Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself a Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party. He considered himself an advocate of orthodox Marxism. His politics differed in many respects from those of Stalin or Mao, most importantly in declaring the need for an international "permanent revolution". Numerous groups around the world continue to describe themselves as Trotskyist and see themselves as standing in this tradition, although they have diverse interpretations of the conclusions to be drawn from this.

Founding of the Fourth International

Before his death, however, in 1938 Trotsky established the Fourth International. He said that only the Fourth International, basing itself on Lenin's theory of the vanguard party, could lead the world revolution, and that it would need to be built in opposition to both the capitalists and the Stalinists.

Related Topics:
1938 - Fourth International

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The Fourth International went through a large split in 1953. The International Committee of the Fourth International was led by James P. Cannon, the American who was Trotsky's closest collaborator in building the international Left Opposition and later founding the Fourth International. The International Sectariat of the Fourth International was led by Michel Pablo, who argued that Trotskyists didn't need to fight for power as Trotsky had argued, but had to make deals with Stalinists and nationalists, whom Pablo's followers considered the 'real movement'.

Related Topics:
International Committee of the Fourth International - Left Opposition - International Sectariat of the Fourth International - Michel Pablo

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The similar Eastern European communist governments which came into being after World War II without a revolution were later referred to as "deformed workers' states" by some Trotskyists. The ISFI argued that their creation showed the potential of the Stalinist bureaucracy to be progressive. Pablo argued that humanity was entering into a period of centuries of deformed workers states.

Related Topics:
World War II - Deformed workers' states - ISFI

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The ICFI disagreed, arguing that the Soviet Union took over these countries because of the military results of World War II, and instituted nationalized property relations only to further their own interests and protect the countries from incursion by the West. According to the ICFI, the ISFI's prognosis meant that there was no point in building Trotskyist parties if they were going to be resigned to centuries of Stalin-style deformed workers states anyway. The ICFI proved correct when in the 1980s, the Soviet Union began to collapse and the Eastern European regimes restored capitalism. Even earlier, they pointed to the uprisings of the working class in Eastern European countries as evidence that these regimes were not progressive and could potentially be overthrown by the working class.

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Expressed in derogatory language, they are described by their ideological opponents as "left deviationists" ("levye uklonisty", in Russian). Some Marxists who oppose Trotskyism regard it as being in the service of the right because, in their view, it is not an effective route to socialism. Trotskyists are mostly ignored by historians and politicians except when they faced police repression and slander. It is unusual for them to get a fair hearing of their views.

Related Topics:
Left deviationists - Right

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At the time of the founding the Fourth International in 1938 Trotskyism was a mass political current in Vietnam, Ceylon and slightly later Bolivia. There was also a substantial Trotskyist movement in China which included the founding father of the Chinese Communist movement, Chen Duxiu, amongst its number. Wherever Stalinists gained power, they made it a priority to hunt down Trotskyists and treated them as the worst of enemies. Thus these movements had to deal with official repression as well as the violent attacks and treachery of the Stalinists.

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After 1945 Trotskyism was smashed as a mass movement in Vietnam and marginalised in a number of other countries. However, in Ceylon and Bolivia Trotskyist parties became the mass workers parties prior to experiencing defeats and setbacks at a later stage. In both countries, however, there remains a large scale presence of competing Trotskyist groups. In recent years Trotskyism has also developed large scale support in a number of lesser developed countries in Latin America where it can count on some tens of thousands of supporters in both Argentina and Brazil. Elsewhere in the Third World support for Trotskyist ideas is more diffuse and generally confined to intellectuals but can be found in a diluted form among some sections of various progressive movements as in South Africa.

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No governing Communist party or successful Communist revolution has to this date professed Trotskyism, although Trotskyism's influence in some recent major social upheavals is very evident.

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