ON THE fifteenth anniversary of the October revolution the Social Democratic students of Copenhagen invited Trotsky to speak.
readily accepted the invitation: here was an opportunity to escape, even for a brief period, Turkey, home since Stalin had cibly deported him three years before.
From the first moment of his exile Trotsky SLIDDOROV sought the right of political asylum in Western Europe.
Labour government Donald, together with the French radical and German democratic governments ceeded in barring Trotsky's entry into Western Europe.
This opportunity to lecture in Copenhagen made it possible for him only to his co-thinkers but, more importantly, to get closer to the battle. lines that were unfolding in both Germany and Spain.
Where better to press home his warning to the German working class on the menacing growth Hitler's fascism than from the very frontier of the Weimar Republic?
To the fury of the Stalinist parties Trotsky's journey across Europe made the headlines of the world's press.
Frenzy Hardened Dally tionaries circulated the story that trolsky was travelling to Denmark to denounce the Russian revolution. The nearer he got to Copenhagen the more strident his opponents became.
Monarchists denounced him as the arch Bolshevist who had been responsible for the fall of the Czar. Stalinists were whipped to a te or ane Soviet and comSoviet Communist International leaderships became more apparent.
In such a political climate the responsibility of assuring Trotsky's safety rested with the interSocialist Challenge 3 September 1980 He his forthere The MacsUCa SULHARRY WICKS HICCU national left opposition.
On arrival at Esbjerg, Trotsky proceded to a small house on Dalgas Boulevard in the suburbs of Copenhagen. that house became workshop.
In a box room at the ton of the stairs all interviews were held and the final preparations for his lecture and trans-Atlantic radio talk were made. our small group of Left Oppositionists maintained security. From the moment of Trotsky's arrival the Communist Party conducted a vociferous agitation.
Capitalising on the func- spread interest, they organised a series of anti-Trotsky meetings. To those Stalinist meetings went. Severely hampered by the language barrier and the absence any sympathetic group, we published a tiny leaflet and endeavoured to counter their lying campaien.
It became clear that the CPstimulated hostility was fouling up the political scene and that there was danger meeting would bla disrupted. In the circumstances it was decided to bring from Hamburg a group of sympathisers, ex-Red fighters, to provide a protective For eight days LT's Day and night screen in front of the platform and defence force.
wideDanish that the Front TROTSKY speaking in Copenhagen our meagre discreetly On the night of the meeting a LEON and Natalia Trotsky returning from Denmark vast crowd had assembled in front of the main entrance approached une building from the rear. It ap- steps, Space, time peared to me that it was some sort of field that we crossed Trotsky strode out with firm Natalia felt tense. Friendly students led us to a small ante room at the rear of the platform, and for a few moments it was possible to unwind.
Trotsky autographed copie of his recently published Histor for a number of officials. Th arrived to step up to the platform. As Trotsky approached the podium and faced that large audience, the loudspeakers played the opening bars of "The seemed that all the accumulated tensions of the few days disappeared. What re mained was an attentive audience hour, — not a critical voice was raised, hardly a cough - an audience entranced by the speaker they were listening to and by the great theme: the defence of the October revolution It was five years since Trotsky had addressed a live audience Then it was at the grave of his friend Adolf Joffe. But his open.
Nation: 'I stand under the same banner as I did when I participated in the events of the revolution' not only nailed the lie Stalinist slander camaign, but also showed that h had lost none of his verve as speaker.
The lecture was a magnificent defence of the Russian revolution as a stage in the historical rise of humanity That evening, in little over an the audience heard remarkable precis of his threevolume study of the Russian
Socialist Challer te 2p KICK OUT THE RIGHT