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Socialist Appeal, 9 December 1939
Stalin’s Invasion of Finland
Statement of Policy by the Political Committee
of the Socialist Workers Party
From Socialist Appeal, Vol. II No. 92, 9 December 1939, pp. 1 & 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
1. The invasion of Finland by the Red Army is an incident in the
Second World War which is now only in its tentative and initial
stages of development.
2. The character of the Second World War is that of an
imperialist struggle for the redivision of the earth. Despite present
alliances, or future changes in the alignment of the powers, the
class antagonism between the imperialist states and the Soviet
Union as a degenerated workers state retains its full force. From
this must follow an inevitable attempt on the part of the
imperialists of one camp or another or in a combination, to attack
the Soviet Union in order to destroy the economic conquests of the
October Revolution and open up the territory of the Soviet Union for
capitalist exploitation.
3. Finland is not an independent small state fighting for its
independence against an imperialist power. Bourgeois Finland is and
always has been a vassal state of the imperialists and an outpost of
imperialism on the Russian border.
4. In the present conflict the imperialist powers of the United
States and Great Britain stand behind Finland and inspire its foreign
policy in relation to the Soviet Union. The diplomatic and
propagandistic intervention of the Roosevelt administration on the
side of bourgeois Finland is not motivated by “humanitarian”
considerations but by the class interests and the future military
designs of the Wall Street masters of the government.
5. Stalinist policy in the conflict with Finland is characteristic
of Stalinist policy as a whole: the protection of the interests and
privileges of the bureaucracy in utter disregard of the sentiments
and interests of the world proletariat. The means and methods it
employs to gain military and strategic advantages repel the sympathy
and support of the workers and oppressed peoples, and thus undermine
the real defense of the Soviet Union to such an extent as to outweigh
by far the immediate military and strategic advantages that may be
gained by the conflict with Finland. From this point of view –
that is, the real defense of the Soviet Union against the
imperialists – the Fourth International has always condemned
the foreign policy of Stalinism and condemns it in the present
situation. The real defense of the conquests of the October
Revolution requires, now more than ever, an unceasing struggle of the
workers for the overthrow of the Stalinist bureaucracy by means of a
political revolution.
6. Proceeding from the foregoing points, in accord with the
program of the Fourth International, our basic attitude in the
present military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland is as
follows:
- For the Fourth Internationalists in the United States:
Revolutionary defeatism – the main enemy is in our own
country! No support, direct or indirect, to the imperialist
government of the United States or its Finnish satellite. Expose and
denounce the policy of Washington as political and diplomatic
preparation for war against the Soviet Union. For the unconditional
defense of the Soviet Union. Expose and denounce the methods of
Stalinism which compromise the Soviet Union and weaken its
defense.
- For the Fourth Internationalists in Finland:
revolutionary defeatism – the main enemy is in our own
country! The first task of the Finnish workers remains an
irreconcilable struggle for the overthrow of their own bourgeoisie.
Not a man, not a gun, not a cent for the war of the Finnish
bourgeois government against the Soviet Union. Work for the defeat
of the Finnish bourgeois government in the war. Aim at the creation
of an independent Soviet Finland free from the domination of the
Stalinist bureaucracy. If that is not possible in the immediate
situation because of the unfavorable relation of forces, political
unpreparedness, and military weakness – as is almost certainly
the case in the present circumstances – utilize the defeat of
the bourgeois Finnish Army by the Red Army to arouse the masses to
press forward for the complete expropriation of the Finnish
capitalists and landlords immediately after the victory of the Red
Army. Organize for the maximum independence of the workers from the
Stalinist bureaucracy, and thus prepare its future overthrow. In the
present military struggle a victory of the Red Army is a “lesser
evil” than the victory of the army of the Finnish puppet
government of Wall Street and London. The Finnish Fourth
Internationalists are partisans of an independent Soviet Finland and
the irreconcilable foes of the treacherous and blood-splotched
Kremlin bureaucracy and its hand-picked Kuusinen regime in
Finland.
- For the Fourth Internationalists in the Soviet Union:
Soviet patriotism – the main enemy is world imperialism.
Unconditional defense of the Soviet Union against the capitalist
world. Only agents of imperialism, standing for the restoration of
capitalism in the Soviet Union, can desire the defeat of the Red
Army by the bourgeois Finnish outpost of the imperialist armies.
Irreconcilable struggle for the overthrow of the Stalinist
bureaucracy, which betrays the world proletariat and undermines the
defense of the Soviet Union. Against the military-bureaucratic
annexation of Finnish territory. For the independence of Soviet
Finland. Unceasing criticism and exposure of the Stalinist methods
of starting and conducting the war, but not the slightest relaxation
of material and military support. The Fourth Internationalists in
the Soviet Union will be the best soldiers in the Red Army and
inspire it to victory over the imperialist bandits and the Stalinist
betrayers.
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