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In Defence of Marxism (book)
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In Defence of Marxism (book)
In Defence of Marxism is a posthumous collection of philosophical texts written by Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, between 1939-40. In a series of polemical articles, Trotsky examines issues related to the class nature of the Soviet state, the philosophy of dialectical materialism and party factions in the American Socialist Workers Party.
These polemics were written due to the criticisms raised by a number of heterogeneous factions in the Trotskyist movement which included figures such as James Burnham, Max Shachtman and Martin Abern. These groups posed moral criticisms on the defence of the Soviet Union in regards to the Finnish War and increasingly rejected the theoretical basis of materialist dialectics for a socialist movement.
In the early 1930s, Trotsky and the Left Opposition had begun to change their ideological outlook from the potentiality of reforming the Soviet state to seeking a need for political revolution against the Stalinist regime. This faction still adhered to the programmatic principle that the defence of the USSR against imperialist aggression was of prime importance. More broadly, the development of American Trotskyism in this period was confronted with a number of challenges including the preceding defeats of revolutionary movements on the international plane, the Moscow trials and the impending Second World War.
However, their position was increasingly challenged by a minority faction of Trotskyists in light of the Stalin-Hitler Pact in 1939 with James Burnham dismissing the notion that the Soviet Union was still a worker's state. He argued that its military incursions during World War II had subordinated the socialist economy to imperialist interests. Similarly, Max Shachtman had conceived the USSR as a manifestation of "bureaucratic collectivism" with imperialist intentions.
Trotsky was critical of these presupposions due to the wider implications of their arguments in asserting that the potentialities of the "world proletariat are exhausted", socialism is universally discredited and capitalism has been reconstructed as a "bureaucratic collectivism" with a new exploiting class. He believed that the Soviet Union still had residues of progressive elements such as the national ownership of industry and national planning.
Factional disputes within the SWP leadership also erupted concerning the philosophical traditions of Marxist theory and organisational methods. This eventually led to a split in the Trotskyist movement with 40% of the membership departing to form the short-lived Worker's Party. Trotsky aligned himself with the majority faction led by James P.Cannon which adhered to the tradition positions of the party including a defence of the USSR whilst calling for a political revolution to displace the Stalinist regime with soviet rule based on a regenerated worker's democracy.
Trotsky argued that the revisionist tendencies would lead the factional leaders to gradually abandon the foundational theory, political programme, democratic centralism and reconciliation with bourgeois concepts such as pragmatism. Eventually, James Burnham would embrace a political, rightward shift in his later years of his work and became a noted author of The Managerial Revolution.
The book catalogued Trotsky's correspondence with a number of prominent figures in the American Socialist Worker Party at the time including James Cannon, James Burnham, Max Shachtman, Joseph Hansen, Albert Goldman and Martin Abern. The first section of his writing concentrates on the terminological characterisation of the USSR and its involvement in the Second World War. Trotsky argued that the USSR was a degenerated workers' state and criticised other sociological definitions for lacking a material criteria for analysing the class composition of the USSR.
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In Defence of Marxism (book)
In Defence of Marxism is a posthumous collection of philosophical texts written by Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, between 1939-40. In a series of polemical articles, Trotsky examines issues related to the class nature of the Soviet state, the philosophy of dialectical materialism and party factions in the American Socialist Workers Party.
These polemics were written due to the criticisms raised by a number of heterogeneous factions in the Trotskyist movement which included figures such as James Burnham, Max Shachtman and Martin Abern. These groups posed moral criticisms on the defence of the Soviet Union in regards to the Finnish War and increasingly rejected the theoretical basis of materialist dialectics for a socialist movement.
In the early 1930s, Trotsky and the Left Opposition had begun to change their ideological outlook from the potentiality of reforming the Soviet state to seeking a need for political revolution against the Stalinist regime. This faction still adhered to the programmatic principle that the defence of the USSR against imperialist aggression was of prime importance. More broadly, the development of American Trotskyism in this period was confronted with a number of challenges including the preceding defeats of revolutionary movements on the international plane, the Moscow trials and the impending Second World War.
However, their position was increasingly challenged by a minority faction of Trotskyists in light of the Stalin-Hitler Pact in 1939 with James Burnham dismissing the notion that the Soviet Union was still a worker's state. He argued that its military incursions during World War II had subordinated the socialist economy to imperialist interests. Similarly, Max Shachtman had conceived the USSR as a manifestation of "bureaucratic collectivism" with imperialist intentions.
Trotsky was critical of these presupposions due to the wider implications of their arguments in asserting that the potentialities of the "world proletariat are exhausted", socialism is universally discredited and capitalism has been reconstructed as a "bureaucratic collectivism" with a new exploiting class. He believed that the Soviet Union still had residues of progressive elements such as the national ownership of industry and national planning.
Factional disputes within the SWP leadership also erupted concerning the philosophical traditions of Marxist theory and organisational methods. This eventually led to a split in the Trotskyist movement with 40% of the membership departing to form the short-lived Worker's Party. Trotsky aligned himself with the majority faction led by James P.Cannon which adhered to the tradition positions of the party including a defence of the USSR whilst calling for a political revolution to displace the Stalinist regime with soviet rule based on a regenerated worker's democracy.
Trotsky argued that the revisionist tendencies would lead the factional leaders to gradually abandon the foundational theory, political programme, democratic centralism and reconciliation with bourgeois concepts such as pragmatism. Eventually, James Burnham would embrace a political, rightward shift in his later years of his work and became a noted author of The Managerial Revolution.
The book catalogued Trotsky's correspondence with a number of prominent figures in the American Socialist Worker Party at the time including James Cannon, James Burnham, Max Shachtman, Joseph Hansen, Albert Goldman and Martin Abern. The first section of his writing concentrates on the terminological characterisation of the USSR and its involvement in the Second World War. Trotsky argued that the USSR was a degenerated workers' state and criticised other sociological definitions for lacking a material criteria for analysing the class composition of the USSR.