Aidan Beatty
The ironic thing is that these groups are often quite adept at spotting these problems in each other if not in themselves. Alex Callinicos, for example, wrote a quite solid critique of Trotskyism in 1990 but didn’t seem to recognize that what he was saying was just as true of the Socialist Workers Party that he was a member of as it was of any other of these sects.
Sheila Rowbotham wrote of how ‘forged in the bitterness of failure, Trotskyism subordinated all individuality to the calling of the professional revolutionary.’
One of the most evocative things I’ve ever heard said about Trotskyism — and I quote this at the very end of the book — is Sheila Rowbotham’s view that Trotskyists often displayed an admirable tenacity and a sense of resolution while also holding, as she said, to a worldview that “based on betrayal, forged in the bitterness of failure . . . subordinated all individuality to the calling of the professional revolutionary. For the Trotskyist, personal joy could be expected only as the faintest glimmer of sunlight on grass.”
One thing I appreciate about this observation is how it really gets to the ambiguity I feel about Trotskyism. Tenacity, a resolved sense of political commitment, a willingness to devote yourself to a cause — these are all quite good things. When I was interviewing former WRP members, I always felt that, while we may not agree on everything, I could generally tell that they were very well-meaning, idealistic people willing to make tremendous sacrifices for their political beliefs. These are good attributes for any person to have (even if Healy and other leaders like him completely took advantage of them). There are a lot of people that are either Trotskyists or spent time orbiting Trotskyism for whom I have immense respect: Tariq Ali, Ernest Mandel, Raya Dunayevskaya, Isaac Deutscher,…
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Auteur: Aidan Beatty
