An old Trotsky’s proposal

The summons to the Latin American and Caribbean Encounter has a very special meaning for the IWL-FI. It is here that actually an old proposal launched by Trotsky himself in 1938, when he was exiled in Mexico, is beginning to take shape.

In October that year, he had several interviews with the Argentine workers’ leader, Mateo Fosa[1], who had travelled to Mexico to participate in a congress of trade union representatives of several countries on the continent; he represented 24 trade unions of his country.

The congress founded a Confederation of Latin American Workers. But, no matter how representative Mateo Fosa was, he was accused of being “Trotskyist” and could not participate, because the congress had an entirely bureaucratic functioning imposed by Stalinism.

On 11 October 1938, an article of Trotsky’s referring to these events was published in the form of a statement.[2] In it, he criticises ruthlessly the character of the congress, saying, “This congress, prepared behind the backs of the masses, has been unilaterally used with intentions that have nothing to do with the interests of Latin American organised proletariat and fundamentally hostile to these interests. The “confederation” created at this congress does not represent  The unification of the organised proletariat of our continent but a political fraction closed linked to  the Moscow oligarchy”. He then analyses its bureaucratic character and the links that most of the participants had with the different bourgeois governments and that, with the excuse of “maintaining the unity against fascism” they did not call to fight against the “democratic imperialism”, such as the USA.

That is why the declaration expressed the following conclusion: “We are ardent and devout supporters of the unification of Latin American proletariat and we are all for creating the closest links with the proletariat of the United States of America. But, as it appears from what we have been saying, this a task to be yet done.”

Finally he calls to encourage the “unity of Latin American proletariat” based on a series of points. The first one was, “total independence of the trade unions from its own bourgeois government and from foreign imperialism”; and lastly he proposed, “honest preparation for a Latin American trade union congress with active participation of the working masses, that is to say, with serious discussion and with no restrictions on the tasks of Latin American proletariat and its methods of struggle”.

Our current situation is very different fro the days when Trotsky made this call: we are not on the eve of a new world war and Stalinist international apparatus has fallen even if many national and regional phenomena prevail. But the essence is still valid: the need of Latin American unity of trade union and mass organisations, fully independent from bourgeois governments and bonds with betraying trade union leaderships, to co-ordinate and organise the struggle of a continental level.