Writings on Britain

Trotsky’s Writings on Britain span one of the most tumultuous periods in British history. The first decades of the 20th century were a time of crisis on all fronts for British capitalism. Britain was rapidly sinking to a second-rate position among the world powers. Violent eruptions of class struggle shook capitalist rule to its very foundations. Amidst all this, the Marxists were striving to build a mass revolutionary party as the precondition of capitalism’s overthrow. These writings were intended to assist the communists of the time to achieve their historic task. The same task is posed before us once more today. The thread of history is being re-tied, and Britain is once more moving towards revolutionary crises. This collection is indispensable for the Marxists who must rise to face this challenge. Trotsky has a profound affinity for his subject, which he brings to bear on a remarkable range of questions: from the history, psychology, philosophy and morality of the British ruling class; to Britain’s revolutionary traditions going back to Chartism and the English Revolution; to the 1926 general strike, and the questions of revolutionary strategy and tactics that the Marxists faced in the stormy decade of the 1930s. This book includes all three volumes in a single edition, and features a new introduction by Rob Sewell, author of Chartist Revolution and In the Cause of Labour: A History of British Trade Unionism.

Contents

72 chapters

• Introduction by Rob Sewell
• VOLUME ONE
• I. History and Culture
• The Seventeenth-Century Revolution
• Britain and Military Strategy
• The Working Class in the Nineteenth Century
• British Bourgeois ‘Morality’
• The Philosophy of British Capitalism
• II. The Decline of British Imperialism
• Imperialist Diplomacy in the Middle East
• The First World War
• Against the Russian Revolution
• Fighting Soviet Russia
• The Soviet-Polish War
• The Post-War Crisis
• Anglo-Soviet Relations 1921-1923
• The Revolutionary Crisis in Germany
• The Foreign Policy of the First Labour Government
• Anglo-American Rivalry and the Growth of Militarism
• IIII. The Labour Movement
• The Revival of the Working Class
• The British Proletariat and the War
• Labour Bureaucracy and the Post-War Class Struggle
• The Growth of the Labour Party
• The MacDonald Government
• VOLUME TWO
• IV. Where is Britain Going?
• Preface to the American Edition
• Preface
• 1. The Decline of Britain
• 2. Mr. Baldwin and… Gradualness
• 3. One or Two Peculiarities of English Labour Leaders
• 4. The Fabian ‘Theory’ of Socialism
• 5. The Question of Revolutionary Force
• 6. Two Traditions: The Seventeenth-Century Revolution and Chartism
• 7. Trade Unions and Bolshevism
• 8. Prospects
• V. Problems of the British Labour Movement
• Notes on the Situation in Britain, 1925-1926
• Replies to Critics
• The General Strike
• VI. The Lessons of the General Strike
• The Opposition’s Fight for Clarity
• The Anglo-Russian Committee and Comintern Policy
• The Break-up of the Anglo-Russian Committee
• The Struggle in Retrospect
• Appendices
• Introduction to the English Edition of ‘Where is Britain Going?’
• Trotsky on Our Sins
• Trotsky and His English Critics
• VOLUME THREE
• VII. From World Slump to World War
• British ‘Democratic’ Traditions
• The Labour Party and Britain’s Decline
• The Outbreak of War
• VIII. Trotsky Versus Centrism in Britain
• Questions of Perspective
• The First British Trotskyists
• The ILP After Disaffiliation
• The ‘Marxist Group’ in the ILP
• Cardinal Questions Facing the ILP
• The ILP and the Fourth International
• The Decline of the ILP
• Letters to Sumner
• Stalinism and Centrism
• IX. British Imperialism and National Liberation Struggles
• The Principles Involved
• Ireland, 1916
• Afghanistan
• India
• Britain and Mexico, 1938
• Name Glossary