From: TRIMALCHIOBROCCOLI@FARQUARSONBAILEYOMALLEY.COM   
      
   "Martha Bridegam"  wrote in message   
   news:40CA7E5B.7DE2B529@pacbell.net...   
   > There's a letter in the Orwell Complete Works dated February   
   > 1946 in which Orwell adds his signature to a letter being   
   > circulated as a kind of petition by the Revolutionary   
   > Communist Party, which the CW editor, Peter Davison,   
   > describes as "a British Trotskyist Party."   
   >   
   > I thought it might be of interest to folks here because it   
   > indicates that as of 1946 Orwell was still willing to make   
   > common cause with surprisingly hard-left Marxists so long as   
   > they weren't supporters of the Soviet regime.   
   >   
   > The petition letter to which Orwell adds his signature calls   
   > for setting the record straight on charges that had been   
   > made by Stalin's prosecutors at the notorious Moscow Trials.   
   > The charges had included allegations -- most likely false --   
   > that Trotsky and other old Bolsheviks had collaborated with   
   > the Nazis. The petition letter notes that, as of 1946,   
   > prominent Nazis and their records are now in Allied hands,   
   > and it asks that the Nuremburg tribunal take the opportunity   
   > to establish for the sake of historical accuracy whether   
   > Trotsky or anyone acting at his direction collaborated with   
   > Nazis or not.   
   >   
   > The text of the petition letter, and a cover letter Orwell   
   > sent with it, are in the Complete Works, Vol. XVIII, item   
   > 2900A, dated 15 February 1946, addressed to "W. Wood,   
   > Secretary, Revolutionary Communist Party." The cover letter   
   > reads:   
   >   
   > "Dear Comrade:   
   >   
   > Copy is signed herewith, but you haven't got nearly enough   
   > people on the list you are circularising. I am making out &   
   > sending separately a list of suggestions -- even if they   
   > won't all sign, some will, & the more the better."   
   >   
   > A subsequent letter to Wood, appearing a few pages later in   
   > the Complete Works, suggests ten names, including those of   
   > Stephen Spender and the historian Michael Polanyi.   
   >   
   > Of course, by the time Orwell wrote this "Dear Comrade,..."   
   > letter to the RCP man, *Animal Farm* was already in print.   
   >   
   > /M   
   >   
      
   Shows what a silly cunt he could be eh?   
      
      
   >   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)