As carried out by Joseph Losey with the aid of Richard Burton, Alain Delon and Romy Schneider and, of course, lots of Hollywood gold.
The death of McCarthyism enabled Losey to resume film-making in the United States. The death of Stalin and the 20th Party Congress enabled him to make a film about Trotsky. So far so good.
But then Losey is confronted with a serious dilemma: his own orthodox Stalinist past limits his vision as he decides on how to make this film. He reads Deutscher's trilogy, he studies Trotsky's My Life and he wonders about Peter Weiss's Trotsky in Exile. But Losey is not satisfied. They are all concerned with the central force in Trotsky's life: a passionate belief in the social revolution which determines his political activities before 1917 and which later compels him to defend the revolution against Stalin and his allies. These are facts which Losey teels unable to dispute. So he decides not to concentrate on Trotsky's life but on his death. The psychology of the assassin is preferred to the political ideas of the man who is to be assassinated. For Losey the two appear to be unrelated.
In reality it was these political ideas which were the cause of the assassination. It is not the psychology of the killer that we are interested in (and even on that level Delon's performance as Mercader is one of the mote grotesque pieces of acting in recent months) but the motives of those who hired him; in brief the NK VD and the Central Committee of Stalin's party. Perhaps because he was too intimately connected with Stalinism and its sordid past, Losey keeps our mind away from these questions. It is no accident that he hires Nicholas Mosley (son of Oswald) to write the script. The result is a trivialisation of the assassination.
STALINISM Trotsky is presented as a nice old man who likes tending to the garden and his rabbits. Now and again over breakfast (or is it tea?) he makes the odd remark against Stalinism and then returns to the garden. Both he and Natalia are seen as a couple of old-age pensioners who have retired to the countryside.
They are shown to be fatalistic as they constantly think about death. Losey does not bother to tell the viewer why this old man worries about death. His family in Russia has been liquidated, his political colleagues either tortured to death or humiliated and shot, his secretaries killed and a serious attempt made on his own life.
Trotsky knows the power of Stalinism.
So does Losey, but he is ashamed to talk about it as he was part of it. Deutscher's description of Sylvia Agelhof is that of a serious, bespectacled, plain-looking woman whom Mercader seduced to get into the Trotsky household. Losey presents her in the shape of Romy Schneider, a veritable nymphomaniac who begins to masturbate if her lover is a few minutes late.
Trotsky's last exile in Mexico saw the founding of the Fourth International. Losey prefers to ignore the fact. He was visited by many old militants of the communist movement from all over the world and participated in long and heated discussions with them.
Losey portrays a visit from the Rosmers.
Now certainly Rosmer visited Trotsky on numerous occasions. The purpose of these visits was to engage in political discussions.
But for Losey they are merely midVictorian tea-parties.
FLOP The film is a flop, however, in every sense.
Now obviously one doesn't expect Losey to support Trotskyism, but to make a film on Trotsky one simply cannot ignore his polities or the politics of those who hired his assassin. One has to select facts. Losey selects the cup of tea. Given the fact that the actors are all unsuited to their parts, the film is a resounding flop even when viewed as an artistic achievement "divorced from politics". Delon's performance, in particular occasionally raises the odd laugh because of its absurd grotesqueness. One doubts, however, whether it is worth expending money on a sick joke. Teamster Rebellion, by Farrell Dobbs (Monad Press, 95p)
As the United States heads for what looks like another boom, with the labour movement only just beginning to take up any political questions, it is difficult to realise how fragile class peace really is there. Farrell Dobb's book looksat U.S. labour at a time when the combination of mass unemployment, rising prices (through Roosevelt's New Deal and highly organised employers, created an explosive series of class battles.
WORKERS' ORGANISATION D obbs points out that the expectations of masses of workers don't just follow the market, going up and down. Capitalism's ability to survive depends on defeating the efforts of the working-class to defend itself in such periods. One of the key parts of the workers' ability to defend themselves is their level of organisation. More than anything else this book is about "miracles of workers' organisation.
The role of members of the Communist League of America in these struggles was vital. As members of the organisation that was to form the S. W. P. (U. S. supporters of the Fourth International), Dobbs and his comrades stamped a number of these mass struggles of the working class with the best traditions of Bolshevik leadership. The book contains the history of one such struggle, that of the Teamsters Union in Minneapolis. Between November 1933 and August 1934 the Teamsters' Local 574 was not only built, but managed to defeat the united forces of the local employers, police, Governor and the State Militia. In two mighty strikes in 1934 the small Union branch of a couple of thousand members built a mass movement of 40,000 employed and unemployed workers, a daily paper, defeated the local and national bureaucracy, used mass flying pickets, won full recognition and various wage increases. In the course of the struggle, as Dobbs himself points out, there was almost a dual power situation in the city.
THE TRAINING OF THE AMERICAN RULING CLASS In many ways the U.S. ruling class are more 'normal than the British ruling class. In a sense U.S. capitalism developed without the "hang overs' of feudalism that existed in this country. Coming out of basically the same background as their fellows, the only class distinction that really existed was based on wealth, particularly in the Mid West. One of the great ideological holds on the U.S. working class was the myth that anyone, from however humble a background, could make it. The 'gap' between the ruling class and the workers and small farmers was not filled by any mass reformist party as in Europe. This had two effects. The working class always organised itself where its power obviously lay, at the point of production.
Secondly, whenever this myth of equality of opportunity broke down, as with the Blacks today, the power of the ruling class was very quickly shown to be purely the power of naked force. Police and State Militia were tied, from the outset, very closely to the immediate interests of the ruling-class; in defence of private property.
THE TRAINING OF THE AMERICAN WORKING CLASS The traditions of struggle of the American working class arose out of the lack of any "Bloody Friday' in Minneapolis - "Suddenly, without any warning whatever, the cops opened fire on the picket truck (left), and they shot to kill. In a matter of seconds two of the pickets lay motionless on the floor of the bullet-riddled truck (right)." channel for labour to win its needs through. the capitalist political system. The Industrial Workers of the World, organising before the first World War, were the most clear example of the result of this political block. They wanted to organise one gigantic industrial union to represent and fight for all workers where they saw their power really based. But beyond fighting ferocious struggles with the bosses they were not able to draw together all the layers in society that were oppressed, nor able to direct mass struggles against the central power of the ruling class, the State, Most U.S. militants did not make the connection between their industrial struggle and the need to overthrow capitalism and its State. We can see why, therefore, the employers in the strikes in Minneapolis tried to make so much propaganda out of the workers' Trotskyist leadership.
MIRACLES OF ORGANISATION The later chapters in the book describe in some detail the organisation of the two strikes of the Teamsters' Local 574. "A big garage building at 1900 Chicago Avenue was rented to serve as an operational headquarters. Besides its capacity to handle picket mobilisations, the building was large enough for a commissary, the necessary offices, and a mechanical repair department. It was also to house a field hospital... A garage had been rented because the strike would be a mobile one, with expanded use of the cruising picket squads... In that department, charts of the city were being made up, picketing instructions drafted, and picket captains selected. On the whole the Union was pretty ready for action".
Embodied in that degree of organisation is a crystal clear political view that the workers could rely on no one but themselves. Even Governor Olsen, the Farmer and Labour Party man, was offered no role by the strikers. Indeed it was only the building of this independent organisation that prevented Olsen's State Militia from breaking the strike at a later stage.
RED BAITING The employers lost no opportunity to attack the Union. They were determined to keep the open shop, and contracts with individual employees. In the best traditions of the U.S. ruling class they lost no opportunity to "expose' the Trotskyist leadership of the strike. "They didn't want a strong Union Special Introductory Offer INTERCONTINENTAL PRESS A WEEKLY JOURNAL specialising in political analysis and interpretation of international events of particular interest to the labour, socialist, colonial independence, Black and women's liberation movements.
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Send cheque/postal order for E1 (made out to Pathfinder Press) to: Pathfinder Press, 47 The Cut, London SE1 BLL. Sample copy free on request.
'THE HARDER THEY COME' 'Grass Roots' Benefit Late Night Movie ONE NIGHT ONLY Friday, 20 October, 11 p.m. at the Kings Cross Cinema, Pentonville Road, London N.1.
AH seats 50p - tickets obtainable from RED BOOKS (182 Pentonville Road, N.1.), GRASS ROOTS (54 Wightman Road, N.4.), and CENTREPRISE (34 Dalston Lane, E.8.). they wanted Revolution." But the strike leadership saw the winning of recognition for the Union as a key strategic victory for the working class of the region. This was born out by the series of struggles touched off by the Minneapolis strikes.
In other words, there was absolutely no difference between the interests of the revolutionaries and those of the Minneapolis working-class SCIENCE OF PRACTICAL POLITICS What is particularly impressive about this book is the political skill of the Communist League leadership. How revolutionaries should operate in mass politics is laid bare. These leaders were the best trade unionists. In every field - democratic control, information to the membership, mass involvement in the strike, and even in negotiations - Dobbs and his comrades were absolutely in touch with the mood of the masses. At no time did they lose sight of the main object of the strike, recognition. This trade union skill was combined with the principles of revolutionary politics. Mass organisation of women behind the strike, together with the battalions of unemployed, created a movement of the Minneapolis working class and its allies which went far beyond a strike. The Mayor and the State authorities knew that their power was challenged by the local working class. It was that fact as well as the nature of the U.S. ruling class in general, that brought about "Bloody Friday" when two trade unionists were killed by Police. The study of this book is not only essential for members of the Fourth International who would understand the formation of their own movement, but is important reading for any militant who would like to know the methods and politics of a real working class leadership.
Paul Smith RANK AND FILE TECHNICAL TEACHERS Next meeting for teachers in Inner and Outer London will be on Wednesday, 18 October, at The Roebuck pub, Tottenham Court Road (Warren Street tube).
Information on the Jenkins case, etc.
RADICAL SCHOLARS OF SOVIET AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES Second Conference at Imperial College, London SW7, 20-22 October, 1972 Friday 20th 6-7pm Registration 7.30pm Continuity and Change in the Polish Working Class -Jerzy Kolankiewicz (Swansea)
Saturday 21st: 11am Marxist Theories of the Soviet Union - H.H. Ticktin 2.30pm Transitional Economy -Ernest Mandel (Belgium) 7pm The Soviet State - Ralph Miliband (Leeds)
Sunday 22nd: 11am Political Change Since Stalin - Mary McAuley (Essex) 2.30pm The Legacy of Czechoslovakia - Jiri Pelikan (Italy)
Further details, including requests for (spartan) accommodation: CRSEES, 150 Elgin Avenue, London W9.
There will be a conference fee of E1 (students 75p)
or 20p per session, any profit towards the costs of Critique, a new journal of Socialist Theory focussing on this area of discussion.
Below: Jane Frazer explains how Chile is caught
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The political assassination of Leon Trotsky