Trotsky’s writings on Germany between 1930 and 1934.

Fascism, Stalinism and the United Front, 1930-34: 1930 Background

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In 1929 German society entered a profound crisis for the third time in less than twelve years.

Leon Trotskij: The Turn in the Communist International and the German Situation

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Written in exile in Turkey, September 26, 1930.
Appeared in the Russian Bulletin of the Opposition, no.17-18, November-December 1930.
Published by the Communist League of America, October 1930.

Fascism, Stalinism and the United Front, 1930-34: 1931: Background

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The elections of 1930 had failed to produce a majority for any government. Brüning was only able to continue in office by ruling most of the time by presidential decree without reference to parliament. He was not, however, able to offer any solution to the crisis. In July two major banks failed. Unemployment continued to grow. Unable to solve the crisis in any way, the government reduced wages, cut social security payments, curtailed the rights of parliament and the press. Among the mass of the population it was the ‘most hated government’. Both Nazis and Communists spoke of the ‘Hunger Chancellor’. Yet Brüning was able to survive for two years.

Leon Trotskij: Germany, Key to the International Situation (nov. 1931)

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It is the aim of this pamphlet to indicate, at least in its general outline, the composition of the political world situation today, as it has resulted from the fundamental contradictions of decaying capitalism, complicated and sharpened by the severe commercial, industrial, and financial crisis. The following hastily sketched reflections, far from embracing all countries and all questions, are to be the subject of serious further, collective treatment.

Leon Trotskij: What Next?

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Fascism, Stalinism and the United Front, 1930-34: 1932: Background

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In 1932 the economic situation worsened. There were eight million unemployed. A third of the urban population depended on the dole. The real wages of those with jobs had fallen by a third since 1928. All sections of German society were discontented with the government. The Nazi vote seemed to be growing at an irresistible pace. Furthermore, willing industrialists seemed only too prepared to finance the fascists. The number of members of the SA had risen to 400,000.

Leon Trotskij: The Only Road

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The decline of capitalism promises to be still more stormy, dramatic, and bloody than its rise. German capitalism will surely prove no exception. If its agony is being stretched out too long, the fault lies – we must speak the truth – with the parties of the proletariat.
Written in exile in Turkey, September 14, 1932.

Fascism, Stalinism and the United Front, 1930-34: 1932-3: Background

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The elections of July 1932 had put the Nazis in a very strong position, but had not put them into power. The army and big business were prepared to use the Nazis, but not as yet to hand the state over to them. Their prospects seemed to be dimming in the last months of 1932. Stormtroopers who had mobilised to take power began to become disillusioned as it continued to elude them. The hesitancy of big business was drying up the flow of money needed by the fascist machine. In the elections of November the Nazi vote fell to a figure below the combined total of the working-class parties, while the KPD continued to gain votes at the expense of the Social Democrats. When von Papen fell from office in December, Schleicher, not Hitler replaced him.

Leon Trotskij: What Is National Socialism? (June 1933)

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Written in exile in Turkey, June 10, 1933.

Fascism, Stalinism and the United Front, 1930-34: Glossary

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