POLITICS OF WONDERLAND
259
workers have already won a great victory in Germany and Italy! What
would the victims of Fascist terror think of this piece of fatuity?
The war is far from won. On Merian's view, if the Fascists were to
invade England or America the labor movement should refuse to support
the military war against them-not until it had overthrown its own
democratic capitalist governments
first.
I submit that from a democratic
socialist point of view this is sheer political infantilism-surprising even
from a Trotskyist. Consider the present status and rights of American
and English labor, not to speak of other sections of the population,
hampered and restricted though they are by war conditions. Compare
them with what their fate would be under foreign or domestic
Fuehrers.
Look at Germany. Look at France.
If
Merian were a pacifist, we could
understand his indifference to all political realities. But he fancies
himself a scientific Marxist. In actuality he is a babe in a political
wonderland where concepts have no relation to actions and events.
As if to underline his political irresponsibility, he writes: "The
question of political support of the war by the left parties is at this date
of no practical significance for the military outcome." Consider the
implications of this sentence. Of course,
David Merian's
personal sup–
port of the war has no practical significance, but we are discussing the
meaning of his
position,
a position which he believes is valid and which
he
is
urging on the labor movement. And ·this position certainly has
practical consequences! Were the English Labor Party and the labor
and socialist movement generally to refuse to support the war against
Hitler, military disaster might easily result. In hastily assuring us that
his position cannot possibly have any bearing upon the war, Merian is
asking us not to take him seriously.
If
it did have a disastrous effect on
the war, Merian apparently would abandon it. In effect he is saying:
Don't pay attention to my position. I really don't mean it. The 'armed
class opponent', Roosevelt, will save me from Hitler-thank God!-but I
don't want to fleck my revolutionary purity by approving the efforts of
the labor movement to help Roosevelt save itself and me from Fascist
terror." His whole attitude is a pose, an academic pose in a red ivory
tower which others are keeping safe for him.
2. I am taxed with having concealed changes in my views. Yet all
of the views discussed were publicly stated in the pages of
Partisan
Review.
The charge that I now accept the position of the Popular Front
which I earlier criticized shows that Merian does not understand the
difference between a Popular Front, a United Front, and a National
Front. In the article from which he cites I maintained that Socialist
Parties should not enter the government allied in a common program
with capitalist parties but should unite with them on
specific
issues
against the Fascist danger. Nor do I today believe that the English Labor
Party, for example, should be in the government although giving it
unqualified military support in the war against Fascism. But I am pre–
pared
to modify my position-on one condition.
If
the military defeat of
Hitler could be encompassed
only
by an alliance between socialist and
democratic capitalist parties, I would favor it despite the risks. Like
all
sectarian intransigeants, Merian does not understand that the con–
aequences of failure to adopt a correct position in time are sometimes
