Shachtmanism is a critical term applied to the form of Trotskyism associated with Max Shachtman. It has two major components: a bureaucratic collectivist analysis of the Soviet Union and a third camp approach to world politics. Shachtmanites believe that the Stalinist rulers of Communist countries are a new (ruling) class, distinct from the workers, and they therefore go beyond Trotsky's description of Stalinist Russia as being a "degenerated workers' state." Max Shachtman described the USSR as a "bureaucratic collectivist" society, and other Trotskyist thinkers who have described such societies as "state capitalist" are said to share a basic theoretical agreement with Shachtmanism. Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... Max Shachtman (September 10, 1904 - 1972) is best known as an American Trotskyist theorist. ... Bureaucratic collectivism is a theory of class society. ... The third camp, also known as third camp socialism or third camp Trotskyism, is a branch of Trotskyism which aims to oppose both capitalism and Stalinism by supporting the organised working class as a third camp. This approach was developed by Max Shachtman and is one of the major components... Stalinism is a brand of political theory, and the political and economic system implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. ... Communism - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ... 1915 passport photo of Trotsky Leon Davidovich Trotsky (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Trotskii, Trotski, Trotzky) (October 26 (O.S.) = November 7 (N.S.), 1879 - August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist intellectual. ... 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. ... Bureaucratic collectivism is a theory of class society. ... There are multiple definitions of the term state capitalism. ...

Origin

Shachtmanism originated as a tendency within the US Socialist Workers Party in 1939, as Shachtman's supporters left that group to form the Workers Party in 1940. However, the theory of "bureaucratic collectivism," the idea that Russia was ruled by a new bureaucratic class and was not capitalist, did not originate with Shachtman, but seems to have originated within the Trotskyist movement with Bruno Rizzi. The Socialist Workers Party is a small communist political party in the United States. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Workers Party was a Trotskyist group in the United States. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Bruno Rizzi (1901 - 1977) was Italian unorthodox Trotskyist theoretician. ...

Although the split in the SWP was not over the class nature of the Russian state, contrary to popular mythology among many latter day Trotskyists, that was a major point in the internal polemics of the time. Furthermore, it should be noted that members of the French Section of the Fourth International around Craipeau also held this analysis. For the left communist Fourth International, see Communist Workers International. ...

Supporters

Regardless of its origins in the SWP, Shachtmanism's first advocate was not Shachtman but Carter, although he did not commit his ideas to paper. Nonetheless, we have the testimony of C L R James that this is a fact as he referred to the theory, from which he dissented, as Carters little liver pill. In the event the theory was never fully developed by anybody in the Workers Party and Shachtman's book, published many years later in 1961, consists earlier articles from the pages of New International with the political conclusions reversed. Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901–19 May 1989) was a journalist, socialist theorist and writer. ... New International is a Marxist magazine published by Pathfinder Press, from the United States Socialist Workers Party. ...

Left Shactmanism, "Third Camp Trotskyism"

Left Shachtmanism, influenced by Max Shachtman's work of the 1940s, sees Stalinist nations as being potentially imperialist and does not offer any support to their leadership. This has been crudely described as seeing the Stalinist and capitalist countries as being equally bad, although it would be more accurate to say that neither is seen as a progressive alternative for the working class. Stalinism is a brand of political theory, and the political and economic system implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. ... Imperialism is the policy of extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ...

A more prevalent term for Left Shachtmanism is Third Camp Trotskyism, the Third Camp being differentiated from capitalism and Stalinism. This position was articulated, apparently with little influence from Shachtman, by British-based Trotskyist leader Tony Cliff, and became the official position of the International Socialist Tendency which he founded. Cliff differed from Shachtman in adopting the much older term 'state capitalist' to describe the Soviet system. This position is still held today by the IST, and also by many of the various groups that have formed by splitting from it, such as the International Socialist Organization in the United States. Prominent Third Camp groupings include the Workers' Liberty grouping in Australia and the United Kingdom and by both the International Socialist wing of Solidarity. Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Capitalism The page is about the economic system. ... Stalinism is a political theory, and the political and economic system implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. ... Tony Cliff Tony Cliff (May 20, 1917 – May 9, 2000) was a Trotskyist revolutionary activist. ... The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of organisations around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in the UK. It has sections across the world, however its strongest presence is in Europe, especially in the UK, Greece and Ireland. ... This article is about the International Socialist Organization in the United States. ... The Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL), also known as Workers Liberty is a small Marxist group based in the United Kingdom. ... Solidarity is a socialist group in the United States, led by Trotskyists and post-Trotskyists. ...

The foremost left Shachtmanite was Hal Draper a writer who worked as a librarian at the University of California, Berkeley and became influential with left wing students during the Free Speech Movement. Hal Draper (1914 -1990) was an American socialist activist, Marxist, Left-Shachtmanite, and author, perhaps best known for his role in Berkeley, California Free Speech Movement. ... University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (also known as California, Cal, UCB, UC Berkeley, The University of California, or simply Berkeley) is a public coeducational university situated east of the San Francisco Bay in Berkeley, California, overlooking the Golden Gate. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms that refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially but not exclusively in the American sense of the word... The Free Speech Movement was a student protest that began on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley in 1964 under the informal leadership of student Mario Savio and others. ...

Social Democratic Shactmanism, "Right Shactmanism"

Social democratic Shachtmanism, called "Right Shachtmanism" by detractors, later developed by Shachtman and espoused by the Social Democrats USA, holds Stalinist nations to be worse than Western capitalism. As a result, adherents will often side with the U.S. government in international conflicts against Stalinist groups, such as the Vietnam War. This viewpoint was popularized in the 1960s and 1970s and inspired the transition of some former leftists into the Neoconservative movement, which espoused militant anti-Soviet foreign policy. Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... The Social Democrats USA (SDUSA) is a small coalition of intellectuals and trade unionists. ... The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War was a conflict between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN, or North Vietnam), allied with the National Liberation Front (NLF, or Viet Cong) against the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam), and its allies — notably the United States military in support of... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Neoconservatism refers to the political movement, ideology, and public policy goals of new conservatives in the United States, who are mainly characterized by their relatively interventionist and hawkish views on foreign policy, and their lack of support for the small government principles and restrictions on social spending, when compared with...

External links

• The Lubitz TrotskyanaNet provides a biographical sketch and a selective bibliography of Max Shachtman & much more on Trotskyists and Trotskyism