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Everyone read the screaming headlines and dispatches which, from the outbreak of the Bolshevist revolution in 1917 to the expulsion from Russia of Trotsky in 1929 made his name a household word in even land and stamped Bolshevism for all time with the trademark of "Lenin & Trotsky," but not everyone today could define Trotskyism.
Trotsky urged the industrialization oi Russia, and that was "Trotskyism" until he had been kicked out and it became Stalinism. Trotsky urged regimentation oi the Russian peasantry by the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, the peasants to be uprooted from their little holdings and forced onto vast collective farms with tractor; replacing horses and Moscow able at any moment to shut off the gasoline if the peasants got obstreperous. That too was "Trotskyism," bitterly denounced by Stalin until, Trotsky having been ousted, it became and is today Stalinism.
It was and is a major premise of "Trotskyism" that Communism cannot be successful in a single country unless it simultaneously is fomented in all countries anc they become presently Communist. On this point, the acts of Stalin show his theory now to be that a success can be made oi Communism in one single country, namely the Soviet Union, and that the bulk of its funds should be devoted to achieving success there at this time, not scattered to sow Communism in other countries. These two points of view are generally accepted today as representing "Trotskyism," on the one hand, and Stalinism on the other. At the time of the British Coal Strike (which precipitated the British General Strike of 1927), its leaders cried, "Thank God for Moscow!" and received through the Bank of England from the Soviet State Bank some $2,000,000. That shower of gold was "Trotskyism." The British General Strike fizzled. Stalin, the practical vowed to stop wasting Russia's money thus and concentrated all energies upon building up his Soviet Union at home.
In the minds of neutral observers there is no doubt whatever that Trotsky is an authoritative Communist, Stalin is an even more authoritative Communist, and that —supposing the time ever comes when the Soviet Union is a "success" and has money to spare—Moscow will again shower gold upon Communist parties in other lands, a policy which is so "Trotskyist" today and so sharply distinguished now from what is Stalinist.
"Land to the Peasants!" Most effective slogan used by Lenin & Trotsky to rally rural Russians to their Red standard in 1917 was "Land to the Peasants!"
Today the rulers of Mexico, styling themselves collectively "The Revolution," are at last taking seriously and actually carrying out the basic Mexican Constitutional law of 1917 which is simply a fulfillment of this same slogan.
President Cardenas, probably the most popular and conscientious chief executive Mexico has ever had, today makes zealous efforts to attune his Government's policy to the great mass of Mexicans, the peasants. Less than 25% of Mexican farm lands are owned by non-Mexicans and thus far President Cardenas has been careful not to antagonize prematurely the remaining "foreign landlords," or their governments.