Once Again on the "Crisis of Marxism" In the good old days when people referred to the crisis of Marxism they had in mind some specific proposition of Marx which had allegedly failed to withstand the test of facts, namely: the theory of the sharpening of the class struggle, the so-called "theory of impoverishment" and the so-called theory of "catastrophic collapse" of capitalism. These three principal points served as the target for bourgeois and reformist criticism. Today it is simply impossible to engage in a controversy over these issues. Who will undertake to prove that social contradictions are not sharpening but rather softening? In the United States, Mr. Ickes, the Secretary of the Interior, and other high dignitaries are compelled to speak openly in their speeches about the fact that "60 families" control the economic life of the nation; on the other hand, the number of unemployed oscillates between ten millions in years of "prosperity" and twenty millions in years of crisis. Those lines in Das Kapital where Marx speaks of the polarisation of capitalist society, the accumulation of wealth at one pole and of poverty at the other — these lines which have been indicted as "demagogic" now simply prove to be a picture of reality.
What Lies Behind Stalin Bid for Agreement with Hitler? "We can state one thing with certainty. The agreement between Stalin and Hitler would essentially alter nothing in the counter-revolutionary function of the Kremlin oligarchy. It would only serve to lay bare this function, make it stand out more glaringly and hasten the collapse of illusions and falsifications. Our political task does not consist in “saving” Stalin from the embraces of Hitler but in overthrowing both of them."
On the Founding of the Fourth International On October 28, 1938 an inspiring mass meeting in New York celebrated the founding of the Fourth International as well as the tenth anniversary of the Trotskyist movement in this country. American imperialism would not permit Trotsky to be present at that memorable celebration. But an electrical transcription of Trotsky’s speech to the meeting helped to bring him closer.
