Written: 7 June 1935.
First Published: New Militant [New York], Vol. I No. 27, 29 June 1935, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up: Einde O’Callaghan for the Trotsky Internet Archive.
Copyleft: Leon Trotsky Internet Archive (www.marxists.org) 2015. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0.
June 7, 1935.
To the Students of Edinburgh University
Dear Sirs,
I am indebted to you for your so unexpected and flattering proposal: to put me up as candidate for the rectorate of your university. The freedom from any nationalist considerations which yon show is a great tribute to the spirit of the students of Edinburgh.
I appreciate your confidence all the more since you, as you yourselves say, are uninfluenced by the refusal of the British Government to grant me a visa. Nevertheless I do not feel that I have the right to accept your proposal. The elections to the rectorate, you write, are conducted on a NON-POLITICAL basis and your letter itself is signed by representatives of every political tendency. But I myself occupy too definite a political position; all my activity has been and remains devoted to the revolutionary liberation of the proletariat from the yoke of capital. I have no other right to responsible posts. I would therefore consider it a crime toward the working class and a disloyalty toward you to appear on no matter what public tribune not under the Bolshevik banner. You will find, I have no doubt, a candidate much more in conformity with, the traditions of your University.
I wish you with all my heart the greatest success in your work.
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Sincerely yours, |
Last updated on: 28 July 2015