@AntiFatalism Reply Tweets sent February 23:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/14/prob-a14.html

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/12/20/alep-d20.html

First article: 1. “…ICFI devote[d] considerable attention to the reason why pseudo-left organizations have rushed to define Russia and China as imperialist powers.”

2. “…It [is] not be necessary to employ the epithet ‘imperialist.’ The International Committee of the Fourth calls for the overthrow of the capitalist states in Russia and China by the working class as an essential component of the world socialist revolution.”

Second article: 1. “Like his ideological predecessor Max Shachtman, Smith declares Russia to be an ’empire’ as a justification for supporting US imperialism… Half a century later, the ISO’s argument consists of warmed-over Cold War anticommunism in “left” garb, replacing the ‘Soviet empire’ with denunciations of the ‘Russian empire.’”

We have to remember who the real Shachtmans are in the 4th International. Shachtman claimed, through the rigging of committees, to have a majority of the 4th International. Trotsky called an emergency meeting, since Shachtman planned a bureaucratic tyranny. He went from having a majority to voluntarily leaving the party when he realized his plans for bureaucratic tyranny contradicted the basic principles of the 4th International. Today, Trotsky cannot call such a meeting, but the workers will rise up anyway and restore democracy.

@Joeywreck Reply Tweets sent February 23rd:

Russia is imperialist and that is precisely why we can’t support the imperialist response of the US. The imperialists win either way. We have to support a revolutionary defense of the Ukraine, meaning a defense of the Russian proletariat from the ruling class. The US military can’t follow such a strategy. So only a revolution within the US could construct a revolutionary army capable of intervening by defending a socialist reconstruction of society based on an end to the global rule of private corporations, banks, and the oligarchy.

More from Trotsky on Shachtman:

“The leaders are interested not in a political but a purely journalistic activity.”

“But if the unity is preserved, you can’t have a Secretariat composed only of Majority representatives. You should possibly have a Secretariat even of five members—three Majorityites and two Minorityites.

“If the Opposition is wavering, it would be best to let them know in an informal way: We are ready to retain Shachtman as a member not only of the Political Committee but also of our editorial staff; we are even ready to include Abern in the Secretariat; we are willing to consider other combinations of the same kind; the only thing we cannot accept is the transformation of the Minority into an independent political factor.”

“Should we have the possibility of convoking an international congress, they would surely be dismissed with the severest blame. They themselves don’t doubt it. At the same time, they consider themselves as unremovable senators—in the name of democracy!”