> Very long time since I read Leon too. But I suppose the difference is that
> while a nation is a modern era construct, the 'people-class' was
> pre-capitalist and served purposes specific to an era before capitalist
> institutions were fully developed. Consequently, as Eastern Europe
> underwent
> capitalist development, the old people-class ceased to have any social
> role.
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The social role of the Yiddish-speaking Jews undoubtedly changed under
capitalism, but Leon, like his mentor Trotsky, still understood them to be a
nation. I don't know whether he continued to use the term "people-class"
interchangeably or as a means of somehow distinguishing the Jews from other
oppressed national minorities, or what conceptual significance, if any, this
would have had on his thinking.
In the tradition of classical Marxism, the Trotskyists believed that socialism would see the gradual assimilation of the Jews and other nationalities. In the interim, they all had the right to cultural and political autonomy within the framework of a socialist state. Trotsky and Leon opposed Zionism as a chimerical and unjust colonial exercise would would not resolve the "Jewish Question", and Trotsky had earlier attacked the Bund for promoting a separate Jewish workers' party. But it's noteworthy that Trotsky did not in principle reject the formation of the Jewish Autonomous Region of Birobidzhan under Stalin.