EUROPE is awash with nationalism. Nothing could be a bigger indictment of the failure of the 'official labour movement - of the social democraticand Stalinist parties. The collapse of the i Stalinist system in the east combines with the chronic failure the social i democratic parties to ore: the prospect of radical change during the last 20 ycats Socal democale cover ments, like those of Mitterrand in France and Gonzalez in Spain, have provided nothing but austerity and slavish sup port for the priorities of the market.
The international political scene is profoundly affected by this failure of the dominant trends in the labour movement. the space has been opened Op for a claiming socialism is 'dead' For millions of people worldwide this has credibility because of the experience of Stalinism and social democracy. came profoundly reactionary In many countries there is much discussion on the left ot the for retoundation of socialism. In Italy, because of the right-wing collapse of the once-powerfu will be formed this autumn.
Marxists should not beafraid of the idea of a refoundation of socialism. A renovation of what hast panded year is indr the Democracy But the events in eastern Europe are graphically showing what is not the answer - the етотасу. A gooplus liberal capitalist market contemporary Poland, where the and liberal democracy have led authoritarianism and economic collapse.
Socialism needs an alternative framework that shows how anti-capitalism and the idea of a No, nothing to do with Ted Grant! Trotsky is reading the US Militant in the 1930s generally put the persistence of orkamsea supportor troiky c basic ideas down to the dynamics of quasi-religious sects. This kind of flip response fails to get to the heart of the dealing with Trotsky's global and the struggle for it.
Italso evades the fact that historically it was the trotskyist tradition which predicted the inevitable collapse of the Stalinist system -a view treated many leftvingers for decader national liberation, inevitably workers struggle to bourgeois asionalist 1010C8 9988083 astrous consequences.
Workers' power
Trotsky's writings, especially those of the 1930s, are a vast storehouse of theorisation of the struggle for workers' power. His writings cover the character of the capitalist state and the transition to socialism; the nature ass, Donar tism and military dictatorship: