A Note from the Authors¶
Core Argument¶
This prefatory note establishes the text as a direct polemical rejoinder to a specific article on Trotsky by Monty Johnstone, published in the Young Communist League journal Cogito (no. 5). The authors, Alan Woods and Ted Grant, frame their work not as a general treatise but as a necessary, point-by-point refutation of what they consider fundamental historical and ideological errors. They argue that the issues raised—the theory of permanent revolution and the history of the Bolshevik Party—are of such critical importance to the labour movement that they cannot be dealt with summarily; a lengthy, detailed response is therefore justified, not apologised for.
The note outlines the work’s structural approach. The authors have followed the sequence of Johnstone’s arguments, even where this cuts across logical or historical coherence, which has necessitated some repetition. Different aspects of the same question—such as the theory of permanent revolution—are thus treated in multiple sections (e.g., on Bolshevism’s history and on “Socialism in One Country”). Stylistic elegance is consciously sacrificed for political clarity. Similarly, quotations are presented in full, not as isolated phrases, to prevent manipulation and distortion.
A significant polemical context is established. Johnstone’s project is announced as a three-part work; only Part One (“ideas of Trotsky”) has appeared. Woods and Grant explicitly welcome this challenge and state their readiness to answer each point, but they deliberately refrain from anticipating Johnstone’s future writings on the Chinese Revolution or Popular Frontism, touching on these only as illustrative examples. A future, more detailed work is promised.
The note also foregrounds the text’s reliance on Lenin’s writings, including extensive extracts from works largely inaccessible to Young Communist League members. The authors draw attention to the inadequacy of the recently completed English Collected Works (forty-two volumes), noting that the Russian edition runs to fifty-four volumes and contains important material—including letters to Trotsky written shortly before Lenin’s death—that has been suppressed from the English edition. A supplementary pamphlet making this material available is announced as under preparation. The note is dated October 1969.