{"id":577,"date":"2019-09-04T11:04:56","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T09:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?page_id=577"},"modified":"2019-09-04T11:39:28","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T09:39:28","slug":"introduction-1990","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?page_id=577","title":{"rendered":"Introduction (1990)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leon Trotsky \u2013 leader with Lenin of the 1917 Russian Revolution and organiser\nof the Red Army that defeated the imperialist invasion against it \u2013 was\nassassinated fifty years ago, on 20 August 1940, on the orders of Stalin, who\nhad become ruler of the Soviet Union.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To his death, Trotsky fought\nagainst capitalism and for socialism – and therefore against the privileged\nbureaucracy led by Stalin which usurped power from the working class in the\nfirst workers’ state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stalinism buried Trotsky physically\n50 years ago – but his ideas live on, and their power is increasingly\nconfirmed. They provide keys not only to understanding the tasks for our\nmovement in South Africa, but to the rapidly changing situation in the world\ntoday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central in this are the\nearth-shattering developments in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Soviet Union<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1985 Gorbachev came to power\nin the Soviet Union saying he would “renew socialism” through perestroika<\/em> (economic restructuring) and\nglasnost<\/em> (political openness). He\ndenounced the crimes of Stalin and the economic stagnation which had developed\nunder Brezhnev. But what has been the result?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year in Eastern Europe, mass\nrevolts against chronic corruption and dictatorial rule toppled Communist Party\ngovernments. Now the Soviet Union faces unprecedented crisis. The economy is in\nworse shape than ever. Basic commodities are scarce or unobtainable in the\nshops. A revolt of the nationalities and of the Soviet working class is simmering.\nThe Communist Party is losing credibility and heading towards a split.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 1 East Germany established\nmonetary union with West Germany. Political re-integration will follow. This is\na capitalist counter-revolution. Non-Communist governments in Poland, Hungary,\nand Czechoslovakia are charting a course towards the restoration of capitalism.\nGorbachev’s government itself is now taking measures towards dismantling the\nplanned economy, measures likely to involve sweeping price rises, and job\nlosses of up to 10 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1917 the Russian Revolution\nhas been an inspiration to millions struggling against oppression and\nexploitation. By overthrowing capitalism, and replacing it with state ownership\nand economic planning, the Soviet Union was able to rise from backwardness to\nbecome a super-power. Now it, and the\nregimes in Eastern Europe which modelled themselves on it, are in crisis – and\nturning back to capitalism.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a shattering blow for\nmany working people in South Africa and around the world. Is there no escape\nfrom the tyranny of capitalism? Have we lost an example and a support in our struggle\nto transform our lives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost daily in the last months,\nbourgeois journalists have been writing obituaries of socialism and Marxism,\nand congratulating themselves on the superiority of the capitalist system. Now\nthis same message is echoed by leaders of ‘Communist’ parties in Eastern Europe\nand the Soviet Union themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has socialism really failed? Is\nMarxism really discredited? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Not socialism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, it is not socialism<\/strong> that is in crisis. Despite\nwhat their rulers have claimed, the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern\nEurope are not socialist societies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A precondition for socialism is workers’ democracy<\/strong>. The mighty impulse\ntowards socialism provided by the workers’ revolution in Russia in October 1917\ncould not be carried through. This revolution degenerated in isolation.\nWorkers’ democracy, one of the essential preconditions for socialism, was\nsuppressed by a privileged and parasitic bureaucratic dictatorship headed by\nStalin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bureaucratic rule<\/strong> over the planned economy was the system which\nconsolidated itself in the Soviet Union, and later in Eastern Europe, China,\nand other countries of the “Third World”. The crisis in these countries\nis a crisis of this system<\/strong>: a crisis\nof Stalinism<\/strong>. Genuine socialism has\nyet to be put to the test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Communist Parties in these\ncountries are instruments of the rule of these bureaucracies, who – despite\ntheir lip-service to Marx, Engels and Lenin – long ago turned their backs on\ngenuine Marxism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky explained the nature of\nthese regimes. He explained why Stalin’s political counter-revolution had taken\nplace, and how it could be overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For opposing Stalinism, tens of\nthousands of Trotsky’s supporters -the cream of the Bolshevik Party -were\npersecuted, sent to concentration camps, and slaughtered. Trotsky’s ideas were\nslandered, and his writings banned. The bureaucracy tried to write him out of history.\nHe was deported from the Soviet Union, and later murdered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, as we aim to show in this\npamphlet, it is through Trotsky and not the “Marxist” bureaucrats of\nso-called ‘Communist’ Parties, that the genuine legacy of Marx, Engels and\nLenin, has been passed down to us today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky’s ideas reaffirm the\nvalidity of Marxism in the modern world. Taken up and applied by the working\nclass, these ideas can achieve socialism on this planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Forces of production<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Marx, Engels, and Lenin,\nTrotsky maintained that the development\nof the forces of production, and of the productivity of human labour, is the\nkey to understanding society.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The progressive role of\ncapitalism, Marx and Engels explained in the 1840s, lay in its ability to\nover-come traditional fetters on production – and to revolutionise technique,\nmachinery, and production to expand the wealth at the disposal of society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But capitalism is also based on\noppression and exploitation. The capitalists, as owners of the means of\nproduction, derive their profits from the labour of the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, Marx and Engels said,\nthe social relations<\/strong> of capitalism\n(private ownership of production and the nation-state) would come to obstruct\nfurther development of the productive forces. To free them from these obstacles\nit would be necessary for the producers of wealth – the working class – to\noverthrow capitalism and take control of production and society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Achieved on an international basis,\nthis would open the way towards socialism and communism – to a society based on\nthe principle “from each according to their ability, to each according to\ntheir needs”, to a society in which classes and the state would disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Need for socialism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notwithstanding the huge growth\nof the productive forces since then, the need for workers’ revolution and socialism\nis more urgent than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today a relative handful of\nmulti-national monopolies, owned by a tiny minority of individuals, dominate\nthe world economy. During the 1980s, the wealth of the 400 richest American capitalists\ntripled<\/strong>. There are 50 of them who are\n‘worth’ more than $1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In capitalist countries in the\n“Third World”, according to the World Bank, a quarter of the world’s\npopulation endure chronic poverty and starvation. The number of the poor is rising.\nIf capitalism survives, the devastating famines of Ethiopia and the Sudan will\nrepeat themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upheavals since the start of\nthis year in Africa, poorest continent, reveal the desperation of the masses\nfor a transformation of their lives. Since January, riot police have gone into\nthe streets to suppress mass protest in the Ivory Coast, Zambia, Gabon, Benin,\nZaire, and Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the advanced capitalist countries,\neven after eight years of economic upturn, 26 million are unemployed. In the\nUnited States, one of the richest economies, 3 million live on the streets, and\n32 million exist below the official poverty line. The average worker in the US\nhas not seen his or her real income improve for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial speculation by capitalist\nparasites has reached unparalleled proportions. The money that changes hands in\nstock market and currency dealing, in “buy-outs”, etc, exceeds by ten\nor twenty times world trade in real goods, or what is productively re-invested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A system based on profit is in\nstaggering contradiction with the needs of the ordinary people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite “arms\nlimitation” agreements, huge amounts of wealth are squandered in\nproduction and purchase of arms in many countries. \u2018Small\u2019 wars and bloody\nnational conflicts simmer around the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threat of nuclear catastrophe\nhas for the moment receded. But it is replaced by the nightmare of ecological\ndisaster as the result of capitalism’s unbridled thirst for profits, and\nbureaucratic mismanagement of the economy in the East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anarchy of the system of private\nownership of the means of production means that the threat of renewed recession\nor depression hangs over all living under capitalism. Even in the most advanced\ncapitalist countries there is the spectre of rocketing unemployment and greater\npoverty, together with increasingly ferocious trade wars between the main blocs\n(the United States, Japan, and Europe), and greater devastation of the\n“Third World”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world cries out for democratically-planned\neconomy on an international scale, turning production to serving the needs of\nall working people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Crisis of Stalinism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marx and Engels had expected that\nthe working class would take power in most industrialised countries, and be\nable to carry through the transition to communism on the basis of the most\ndeveloped productive forces achieved under capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The material premise of communism”,\nexplained Trotsky in 1936 in his classic analysis of Stalinism, The Revolution Betrayed<\/em>, “should be\nso high a development of the economic powers of man that productive labour,\nhaving ceased to be a burden, will not require any goad [compulsion], and the\ndistribution of life’s goods, existing in continual abundance, will not\ndemand… any control except that of education, habit and social opinion.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, as events developed, the\nworking class first took power in backward Russia. Lenin and Trotsky explained\nthe need to spread socialist revolution to the more advanced countries, even to\nensure the survival of working class power in Russia. They launched the Third\n(Communist) International as the instrument for international revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a tidal wave of revolution\nin Europe, but it was defeated. The Russian revolution remained isolated, in a\nbackward society. This was why the bureaucracy led by Stalin could usurp power\nfrom the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Inadequate technique and\nculture”; “low national productive forces”, backwardness,\nexplained Trotsky in The Revolution\nBetrayed<\/em>, led to the rise of the bureaucracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basis of bureaucratic rule is the poverty of society in objects of consumption, with the resulting struggle of each against all. When there are enough goods in a store, the purchasers can come whenever they want to. When there are few goods, the purchasers are compelled to stand in line. When the lines are very long, it is necessary to appoint a policeman to keep order. Such is the starting point of the power of the Soviet bureaucracy.<\/p>Ibid<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The bureaucracy formed a parasitic\ncaste, using the state to maintain its privilege to suppress the working\nmasses. It established a totalitarian dictatorship – a workers’ state\nmonstrously deformed in ways wholly unanticipated by Marx, Engels or Lenin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stalin and the bureaucracy\nretreated from proletarian internationalism to the false idea that “socialism”\ncould be achieved within the confines of the Soviet Union itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The superiority of\nnationalisation and planning over capitalism, Trotsky explained, would allow\nthe economic development of the Soviet Union, even under the rule of the bureaucracy,\nthough at huge cost to the people. But eventually this economy would seize up\nand stagnate, as the productive forces came up against the barriers imposed by\nbureaucratic diktat, and its self-imposed limits of so-called\n“socialism” within the national regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world economy had become an integrated\nwhole. Within the limits of one country, Trotsky warned, it would be impossible\nto catch up with, let alone surpass, the level of the forces of production\nachieved under capitalism. For this reason, the possibility of a restoration of\ncapitalism in the Soviet Union could not be excluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky remorselessly combatted\nthe false idea of “socialism in one country” as an abandonment of proletarian\ninternationalism. This false idea, he explained, was the national bureaucracy’s\nideological defence of its privileged rule. Needing to maintain its power over\nthe working class at home, it would become opposed to working-class revolution\nany-where.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To re-open the route to socialism\nthe bureaucracy would have to be overthrown by the working class, with a\nprogram of workers’ democracy and internationalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trotsky’s defence of socialism\nagainst Stalinism is today wholly vindicated. It is proved, not by predictions\nin books, but in the crippling paralysis of the economy of the Soviet Union\nafter more than 70 years of so-called “socialism”. It is proved in\nthe blind turn of the bureaucracies in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union back\ntowards capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the bureaucracy must still\nreckon with the mighty power of the working class in Eastern Europe and the\nSoviet Union, as yet only beginning to stir in revolt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armed with the ideas of Marxism,\nthe working class in the East can reverse the turn towards capitalism and\nre-open the way to socialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

SA Communist Party<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite what is now happening in\nEastern Europe and the Soviet Union, many black workers and youth in South\nAfrica still look to the SA Communist Party as the guarantor of the\nrevolutionary interests of the working class within the Congress movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the SACP could fulfil this\nrole, we would be the first to welcome that. But it is impossible. As Trotsky\nexplained in the 1920s, the Communist Parties which were the heirs of Stalin’s\nComintern would all inevitably degenerate into policies of national reformism\nand collaboration with capitalism. They would abandon the ideas and methods of\nMarxism. This has proved to be the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now unbanned, the SACP claims\nthat it has cast off the legacy of Stalinism. A recent pamphlet by their\nGeneral Secretary, comrade Joe Slovo, states that the “commandist and\nbureaucratic approaches which took root during Stalin’s time affected communist\nparties throughout the world, including our own. We cannot disclaim our share of the responsibility for the spread of\nthe personality cult and a mechanical embrace of Soviet domestic and foreign\npolicies, some of which discredited the cause of socialism.”<\/strong> (Has Socialism Failed<\/em>. His emphasis)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His pamphlet was written in response\nto “the dramatic collapse of most of the communist party governments of\nEastern Europe” in 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their downfall, he admits,\n“was brought about through massive upsurges which had the support not only\nof the majority of the working class but also a large slice of the membership\nof the ruling parties themselves. These\nwere popular revolts against unpopular regimes; if socialists are unable to\ncome to terms with this reality, the future of socialism is indeed bleak.”<\/strong>\n(His emphasis)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also concedes the\n“mounting chronicle of crimes and distortions”, “economic\nfailures”, and the absence of democracy in Eastern Europe and the Soviet\nUnion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slovo’s declared aim is to defend\nthe ideas of socialism and Marxism. He states that “the fundamental distortions\nwhich exist in the practice of existing socialism cannot be traced to the essential\ntenets of Marxist revolutionary science. If we are looking for culprits, we\nmust look at ourselves and not at the founders of Marxism.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, he continues, “we can\nlegitimately claim that in certain fundamental respects our indigenous revolutionary\npractice long ago ceased to be guided by Stalinist concepts.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet his pamphlet wholly fails to\nprovide an honest Marxist explanation of why\nStalinism exists<\/strong> and what is\nrequired in order to overcome it<\/strong>. It is written as if Trotsky’s pioneering\nMarxist analysis of Stalinism never existed. And Slovo persists in describing\nthese Stalinist regimes as “socialist”. He regards their bureaucratic\nrulers as sincere, if sometimes misguided, Marxists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He couples the bureaucrat Gorbachev’s\nname with that of the great revolutionary Lenin, and refers fawningly to\n“the process of perestroika and glasnost which was so courageously\nunleashed under Gorbachev’s inspiration.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SACP is still organically\nwedded to the interests of the Stalinist bureaucracy and its false,\nanti-working-class ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we shall show in this pamphlet,\nSlovo’s explanation of what has gone wrong in the Soviet Union and Eastern\nEurope merely echoes the views of the “renewed” bureaucracy led by\nGorbachev – a bureaucracy which is now turning towards re-introduction of\ncapitalism to try to head off revolution by the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we shall also show, the policies\nof the SACP are policies of compromise with capitalism, which also compromise\nour struggle for majority rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the ‘Communist’ Parties reject\nthe legacy of Trotsky’s ideas. When they dare to mention him, they reproduce\nthe same lies, distortions and slanders that were invented by the Stalinist\nbureaucracy in the 1920s. That is a\nlitmus test of their leaders’ fear of working class revolution. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the rare occasions on\nwhich the SACP has tried to reply to Trotsky is an article by Dialego -“What\nis Trotskyism?” in the African Communist<\/em>,\n4th Quarter 1988. Purporting to summarise Trotsky’s life and main ideas, it\nconcludes that “few would deny that throughout his life Trotsky hindered\nrather than helped the struggle for socialism”!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this pamphlet we hope to show\nwhat a scandalous falsification not merely of Trotsky’s ideas, but of the whole\nlegacy of Marxism, is involved in these claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aim of this pamphlet is to assist\nin clarifying the ideas, methods, and perspectives which can lead to the\nvictory of democracy and socialism in South Africa and internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All those who wish to build a mass ANC, under the control of the working class, on a program for national liberation, workers’ power and socialism, should join with the Marxist Workers’ Tendency of the ANC to carry forward the ideas and methods inherited from Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue to Chapter One<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leon Trotsky \u2013 leader with Lenin of the 1917 Russian Revolution and organiser of the Red Army that defeated the imperialist invasion against it \u2013 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":574,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-577","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"_hostinger_reach_plugin_has_subscription_block":false,"_hostinger_reach_plugin_is_elementor":false,"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":583,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/577\/revisions\/583"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}