Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art

Trotsky asked Breton to draft a manifesto as a founding document of the organization FIARI (Federation for Independent Revolutionary Artists International), which Trotsky could then review and the two could edit together. Despite Breton’s initial block, and the fight between the two on Breton’s lack of production, by mid-July Breton had written a draft to represent their mutual thoughts on art and politics. This was no easy task given that Trotsky refused to consider that conflicts would still exist in the classless society of the future and Breton was shocked that Trotsky should believe that art would disappear. The first draft is only minimally revised from the final version.

Breton’s first paragraph is however entirely rewritten, removing the Marxist language of superstructures, economic development, and historical basis. His language is ponderous, a trait that ill serves the necessary enthusiasm that a manifesto uses to encourage its audience. The text that is replaced is exciting. The first sentence denies its own exaggeration in saying: “We can acknowledge today, without exageration, that never before has human civilization been menaced by so many dangers as it is today." The paragraph ends insisting that science and art have never been in greater peril. Likewise, the final version of the text eliminates a passage in the ninth paragraph objecting to an artist’s potential hostility to the revolutionary cause, or limiting “all license to art; except against the proletarian revolution”. The final version says only, “all license to art”.

Changing the language from the obvious Marxist tone permits the manifesto to be the platform for all those seeking a revolution, whether communists or anarchists. The manifesto wishes divergent ideologies to mix as long as everyone rejects the “spirit of a policing revolution” of Stalin or Garcia Olivier, an anarchist. Though the group is to represent all artists, the manifesto states little about the anarchist groups other than to welcome them, and is most focused on rejecting Stalin’s socialist realism, “The official art of the stalinist period reflects a cruelty without compare in history of their derisive efforts to produce change, and their masking of their actual mercenary role.” Socialist realism is an extension of the cruelty established throughout the Soviet Union and “terribly degrading.”

True to their Marxism, Breton and Trotsky believe that the artist can only produce art that serves the revolution “if the artist is subjectively overwhelmed by its social and personal content”. The artist must understand and embody the ideals of the revolution in order to produce work that can declare them.

This independence of the artist, however, is not to suggest that the artist has no political role. Indeed, both Breton and Trotsky object severely to the concept of “art for art” and insist that the artist not only has a political role but must engage in that role “conscientiously and actively”.  The artist must be free to express revolutionary ideas in the manner true to their own work and style.

For intellectual creativity, the revolution must from the very beginning establish and maintain an anarchist regime for intellectual liberty. No authority, no constraints, not a trace of commandment! 

In two paragraphs added by Trotsky, the manifesto presents the parallel roads of social revolution and individual creation. Using the political language of the day, the society must be communist but the artist must be allowed an anarchic space to create. Constraints are antithetical to the freedom that Marxism wishes to provide all members of the society. To subjugate artistic creation to political ideology is to alter the very nature of the revolutionary movement. The attempt by Stalin to dictate art is a betrayal not only of the revolutionary cause, but also the one of freeing man from his current condition.

In an article by Mark Polizzotti, he quotes Heijenoort, Trotsky’s personal secretary, who described the composition of the manifesto, finally dated  July 25, 1938.

Breton gave Trotsky a few sheets of paper covered with his tiny handwriting. Trotsky dictated a few pages in Russian, to be combined with Breton’s text. I translated Trotsky’s pages into French and then showed them to Breton. After more talk, Trotsky took all of the texts, cut them, added a few passages, and pasted everything into a long roll. I typed the resulting French, translating Trotsky’s Russian and keeping Breton’s prose. This was the text on which they reached final agreement.

Breton embraced Trotsky’s own prescription for the complete freedom for art, excepting any works against the proletariat revolution. Trotsky, however, eliminated the final clause, likely aware of how it had been misused by the authorities of Socialist Realism but also believing that the strength of the revolution was dependent on the freedom to dissent since the community could respond in kind. The successful revolution would not fear opposition since all would inherently be in agreement. The manifesto served to establish the organization FIARI, which would give voice to all those who wished to participate in a true revolution:

The independence of art–for the revolution
The revolution–for the liberation of art.