On 14 Aug 2020 at 4:42, John Reimann wrote:

There is no such thing as "The Transitional Program by Leon
Trotsky". He never wrote and never
would have written anything by that name.

You have written a lot of very interesting articles, John. They are based on
careful observation of what's happening. But when it comes to Trotskyist dogma,
it changes. You go into spin control mode. It's ludicrous to try to free Trotskyism
from the fiasco of the transitional program by claiming that it never existed, and is
really just a method. It's word-chopping.

You deny that Trotsky ever wrote anything with the title "The Transitional
Program". Yes, that wasn't the original title of the article, but it was immediately
added by Trotsky's closest comrades and collaborators. More importantly, the
article clearly elaborates Trotsky's idea of the transitional program.

I think you want to save Trotsky's concept of the transitional program from the
multitide of wrong assessments in "The Transitional Program". So you only
accept the "transitional method", and quietly jettison the gross blunders. But
Trotsky's transitional method is the replacement of the minimum and maximum
programs with the transitional program. That replacement is in itself wrong. A
transitional program only makes sense in a transitional situation, where revolution
is imminent. If it isn't, then eliminating the distinction between the minimum and
maximum program is a way of deluding oneself about how revolutionary certain
reforms are, in and of themselves.

Moreover, anyone who reads "The Transitional Program: The Death Agony of
Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International" will see that the transitional
program--or method if you prefer--is completely based on socialism being
imminent everywhere, and the world being in what Trotsky called a "transitional
epoch". Trotsky meant "death agony" very seriously. This was emphatically
repeated in Trotsky's prediction two years later that World War II would bring
either world socialism or world totalitarianism. (1) This prediction was very, very
wrong. But one can't really separate the transitional method from it. This
prediction strongly affects tactics.

This was seen in the Arab Spring. Most Trotskyist groups had a lot of trouble with
their theorizing about it. The idea of the permanent revolution reinforced the idea
of imminent socialism. Yet it was clear right from the the start that the uprisings of
the Arab Spring, even if completely successful, wouldn't bring socialism or
workers' regimes. Some Trotskyst groups would denounce various uprisings for
that reason; others supported uprisings if they imagined that they were socialist;
and then some dropped their support as soon as they realized that the uprisings
weren't going to transition on to socialism. (2)

Today we are in a period of crises. Should we therefore expect that now socialist
revolution is imminent? This would give rise to the idea that the break-up of
market fundamentalism will lead directly to a transitional situation and socialism,
and that any major uprising will either go to socialism or collapse. It's going to
give rise to many mistakes on the part of the Trotskyist movement, just as it did
with the Arab Spring.

(1) See the section "Either Socialism or Slavery" of the "Manifesto of the Fourth
International on the Imperialist War and the Proletarian World Revolution", May
1940 in Writings of Leon Trotsky (1939-1940), Pathfinder Press, 219-220.

(2)See, for exampl,e "Against Left-wing Doubts About the Democratic
Movement", http://www.communistvoice.org/46cLeftWingDoubts.htm", or other
articles linked at http://www.communistvoice.org/00ArabSpring.html.





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