of society.
moded creed ful because it is true' To attempt to necessarily to our epoch... perialism, finance capital.' imperialist, ana true • sukals. democracies countries.
port primarily To - hope well Conservatives.' domination.
dicalism: 'In SOCIALIST ACTION is a Marxist paper. That is it attempts to apply a Marxist analysis to the contemporary problems of politics in Britain and internationally. It does that not out of nostalgia for the past, or out of fidelity to some outbut because, in Lenin's words, 'Marxism is powerA Marxist analysis is one in polities which most accurately allows people to is the epoch of imie of world economy and world politics under the hegemony of The bourgeoisies of the countries dominated by imperialism, and in parIndia, other, countries, however constitute the fundamental defences of imperialism. This is parbourgeois Ene imperialist Trotsky noted in his classic work on fascism, What Next?: 'In a developed capitalist society, during a "democratic agent, regime", the bourgeoisie leans for supthe working classes, which are held in check by the reformists.' This form of political rule particularly applied to Britain: 'In its most finished form, this system finds its expression in Britain during the administration of the Labour government during that of the The bureaucracy is the pivot of the system of bourgeois and imperialist As Trotsky wrote in his polemic The Errors in Principle of SynEngland, more than anywnere cise, une stale rests upon bic back of the working class which conStitutes the over or the mator. The mechanism is such that the bureaucracy is based directly on the workers, and the through the inthe Laut The most powerful bureaucracy of all, based within the imperialist counthe trade union bureaucracy: 'In the capitalist states, HORSIOUS to he observed enough to look at America, England 'Amsterdam (the trade union international of the social democratic parties) is the most powerful international the bureaucracv. it it thanks to it that the whole structure of capitalism now stands upright, above all in Europe and 'If there were not a bureaucracy of the trade unions, then the police, the army, the courts, the lords, the monarchy would appear before the proletarian nothing but pitiful and ridiculous playthings. The bureaucracy of the trade unions is the backbone of British imperialism. It is by means of this bureaucracy that the bourgeoisie exists, not only in the metropolis, but in in Egypt, in the Trotsky concluded therefore: The Marxist will say to the English workers: "The trade union bureaucracy is the chief instrument forged for your oppression by the bourgeois state. Power must be wrested from the hands of the bourgeoisie, and for that its principal the trade union bureauciacy must be overthrown."' Enemy Trotsky's of bureaucracy is clear. The bureaucracy is not the central enemy — that role is occupied by imperialism and the imruling classes But bureaucracy the chief mechanism of the bourgeoisie. In order overthrow the bourgeoisie therefore necessary to destroy and overthrow the bureaucracy Power must wrested from the hands of the bourgeoisie and for that its principal agent, the trade union bureaucracy, must be overthrown.
From the fact that the bureaucracy is not a ruling class, that it is a defence mechanism of the central enemy of the working class, flows that on occasion the bureaucracy can undertake specific progressive tasks- wilc al luc sallie time maintaining its internationally counter-revolutionary role of detending the bourgeoisie. For example Trotsky wrote in his Letter on India in 1939 that: The general historic role of the Stalinist bureaucracy and their Comintern (the Communist International) is counterrevolutionary. But their military and other interests they can be forcea to support progressive movements.' Classic examples of this are the aid the Soviet bureaucracy was forced to give in Vietnam's war of liberation against the United States, or the economic and military aid given to Cuba and other countries in which capilalism nas been over untowa Trotsky noted in the Transitional Programme of the Fourth International that the Soviet bureaucracy in fact conforsee and act. To show this, in addition to our normal coverage, we are going to be running a series of articles on how Marxist ideas explain contemporary politics. In the first of these JOHN ROSS looks at the Marxist bureaucracy — internationally the nock, Willis, Golding, Dean, Todd, and Hammond.
Stained every revolutionary Marxists to fascists: all shades of political thought are to be found among the bureaucracy: from genuine Bolshevism other within the bureaucracy, only a small minority, reflect, passively it is true, the socialist interests of the proletariat. The fascist, counterrevolutionary elements, growing uninterruptedly, express with ever greater consistency the interests of world imperialism two polls, there are intermediate, diffused Menshevik-SR (Social Revolutionary)-liberal gravilaid towards democracv.' The fact that even the bureaucracy as a wnole can de lorcea lo lake piu gressive actions, and that it contains a the variety of political currents, means that it is necessary for the working class, in such situations where the bureaucracy …s oceao take biozicosive activis, lu the enter into united defence bureaucracy, or Dulcaucialy it is Action War Il it was necessary to take united action with Stalin to fight against the Nazi invasion of necessity to cluding in alliance with Stalin, which he advocated, did not alter the fact that Trotsky spoke of: "The definite passing over of the Comintern to the side of the bourgeois order, its cynical counterrevolutionary role world, particularly in Spain, France, the United States "democratic" created exceptional supplementary difficulties Under the banner of October revoluthrough tion, the conciliatory politics practised "People's Front" by ine working class to impotence and clears the road for fascism.
progressive actions, and even when it is necessal y engage in united action with it, bureaucracy still attempts to hold back and sabotage the struggle.
As Trotsky analysed in The Third Period of the Comintern's Errors: 'The influence of the radicalisation of the masses... of the political current from .. to complete The revolutionary elements cept That perialist bureaucracy Between these mechanism CILC tendencies which bureaucracy, bourgeois action with the sections the workers To take an extreme case in World the This defend the USSR, inthroughout the SLIKCOICaKCIN other countries, (which)
for the world proletariat individual dooms the Even when forced to take individual world politics. the working class to the Gorbachev,
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politics of Gorbachev and Deng Xiaoping, and in Britain of Kin-