Content deleted Content added
WikiUser4020 (talk | contribs) →Debated comparison with Stalinism: Minor tweak. |
Redpandarich (talk | contribs) →North America: added Reform and Revolution caucus |
||
| (19 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown) | |||
Line 5:
{{Trotskyism}}
'''Trotskyism''' ({{Lang-ru|Троцкизм}}, {{transl|ru|Trotskizm}}) is the political ideology and branch of [[Marxism]] developed by Russian revolutionary and [[intellectual]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Traverso |first1=Enzo |title=Revolution: An Intellectual History |date=19 October 2021 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-83976-333-5 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=de1DEAAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Blackledge |first1=Paul |title=Leon Trotsky's Contribution to the Marxist Theory of History |journal=Studies in East European Thought |date=2006 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=1–31 |doi=10.1007/s11212-005-3677-z
Trotsky advocated for a [[decentralization|decentralize]]d form of [[economic planning]],<ref name="BRILL">{{cite book |last1=Twiss |first1=Thomas M. |title=Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy |date=8 May 2014 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-26953-8 |pages=105–106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3o2fAwAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+decentralized+planning&pg=PA106 |language=en}}</ref> elected representation of Soviet [[List of political parties in the Soviet Union|socialist parties]],<ref name="Verso Books">{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |pages=293 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGznDwAAQBAJ&q=isaac+deutscher+trotsky+the+prophet |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Mehring Books">{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and where is it Going? |date=1991 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-0-929087-48-1 |page=218 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hiCYS9Z3lDoC |language=en}}</ref> mass [[soviet (council)|soviet]] [[democratization]],<ref>{{cite
the tactic of a [[united front]] against [[far-right]] parties,<ref name="Edinburgh University Press">{{cite book |last1=Ticktin |first1=Hillel |title=Trotsky's political economy of capitalism. Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |page=227}}</ref> [[cultural]] autonomy for artistic movements,<ref name="Marxism and Literary Criticism">{{cite book |last1=Eagleton |first1=Terry |title=Marxism and Literary Criticism |date=7 March 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-94783-6 |page=20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h7k8t09BbIQC&q=trotsky+literature+and+revolution+socialist+realism |language=en}}</ref> voluntary [[collectivisation]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beilharz |first1=Peter |title=Trotsky, Trotskyism and the Transition to Socialism |date=19 November 2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-70651-2 |pages=1–206 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lfe-DwAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+widely+acknowledged+collectivisation&pg=PT196 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rubenstein |first1=Joshua |title=Leon Trotsky : a revolutionary's life |date=2011 |publisher=New Haven : Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13724-8 |page=161 |url=https://archive.org/details/leontrotskyrevol0000rube/page/160/mode/2up?q=forced+collectivization}}</ref> a [[The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International|transitional program]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Löwy |first1=Michael |title=The Theory of Revolution in the Young Marx |date=2005 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-931859-19-6 |page=191 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gSrvmQeZyhoC&dq=trotsky+transitional+program&pg=PA191 |language=en}}</ref> and socialist [[proletarian internationalism|internationalism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cox |first1=Michael |title=Trotsky and His Interpreters; or, Will the Real Leon Trotsky Please Stand up? |journal=The Russian Review |date=1992 |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=84–102 |doi=10.2307/131248 |jstor=131248 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/131248}}</ref> He supported founding a [[vanguard party]] of the [[proletariat]], and a [[dictatorship of the proletariat]] (as opposed to the "[[dictatorship of the bourgeoisie]]", which Marxists argue is a major component of [[capitalism]]) based on working-class self-emancipation and [[council democracy]]. Trotsky also adhered to [[scientific socialism]] and viewed this as a conscious expression of historical processes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=In Defence of Marxism |date=25 March 2019 |publisher=Wellred Publications |isbn=978-1-913026-03-5 |page=138 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r52JwwEACAAJ |language=en}}</ref> Trotskyists are [[Anti-Stalinist left|critical]] of [[Stalinism]] as they oppose [[Joseph Stalin]]'s theory of [[socialism in one country]] in favour of Trotsky's theory of [[permanent revolution]]. Trotskyists criticize the [[bureaucracy]] and anti-democratic current developed in the [[Soviet Union under Stalin]].
In 1927, Trotsky was purged from the Communist Party and Soviet politics. In October, by order of Stalin,<ref name=":0">{{cite news|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/stalin-banishes-trotsky |title=Stalin banishes Trotsky – Jan 11, 1928 |website=History.com |access-date=3 January 2017 |date=21 July 2010}}</ref> Trotsky was removed from power and, in November, expelled from the [[All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)]] (aka: VKP(b)). He was exiled to [[Almaty|Alma-Ata]] (now Almaty) in January 1928 and then expelled from the [[Soviet Union|USSR]] in February 1929. As the head of the [[Fourth International]], Trotsky continued in exile to oppose what he termed the [[degenerated workers' state]] in the USSR. On 20 August 1940, Trotsky was attacked in [[Mexico City]] by [[Ramón Mercader]], a Spanish-born [[NKVD]] agent, and died the next day in a hospital. His murder is considered a political assassination. Almost all Trotskyists within the VKP(b) were executed in the [[Great Purge]]s of 1937–1938, effectively removing all of Trotsky's internal influence in the USSR. [[Nikita Khrushchev]] had come to power as head of the Communist Party in Ukraine, signing lists of other Trotskyists to be executed. Trotsky and the party of Trotskyists were still recognized as enemies of the USSR during Khrushchev's rule of the USSR after 1956.<ref>{{cite book |last=Taubman |first=William |author-link=William Taubman |title=[[Khrushchev: The Man and His Era]] |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |date=2003 |pages=56–57 |isbn=978-0-393-32484-6}}</ref> Trotsky's [[Fourth International]] was established in the [[French Third Republic]] in 1938 when Trotskyists argued that the [[Comintern]] or Third International had become irretrievably "lost to Stalinism" and thus incapable of leading the international working class to political power.<ref name="transitional">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1938/tp/index.htm |title=The Transitional Program |first=Leon |last=Trotsky |author-link=Leon Trotsky |date=May–June 1938 |magazine=Bulletin of the Opposition |access-date=5 November 2008 |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref>
Line 27 ⟶ 26:
On the [[political spectrum]] of [[Marxism]], Trotskyists are usually considered to be on the left. In the 1920s, they called themselves the [[Left Opposition]], although today's [[left communism]] is distinct and usually non-Bolshevik. The terminological disagreement can be confusing because different versions of a [[left–right politics|left-right political spectrum]] are used. [[Anti-Revisionism|Anti-revisionists]] consider themselves the ultimate leftists on a spectrum from communism on the left to imperialist capitalism on the right. However, given that [[Stalinism]] is often labelled rightist within the communist spectrum and [[left communism]] leftist, anti-revisionists' idea of the left is very different from that of left communism. Despite being Bolshevik-Leninist comrades during the [[Russian Revolution]] and [[Russian Civil War]], Trotsky and Stalin became enemies in the 1920s and, after that, opposed the legitimacy of each other's forms of Leninism. Trotsky was highly [[Anti-Stalinism|critical of the Stalinist USSR]] for suppressing democracy and the lack of adequate economic planning.<ref name=":0"/>
Overall, Trotsky and the Left-United Opposition factions advocated for rapid [[industrialization]], voluntary collectivisation of agriculture, and the expansion of a [[soviet democracy|worker's democracy]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mandel |first1=Ernest |title=Trotsky as Alternative |date=5 May 2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78960-701-7 |pages=
== Theory ==
Line 37 ⟶ 36:
The theory of permanent revolution addressed how such feudal regimes were to be overthrown and how socialism could establish itself, given the lack of economic prerequisites. Trotsky argued that only the working class could overthrow feudalism and win the [[peasant]]ry's support in Russia. Furthermore, he argued that the Russian working class would not stop there. They would win their revolution against the weak capitalist class, establish a workers' state in Russia and appeal to the working class in the advanced capitalist countries worldwide. As a result, the global working class would come to Russia's aid, and socialism could develop worldwide.
According to political scientist Baruch Knei-Paz, Trotsky’s theory of “permanent revolution” was grossly misrepresented by Stalin as [[defeatism|defeatist]] and adventurist during the succession struggle when in fact Trotsky encouraged revolutions in Europe but was not at any time proposing “reckless confrontations” with the capitalist world.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The Social and Political Thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827234-2 |page=343 |url=https://
=== Capitalist or bourgeois-democratic revolution ===
Line 73 ⟶ 72:
=== Socialist democracy ===
{{Main|Socialist democracy|Union democracy|Our Political Tasks|New Course (Trotsky book)|Soviet democracy}}
[[File:Lev Trotsky 1906-3.3 V1.jpg|250x250px|thumb|The [[Saint Petersburg Soviet|Soviet of Workers' Deputies of St. Petersburg]] in 1905, Trotsky in the center. The [[soviet (council)|soviets]] were an early example of a [[workers council]].]]
Prior to the October Revolution, Trotsky had been part of an old [[radical democracy]] which included both Left [[Mensheviks]] and Left [[Bolsheviks]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=181 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}</ref> His work, ''[[Our Political Tasks|Our Political Tasks]]'', published in 1904 reviewed issues related to party organisation, [[public participation|mass participation]] and the potential dangers of [[substitutionism]] which he foresaw in a Leninist party model.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The social and political thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |location=Oxford [Eng.] |publisher= Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827233-5 |pages=
the organizer and leader of the Red Army in the Russian Civil War, the heir apparent to Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, and the arch enemy and then vanquished foe of Joseph Stalin in the succession struggle after Lenin's death".{{cite book |last1=Patenaude |first1=Betrand |title="Trotsky and Trotskyism" in The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941 |date=21 September 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-21041-6 |page=189 |language=en}}</ref><ref>"He emerged from the revolution having acquired an enormous degree of popularity, whereas neither Lenin nor Martov had effectively gained any at all"{{cite web |title=Anatoly Lunacharsky: Revolutionary Silhouettes (1923) |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lunachar/works/silhouet/trotsky.htm |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> and serve as the Chairman of the Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Delegates in which he wrote several proclamations urging for improved [[labour rights|economic conditions]], [[political rights]] and the use of [[Strike action|strike action]] against the [[Russian Empire|Tsarist regime]] on behalf of workers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thatcher |first1=Ian D. |title=Trotsky |date=27 June 2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-57214-4 |pages=
In 1917, he had proposed the election of a new Soviet [[presidium]] with other [[socialist]] parties on the basis of [[proportional representation]].<ref name="Verso Books"/> On the other hand, he had accepted the ban on rival parties in Moscow during the Russian Civil War due to their opposition to the [[October Revolution]]. Yet, he also opposed the extension of the ban to the Mensheviks in [[Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Georgia]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |pages=595 |url=https://
In 1922, Lenin allied with [[Leon Trotsky]] against the party's growing [[Nomenklatura|bureaucratisation]] and the influence of [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mccauley |first1=Martin |title=The Soviet Union 1917-1991 |date=4 February 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-90179-2 |page=59 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7cbKAgAAQBAJ&dq=the+soviet+union+1917+1991+lenin+trotsky+bloc+1922&pg=PA59 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky 1921-1929 |date=2003 |publisher=Verso |isbn=978-1-85984-446-5 |page=63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mgubj5z1XUcC&dq=lenin+trotsky+bloc+1922+stalin&pg=PA63 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kort |first1=Michael G. |title=The Soviet Colossus: History and Aftermath |date=18 May 2015 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-2845-9 |page=166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHaWGEZA5zMC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Volkogonov |first1=Dmitriĭ Antonovich |title=Trotsky: The Eternal Revolutionary |date=1996 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-00-255272-1 |page=242 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FdqOQgAACAAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=V.L.Lenin |title="To L. D. Trotsky", 13 December 1922 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/dec/21.htm}}</ref> In 1923, Trotsky and a number of [[Old Bolsheviks]] who signed [[The Declaration of 46]] raised concerns to the Poliburo concerning intra-party democracy which shared similarities with Lenin's [[Vladimir Lenin#Declining health and conflict with Stalin: 1920–1923|proposed party reforms]] before his death. The signatories of the 46 letter expressed grievances related to the provincial conferences, party congresses and the election of committees. Separately, Trotsky would develop his views further with the publication of the ''[[New Course (Trotsky book)|New Course]]'' in 1924.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |pages=155–182|language=en}}</ref>
Line 104 ⟶ 103:
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|bgcolor=|quote=Faith merely promises to move mountains; but [[technology]], which takes nothing ‘on faith’, is actually able to cut down mountains and move them. Up to now this was done for industrial purposes (mines) or for railways (tunnels); in the future this will be done on an immeasurably larger scale, according to a general industrial and [[artistic]] plan. Man will occupy himself with re-registering mountains and rivers, and will earnestly and repeatedly make improvements in [[nature]].|source=—Trotsky, ''Literature and Revolution'', 1924<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=Literature and Revolution |date=2005 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-931859-16-5 |page=204 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MG-981usVQEC&dq=man+will+occupy+himself+with+re+registering+mountains+and+rivers+and+will+earnestly+and+repeatedly+make+improvements+in+nature&pg=PA204 |language=en}}</ref>}}
In ''[[Literature and Revolution]]'', Trotsky examined aesthetic issues in relation to class and the Russian revolution. Soviet scholar Robert Bird considered his work as the "first systematic treatment of art by a Communist leader" and a catalyst for later, Marxist cultural and critical theories.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bird |first1=Robert |title=Culture as permanent revolution: Lev Trotsky's Literature and Revolution |journal=Studies in East European Thought |date=1 September 2018 |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=181–193 |doi=10.1007/s11212-018-9304-6
Trotsky presented a critique of contemporary literary movements such as [[Futurism]] and emphasised a need of cultural autonomy for the development of a socialist culture. According to literary critic [[Terry Eagleton]], Trotsky recognised "like Lenin on the need for a socialist culture to absorb the finest products of bourgeois art".<ref name="Marxism and Literary Criticism"/> Trotsky himself viewed the proletarian culture as "temporary and transitional" which would provide the foundations for a culture above classes. He also argued that the pre-conditions for artistic creativity were economic well-being and emancipation from material constraints.<ref name="Oxford Eng. : Clarendon Press">{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The social and political thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |publisher=Oxford [Eng.] : Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827233-5 |pages=289–301 |url=https://archive.org/details/socialpoliticalt0000knei/page/300/mode/2up?q=proletarian+culture}}</ref>
Line 117 ⟶ 116:
Lenin and [[Politburo]] members had also proposed he served as deputy chairman with a focus on economic matters related to the either [[Council of Labor and Defence#New name, new role|STO]], Gosplan or the Council of National Economy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Douds |first1=Lara |title=Inside Lenin's Government: Ideology, Power and Practice in the Early Soviet State |date=22 August 2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-350-12649-7 |page=165 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yf5aEAAAQBAJ&dq=on+lenin%27s+initiative+trotsky+deputy&pg=PA165 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Getty |first1=J. Arch |title=Practicing Stalinism: Bolsheviks, Boyars, and the Persistence of Tradition |date=27 August 2013 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-16929-4 |page=53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RaYzAAAAQBAJ&dq=Lenin+Trotsky+chairman+gosplan+1923&pg=PA53 |language=en}}</ref>
Trotsky had urged economic [[decentralisation]] between the state, [[oblast]] regions and factories to counter structural inefficiency and the problem of bureaucracy.<ref name="BRILL"/> He had proposed the principles underlying the [[New Economic Policy|N.E.P.]] in
Trotsky had specified the need for the "overall guidance in planning i.e. the systematic co-ordination of the fundamental sectors of the state economy in the process of adapting to the present market" and urged for a national plan<ref>{{cite web |title=Trotsky: The Single Economic Plan |url=https://wdc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/russian/id/8044/ |website=wdc.contentdm.oclc.org |language=en}}</ref> alongside currency stabilization.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nove |first1=Alec |title=Socialism, Economics and Development (Routledge Revivals) |date=12 November 2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-58266-0 |pages=89–90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWn4BbCEH6gC&dq=Trotsky+economic+planning+1923&pg=PA89 |language=en}}</ref> He also rejected the Stalinist conception of industrialisation which favoured [[heavy industry]]. Rather, he proposed the use of [[foreign trade]] as an accelerator and to direct investments by means of a system of comparative [[coefficients]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gueullette |first1=Agota |title=Trotsky and foreign economic relations. Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |page=212}}</ref>
Line 150 ⟶ 149:
In his collection of texts, ''In Defence of Marxism'', [[Leon Trotsky]] defended the [[dialectical materialism|dialectical method]] of scientific socialism during the factional schisms within the American Trotskyist movement during 1939–40. Trotsky viewed dialectics as an essential method of analysis to discern the class nature of the Soviet Union. Specifically, he described scientific socialism as the "conscious expression of the unconscious historical process".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=In Defence of Marxism |date=25 March 2019 |publisher=Wellred Publications |isbn=978-1-913026-03-5 |pages=31,68–70,138 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r52JwwEACAAJ |language=en}}</ref> According to Daniels, Trotsky conceived historical revolutions as a long, interrelated process of political and social struggle which undergo various stages with national and international dimensions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |pages=83–92 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}</ref>
Prior to his expulsion from the Soviet Union, Trotsky had encouraged [[empirical]] studies with the use of Marxist methods for social and historical development. He also insisted on the need for a [[intellectual freedom|freedom of science]], including theoretical research, in 1925 for socially useful purposes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The Social and Political Thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827234-2 |pages=476–495 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xQXIhQzoFtIC&q=trotsky+knei-pnaz |language=en}}</ref> Trotsky defended [[Einstein]]’s [[theory of relativity]] in Soviet intellectual
In line with the scientific outlook of Marxist philosophy, Trotsky placed a heavy emphasis on science to alleviate the level of backwardness among the Soviet masses. Concurrently, he viewed socialism as a progressive struggle for [[science]], culture and morality in which science should be given the maximum scope for development.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sheehan |first1=Helena |title=Marxism and the Philosophy of Science: A Critical History |date=23 January 2018 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78663-426-9 |page=172 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-udOEAAAQBAJ&dq=trotskyists+science+and+technology+emphasis&pg=PA172 |language=en}}</ref> In 1918, he had supported [[Taylorism]] along with Lenin as a means of scientifically managing industries with the support of foreign engineers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hughes |first1=Thomas P. |title=American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm, 1870-1970 |date=21 May 2020 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-77290-5 |pages=255–256 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZjfnDwAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+scientific+experts&pg=PA257 |language=en}}</ref> Multiple historians have stressed the [[technocratic]] nature of his governance proposals compared to Stalin and Bukharin with a higher reliance on "bourgeois" experts and specialists.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Swain |first1=Geoffrey |title=Trotsky and the Russian Revolution |date=24 February 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-81278-4 |page=118 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_a3pAgAAQBAJ&q=trotsky+george+swain |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |pages=189|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sandle |first1=Mark |title=A Short History Of Soviet Socialism |date=16 September 2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-36639-1 |pages=151–171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UO2OAgAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+modernist+industrialist+technocratic&pg=PT253 |language=en}}</ref>
Line 173 ⟶ 172:
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|bgcolor=|quote=A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in turn needs to be justified. From the Marxist point of view, which expresses the historical interests of the proletariat, the end is justified if it leads to increasing the power of man over nature and to the abolition of the power of man over man.|source=—Trotsky's writings on "The Dialectical Interpedence of Ends and Means".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The social and political thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |location=Oxford [Eng.] |publisher= Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827233-5 |pages=559|url=https://archive.org/details/socialpoliticalt0000knei/page/300/mode/2up?q=proletarian+culture}}</ref>}}
In 1938, Trotsky had written ''“Their Morals and Ours”'' which consisted of [[ethics|ethical polemics]] in response to criticisms around his actions concerning the [[Kronstadt rebellion]] and wider questions posed around the perceived, “[[amorality|amoral]]” methods of the Bolsheviks. Critics believed these methods seemed to emulate the [[Jesuit]] [[Maxim (philosophy)|maxim]] that the “[[Consequentialism|ends justifies the means]]”. Trotsky argued that Marxism situated the foundation of morality as a product of society to [[Marxian class theory|serve social interests]] rather than “eternal moral truths” proclaimed by institutional religions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The social and political thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |location=Oxford [Eng.] |publisher= Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827233-5 |pages=
== History ==
Line 202 ⟶ 201:
As a result, since 1917, Trotskyism as a political theory has been fully committed to a Leninist style of [[democratic centralism|democratic centralist]] party organisation, which Trotskyists argue must not be confused with the party organisation as it later developed under Stalin. Trotsky had previously suggested that Lenin's method of organisation would lead to a dictatorship. However, it is essential to emphasise that after 1917, orthodox Trotskyists argue that the loss of democracy in the USSR was caused by the failure of the revolution to spread internationally and the consequent wars, isolation, and imperialist intervention, not the Bolshevik style of organisation.
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|bgcolor=|quote=After the majority of the petrograd Soviet passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks, [Trotsky] was elected its chairman and in that position organized and led the insurrection of October 25.|source=Lenin on the organization of the October Revolution, Vol.XIV of the ''Collected Works''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |title=The Stalin School of Falsification |date=1962 |publisher=Pioneer Publishers |page=12 |url=https://
Lenin's outlook had always been that the Russian revolution would need to stimulate a Socialist revolution in Western Europe so that this European socialist society would come to the aid of the Russian revolution and enable Russia to advance towards socialism. Lenin stated: {{Blockquote|text=We have stressed in a good many written works, in all our public utterances, and in all our statements in the press that [...] the socialist revolution can triumph only on two conditions. First, if it is given timely support by a socialist revolution in one or several advanced countries.|sign=Vladimir Lenin|source=Speech at Tenth Congress of the RCP(B)<ref>{{cite book |last=Lenin |first=V. I. |author-link=Vladimir Lenin |orig-date=15 March 1921 |chapter=Report on the substitution of a tax in kind for the surplus-grain appropriation system, Tenth Congress |title=Collected Works |publisher=[[Progress Publishers]] |date=1965 |location=Moscow |volume=32 |pages=215}}, This speech, of course, introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP), which was intended to reinforce the basis of the second of the two conditions Lenin mentions in the quote, the support of the peasantry for the workers' state.</ref>}}
Line 282 ⟶ 281:
Trotsky engaged with members of the [[American Socialist Workers Party]] on reaching the Black population. He had correspondence with [[C.L.R. James]] on the question of [[African-American self-determination|self-determination]] and expressed support for Black Americans seeking equal rights and an autonomous state.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Hirson |editor1-first=Baruch |title=Trotsky and Black nationalism" in The Trotsky reappraisal.Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |pages=184–190}}</ref>
There is a Trotskyist-influenced caucus within the [[Democratic Socialists of America]], Reform and Revolution.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Revolution |first=Reform & |date=2019-07-31 |title=What We Stand For {{!}} Reform & Revolution |url=https://reformandrevolution.org/2019/07/30/what-we-stand-for/ |access-date=2024-07-17 |language=en-US}}</ref>
=== Africa ===▼
▲=== Africa ===
{{See also|Trotskyism in South Africa}}
Trotsky had advocated for national self-determination for the black population in [[South Africa]]. In response to the programmatic document of the South African Left Opposition, he wrote in 1935:<ref name="Trotsky as Alternative">{{cite book |last1=Mandel |first1=Ernest |title=Trotsky as Alternative |date=5 May 2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78960-701-7 |page=141 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVmcEAAAQBAJ&q=ernest+mandel+trotsky+as+alternative |language=en}}</ref>
Line 290 ⟶ 291:
The Left Opposition in South Africa had criticised the Stalinist [[Comintern]] for advocating a [[Two-stage theory|two-stage]] theory in which a bourgeois-democratic republic would precede a socialist transformation of the society. Through the 1930s, the first viable black trade unions in [[Transvaal (province)|Transvaal]] were established by Trotskyists.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Hirson |editor1-first=Baruch |title=Trotsky and Black nationalism" in The Trotsky reappraisal.Brotherstone, Terence; Dukes, Paul,(eds) |date=1992 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0-7486-0317-6 |pages=177–181}}</ref>
The [[Democratic Socialist Movement (Nigeria)]] exists in [[Nigeria]], it was founded in 1986 among a confederation of labour and student socialists. It is affiliated to the [[Committee for a Workers' International (2019)|Committee for a Workers' International]], of which it is the second largest section.<ref>[http://www.socialistworld.net/pubs/history2/p24.html A Socialist World is Possible: the History of the CWI] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052337/http://www.socialistworld.net/pubs/history2/p24.html |date=4 March 2016 }} Postscript – Building the CWI (1998–2004)</ref>
=== Asia ===
Line 316 ⟶ 317:
=== Europe ===
In the [[Spanish Civil War]], Stalinist-directed NKVD oversaw oversaw purges of anti-Stalinist elements in the Spanish [[Spanish Republican|Republican]] forces including [[Trotskyist]] and [[anarchist]] factions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sakwa |first1=Richard |title=Soviet Politics: In Perspective |date=12 November 2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-90996-4 |page=43 |url=https://
In Britain during the 1980s, the [[Entryism|entryist]] [[Militant (Trotskyist group)|Militant]] group operated within the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] with three members of parliament and effective control of [[Liverpool City Council]]. Described by journalist [[Michael Crick]] as "Britain's fifth most important political party" in 1986,<ref>{{cite book |last=Crick |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Crick |title=The March of Militant |pages=2}}</ref> it played a prominent role in the 1989–1991 anti-poll tax movement, which was widely thought to have led to the downfall of British Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/14/newsid_2495000/2495911.stm |title=BBC ON THIS DAY – 14 – 1990: One in five yet to pay poll tax |work=[[BBC]] |date=14 August 1990}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Margaret |last=Thatcher |author-link=Margaret Thatcher |title=The Downing Street Years |date=1993 |pages=848–849}}</ref>
The most enduring of several Trotskyist parties in Britain has been the [[Socialist Workers Party (UK)|Socialist Workers Party]], formerly the International Socialists (IS). Its founder [[Tony Cliff]] rejected the orthodox Trotskyist view of the USSR as a "deformed worker's state". Communist-party regimes were "state capitalist".<ref>{{cite book |first=Tony |last=Cliff |author-link=Tony Cliff |title=The Nature of Stalinist Russia |date=1948 }}</ref> The SWP has
[[File:Dungavel3 (cropped).JPG|thumb|250px|Scottish TUSC members protesting against the [[Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre|Dungavel Detention Centre]]]]
The [[Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition]] (TUSC) was formed in 2010 between the [[Socialist Party (England and Wales)|Socialist Party]], the SWP and [[Socialist Resistance]], along with the [[National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers|RMT]] union, has participated in several general elections.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kelly |first1=John |title=Contemporary Trotskyism: Parties, Sects and Social Movements in Britain |date=14 March 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-36894-6 |page=157-310 |url=https://books.google.
In April 2019, a 1970s splinter from IS made headlines when three former members of the [[Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1978)|Revolutionary Communist Party]] campaigned in the European Parliamentary election as candidates for the [[Brexit Party]],<ref name="Walker, 2019">{{cite news |first=Peter |last=Walker |date=23 April 2019 |title=Former communist standing as MEP for Farage's Brexit party|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/23/former-communist-claire-fox-standing-as-mep-for-farages-brexit-party |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite tweet |user=JamesHeartfield/ |number=1121719607671382018 |title=Glad to announce that I am contesting the Yorkshire and Humber constituency for the @brexitparty_uk in the European elections. |first=James |last=Heartfield |date=26 April 2019 |access-date=28 April 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Former Revolutionary Communist Party's Spiked: Alka Sehgal Cuthbert Candidate for Farage's Brexit Party |url=https://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2019/04/13/former-revolutionary-communist-partys-spiked-alka-sehgal-cuthbert-candidate-for-farages-brexit-party/ |date=13 April 2019 |website=Tendance Coatesy}}</ref> and a fourth, [[Munira Mirza]], was appointed head of the Number 10 [[Downing Street]] policy unit by the new Conservative Prime Minister [[Boris Johnson]].<ref>{{cite news |first1=Rajeev |last1=Syal |first2=Rowena |last2=Mason |first3=Lisa |last3=O'Carroll |title=Sky executive among Johnson's first appointments |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/23/sky-executive-among-johnson-first-appointments-andrew-griffith-munira-mirza |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=23 July 2019 |access-date=25 July 2019}}</ref> The RCP's rejection of the SWP's critical engagement with the Labour Party and trade unions had morphed into embracing right-wing libertarian positions.<ref name="Walker, 2019"/>
Line 366 ⟶ 367:
[[File:Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky at Felix Dzerzhinsky funeral.jpg|left|thumb|[[Mikhail Kalinin|Kalinin]] and [[Stalin]] bearing the coffin of [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]] on 22 July 1926. Trotsky can be seen over Kalinin's left shoulder.|alt=]]
Some Western historians have regarded Trotsky as a forerunner to Stalinism and centred this notion on his record during the period of [[war communism]] which included practices such as the [[labor army|militarization of labour]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=194-195|isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}</ref> Criticism has also been levied at his support for [[concentration camps]] to detain [[war prisoners]] and the [[Red Terror]].<ref name="auto2">V. I͡U. Cherni͡aev, "Trotsky" in {{cite book|editor1-first=Edward |editor1-last=Acton |editor2-first=Vladimir I͡u. |editor2-last=Cherni͡aev |editor3-first=William G. |editor3-last=Rosenberg|title=Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914–1921|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NAZm2EdxKqkC&pg=PA191|year=1997|publisher=Indiana University Press|page=191|isbn=978-0-253-33333-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Wiles |first1=Peter |title=The Soviet Economy on the Brink of Reform: Essays in Honor of Alec Nove |date=14 June 2023 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-88190-5 |pages=
{{blockquote|The fact that Trotskyists are everywhere a persecuted minority, and that the accusation usually made against them, i.e. of collaborating with the [[Fascist]]s, is obviously false, creates an impression that Trotskyism is intellectually and morally superior to Communism; but it is doubtful whether there is much difference.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Orwell|first=George|author-link=George Orwell|date=May 1945|title=Notes on Nationalism|url=http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat|journal=[[Polemic (magazine)|Polemic]]|access-date=22 December 2006|archive-date=20 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120035738/http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_nat|url-status=live}}</ref>}}
Line 375 ⟶ 376:
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|bgcolor=|quote=“With all the greater frankness can I state how, in my view, the Soviet government should act in case of a fascist upheaval in Germany. In their place, I would, at the very moment of receiving telegraphic news of this event, sign a [[mobilisation]] order calling up several age groups. In the face of a mortal enemy, when the logic of the situation points to inevitable war, it would be irresponsible and unpardonable to give that enemy time to establish himself, to consolidate his positions, to conclude alliances… and to work out the plan to attack..”
|source=Trotsky describing the military measures he would have taken in place of Stalin to counter the rise of [[Nazi Germany]] in 1932.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |pages=
Meyers further added that Orwell drew on the views of a [[right-wing]] combatant to reinforce his arguments. In contrast, Meyers cited [[Isaac Deutscher|Isaac Deutscher's]] biographical account of Trotsky which presented him to be a much more civilised figure than Stalin and suggested that he would not have [[Case of the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization|purged the Red Army generals]] or millions of Soviet citizens.<ref>{{cite web |title=Orwell and Trotsky |url=https://orwellsociety.com/orwell-and-trotsky/ |website=The Orwell Society |date=4 May 2022}}</ref>
Historian [[Sheila Fitzpatrick]] has also questioned the premise of historical inevitability presented by [[conservative]] critics such as [[Robert Service (historian)|Robert Service]] in that the Soviet Union would have experienced the same "totalitarian [[despotism]] under Trotskyist rule". Fitzpatrick suggested it was implausible that Trotsky like Stalin would have launched an [[Anti-cosmopolitan campaign|anti-semitic campaign]] after [[World War II]] or initiated the [[Great Purge]]. Rather, she inferred that Trotsky would presumably have provided good [[leadership]] during the Second World War but may have struggled to maintain party cohesion as seen during the succession struggle after 1924.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fitzpatrick |first1=Sheila |title=The Old Man |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n08/sheila-fitzpatrick/the-old-man |journal=London Review of Books |language=en |date=22 April 2010|volume=32 |issue=8 }}</ref>
Moreover, various scholars and Western [[socialism|socialists]] have considered Trotsky to have represented a more [[democracy|democratic]] [[anti-Stalinist Left|alternative]] to Stalin with particular emphasis drawn to his activities in the pre-Civil War period and as leader of the Left Opposition.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=189–198 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Barnett |first1=Vincent |title=A History of Russian Economic Thought |date=7 March 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-26191-8 |page=101 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s71uK9sB27AC&dq=Trotsky+alternative+historians&pg=PA101 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |pages=1–15 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Day |first1=Richard B. |title=The Blackmail of the Single Alternative: Bukharin, Trotsky and Perestrojka |journal=Studies in Soviet Thought |date=1990 |volume=40 |issue=1/3 |pages=159–188 |doi=10.1007/BF00818977 |jstor=20100543 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20100543 |issn=0039-3797}}</ref> Proponents of this view have specified further differences with Stalinism, which emerged during the succession struggle, over [[intragroup conflict|intraparty democracy]], autonomy of the [[Comintern]] and the [[Cult of personality#Soviet Union|dogmatization of Leninist orthodoxy]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Saccarelli |first1=Emanuele |title=Gramsci and Trotsky in the Shadow of Stalinism: The Political Theory and Practice of Opposition |date=28 February 2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-89980-6 |page=146 |url=https://
{{cite book |last1=Daniels |first1=Robert V. |title=The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia |date=1 October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=195,396 |isbn=978-0-300-13493-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=27JGzAoMLjoC |language=en}}</ref>
Other figures such as [[The Social and Political Thought of Leon Trotsky|Baruch Knei-Paz]] acknowledge some affinities with Stalinism in regards to the use of coercion but have also recognised clear differences between Trotsky and Stalin. On the [[culture|cultural field]], he highlighted their contrasting attitudes towards matters such as the [[arts]] and [[sciences]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The social and political thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |location=Oxford [Eng.] |publisher= Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827233-5 |pages=289–301 |url=https://archive.org/details/socialpoliticalt0000knei/page/300/mode/2up?q=proletarian+culture}}</ref> According to Knei-Paz, it does not seem credible that Trotsky would have treated [[Culture of the Soviet Union|culture and society]] with the same total, brutal disregard as Stalin.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The social and political thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |location=Oxford [Eng.] |publisher= Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827233-5 |pages=289–301 |url=https://archive.org/details/socialpoliticalt0000knei/page/300/mode/2up?q=proletarian+culture}}</ref> He also argued that Trotsky sought [[International trade|far-reaching economic, commercial relations with European countries]] which was at variance with the policy of [[isolationism]] and harsher measures pursued under Stalin.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The social and political thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |location=Oxford [Eng.] |publisher= Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827233-5 |pages=289–301 |url=https://archive.org/details/socialpoliticalt0000knei/page/300/mode/2up?q=proletarian+culture}}</ref> Biographer Geoffrey Swain believed that the Soviet Union under the leadership of Trotsky would have been
[[File:Diego rivera Commies.jpg|thumb|left|250px|A [[Diego Rivera]] mural (''[[Man, Controller of the Universe]]'') depicts Trotsky with [[Marx]] and [[Engels]] as a true champion of the workers' struggle]]
In post-exile, Trotsky challenged claims from American socialist [[Norman Thomas]] that the Soviet Union would have been no better under his leadership. Trotsky countered that it was not a question of [[personality|personalities]] but opposing, [[social stratification|social interests]] represented by the [[bureaucracy]] and [[the working class]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Leon Trotsky: Stalinism and Bolshevism (August 1937) |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/08/stalinism.htm |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The social and political thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |location=Oxford [Eng.] |publisher= Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827233-5 |pages=435 |url=https://archive.org/details/socialpoliticalt0000knei/page/300/mode/2up?q=proletarian+culture}}</ref> He asserted that [[totalitarianism]] under Stalinism would not have emerged under his variant of Bolshevism along with far less excesses. Comparatively, he viewed his interpretation of Marxism to represent a [[political]] and [[morality|moral]] regeneration of the Soviet Union against the Stalinist [[nomenklatura|bureaucracy]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knei-Paz |first1=Baruch |title=The social and political thought of Leon Trotsky |date=1978 |location=Oxford [Eng.] |publisher= Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-827233-5 |pages=
Separately, Trotsky would defend his military decisions as necessary and argued that had draconian measures rather than excess "magnanimity" been shown to opponents at the start of the October Revolution then Russia would have experienced far less human casualties.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Stalin's Terror of 1937-1938: Political Genocide in the USSR |date=2009 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-04-4 |page=376 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dDiFNXLNPDEC&dq=trotsky+hostage+taking&pg=PA376 |language=en}}</ref> He made a historical comparison between his military endeavours with [[Abraham Lincoln|Abraham Lincoln's]] ruthlessness during the [[American Civil War]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Deutscher |first1=Isaac |title=The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky |date=5 January 2015 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78168-721-5 |pages=
Trotskyist [[Marxist theory|theoreticians]] have disputed the view that the Stalinist dictatorship was a natural outgrowth of the Bolsheviks' actions as most of the original, central committee members from 1917 were later eliminated by Stalin.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Grant |first1=Alex |title=Top 10 lies about the Bolshevik Revolution |url=https://www.marxist.com/top-10-lies-about-the-bolshevik-revolution-part-one.htm |website=In Defence of Marxism |language=en-gb |date=1 November 2017}}</ref> [[George Novack]] stressed the initial efforts by the Bolsheviks to form a [[multi-party]] government with the [[Left Socialist Revolutionaries]] and bring other parties such as the [[Mensheviks]] into political [[legality]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Novack |first1=George |title=Democracy and Revolution |date=1971 |publisher=Pathfinder |isbn=978-0-87348-192-2 |pages=307–347 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bLMgAQAAIAAJ |language=en}}</ref> Upon the Menshevik
Line 440 ⟶ 441:
* [[Case of the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization]]
* [[World socialism]]
* [[United Opposition (disambiguation)|United Opposition]]
== Notes ==
| |||