The Spanish Revolution. Vol. 2, no. 2

              Vol.II  N.o 2   Barcelona, February 3, 1937   Please reprint
THE SPANISH REVOLUTION
BULLETIN OF THE WORKERS' PARTY OF MARXIST UNIFICATION OF SPAIN
P.O.U.M.
AGENTS FOR ENGLAND:
The I.L.P. 
The Marxist League. 
PRICE IN ENGLAND: 2d.
AGENTS FOR U.S.A. :
Y.P.S.L.
The Labor Book Shop
PRICE IN U.S.A.  .05
EDITORIAL OFFICE: "THE SPANISH REVOLUTION"
10, Rambla de los Estudios 
BARCELONA
CONTENTS
1: Stalinism. 2: Fighting Men From Britain. 3: What Are They? 4: Resolutions of the Central Committee of the P.O.U.M.  5: Conference of Town Councillers.  6: For Socialization of the Land. 7: Revolutionary Morals. 8: Revolutionary Justice
STALINISM
The POUM Before the Workers
The official Communist press of Spain and elsewhere has been carrying on the campaign begun by the official Soviet organs, "Pravda" and "Isvestia", and has brought very grave accusations against the P.O.U.M.
We are accused of being agents provocateurs in the pay of the Gestapo and the "Fifth Column". In several organs of the Communist International it has been stated that the P.O.U.M. in collaboration with the Fascists, organised a plot aiming at the assassination of Azana, Largo Caballero, Dolores Ibarruti (Passionaria) and Jose Diaz. These are concrete accusations and appeared in the Communist press.
Comrade Victor Serge, in an article sent to "La Batalla", suggests, among other measures, the constitution of an International Comission of Enquiry, composed of well-know persons in the working-class movement. The Executive Committee of the P.O.U.M. has decided to follow the suggestion of Victor Serge. In order that it may command the greatest possible measure of authority, the International Commision of Enquiry should include a representative of each of the following organisations: the Communist International, the Labour and Socialist International, the Fourth International, the International Workingmens' Association and the International Bureau of Revolutionary Socialist Unity. This Commission should investigate independently and freely the concrete accusations levelled against the P.O.U.M. It should begin, in our opinion, by demanding the evidence for these accusations.
We are convinced that the working-class of Spain and of the world will understand and support the P.O.U.M.'s demand, a demand which no one can legitimately oppose.
A new sensational trial has been started in Moscow. This time the prisoners' bench is occupied by Radeck, Piatakov, Muralov, Sokolnikov, Serebriakov and others not so well-known, sixteen in all. Those shot in September were also sixteen. That seems to be the capacity of the executioner's cart of the Stalinite Thermidorians. The accused in this trial as in the one of last summer, are old guard Bolsheviks, revolutionary fighters from the heroic days, old friends and comrades of Lenin.
What has happened is simply that in Russia the most elementary workers democracy has been abolished to make way for the bureaucratic regime of a personal dictator. Of the October Revolution and the Leninist tradition nothing or very little remains. The fighters of October, the old comrades of Lenin have become embarrassing witnesses, in fact real obstacles, to those who are now trying to exterminate them physically after having suppressed them politically. Last time it was Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Smirnov. To-day it is Radeck, Piatakov, Muratov. To-morrow it will be Bukharin. They are already preparing a new cartload. Stalin unquestionably bases his power on terror.
The accused are denied all possibility of defence. In Lenin's time, at the trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries, a foreign workers' delegation was allowed to attend. During the famous "industrial trial" the accused, many of whom occupy bureaucratic posts in Russia today, enjoyed every sort of means of defence. Why are these denied to-day to the men who, together with Lenin, forged the revolution of 1917?
After the shooting of Zinoviev and Kamenev, the International Bureau for Revolutionary Socialist Unity proposed the formation of an international commission of enquiry to investigate the charges against them and against Trotsky himself. At the time we supported this step, and we continue to do so with the greatest energy to-day. The international proletariat must know the whole truth. The workers cannot be expected to support the soviet cause unless they know what is going on in Russia.
From the resolution of the Executive Committee of the P.O.U.M.
We Demand THE FORMATION OF AN INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY TO EXAMINE THE ACCUSATIONS LEVELLED AGAINST US.