Study courses

Notes on Rosa Luxemburg's "The Mass Strike"

These notes on "The Mass Strike" are taken, with thanks, from Chris Cutrone . The interpolated "discussion points" (in bold) are our additions, for use in educationals.

"Lessons Of October" (Trotsky): discussion points

Discussion points on Lessons Of October 1. "An unalterable law that a party crisis is inevitable in the transition from preparatory revolutionary activity to the immediate struggle for power". Why? 2. "On April 4, the day after his arrival at Petrograd, Lenin came out decisively against the position of Pravda on the question of war and peace. He wrote: 'No support for the Provisional Government; the utter falsity of all its promises should be made clear, particularly of those relating to the renunciation of annexations. Exposure in place of the impermissible, illusion breeding ‘demand’ that...

Timeline 1945-68

Timeline for use with the British working-class history study course. 8 May 1945 "Victory in Europe" Day 26 July 1945 Labour wins the general election by a landslide . 1 January 1947 Britain's coal industry is nationalised July 1947 Government sets up National Dock Labour Scheme, giving some economic security to dockers and partial union control (but by a very bureaucratic union) over hiring and firing. 15 August 1947 India gains independence from Britain October 1947 After big arguments in the then-unified British Trotskyist organisation, the RCP, about whether to turn to the Labour Party...

Trotsky on the united front against fascism in Germany

Discussion points for educationals on Trotsky's writings on Germany. 1. "People's Revolution", "national liberation", "struggle against Versailles", and workers' control Reading: items 1 to 5 from the collection "The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany": "The Turn in the Communist International and the Situation in Germany" "Against National Communism! Lessons of the 'Red Referendum'" and the shorter items: "Thaelmann and the People's Revolution" , "Workers' Control of Production" , "Factory Councils and Workers' Control of Production" . Discussion points: a) Surely communists were against the...

"Anti-Dühring": discussion points

Chapter one 1. In what way was the French Revolution a turning-point in world history such as no previous overturn or change had been? 2. Engels describes two early sorts of socialists: the "utopians" and those such as Babeuf. What separated the two sorts, and what did they have in common? 3. How did it come about that "a kind of eclectic, average socialism... has up to the present time [1877] dominated the minds of most of the socialist workers in France and England"? 4. What's the shortcoming of those early sorts of socialism, and the later "averaging-out" of them? 5. Engels follows Hegel in...

"What Now?" (from "The Third International After Lenin"): talking points

This letter was written for the Sixth Congress of the Comintern in July-August 1928. A new orientation of the Comintern had already been announced at by the Executive Committee of the Comintern in February 1928, under the title of "the Third Period". 1. What were the main features of the "Third Period" policy? 2. What turn of internal policy in the USSR was it linked to? 3. If this was the "Third Period", what had been the "first" and "second" periods? 4. In fact, as Trotsky shows in this letter, Comintern policy before 1928 had gone through more than two "periods". What were the main phases...

"The New Course" and "The Struggle for the New Course"

Leon Trotsky's "The New Course" and Max Shachtman's "The Struggle for the New Course". 1. Trotsky argues that bureaucratism is not just a bad habit, but "a social phenomenon". What were the roots of that "social phenomenon" in Russia in 1923? 2. What evil results does Trotsky see as coming from bureaucratism if unchecked? 3. Shachtman argues that Trotsky misidentified the chief dangers of bureaucratism in Russia in the 1920s. How? And do you think Shachtman was right about that? 4. Trotsky insists that a Bolshevik must be someone who has and can sustain an independent opinion on all major...

Trotsky's "The War and the International": discussion points

1. Why and how did nation-states arise? Why does Trotsky argue that the capitalist development of the forces of production has come into conflict with the European nation-state framework? 2. What is Trotsky's bedrock argument for refusing support to any side in the World War? 3. "In the dealings between the Danube monarchy [i.e. the Austro-Hungarian empire] and the Serbian government, the historic right... rests entirely with Serbia". Why not then back Serbia and its allies (Russia, France, England...) in the World War? 4. Trotsky does not question that the Tsarist state is the most vicious in...

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