Ain't par manic 'urge to capitulate', but vital for any serious struggle for socialism in the real world.
International Along with fabricating the Trotskyist view on the workers states, Callinicos can't make up his mind about the Fourth International. This reflects an inherent contradiction in the raison d'etre of the SWP. It can't admit that it was correct to found a new revolutionary Marxist international in 1938. For, if the FI was a good idea then, it is surely is even better now. Revolutionary forces are stronger, Stalinism is dying and capitalism is in deep structural crisis. If this is granted, then a whole new approach is implied.
Kevolutionary organisanions would need raising their sights trom inis island's shores towards a Marxist International.
The SWP doesn't fancy this at all. Like most British far left groups its focus is on building itself, establishing international contacts mainly where they speak English, and leaving the hard work of building an international to unspecified future.
This was not Trotsky's view. His politics could be distilled to word, 'internationalism'.
Today, there is no purely 'national' politics. Only through practical application the world over can Marxist politics be tested and enriched. This means permanent framework of discussion and joint international work and coordination. In other words, an International.
This is why the FI was founded on the dead bones of the Stalinised Third International. Far from 'disabling' Trotsky and his followers, it has been Trotskyism's very lifeblood.
Trotskyism began as a critique of Stalinism. At the end of he life of one, what better to consider the career of the other. This book misses the chance. Callinicos is able to fortify 'Trotskyism' by the addition of a York University lecturer's learning, invoking Lakatos and Popper. But these are only bolton accessories. The argument is marred by the crudities of Tony Cliff-thought. It is the same one you can have with any Socialist Worker seller in a shopping precinct.
Andrew wiaro