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A Statement on the Slanders Circulated by the Healy Group Against Hansen, Novack, and the Socialist Workers Party |
The signers of the following statement represent a rather wide range of tendencies in the left. Some belong to no organized formation but are strong advocates of free and honest dialogue among working-class organizations and are veteran battlers against the introduction of frame-up methods. Others represent groups or organizations holding similar views an this question whatever their special political points of view may be. All of them are familiar with the Trotskyist movement; many are acquainted personally with Joseph Hansen and George Novack, and know the record of the Socialist Workers party, although they may disagree with its positions on a number of issues.
[Among the signers are five former secretaries or guards to Leon Trotsky: Chris Andrews, Jake Cooper, Raya Dunayevskaya, Sara (Weber) Jacobs, and V.T. O'Brien. Another secretary, Jean van Heijenoort, who was with Trotsky in Turkey, France, Norway, and Mexico, made a separate statement, which is published below.
[Vsevolod Volkov, the grandson of Leon Trotsky, is among the signers. Also Marguerite Bonnet, a close friend of Natalia Sedoff, who was named European executor of Trotsky’s literary estate.
[Internationally known Trotskyists of various tendencies and affiliations who signed the statement include Tariq Ali, Pierre Frank, Alain Krivine, Livio Maitan, Ernest Mandel, Nahuel Moreno, Jack Barnes, Hugo Blanco, Connie Harris, Peng Shu-tse, Mary-Alice Waters, Arlette Laguiller, Michel Rodinson, Pierre Lambert, Betty Hamilton, and James Robertson.
[A number of veteran leaders and militants of the SWP going back to the thirties and earlier signed the statement, including Milton Alvin, George Breitman, Anne Chester, Harry de Boer, Farrell Dobbs, Max Geldman, Karolyn Kerry, Tom Kerry, Marvel Scholl, Art Sharon, and Augusta Trainor.
[Arne Swabeck, one of the founders of the American Communist Party and of the Trotskyist movement, added his signature, as did Jack (Weber) Jacobs, Morris Stein, Murry Weiss and Myra Tanner Weiss. Charles Curtiss, another old timer, who worked with Trotsky in Mexico, submitted a statement of his own.
[Also to be noted among the signers is Ken Coates of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Tamara Deutscher, Daniel Guerin, and Ralph Schoenman.
[C.L.R. James submitted an individual statement.
[Statements by the Tendance Marxiste Revolutionnaire Internationale (TMRI – International Revolutionary Marxist Tendency) and the Bulletin Group are also printed.]
For almost a year the Workers Revolutionary party, the British group headed by Gerry Healy, has conducted a vicious slander campaign against the Socialist Workers party of the United States and two of its veteran leaders, Joseph Hansen and George Novack. Healy and his followers in various countries have published articles and pamphlets, held public meetings, and distributed leaflets and posters accusing both men of “criminal negligence” in Trotsky’s assassination and of being “accomplices of the GPU,” alleging that they have covered up crimes of the Soviet secret police and shielded its agents.
They also insinuate that Hansen colluded with the FBI. By implication their charges likewise dishonor James P. Cannon, founder of the American Trotskyist movement, as well as Trotsky himself and his son Sedov.
Healy and his associates have not brought forward the slightest probative evidence, documents, or testimony to substantiate their libelous accusations against Hansen and Novack, the nominal targets of the attacks. The script of their polemics is fabricated out of baseless innuendoes, gratuitous suppositions and outright lies that do not have any political content or foundation in fact. They constitute a shameless frame-up.
The specific allegations have been exposed and refuted point by point in articles by various organizations and individuals printed in Intercontinental Press which can be consulted for extensive information.
The records of Hansen and Novack as political figures, writers, and editors are well known to us and many others the world over. Both have been continuously active for more than forty years as prominent members of the American Trotskyist movement and supporters of the Fourth International. It is especially odious that they have been singled out and falsely accused of aiding Stalin’s assassins, since they devoted themselves to protecting Trotsky’s life during his last exile in Mexico.
Argentina
Mario Gonzalez (Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores)
D. Marcelo (Manifiesto Obrero)
Nahuel Moreno (Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores)
Australia
Phil Griffiths (International Socialists)
Dave Holmes (Socialist Workers Party)
Juanita Keig (Socialist Workers Party)
Bill Logan (Spartacist League)
Jim McIlroy (Socialist Workers Party)
James Percy (Socialist Workers Party)
John Percy (Socialist Workers Party)
Ted Tripp
John Tully (Socialist Workers Party)
Austria
Hermann Dworczak (Gruppe Revolutionare Marxisten)
Belgium
Eddy Labeau (Ligue Révolutionnaire des Travailleurs/Revolutionaire Arbeiders Liga)
Ernest Mandel (Ligue Révolutionnaire des Travailleurs/ Revolutionaire Arbeiders Liga)
Britain
Tariq Ali (International Marxist Group)
John Archer
Mary Archer
Robin Blackburn (International Marxist Group)
Kate Blakeney
Robin Blick
Ken Coates
Tamara Deutscher
Charlie van Gelderen (International Marxist Group)
Sam Gordon
Brian Grogan (International Marxist Group)
Betty Hamilton
Alan Harris (International Marxist Group)
Connie Harris (International Marxist Group)
Quintin Hoare {International Marxist Group)
Mark Jenkins
Margaret Johns
Alan Jones (International Marxist Group)
Pat Jordan (International Marxist Group)
Michael Kidron (International Socialists)
Jim Peck
Bob Pennington (International Marxist Group)
Louis Sinclair
Harry Wicks
David Yaffe (for the Political Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Group)
Canada
Reg Bullock (League for Socialist Action/Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière)
Ruth Bullock (League for Socialist Action/Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière)
Francis Cyr (Groupe Marxiste Revolutionnaire)
René Denis (for the Central Committee of the Groupe Socialiste des Travailleurs du Quebec)
Ross Dowson (Socialist League)
Colleen Levis (League for Socialist Action/Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière)
Joyce Meissenheime
Joe Meslin
Vernal Olson
John Riddell (League for Socialist Action/League Socialiste Ouvrière)
Bret Smiley (Revolutionary Marxist Group)
Ernest Tate (League for Socialist Action/Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière)
William White
Art Young (League for Socialist Action/Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière)
Chile
Luis Vitale (Partido Socialista Revolucionario)
China
Chen Pi-lan (Revolutionary Communist Party)
Jerry Chow
Li Fu-jen
Peng Shu-tse (Revolutionary Communist party)
F.H. Wang
Colombia
A. Otto (Grupo Marxista Internacionalista)
Freddy Téllez (Grupo La Internacional)
Costa Rica
Fausto Amador (Organizacion Socialista de los Trabajadores)
Denmark
Gunnar Jensen (Revolutionaere Socialisters Forbund)
Vagn Rasmussen (Revolutionary Marxist Group in the Left Socialist party)
France
Marguerite Bonnet
Pierre Broué (Organisation Communiste Internationaliste)
Pierre Frank (Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire)
Daniel Guérin
Alain Krivine (Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire)
Arlette Laguiller (Lutte Ouvrière)
Pierre Lambert (Organisation Communiste Internationaliste)
Michel Rodinson (Lutte Ouvrière)
Pierre Rousset (Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire)
Gerard Vergeat (Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire)
Germany
Herwart Achterberg (Gruppe Internationale Marxisten)
Jakob Moneta
Winfried Wolf (Gruppe Internationale Marxisten)
Greece
Giannis Felekis (Organization of Communist Internationalists)
Iceland
Mar Gudmundsson (Fylking Byltingarsinnadra Kommunista)
India
Dr. A.R. Desai
Magan Desai (Communist League)
Iran
Javad Sadeeg
Cyrus Paydar (Sattar League)
Ireland
Dermot Whelan
Israel
J. Taut (League of Revolutionary Communists)
Italy
Livio Maitan (Gruppi Comunisti Rivoluzionari)
Luxembourg
Robert Mertzig (Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire)
Mexico
Manuel Aguilar Mora (Liga Comunista Internacionalista)
Luciano Galicia S.
Jaime Gonzalez (Liga Socialista [Fraccion Bolchevique-Leninista])
Roberto Martinez Aveleira
Cesar Nicolas Molina
Cristina Rivas (Liga Socialista [Fraccion Bolchevique-Leninista])
Vsevolod Volkof
New Zealand
George Fyson (Socialist Action League)
Russell Johnson (Socialist Action League)
Keith Locke (Socialist Action League)
Peru
Hugo Blanco (Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores)
Portugal
Paulo Mendes (Partido Revolucionario dos Trabalhadores)
Antonio Sa Leal (Partido Revolucionario dos Trabalhadores)
José Sintra (Grupos de Acçao Socialista)
Spain
Manuel (for the Political Bureau, Liga Comunista Revolucionaria/Euzkadi ta Azkatasuna-VI)
Melan (for the Political Bureau, Liga Comunista)
Sri Lanka
Edmund Samarakkody (Revolutionary Workers Party)
Bala Tampoe (Revolutionary Marxist Party)
Sweden
Kjell Ostberg (Kommunistiska Arbetarforbundet)
Switzerland
Charles-Andre Udry (Ligue Marxiste Révolutionnaire)
United States
Milton Alvin (Socialist Workers Party)
Charles Andrews (Trotskyist Organizing Committee)
Chris Andrews
Jack Barnes (Socialist Workers Party)
George Breitman (Socialist Workers Party)
Peter Camejo (Socialist Workers Party)
Anne Chester (Socialist Workers party)
Jake Cooper (Socialist Workers Party)
Lillian Curtiss (Socialist Workers Party)
Clifton DeBerry (Socialist Workers Party)
Harry de Boer (Socialist Workers Party)
Farrell Dobbs (Socialist Workers Party)
Margaret R. Dullea
Robert D. Dullea
Raya Dunayevskaya (National Chairwoman, News & Letters Committees)
V. Raymond Dunne
Nancy Fields (Socialist Workers Party)
Hugh Fredricks (Trotskyist Organizing Committee)
Max Geldman (Socialist Workers Party)
Albert Glotzer
Fred Halstead (Socialist Workers Party)
Allan Hansen (Socialist Workers Party)
Reba Hansen (Socialist Workers Party)
Gus Horowitz (Socialist Workers Party)
Jack (Weber) Jacobs
Sara (Weber) Jacobs
Karolyn Kerry (Socialist Workers Party)
Tom Kerry (Socialist Workers Party)
Bruce Landau (Revolutionary Marxist Committee)
Frank Lovell (Socialist Workers Party)
V.T. O'Brien
Earl Owens (Trotskyist Organizing Committee)
Evelyn Reed (Socialist Workers Party)
James Robertson (for the International Executive Committee of the International Spartacist Tendency)
Grace Saunders
Ralph Schoenman
Marvel Scholl (Socialist Workers Party)
Art Sharon (Socialist Workers Party)
Ed Shaw (Socialist Workers Party)
Barry Sheppard (Socialist Workers Party)
Paul N. Siegel
Morris Stein
Elizabeth Stone (Socialist Workers Party)
Arne Swabeck
Tony Thomas (Socialist Workers Party)
Augusta M. Trainor (Socialist Workers Party)
Harry Turner (Trotskyist Organizing Committee)
Mary-Alice Waters (Socialist Workers Party)
Murry Weiss
Myra Tanner Weiss
Tim Wohlforth (Socialist Workers Party)
Milton Zaslow (Revolutionary Marxist Organizing Committee)
Venezuela
Andrés (Liga Socialista)
Antonio (Liga Socialista)
Carlos (Liga Socialista)
Daniel (Liga Socialista)
Eva (Liga Socialista)
Juan (Liga Socialista)
Orieta (Liga Socialista)
Ulises (Liga Socialista)
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Last updated on 29.12.2002