An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of the "ML" influence of instances like lemmy.ml and lemmygrad. This is a place for undogmatic and constructive discussion from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.
A certain knowledge of socialism is expected, if you are new to/interested in socialism, please visit c/Socialism101 before participating here. Socialism101 will gladly help you by answering questions, providing resources etc.
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Try to keep an open mind, other schools of thought may offer points of view and analyses you haven't considered yet. Also: This is not a place for the Idealism vs. Materialism or rather Anarchism vs. Marxism debate(s), for that please visit c/AnarchismVsMarxism
as well as condemning (their) imperialism, even if it is of the "anti-USA" flavour.
That includes so called: Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, Dengism, Market Socialism, Patriotic Socialism, National Bolshevism, Anarcho-Capitalism etc. . Anti-Socialist people and content have no place here, as well as the variety of "Marxist"-"Leninists" seen on lemmygrad and more specifically GenZedong (actual ML's are welcome as long as they agree to the rules and don't just copy paste/larp about stuff from a hundred years ago).
The only dangerous minority is the rich.
We must constructively learn from their mistakes, while acknowledging their achievements and recognizing when they have strayed away from socialist principles.
(if you are reading the rules to apply for modding this community, mention "Xenial Xerus" when answering question 2)
Notable achievements in all spheres of society were made by various socialist/people's/democratic republics around the world. Mistakes, however, were made as well: bureaucratic castes of parasitic elites - as well as reactionary cults of personality - were established, many things were mismanaged and prejudice and bigotry sometimes replaced internationalism and progressiveness.
(This is not a definitive list, the spirit of the other rules still counts! Eventual duplicates with other rules are for emphasis.)
The important historical reason is that Trotskyism is opposed to the worker-peasant alliance. That's an untenable position now given the events that happened after Trotsky (in Vietnam, China, etc)
The leftist squabble reason is that Stalinists and people aligned with them are mad at Trotskyists opposing them.
I appreciate your explanation. which had me reading one of Trosky's writings
that goes over his thoughts of the Chinese revolution and of which i find somewhat valid but the snipping in this spoiler also preemptively defending his position.
We must turn to all the members of the official Communist Party with words of explanation and challenge. It is quite probable that the rank-and-file Communists who have been led astray by the Stalinist faction will not understand us at once. The bureaucrats will set up a howl about our “underestimation” of the peasantry, perhaps even about our “hostility” to the peasantry. (Chernov always accused Lenin of being hostile to the peasantry.) Naturally such howling will not confuse the Bolshevik-Leninists. When prior to April 1927 we warned against the inevitable coup d’état of Chiang Kai-shek, the Stalinists accused us of hostility to the Chinese national revolution. Events have demonstrated who was right. Events will provide a confirmation this time as well.
It's Bolshevism that tries to blame every issue with the USSR on Stalin while ignoring that many of the structures that eventually led to Stalinism were present earlier on, when Trotsky and Lenin were at the helm. As a consequence, non-Leninist socialists, such as anarchists and autonomists, tend to dislike Trotsky and as a consequence Trotskyists.
For further reading on the anarchist position: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/iain-mckay-the-bureaucracy-in-exile
The Stalinists, in turn, view Trotsky as effectively sabotaging the revolutionary movement by sowing division and opposition to the vanguard.
Various sides heavily dislike the campism and entryism, and love of front groups prevalent among Trotskyist organisations.
Although I still have material to read, my current thought is the following: Trotsky was closer to the Mensheviks than to the Bolshevik faction; or if you prefer, his approach was situated somewhere between both currents. If he joined the Bolshevik faction, it was out of pure pragmatism.
If you read Lenin in 'What Is to Be Done?' or 'The State and Revolution,' you will see how he criticizes the Russian social democrats of that time, from the opportunist branch (referring among others to the Mensheviks and similar), for wanting to collaborate with the government and divert the proletariat from the path of revolution. Stalin does nothing more than follow the path started by Lenin.
Hence, the 'orthodox' thought of Marxism sees Trotsky as a revisionist/reformist.