On 14 Aug 2020 at 4:42, John Reimann wrote: > > There is no such thing as "The Transitional Program by Leon > Trotsky". He never wrote and never > would have written anything by that name.
You have written a lot of very interesting articles, John. They are based on careful observation of what's happening. But when it comes to Trotskyist dogma, it changes. You go into spin control mode. It's ludicrous to try to free Trotskyism from the fiasco of the transitional program by claiming that it never existed, and is really just a method. It's word-chopping. You deny that Trotsky ever wrote anything with the title "The Transitional Program". Yes, that wasn't the original title of the article, but it was immediately added by Trotsky's closest comrades and collaborators. More importantly, the article clearly elaborates Trotsky's idea of the transitional program. I think you want to save Trotsky's concept of the transitional program from the multitide of wrong assessments in "The Transitional Program". So you only accept the "transitional method", and quietly jettison the gross blunders. But Trotsky's transitional method is the replacement of the minimum and maximum programs with the transitional program. That replacement is in itself wrong. A transitional program only makes sense in a transitional situation, where revolution is imminent. If it isn't, then eliminating the distinction between the minimum and maximum program is a way of deluding oneself about how revolutionary certain reforms are, in and of themselves. Moreover, anyone who reads "The Transitional Program: The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International" will see that the transitional program--or method if you prefer--is completely based on socialism being imminent everywhere, and the world being in what Trotsky called a "transitional epoch". Trotsky meant "death agony" very seriously. This was emphatically repeated in Trotsky's prediction two years later that World War II would bring either world socialism or world totalitarianism. (1) This prediction was very, very wrong. But one can't really separate the transitional method from it. This prediction strongly affects tactics. This was seen in the Arab Spring. Most Trotskyist groups had a lot of trouble with their theorizing about it. The idea of the permanent revolution reinforced the idea of imminent socialism. Yet it was clear right from the the start that the uprisings of the Arab Spring, even if completely successful, wouldn't bring socialism or workers' regimes. Some Trotskyst groups would denounce various uprisings for that reason; others supported uprisings if they imagined that they were socialist; and then some dropped their support as soon as they realized that the uprisings weren't going to transition on to socialism. (2) Today we are in a period of crises. Should we therefore expect that now socialist revolution is imminent? This would give rise to the idea that the break-up of market fundamentalism will lead directly to a transitional situation and socialism, and that any major uprising will either go to socialism or collapse. It's going to give rise to many mistakes on the part of the Trotskyist movement, just as it did with the Arab Spring. (1) See the section "Either Socialism or Slavery" of the "Manifesto of the Fourth International on the Imperialist War and the Proletarian World Revolution", May 1940 in Writings of Leon Trotsky (1939-1940), Pathfinder Press, 219-220. (2)See, for exampl,e "Against Left-wing Doubts About the Democratic Movement", http://www.communistvoice.org/46cLeftWingDoubts.htm";, or other articles linked at http://www.communistvoice.org/00ArabSpring.html. -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#472): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/472 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/76151064/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
