From Socialist Action, Vol. 4 No. 42, 19 October 1940, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
During the days following the May 24th assault on Trotsky’s house, when the police had not yet arrested any of the accomplices, the paid press and writers of Stalin’s GPU spread the infamous theory of “self-assault”. Trotsky himself, according to their version, had ordered some hundred of shots to be fired ... in order to create difficulties for the government. Upon Trotsky’s declaring in his first declarations that David Alfaro Siqueiros could perhaps make important revelations on the assault, Siqueiros indignantly denounced the “calumny” and even promised to appear before the authorities any time they wished. The GPU believed at that time that none of the accomplices would be detained and that through its powerful economic resources it would be able to put over the theory of “self-assault”.
But the majority of those implicated in the May 24 assault were arrested and the guilt of Siqueiros was completely established. Far from presenting himself in order to give an explanation as he had promised, the “indignant” assailant hid himself and waited for the advice of the GPU. Finding it impossible to uphold the stupid “self-assault” story it became necessary to fabricate another explanation. From his hiding place, Siqueiros began to change his language. In the extract from the letter sent to General Nunez, published August 27, as well as that published in Hoy, September 14, the theory of “self-assault” gave way to the “very justified assault on the house of Trotsky.” Siqueiros did not make this declaration until after the discoveries of the authorities had annihilated the theory of “self-assault”.
Why was Siqueiros silent while the GPU placed in circulation the infamous calumny of “self-assault”? Why did he acquiesce with this same silence when the GPU tried to stain the memory of the murdered secretary of Trotsky, presenting him as an accomplice in the assault? Why did he not at that time explain the “very justified assault”? If he had done it then, all the world would have believed that he acted on is own initiative and not on a salary from the GPU.
On the contrary, his admission of the assault was not made until after the police had identified Siqueiros as its immediate director. The GPU had to consider then two possibilities: as a political goal, the GPU was interested in utilizing Siqueiros to the maximum; as the possessor of important secrets it was interested in assassinating him and trying once more to cast the responsibility ... on the Trotskyists. In this respect it is possible to assert that Siqueiros owes his life to Trotsky. In publicly declaring the likelihood of, Siqueiros being assassinated, Trotsky made it virtually impossible, and the GPU had to decide at least provisionally to utilize Siqueiros as a political tool. Due to this decision Siqueiros sent his various letters to the press.
Then began the new turn. The authors of the assault who had propagated the theory of “self-assault” now dedicated themselves to justifying the assault. They were obliged to carry on this juggling because of the discoveries of the police and the declaration of Trotsky. Yesterday even the Communist Party and the friends of the GPU in El Popular had to swear in every tone that terrorism is far from their methods. Today Siqueiros, their friend and long time collaborator, tries to justify terrorism. The universal evidence that Siqueiros worked and still works under orders of the GPU and the fact that the GPU is under Stalin’s orders brings upon Stalin and his mercenaries throughout the world admission of terrorist activity. In the final attempt at falsification, Siqueiros will try to present himself to us as a revolutionary terrorist.
His friends of the Voice of Mexico and El Popular will assist with amiable silence, but it will not be necessary to wait for the verdict of history in order to determine between Trotsky and Stalin who was the revolutionary, who was the counter-revolutionary. The supporter of Hitler in the present imperialist war, the oppressor of the Soviet proletariat, the grave-digger of the Spanish revolution – Stalin is no longer even the spectre with which Hitler used to frighten his enemies, France and England. His actions against Trotsky and the Trotskyist movement have received the approval of all the enemies of the workers. In the last instance the terrorist action of Siqueiros like that of Jacson, the assassin of Trotsky, like that which Stalirt wages against the Russian worker, is the same as the terrorism of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, or any other reactionary despot.
The similarity between the declarations of Siqueiros and those of Jacson is proof that the inspirer is one and the same. One of the assassins pretends that his crime was that of a revolutionary against reactionary elements; the other that he was disillusioned with Trotsky, and decided to free humanity from him; the one says he acted on his own will, the other that he does not even understand what “GPU” signifies, and both finally unite in glorifying Stalin.
Unless they are forced by the weight and the skill of the investigation, Siqueiros as well as Jacson will not deviate a single hair from the fundamental interest of the GPU, that is, defamation of Trotsky and the movement founded by him. This will add one more proof of the dependence of both upon Stalin. Siqueiros will try perhaps to perfect some of the calumnies already elaborated by his cohorts in the Voz de Mexico and El Popular, but they will turn out to be nothing but generalities without foundation since neither he nor anyone else can cast the least spot upon the political activity of Trotsky.
The more they calumniate Trotsky the more they prove their complete subjection to the GPU.
The sentence of the proletariat has already been passed: that Siqueiros and Jacson as tools of Stalin have assassinated one of the greatest revolutionaries of all times. All that is lacking is the discovery by Mexican justice of the immediate superiors of Jacson and Siqueiros.
Mexico City
October 10, 1940
Last updated on 17 August 2020