Gazeta Wyborcza editor credited Trotskyism for allowing him to remain Communist
Did Henryk Szlajfer belong to a Trotskyist Communist group when he was a "dissident"?
Gazeta Wyborcza didn't like this blogger's reference to the "Commandos," a Marxist group that Szlajfer joined as a young political activist, as embracing of Red Army founder Leon Trotsky's brand of Marxism-Leninism.
Was Gazeta Wyborcza being objective in its criticism? Or was it trying to kill the messenger to cover up skeletons in its own closet?
The leader of the "Commandos" was Szlajfer's longtime friend Adam Michnik, founder and editor of Gazeta Wyborcza.
Michnik himself described, in 1988, his and the Commandos' identification with Trotskyism. He wrote that he and his "dissident" friends were indeed Communists, but that they didn't like the Soviet model. Trotskyism allowed him, Szlajfer and the others to rebel against Moscow while remaining un-democratic and hostile to the West.
Here are Michnik's words translated into English, with the original Polish wording retained in brackets:
Source: “Pewien polski etos…. Rozmowa Dany Cohn-Bendita z Adamem Michnikiem,” Kontakt (Vanves), no. 6 (June 1988): p. 46-48. (Bold emphasis added.)
Gazeta Wyborcza didn't like this blogger's reference to the "Commandos," a Marxist group that Szlajfer joined as a young political activist, as embracing of Red Army founder Leon Trotsky's brand of Marxism-Leninism.
Was Gazeta Wyborcza being objective in its criticism? Or was it trying to kill the messenger to cover up skeletons in its own closet?
The leader of the "Commandos" was Szlajfer's longtime friend Adam Michnik, founder and editor of Gazeta Wyborcza.
Michnik himself described, in 1988, his and the Commandos' identification with Trotskyism. He wrote that he and his "dissident" friends were indeed Communists, but that they didn't like the Soviet model. Trotskyism allowed him, Szlajfer and the others to rebel against Moscow while remaining un-democratic and hostile to the West.
Here are Michnik's words translated into English, with the original Polish wording retained in brackets:
"this was the moment [1968] when this small, rebellious group of Communists, dissidents, suddenly seized the national banner. . . . And I shall not hide that we had something in common with Trotskyism, but not with Zionism [i nie będę ukrywał, że coś mieliśmy wspólnego z trockizmem, ale z syjonizmem nic]. . . . What was attractive in their [Trotskyist] thinking for us? It was that thanks to Trotskyism one could be an anti-Soviet rebel but simultaneously remain a Communist-Marxist [Co było dla nas atrakcyjne w ich (trockistów) myśleniu? To, że dzięki trockizmowi można było być zbuntowanym, antysowieckim, a jednocześnie być komunistą-marksistą].”
Source: “Pewien polski etos…. Rozmowa Dany Cohn-Bendita z Adamem Michnikiem,” Kontakt (Vanves), no. 6 (June 1988): p. 46-48. (Bold emphasis added.)
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