[page 28]
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS We publish below an article by Trotsky which has only recently appeared in English for the first time. We believe that this article will be of particular interest to our readers in view of the recent rabid campaign of the capitalist press against the lorry drivers, the council workers and others who have been involved in strike action. Trotsky nails the lie that Marxists are opposed to the To take away the capitalists' virtual monopoly of the press is not to strike a blow against the "freedom of the press'. On the contrary, to put these resources 'in the hands of society as a whole" would be the first real step towards the 'freedom of the press.' Even the capitalist parties would be given access to publishing facilities—something which they deny to the working class today—in proportion to their support in the population. On the basis of a planned economy capitalist propaganda would have no attraction to the working class or middle class. The article is also important in explaining why it is wrong for the labour movement to demand that the state should introduce repressive legislation which is invariably used against the labour "freedom of the press'.
movement.
A campaign against the reactionary press is underway in Mexico. The attack is being directed by the CTM leaders, or, more precisely, by Mr Lombardo Toledano* personally. The objective is to "curb' the reactionary press, either by placing it under a democratic censorship or by banning it altogether. The trade unions have been mobilised for war. The incurable democrats, headed by 'friends' of the GPU, have hailed this campaign, which cannot be regarded as anything but suicidal. In fact, it is not difficult to foresee that even if this campaign triumphs and leads to practical results that will suit the taste of Lombardo Toledano, the ultimate consequences will be borne primarily by the working class.
Both theory and historical ex- *Vincente Lombardo Toledano, a Stalinist was the head of the Mexican Confederation of workers [CTM], the major trade union federation in Mexico.
AND THE WORKING CLASS Editor perience testify that any restriction of democracy in bourgeois society is, in the final analysis, invariably directed against the proletariat, just as any taxes that are imposed also fall on the shoulders of the working class. Bourgeois democracy is of use to the proletariat only insofar as it opens up the way for the development of the class struggle. Consequently, any working class 'leader'
who arms the bourgeois state with special means for controlling public opinion in general and the press in particular is, precisely, a traitor. In the last analysis, the sharpening of the class struggle will impel the bourgeoisie stripe reach an every to agreement among themselves; they will then pass special laws, all sorts of restrictive measures, and all kinds of 'democratic' censorship against the working class. Anyone who has not yet understood this should get out of the ranks of the working class.
'But at times'.
, some 'friends' of the USSR will object, 'the dictator- 27 ship of the proletariat is forced to resort to special measures, particularly against the reactionary press.'
"This objection', we reply, 'comes down primarily to trying to identify a workers' state with a bourgeois state. Even though Mexico is a semicolonial country, it is also a bourgeois state, and in no way a workers' state. However, even from the standpoint of the interests of the dictatorship of the proletariat, banning bourgeois newspapers or censoring them does not in the least constitute a 'programme', or a 'principle'
an ideal or set-up.
Measures of this kind can only be a temporary, unavoidable evil." Once at the helm, the proletariat may find itself forced, for a certain time, to take special measures against the bourgeoisie. if the bourgeosie assumes an attitude of open rebellion against the workers' state. In that case, restricting freedom of the press goes hand in hand with all the other measures employed in waging a civil war.
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Naturally, if you are forced to use artillery and planes against the enemy, you cannot permit this same enemy to maintain his own centres of news and propaganda within the armed camp of the proletariat. Nonetheless, in this instance, too, if the special measures are extended until they become an enduring pattern, they in themselves carry the danger of getting out of hand and of the workers' bureaucracy gaining a political monopoly that would be one of the sources of its degeneration.
We have a living example of such a dynamic before us in the detestable suppression of freedom of speech and the press that is now the rule in the Soviet Union. This has nothing to do with the interests of the dictatorship of the proletariat. On the contrary, it is designed to protect the interests of the new governing caste from the worker and peasant opposition. That very Bonapartist bureaucracy in Moscow is now being aped by Mr Lombardo Toledano and Company, who equate their personal careers with the interests of socialism.
The real tasks of the workers
state lie not in clamping a police
gag on public opinion but rather in
freeing it from the yoke of capital.
This can be done only by placing
the means of production, including
the production of public informat-
ion, in the hands of society as a
whole. Once this fundamental
socialist step has been taken, all
currents of public opinion that have
not taken up arms against the
dictatorship of the proletariat must
be given the opportunity to express
themselves freely. It is the duty of
the workers' state to make available
to them, in proportion to their
numbers, all the technical means
they may require, such as
presses, paper, and transport. One
of the main causes of the degener-
ation of the state apparatus is the
Stalinist bureaucracy's monopol-
isation of the press, which threatens
to reduce all the gains of the
October Revolution to utter ruin.
If we were to go looking for
examples of the Comintern's fatal
influence on the workers' move-
ments in various countries, the
present campaign led by Lombardo
Toledano would provide one of the oddest. Toledano and his fellow doctrinaires are trying essentially to introduce into a bourgeois democratic system means and methods that might in certain temporary conditions prove unavoidable under a dictatorship of the proletariat. What is more, they are not really borrowing these methods from the dictatorship of the proletariat but rather from its Bonapartist usurpers. In other words, they are infecting an already ailing bourgeois democracy with the virus of decaying Stalinist bureaucracy.
Mexico's anaemic democracy faces a constant and deadly threat from two directions-first, from foreign imperialism, and second, from the agents of reaction within the country, who control the publications with the widest circulation. But only the blind or feebleminded could think that, as the result of a ban on the reactionary press, the workers and peasants can free themselves from the influence of reactionary ideas. In reality, only the greatest freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly can create favourable conditions for the advance of the revolutionary movement of the working class.
It is essential to wage a relentless struggle against the reactionary press. But workers cannot let the repressive fist of the bourgeois state substitute for the struggle that they must wage through their own organisations and their own press. Today the state may appear to be 'kindly' disposed to the workers' organisations; tomorrow the government may fall, into the hands of the most reactionary elements of the bourgeoisie. In that case, whatever restrictive legislation that exists will be thrown at the workers. Only adventurers with no thought
28
other than for moment would danger.
The most effective way to combat the bourgeois press is to expand the working class press. Of course, yellow journals of "El Popular's" ilk are incapable of taking up such a task. Such sheets have no place among the workers' press, the revolutionary press, or even the reputable democractic press. 'El Popular' serves the personal ambitions of Mr Lombardo Toledano, who in turn serves the Stalinist bureaucracy. Its methods-lies, slander, witch-hunting campaigns, and falsification-are also Toledano's methods. His newspaper has neither programme nor ideas. Obviously such a sheet can never strike a responsive chord int he working class or win the proletariat away from the bourgeois press.
So, we come to the unavoidable conclusion that the fight against the bourgeois press starts with throwing out the degenerate 'leaders' of the working class organisations, in particular with freeing the workers' press from the tutelage of Lombardo Toledano and the other bourgeois place seekers. The Mexican proletariat has to have an honest newspaper to express its needs, defend its interests, broaden its horizon, and prepare the way for the socialist revolution in Mexico. This is what 'Clave' proposes to do.
So, we are starting out by declaring
unrelenting war against Toledano's
wretched Bonapartist pretensions.
And in this effort we are looking forward to the support of all
advanced workers, Marxists and
genuine democrats.
the needs fail to heed
of the such a
Leon Trotsky, August 21 1938.
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