p When in the late 1950s, the Trotskyites decided to find a way of getting into the good graces of the peasantry, the first thing they took into account was the fact that many of the peasants who had joined the anti-imperialist struggle lacked the necessary political and organizational experience. Speakers at the "Fourth International" congresses repeatedly noted with satisfaction that sizable sections of the peasantry in the Third World countries had not found common ground with the Communist parties and knew nothing about their programmes.

p The Trotskyites decided to fill the political vacuum which, they believed, existed among the peasants. Their scheme was as follows: without going too deeply into every aspect of Trotskyite ideology, they should try, merely by putting forward two or three appealing slogans, to recruit a part of the peasantry, even if only a small one, and on that basis to set up peasant unions, which would naturally be led by Trotskyites. Only then, they said, might the peasant unions "play the role of the revolutionary party.”   [35•1 

p However, the interests of the peasants were so far removed from those of the Trotskyites (of which more later) that they soon sent them packing. In a manner of speaking, the peasants advised the Trotskyites "to look for simpletons elsewhere." The Trotskyites took this with poor grace, accusing the peasants of the Third World countries of political inertness, unwillingness to rise to the struggle, etc.

p This, incidentally, has happened before. When the Trotskyites were expelled from the revolutionary working class movement, they also asserted that the proletariat was “passive”, that it had "lost its revolutionary potential", and that it had committed all the deadly sins. The Trotskyites have always praised those they expected to brainwash, and ran down those who would have nothing to do with them.

p In their flirtation with the students, they tried once again to play up one of the main shortcomings of many revolutionary-minded young people, namely their lack of a scientific world outlook or a clear-cut idea of the course of struggle. In April 1969, the Paris Secretariat noted with satisfaction that a certain section of the young people were very poorly equipped with regard to theory and organizational notions. A special resolution adopted by the congress said that the students were a "reservoir for recruitment," it is to them ithat first of all "the doctrine and the stand of the Trotskyite movement" had to be introduced.  [36•1 

p Whom did the Trotskyites have in mind? They had decided that the best bet were the students who came from petty-bourgeois families. Accordingly it was said that "The student Sector has played a fundamental role as part of the petty bourgeoisie.”   [36•2 

p In other words, when the Trotskyites extolled the students, they do not have in mind its antiimperialist-minded section, but only the young 37 people of petty-bourgeois origin. The Trotskyites were interested in them mainly because these young people tend to be very vague about the form and method of struggle.

p The "Fourth International" made no secret about the fact that a sizable section of the young people in the capitalist countries are badly informed about past and present Trotskyite activity. This is variously expressed as follows: "The young people have no preconceptions about Trotskyism," and "The young people do not regard Trotskyism as a bogey.”

p What the young people know about Trotskyism frequently boils :dOwn to what they have read in anti-communist writings or what they have been told by bourgeois professors, who are. known to be openly partial to Trotskyism.

p Today, bourgeois propaganda is the Trotskyites’ most reliable ideological ally. Journalists, historians, sociologists and even some writers have started to popularize Trotsky’s ideas and, distorting the historical facts, have sought to present Trotskyism as a revolutionary doctrine. Trotsky is lauded in university auditoriums. His books are included in obligatory reading lists, and the student who has not read them stands a chance of not passing his exams.

p The voices of bourgeois scientists and the present ideologists of the "Fourth International" so blend with each other in a common eulogy to Trotskyism that they can scarcely be distinguished. When one reads or hears some bourgeois spokesman one may easily mistake him for an emissary of the "Fourth International," and only find out otherwise by looking him up in Who’s Who.

p Why are the respectable gentlemen in bourgeois science and journalism so eager to boost Trotskyism? Why is such an effort being put into singing the praises of Trotskyism to the student youth ?

p The main reason is that the ruling bourgeoisie has been seeking ways to counteract the stepped-up student political activity. Official propaganda has resorted to various tricks to intensify the ideological confusion prevalent among a large section of the youth. It has promoted various false theories about the lasting and immutable nature of the bourgeois system in the advanced capitalist countries, it has praised the numerous formulas for “improving” capitalism, and it has tried to put across to the youth all manner of pseudo-seditious and pseudo-revolutionary views and conceptions.

p , Back in 1915, Lenin wrote that the " bourgeois society is continually producing politicians who love to assert they belong to no class, and opportunists who love to call themselves socialists, both of whom deliberately and systematically deceive the masses with the most florid and radical words"   [38•1 .

p Since then, history has repeatedly confirmed the aptness of this observation. Bourgeois propaganda has constantly supported those who have used a barrage of “Leftist” catchwords to split the ranks of the anti-imperialist fighters.

p This alliance has constantly been of help to diverse pseudo-Leftists who do not have to make such an effort to put across their views, since it 39 is being done by those who run the publishing houses, the printing works and promote the sale of books.

p All this must be borne in mind if one is to understand why a section of the youth have a distorted view of Trotskyism, of its policies and practices, of its past and present. This is not only due to Trotskyite activity, but also to bourgeois propaganda which backs them up.

The ruling bourgeoisie has not only aided Trotskyism propaganda-wise by publishing Trotsky’s numerous "works," but has actively helped and continues to help it make political capital of the erroneous Trotskyite views which have been drummed into the heads of young people in the capitalist countries. Trotskyism, on the other hand, has done its part.