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Louis Proyect wrote: > > I don't know what "according to the permanent revolution" means. Trotsky > didn't write a formula, even though his epigones turned it into one. The > obligation of Marxists is to analyze capitalist society and develop > strategy and tactics that will help to overthrow the capitalist class. I > don't read Trotsky's writings from 1905 in order to understand Thabo > Mbeki or Nelson Mandela. I read Patrick Bond. I am afraid your argument > is with Trotskyism, not Trotsky. I have read Trotsky, and he has a definite viewpoint. And I also take account of the applications of Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution made by Trotskyists, such as during the Arab Spring. I think their application of permanent revolution is a legitimate and straight-forward reading of the theory, but the theory's wrong. It goes against what's happened in the world. With so many different Trotskyist groups and theorists, one would have thought at least a few would have been able to get it right. Now if Trotsky was so obscure that no one know what he meant by permanent revolution, that's a devastating indictment of his theorizing. And it would make him irrelevant. But I think that many later Trotskyists did understand the theory and tried very hard to apply it, and it's just that the theory failed. _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com