Date: Sun, 9 Mar 1997 01:11:21 +0000
Subject: M-G: China, Trotsky and bourgeois-conciliationism


> Date:          Fri, 7 Mar 1997 12:23:46 -0500 (EST)
> To:            marxism-international-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
> From:          Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
> Subject:       M-I: China, Trotsky and empty sloganeering
> Reply-to:      marxism-international-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU


Proyect I just want to enlarge on some of your quotes:

> Those who think he was always clear on the Chinese Revolution ignore the
> evidence. As late as March 1927, he considered that what was happening in
> China was "a national-democratic revolution, not a socialist one,"

nobody I think is disputing this .

 and that
> soviet power in China would not be "an instrument of proletarian
> dictatorship, but of revolutionary national liberation and democratic
> unification of the country." ("On China", p.135) 

 This quote in full reads:
"A system of soviets in China would not be, at least in the coming 
period, an instrument of proletarian dictatorship, but one of 
revolutionary national liberation and democratic unification of the 
country". Trotsky goes on.  "The soviets in this period would not be  
under the dictatorship of one party but under the direction of a bloc 
of parties with the inevitable internal struggle between them, 
inevitable shifts, etc. The Kuomintang's attempt, using the model of 
the Russian experience, to set up a one-party dictatorship i.e. of 
the Kuomintang, wih the Communist Party totally subordinated to it, 
is in essence counterrevolutionary and will inevitably produce 
fascist tendencies. The dictatorship of the proletariat in the SU, 
under conditions of capitalist encirclement, was possible only in the 
form of the dictatorship of the Communist Party. But in China, what 
is occurring is a national-democratic revolution, not a socialist 
one. A national democratic revolution is supposed to assure the 
proletariat full freedom of the class struggle and, consequently, 
full independence for the Communist Party as the leader of that 
struggle. The revolution cannot succeed without prolonged, close, and 
even more deepgoing collaboration between the proletariat and the 
plebian masses of the towns and villages. This can be realised 
throught the soviets in the form of blocs between parties, through 
the influence of worker delegates on nonparty deputies, etc."

Surely Trotsky is saying that the National democratic revolution can 
only be led by the proletariat with the Communist Party at its head, 
drawing behind it, through the blocs in the "soviets of workers 
deputies" (133) and "soldiers sections of soviets" (134), the plebian 
masses of the towns and villages, its success being won only by 
preventing the KMT from subordinated the CCP and forming its 
counterrevolutionary one-party dictatorship. 

Proyect goes on:
He (Trotsky)  believed that the 'old
> Bolshevik' slogan of the democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the
> peasantry still applied to China.

Which includes ALL the landowning classes.  Yet it is clear that 
Trotsky is talking of "plebian masses", and workers, artisans and peasants 
soviets.  He clearly expects that this radical democratic revolution, 
which will have to confront and defeat the reactionary bourgeoisie,
will necessarily quickly pass over into a socialist revolution. 

> He also argued that "the possibility of the democratic revolution growing
> over into the socialist revolution--depends completely and exclusively on
> the course of the World revolution, and on the economic and political
> successes of the Soviet Union." ("On China", p. 143)
> 
But this did not mean that a socialist revolution was out of the 
question. Here is the section in which Proyects quote is lifted:
"Despite the backwardness of the Chinese economy, and in part 
precisely due to this backwardness, the Chinese revolution is wholly 
capable of bringing to political power an alliance of workers and 
peasants, under the leadership of the proletariat. This regime will 
be China's political link with the world revolutiion. 
In the course of the transitional period, the Chinese revolution will 
have a genuinely democratic, worker-and-peasant character. In its 
economic life, commodity-capitalist relations will inevitably 
predominate. The political regime will be primarily directed to 
secure the masses as great a share as possible in the fruits of the 
development of the productive forces and, at the same time, in the 
political and cultural utilisation of the resources of the state. THE 
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THIS PERSPECTIVE -THE POSSIBILITY OF THE 
DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION GROWING OVER INTO THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION - 
DEPENDS COMPLETELY ON THE ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL SUCCESSES OF THE 
SOVIET UNION, AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THIS WORLD REVOLUTION. If the 
Chinese revolution were to triumph under its present 
bourgeois-nationalist leadership, it would very quickly go to the 
right, demonstrate its good intentions to the capitalist countries, 
soon gain recognition on their part, offer them concessions on new 
bases, obtain loans, in a word, enter into the system of capitalist 
states as a less degraded, less colonial, but still profoundly 
dependent entity" (142)

 Trotsky goes on for the benefit of Proyect and Godena:

"A different path of development can be opened up only if the 
proletariat plays the leading role in the national democratic 
revolution. But the first and most elementary pre-condition for this 
is the complete independence of the Communist Party, and an open 
struggle waged by it, with banners unfurled, for the leadership of 
the working class and the hegemony of the revolution" (143).
 [Class Relations in the Chinese Revolution, April 3, 1927]

Proyect thinks that today's Trotskyists don't understand these 
arguments.  In fact, understanding the lessons of the Chinese 
revolution is basic to most Trotskyist tendencies. They have it 
drummed into them that permanent revolution does not mean bypassing 
the national-democratic revolution. On the contrary it means that in 
the epoch of imperialism, only the working class led by a CP in an 
alliance with the poor peasantry can realise the national-democratic 
revolution, precisely by defeating the bourgeois reaction that 
inevitably confronts the revolutionary masses, and going on, under the 
specific conditions of the particular country, and  of the world revolution, 
to a socialist revolution.

So Trotsky writes about the Chinese revolution of March 1927.

"It is a question not of the socialist but of a bourgeois-democratic 
revolution. And within the latter, it is a question of the struggle 
between two methods: bourgeois-conciliationist as against 
worker-peasant. It is possible today only to speculate as to the 
manner and conditions in which the national democratic revolution can 
rise to the socialist revolution, whether it will occur with or 
without an interruption and whether this interruption will be long or 
brief. The further march of events will bring the necessary 
clarification". (147)

Trotsky didnt have to wait long for his worst fears to be realised.
The cominterns bourgeois-conciliationist method prevailed and the 
revolution was beheaded by that honorary Generalissimo of the 
Comintern, Chiang Kai-shek.

Dave.  



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