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Unity is strength, L'union fait la force, Es la unidad fuerza, Η ενότητα είναι δύναμη, . اتحاد قدرت است, đoàn kết là sức mạnh, Jedność jest
siła, ykseys on kesto, યુનિટિ થ્રૂ િા., Midnimo iyo waa awood, hundeb ydy chryfder, Einheit ist Stärke, एकता शक्ति है, единстве наша сила,
vienybės jėga, bashkimi ben fuqine, אחדות היא כוח, unità è la resistenza, 団結は力だ", A unidade é a força, eining er styrkur, De eenheid is
de sterkte, الوحدة هو القوة, Ní neart go chur le céile, pagkakaisa ay kalakasan, jednota is síla, 일성은 이다힘 힘, Workers of the World
Unite!
In Defence of Trotskyism page 2
Or was Marcel Liebman’s Leninism under older, more demoralised and con- dence with Trotsky’s 1904 theory of Perma-
Lenin the more balanced assess- servative skilled workers in the nent Revolution.
ment of why Lenin took such a fun- main, syndicalism, centrism and a
damentally different attitude to small and confused revolutionary Why do we take the two apparently oppos-
WWI to the SPD? The fundamental current. This is Liebman‟s implicit ing proposition of Smith and Lih and insist
difference which we will seek to proposition. And it is into this Kaut- they are essentially the same? Smith says
establish is that Lenin led the Bol- skyite blind alley Lars T Lih and the that Kautsky and Plekhanov distorted Marx
sheviks with an increasingly differ- CPGB seek to divert us. so fundamentally that they gutted him of
ent theory and practice after learn- his Marxism - Karl Marx and the Future of
ing the lessons, crucially on the Lars T Lih seeks to prove that the Human is one of his efforts – and we
need for Soviet/workers councils, must return to the real Marx. Lenin and
1. Lenin never broke theoreti- Trotsky followed the philosophy of these
from the failed revolution of 1905.
cally from the pre-1914 Kautsky and so were little better. We must return to
We will establish that the goal of
(what about the above quote?). Marx with Cyril, who is the only one to have
Liebman is to defend the Marxist
theory and practice of the revolu- found his true character. Strange how this
2. that therefore the revolution
tionary party and programme as ‘discovery’ gels so well with outright reac-
triumphed by the use of the min-
developed by Lenin and was so tion but that’s dialectical, we must suppose!
max SPD Erfurt Programme of
spectacularly successful in leading Lih, on the other hand, says that Lenin re-
1891 (again the quote proves oth-
the Russian Revolution. It was this mained a Kautskyite all his life, only repudi-
erwise).
heritage that was defended by ating the open crossing of class lines when
Trotsky. The goal of both Smith 3. and implicitly the 1921 he progressed from centrism to counter-
and Lih is counter-revolutionary united front offensive by Lenin and revolution by attacking the Russian Revolu-
and reactionary; to deny the new Trotsky and the 1938 Transitional tion. But in truth Lenin’s collected works are
generation of revolutionists these Programme were reformist back- full of re-examination of what went wrong
indispensable weapons today in the sliding by the great revolutionists with the German Social Democracy and we
struggle to forge the leadership to as Max Shachtman, Hal Draper, make so bold as to suggest he corrected his
make the socialist revolution in the the CPGB and the AWL have earlier illusions in them sufficiently to lead
revolutionary crises that this crisis sought/seek to prove. the greatest revolution in history, so he got
will produce in the coming months the bulk of that one about right, it is fair to
and years In developing his Marxism after assert. Nevertheless we must all be more
1905 Lenin no longer used the me- Kautsky than Lenin today is the message Lih
Lenin made a major practical break dium of Kautsky or even Plekhanov proposes, much to the delight of the CPGB’s
with SPD methods of organising in the main but went straight to Macnair and Bridge.
after 1905 and deepened it after Marx and Engels and eventually, in
August 1914, by evolving a differ- 1914, to Hegel as the intellectual Lars T risibly sees Kautsky as the inspira-
ent theory on the party type and source of the dialectic. But the tion for Lenin’s April Theses
programme. This was empirical at CPGB wishes to develop a Kautsky-
first; attributing the centralism and In bolstering the Stalinist/Menshevik ver-
ite Marxism as a fail-safe against
struggle for theoretical clarity at sion of revolutionary history Lih seeks to
revolutionary Trotskyism. And Lars
least in part to illegal Russian con- prove that it was Kautsky who was the main
T Lih is the unwitting, or maybe
ditions but increasingly it became influence in Lenin’s April Theses of 1917
willing, caps paw in this project.
conscious because of the revolu- and Trotsky’s theory of Permanent Revolu-
Closely related to this is the ques-
tionary practice of the party. This tion was totally irrelevant, despite the com-
tion of what lessons we draw from
resulted in breaking with the Ger- plete political co-incidence between the
the history of the Russian Revolu-
man Social Democratic party type two internationalist outlooks. Crucially he
tion and subsequent history of the
such that by 1917 the Bolsheviks fails to identify Lenin’s 1916 book Imperial-
20th century and the first decade
were a totally different type of ism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism as the
of the 21st in terms of the party
party, capable of leading a socialist central political development in Lenin’s
and programme? We also need to
revolution. In contrast the SPD top thinking which enabled the April Theses to
restate the fundamental character
leadership formed the spearhead of identify with the third and most important
of Lenin‟s break with the old Bol-
the counter-revolution and their element of Permanent Revolution, the ori-
shevik Democratic Dictatorship of
model “party of the whole class” entation to the world revolution. Reducing
the Proletariat and Peasantry in the
splintered disastrously into its con- the famous Theses to the incapacity of the
1917 April Theses following his famous
stituent elements: open counter- Russian bourgeoisie to lead their own revo-
analysis Imperialism the Highest Stage of
revolutionary reformism leading lution and portraying the adoption of social-
Capitalism in 1916 and its essential coinci-
ist measures as a national consideration themselves at the level of the empirical with each of these. Some observers have
without questioning why the working class application of these axioms to Russia.” dispensed with specific catalysts and spoken
should had developed such advanced inter- either of Lenin’s cynicism or of an existential
nationalist consciousness, Lih and the CPGB If we read the ‘theses published in 1915’ – ‘rejection of Big Brother’. I have now put
demonstrate their essential capitulation to they are in Lenin CW 21 – we see that Lenin forth a new explanation: the role of catalyst
the Menshevik/Stalinist theory of socialism is still advocating a bourgeois democratic was played by Kautsky’s article of April
in a single country and a left wing version of revolution in Russia, albeit led by the work- 1917, which showed Lenin how he could
the British Road to Socialism. ing class and indeed in this he is still a both remain loyal to central Marxist axioms
‘Kautskyite’. The very weak case that Kaut- and move forward to a socialist revolution in
In an introduction to an article by Kautsky, sky led Lenin to break from Kautskyism, in Russia without waiting for the international
Lenin and the ‘April theses’ January 15th, this vital important matter is further under- revolution.”
2010 by the Communists Students http:// mined if we look at the previous article to
communiststudents.org.uk/?p=4074 (and in the theses in Volume 21. It is Kautsky, Lars T Lih would only have to skip one article
the Weekly Worker) Lars T Lih argues that Alexrod and Martov – True Internationalists, in his Volume 21 to discover, much to his
this was the inspiration for Lenin’s famous of course true internationalist social patri- chagrin that the inspiration was ‘of course
April Theses. Why anyone should think that otic chauvinists is the theme of the article. Trotsky’. Here is the extract from Lenin de-
this appalling social chauvinist (and Lenin And it is on internationalism that the April nouncing Trotsky’s theory of Permanent
had called him just this many times since Theses are based, they could not be inspired Revolution in 1915. The astute Marxist will
1914) should have inspired Lenin in 1917 from so hostile a source. Lih goes on to re- be able to see that this is a caricature of
because of a few ambiguous formulations is mark, Trotsky’s Permanent revolution nonetheless
a mystery. Here is how Lars T Lih puts his it is but a few short steps away from the
case; “Kautsky’s April article also foreshadows the April Theses.
later clash between Lenin and himself. Kaut-
“First, what exactly was new in Lenin’s fa- sky insists that socialism is impossible with- Here is Lenin, On the Two Lines in the Revo-
mous April Theses? The following planks in out democracy, by which he means political lution, Nov 1915:
Lenin’s 1917 platform are not new: all freedoms such as right of assembly, of press,
power to the soviets, no support for the and so on. Of course, Lenin also emphasised “This state of affairs patently indi-
provisional government and the imperialist the relation between democracy and social- cates the task of the proletariat.
war, the necessity of a second stage of the ism, but on a different plane. Lenin’s entire That task is the waging of a su-
revolution, in which the proletariat would emphasis in 1917 is on mass participation in premely courageous revolutionary
take state power. These themes can all be administration rather than on political free- struggle against the monarchy
found earlier – in particular, in theses pub- doms. This emphasis stands in contrast to (utilising the slogans of the January
lished in October 1915. What is new is earlier old Bolshevism, for which political Conference of 1912, the “three pil-
Lenin’s insistence on taking ‘steps toward freedom was a central goal.” lars”), a struggle that will sweep
socialism’ in Russia, prior to and independ- along in its wake all the democratic
ent of socialist revolution in western This only goes to show that the reference to masses, i.e., mainly the peas-
Europe. This theme occurs for the first time the need for soviets made by Lenin in 1915 antry…
in remarks jotted down in April 1917 – im- was not a precursor to his powerful slogan
To bring clarity into the alignment
mediately after reading Kautsky’s article. Of All power to the Soviets of April 1917. The
‘three whales of Bolshevism’ or ‘three pil- of classes in the impending revolu-
course, we cannot simply argue post hoc,
lars’- Democratic Republic, Confiscation of tion is the main task of a revolu-
ergo propter hoc (“with this, therefore be-
the Landed Estates, Eight-Hour Working tionary party. This task is being
cause of this”). Nevertheless, this coinci-
Day, were still the programme then with an shirked by the Organising Commit-
dence in time opens up a possibility that
entirely different political perspective. But tee, which within Russia remains a
should be seriously examined.
Lars T Lih then presents us with a profound faithful ally to Nashe Dyelo, and
Of course, these verbal echoes are hardly historical mystery, where on earth could abroad utters meaningless “Left”
direct proof that Kautsky’s article had a Lenin have got the ideas of the April Theses phrases. This task is being wrongly
large impact on Lenin. Nevertheless, they if not from Kautsky? tackled in Nashe Slovo by Trotsky,
add weight to the strong circumstantial case who is repeating his “original” 1905
for seeing Kautsky’s article as the catalyst “Many other candidates have been pro- theory and refuses to give some
for Lenin’s great innovations in his ideologi- posed for the catalyst for Lenin’s ideological thought to the reason why, in the
cal outlook. The innovations are not at the innovations in 1917. Among those put for- course of ten years, life has been
level of the Marxist axioms themselves – ward are Hegel, Bukharin, the political writ- bypassing this splendid theory.
Lenin as well as Kautsky continued to take ings of Marx and Engels, JA Hobson and, of
course, Trotsky, but there are difficulties From the Bolsheviks Trotsky‟s origi-
these for granted. The innovations reveal
nal theory has borrowed their call
Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward!
In Defence of Trotskyism page 7
favour of the essence of Trotsky’s Perma- This extract from the Permanent Revolution
nent Revolution. website of February 2007 explains well what
happened on Lenin’s return in April 1917:
Marcel Liebman shows that the inspiration
for the Theses was not just Trotsky (albeit in “It was the editorial board of Pravda that
a distorted form) but Lenin himself in his occupied the most right wing stance within
earlier writing. In Leninism under Lenin the Bolshevism. Edited by Stalin, Muranov and
section Lenin and permanent revolution pp. Kamenev, the paper declared on 7 March:
79-83 details several instances of Lenin him- “As far as we are concerned, what matters
self independently considering the essential now is not the overthrow of capitalism but
concepts of Trotsky’s famous theory. Trot- the overthrow of autocracy and feudalism.”
sky thought that Lenin’s democratic dicta-
torship was ‘unrealisable – at least in a di- On 15 March, Kamenev used Pravda’s pages
rect, immediate sense’ Results, p202. Lenin to advocate conditional support for Russia’s
thought that the function of this democratic war effort now that the autocracy had been
dictatorship was to establish bourgeois de- overthrown. Small wonder then that by mid-
mocracy and facilitate capitalist develop- March rank and file worker Bolshevik cells in
ment but Trotsky maintained that ‘it would the Vyborg district were voting for calls to
be the greatest utopianism to think that expel the Pravda leadership from the party.
having been raised to political domination It was Lenin who was able to transcend the
by the internal mechanism of a bourgeois limitations of the old Bolshevik programme
revolution, can, even if it so desires, limit its and perspective. And it is testimony to the
was a severe shock not only to Chkheidze
mission to the creation of republican- vitality and strength of the historically con-
and the Mensheviks. Many of the leading
democratic conditions for the social domina- stituted Bolshevik cadre that open debate in
Bolsheviks, especially leading right wingers
tion of the bourgeoisie’. (ibid. 223-4). Lieb- the company led to its programmatic re-
like Kamenev, thought he had taken leave of
man quotes from a letter from Adolf Joffe to armament at the crucial hour. Lenin’s writ-
his senses. An eye witness account of his
Trotsky before committing suicide in 1927, ings during the war, especially Imperialism:
arrival in Russia captures the mood of initial
“I have often told you that with my own ears The Highest Stage of Capitalism, led him to
bewilderment that greeted Lenin’s new line:
I have heard Lenin admit that in 1905 it was see that Russia was one, albeit exceptionally
not he but you who were right. In the face weak, link in the chain of world imperialism. “It had been expected that Vladimir Illyich
of death one does not lie and I repeat this to Of necessity therefore the programme of would arrive and call to order the Russian
you now.’ And Lenin had adopted a ‘quasi- the coming Russian Revolution could no Bureau of the Central Committee, and espe-
Trotskyist’ position himself in 1905 and Lieb- longer be conceived in the terms of a na- cially comrade Molotov, who occupied a
man supplies a few quotes, the best of tional and democratic revolution but instead particularly irreconcilable position in regard
which is what he calls a ‘typically ‘Trotskyist’ as a component of the international revolu- to the Provisional Government. It turned
sentence’: ‘From the democratic revolution tion against capitalism itself. out, however, that it was Molotov who was
we shall at once, and precisely in accor- nearest of all to Illyich.” http://
Lenin’s return from exile to the Finland Sta-
dance with the measure of our strength, the www.permanentrevolution.net/entry/1179
tion allowed him to both intervene directly
strength of the class-conscious and organ-
in the Bolshevik Party and further sharpen Lih emphases the organisational unity of the
ised proletariat, begin to pass to the socialist
his programmatic armoury. At the head of Russian Social Democratic and Labour party,
revolution. We stand for uninterrupted
the Soviet’s official welcome party the lead- of which the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks
revolution. We shall not stop half-way’ (Vol
ing Menshevik Chkheidze urged Lenin to were only the best known factions in order
9, 236-37). What is this but the same phrase
play his part in “the closing of the democ- to suggest this continued adherence to
‘uninterrupted revolution’ referred to in
ratic ranks”. Lenin promptly declined, de- Kautsky’s theory and practice. But Lenin
Trotsky’s Results, p. 212, as Liebman points
claring instead: “The world-wide socialist applied a transitional method here, not a
out? This re-emerged in his thinking again in
revolution has already dawned . . . Any day min-max method. He understood that politi-
April 1917 because of his own studies and
now the whole of European capitalism may cal differences that the party tops under-
influenced by Trotsky and for this reason
crash. The Russian Revolution accomplished stood were not understood by the party
they became the closest of comrades, the co
by you has paved the way and opened a ranks much less by the working class as a
-leaders of the revolution. It is risible to
new epoch. Long live the world-wide social- whole. Therefore he practiced that ap-
suggest he made that change under the
ist revolution.” proach serious Marxists have come to un-
influence of the by-then counter-
revolutionary renegade. derstand as Leninism; he was inflexible and
Lenin’s forthright declaration in favour of
doctrinally dogmatic on principle once he
the socialist development of the revolution
understood it but he was totally flexible
tactically and organisationally in order to rivals did not mean he did not regard
build the revolutionary leadership. And it them as comrades in the struggle, until
was this transitional method which tri- they had definitely crossed class lines
umphed. There was joint Bolshevik/ and gone over to the enemy class. Con-
Menshevik branches up until after the Revo- trast this to the organisational sectari-
lution but the Bolsheviks won the best of anism employed by today’s SWP, SP etc
them, leaving the Menshevik organisation and yesterday’s and today’s WRP.
with a shell in the period of the revolution- Lenin’s approach was not sectarianism
ary upsurge itself and its immediate after- as is portrayed by these who look at
math. Lenin’s polemics in isolation from his
practice and it is not Kautskyism as is
In Germany there was no significant splits practiced by the CPGB and Lih who
and coming together because the “party of would look at his practice and try to
the whole class” had not differentiated ei- bowdlerise his theory to fit a reformist
ther reformism or centrism from revolution- outlook. That is the Transitional
ary theory and practice, Rosa Luxemburg’s Method.
struggle against Bernstein was taken up by
Kautsky but party unity had such importance And a few extracts from the greatest
which was accepted by all sides that ideo- Marxists of the twentieth century on
logical clarification could not be established Karl Kautsky: alds, who from now on will be treading on
in time for the revolutionary crisis. Reform- each other’s feet, dreaming about “unity”
ism, as a separate and counter-revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, The Proletarian Revolution and trying to revive a corpse. Bolshevism
tendency in the workers movement, did not and the Renegade Kautsky November 1918 has created the ideological and tactical
separate itself out in Germany, the leading foundations of a Third International, of a
The Bolsheviks’ tactics were correct; they
party of the Second International, until really proletarian and Communist Interna-
were the only internationalist tactics, be-
1914. By then, whatever Lenin’s continued tional, which will take into consideration
cause they were based, not on the cowardly
illusions in Kautsky and his method, he had a both the gains of the tranquil epoch and the
fear of a world revolution, not on a philistine
party leadership with a history of ideological experience of the epoch of revolutions,
“lack of faith” in it, not on the narrow na-
struggle against reformism and centrism but which has begun.
tionalist desire to protect one’s “own” fa-
one which did not mistake its own under-
therland (the fatherland of one’s own bour-
standing for that of its own ranks or the Leon Trotsky: Terrorism and Communism
geoisie), while not “giving a damn” about all
ranks of the other RSDLP factions. It pursued May 1920
the rest, but on a correct (and, before the
an uncompromising political offensive
war and before the apostasy of the social- Precisely because historical events have,
against all other political tendencies whilst
chauvinists and social-pacifists, a universally with stern energy, been developing in these
maintaining organisational unity with them
accepted) estimation of the revolutionary last months their revolutionary logic, the
where possible and at the very least unity in
situation in Europe. These tactics were the author of this present work asks himself:
action in the class struggle. That is Lenin had
only internationalist tactics, because they Does it still require to be published? Is it still
fought not just left bourgeois nationalists
did the utmost possible in one country for necessary to confute Kautsky theoretically?
and reformists in Russia, he had also fought
the development, support and awakening of Is there still theoretical necessity to justify
the centrists; the Mensheviks in the first
the revolution in all countries. These tactics revolutionary terrorism?
place and now recognised Kautsky as one
have been justified by their enormous suc-
after 1914, and this too was a new phe-
cess, for Bolshevism (not by any means be- Unfortunately, yes. Ideology, by its very
nomenon appearing for the first time in the
cause of the merits of the Russian Bolshe- essence, plays in the Socialist movement an
workers movement.
viks, but because of the most profound sym- enormous part. Even for practical England
Dialectics comrades; in order to have ideo- pathy of the people everywhere for tactics the period has arrived when the working
logical conflict with your opponents you that are revolutionary in practice) has be- class must exhibit an ever-increasing de-
must first establish at least a partial unity, come world Bolshevism, has produced an mand for a theoretical statement of its ex-
an agreement that you are fighting the com- idea, a theory, a programme and tactics periences and its problems. On the other
mon enemy and therefore the argument is which differ concretely and in practice from hand, even the proletarian psychology in-
your opponents politics and his methods those of social-chauvinism and social- cludes in itself a terrible inertia of conserva-
impede that struggle at best and at worst pacifism. Bolshevism has given a coup de tism – the more that, in the present case,
are totally counter-productive in certain grace to the old, decayed International of there is a question of nothing less than the
instances and in certain cases. That is an the Scheidemanns and Kautskys, Renaudels traditional ideology of the parties of the
understanding of the backwardness of his and Longuets, Hendersons and MacDon- Second International which first roused the
Socialist Fight: Where We Stand thrust of the first four Congresses of the Third tional finance capital roams the planet in search
Communist International before the victory of of profit and imperialist governments disrupts
counter-revolutionary Stalinism. the lives of workers and cause the collapse of
We stand with Karl Marx: ‘The emancipation of whole nations with their direct intervention in
No to popular fronts with the political represen-
the working classes must be conquered by the the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan and their
tatives of any capitalist class to defeat fascism,
working classes themselves. The struggle for the proxy wars in Somalia and the Democratic Re-
stop war or for any other reason.
emancipation of the working class means not a public of the Congo, etc.
struggle for class privileges and monopolies but No to sectarian abstention from the class strug-
gle. We demand of all governments a world plan to
for equal rights and duties and the abolition of
combat climate change and the degradation of
all class rule’. We recognise the necessity for revolutionaries to the biosphere which is caused by the anarchy of
We see democratic soviets/workers’ councils as carry out serious ideological and political strug-
capitalist production for profits of transnational
the instruments of participatory democracy gle as direct participants in the trade unions corporations. Ecological catastrophe is not ‘as
which must be the basis of the successful strug- (always) and in the mass reformist social democ-
crucial as imperialism’ but caused by imperialism
gle for workers’ power. ratic bourgeois workers’ parties despite their pro so to combat this threat we must redouble our
-capitalist leaderships when conditions are fa- efforts to forward the world revolution.
We are for the nationalisation and expropriation
vourable.
of capitalist private property without compensa- We support Trotsky’s Transitional Programme of
tion and under workers’ control. We aim to develop a programme for the emanci-
1938 in its context. We always practice the
pation of the specially oppressed. We support method embodied in that document because it
The capitalist state must be overthrown and
the right of women, Black and Asian people,
smashed to achieve socialism. is the Marxist method of mass work as advo-
lesbians and gay men, bisexuals and transgender cated by Lenin in Left Wing Communism, an
The revolutionary process of transition to com- people to caucus inside the unions and in social Infantile Disorder in 1920.
munism is based on the struggle to form an democratic parties.
international federation of workers’ states and As revolutionary international socialists we sup-
We fight racism and fascism. We support the
such a federation is required in order to over- port Trotsky’s theory of Permanent Revolution
right of people to fight back against racist at- and its applicability to the present era of global-
come the domination of global capital.
tacks. Self-defence is no offence!
isation.
We defend the heritage of the Russian Revolu-
We oppose all immigration controls. Interna-
tion and critically support the revolutionary
The Press of the Permanent Revolution Collective and its sympathising organisations. More information of the CoReP can be obtained at,
www.revolution-socialiste.info/CoReP.htm
or In Defence of Trotskyism
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