Trotskyism
From Socialism
Trotskyism is the political ideology of Leon Trotsky and his followers. It is a form of Communism.
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One of the two main branches of Leninism; developed upon by Leon Trotsky, co-leader of the Russian Revolution and founder of the Red Army. Trotskyists oppose strongly Stalinism and its related ideologies. Trotskyists believe in a theory known as Permanent Revolution. Permanent Revolution contains a number of theories. One of these planks is the belief that a socialist revolution can occur in a backward, even feudalist country, by moving from the capitalist-democratic stage to the socialist one. Trotsky also believed that Lenin's pre-1917 idea of the "democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry" needed to be re-worded to emphasize the importance of the proletariat's leadership in such an alliance, because the peasantry were dialectically less capable of leadership. Also, in order to finish a socialist revolution, the revolution would have to be world-wide. This is in sharp contrast to Stalin's idea of "socialism in one country"; Trotsky felt (correctly so) that if a socialist nation-state was isolated, it would soon be destroyed by outside imperialist forces.
Trotsky emphasized the importance of soviets (independent councils of workers) and the idea that a communist society will be a "workers' democracy." After Stalin took power and his caste executed his opponents, Trotsky classified the Soviet Union as a "degenerated workers state" and the Soviet Communist Party as "bureaucratic centralist." The Soviet degenerated workers state was more progressive than Western capitalism and therefore worthy of defense against American imperialism; however, another revolution of the workers was necessary to unseat the Stalinist bureaucracy, who would continue to destroy the workers state until it became fully capitalist. Today, the largest world Trotskyist organization is the Fourth International (USFI).
For many decades, the chief Trotskyist group in the US was the Socialist Workers Party. But between 1979-1983, the SWP abandoned Trotskyism for Castroism and most of the Trotskyists were expelled. Today, two of the largest Trotskyist organizations are Solidarity and the Freedom Socialist Party. Considering the destruction of the USSR and the downfall of much of the Communist world, Trotsky's prophecies seem to have been proven by history.
