What is Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution?

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The theory of permanent revolution holds the foreign overlards and the national bour in the fact that the struggle for democracy irrethat in those countries which had a belated geoisies submissive to them.

A resolute struggle for power by the worker cialism under the leadership of the proletariat too weak and cowardly to resist imperialism. and peasant masses would therefore be inexor- and its revolunonary party ably oriented in an anti-capitalist, pro- Another aspect of Trotsky's theory involves In the imperialist epoch, according to Trot- olution. The working class can take power and the land, self determination and national liber- skyS theory, the workers must lead both the begin the building of socialism within a naation, industrialization, and democratization... democratic and socialist revolutions in the tional framework. But because of the world that is, the tasks of the national, democratic backward countries. These two types of reva- character of the productive forces and the world revolution workers and peasants cannot rely Jution, which were separated in the West, are scope of the class struggle, the revolution can on any wing of the national capitalist class. combined in ume and space They must join together to throw out both The permanence of the revolution consists tablished except on an international basis. cusable violation of the SWP's organizational norms by the party leadership that any "violation of party norms" by the minorities must be seen. This crude organizational maneuver by the leadership has corrupted the functioning of the SWP ever since.

A discussion on permanent revolution was never held in the SWP. The 1983 convention was cancelled and then the minorities were thrown out before the next convention so that the opportunity to discuss this major programmatic revision at that time was lost.

In fact, to this day, the SWP has never discussed Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution and formally adopted a position on it, either in the Political Committee, the National Committee or the party convention. All there is on this question is the speech by Jack Barnes, which is presumed to be the party position.

Most members of the SWP don't know what the theory of permanent revolution is and what is supposedly wrong with it.

Shunning the heretics

Following the expulsions of the minority supporters, the SWP leadership deepened its fundamental error. It banned all members of the former minorities from attending SWP public meetings and from entering SWP bookstores.

The main rationalization for this was that the expelled members, who formed two groups, Socialist Action and the Fourth Internationalist Tendency, referred to themselves as "public factions" of the SWP, and by so doing could be used by the government in future trials by claiming that they spoke for the SWP. Banning them from bookstores and public party meetings was supposed in some way to guard against this, but exactly how was never explained because there is no explanation that makes any legal or common sense.

In any case, the expelled minorities explained that they were using the term "public faction of the SWP" in the same way that the original American Trotskyists used the term "public faction of the Communist Party" after they were expelled by the Stalinists in 1928, and that in no way did they claim to speak for the SWP.

We say this banning of the expelled memcapitalist development, the capitalist class is In fact, it is a direct agent of imperialism.

through the struggle for the redistribution of lution of the SWP's turn to industry and its trade-union perspectives. For now, we only note that for the first half of the 1980s, the party maintained the perspective of an imminent radicalization of the working class.

A convention was held in the summer of 1984, which adopted a political resolution which stated that the "industrial working class and its unions [have moved] to the center of politics in the United States for the first time in almost four decades." Actually, of course, the unions had been in retreat in the 1980-1985 period, and in the United States and the other imperialist countries the working class was not radicalizing.

With the emergence of the P-9 meatpackers' strike struggle at Hormel in 1985-86, the party leadership changed its view of the What this means is that in order to carry socialist direction. June 1990. But as of early May, no political resolution was presented to the ranks for consideration.

This is an extraordinary situation in the history of the SWP. In the 1980s, there were only three constitutional conventions and only two political resolutions, the last one being written in 1984!

In place of regular conventions and the regular submission to the ranks of the positions of the leadership for democratic discussion and critical evaluation, there has been substituted a top-down method of functioning. National Committee meetings hear verbal reports, which are then communicated to the ranks through reports, the press, and so on, for implementation only—not for discussion and decisive vote by the membership. The result is a depoliticization of the party. sistibly grows over into the movement for sothe intemational character of the socialist rev.

not be consummated or socialism become ess all past practice of the SWP to interpret this right to mean that NC members who happen to be members of a body lower than the National Committee cannot speak freely about their opinions on whatever subject is on the agenda of a meeting of that lower body.

Such "committee discipline" obviously violates the democratic rights of the entire membership to be fully informed of the opinions of the other members of whatever body is in session.

Similarly, one of the charges against Malik Miah that led to his expulsion in January 1990 (technically he is only suspended until the June SWP convention can rule on the National Committee's recommendation that he be expelled) was that he presented his views in a meeting of the trade-union fraction he was a member of-views which were not the same as those of the Political Committee. The positions of the SWP PC were of course presented at that meeting as well.

What comes through this brief history of how the SWP has evolved on the organization question over the past decade is the deepening of the trend to deal with political questions by administrative means.

The attempt to put a "fink jacket" on Socialist Action as a way to try to prevent SWP members and supporters from considering the facts of Malik Miah's expulsion, and to seal them off from political discussion with members of Socialist Action is the latest, and gravest, point reached in this process. these are presented (first in a series) SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1990 9