79. Trotsky and the revolutionary party

How did Trotsky view the relationship between the revolution and its party?

Where countless other revolutions have failed, the workers of Russia succeeded in taking power in October 1917. The decisive factor was the Bolshevik Party. Leon Trotsky likened it to a “piston-box” which could channel the “steam” of mass revolutionary energy.

Trotsky did not start out as a member of the Bolsheviks. But he came to see the role Lenin had played - preparing an organisation capable of leading the working class during revolutionary upheavals - as vital.

But are the Bolsheviks a model for building a party today? What is the difference between a broad workers’ party and a revolutionary party? And is a revolutionary party all we need to make a successful revolution?

This episode of Socialism looks at political consciousness and organisation: Trotsky and the revolutionary party.

80 years since Trotsky's assassination: Why couldn't his ideas be killed? Join the international online rally on Sunday 23 August, 2pm London time! Register now: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/trotsky-murdered-80-years-ago-why-couldnt-his-ideas-be-killed-registration-115866871933

Further reading

The Class, the Party and the Leadership (Trotsky): https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/Trotsky/cpl/index.html

The role of a revolutionary party: http://marxism.org.uk/pack/party.html

The Transitional Programme (Trotsky) with an introduction by Peter Taaffe: http://leftbooks.co.uk/epages/950002679.sf/en_GB/?ObjectID=2333802

The Communist Manifesto (Marx and Engels): https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/manifesto/

What Is to Be Done? (Lenin): http://leftbooks.co.uk/epages/950002679.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/950002679/Products/LENI0011

"Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder (Lenin): https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/

The Revolutionary Party and its Role in the Struggle for Socialism (Cannon): https://www.marxists.org/archive/cannon/works/1967/party.htm

The First Five Years of the Communist International: Volume One (Trotsky): http://leftbooks.co.uk/epages/950002679.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/950002679/Products/TROT0091

The First Five Years of the Communist International: Volume Two (Trotsky): http://leftbooks.co.uk/epages/950002679.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/950002679/Products/TROT0092

The History of the Russian Revolution (Trotsky): https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/hrr/index.htm