History of the Trotskyist movement

[proletarianrevo]

Dear comrades,

I recently found out about the most detailed ressource (if we except the magazine "revolutionary history") on the History of our movement:

The book
"International Trotskyism, 1929-1985"
By Robert J. Alexander

http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/alex/works/in_trot/

This book is +1000 pages and contains accounts on the history of Trotskyism in like all countries!!!! :)

I just ordered it home to my library, and will receive it soon, but havent read anything yet.
Any of you read it/do you knbow anything about it??

Comradely,
Andreas - Denmark

[turnoviseous]

Hooh, sounds like a big and very detailed book. I would really like to read it, but the most content is missing on marxists.org...damn..I would like to read about "Trotskyism in Yugoslavia" :D

BTW Michael, where have you bought it?

comradely,

Luka

[T.K.A.-Denmark]

Yes this book seems interesting and big.
It even have a chapter on the very tiny trotskyist organisations that existed in Denmark. :D

[proletarianrevo]

TEIS:
I also found this, on Danish Trotskyism:

http://www.revolutionary-history.co.uk/backiss/Vol2/No2/Danish.html

It looks very much like the book "against the stream".


BUT: do anyone know of the book i presented here???

[T.K.A.-Denmark]

It looks very much like the book "against the stream".

Yes. Well I read this book were this is taken from. They at least have it on the Copenhagen main library. Quite interesting.

[proletarianrevo]

Originally posted by turnoviseous
BTW Michael, where have you bought it?

It's Andreas, not michael writing :D

I havent bought it - i am borrowing it from my library

[turnoviseous]

Originally posted by proletarianrevo
It's Andreas, not michael writing :D

I havent bought it - i am borrowing it from my library

Goddamn, I always mistake you with Michael, since you have nick proletarianrevo here on YFIS and Michael has same nick on MSN....sorry again.

I will also look for it in library here, but I don´t really believe they have it.

comradely,

Luka

[redjordi]

the book is actually not very good, since it mainly ones into the splits and fusions of different groups etc, rather than presenting a political view of the development of trotskyism, ideas, and so on, also is full of inaccuracies since it relies mostly on the press of the different sects and what they say of each other.

there are two paragraphs on Yugoslavia where it says there was never any trotskyist group in Yugoslavia. It does mention that one 70s dissident who was jailed declared himself a trotskyist, Pavluvsko Imsirovic.

the only thing the book can offer is some reference to dates, events and people, but should be taken with a pinch of salt

redjordi

[proletarianrevo]

ohhh...
i'm a bit disappointed, even before I have seen the book :(
Well facts n' figures will be nice too, though...

Especially, I think the most interesting thing is to study the places where the Trotskyists have been leading/influencing a mass force (Ceylon, Bolivia).

BTW, is it just me, or does the book lack a part on the history of the trotskyists working under illegality in the USSR?
Do anyone know where it is possible to get hold of a book/internetsource/anything on the russian trotskyist movement (in illegality).
????

comradely,
Andreas

[turnoviseous]

Originally posted by proletarianrevo
ohhh...
i'm a bit disappointed, even before I have seen the book :(
Well facts n' figures will be nice too, though...

Especially, I think the most interesting thing is to study the places where the Trotskyists have been leading/influencing a mass force (Ceylon, Bolivia).

BTW, is it just me, or does the book lack a part on the history of the trotskyists working under illegality in the USSR?
Do anyone know where it is possible to get hold of a book/internetsource/anything on the russian trotskyist movement (in illegality).
????

comradely,
Andreas

Hmm, I wonder if they even existed after the purges Stalin made to get rid of every trace of Trotskyism and with all lies they put in circulation about Trotsky and Left opposition. Even in Khruschev era and later in Gorbachov era they didn´t rehabilitate Trotsky. One would just wonder why? :D

[redjordi]

an excelent site on the history of trotskyism is Revolutionary History. particularly interesting are their books on Bolivia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Trotskyists and major class battles. Some of them are on-line here: http://www.revolutionary-history.co.uk/ clik on "back issues".

you can also look at the documents section of ETOL: http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/index.htm

which includes material on Sri Lanka:
http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/srilanka/contents.htm

on Trotskyism in the USSR after the purges, I think that most of the movement was actually destroyed by Stalin, and very little was left after that. Pierre Broue in his "The Bolshevik Party" explains about other oppositions in the 1950s and says they were not directly linked to trotskyism (for those who read Spanish the book is now available on-line at http://www.geocities.com/trotskysigloxxi/P_Bolchevique/INICIO.htm)

comradely,

redjordi

[proletarianrevo]

Hi guys,

I received the book a week ago or so, and I begun reading some different chapters, while I have been sick for some days.

Damn the book is bad, as Jordi already stated.
Though it contain some useful facts, it is realy not a honest history of our movement. It is clear that the author is an academic who have never grasped Trotsky's method.

Just some examples:
He blames Trotsky for the break with the Poum, saying that "Trotsky never understood the pecularities of Spain".
Not one word on the ultra-left madness of Andres Nin, who sabotaged the revolution by refusing entry into the Spanish YS, whose leaders had broken with bvoth the 2 and 3 international and called for a 4th International!!

Further more, the book go on and critisize the British Militant Tendency on its position to the Falkland war, etc. saying that militant "differs from trotskyism on these points".

really, I was dissappointed by this book  
:(

well, i will look at the revolutionary history pages instead.

comradely,
Andreas

[turnoviseous]

Goddamn, I really wonder, is there any purpose in writing such a big book with all the facts and stuff and then falsely present them if you really want to give an honest case about Trotskyist movement?

[proletarianrevo]

Well...I dont even think the guy can be charecterised as a trotskyist. His interest in Trotskyism is purely academic, it seems.

The reason why he presents a false picture is that he never understood the writings of Trotsky, and therefore his starting point is wrong which inevitably leeds him to wrong conclusions.

Still, the book got some interesting facts on the development of Trotskyism during the WW2 under illegality in Europe, etc. and also on the founding congress of the fourth, in 1938.

But the book cannot be used as a reliable source in general.

[OUTOFTHENIGHT]

Was  there any info in the book about the Warsaw uprising during the 1939/45 war? Apparently Trotskyists were involved( I read somewhere that they were involved in the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto). Is there anything in this book about this??
Ian