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From Labor Action, Vol. X No. 10, 11 March 1946, p. 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Dear Comrades:
It is impossible for me to take up the argument made by Comrade Judd on whether or not nationalization or collectivization has actually taken place in the Yenan province. The reference to it in my articles was based entirely on the claims made in the Stalinist press in this country and on observations of some fellow travelers. My present circumstances make it impossible to check this material. Assuming these claims, the point of my article was to show that it could only follow the pattern of Stalinist nationalization and collectivization which would not make it ipso facto a basis for the support of Stalin’s Chinese representatives in what some people mistakenly refer to as another Chinese “civil war.”
But Judd is wrong when he says that the Chinese Stalinists have “fully capitulated to Chiang Kai-shek” in any of the fundamental senses in which he indicates. Nor has the question of a “possible ‘civil war’ ... vanished.” On the contrary, all of these things are inherent in the situation. Circumstances also prevented me from following up my original article so that I might show that the agreement reached between Chiang and the Stalinists was only provisional. This could have been ascertained from a careful reading of the Stalinist press in general and the articles of their new “international expert,” Joseph Starobin, who warned against any jubilation over the announced agreement. The attitude of the Stalinists was: we will wait and see. There is nothing in their conduct which is in conflict with Stalinist international politics.
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