Published: Socialist Appeal, Vol. IV No. 15, 13 April 1941, p. 1.
Source: PDF supplied by the Riazanov Library Project.
Transcription/Mark-up: Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
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(Statement by James P. Cannon, National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party of the United States)
La Prensa of Mexico City, April 5th, carried an interview with Diego Rivera in which he is quoted as saying that “Trotsky will support Stalin in his attitude against Finland today at the Congress of the Fourth International which is now being held in New York, to which Trotsky has already sent his representative, the Spanish Mexican M. Grandizo.”
There is not one word of truth in Rivera’s statement. No Congress of the Fourth International was held in New York or any other place. The Convention of the Socialist Workers Party of the United States was in session from Friday, April 5th to Monday, April 8th. No representative of Trotsky appeared at the convention because Trotsky did not send anyone to represent him.
The Convention affirmed the position of the Fourth International in defending the Soviet Union against imperialist attack and in condemning the counter-revolutionary policies of Stalin, amongst them the invasion of Finland.
The assertion that Trotsky supports Stalin in his attack against Finland is utterly false, as can be seen by a cursory reading of Trotsky’s articles and statements within the last four months. Equally false and fantastic is the idea presented in the La Prensa interview that the Third and Fourth Internationals are coming closer together.
We have no doubt whatever of the presence of GPU agents in Mexico. Frequently have we warned the Mexican and American people of that fact. But these agents are there to assassinate Trotsky. If the falsehoods attributed to Rivera were actually uttered by him, then we can say that he has permitted his personal animosity to Trotsky to lead him far astray. Such falsehoods can only make it easier for the agents of Stalin’s GPU to achieve their purpose of getting rid of the greatest living revolutionist devoted to the cause of emancipating mankind from the slavery of capitalist imperialism.
Last updated on 1 February 2019