Publishing information: Robert J. Alexander, International Trotskyism 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement. Copyright 1991, Duke University Press. Posted with permission. All rights reserved. This material may be saved or photocopied for personal use but may not be otherwise reproduced, stored or transmitted by any medium without explicit permission. Any alteration to or republication of this material is expressly forbidden. Please direct permissions inquiries to: Permissions Officer, Box 90660, Durham, NC 27708, USA; or fax 919.688.3524.
Transcribed: For the ETOL beginning February, 2001
When, fifteen or more years ago I was working on my earlier study of Trotskyism in Latin America, I discovered the fact that no one had ever written an overall study of International Trotskyism. Further investigation confirmed this observation.
The late Pierre Frank wrote a small book on the history of the Fourth International. There have been a number of studies, particularly doctoral dissertations, on the Trotskyist movement in particular countries. There has also been a good deal of historiography—as opposed to history—of the movement, particularly in the form of publication and extensive annotation of the writings of Leon Trotsky, which is exceedingly useful. The late George Breitman of the United States, and Pierre Broué and Rodolphe Prager of France were particularly productive in this field.
After later working on a history of the International Right Opposition of the 1930s, my curiosity was further piqued about the history of Trotskyism. The Right Opposition did not survive World War II. International Trotskyism, on the other hand, was still alive and relatively healthy four decades after the end of that conflict. The question naturally arose in my mind as to why these two dissident factions of International Communism should experience such different fates. (Perhaps part of the answer will emerge from the present volume.) In view of the lack of a general survey of the movement I finally decided to undertake to write one. Had I known when I began how complex a project it would turn out to be, I might well have hesitated to turn my hand to it. In the beginning, I had no idea how many countries had had Trotskyist movements at one time or another, or of how many different kinds of Trotskyists there have been, and hence the proliferation of different kinds of parties and groups pledging their basic loyalty to the ideas and program of Leon Trotsky.
This book deals with the world movement which Leon Trotsky established after his exile from the Soviet Union in 1929. Except for some background material in the first chapter about the origins and progress of the splits in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the 1920s, I have deliberately not dealt with the Trotskyist tendency in the USSR, which in any case was totally liquidated before and during the Great Purges. For those interested in that aspect of Trotskyism, the best source is undoubtedly the French periodical Cahiers Leon Trotsky, which devoted two complete issues, numbers 6 and 7/8 of 1980 and 1981 to this subject. It also dedicated issue number 18 of June 1984 to Christian Rakovsky, the last of the important Soviet Trotskyist leaders to surrender to Joseph Stalin, and who was ultimately murdered in the purges.
One other omission should be noted. Except for the case of the United States I have not dealt in the pages that follow with the international movement headed by Lyndon Larouche. In making this decision I was to some degree influenced by a comment of one of my correspondents to the effect that to do so would be similar to including a history of fascism as part of a history of Italian Socialism—quite inappropriate. However, I had another, and perhaps better, reason for this omission. It is clear that in the case of the National Caucus of Labor Committees (and its later incarnations) that the NCLC did originate as a dissident Trotskyist group and therefore it is legitimate to trace its subsequent evolution. The case is not the same with the international organization established under Larouche's aegis. The various national groups (outside of the United States) were established after Larouche and his followers had given up virtually all pretenses of being Trotskyists, and therefore they are not, properly speaking, a part of the history of International Trotskyism.
I decided to try to make this study for at least two reasons. First, international Trotskyism has been a sufficiently significant tendency in world politics over a sufficiently long period—considerably more than half a century—to make it important for its story to be told. In the second place, I felt that I had both a sufficient interest in the subject and enough background and tangential contact with the movement to qualify me to be its first overall historian.
Certainly, from the point of view of most Trotskyists, I suspect that I have one major handicap as a historian of their movement: I do not belong to it. Indeed, in 1937, as a very unimportant young member of the so-called "Clarity Caucus" of the Socialist Party of the United States (in fact, one of the most confused groups to appear in U.S. left-wing politics) I was one of those who strongly supported the expulsion of the Trotskyites from the SPUSA. By then, Bolshevism, whether in its Leninist, Stalinist or its Trotskyist form, had completely lost whatever passing attraction it might once have had for me.
Hence, I write from a Democratic Socialist or Social Democratic background. Therefore, I shall undoubtedly have interpretations of the Trotskyist movement which members of all of its various factions will consider mistaken. My only hope is that this present volume can qualify for the kind of assessment which the late Joseph Hansen gave in a two-part review of my earlier work on Latin American Trotskyism, which can be summed up as "for a Social Democrat, he's done a pretty good job."
My own political background is relevant to one stylistic aspect of this book. As an old socialist I was accustomed to referring to Leon Trotsky's followers as "Trotskyites." They prefer to be called "Trotskyists." For reasons of literary diversity I shall use both terms. Also, unless otherwise noted, any underscoring or italics which appear in quoted material in this work are as they were in what is being quoted.
One other comment. A few of those who have been kind enough to help me in gathering material for this book have raised objections to my "research methods." One of these people wrote, "I cannot agree with the method which consists in writing books through interviews and newspapers, without any interest in the archives...." To some degree I must plead guilty to the "indictment" implied in this remark. I have not relied to a major degree on "the archives," whether those of Trotsky at Harvard, the collections in Paris, Amsterdam, the Hoover Institution at Stanford, or in the Socialist Workers Party headquarters in New York City. However, given the nature of the work which I have been trying to produce, and the segment of my life which I was willing and able to devote to this study, I think that my research approach has been an adequate and useful one.
First of all, I think that a perusal of the bibliography at the end of this work will show that I have relied on a great deal more than "interviews and newspapers," although these have been of considerable importance. Where they have been available I have relied on secondary works dealing with segments of the subject under study. These were particularly useful for the period of the 1930s, and included the annotated writings of Leon Trotsky in both English and French, and historical memoirs of such people as James Cannon and Georges Vereeken of Belgium. They have also included doctoral dissertations from several countries as well as collections of documents of the Fourth International in both English and French.
For the period since the death of Trotsky such secondary material has frequently been lacking. Indeed, the history of the Trotskyist movement in most countries had not been written in any systematic way before I began working on this book. So to try to gather the material relevant to writing such studies I have resorted in the first instance to correspondence with Trotskyists, ex-Trotskyists and some observers of the movement. My correspondents have quite literally been from all parts of the world.
In writing these people I requested a variety of things from them. I asked for publications of the various Trotskyist organizations of their countries—including newspapers, pamphlets and other such material. I also asked innumerable questions about the movement in their areas.
I have been most fortunate in the replies which I received to these queries. In some cases, long exchanges of letters provided me with "original" material not elsewhere available. In a few instances my correspondents have written very extensive memoranda outlining the history of all or part of the movement's history in their countries. In the case of Australia I was sent three tapes of lectures on the history of Trotskyism in that country given at a "summer camp" of the Australian Socialist Workers Party.
In a few instances these materials have been complemented and added to by interviews with people who have been involved in the Trotskyist movement in one part of the world or another. Such discussions have been particularly helpful in the cases of Trotskyism in the United States, France, Belgium and Great Britain.
All of this research has involved something in the nature of fitting together a jigsaw puzzle. There are presented in these pages studies of Trotskyism in various parts of the world such as have never appeared in print before. Even in the case of the United States there has never been published an overall study of the movement. Nor, aside from the thin volume of Pierre Frank, has there ever appeared an overall treatment of the Fourth International and the various competing groups into which it split after 1953. Hopefully, through the alternative methods which I have used to acquire my material, I have been able within the five years spent on this volume to piece together the puzzle of international Trotskyism in such a way as to present a valuable picture of the movement throughout the world.
One further note relevant to my research techniques may be in order. The reader will note that the termination dates of my discussions of various organizations, and even of the movement in various countries, differ from case to case. These dates have been determined by the recentness of information which I received by the time I had to bring the manuscript to a close. Two cases in point are the withdrawal of the Australian Socialist Workers Party from the United Secretariat, and the violent split in the ranks of the British Healyites—both events occurred in the latter part of 1985 just as I was completing the manuscript, and so could be referred to. In many instances, however, the latest information available to me on a particular group considerably antedated 1985.
Every author owes obligations to people who have aided him in getting a book into print. Because of the complexity of the subject of the present volume, and the dispersed nature of the material I needed to acquire in order to write it, my obligations are particularly heavy and extensive. I certainly owe something to the scores of people listed in the bibliography who either allowed me to interview them or who corresponded more or less extensively with me on the subject. However, a number of these deserve special mention.
First, I must note the late Max Shachtman, who was a good friend, and who gave me many insights into the history of the movement (naturally from his own point of view of a founder and later heretic of International Trotskyism). In somewhat the same category was the late Joseph Hansen, who gave me much help on my early researches on Latin American Trotskyism and was, I think, a gentle critic of the results of those researches.
The late George Breitman was particularly helpful in putting me in touch with basic sources for the present volume, as well as giving me the benefit of his observations of the movement over half a century. Also, of course, his annotated collection of the writings of Trotsky are a basic source of information for any study of the Trotskyist movement.
The same is true of the collection, and even more extensive annotation of Trotsky's writings by Pierre Broué. M. Broué has also been very helpful in answering questions, and in reading critically the first draft of part of the section on Spain.
The late Pierre Frank was also a very willing correspondent, and provided me with a copy of his book on the Fourth International. He also facilitated my contacts with other French members of the movement.
During my first visit to Paris in search of material for this book, in 1982, Rodolphe Prager was of inestimable help, not only postponing his summer vacation to put me In contact with people of several factions of International Trotskyism but also providing me with some very important bibliographical material. He has also been a very willing answerer of many queries to him, both written and oral.
During that same 1982 visit to Europe Miss Nadya De Beule, historian of the early years of the Belgian Trotskyist movement, was exceedingly hospitable in putting me in contact with various people among the Trotskyists and ex-Trotskyists of that country. She also was kind enough to give me a copy of her own study and xerox copies of many early Belgian Trotskyist publications, as well as to criticize the first draft of the chapter on Belgium.
Ernest Mandel, the best-known Trotskyist economist and leader of both the largest Belgian Trotskyist group and the United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USEC), has also been extremely helpful. He answered numerous queries about a range of subjects, sent me important material, and Rave me a very helpful critique of the first draft of the section on Belgium, and of the first chapter. Similarly, Livio Maitan, colleague of Mandel in USEC, has been very helpful in providing material on several countries.
The late Professor Peter Sedgwick of the University of Leeds first sent me extensive information about British Trotskyism, and put me in contact with other students of the movement. Sam Bornstein, Al Richardson, Martin Upham, and John Archer were very helpful in providing information and criticizing the original version of my section on Trotskyism in Great Britain.
Charles van Gelderen provided me considerable material on the British movement, and without him I would have been hardpressed to have known where to begin to recount the history of Trotskyism in South Africa.
Professor James Jupp aided me in establishing my first contacts with the Trotskyists and ex-Trotskyists in Australia. Also several leaders of the Socialist Workers Party of that country were very kind in providing me with documentary and taped material on the movement there, as was Mick Armstrong of the Independent Socialists.
José Gutierrez Alvarez, a young Trotskyist scholar from Barcelona, was of key aid in helping me to piece together the history of Spanish Trotskyism since the end of the France period. He also arranged for me to get important printed material.
Martin Siegel of the Pathfinder Press similarly provided me with documentation from the material collected by the Socialist Workers Party of the United States.
Needless to say, none of the people mentioned here, nor any of those listed in the bibliography for that matter, is responsible for anything I say in this volume or for the opinions expressed in it.
Other kinds of debts are owed to other people. My former student, Joshua Landes first brought to my attention and allowed me to borrow Joseph Nedava's book on Trotsky and the Jews. My Rutgers colleague Herbert Rowan was kind enough to translate some material from German.
Finally, mention must be made of my wife, Joan Alexander. She has borne with endless discussion of Trotskyism for more than five years, even allowing to be diverted from sightseeing in Paris to "hunt down Trotskyites," as she elegantly put it. Also, she put up with endless typing of the various versions of the manuscript, when often she must have thought that my time might have been better spent doing something else. Finally, she made available her great talents in helping to prepare the index of the volume.
Although this is undoubtedly a strange thing to do in the preface to one of one's books, I feel it necessary to recognize here an error which I made in an earlier work, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Right Opposition of the 1930's, that on the International Right Opposition of the 1930s. In that volume, in discussing the Right Opposition in the Netherlands, I mistakenly attributed the origins of the Revolutionary Socialist Labor Party (RSAP) in that country to a right-wing schism in the Dutch Communist Party which had occurred in the early 1930s. My researches on the present volume have resulted in my becoming more fully acquainted with the early Trotskyist background of Henk Sneevliet and the party he organized, which only very late in the day became aligned with the remnants of the International Right Opposition. This story is recounted in the appropriate portion of the present study.
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, N.J.
June 1990
International Trotskyism Table of Contents | Alexander Internet Archive | ETOL Main Page
Last updated on: 13.2.2005