Introduction to 2010 Edition¶
Core Argument¶
The 1939-40 dispute within the American Socialist Workers Party (SWP) forms the central subject of this introduction, a crisis that challenged fundamental Marxist positions, most notably the defence of the USSR. Following the Stalin-Hitler pact, a leadership grouping around James Burnham, Max Shachtman and Martin Abern sought to revise the party’s position, arguing the Soviet Union could no longer be regarded as a workers’ state. Trotsky countered that, regardless of how the bureaucracy was classified, the practical political task remained unchanged: overthrowing the bureaucracy through political revolution while preserving state property and the planned economy. The opposition, Trotsky argued, formed an unprincipled bloc that avoided basic principles and confined discussion to immediate questions.
Trotsky identified the opposition’s disdain for dialectical materialism as central, arguing that rejection of the Marxist method led inevitably to bourgeois pragmatism and empiricism. He attributed the crisis partly to the low theoretical level of American Trotskyism and the influx of petty-bourgeois intellectuals who reflected outside pressures, particularly anti-Soviet hysteria. The opposition demanded unlimited democracy and freedom to criticise, which Trotsky characterised as a petty-bourgeois distortion of party democracy. Burnham ultimately openly broke with dialectical materialism, denouncing it as ‘totalitarian’. The dispute led to a split, with forty per cent of the membership leaving to form the Workers’ Party.
Burnham’s trajectory confirmed Trotsky’s analysis. He resigned from the Workers Party within a month, crossing into the camp of American imperialism. His resignation letter repudiated dialectical materialism, the Leninist party, the transitional programme, and Bolshevism. He admitted he had never accepted dialectical materialism but had previously dismissed it as unimportant; experience and reflection convinced him Trotsky was right that it was integral to Marxism and had adverse political effects. Burnham soon published The Managerial Revolution, proclaiming the inevitability of the totalitarian state.
The SWP failed to follow Trotsky’s advice to turn towards the working class and educate its members. Under Cannon’s leadership, it degenerated politically and organisationally, repeating Trotsky’s phrases mechanically. Cannon used organisational measures to cover political mistakes. By the early 1980s, this Zinovievite method led to the SWP’s breakup, with Jack Barnes openly repudiating Trotskyism. The remnant became a pro-Castroite sect. Trotsky’s warning that the American section would either become proletarian or cease to exist was confirmed. Shachtman moved rightwards, eventually supporting US imperialism’s war in Vietnam. This book is presented as a Marxist classic, essential for educating a new generation amid the capitalist crisis and impending class battles.