Trotskyism - Q&A

Incisive commentary on the theory and tactics of Trotskyism, and why it is now the official imperialist-sponsored 'revolutionary' movement.

Following on from a presentation by Harpal Brar on his book "Trotskyism or Leninism", available here:

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[dal]

Just during the duration of this video three Trotskyist groups splintered off....and two of them support the coup in Venezuela in the name of "democracy" 😂😂😃

[teddy]

The first "Marxist" I ever met was a Trotskyite; actually 3 of them. I had been a heavy-duty peace activist since 1965, when, in 1967, I moved to San Diego, CA, USA. I immediately attended my first Anti-Vietnam War Movement demonstration - there were EIGHT OF US there; count 'em - EIGHT! (This while Los Angeles, 200km / 120 miles to the north, had demonstrations of from 10, 000 up to 100, 000; and San Francisco, 800km / 500 miles to the north, had demos of 100, 000 up to 1, 000, 000.)

I was what Lenin, in "A Retrograde Trend in Russian Social-Democracy" calls an advanced element (with 3 necessary prerequisites) - 1) a self-sacrificing fighter for the people; 2) a leader (by then I had developed some skill at this); and 3) someone looking for (scientific) answers. The (3) Trots were, by default, the most "advanced" of the 8 of us. So I paid a lot of attention to them; to their work; and to their theory.

The thing is they 100% OPPOSED the Vietnamese Revolution (& the CP of Vietnam) because neither was led by trotskyites. Other than this point of "unity" among the 3 of them; they were constantly at each other's throats - rival organizations (IS, SWP, Spartacus League) with rival newspapers and activities.

For the next 6 months we remained the same EIGHT people (at our monthly demonstrations). Finally, I began to see the connection between the Trots' political line and their political-organizing lack of success. An activist came in from the San Francisco Bay Area and turned me on to Engels, "Socialism: Utopian & Scientific". It seemed he had written this work specifically with me in mind. I joined a Marxist-Leninist study circle; which soon was organizing in the Anti War Movement and in the factories.

The work began to pick up more and more support; and as it did so; it got attacked ever more viciously by the Trots. I couldn't reconcile that attitude (and their total opposition to the very LEADERSHIP of the Vietnamese / Indochinese revolutions) vs their "claim" of being more revolutionary than anybody else. The Vietnamese Revolution was not "revolutionary"; i.e. not "proletarian" enough for them. The peasantry, according to all of them, was a counter-revolutionary class.

I came to characterize them by this saying I invented, "The Trotskyites are FOR the Party everywhere except where it is not led by Trotskyites; and they are for the Revolution everywhere except where it is not led by the Trots." Seeing as they couldn't build either a real Party or lead a real revolution; this meant, in theory and in practice, that they 100% opposed both the struggle to build a Marxist-Leninist Party; and the struggle to build a revolutionary movement.


btw, within a few years, the San Diego wing of the Anti-War Movement went FROM being the laughing stock of the US-wide Anti-War Movement, TO one of its most militant parts. We became so successful that we actually did what everyone, especially we on the ground there, considered utterly impossible - we drove the Republican Party's US Presidential-Nominating Convention OUT OF San Diego (which they had chosen because of its very reactionary, general character); and to Miami.

[Pridetoons]

Trotskyism perfectly reflects the guy who created it.

[Red-Revolution]

The Working Class People are the Party not the Elitists .

[shawn]

I put off joining leftists for so long because of talk like this. "You must know the theories!"
"Trotsky this, Stalin that!"

Instead let's learn the internationale, feed the children, and help the people in your neighborhood. Organize and defend!
Solidarity forever!

Love from Boston.

[nathat]

Im so grateful for you lot ❤ i live in ireland where most people seem to have forgotten their revolutionary roots. It's all well and good to glorify people like James Connolly, but only as a nationalist. The few people who study him as the Marxist he was, tend to also be into ridiculous identy politics and repeat mccarthyist propagande about the USSR and Asia. 😢

[qiestisnilomniafite]

Great points, Comrades!

Something I've noticed about Trotskyism is that with few exceptions such in Sri Lanka and the Fretilin in East Timor, Trotskyism had very little or no influence and Trotskyists hardly played any role or played no role in the anti-colonial, national liberation struggles of people in the colonies, and I'd say that this is due to their dismissal of the peasantry as a revolutionary force.

For instance, this is what Trotskyite Peter Taffee of the Trotskyite Committee for a Workers International wrote in his review of Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng wrote in his memoirs - "Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History":-

"At the same time, in the immediate post-war period, particularly in 1946-47, and the first half of 1948, a massive strike wave erupted, involving 300 strikes across Malaya and Singapore. Nearly 700, 000 man-days of strike action took place during this period, causing extensive disruption to rubber plantations, tin mines, and to merchant shipping traffic through the ports. Alarmed, the British, particularly the Special Branch in Malaya, urged the arrest of 5, 000 suspected members of the CPM who were armed - with the support of 250, 000 in the ‘Min Yuen’ CPM sympathisers’ organisation. On 20 October, 1947, a massive hartal - a countrywide general strike, involving not just workers but also peasants and the middle class in general, which was borrowed from the examples of India and Sri Lanka - was "monumentally successful". It paralysed Singapore and Malaya. At this stage, the Communist Party controlled, according to Politburo member, Ah Dian, "in effect, the entire plantation workforce of the country… It is the same situation in the mines… It is the same situation in the wharves, in the public transportation companies and with all essential services."

"Given this social base amongst the working class, a question arises: why did the CPM later resort essentially to a rural guerrilla struggle? One reason is that they did not seize the initiative at the end of the war to organise to launch a revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation. But even later in 1947, as these strikes indicate, a new opportunity was presented to the CPM to launch a struggle, based primarily on the working class but drawing in the rest of the population, to evict British imperialism. Moreover, this movement cut across social and ethnic divisions. Unfortunately, the CPM did not have the programme or perspectives to utilise this position, trapped as it was within the framework of Stalinist ideas."


It's too easy for a Trotskyite intellectual, to criticise real world struggles on the ground of communists in a colonised country from the comfort of a liberal democratic environment of the very imperialist country which the CPM and the Malayan people were fighting to liberate themselves from.

My question is - what was Peter Taffe and his Trotskyite organsation doing in Britain to objectively and subjectively support the new democratic struggles of the Malayan communists and people to free themselves from British colonial rule?

Unfortunately today, as Malaya, now Malaysia has become more affluent, with a larger urban, middle-class and proletarian demographic, Trotskyism, including the Peter Taffe's CWI has made some inroads amongts leftists, especially young leftists and intellectuals in Malaysia (and in other parts of South-East Asia).

Such leftists in Malaysia, have invested most of their energies on supporting the "lesser evil" - i.e. the component parties, all bourgeois parties in the current ruling Pakatan Harapan (Pact of Hope) government, against their rivals - the Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition also of bourgeois parties, which had ruled Malaya and later Malaysia since independence until they were defeated in the 9th May 2018 general elections.

[stevekaczynski]

I read the book in the thumbnail - the author, Denver Walker, was a member of the pro-Soviet New Communist Party. It was quite entertaining.

[Mrjmaxted]

Bit of constructive criticism, but it would be nice to know who the speakers are, their party affiliation etc. Editing in a little subtitle with their name and affiliation at the start of each speaker's section would be fantastic.

[SystemMachine]

Every time I think I've found a Marxist organisation to join they always eventually resort to this 'stick the boot into other Marxist ideologies' which is extremely disheartening. I've already run into this problem with a Trotskyist organisation. I am still in the early stages of my journey into Marxist theory but I've already found things I like and dislike in the ideologies I've touched on (ML, Trotskyism, Maoism, Anarchism) but I'm yet to find an organisation to join. Ah well, the search continues!

[ronnierayavila]

Trabajad, trabajad, Proletaríatos, para aumentar! En las filas del Partido Proletariata, sabedlo.

[Vid]

Trotskyism always seemed kind of bananas to me, and I don't know why anarchists align themselves with it in Cuba and Venezuela.

[ronnierayavila]

Revolucion no puedo Democratica- Socialism aní equivocarme da creer politico como Proletaríos, yo serás. Hacíendas para Trotskyism.

[davidkauppi]

Paul Berenger a trotskyist? Hahaha. Give me a break

[deathmetal]

That isn't what Trotskyism is at all. Stalinists really have to drop the propaganda and read a book.

[Whoo]

Tankies who only complain about white 'imperialism'.. rich


When are they gonna, say, complain about China oppressing the Tibetans and Uighurs in the mainland?
Or China's trying to 'twist everyone else's arm', diplomacy-wise, to *refuse* to allow them to admit *Taiwan is its own, separate nation*


Or how about the Burmese junta's oppression of the Rohingyans?
And so on and so forth

[maddoxbellrose]

As I expected from a leftist meeting, a bunch of skin and bones as well as Mr. Soy in the back having a fever. Truly a "revolution".

[gabrielphelps]

Amusing but desperately irrelevant as this channel is.