DOCUMENT
Programmatic principles
of revolutionary
Marxism in our epoch
Proletarian Internationalism Leon Trotsky said that the hour of the definitive disappearance of national programmes for the revolution was 4th August 1914. The hour of the chauvinist programmes for the counter-revolution was the same date. From the internationalisation of capitalism, convincingly expressed by the outbreak of the First World War, the socialist revolution could only be fully realised at an international level. This is the significance in practice of proletarian internationalism: capitalism, a world system, can only be overthrown on a world level. In this sense, the Mexican socialist revolution could not be anything but a link in the chain of a world socialist revolution.
If the socialist revolution has to be international to triumph, with much more reason does socialism have to have this character. The Mexican section of the Fourth International rejects the theory held at one time by Stalin, and which is still defended by his supporters in throughout the world by pacific coexistence, on the possibility of building socialism in one country. Socialism, starting from the advances of the capitalist economy, will base itself on these in order to plan production on a world scale.
But to talk about proletarian internationalism without posing the current objective possibilities of putting it into practice is to stay in abstract concepts. The realisation of the world revolution requires a party to lead it.
98 International Marxist Review This party is the Fourth International. To be consistently internationalist at this point is to contribute to building the Fourth International, the world party of socialist revolution.
Since the Stalinist bureaucratisation of the Fourth International, it is each day clearer that the crisis of humanity is the crisis of political leadership. Faced with this Stalinist degeneration, which has led to the worst defeats of the proletariat at a world level, the Fourth International founded by Leon Trotsky in 1938 is the historical heir to the Russian Bolchevik principles, experiences and tradition that, with Lenin and Troksky at the helm, led the first socialist revolution in history and built the first workers' state in the world.
The building of the Fourth International has not followed and will not follow a straight line. It has had ups and downs, splits and fusions, successes and failures, in line with the vagaries of the class struggle which are reflected, in more or less deformed manner, within the world party. But despite all its problems, the Fourth International has maintained itself as the faithful guardian of revolutionary principles. Its Mexican section states that the only way to be a consistent internationalist today is to build it. Stalinism and its collaborationist policy Up until today, history has shown that to all revolutions there is a counterrevolution which, while it does not succeed in pushing back the revolutionary nation to its point of departure, it does make some important gains. To this is added the betrayal of the reformist leaderships of social democracy, which together explain in the last instance the process of bureaucratisation of the Bolchevik party and the degeneration of the first workers' state. The reaction in the ranks of the Russian proletariat was inevitable. The Russian revolution did not receive any help from the West, in place of increased well-being the country lived in greater misery; the most notable representatives of the working class became bureaucrats; distancing themselves from the masses. Thus, after the period of great tensions of the hopes and forces came a great period of depression, of fatigue, and of disillusion in the results of the revolution. All this brought to power a new caste of bureaucrats.
The rise of the state bureaucracy is fundamentally explained by the backwardness of Czarist Russia. It began to impose itself on the working class-from where it came-and to raise itself as an arbiter between the social classes, aquiring more and more autonomy. This internal process was encouraged by the international situation. The Soviet bureaucracy felt itself more secure as the international working class suffered more and more severe defeats, establishing a dual situation; the bureaucratic leadership of the movement stimulated the defeats and these stimulated the
Programmatic principles of revolutionary Marxism in our epoch 99 strengthening and consolidation of the bureaucracy.
The Left Opposition, started by Leon Trotsky, opposed the bureaucratic clique and its policy. But the downturn in the class struggle on a world level, shown in the terrible defeats in Germany in 1923 and in China in 1928, acted in favour of the bureaucracy. The Opposition found itself isolated. Exploiting the discomfiture and the passivity of the workers, opposing the most backward to the most advanced, basing itself increasingly on petty bourgeois allies, the Stalinist bureaucracy struck while the iron was hot and in a few years destroyed the revolutionary vanguard of the workers.
The axis of the foreign policy of the the Soviet bureaucracy, from Stalin to our days, has been class collaboration: at the level of peaceful coexistence, and at the level of support to and alliance with the 'progressive' or 'nationalist' bourgeoise. This policy had one sole objective: the preservation of the situation of the Soviet Union as a degenerate workers' state, sacrificing the world revolution to maintain and conserve the bureaucracy itself and its caste privileges. The world Communist Parties, affiliated to the Communist International, faithfully followed this collaborationist policy, thus shirking their duty, which led to the repeated betrayal of the revolution and the massacre of thousands upon thousands of workers.
China, the second most powerful workers's state in the world, also experienced the rise of an equally harmful bureaucracy. While the origins and consolidation of the Maoist bureaucracy were different to those of the Soviet, the results were the same: China is also a bureaucratised workers' state. For this reason, the Mexican section of the Fourth International states that in the Soviet Union, as in China, as in the deformed or degenerated workers' states, the task is precisely to overthrow the bureaucratic cliques that lead them, through a political revolution which re-establishes proletarian democracy and restores power to the Soviet bodies of the workers.
Despite this, the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores, declares its unconditional support and defence of the bureaucratically deformed and degnerated workers' states against imperialist attack. In these conditions the PRT will be the first to fight for a united-front policy against the common imperialist enemy. Permanent Revolution One axiom of vulgar 'Marxism' was that every bourgeois society would have to pass through a democratic regime, from which the proletariat, benefiting from the advantages of this regime, would organise and educate for socialism. This axiom was accepted by the Stalinist bureaucracy, which systematised this old belief from a superficial reading of Marxist texts, and elaborated a whole theory to justify its policy of class collabora-
100 International Marxist Review tion and treason to the world revolution. In this way, the bureacracy established that in all countries where a bourgeois revolution had not taken place, there could not be the possibility of a proletarian revolution; the task of communists in these countries was to make alliances with the progressive bourgeoisie, which should lead and give their character to the revolution. This was the essence of the stages theory of revolution: first a democratic stage under the leadership of the bourgeoise; then a socialist stage under the leadership of the proletariat to build socialism.
The most important contribution of Leon Trotsky to Marxist theory, flowing directly from his Law of Combined and Uneven Development, was the Theory of Permanent Revolution, whose first part destroys the Stalinist stagist notions of the the revolution. The permanent revolution is a concept comprising three series of ideas. This first is that in the countries which arrived late to capitalism, the backward countries, the democratic demands of bourgeois society in which they live cannot be granted except under the bourgeois leadership, because of the structural weakness of the bourgeoisie in these countries. In a nutshell, it postulates that the democratic objectives of backward bourgeois nations in our time lead to the dictatorship of the proletariat, the only class that can guarantee the achievement of these aims. The second part of the theory deals with the socialist revolution as such and its repercussions in the superstructural spheres-the family, science, technology, and so forth. It establishes that, although it takes other forms, the class struggles continues after the socialist revolution, preventing the society from achieving an equilibrium. The third part establishes the international character of the socialist revolution as a response to the world-wide nature of the economy and the class struggle. These three parts or series of ideas form a single dialectical whole, which is the most important contribution to the theory of of socialist revolution since the Communist Manifesto.
Those countries that were unable to become advanced capitalist countries by the turn of the century will never achieve this status. Not having benefited from an autonomous development of capitalism, the native bourgeoises are not, and will never be, revolutionary. Most of them arose under the protection of the imperialist bourgeoisies and cannot free themselves from this tutelage without risking their destruction. Therefore, the coming revolution will have to be a socialist revolution that will guarantee the resolution of the democratic tasks that the bourgeoise has failed to resolve. All this is a continuous process, without stages, a process in which two revolutions combine.
The theory of the Permanent Revolution, the central ideas of which were put forward bu Leon Trotsky after 1905, found its first confirmation in 1917 in the October Revolution. It has been very clearly demonstrated by history since then, both positively and negatively, as in the cases of Cuba and Chile respectively-to cite only two well-known examples. It constitutes a vital part of the programme and principles of revolutionary
Programmatic principles of revolutionary Marxism in our epoch 101 Marxism. The Mexican section of the Fourth International accepts and applies the theory of the Permanent Revolution as one of its programmatic principles. The Transitional Programme A revolutionary party needs a method to orient its daily work in the mass movement. This method is contained in the Transitional Programme for the Socialist Revolution. This method is what has continued up to our day to give coherence and validity to a document drawn up 40 years ago, despite the fact that some of the conjunctural slogans have no relation to present reality. This method consists in general terms of the idea that the party cannot stay at this minimal level of consciousness. Through its transitional slogans and activity around them, it has to raise the consciousness of the masses to bring it into line with the tasks of the the revolution. In this way, the Transitional Programme interwines the immediate demands of the masses with the tasks of the revolution.
The transitional demands are conceived as forms of agitation that once taken up in practice by the masses place them in a dynamic of mobilisation, and help them to understand that no fundamental or lasting solutions can be found within the framework of the capitalist system, that they have to transform the system radically, starting by getting a government of their own. These are not minimum slogans or only democratic ones. They are demands that correspond to the feelings of the masses and are understood by them, but which bring them into an anti-capitalist process.
All of this implies, as Trotsky explained, that we cannot afford 'to fuse, confuse or intertwine our party organisation with that of others, no matter how friendly they may be. Never let yourself operate something that directly or indirectly, openly or in concealed way, subordinates our party to other parties or organisations of other classes, that restricts our freedom of agitation or that makes us responsible, even if only partially, for the political line of conduct of other forces. Never let yourself mingle your banners with theirs, and still less, it goes without saying, bow before the banner of another.'
The objective of the Transitional Programme is to be the basic political and methodological tool for the revolutionary party, helping it to overcome the crisis of humanity. Its importance lies then on the side of the subjective conditions for revolution, the objective ones having being present for a long time. A party guided by the Transitional Programme has the task of overcoming the contradiction between the ripeness of the objective factors and the unripeness of the subjective ones, creating a bridge between the class in itself and the class for itself.
The Transitional Programme, a basic programmatic tool, has come to form part of the programmatic principles of revolutionary Marxism, and
is in itself the prototype of a principled programme. The Mexican section of the Fourth International defends and utilises the principles, the method and the main slogans contained in the Transitional Programme.
The working class is the only consistently revolutionary class. As the capitalist mode of production developed, breaking down the barriers of teudalism, two new social classes arose, the bourgeoise and the proletariat. Around these two fundamental classes, there continue to be other social classes, layers and estates. But only the bourgeoise and the proletariat organise and structure themselves to consistently defend both their immediate and future interests. The bourgeoise does this though its state, its repressive apparatus. The proletariat does it through its unions, coun-
Being at the centre of society (since it creates social wealth), the working class is the only one capable of destroying capitalism. Having being dispossessed of all means of production except for its labour power, its struggle does not fall into petty-bourgeois individualism. This is true to the extent that at a certain level in the development of its consciousness, it fights for nothing more than to sell its labour power at a somewhat higher price or to reduce its working day somewhat. In the long run, the development of its consciousness involved it coming to understand the need to destroy capitalism. To achieve this, it needs a revolutionary party.
Thus, the working class, unlike the other social classes that have existed, does not determine its position simply from the standpoint of its immediate interests but rather from that of its historical interests, which are the same as those of the majority of the society. This is why the working class does not fight to overthrow one class in order to transform itself into a ruling class and continue to oppress the rest. The struggle of the prolatariat leads to the disappearance of class and therefore to the withering
Of course, in our country, as in many others, the proletariat will only be able to win this struggle with the full support of the peasantry. As was confirmed by the Bolshevik example in 1917, among others, the participation of the peasants in the revolution in countries with a peasant majority
In order to achieve all this, it will be necessary to go through a phase of dictatorship of the proletariat, in which the workers direct the state the the destiny of society toward achieving a classless society and the end of exploitation of man by man. The Mexican section of the Fourth International, opposing the latest Stalinist revisions, regards the working class as
Against pacifist and terrorist conceptions of the road to socialism.
102 International Marxist Review cils, parties and so on.
away of the state.
is decisive for triumph.
The principled heritage of Marxism-Leninism the only revolutionary class in our time.
. The
Programmatic principles of revolutionary Marxism in our epoch 103 greatest tragedies of the working class have resulted from a utopian belief in the possibility of peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism and denial that this change can come about only through revolution, with all the violent implications that this involves. The Mexican section of the Fourth International is no apologist of force. But it recognises that in order to expropriate the expropriators there must be an armed confrontation in a civil war between the masses of working people and the repressive bodies of the bourgeois state. The bourgeoisie will resort to violence against the majority in order to avoid the loss of its properties, its state, its privileges, the privileges of a minority. This necessarily involves a violent struggle.
The Mexican section of the Fourth International also recognises that this confrontation has to be conducted by the masses and not by a small group of heroic comrades. It understands that armed struggle and civil war are only a violent, more developed expression of the class struggle and not a struggle by small groups against the bourgeoise.
These historic truths—-the necessarily violent character of the social revolution and the mass, class character of this violence, have come to form a part of the principles of revolutionary Marxism. The Mexican section of the Fourth International accepts these principles.
For workers' democracy. Internal democracy in the revolutionary party is one of the guarantees against possible bureaucratic deviations. Of course, at a time of ebb or defeat of the revolutionary movement, this guarantee is not sufficient to avoid bureacratisation of the party. In an undegenerated party, the positions of a minority that are proved correct by reality, in practice, will be accepted sooner or later by the party as a whole. Because of this, in a democratic party, minorities are not crushed.
Workers's democracy, however, is not a conception that applies only to the structure of the party. It is in essence a conception that arose and has to be maintained in the mass movement. It means freedom of expression, agitation, participation and action for all the currents in the workers' movement.
Workers's democracy, of course, involves much more than a guarantee of freedom of expression, agitation and so on for currents in the workers' movement. It is, moreover, crystalised in completely new and very important proletarian forms of organisation. Workers' councils are the organisational bodies created by the working class to struggle agianst the political institutions of bourgeois society. The workers' councils are also the only organisational authority that guarantees the active and conscious participation of the proletariat, which convert worker's democracy into a norm of work, arising in the workplace itself, and extending to all the other bodies directing the work of the prolatariat-its party, its unions, and so on.
Workers' democracy involves, then, the idea that no repressive act against any current in the workers' movement is justifiable. Educating the workers' vanguard and the masses in this conception is one of the revol-
104 International Marxist Review omar i. De prain ashes of this chard ter means ma in ssemento icaricature. Nor can any sort of racist or sexist practice be permitted in this framework.
Within the party, workers' democracy goes hand in hand with its dialectical opposite-centralism. Democratic centralism, the fundamental organisational principle of Leninism, involves the greatest possible freedon for discusson and argument within the party and the fullest guarantees for minorities, as well as the most absolute discipline outside and the greatest loyalty of minorites to the party. The Mexican section of the Fourth International accepts and applies the principles of democratic centralism and workers' democracy. Founding document of the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Mexico 1978