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Trotskyism after Trotsky: The origins of the international socialists
nan
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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About the author
Tony Cliff
70 books65 followersBorn in Palestine to Zionist parents in 1917, Ygael Gluckstein became a Trotskyist during the 1930s and played a leading role in the attempt to forge a movement uniting Arab and Jewish workers. At the end of of the Second World war, seeing that the victory of the Zionists was more and more inevitable, he moved to Britain and adopted the pseudonym Tony Cliff.
In the late 1940s he developed the theory that Russia wasn’t a workers’ state but a form of bureaucratic state capitalism, a theory which has characterised the tendency with which he was associated for the remaining five decades of his life. Although he broke from “orthodox Trotskyism” after being bureaucratically excluded from the Fourth International in 1950, he always considered himself to be a Trotskyist although he was also open to other influences within the Marxist tradition.
In the late 1940s he developed the theory that Russia wasn’t a workers’ state but a form of bureaucratic state capitalism, a theory which has characterised the tendency with which he was associated for the remaining five decades of his life. Although he broke from “orthodox Trotskyism” after being bureaucratically excluded from the Fourth International in 1950, he always considered himself to be a Trotskyist although he was also open to other influences within the Marxist tradition.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 15, 2018
Tony Cliff refutes the literal words and prophecies of Trotsky regarding the USSR, world economics post WW2 and the nature of Cuban and Chinese politics. Whilst many of Trotsky’s bold assertions did not come to fruition, cliff uses classical Marxist analysis to understand the the real world situation.
This leads him to describe the state of the USSR as primarily state capitalist and explains that the prosperity of the world economies after WW2 is largely a result of the great armature industries. Both the USSR and America spend enormously on their military which keeps the economies out of mass crisis. He goes on to explain how China and Cuba’s revolutions actually didn’t have much support from the working class, if at all, and how really the leadership was made up of university educated intellectuals that would eventually turn their leadership into a dictatorship with no workers control of production. Whilst intentioned well, this is not at all a socialist revolution.
He finally explains how the USSR and international Stalinist communist parties had diverted the workers struggle away from socialist revolution and now with the dissipation of these parties, there is a stronger chance than ever to return to true revolutionary, Trotskyist socialism.
This leads him to describe the state of the USSR as primarily state capitalist and explains that the prosperity of the world economies after WW2 is largely a result of the great armature industries. Both the USSR and America spend enormously on their military which keeps the economies out of mass crisis. He goes on to explain how China and Cuba’s revolutions actually didn’t have much support from the working class, if at all, and how really the leadership was made up of university educated intellectuals that would eventually turn their leadership into a dictatorship with no workers control of production. Whilst intentioned well, this is not at all a socialist revolution.
He finally explains how the USSR and international Stalinist communist parties had diverted the workers struggle away from socialist revolution and now with the dissipation of these parties, there is a stronger chance than ever to return to true revolutionary, Trotskyist socialism.
Displaying 1 of 1 review