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Guerrilla22
31st July 2004, 22:10
I've been reading Trotsky's "The Revolution Betrayed," actually, there's a very good article in the latest issue of ISR on this very book. I myself believe that collectivization must take place. I cannot, see how a complete transition into a communist state can happen, without the implementation of it.

However, Trotsky argues that collectivization does not in fact end private property or even change who controls the means of production. He states that private owners are merely replaced by the state, which only allows a select vanguard to control the means of production, making the workers employees once again, only employees of the state.

this book was written right as Stalin implemented colectivization, after the civil war and as former military officers swelled the ranks of the party's elite and brought an increasingly authoritarian system over the USSR.

Trotsky makes a good argument, but my question is: if collectivization should not happen and instead, a revolution should only implement agrarian reform, how then is true communism going to be achieved?

Guest1
31st July 2004, 23:37
What trotsky refers to as collectivization couldn't be farther from it. He's actually talking about nationalization.

Communism will come through collectivization, where each work place is operated democratically by a collective comprised of all the workers there. They should not be subject to government control, as opposed to nationalization.