[D66] Contemporary Trotskyism (Routledge 2018)

[R.O.]

      https://jewishdissident.blogspot.com/2020/05/on-trotskyism.html


      Some Thoughts On Trotskyism

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Leaving the Labour Party in February was a tough decision, but I haven't 
regretted it. I don't miss the endless infighting typical of 
'resolutionary' socialism, which often deflects energy from the actual 
struggle into internal disputes around the wording of policies which 
will, in any case, end up being ignored by the leadership and the PLP. 
Moreover Starmer's accession and the leadership team he has built around 
himself has confirmed, at least for me, that Labour is simply slipping 
back into its old social chauvinist, pro-market role as a 'bourgeois 
workers' party'. Which of course begs the question: if not Labour, then 
how and where do socialists organise themselves?

As someone whose background is in Trotskyist organisations - and whose 
politics are still hugely influenced by Marx, Lenin and Trotsky - you 
might think that the obvious solution for me personally would be a 
return to one or other of the Trotskyist groups. But long experience of 
that milieu has left me with few illusions as to its shortcomings, 
whatever the good work done by the comrades who adhere to one or other 
flavour of British Trotskyism, and whatever the virtues of their general 
politics.

My personal experience in that movement more or less chimes with the 
critique developed by John Kelly in his recent study /Contemporary 
Trotskyism /(Routledge 2018). Although I would take issue with some of 
his conclusions and elisions (for example I think he underestimates the 
influence of Trotskyism outside of Europe, e.g. in Latin America), his 
comments about the shortcomings of the British groups seem to me to be 
wholly accurate. I think it's worth quoting this at length, in the hope 
that it will prove useful to other activists who, like me, are trying to 
find a way through the current organisational impasse. I would of course 
urge readers to go out and buy the book, which is well worth reading in 
full. It can be purchased here 
<https://www.routledge.com/Contemporary-Trotskyism-Parties-Sects-and-Social-Movements-in-Britain/Kelly/p/book/9781138943810>, 
or - given that the cost will be prohibitive for many people - ordered 
via a library once the lockdown is over.

Below is Kelly's analysis of the 'Leadership and Doctrine' of the main 
Trotskyist groups (pp 93 - 95). His description of the old white male 
domination of the leaderships, and of the structural factors that have 
led to each group being run by an 'oligarchy', seem to me to be 
accurate. The only caveat I'd add is that I believe some of the smaller 
groups, e.g. rs21 and Socialist Resistance in England, are at least 
trying to address the kind of problem that Kelly outlines here:

[...]
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