to be an abiding strength of the Some of the demands seem very advanced in their revolutionary content: but Trotsky was basing them on the experience of struggles both in the run-up to the Russian Revolution, but also the more recent experiences of Trotskyists in the USA.
Led by James P. Cannon, the US Trotskyists had been able to play a key leading role in the explosive unionisation struggles which began in Minneapolis and which built the Teamsters union in the mid-1930s.
In the course of these battles, the small forces of Trotskyists had been able to reach and mobilise tens of thousands of workers: but they had also been Today we would want to amplify the section on the imperialist countries, to include defence and extension of the welfare state provisions that have been won in the post-war period, and to oppose the privatisation of nationalised utilities and industries.
The massive numerical expansion of the working class, and the increasingly capitalist character of agriculture in the post war period also mean that it is also not appropriate in many ana even some less devel-ne tunately the political vacuum is all too often being filled by reactionary nationalism, a revival of religious superstition, and desperate attempts to enter the capitalist market system.
Of the post war Trotskyist movement has a recurrent weakness, it has been its tendency to refer back to texts such as the Transitional Programme and to look to the past for finished answers to problems and analysis of events which have happened decades later.
Sixty years on, while there have been important developments on specific areas of policy - notably women's liberation - there have few serious attempts to (Highbury & Islington tube) Entrance £8 (£6 unwaged). Advance registration £7/£5 from London N4 2UU. World Economic Crisis, and more ... "60 years of the FI", PO Box 1109, Plenary speeches and workshop discussion on Ireland, Italy, Chiapas, Palestine, Spain, the