USSR • DOCUMENT
«Modern
Trotskyism,
ideology and
practice"
HIS PICTURE adorned the last page of pamphlets widely circulated by the Soviet press agency Novosti in the 1980s. Nikolai Vasetski, 40 years old, is a Soviet journalist and specialist in "Trotskyism." Like thousands of the same ilk, he is only a poor phonograph on which the bureaucracy plays whatever record it needs at the appropriate time.
Vasetski was too young to have written pamphlets accusing Trotsky and his comrades of being paid agents of Hitler, Chamberlain and the Mikado. There is no doubt that he would have done that. He was asked to denounce the Trotskyists as servants of the bourgeoisie, and he did so. Today, he has just been asked to say that the Trotskyists have changed, and that it might even be possible to march alongside them for certain stretches of the road. He has done so again.
But here he is taking a risk! It is more serious to say that the Trotskyists are people that you can associate with than to say that they were cops. He might have to answer for this article later.
T ROTSK YISM holds a special
place among the political currents that have tried to situate themselves "to the left" of the Communist parties. Its origin goes back to the 1920s. Its ideology and practice are based on Trotsky's theory of "permanent revolution," which has represented a specific reaction of a part of the nonproletarian layers, especially the urban petty bourgeoisie, to the Leninist theory of socialist revolution. Subsequently Trot16 ification: skyısm has undergone essential mod
Modern Trotskyism presents itself under the banner of the "Fourth International,"
which was founded by Trotsky in 1938, and is divided into several warring groupings.
"Subjectivism and voluntarism"
This fact reveals that division has become a norm of life for the groups in the
Fourth International. Their struggles come from the lack of any solid social base, from subjectivism and volontarism in evaluating events and class-struggle perspectives.
This is why the Trotskyists have been reduced to being no more than the expression of the ambitions of the Trotskyist politicians. The Trotskyist mosaic is even more multi-hued in particular countries. In
France, in Britain, in Spain and in a series of Latin-American countries there are 10 to
15 Trotskyist groups or groups close to
Trotskyism. These groups are rather small, going from a few dozen to a few hundred members. Of course, there are exceptions.
In France, there are three big Trotskyist organizations. The Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire has between 4,000 and 5,000 members. For many years, it has been striving to become a party of 10,000. Lutte
Ouvrière has 3,000. In
Britain, the
Militant group has about 10,000 members. Two or three
Trotskyist parties with memberships from 1,000 to 3,000 exist in Belgium, the United States, Canada, Australia, Peru, Argentina and Brazil.
All these Fourth International groups try to recruit members for the most part in the petty bourgeoisie, the urban intelligentsia and in developing countries among the peasants and students.
It is easy to understand why the Trotskyists give priority to these strata.
The latter clearly express their discontent with their situation in the conditions of the deepening crisis of capitalism, but do not always have political experience. Thus, they can be attracted by the ideology of Trotskyism, which appears radical at first glance.
In the 1980s, many
Trotskyist groups came out for shifting the center of gravity of their work from the universities to the factories. For example, in West Germany, the
Trotskyist journal Sozialistische Arbeiterzeitung ["Socialist Workers' Paper"] presents itself as "the free press organ of the entire working class of Germany."
The Trotskyists are striving to exploit the potential of working women, who in the industrialized capitalist countries represent between a third and half of the economically active population, and who are subjected to double exploitation from the standpoint of wages and skills. The Trotskyists are also trying to gain a base in other layers of those most exploited in bourgeois society, that is among uneducated and low-skilled workers, agricultural workers, immigrants and the unemployed. According to the Trotskyists, the fundamental criterion of the revolutionary spirit of these strata is their low living standards and their social deprivation.
### Theory of permanent revolution
Among these categories of working people, the Trotskyists see a broad layer of militant activists able more easily to accept the theory of permanent revolution. The special feature of these strata is an aspiration for immediate changes. This is why they have no clear idea of the means for achieving
KA"
"You can wonder who the Trotskyists serve today, why they get ald trom the circles against which, if we were to believe their leaders,
January 23, 1989 • #155 International Viewpoint them, or the appropriate forms of struggle, or of who is really responsible for their
DOCUMENT • USSR distress.
The Trotskyists also address themselves
- not without some success - to people who have already gone through a certain
"This position [of aid to armed terrorism in Southeast Asia] taken by the experience of political struggle in the Com-
Trotskyists is indisputable evidence that their criticism of actually existmunist or Socialist parties, as well as in uning socialism is counter-revolutionary and designed to restore ions, youth organizations and anti-war
Trotskyism today: What interests does it serve? Novosti, 1984 movements.
According to the words of the leaders of
Lutte Ouvrière themselves, it is necessary
The Trotskyists "hoped that the Soviet Union would suffer a defeat in the to recruit conscious workers who want to event of war....In directives sent to his collaborators, Trotsky called on fight for the revolution who are still in the them to establish direct contacts with the governments of fascist Germa-
Communist and Socialist parties but unny and militarist Japan." [A quotation follows from a letter to Radek prehappy with the policy of their leaderships.
sented at the second Moscow Trial in 1937. It has since been recognized
It should be noted especially that the by a Soviet court that it was a gross falsification.]
Trotskyists often appear when and where the workers' organizations win their big-
Trotskyism today: Against peace and detente Novosti, 1986 gest successes against the bosses, win strikes and get wage increases, better working conditions and improve their living standards. They appear also in the factories where the Communist and Socialist parties, as well as revolutionary-oriented unions are particularly active and militant.
In order to attract attention to their conceptions, the Trotskyists are broadening their propaganda arsenal. Alongside traditional actions, such as demonstrations, rallies and public debates, they have adopted methods that are new by comparison with those of the 1960s and 1970s. These include participating in electoral campaigns for propagandistic purposes, appearing on radio and television, conducting educational programs, having articles published by mass-circulation publishing houses....
There are Trotskyists with socialreformist tendencies. They are grouped in the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. The credo of these Trotskyists is a radical-left reformism, which they interpret in their own way. They do not deny the need for using the institutions of bourgeois democracy. They participate in elections.
They support reforms that can improve the living conditions and lies of working people....
Unfortunately, the modern Trotskyists do not always study first of all the contributions that Trotsky made as a revolutionary and which won him praise from Lenin and attention from the party and the Comintern.
As a general rule, they prefer to base themselves on those of his contributions that it would be better not to display publicly and to leave forgotten.
"Trotsky had certain arguments on his side"
The Trotskyists recognize the gains of the socialist countries, but at the same time they dispute their socialist nature. They hang on stubbornly to the idea of the permanent revolution, the impossibility of building socialism in one country. In the
1920s and 1930s, when this question had not been entirely clarified and deviations occurred in the Stalinist groups from Letermined struggle must be waged."
capitalism." nin's conceptions of socialism, Trotsky had certain arguments on his side. But in the 1980s, the Trotskyist positions about the nonexistence of socialism in the Soviet Union and the other countries that make up the world socialist system seem anachronistic.
The idea of transforming the Soviet Union through the intervention of the Trotskyists is also inconsistent. On the one hand, they apparently hail the changes that are taking place while interpreting them in their own way. On the other, they remain attached to the old Trotskyist clichés, especially Trotsky's view of a "Soviet thermidor," that is, a "degeneration of the Soviet Union." The leaders of Lutte Ouvriére think that the nature of the Soviet Union has not changed since the 1920s and 1930s when the bureaucracy used terror and reprisals to consolidate its power. Hence their conclusion (to use their own terms), that whether or not the reforms are carried out, the regime will always be hostile to work"Trotskyists' positions are contradictory"
The Trotskyists' positions are also conproblem today, that is, the question of eliminating the danger of a world thermonuclear war and maintaining peace in the world. You might think that none of the Trotskyist groups disputes the important of the struggle for peace. But in the Fourth International, as on the eve of the second world war, they have obstinately ignored the effectiveness of the policy of peaceful coexistence, which is portrayed as before as a "deal" between the Soviet Union and the United States. In the Trotskyist press, you get the impression of "hearing a voice from distant past," which differs very little from Trotsky's idea that "war is the mother of revolution." For example, the Trotskyists in the United States repeat from time to time that "working-class revolution is the only road to keeping peace."
Of course, the Trotskyists are moving away from their past conceptions and trying to take account of the present situation. But they accompany their statements with all sorts of reservations. Among the factual elements, they choose those that in their opinion are most to their advantage. In this context, you have to agree with those who think that the only criterion that the modern Trotskyists consider valid for assessing their capacity for renewal has been, and remains, knowing to what extent the theses that they use are useful for their strategy and tactics.
"Possibility of practical collaboration"
All this naturally has to determine the attitude of the other left parties and organizations to the Trotskyist groups. There is a certain tendency toward a reticence. But in general the attitude toward the Trotskyists is not as clear as before. Most of the left organizations adopt an attitude of "active neutrality" to Trotskyism.
This does not exclude the possibility of practical collaboration with the Trotskyists. There are already many examples of such collaboration by Communist and socialist parties, anti-war organizations and movements in a series of West European and Latin American counties, as well as in Australia. Electoral blocs, political alliances, and agreements for waging short-term -and sometimes long-term - campaigns have been made with Trotskyist groups.
It is necessary to judge in each concrete case to what extent such collaboration can produce results. In our opinion, alliances of this nature must be alliances either "against," or "for." "Against" the antipopular policy of monopoly imperialism, "for" transformations in the interests of the working people. Only such collaboration can make any sense and not have negative consequences for the parties concerned. * 1. There seems to have been at least a phrase dropped in the original, since Vasetski actually mentions only two, and not three, organizations. Moreover, the facts cited about the LCR more accurately fit the Parti Commuch is interinald (PC led by Pierre Lambert, 17 which is not mentioned.
International Viewpoint #155 • January 23, 1989