To me it is more of a 'biography' of Stalin rather than LDT. Russians are still unclear on how to think about Stalin.

Surprised that you take it all so seriously. Who cares what Russians think of Trotsky? Russia today has half the GDP of India. Time to move on from the Russia fixation?

This review is a real antidote to the pernicious mainstream media, which puke anti-semitic lies and pass it on as truths....

Thank you comrades David North and Clara Weiss. I should begin my comment with condemnation of Putin and his regime for this crime, i.e. legitimizing this criminal falsification of the history of the Russian revolution in 1917 in general and horrific attack on a revolutionary who was instrumental in planting seeds for the international socialist revolution.. Of course one can not expect anything contrary from a dictator who decends from the greatest falsifier of the history for his personal aggrandizement, Joseph Stalin. This article is vivid in rectifying the conspiratorial damage done to the revolutionary history of Russia and its definitive outcome to be unfolded to the future via the party of the world revolution, ICFI. Fighting falsifications constitute an indispensable project in organizing program for the international socialist revolution.

Prior to how to respond to "Trotsky," why it was broadcast by Netflix--including why now--is worth exploring. As far as buying low from Russia to resell high shouldn't be excluded(profit after all was Oskar Schindler's motive to save lowcost jewish workers, at the start anyway). Did Netflix make a profit? Did they expect to? Whether or not propaganda was a motive, we are faced with the effect. Some will object that censorship is wrong if we want a world without censorship; that the end should not justify the means. For better or for worse we who accept armed struggle should have no problem with information as a part of warfare--certainly the enemy doesn't. When Reagan brayed "communists will lie, steal, and kill for power,"as though capitalists are not in the war too, some polyannish idealists were sold but why leave them ignorant? Denial of information at the right time for winning doesn't mean we should slacken our own educational, agitational and propaganda efforts. Moving to another level, what are the reasons for, and the implications of, the USA bourgeoisie now putting out this propaganda for propaganda purposes?

Many thanks to the WSWS and the ICFI for calling this out. Barely a day goes by without the thoroughly mild social-democratic reformist turn in the UK Labour Party embodied in Jeremy Corbyn being denounced as "antisemitic" by the UK press in the most hysterical terms, and yet here we have what is here rightly denounced as trash being broadcast from the heights by what is for anyone under 30 the most influential TV platform. I cannot believe Robert Service is being allowed to get away with talking about the length of Trotsky's nose! Does the Israeli embassy have a view on all this? Or are you allowed to get away with this sort of filth as long as you say rude things about Palestinians for long enough? It seems that years of anti-Muslim ranting now seem to have allowed utterly unreconstructed antisemites, of a variety one might have previously thought extinct, to come crawling out the gutter again.

"The World Socialist Web Site attempted to elicit a statement from the Anti-Defamation League but received no callback. Prominent academics have, with few exceptions, maintained their silence as well."
" Anti-Semitism " - in the DEMOCRATIC PARTY -was the talk of MEET THE PRESS this Sunday morning. What a confusing mess !
Why on earth would mainstream news media in the USA- with so many " friend of Israel " talking heads- in any way promote the cruder forms of anti-Semitism ?
It is mainly the " progressive " liberals and democratic socialists who are being SMEARED as anti-Semites. By WHOM ?
Again and again any negative opinions on Apartheid Israel are quickly and brainlessly associated with anti-Semitism.
On the so called Left how much credibility do any Zionist Jews have in passing moral judgment on all those " haters " out there ? Recall that the United Nations condemned Zionism as a form of racism.
Let us working class people hear more from anti-Zionist Jews.
The mainstream capitalist news media in the United States has all but ex-communicated them - in the manner of the Jewish heretic philosopher Spinoza centuries ago.
Spinoza's god was certainly morally superior to Ayn Rand's Money god. Spinoza's nearly Euclidean moral logic does not culminate in the " Virtue of Selfishness ".
Just a few years ago nearly every Republican candidate for president slobbered over the " brilliance " and principles of the militant atheist Ayn Rand ( which included militant Zionism, Capitalism, and contempt for the " inferior " Palestinians ) .
To be sure , the TRUTH is not anti-Semitic !

As to the question of whether or not the film is art, well, what is art? Art is the reproduction (always a pale reproduction as it can never be as vivid as real life) of some aspect of life, or at least material reality, as well as the cognition and judgement of that reality.

I don't know the subjective intentions of the director. He will probably claim that he is trying to show his interpretation of what Bolshevism was. This would just prove that the director is no mental giant, as he's wittingly or unwittingly swallowed one of the most massive historical LIES.

Regardless of whether or not the director is a conscious liar or a low-IQ ignoramus, or both, what he says with his film is FALSE to the core. As such it is incapable of portraying any REAL internal dynamics of the characters, their interactions, the objective results of their actions, etc. Because the film is based on a monumental lie, everything is course, crude, stupid, and just plain unbelievable. It fails on every standard of good art.

However, regardless of how FALSE the film is, it still tries to portray something, even if it does end up as the opposite of the truth, and as such has ZERO credibility.

It is therefore BAD, AWFUL, HORRIBLE art. It should be exhibited in a museum for such art.

As for it's being on Netflix, I'm sure there are plenty of bad films on there, like Sharknado. Maybe the correct call would be to flood the film with negative reviews.

So as to the debate on whether not to demand that Netflix withdraw the film, the question is: would that constitute a call for censorship on the part of Netflix, which is a capitalist corporation?

Well the question is, what is the attitude of Marxism towards the current laws in capitalist-imperialist Western Europe which outlaw Nazi and Fascist symbols? At least as far as I know, Marxism should, on principle, oppose those laws, because we know that such laws in the power of the capitalist state will invariably be used against the Left, against Marxism, and against the insurgent masses.

By extension, it could be argued that calling on Netflix to censor this film, that would then empower the right to call on Netflix to censor films such as "War Machine", and others which do offend the capitalists and imperialists. Furthermore, it would allow the right to falsely posture as defenders of free speech.

Unfortunately, this horrible, idiotic, little anti-semitic screed of a film has been made. Since we don't, at present, have a time machine to go back and stop the film from being made, the only correct course of action is to vigorously denounce this film, meticulously expose all of it's lies and propaganda, and if possible, point people towards art that does truthfully portray Bolshevism to counteract the film.

It seems to me that calling on Netflix to censor the film is counterproductive.

On the other hand, one COULD argue that because the film claims, falsely, to be portraying a real person, that it qualifies as slander and defamation of character, and under legal rules, loses it's first amendment protection. However, as far as I know, courts will say that in such cases, you have to prove a material harm to the individual. SInce Lenin, Trotsky, the Bolsheviks, etc. are long dead, from a legal point of view, such a tactic be difficult, unless you prove that Trotsky's descendants were caused harm.

Also, false advertising is NOT protected under free speech laws. Again, as far as I know, generally one has to prove that the defendant knowingly lied in most courts.

Furthermore, I'm not sure about artistic license and free speech laws.

Here is an interesting link which goes into some of these issues.
https://www.tjcenter.org/Ar...

I hope the Russian working class rejects this anti-semitic trash!

I disagree, the Russian working class is smarter than you think. The working class want socialism and hate the ruling oligarchs and can see right through their lies. The time for the oligarchs demise is comming soon!

Thank you for this alarming review. That there is so little critical discussion around how and why such an explicit neo-Nazi propaganda piece can be funded and produced, and then distributed through a popular media platform demonstrates the sharpening fascistic tendency among the ruling class and their cultural pundits. The anti-semitic descriptions of Trotsky by Thatcher and Service are disgusting. A ban on such destructive and perverted material is entirely justified.

Read David North's book, "In Defense of Leon Troatsky" and also read the review of Service's filthy book and that of North's book by Bertrand Patenaude. See articles on this already published on the WSWS.

As this "Trotsky" series has been effectively and deservedly trashed by WSWS before, nobody else needs to convince me more, not only about this particular shoddy production but about entire low brow propaganda in which NETFLIX is engaged in from its DVD rental beginning and for which it was allowed by Wall Street to burn $billion a quarter on expensive crap with no profit in sight.

But that aside what bothered me already a decade ago and what "Trotsky" production epitomizes is degradation of historically placed fictional drama adaptation for film into pseudo-documentary dramas and recently further into historical alternative drama which I warned long ago leads to erasure of historical reality Orwellian style piece by piece.

What is worse that nobody needs such productions as those who are in possession of historical facts and understand life realities regardless of political bent are opposed to those free variations on history and question whom those serve except for brainwashing of tabula rasa youth to be conditioned into certain attitudes about the past concocted after the fact in Orwellian style of contemporary political expediencies.

In global context they are more dangerous as global youth is exposed to fabricated reality of other nations nobody locally is able to confirm or deny or rebuke.

This "Trotsky" anti revolutionary propaganda hit pretending to be bio-drama based on history in fact encapsulates inside real historical alternative genre atttacking facts and reality of Trotsky's life, not denying revolutionary milestones yet but pick and choose them according to their expediency in following preconceived notion of Trotsky and how he should be perceived by youth according to propaganda bosses in Kremlin as well as Washington strangely unified on this subject.

I think this hit job is reaction to increased interest in revolutionary leadership all over the world among young
so this series is a diversion from young people investigating on their own what Marxism and October revolution was all about as class struggle intensifies and young feel full brunt of its failure century later and following wars and repression of working class.

We should condemn alternative history shows, even docudrama as it is nothing but Orwellian supression of history and denial of a continuous historical process.

Will the WSWS conduct an investigative report as to why Netflix decided to pick up and air what is obviously a piece of Kremlin propaganda?

The chances that a powerful and influential streaming service will remove a work that, under normal circumstances, would probably qualify as hate speech, are even worse than the odds of winning the lottery. This is especially true if there is a political rationale behind the choice to promote and stream this anti-Semitic and anti-socialist work to a large audience.

Would a campaign of articles and exposés serve to highlight, on the one hand, the fraudulent and hypocritical character of the “Russian meddling” narrative and, on the other allow for the development of the class struggle more effectively by pointing to the fact that the perspective of scientific socialism is the only way to oppose the resuscitation of fascism by the ruling class? The fact that the ADL and academics are unwilling to speak out against a tv show that provides a thinly veiled take on foundational myths of Nazism proves that these organizations are organically incapable of fighting back - not unlike the SPD in the 1930s.

No doubt the right and the petty bourgeois “left” will attack the WSWS on the grounds that the demand to remove this work is “censorship” and that this demand is showing the “true nature of Bolshevism.” These objections can be dismissed by the simple fact that this shows how far to the right the official political spectrum has shifted ie: since when did speaking out against genuine hate speech become subversive? More importantly, I fear that any attempt to ask for the removal of anything will be used by the bourgeoisie as a precedent to justify repression against the genuine socialist left during this very dangerous period where the far-right is within striking distance of seizing state power in many countries worldwide while the working class has yet to intersect on a mass level with a socialist programme and leadership.

Netflix has very little credibility anyway. After what they did to Kevin Spacey, I don't trust them at all.

But the youth flock to Netflix. Most of them are either unaware or don’t care about what happened to Spacey.

It would seem the message to Jews from the Ruling Class is clear: in the coming conflict (the end of Pax Americana), you either abandon the working class, or we will turn them against you. Just as the Czar used anti-Jewish propaganda to prop up his decaying oligarchy, so will today's brittle Ruling Class use the tools of State power - propaganda, law, violence - to prevent a repeat of 1917, when many Jews supported the working class.

Despite my views essentially falling in line with Trotskyism since a young age, I didn't even realize he was Jewish until reading this article. Reading your comment is the first time I've ever thought of anti-semitism as not simply an artefact of a certain kind of provincial socially backwards idiocy born out of the bile of ignorant masses, like an irrational sort of original sin of the working class, but a weaponized ideology that's always fellow travelers with hysterical anti-communism, enabled and propagated by cynical ruling class interests to stifle and divert social unrest into an "acceptable" target.

Despite already knowing that the prime tenet of fascism is the farcical primacy of a permanent race war inherent to the human condition, the realization that anti-semitism is a weaponized ideology to protect ruling class interests puts the dire state of the world in a more terrifying light.

In less fancy words: I don't remember the last time poor people banned Jewish people from country clubs or ran a state that called for their repression, or produced fascistic blood libel propaganda like this filth.

The only acceptable response is to raise social consciousness to aid the working class in coming to the defense of its own by utilizing an ideology a thousand times more powerful than anti-semitism: solidarity.

The historical fabrication and blatant anti-Semitism in this regards is a deliberate attempt from the part of the ruling classes at a time of growing interest to the ideas of Socialism.

It is telling that in spite of the endless allegations in news reports that “Russia is trying to undermine our democracy!” a major media content distributor is promoting what can safely be called Kremlin propaganda. How can this go unnoticed...?

Everything Netflix airs has a political rationale behind it. No other form of media does so much to shape the opinions and thought of the youth.

Just look at the long list of Marvel Studios productions that are targeted towards the youth and have some form of flag waving behind them. While we are on the subject of a racist travesty, need we look any further than Black Panther? Race, sadly, is being promoted by the ruling class for all of the old reasons: to divide and conquer. The bourgeoisie of all countries have learned nothing from the past. All of the old filth is crawling out of the dustbin of history to commit the same crimes, only this time on an even greater scale.

It is quite interesting to note that for all the talk of Russian "meddling" and attempting to "undermine" our "Democracy" with "fake news" etc.... that the media giant Netflix re-broadcasts a Russian television series on important historical events cast as part of a Jewish conspiracy and not a discouraging word is mentioned.

I also think it is significant that Netflix stopped allowing its viewers to offer online reviews of its streaming products several months ago despite much negative feedback from many of its subscribers on this censorious decision.

I am familiar enough with the writing of Leon Trotsky -including his own " My Life " autobiography-to assert that Trotsky was a Marxist revolutionary to the marrow of his bones. There is not a hint of ethno-centrism in his life or in his revolutionary writing.
All the great Jewish scientists of the 20th century-many Noble Prize winners- had a cosmopolitan outlook nurtured by what is best in the culture of Western Civilization.
Nothing can be more effective in checking irrational anti-Semitism than a critical mass of Jewish " public intellectuals " denouncing Zionism and Apartheid Israel .
Affluent , politically connected, mostly Democrat, Jews in the USA are in no danger of persecution by the mainstream news media . But they recently ganged up on a new Muslim member of Congress who dared to suggest that the STATE of Israel is just what the United Nations claimed it to be : " Zionism is a form of racism " .
Clearly, working class SOCIALISTS- of whatever race or ethnic group- are in much greater danger of persecution or harassment than FBI-CIA connected Zionists or most upper class American Jews.
The socialist LEFT is smeared every day as " anti-Semitic " ( by WHOM - by Christians, by Humanists, by Muslims , by Roman Catholics ? ) . No doubt by the New Atheists ! Who sponsors them ?
Not for nothing " Hitler Trump " is still quite popular in Israel. I wonder why .

The idea that anti-semitism is a response to Zionism or Israeli crimes is ridiculous and ahistorical. History shows that in times of anti-semitic public sentiment even renouncing one's Jewishness entirely won't help. The dominant trend among European Jews in the 19th century was towards assimilation, and it did nothing to end the pogroms or prevent the Holocaust. Trotsky himself is a perfect example of this. He renounced his Jewishness, assimilated complete into secular societies – and yet Stalin was still able to use his image as the "Wandering Jew" against him. This, of course, cost him his life.

Not so. It was Trotsky's intransigence in opposing Stalin and Stalinism that got him assassinated by that same Stalin's agent. Stalin may or may not have been anti-semitic, but what he feared about Trotsky was not the fact that Trotsky had a Jewish heritage, but the fact that Trotsky continued to oppose Stalin and had a worldwide following for doing so. It was the Left Opposition who were slaughtered in the great purges and not all of them were Jews.

This is the position of historical materialism ? Anti-Semitism has metaphysical roots ? What about prejudice in general being a generalization of experience . That can be wrong but it is hardly un-scientific. The Palestinians need a good scolding for their " anti-Semitism " ?
Should destitute black Americans love Jewish slum landlords ? Was Einstein wrong to make a collective judgment damning Germany and Germans?
I think anti-Semitism has a very rational explanation- there is nothing ETERNAL about it or " hateful " human nature.

LOL, yes Ron, we all know you think that anti-semitism has a rational explanation. That is one thing you have managed to articulate very clearly. Please articulate it at Breitbart and Stormfront, where it belongs.

And since many people have suggested that he may be a conscious fascist who poses as a confused person here just to sew divisions and disorientation, it's worth pointing out that, as the crisis of capitalism has deepened, his attempts to scapegoat Jews for the crimes of the US and capitalism have gotten much more frequent and intense.

Hi Emerson, you must be new here. Ron is our resident antisemite and catholic/fascist apologist. Look through his past posts on this website to find some of his greatest hits like "Henry Ford and Jack Kennedy supported the Nazis because they were classic American pacifists," "Socialists need to reach out to the Catholic Church," and "Jews are an inherently reactionary group, while Italians are naturally artistic and progressive."

His invocation of a handful of "good" Jews at the beginning of his comment here is, in his mind anyway, a rebuttal to the constant criticisms he receives.

Trotsky renouncing his Jewishness has no barring on what Stalin , or the like , do. Trotsky most likely was showing how humans need to shed a false identity fed to them at birth to take on another as they advance in nature.

It's like the Christians and baptism. It's a public display of shedding one culture and taking on another.

On the issue of calling for the removal of the film from Netflix's roster:

Weiss and North wrote:
"The failure to denounce the Netflix film, let alone demand that it be removed from the company’s roster, is not confined to the media."

Calling for films to be removed, books not published, artists and professors fired and blacklisted and the like have been the responses of supporters of Zionism, the Metoo# movement, BLM, etc.. over work and people just accused of being reactionary, "male chauvinist", "racist", "anti-Semitic", etc......
That is not the tactic, I think, suggested by North and Weiss even after making the case that the film "Trotsky" is blatantly and quite consciously anti-Jewish and ahistorical.
The article simply notes that the mere suggestion of Antisemitism had been enough previously to bring the world crashing in on your head.
They are absolutely correct to suggest that in the effort to combat socialism, blatant anti-Antisemitism and historical lies are quietly accepted.
The apparent ambiguity for some readers suggests the need for elaboration.

"Tsarist regime viewed antisemitism as a powerful ideological weapon that could be deployed against the mounting threat of socialist revolution."

This is exactly what's happening now in Russia and Eastern Europe. Again, fear of social unrest and revolution is the reason why criminal oligarchs are using antisemitism as a rallying point. Just take a glimpse
at the "Russia Insider" a website providing a daily dose of antisemitism, a salute to 19th Century czarist Russia, and articles paying homage to Nicholas II.

Now that people are beginning to reconsider socialism look for more propaganda pieces like this in the media ( I have not seen this movie yet, but based on this review I do not think I want to). But the financial elites are deathly afraid of socialism. Even Cspan-WJ had as a topic on their open phones segment recently the following; "Is the Democratic Party in Danger of being Taken over by Socialism?" If I had been able to get through to the moderator that day I might have said "What danger? The rich love socialism."

Of course, capitalist media condemns all kinds of anti-Semitism, as long as it's directed against their powerful allies like Israel. But if it's directed to a Jew who just so happens to also be a socialist, well then maybe there is something to that international conspiracy. . .

the film is antisemitic, but calling for it to be withdrawn seems hypocritical. Aren't socialists supposed to be for freedom of expression?

This television series is not art, but anti-Semitic, neo-fascistic propaganda. It was produced in 2017, the centenary of the Russian Revolution, by the Russian oligarchic state, to falsify that historic event, its leadership and significance, and besmirch it in the eyes of the Russian and international working class. As propaganda, its aim is to mobilise the most backward, declassed, lumpen layers against all those committed to democratic rights - above all, Trotskyists. Consider the context in which it appears: the rise of neo-fascistic governments across Europe, fascist rallies, replete with swastikas and hand-held flame torches, growing attacks around the world on Jews, the defacing of Jewish graves. Netflix had a choice, to screen it or not. If it had decided not to screen it, on the basis of an estimation that it was a disgusting piece of trash, that would not have been censorship. So why DID Netflix decide to screen it??Demanding its withdrawal is entirely warranted.

Socialists have never supported the "right" of fascists to publish anti-Semitic garbage like this Netflix series. There is nothing hypocritical in the demand that this neo-Nazi propaganda be removed from Netflix.

No.

The film should certainly be withdrawn. It is not merely a "bad show," it is an intentionally dishonest hit piece that bears nothing in common with reality. As the article states, this series could have been produced by Hitler and Goebbels.

Master Oroko has never read anything on Trotsky or by Trotsky. He’s a libertarian by day, and a troll at night. Relpy with caution!

How do you know what he has or hasn't read? He reads David North.

I don't and could care less but I've seen his previous comments on other threads here on the WS and they're vague and sometimes even racist. If you ask him a question about what he wrote he hardly replies but when I write something it gets removed. He must have friends in high places for a libertarian on a socialist website. So if the moderator is reading this and getting ready to remove it then I'll stop my monthly donations to the site. From all the comrades I've got to meet over the past year I've got to learn the real genuine socialist vs the phony ones. After all he even says he's a libertarian. I'm not a bully but trolling is so weak. You got to have some mental issues to want to go on the internet and dog somebody for their beliefs.

Yesterday morning, the right-wing pundit Federico Jiménez Losantos from Spain felt the need to revile Communism and Trotsky personally in his radio show. To him, Communism is "allowing all evil to be committed because the end is the good", he sarcastically said. He accused Trotsky of advocating terror and civil war. All his rant was imbued with the defense of property. Just as the attacks on the pro-market, pro-capitalist Jeremy Corbyn in the UK aim to warn the working class against the possibility of its own, independent organization, Losantos linked Podemos to the Bolsheviks... Nothing new: no new arguments in the right-wing camp, no new actors in politics (Podemos not representing anything really new actually).

"What accounts for this indifference to the presentation of a viciously anti-Semitic work to a mass audience?"
Reading this article I was flabbergasted that a work of such virulent antisemitism could somehow slip "under the radar". (I have not seen this film). The article then explains this bizarre event:
"under conditions of mounting political crisis, there is an increasing fear of the growth of interest in revolutionary socialism".
So, the "ultimate" sin , antisemitism, appears justified, if it can be used to smear & degrade socialism.
This film demonstrates just how pathologically twisted & hypocritical the "establishment" is willing to become to delegitimate any alternative to capitalism.

The revolution is legitimate, and the government criminal. However, that does not lead to an immediate transfer of power to the revolution, and in the intermediary period all types of weapons and tactics will be used to prevent the legitimate transfer. Humanity must bind together against the threats of the oligarchy or risk the loss of countless lives. The overt use of anti-semitism represents a threat of gas war against civilians, mass incarceration, slavery, and mass-murder.

Appears to be a debate on twitter over Netflix's "Trotsky" #trotskyversusnetflix