Socialist Appeal - International Marxist Tendency
Marxism. Socialism. Revolution.
March 8th is International Working
Women's Day – originally instituted not as a day to celebrate, but as a day for
militancy and action. Now many liberal institutions and feminist organizations
recognize International Women's Day, but few acknowledge its roots or its
historical significance. They have in fact attempted to remove the class
content of this day of struggle.
Alan
Woods was recently interviewed by the Argentine magazine Sudesta on the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. He deals with
the gradual political degeneration of the Revolution and its usurpation by the
Stalinist bureaucracy, discussing the political issues raised in the course of
the struggle. Unease at the rise of bureaucratic rule was signalled by Lenin in
his last years and by Trotsky. As Alan says, “In 1923 Trotsky launched the
Platform of the Opposition, based on a defence of the Leninist principles of
workers' democracy and proletarian internationalism. He began a struggle
against bureaucratic tendencies in the state and Party. This was the beginning
of the Left Opposition in the Soviet Union and internationally. The struggle
between the Left Opposition and the Stalin faction was at bottom a class
struggle, which reflected the contradictory interests between the working class
and the rising bureaucracy.”
On October 1, Boris Yefimov, Stalin’s loyal cartoonist, died. In his
works he followed all the twists and turns of the Stalinist regime. He
was particularly vicious in his portrayal of oppositionists and the
Trotskyists in particular.
"Petrograd is in an unprecedented catastrophic condition. There is
no bread. The population is given the remaining potato flour and
crusts. The Red Capital is on the verge of perishing from famine,"
stated Lenin. "The political situation has become extremely critical
owing to both external and internal causes." This view of Lenin's summed up the horrendous plight of the
Russian Revolution in May 1918, some six months after the successful
Bolshevik insurrection and the introduction of Soviet rule. The
"external and internal causes" which threatened the Revolution were the
aggressive actions of the imperialist powers, foreign blockade, the
organisation of internal counter-revolution, and the economic sabotage
of the landlords and capitalists.