trotskyism

[admice]

Sorry 'nother question. You all keep referring to the Trotskyites or neo trots, etc. What do u mean by that? I did some research. He wasn't a vanguardist; he wanted a worker's majority? Or his opposition to Stalin? Revisionist? What do you all have in mind when u abbreviate like that?

Thanks

[Ed]

Looks like this one got missed so I'll have a go. Trotsky was most certainly a vanguardist. He was a Leninist, he was on the central committee of a vanguard party. There is no evidence whatsoever that he would have behaved any differently to Stalin had he managed to oust him from power rather than the other way around. In fact the massacre of anarchists and other socialists at Kronstadt show him to be every bit as ruthless.But Trot organizations today are more of a problem than a long dead fool. The most prominent of these being the ISO from which the socialist workers partys are members. While they similarly to us recognize the soviet union as being a capitalist nation there are still major differences in theory. Especially regrading the history of the USSR. See they think it was socialist in it's early days (while Trotsky was still in power) and later became capitalist (when Trotsky wasn't in power). They are by far the largest groups in the west claiming to be socialists yet they tell their members and other workers to vote for main stream parties like Labour or the Democrats "without illlusions of course".They have a top down organization based on the bolshevik model with leaders dictating to the membership how to behave and how to think. They take sides in wars between capitalists claiming anti-imperialism as their basis.A very short rap sheet of the sort of anti worker policies they encourage. Supporting Iran during the Iran/Iraq warfrom,The Socialist Worker 1987"we have no choice but to support the Khomeini regime""there will be instances where it is wrong to strike""socialists should not support actions which could lead to the collapse of the military effort"Northern Irelandfrom,The Socialist Worker 1969"The breathing space provided by the presence of British troops is short but vital. Those who call for the immediate withdrawal of the troops before the men behind the barricades can defend themselves are inviting a pogrom which will hit first and hardest at socialists."Egypt & the muslim brotherhoodfrom,The Socialist Worker 2012In fact the choice is clear. A vote for Shafiq would be a vote against the revolution. A vote for Mursi is a vote against the legacy of Mubarak and for continuing change. Revolutionary activists will not enjoy voting for Mursi. If they do not do so, however, they are likely to experience the real nightmare scenario—a president cloned from the dictator they overthrew last year.They've also had various accusations ranging from anti-semitism to a central committee member raping a young woman.Above all though they are just the same as any other capitalist party, but merely wrap themselves in a red flag and call it socialism. p.s. anti-revisionism is a maoist/stalinist thing.,In fact they don't call themsleves Maoist or Stalinist but prefer to be called anti-revisionist.

[DJP]

I suggest if you want to know about Trotsky you should read this:http://libcom.org/library/the-kronstadt-uprising-ida-mettThat should dispel any misconceptions about Trotsky or the nature of the Bolshevik party.

[Anonymous]

Leon Trotsky was one of the biggest supporters of the Vanguard Party concept, and the miliitarization of the workers unions. The killing of workers did not start during the reign of Joseph Stalin, it started with Lenin and Trotsky, and when he was the comissar of the Red Army he was a real despot, and he ordered the massacre of the Anarchists. Stalin did not come to power due to a coup d;tat, he came to power because Trotsky lost his popularity among the Russian workers. The difference between Stalin and Trostky were based on management methods,  Lenin said that he had an administrative  mentality. One of the best biographer of Leon Trotsky was Isaac Deutscher, even better that his own auto-biography: My Life http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2003/no-1183-march-2003/trotsky-and-stalin-rival-leaders http://www.worldsocialism.org/articles/trotsky_the_prophet_debunked.php. For Trotsky and Lenin socialism was state capitalism, and both considered that the  workers needed  the intelligentsia in order to obtain class consciouness, they are not able to obtain it by themselves, they needed the proffessionals cadres of the party, therefore, he was a vanguardist like Lenin and all the Bolshevicks leaders. Vanguardism is not a creation of Lenin, it came from Ferdinand Lasalle   PS The Leninist call revisionist or revisionism any attempt to alter or question the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao. The concepts became more popular after 1959 with  the emerge of Nikita Kruschev, and the opposition made to him by Mao Tse Tung and Enver Hoxha which formed the Anti-revisionist movement, they also draft the concept of Soviet Social-imperialism

[admice]

Thank you very much. I wonder too how you know so fast when groups are Trotskiist (or any other ist), but you've been following these groups and people for a long time, yes so they are not new to you? thanks again

[ALB]

There used to be a publication called Trotwatch which was useful:http://libcom.org/tags/trotwatchWe also have "trotspotters" (a variety of train-spotting) in our party:http://www.meetup.com/The-Socialist-Party-of-Great-Britain/events/59391582/I used to be one myself in my younger days but there are too many splits to keep up with.

[admice]

Thanks. I'll follow these.

[Author]

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