VLVL Rex Snuvvle

[Michel Ryckx]

Hi.

I went to the cellar to stroll through old pamhlets, books, but hardly 
anything is in English -while I actually have to go out and buy fresh 
pastry; it is Sunday morning aftert all :)

Rest assured I found no information of a Trotskyite group with 
'Bolshevik' in it; only one in the 60's with 'Leninist' in it.

Let me offer you some more:
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_International,  going in short 
through the 1948 Second World Congress of the 4th:

"The Congress was also notable for bringing the International into much 
closer contact with Trotskyist groups from across the globe. The largest 
groups were the Bolivian <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivia> Partido 
Obrero Revolucionario 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Partido_Obrero_Revolucionario&action=edit> 
(POR) and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Lanka_Sama_Samaja_Party&action=edit> 
in what then was Ceylon <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceylon>, while the 
previously large Vietnamese <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam> 
Trotskyist groups had largely been killed by Ho Chi Minh 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh>."

From:
http://www.revolutionary-history.co.uk/backiss/Vol3/No2/Pirani.html

"Important material on Vietnamese Trotskyist history can be found in 
Chroniques Vietnamiennes the French-language journal of the Groupe 
Trotskyste Vietnamien (Vietnamese members of the USFI). Chroniques no 1 
(November 1986) contained three letters to Ho Chi Minh, dated to 1939, 
which effectively ended the argument about his attitude to the slaughter 
of the Trotskyists. He encouraged it."

At:
http://reds.linefeed.org/groups.html

you can find a scheme of how the left in the US (nowadays) is, well, I 
can't actually call it organised,

Glad to see Ernest Mandel mentioned on this list (we come from the same 
town), who was a warm and charming man. He was really loved by his 
students at the Brussels Free University. "When a war is over, do not 
give in your weapons, as we did", he told.  "You will be needing them 
one day.."

Kind regards,

Michel.

jbor wrote:

>I'm glad that someone has picked up on Rex's story. The Fourth International
>was founded by Trotsky and his followers in 1938 in opposition to Stalin,
>and it continued after Trotsky's assassination in 1940. But there was
>ongoing faction fighting and in 1951-3 Michel Pablo, Pierre Frank, Ernest
>Germain (Mandel) and many other of its leaders led the Fourth International
>into a series of self-liquidations, trying to absorb it into existing
>Stalinist movements. In 1953 there was a major split.
>
>http://www.bolshevik.org/history.html
>
>Trotsky indeed sided with the Mensheviks after the split of the Social
>Democratic Party in 1903, and in 1917 he joined the Bolsheviks and was loyal
>to Lenin until Lenin's death in 1924, but, as an internationalist, he
>disagreed with Stalin's policy of 'Socialism in one country'. He was
>expelled from the party in 1927.
>
>In Pynchon's text, the 500 cadres of the "Bolshevik Leninist Group" who went
>to Vietnam in 1953 would have been sent there by someone like Michel Pablo,
>and it's not a mistake that they would have been called this at this time
>and still classed themselves as "Trotskyist". Rex believes that the BLGVN
>had been "sold out by all parties, including the Fourth International"
>(207), which is pretty close to what actually happened.
>
The number of 500 is highly unlikely

>
>Pol Pot was a student in Paris in 1948-1953, and became a member of the
>French Communist Party at that time. He is certainly an example of someone
>"to the left of Ho Chi Minh" who "trained in Paris".
>
Many Vietnamese went to study in Paris. This proves nothing.

>
>best
>
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>
>>What I think to be a bit weird in the 4th International description is
>>the idea that the members of a Trotskyite group would call themselves
>>'Bolshevik-Leninist'.  That's something for the Stalinists, especially
>>the Maoist variation.  There are, I think, no examples in history of
>>such groups/parties with roots within the 4th International.
>>Usually, they have something with 'Socialist' in it.  If you have a
>>political party in your country with 'Socialist' & 'Workers' in it,  you
>>may be pretty sure they are 4th.  The 'Worker' in the word indicates
>>they have no active members that actually work for a living.  Well, if
>>they work, they usually are teachers, professors etc.
>>
>>On the other hand, from the end of WWII to, say, halfway the 60s, there
>>have been a lot schisms etc.  Funny stories.
>>
>>There are 2 interesting Trotsky biographies: the one by Isaac Deutscher,
>>and one of the very best biographies I ever read, by Pierre Broué-don't
>>know if that one's ever been translated into English.  Trotsky, never
>>having been a Bolsh- nor a Menshevik, and always having been a category
>>of his own, has written excellent book reviews.
>>
>>Trotskyites have never been defending Pol Pot, nor any other
>>Stalinist/Maoist regime.  They do, however, like to party.  They were
>>also pretty experienced in forging money during the Algerian war.
>>
>>My memory may not be functioning very well, but I think Vargas Llosa, in
>>'The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta', makes more or less the same mistakes.
>>    
>>
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