Trotskyism and the Internationalist Communist Left

[Devrim]

One member of the Trotskyist group wrote:
Left-Communists seem to me dogmatic in their own little tiny world...
You can see why they have never been popular with the working class.
http://www.revleft.com/vb/left-communism-t70475/index.html

Trotsky himself had very different ideas:

The Platform of the Left (1926) produced a great impression on me. I think that it is one of the best documents published by the international Opposition and it preserves its significance in many things to this very day.

The left communists rejected joint work with the Trotskyists after the Trotskyists returned to social democracy:


… it is necessary to lead an unpitying and merciless struggle against him and his partisans who have crossed the Rubicon and rejoined social democracy.

As for the working class, the PCInt had almost 50,000 members in the period after the Second War. I don't think that any Trotskyist party has ever archived that.

In the revolutionary period, the majority of both the German, and Italian parties, the two countries in the west closet to revolution, belonged to the left-wing.

Today communists are week. The left communist organisations especially so. I think that historically though it would be more accurate to say that Trotskyism has never been popular with the working class.

Devrim

[black magick hustla]

The Mexican Communist Party was also dominated by its left wing until the stalinist counterrevolution.

[Herman]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Herman
Left-Communists seem to me dogmatic in their own little tiny world...
You can see why they have never been popular with the working class.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/left-commu...475/index.html (http://www.revleft.com/vb/../left-communism-t70475/index.html)

Trotsky himself had very different ideas:
As for the working class, the PCInt had almost 50,000 members in the period after the Second War. I don't think that any Trotskyist party has ever archived that.Really, I could care less what Trotsky said. I don't consider myself a trotskyist (I know the user group thing is misleading) and I certainly don't praise Trotsky. I do however agree with some of his ideas, notably the "Permanent Revolution" theory, just as I don't disagree with everything left-communists say. However, your insistence on calling "bourgeois" national-liberation movements and the continuous criticism of trade unions honestly makes my blood boil.


Today communists are weak. The left communist organisations especially so. I think that historically though it would be more accurate to say that Trotskyism has never been popular with the working classAnd I would have to agree. Your point? If you wanted to infuriate me, make me angry, jump at your throat or something, then you've failed. Of course, I could add that "Stalinist" or Marxist-leninist organizations have had many more members historically than both, but I won't, since I know that you'll start talking about "counter-revolution", "traitors" or "bourgeois state-capitalists" and I don't want to start such a discussion now (I will say that the PCE acted wrongly during the Spanish revolution).

If you read the principles of the "New Communist" group, you'll get an indication of where I am politically. I don't adhere to one current, as if it could explain everything. Trotsky and Stalin are dead, and calling yourself a "trotskyist" or "stalinist" is meaningless. If you read on Pablo Iglesias, then I would call myself a "Pablista" if anything.

[Devrim]

Your point? If you wanted to infuriate me, make me angry, jump at your throat or something, then you've failed.

No, I have no desire to do any of these. I was just correcting a historical inaccuracy. Rather than the left communists 'hav[ing] never been popular with the working class', they composed the majority of the two most important Western parties in the revolutionary period.

Devrim