Was Leon Trotsky Right about Haile Selassie?
Not too long ago, I read an article by Joseph Green titled “The sad story of Leon Trotsky and Haile Selassie.” In the article, Green criticizes Trotsky’s position on Haile Selassie. Green writes:
Trotsky was one of the prominent members of the Bolsheviks, and he also stood up against Stalin and was murdered for it. But his theorizing was flawed, and he never repudiated the essence of Stalinism. This is the reason why, over the years, the Trotskyist movement has made one horrible mistake after another.
One example of how this happened is the story of Trotsky’s extravagant praise of Haile Selassie. This might seem like a dusty old topic. But it’s a live topic in Trotskyist circles, and it affects major issues of recent times, such as the attitude to the Taliban and the conception of anti-imperialism. So let’s look into it.
Green continues:
Selassie was one of the absolute rulers of the Ethiopian Empire; he was Regent from 1916 to 1930, and Emperor from 1930 to 1974. Trotsky was right to back Ethiopia against Italian invasion and occupation during the latter 1930s, but wrong to prettify Selassie’s absolutism and wrong to regard Ethiopia as a blank slate, without significant internal struggles. On April 22, 1936, Trotsky wrote that workers faced “making a choice between two dictators”, either Mussolini or Haile Selassie. He didn’t look towards the victory of the Ethiopian people, but the “victory of the Negus”; “Negus” referred to Haile Selassie, and Trotsky was saying something like “victory of his royal majesty”. Trotsky held that “the victory of the Negus … would mean a mighty blow not only at Italian imperialism but at imperialism as a whole, and would lend a powerful impulsion to the rebellious forces of the oppressed peoples.”
I would argue that Trotsky was actually correct here. I am certainly not an apologist for or a defender of Halie Selassie. In my own writings I’ve been very critical of some of his policies in Ethiopia, yet I think one has to recognize the fact that Haile Selassie did contribute to the rebellious forces of the oppressed people, specifically oppressed African people.
The Italian invasion of Ethiopia invoked a strong sense of anti-colonialism on the part of African people throughout the world. Haile Selassie himself came to be viewed as a symbol of anti-colonial resistance. Most notably is the fact that Haile Selassie became a deity to Rastafarians. During the Black Power movement in the Caribbean, Rastafarians represented a genuinely revolutionary voice for change. The Rastafarian movement during this time period is perhaps best known for the music of artists such as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, but Rastas were engaged in serious resistance as well. For example, Rastas were at the forefront of the revolution in Grenada.
This is not to suggest that there aren’t aspects of Haile Selassie’s politics which are objectionable, but one certainly cannot dismiss the fact that Haile Selassie did become a symbol of anti-colonial resistance for African people. This was reinforced by Haile Selassie’s own support for anti-colonial struggles in Africa.
Green argues that Trotskyists have not learned from the error which Trotsky made. He argues that whereas Trotsky was at least correct in denouncing the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, others have repeated the mistake of turning reactionary leaders into anti-imperial figures:
As a result, Trotskyist errors kept getting worse and worse. At least Trotsky was on the right side of the Italo-Ethiopian conflict. This was not a war in which workers should have opposed both sides, but one in which it was crucial to back the Ethiopian side. But some Trotskyist groups have backed Saddam Hussein or the Taliban as anti-imperialist fighters. These Trotskyists couldn’t understand how to oppose both Saddam Hussein and US imperialism, or both the Taliban and US imperialism. And some Trotskyists have denigrated popular movements against reactionary regimes, such as those against Qaddafi or Assad.
Not only was Trotsky correct in supporting the Italian side of the war, but I think his overall assessment of Haile Selassie was correct in that Haile Selassie did inspire anti-imperial movements. I also want to be clear that my purpose here is not to provide a defense of Trotsky or Trotskyism. My point here is actually to highlight how a lot of these Marxist analyses tend to ignore or downplay the revolutionary force of Pan-Africanism.
Green makes much of Haile Selassie’s decision to flee Ethiopia, but writes nothing of the Pan-African support for Haile Selassie. Green writes:
Well, it’s been 79 years since Selassie fled Ethiopia in 1936. But the Trotskyist movement is still silent about this. It is astonishing to see one Trotskyist article after another that discusses Trotsky’s stand on Selassie, and fails to mention that Selassie fled. For example, an article in 2006 in Socialist Worker was devoted to discussing Trotsky’s stand on Ethiopia, and not only never mentioned that Selassie fled, but glorified his military role with a picture captioned “Emperor Haile Selassie inspecting his troops during the invasion”. The famous three-volume biography of Trotsky by Isaac Deutscher ignored Ethiopia completely. Pathfinder Press published volume after volume of Trotsky’s writings, including the letter that praised Haile Selassie as an anti-imperialist: it footnoted this and that, but neglected to mention Selassie fleeing Ethiopia, the partisan war in Ethiopia, or what happened after Selassie returned.
Trotsky wrote: “A dictator can also play a very progressive role in history; for example, Oliver Cromwell, Robespierre, etc.” I would say that this is true of Haile Selassie. He did play a progressive role in the history of the Pan-African struggle in that he became a symbolic representation of anti-colonialism and he did provide support for anti-colonial struggles.
Again, none of this is meant to dismiss or ignore the atrocities which were committed by Haile Selassie’s government. History and historical personalities are complex. Sometimes reactionary figures can have progressive roles. Haile Selassie’s life and legacy certainly demonstrates this. The flaw in Green’s analysis is that he completely overlooks Haile Selassie’s role in the anti-colonial struggle in Africa and the African Diaspora.
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