1

Deflected Permanent Revolution

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1848

1871

1905 1905

3

1848

(1789)

1917 1917

1928

1919

1923 (1928-33)

1925-27 (1918-23)

4

1928

1979

1962 1948

5

1959 1948

19801930

1980

1989

1948

1917 1871 1925-27

6

(Deflected Permanent Revolution)

1905

(1963) 1917 1945

1905

1917

1927

7

1949

Deflected

1989 3

1980

Deflect

(Accumulation)

1980

8

1960

1960

9

1917

1990

10

1905

1914 1917

11

Reformation

1871

12

genius

13

1917

1925-27

6 5

14

22% 66% 1922

1928 5%

1928 1.6% 2.5% 1930 3% 1929 10%

1948

1934

(1948) 19

. 1929

1937-45 1937

15

1949 22

16

17

'Listen Yankee'

19

(subject) (object)

20

21

Outsider

30

22

closed shop

23

24

25

Efficiency

1958 72% 67%

16% 1943

26

Deflected

1925-27 1919 1905

Deflected

Deflected

27

Notes1. The Menshevik spokesman Martynov wrote on the eve of the 1905 revolution:

The coming revolution will be a revolution of the bourgeoisie; and that means that...it

will only, to a greater or lesser extent, secure the rule of all or some of the bourgeois

classes... If this is so, it is clear that the coming revolution can on no account assume

political forms against the will of the whole of the bourgeoisie, as the latter will be the

master of tomorrow. If so, then to follow the path of simply frightening the majority of

the bourgeois elements would mean that the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat

could lead to only one result-the restoration of absolutism in its original form...

to 'frighten' Martynov's implied conclusion is that the working class should impose self-restraint on itself so as not

bourgeoisie to lead the the bourgeoisie; but at the same time he states that it should persistently press the

bourgeoisie can be expressed simply in the revolution: 'The struggle to influence the course and outcome of the

the liberal and radical bourgeoisie, the more democratic proletariat's exerting revolutionary pressure on the will of

'higher' section to agree to lead the bourgeois revolution to its logical 'lower' section of society's compelling the

Diktatury, Geneva, 1905, pp 57-8). Similarly the Menshevik paper Iskra wrote at the conclusion.' (A Martynov Dve

Tsarist autocracy and the When looking at the arena of struggle in Russia, what do we see? Only two powers:time:

specific weight The working masses are split and can do liberal bourgeoisie, the latter organised and of tremendous

force we do not exist; and therefore our task consists in the support of the secondnothing; as an independent

putting forward the force -the liberal bourgeoisie; we must encourage it, and on no account frighten it by

Istorija Rossiiskoi Kommunisticheskoji Partii independent demands of the proletariat.' (Quoted by G Zinoviev,

p 158).(Bolshevikov), Moscow-Leningrad, 1923,

2. VI Lenin Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution, 1905 in Sochineniia, 4th

Edition, Vol IX, P 40.

3. Ibid p 9.

4. Ibid Vol XXI P 17.

5. Trotsky, Perspektivy Russkoi Revoliutsii (Selection from his book Nasha Revoliutsija)

Berlin, 1917. P 46.

6. Trotsky, Perspektivy etc, op cit P 36.

1848 7 Ibid p 48. Trotsky's theory was a development, application and expansion of Marx's analysis of the

the 'advanced revolution. Even before that revolution, the Communist Manifesto had predicted that because of

Germany' would be 'but the prelude conditions' and 'developed proletariat' of Germany, 'The bourgeois revolution in

Selected works, Vol 1, London, 1942, p 241). And after to an immediately following proletarian revolution'. (Marx,

28

the incapacity of the bourgeoisie to carry out the anti-feudal the defeat of 1848 Marx stated that, faced with

struggle for the growth of the bourgeois revolution into the proletarian, and of revolution, the working class had to

into the international revolution. In an address to the Central Council of the Communist League volutionthe national

1850) Marx said:(March

While the democratic petty bourgeois wish to bring the revolution to a conclusion as

quickly as possible and with the achievement at most of the above demands, it is our

interest and our task to make the revolution permanent, until all more or less

possessing classes have been displaced from domination, until the proletariat has

conquered state power, and the association of the proletarian, not only in one country

but in all the dominant countries of the world, has advanced so far that competition

among the proletarians of these countries has ceased and that at least the decisive

productive forces are concentrated in the hands of the proletarians.

revolution!' (K And Marx ended his address with the phrase: 'Their (the workers') battle-cry must be: the permanent

Marx, Selected works, London, 1942, Vol III, pp 161-168.

8. Trotsky, Permanent Revolution, Calcutta edition. 1947. P 168.

9. Ibid, p 169.

10. R C North, Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Elites, Stanford, 1962, P 32.

11. H R Isaacs, The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, London 1938, p 333.

12. Ibid, p 394.

13. world News and Views, 22 April 1939.

14. S Gelder, The Chinese Communists, London, 1946. P 167.

15. See Communist Manifesto published in Chungking on 23 November 1938. New York Times,

24 November 1938.

16. Isaacs, op cit, p 456.

17. New China News Agency, 11 January 1949.

18. Ibid 3 May 1949.

19. North China Daily News, 23 April 1949.

20. New York Times, 25 May 1949.

21. South China Morning Post, 17 October 1949.

22. C Wright Mills, Listen Yankee, New York 1960. P 46.

23. Ibid, p 47.

24. P A Baran, Reflections on the Cuban Revolution, New York, 1961. P 17.

29

Batista's rule 25. The Communist Party of Cuba, the People's Socialist Party, had a lot to live down. It supported

Marinello and Carlos between 1939 and 1946. It participated in Batista's first Ministry with two Ministers, Juan

'idol of a people, the great man of Rafael Rodriguez. In 1944 the Communist paper Hoy addressed Batista as the

new Cuba,' Castro was declared a petty our national policy, the man who incarnates the sacred deals of a

not co-operate in the April 1958 strike. As late as 28 bourgeois adventurer. As stated above the Communists did

26. Mills op cit pp 46-8.democratic elections' to get rid of Batista.June 1958, they were timidly advocating 'clean

27. Ibid, p 44.

28. Baran, op cit, p 11.

29. Ibid, p 12.

30. Speech by Castro of 1 December 1961, El Mundo La Habana, 22 December 1961.

31. 'Che' Guevara, 'Cuba: Exceptional Case?' Monthly Review, New York. July-August 1961. p59.

32. T Draper, 'Castro's Cuba. A Revolution Betrayed?' Encounter, London, March 1961.

33. Guevara op cit p 63.

34. Ibid, pp 65-6.

35. Ibid, p 68.

36. Quoted by Draper, Ibid.

37. Plan for the Advancement of Latin America, Havana 1959 p 32.

38. Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado. 'The Institutional and Political Changes made by the Cuban

Revolution.' Cuba, Havana, November 1961.

39. C A Mayers, 'India' in W Galenson, editor. Labor and Economic Development, New York

1959 pp 41-2.

40. V B Karnik Indian Trade Unionism: A Survey, Bombay 1960. pp 227-8.

41. Ibid p 236.

42. E Berg, 'French West Africa', in Galenson. op cit, p 227.

43. United States Senate, United States-Latin American Relations, 86th Congress, Second

Session, Washington 1960, p 645.

44. V Lenin, Selected works, Moscow 1946. Volume 7. p 248.

received their 45. Thus, for instance, a survey made in India showed that about 25 per cent of the students ho

1949 and 1953 were still Master's degree from Lucknow University in Arts, Science, Commerce and aw between

liberal arts students, 51.4 per cent of the unemployed in 1957. The survey also reported that bout 47 per cent of the

85.7 per cent of the education students said they went science students, 7 per cent of the commerce students, and

qualifications for government service. About 5 1 per cent of the degree holders to the university to get the necessary

university education was a 'waste of time'. (M Weiner, Party Politics in India, Princeton, NJ 1957, pp concluded that

46. V Alba, 'The Middle Class Revolution', New Politics, New York, Winter 1962. p 71.10).8-

47. G D Overstreet and M Windmiller, Communism in- India, Berkeley and Los Angeles 1959 p 540.

48. Ibid, p 358.

Revolution 49. For lack of space the present article has concentrated on the relevance of the theory of Permanent

This second element-that to the backward countries, and not dealt with its implications in the advanced countries.

the advanced metropolitan countries-was the victory of the colonial revolution must lead to the socialist revolution in

but has since become grafted upon it. For some of the not originally (in 1906) part and parcel of Trotsky's theory,

'Imperialism, Highest Stage But One', International Socialism 9, relevant considerations, see Michael Kidron,

International Socialism 61 June 1973.Summer 1962, reprinted in