{"id":21003,"date":"2019-07-12T00:21:42","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T16:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=21003"},"modified":"2019-08-14T16:47:05","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T08:47:05","slug":"in-defence-of-marxism-80-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2019\/07\/12\/21003\/","title":{"rendered":"In Defence of Marxism, 80 years on"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leon\nTrotsky\u2019s In Defence of Marxism is a book every Marxist needs to study<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n\nPer-\u00c5ke Westerlund (CWI Sweden)\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a collection of letters and key\ndocuments from a sharp debate within the Socialist Workers Party in the US in\n1939-40.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a very rich book, on application of\nMarxist theory in a rapidly changing world \u2013 Stalinism in the Soviet Union,\nfascism in power in Italy and Germany, and World War II. In parallel, it\nconcretely deals with building a revolutionary party \u2013 orientation to the\nworking class, party democracy and internationalism. One thing is evident all\nthrough the book, Trotsky was not a \u201cMarxist\u201d who just repeated old formulas\nand he was not afraid of admitting mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World War II of course was a test for every\norganisation and individual. Bourgeois politicians internationally had already\nin big numbers capitulated to fascism as their only way to crush the working\nclass and achieve revenge against the Russian Revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 1939, just before the outbreak of\nthe war, workers and most others were stunned by the announcement of the\nHitler-Stalin pact. It was a desperate move by Stalin, who had failed to get\nthe alliance with France and Britain that he wanted, to avoid an immediate\nattack by Nazi-Germany. When that inevitable military assault came, in June\n1941, Stalin initially did not believe the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pact changed the propaganda of the\nCommunist International, focusing on criticism of British and French\nimperialism instead of Nazi Germany. Militarily, the pact meant that Poland was\ninvaded from West by the German army on 1 September, followed by an invasion\nfrom East by the Soviet Union in mid-September. Soviet troops also attacked the\nBaltic states and Finland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following these events, part of the\nTrotskyist Socialist Workers Party in the United States, including part of the\nleadership, changed their positions on the character of the Soviet Union. They\ncapitulated to a strong pressure of bourgeois democratic opinion in media and\n\u201cleft circles\u201d to equate the Stalinist dictatorship in Soviet Union with that\nof Hitler in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking these steps, the opposition that\ndeveloped in the SWP rapidly also abandoned Marxist theory and the need for a\nrevolutionary party. In defence of Marxism should be studied carefully, not\njust glimpsed at, to understand the need to combine a strong theoretical ground\nwith concrete analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What\nwas Stalinism?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lenin and Trotsky were the leaders of the\nRussian Revolution in 1917, securing that the working class, with the support\nof the peasants, took power for the first time in history. They were also the\nfirst to recognize the weaknesses and dangers for the new state, especially\nwhen it became isolated following the defeat of revolutions in Germany and\nother countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bureaucracy developed, with Stalin as its\nleader, with defending status quo and achieving \u201cstability\u201d as its first\npriority, gradually adding its own desire for privileges and power. Stalin, who\nhad played no leading role in 1917, was incapable to give advice to the German\nrevolution in 1923 and the Chinese in 1925-27, which both were defeated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1920s, the bureaucracy was an\nunconscious brake on revolutions, but later it became a conscious brake to stop\nworkers revolutions and struggles, particularly in Spain in 1936-39.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Soviet Union, they conducted an\nactual civil war against all remnants of Bolshevism that led the workers to\npower in 1917. The Stalinist regime used purges, prison camps, show trials and\nexecutions against any opposition, particularly the real Marxists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the living process of Stalinism\ncoming to power, Trotsky many times posed the question of \u201cThermidor\u201d,\nreferring to counter-revolution in France in 1794. At first, Trotsky believed\nThermidor in Russia would mean the destruction of the workers\u2019 state. In the\nearly 1930s, however, he realised that view was a mistake. Thermidor was a\npolitical, not a social, counter-revolution. In France, Thermidor meant a\ncounter-revolutionary regime change, but the new regime kept the new\ncapitalist-bourgeois economic system that the revolution had established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A capitalist economy can have different\nregimes \u2013 from fascism to bourgeois democracy. In Russia, Stalin\u2019s rule was a\npolitical counter-revolution. Capitalism was not restored, the planned economy\nsurvived. But a bureaucratic dictatorship replaced workers\u2019 rule in the course\nof a prolonged bloody battle. This was made possible by Russia\u2019s backwardness\nand isolation, plus the aggressive imperialist environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky\u2019s conclusion was that Russia had\nbecome a degenerated workers\u2019 state. It had a planned economy based on state\nproperty, with capitalism abolished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this basis, the Fourth International,\nfounded by Trotsky, stood for unconditional defence of the Soviet Union against\nimperialist wars, without giving any support to Stalin\u2019s regime. The program of\nthe FI and its parties was for a political revolution to establish workers\u2019\nrule in the planned economy, establish a socialist society that would follow\nand develop the democratic decisions of the revolution in 1917, all of which\nwere abolished by Stalinism. In a letter to Max Shachtman, Trotsky pointed to\n\u201cthe fact that the ideas of the bureaucracy are now almost the opposite of the\nideas of the October Revolution\u201c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vacillation\nand debate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minority opposition that emerged within\nthe SWP changed their position, arguing the attack on Finland and the pact with\nHitler had fundamentally altered the character of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky, who had been given asylum in\nMexico and was not allowed to enter the US, began his writings in this debate\nby asking them how Marxists should describe the Soviet Union, if not a workers\u2019\nstate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of them answered that the bureaucracy\nwas a new class, others said the Soviet Union had become state capitalist.\nOthers again argued that fascism in Europe, New Deal in the US and Stalinism\nwere part of the same process towards bureaucratic state dictatorships. In\nthat, they did not differentiate between revolution and counter-revolution.\nFascism, as a tool of finance capital, of course did not expropriate\ncapitalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky showed that the Stalinist\nbureaucracy was a temporary phenomena lacking a historic mission, while a new\nruling class would be indispensable. The strong economic growth in the Soviet\nUnion was not because of the bureaucracy, but a result of the planned economy\nand import of new technique. The bureaucracy was a brake on the development of\nthe planned economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stalinism was a totalitarian dictatorship,\nbut not a stable regime. 50 years in advance \u2013 the process was delayed because\nof the outcome of the war \u2013 Trotsky predicted the negative consequences of the\ncollapse of Stalinism and restoration of capitalism: weakening the world\nproletariat and strengthening of imperialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this basis, Trotsky stood for the\ndefence of the Soviet Union, despite the politics of Moscow which \u201ccompletely\nretains its reactionary character\u201d and were a \u201cchief obstacle to world\nrevolution\u201d (he made comparisons to the fact that socialists still support\ntrade unions who support their governments, seeing them as reactionary but\nnecessary to defend against the class enemy).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition in the SWP proposed instead\nthat the party adopt the position \u201crevolution against both Hitler and Stalin\u201d,\nsince their respective armies had divided Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In replying, Trotsky showed the real\nsituation in Poland. In the West, revolutionaries, jews and democrats were\nfleeing from the German army. In the East, it was landlords and capitalists\ntrying to escape. Trotsky predicted that the invasion of the Red Army would be\nfollowed by expropriation of land and factories. This was confirmed by\ncapitalist media, and even Menshevik newspapers in exile reporting of a\n\u201crevolutionary wave\u201d in Eastern Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky warned that Hitler would turn his\nguns against the Soviet Union, to establish a fascist regime and restore\ncapitalist property. When Hitler attacks, the most urgent task would be to\ndefeat his troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What should Marxists say about the Red\nArmy\u2019s advance? The \u201cprimary concern for us\u201d, Trotsky wrote, is not the change\nin property relations although progressive, but the consciousness of the world\nproletariat. The Fourth International was against seizure of new territories,\nagainst \u201cmissionaries with bayonets\u201d. A revolution must have a firm basis in\nthe working class and the poor to be successful. Where the invasion has already\ntaken place, Trotsky argued for independent working class expropriation of\ncapitalists and landlords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How\nTrotsky approached the debate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this debate, Trotsky combined sharp\npolitical polemics with always stressing the need for unity. He underlined how\nSWP members and leaders up till then had agreed on the crucial issues of the\ncharacter of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debate was necessary, but it would be\n\u201cmonstrous nonsense to split with comrades\u201d, Trotsky wrote, \u201cit would be\nprejudical if not fatal to connect the ideological fight with the perspective\nof a split, of a purge, of expulsion\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was in favour of \u201ccensure or severe\nwarning if someone from the majority\u201d made such threats. If not, \u201cthe authority\nof the leadership would be compromised\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky proposed how the debate should be\nconducted. Both sides refuse to make any threats against their opponents, and\nif there were any, there should be an investigation by the National Committee\nor a special commission. There should be loyal collaboration from both sides.\nJames P Cannon, who was close to Trotsky, agreed and put that position in the\nparty leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky of course had long experience of\ndebates, from Russian Social Democracy and the Bolsheviks: \u201cEven if there have\nbeen two irreconcilable positions, it would signify not a \u2018disaster\u2019 but a\nnecessity to fight out the political struggle to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advising Max Shachtman, a leading member\nwho changed his position, Trotsky proposed fresh studies, to raise the issue in\nleadership but not immediately strive for a new fixed position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\npetty-bourgeois opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky and the majority of the SWP\ncharacterised the new minority grouping as a petty-bourgeois opposition. What\ndoes it mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of developing their positions and\nanalysis, the opposition was spreading \u201cepisodes and anecdotes which can be\ncounted by the hundred and the thousand in every party\u201d, attempting to find\nmistakes and faults. Inside the party, they had \u201calmost the character of a\nfamily\u201d or a clique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky underlined some traits of this\nminority. They had disrespect for traditions of their own organisation and a\ndisdainful attitude towards theory. This was particularly the case with James\nBurnham, a philosophy professor (34 years old) who had joined the party in 1935\nand been given the post as editor of the party\u2019s theoretical magazine New\nInternational.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnham was opposed to dialectical\nmaterialism, the philosophy of Marxism, comparing it to a religion. This position\nwas neglected by other leaders of the minority. Already before the debate, in\nJanuary 1939, Trotsky had criticised Schachtman for an article he wrote\ntogether with Burnham in New International, declaring \u201cone of us for\ndialectics, one against\u201d. The content of the article was good criticism of\nex-Marxists who had already turned against socialism because they could not\nstand the pressure in society, such as Max Eastman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky warned that not debating out\ndialectics with Burnham was a big mistake. The defence of dialectical\nmaterialism in this book explains the philosophy better than in most other\nMarxist works. Dialectics explains that everything in society and nature\ncontinuously change, in processes that develop through contradictions, with\nchanges from quantity to quality and sudden leaps. Politically, dialectics are\ngeneral laws for development of society and the class struggle, Trotsky\nsummarised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the opposition, under the strong\ninfluence of Burnham, used fixed abstractions. They had concluded that the\nSoviet Union was no longer a worker\u2019s state, but could not answer what had\nchanged in quantity or quality. Where from to where \u2013 what processes were\nthere? The opposition lacked both theory and concrete analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnham also stressed his \u201cpersonal\nindependence\u201d, not being prepared to become a party fulltimer, in a situation\nwhen the full-timers were absolutely necessary in building the party. That also\npointed to a lack of understanding of revolutionary centralism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other traits of the petty bourgeois\nopposition were political nervousness, and a habit of jumping from one position\nto another, including a light minded choice of allies in the faction fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unity\nand factions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an overall description of how the debate\ndeveloped, Trotsky wrote: \u201cThe opposition opened up a severe factional fight\nwhich is now paralysing the party at a very critical moment. That such a fight\ncould be justified and not pitilessly condemned, very serious and deep\nfoundations would be necessary. For Marxists such foundations can only have a\nclass character.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was clear that the minority started a\nvicious faction fight without a serious political basis. The majority stood\nfirm behind the program and perspectives of the Fourth International. It was a\nworking class position, compared to the opposition\u2019s increasingly distancing\nthemselves from revolutionary socialism, a petty-bourgeois trait. Trotsky did\nnot discover this petty-bourgeois tendency for the first time in 1939, but gave\nmany examples where he had raised warnings in the previous years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, when Shachtman three years\nearlier believed that the Socialist Party in the US (a broader party the\nTrotskyists worked in and were expelled from in 1937) was developing into a\nrevolutionary party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this analysis, Trotsky advocated\nunity. This in contrast to Martin Abern, an opposition leader, who used the\nthreat of split to frighten members. Other opposition leaders wanted to go\npublic with the debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only weeks before the minority split, in\nApril 1940, Trotsky stressed the necessity of internal democratic rights. \u201cBut\nif the unity is preserved, you can\u2019t have a Secretariat composed only of\nMajority representatives. You should possibly have a Secretariat even of five\nmembers \u2014 three Majorityites and two Minorityites.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Trotsky pointed to the inner\ncontradictions of the minority faction, Shachtman replied by giving historical\nexamples of \u201cblocs\u201d involving Trotsky and the Bolsheviks. Trotsky replied by\nshowing how, for example, the bloc with Kamenev and Zinoviev against Stalinism\nin 1926 was correct. But such a bloc did not hide the political differences\nbetween its members behind common programmes. And it was clear that Trotsky\u2019s\nsupporters were the strongest force in the bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the US in 1939-40, Shachtman formed a\nfaction, but in fact it was a bloc of differering forces, directed at the\nworking class majority of the SWP. And within the faction, the dominant forces\nwere Burnham and Abern. Shachtman was only their short term political alibi for\nleaving Marxism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even at this stage, Trotsky took a patient\nattitude, writing that events can change individuals, who can then re-establish\nthemselves in the revolutionary party. He even gives himself as an example.\nTrotsky did not join the Bolsheviks until 1917, where he immediately played a\ndecisive role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five years earlier, in 1912, he attempted\nto unite all different tendencies of the Russian Social Democracy: \u201cI had not\nfreed myself at that period especially in the organizational sphere from the\ntraits of a petty-bourgeois revolutionist. I was sick with the disease of\nconciliationism toward Menshevism\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Political\nclarity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politically, the debate expanded to more\nissues. Trotsky of course understood that not every article or text needed to\ndraw all conclusions, but stressed the need for members writing such material\nto understand the full programme and analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minority moved in the other direction.\nThey wanted to reduce the party\u2019s program to \u201cconcrete issues\u201d, which led\nTrotsky to make comparisons to debates in Russia, against the economists and\nthe narodniks, who both avoided broader political issues. In 1939-40, the SWP\nminority thought the war was concrete, but the worker\u2019s state wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shachtman quoted Lenin who in a debate with\nTrotsky in 1920 said, \u201cworkers state is an abstraction\u201d, and that Russia was\nnot a workers\u2019 state, but workers and peasants state. However, Shachtman had\nmissed that Lenin some weeks later concluded that he had been wrong, Russia was\na \u201cworkers state with peculiar features\u201d , those features being a peasant\nmajority population and bureaucratic defects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shachtman used the expression \u201ca degree\u201d of\ndegeneration in Russia, yet he was in alliance with Burnham who, despite not\nbelieving in dialectics, had concluded there was a qualitative change of the\nSoviet Union, equating it with Nazi Germany. The minority was not united, and\nsoon after the minority split and formed the new \u201cWorkers Party\u201d, Burnham left\nand developed into a leading reactionary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many other concrete events\nanalysed in this book: the events in Finland in the beginning of the war, how\nMarxists should act in the Spanish civil war, Marx\u2019s position on bourgeois\nwars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky\u2019s general advice to members of the\nFourth International was to orientate to and assist the working class, to\nstrikes and trade unions, at the same time warning that there are always\n\u201copportunist deviations\u201d in the unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

80 years ago, Trotsky showed how the crisis\nin revolutionary leadership that broke out with the Social Democratic\ncapitulation for World War in 1914 had not yet been solved. Some socialists\nblamed the proletariat for this, as some socialists did in Russia following the\ndefeat of the revolution in 1905.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reply to that came in 1917, when the\nBolsheviks were able to create such leadership. Marxists today are struggling\nwith a much different objective situation than 80 years ago. On one hand, the\nworking class has grown a lot in size and thereby sets limits on reaction, on\nthe other the labour movement in most places has to be rebuilt. This has led to\nexplosive movements from below in many countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The need to build revolutionary marxist\nparties and an international are as urgent as in Trotsky\u2019s time, if not more,\nwith the deepening climate, economic, social and political crisis. To study and\nuse In Defence of Marxism\u2019s lessons on the need for a solid theoretical basis,\nconcrete analyses, correct methods in party building and debates will be crucial\nin the stormy period ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leon Trotsky\u2019s In Defence of Marxism is a book every Marxist needs to study<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":21007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Defence of Marxism, 80 years on - China Worker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2019\/07\/12\/21003\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Defence of Marxism, 80 years on - 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