Introduction¶
Core Argument¶
In this introductory chapter, the author issues a stern methodological warning against the facile invocation of historical parallels between the 1930s and the present crisis. Such comparisons, it is argued, are not merely insufficient but dangerously misleading, fostering a ‘lesser-evilism’ that provides labour leaders with a ready pretext for capitulation to the ruling class. The most direct echo of the past is the policy of the popular front, which subordinates working-class organisations to bourgeois liberalism. The core of the Marxist method, the author insists, is not the search for exact formulas but the concrete analysis of concrete conditions—a principle Leon Trotsky upheld against the schematic, periodised dogmatism of the Stalinised Communist International.
The chapter’s historical analysis centres on the catastrophe of the German labour movement. The Communist Party’s ultra-left ‘social fascist’ line, which refused a united front against the Nazis, fatally disarmed the proletariat. This sectarianism, followed by unprincipled parliamentary manoeuvres, combined with the Social Democrats’ own capitulation, paved the way for Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in January 1933. Trotsky’s verdict was damning: the Stalinist leadership had, since 1923, systematically restrained revolutionary struggle, isolated the party, and deceived the workers, leading to absolute disaster. The labour movement was annihilated without a fight. Trotsky’s analysis of fascism itself is presented as the ruthless dictatorship of monopoly capital, raised to power on the petty bourgeoisie but ultimately purging its own radical wing, as in the Night of the Long Knives. The French Popular Front is similarly condemned as a cross-class alliance that betrayed the 1936 strike wave, diverting the movement towards stabilising bourgeois democracy.
The chapter concludes by assessing the present conjuncture. The working class has been massively strengthened by the post-war boom, while the petty bourgeoisie has been proletarianised, making the potential for revolution far greater than in Trotsky’s era. Yet this immense potential is confronted by a leadership crisis of unprecedented depth. Social democracy is in disarray, Communist Parties have dissolved, and trade union leaders have become the worst strikebreakers, all defending a status quo that repels the majority. This crisis of leadership, not the strength of the enemy, is the greatest obstacle. The coming period, the author contends, must rediscover the militant traditions of the workers’ movement, and the ideas of Trotsky and Ted Grant will be indispensable to that task.