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<h2>SEP (Australia) holding online lecture on the history of the
Left Opposition this Tuesday</h2>
<h5> 5 June 2020 </h5>
<p>The Socialist Equality Party (Australia) is holding an online
lecture this Tuesday on the contemporary significance of the
struggle waged by Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition against the
Stalinist betrayal of the Russian Revolution. The event is one in
a <a
href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/27/lect-m27.html">series</a>
of six lectures being delivered on the history of Trotskyism.</p>
<p>The lecture will review the political fight launched by Trotsky,
the co-leader of the revolution, beginning in 1923. The Left
Opposition was founded in that year to oppose the increasing
suppression of inner-party democracy, the growing influence of a
burgeoning state bureaucracy and to fight for policies that would
strengthen the social base of the revolution, the industrial
working class.</p>
<div class="imageFull" style="width:480px; oveflow:hidden;"><img
src="https://www.wsws.org/asset/570f71d7-ba38-4642-8ae4-f388b238a21L/image.png?rendition=image480"
style="width:480px;" width="480"></div>
<p>It will explain the significance of Stalin’s adoption, in 1924,
of the program of “socialism in one country,” which was a
repudiation of the internationalist foundations of Marxism and of
the revolution itself. The turn to nationalism was to have
disastrous consequences, resulting in the defeat of mass struggles
by the working class in Britain, China and Germany, and
intensifying the isolation of the Soviet Union.</p>
<p>The lecture will outline the internationalist perspective
elaborated by Trotsky and the Left Opposition, which was later to
serve as the foundation of the Fourth International and the
contemporary socialist movement. It will elaborate the intense
relevance of the program of world socialist revolution, amid a
global crisis of capitalism and the emergence of international
struggles by the working class, exemplified by the current
upheavals against police violence.</p>
<p>The lecturer will be Cheryl Crisp, a long-standing member of the
Trotskyist movement. Crisp, who has played a leading role in the
SEP and its predecessor organisation since 1972 is the assistant
national-secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia).</p>
<p>The event will be held on Zoom at 7 p.m. (Australian Eastern
Standard Time). Time conversions are available <a
href="https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=The+Left+Opposition%27s+struggle+against+Stalinism&iso=20200609T19&p1=240&ah=1&am=30">here</a>.
To participate, <a href="https://zoom.us/download">download</a>
the app or join on a web browser, and click on this link before
the lecture begins:</p>
<p><a href="https://zoom.us/j/93986680060">https://zoom.us/j/93986680060</a></p>
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