In Defence of Trotskyism No. 13 £1 waged, 50p unwaged/low waged, €1.50 The Transitional Programme, its relevance and application for today By John Barry 2014 Afghanistan: Marxist Method vs. Bureaucratic Method By Gerry Downing 1997 Trotsky's Transitional Programme is the method which was employed by the pioneers of scientific socialism, Marx and Engels, in the Communist Manifesto and was used success- fully by the Bolsheviks to become the method of the first four congresses of the Third International. But its Stalinist degen- eration saw it regressing to the old minimum (day to day achievable reforms) and maximum (some vision of organiza- tion in an unspecified socialist future) demands of the Second International expressed in reformism and sectarianism, just as social democracy had done decades previously. Page 2 The Transitional Programme overthrow the capitalist whilst participating in this Where We state and replace it with a struggle we will oppose all workers’ state based on policies which subordinate Stand democratic soviets/ the working class to the workers’ councils to sup- political agenda of the pet- 1. WE STAND WITH press the inevitable counter ty-bourgeois reformist KARL MARX: ‘The eman- -revolution of private capi- leaders of the Labour party cipation of the working talist profit against planned and trade unions classes must be conquered production for the satisfac- 5. We oppose all immi- by the working classes tion of socialised human gration controls. Interna- themselves. The struggle need. tional finance capital roams for the emancipation of the 3. We recognise the ne- the planet in search of working class means not a cessity for revolutionaries profit and imperialist gov- struggle for class privileges to carry out serious ideo- ernments disrupts the lives and monopolies but for logical and political struggle of workers and cause the equal rights and duties and as direct participants in the collapse of whole nations the abolition of all class trade unions (always) and with their direct interven- rule’ (The International in the mass reformist social tion in the Balkans, Iraq Workingmen’s Association democratic bourgeois and Afghanistan and their 1864, General Rules). workers’ parties despite proxy wars in Somalia and 2. The capitalist state their pro-capitalist leader- the Democratic Republic consists, in the last analysis, ships when conditions are of the Congo, etc. Workers of ruling-class laws within a favourable. Because we see have the right to sell their judicial system and deten- the trade union bureaucra- labour internationally tion centres overseen by cy and their allies in the wherever they get the best the armed bodies of po- Labour party leadership as price. Only union member- lice/army who are under the most fundamental ob- ship and pay rates can the direction and are con- stacle to the struggle for counter employers who trolled in acts of defence of power of the working class, seek to exploit immigrant capitalist property rights outside of the state forces workers as cheap labour to against the interests of the and their direct agencies undermine the gains of majority of civil society. themselves, we must fight past struggles. The working class must and defeat and replace them with a revolutionary Subscribe to Socialist Fight Socialist Fight produces IDOT. leadership by mobilising and In Defence of Trotskyism It is a part of the Liaison Com- the base against the pro- Four Issues: UK: £12.00, EU: mittee for the Fourth Interna- capitalist bureaucratic mis- £14.00 tional with the Liga Comunista, leaders to open the way Rest of the World: £18.00 Brazil and the Tendencia Mili- forward for the struggle for Please send donations to help tante Bolchevique, Argentina. workers’ power. in their production Editor: Gerry Downing Cheques and Standing Orders Assistant Editor: John Barry 4. We are fully in sup- port of all mass mobilisa- to Socialist Fight: PO Box 59188, Socialist Fight Account No. 1 London, NW2 9LJ, http:// tions against the onslaught Unity Trust Bank, Sort Code socialistfight.com/ of this reactionary Con-Lib 08-60-01, Account. No. [email protected]. Dem coalition. However, 20227368. Page 2 The Transitional Programme The Transitional Programme Page 3 The Transitional Programme, its relevance and application for today By John Barry 2014 Introduction working class, otherwise he transitional pro- there will be no overthrow of T gramme is the method capitalism and the transfor- which was employed by the mation to socialism. pioneers of scientific social- Crisis does not result auto- ism Marx and Engels in the matically to revolution. Impe- ‘Communist Manifesto’ and rialism (highest form of mo- was used successfully by the nopolistic capital) reached a Bolsheviks to become the most destructive phase in the method of the first four con- 1930s and developed into the gresses of the Third Interna- most murderous and bloody tional (AKA the Communist world slaughter which ended International). After the Third International in the industrial extermination of an entire suffered bureaucratic degeneration it aban- people and mass murder through the use of doned the transitional program and regressed atomic weapons. Yet despite the huge desire to the old minimum (day to day achievable among the masses in Europe and Asia for reforms) and maximum (some vision of or- socialism, their misleaders helped prop up ganization in an unspecified socialist future) imperialism and throw consciousness back- demands of the Second International (AKA wards with a massive anti-communist propa- the Socialist International) expressed in re- ganda onslaught. formism and sectarianism, just as social de- Trotsky was clear that if capitalism survived mocracy had done decades previously. the Second World War it would see a new The responsibility of building the revolu- lease of life for world imperialism and would tionary socialist consciousness rested upon eventually lead to the Third World War.[1] the shoulders of the Left Opposition of the Today US imperialism dominates the planet, communist movement after this degenera- it has no equal and is entering its most preda- tion, and then later the Fourth International tory and destructive phase, as happened with founded in 1938 when it was clear the Third German imperialism in the 1930s. The US was beyond salvation. has in its sights the semi-oppressed nations The transitional programme is the only of Russia, China, Iran, Syria and North Ko- method which can build a socialist con- rea. sciousness in the working class and create a The next world war could quickly escalate bridge, as Trotsky described it between the into a thermo-nuclear conflict and destroy current consciousness of the majority of humanity. Therefore the need for socialist workers and the final conclusion of the class revolution is paramount. The importance of struggle, that a socialist revolution is neces- developing transitional demands is precisely sary to save humanity from capitalism. It is because the working class as a product of of paramount importance for a revolutionary bourgeois society has a false consciousness party to have a correct method to build a when compared with the objective situation. revolutionary socialist consciousness in the Kautsky when he was the main theoretician Page 3 The Transitional rogramme Page 4 The Transitional Programme of Marxism in the second international and normal times when the development is slow, in Lenin following him explained that a socialist a long line, this delay cannot produce cata- consciousness comes to workers from with- strophic results. To a great extent this delay out, that is to say it is introduced and taught to signifies that the workers are not equal to the tasks put before them by objective conditions; workers from the intelligentsia, bourgeois but in times of crisis this delay may be cata- intellectuals from outside the working class. strophic.”[4] [2] These intellectuals such as Marx, Engels, There is common misconception of the transi- Lenin and Trotsky develop theory. The van- tional programme by left sects which operate guard workers then learn, and develop as in an opportunist fashion. Typically left organ- worker intellectuals and train isations with no link to the labour other vanguard workers. Trot- movement move toward oppor- sky explained how revolution- tunism to increase their member- aries are distinct to others in ship and influence, such as the the workers movement Socialist Party of England and In the final analysis, revolu- Wales (SPEW). In their hands tionaries are made of the same the Transitional Programme is social stuff as other people. presented as a list of left reform- But they must have had certain ist policies (relatively unchanged very different personal quali- for the past 50 years originating ties to enable the historical when they were the Militant Ten- process to separate them from dency) which is also the program the rest into a distinct group. of the latest electoral reformist Association with one another, vehicle they are using to gain theoretical work, the struggle influence, such as No2EU or under a definite banner, collective discipline, TUSC, creating illusions in new reformist the hardening under the fire of danger, these fronts rather than challenging and breaking things gradually shape the revolutionary type. workers from the reformists they look toward [3] for leadership. Then after the reformist de- Whole sections of the class however lag in mands they present description of how the consciousness in comparison to the objective world should be run under socialism, in other conditions and hence the necessity for a tran- words a maximum programme. So the SPEW sitional programme. We must however be is back to the Second Internationals Minimum patient explaining and helping to develop the -Maximum programme! Let us look for exam- consciousness of the workers to connect with ple at their statement of ‘What we stand for’.