The AWL, in their response to Socialist Appeal, refer to Algeria again, in the context of Trotsky's example, set out in “Learn To Think”, written in May 1938, as the world edged ever closer to WWII. What was the backdrop and context in which Trotsky wrote this article? It was a collapse of social-democracy again into social patriotism, glossed over by the idea that what was taking place was a war against “fascism”, a gloss that was enhanced by the fact that Stalinism, as part of its Popular Front strategy, also sought to present the coming war in those terms, and to align itself with “democratic imperialism” against fascist Germany and Italy. There were also those inside the Fourth International, such as the Palestinian Section that were drawn to this formulation, and to which Trotsky responded in “A Step Towards Social-Patriotism”.
In that response, and in many other articles, such as “Phrases & Reality”, “Fight Imperialism To Fight Fascism”, “Anti-Imperialist Struggle is Key to Liberation”, “Haya de la Torre and Democracy”, “Ten Years”, Trotsky sets out that the terms “fascism” and “democracy” are simply two masks picked up by the bourgeoisie, representing merely the superficial façade of the political regime used by the bourgeoisie to best serve its interests at the time. In other words, the same ideas as set out earlier of Trotsky's comment about there being no such thing as “anti-fascism”.
He writes,
"The Czechoslovakian crisis revealed with remarkable clarity that fascism does not exist as an independent factor. It is only one of the tools of imperialism. “Democracy” is another of its tools. Imperialism rises above them both. It sets them in motion according to need, at times counterposing them to one another, at times amicably combining them. To fight against fascism in an alliance with imperialism, is the same as to fight in an alliance with the devil against his claws or horns."
"The struggle against fascism demands above all the expulsion of the agents of “democratic” imperialism from the ranks of the working class. Only the revolutionary proletariat of France, Great Britain, America, and the USSR, declaring a life and death struggle against their own imperialism and its agency, the Moscow bureaucracy, is capable of arousing revolutionary hopes in the hearts of the German and Italian workers, and at the same time of rallying around itself hundreds of millions of slaves and semi slaves of imperialism in the entire world. In order to guarantee peace among peoples we must overthrow imperialism under all its masks. Only the proletarian revolution can accomplish this."
(Phrases and Reality)
And, he notes,
“In the same manner we cannot speak of fascism “in general”. In Germany, Italy, and Japan, fascism and militarism are the weapons of a greedy, hungry and therefore aggressive imperialism. In the Latin American countries fascism is the expression of the most slavish dependence on foreign imperialism. We must be able to discover under the political form the economic and social content."
“The conclusion is that it is impossible to fight against fascism without fighting against imperialism. The colonial and semi-colonial countries must fight first of all against that imperialist country which directly oppresses them, irrespective of whether it bears the mask of fascism or democracy."
(Fight Imperialism To Fight Fascism)
And finally,
"Those working class “leaders” who want to chain the proletariat to the war chariot of imperialism, covered by the mask of “democracy,” are now the worst enemies and the direct traitors of the toilers. We must teach the workers to hate and despise the agents of imperialism, since they poison the consciousness of the toilers; we must explain to the workers that fascism is only one of the forms of imperialism, that we must fight not against the external symptoms of the disease but against its organic causes, that is, against capitalism."
(“Anti-Imperialist Struggle is Key to Liberation”)
What Trotsky's example in “Learn To Think”, primarily sets out to do, is to indicate that in a war between “fascist” Italy, and “democratic” France, the position of Marxists is not determined by the superficial masks of “democracy” and “fascism”. Yet, this is completely missing from the AWL's interpretation, and not surprisingly, because they have become themselves enthralled with that same “democratic imperialism”, as the agent of progressive change in the world, much as did their mentors Burnham and Shachtman.
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