The Socialist Equality Party in Britain is holding a public meeting in London on Sunday November 22, “Why and How the GPU Murdered Leon Trotsky”. The meeting is part of a series that includes five meetings in the US. Details of all meetings are listed below and at wsws.org/trotsky.
The main speaker at the meetings is World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board Chairman David North. The meeting in the UK will also feature Peter Schwarz, secretary of the International Committee of the Fourth International, and Chris Marsden, the National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (UK).
Seventy-five years ago, on August 20, 1940, Trotsky was assassinated by an agent of the Soviet secret police, the GPU, in Coyoacán, a suburb of Mexico City, where he was living in exile.
The assassination of Leon Trotsky ranks among the most politically consequential crimes of the twentieth century, with far-reaching implications for the international working class and the world socialist movement. And yet for decades the circumstances surrounding Trotsky’s assassination remained shrouded in secrecy. The massive scale of the Stalinist conspiracy against Trotsky was the subject of a carefully orchestrated cover-up.
In 1975, the International Committee of the Fourth International launched the first systematic investigation by the Trotskyist movement into the assassination. This investigation, known as Security and the Fourth International, led to the exposure of the network of GPU agents within the Fourth International that ensured the success of Stalin’s conspiracy against Trotsky’s life. The investigation was bitterly opposed by Pabloite and pseudo-left organizations, which denounced the exposure of spies placed inside the Trotskyist movement as “agent-baiting.” This has remained their position, despite the fact that state intelligence documents released following the dissolution of the Soviet Union confirmed the findings of the International Committee and vindicated Security and the Fourth International.
North has been a major figure in the international Trotskyist movement for forty years and played a central role in the Security and the Fourth International investigation. In this lecture series, North will speak on the significance of Trotsky’s assassination, the origins and development of the International Committee’s investigation, and its key findings.
Meeting details:
London, UK
Sunday November 22, 1:30 PM
University of London
Birkbeck
Lecture Room B33
(entrance on Torrington Square)
London, WC1E 7JL
Nearest underground stations: Russell Square, Euston Square. Nearest rail station: Euston
Buy tickets online: http://http://socialequality.org.uk/event/trotsky/
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US Meetings:
Berkeley, California
Tuesday, November 3, 7:00 PM
UC Berkeley
McCone Hall, Room 145
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Davis, California
Thursday, November 5, 7:00 PM
UC Davis
176 Everson Hall (Note: Location has been changed from 126 Wellman)
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San Diego, California
Monday, November 9, 7:00 PM
San Diego State University
Aztec Student Union, Templo Mayor
6075 Aztec Cir Dr
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, November 11, 7:00 PM
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Angell Hall, Auditorium C
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Detroit, Michigan
Thursday, November 12, 7:00 PM
Wayne State University
Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights
471 W Palmer Ave, Detroit
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