NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Political revolution

A political revolution, in the Trotskyist theory, is an upheaval in which the government is replaced, or the form of government altered, but in which property relations are predominantly left intact. The revolutions in France in 1830 and 1848 are often cited as political revolutions. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ...

Political Revolutions are contrasted with social revolutions in which old property relations are overturned. Leon Trotsky's book, The Revolution Betrayed, is the most widely cited developement of the theory. The term social revolution may have different connotations depending on the speaker. ... Leon Trotsky (Russian: , Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 â€“ August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (), was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... The Revolution Betrayed is a book by the Russian Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky, published in 1937, analyzing and critizising Stalinism and the post-Lenin development in the Soviet Union. ...

Origins

The Trotskyist movement advocates political revolution, as opposed to capitalist counter-revolution, in the countries with deformed workers states. Such political revolutions are envisioned to overthrow undemocratic governments of bureaucratic privilege, replacing them with governments based on workers' democracy while maintaining state owned property relations. In Trotskyist political theory, deformed workers states are states where capitalism has been overthrown through social revolution and the property forms have changed into a collectivized planned economy, but where the working class has never held political power (as it did in Russia shortly after the Russian Revolution). ...

While the Trotskyist movement does not recognize any political revolution to have occurred against the deformed workers states, it saw a strong possibility for that potential in the 1956 Hungarian Uprising and the Czechoslovakian Prague Spring of 1968, both crushed by Soviet invasion. Another uprising seen to have the possibility of sweeping in political revolution were the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, crushed by the Communist Party of China. Hungarians investigate a disabled Soviet tank in Budapest The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a popular revolt against Soviet influence and control in Hungary. ... People in a cafÃ© watch Soviet tanks roll past The Prague Spring (Czech: PraÅ¾skÃ© jaro, Slovak: PraÅ¾skÃ¡ jar, Russian: Ð¿Ñ€Ð°Ð¶ÑÐºÐ°Ñ Ð²ÐµÑÐ½Ð°) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting January 5, 1968 when Alexander DubÄek came to power, and running until August 20 of that year when the... The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, commonly referred to as the Tiananmen Square Massacre,[1] were a series of demonstrations led by students, intellectuals, and labor activists in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) between April 15 and June 4, 1989. ... The Communist Party of China (CPC) (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ), also known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China, a position guaranteed by the countrys constitution. ...

Unlike the movements that led to capitalist counter-revolution such Yeltsin's 1991 coup in the USSR and Lech Wałęsa's Solidarnosc in Poland, these previous movements were not seen as having stated capitalist goals and were not seen as hostile to socialism. As such the Trotskyist movement opposed the 1956 invasion of Hungary, the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the Tiananmen Square massacre as the crimes of Stalinist governments. Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (b. ... WaÅ‚Ä™sa redirects here. ... Solidarity (Polish Solidarność) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980, originally led by Lech Wałęsa. ... Socialism is a broad array of ideologies and political movements with the goal of a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation. ... Stalinism is a brand of political theory, and the political and economic system implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. ...

Application

While there is general agreement among Trotskyists on these questions regarding Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and China, there is disagreement on questions regarding capitalist counter-revolution. Some Trotskyist groups cheered the fall of the Stalinist governments of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, even under the leadership of pro-capitalist forces. These groups included Socialist Action (US), Fourth International (ICR), and the International Socialist Organization^{[citation needed]}. Arguments put forward by some of these groups included the idea that the mobilizations and political space created by smashing the Stalinist bureaucracy could bring about the ability of the working class to carry out the political revolution as a step towards creating a truly democratic and egalitarian socialist society. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... Shortcut: WP:NPOVD Articles that have been linked to this page are the subject of an NPOV dispute (NPOV stands for Neutral Point Of View; see below). ... See also Socialist Action (UK). ... The Fourth International - International Centre of Reconstruction is an international Trotskyist tendency. ... The International Socialist Organization (ISO) is a socialist organization in the United States. ...

The Spartacist League (modern) held onto the historic position of Leon Trotsky in advocating only Political Revolution against Stalinism while also standing for the defense of the deformed and degenerated workers' states from imperialism and internal capitalist counter-revolution. They argue that their position has been proven correct by the drop of the standard of living of the people of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe including the lack of medical care and jobs and the rise in racist terror unleashed by neo-fascist thugs. Internationally they point to the strengthened hand of U.S. Imperialism with the fall of the Soviet Union as a major cause of war, including the Anglo-American war in Iraq. Other groups that agree with this outlook include the League for the Fourth International, International Marxist Tendency and Liberation News (Internationalist). Popularly referred to as the Spartacist League or the Sparts, the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) â€” formerly the International Spartacist Tendency â€” is a Trotskyist international organisation based primarily in the United States. ... Leon Trotsky (Russian: , Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 â€“ August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (), was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... For architecture, see Stalinist architecture. ... In Trotskyist political theory the term degenerated workers state has been used since the 1930s to describe the state of the Soviet Union after Stalins consolidation of power in or about 1924. ... The League for the Fourth International is a Trotskyist international organisation. ... The International Marxist Tendency (IMT) is a Trotskyist tendency based on the ideas of Ted Grant. ... Rosa Luxemburg Liberation News (Internationalist) or usually just called Liberation News was first established in 1996 as a radio program on Free Radio Santa Cruz. ...

Today these debates continue regarding what some Trotskyists consider the deformed workers states of the Republic of Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and the People's Republic of China. In Trotskyist political theory, deformed workers states are states where capitalism has been overthrown through social revolution and the property forms have changed into a collectivized planned economy, but where the working class has never held political power (as it did in Russia shortly after the Russian Revolution). ...