What is Trotskyism?
Trotskyism is a branch of Marxism that follows the ideas of Leon Trotsky, a leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and founder of the Red Army. Trotskyists see themselves as continuing the ideas of Marx and Lenin. They argue that socialism must be international and that the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin was taken over by a privileged bureaucracy. Trotskyism has never governed a country, but it has produced many small parties, newspapers and international groupings, and it has influenced debates on the left in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere.
Core beliefs
- Permanent revolution: in less developed countries, a democratic revolution must grow into a socialist one led by workers.
- Socialism cannot be completed in one country and depends on revolution spreading internationally.
- The Soviet Union became a degenerated workers' state, ruled by a bureaucracy rather than by workers.
- A revolutionary party based on democratic centralism is still needed.
- Transitional demands can link everyday struggles to the goal of socialism.
History
Trotsky first developed the theory of permanent revolution around 1905. He joined the Bolsheviks in 1917 and played a central role in the October Revolution and the civil war. After Lenin's death in 1924, Trotsky opposed Stalin's doctrine of socialism in one country and formed the Left Opposition. He was expelled from the party, exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929, and killed in Mexico in 1940 by an agent of Stalin's secret police. In 1938 his supporters founded the Fourth International to rival the Soviet-led Communist International. In works such as The Revolution Betrayed (1936), Trotsky analyzed the Soviet system as a state where property was nationalized but power was held by a bureaucracy.
Variants
After the Second World War, the Trotskyist movement split many times. Some groups, associated with Michel Pablo and Ernest Mandel, sought to work within larger left parties. Others, linked to James P. Cannon in the United States, argued for independent revolutionary parties. Disputes also arose over how to classify the Soviet Union: some called it a degenerated workers' state, others called it state capitalism or bureaucratic collectivism. Entrism, the tactic of joining larger labor or socialist parties to win support, has been used by several Trotskyist groups.
Criticisms
Liberal and conservative critics note that Trotsky himself supported harsh measures during the civil war, including the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion in 1921, and argue that his criticism of Stalin does not separate his ideas from authoritarian rule. Marxist-Leninists aligned with the Soviet tradition argued that Trotskyism weakened the communist movement through division. Other critics on the left, including some democratic socialists, argue that the movement's frequent splits and focus on doctrine limited its influence.
In practice
Trotskyist parties have been small, but they have won seats in some local and national elections, for example in France, Argentina and Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party joined coalition governments in the 1960s and 1970s. Trotskyist ideas also influenced student movements, anti-war campaigns and trade union activism in several countries, especially around 1968.