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Lessons for Fighting Fascism
This volume chronicles invaluable lessons of the world working-class movement during two critical years.The year 1933 saw the worst defeat for the working class ever in Germany. Hitler came to power because the Communist Party, obeying Stalin's orders, and the Socialist Party refused to band together, although they led the majority of working people.

Trotsky, whose collaborators were grouped in the International Left Opposition, declared an end to any effort to reform the world-wide Communist Parties.Instead, he called for a new world party to fight for socialist revolution in the capitalist countries and political revolution within the Soviet Union.

Lessons in the fight against capitalism, fascism, depression
The years 1933-34 saw the victory of fascism in Germany without a shot fired, and armed workers' resistance to fascism and semi-fascist governments in Austria and Spain. The Stalinized Communist International was communist no more; it showed itself to be a counterrevolutionary instrument of the Stalin bureaucracy's doubling-dealing with world imperialism at the workers' expense, moving our best fighting elements around and sacrificing them like chess pieces. In this book, the co-leader with V.I. Lenin of the Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky, analyzes these events with one end in mind: to figure out WHAT TO DO about them, how to build revolutionary parties to lead the workers and farmers to power; to defeat fascism and "democratic" imperialism by socialist revolution and workers' power, and thereby prevent the holocaust that was World War II. If this sounds like stuff fighters for fundamental social change need today as the Yankee Empire and its European rivals-"allies" march us working people into a new Great Depression, and towards fascism and World War II, then do yourself a favor and buy this book and study it as a guide to action today.

lessons from the last Depression for the new one
The years 1933-34 saw the victory of fascism in Germany without a shot fired, and armed resistance to fascism and semi-fascist governemnts in Austria and Spain. The Stalinized Communist International was communist no more; it showed itself to be a counterrevolutionary instrument of the Stalin bureaucracy's doubling-dealing with world imperialism at the workers' expense, moving our best fighting elements around and sacrificing them like chess pieces. In this book, the co-leader with V.I. Lenin of the Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky, analyzes these events with one end in mind: to figure out WHAT TO DO about them, how to build revolutionary parties to lead the workers and farmers to power; to defeat fascism and "democratic" imperialism bysocialistrevolution and workers' power, and thereby prevent the holocaust that was World War II. If this sounds like stuff fighters need today as the Yankee Empire and its European rivals-"allies" march us working people into a new Great Depression, and towards fascism and World War III, then do yourself a favor and buy this book and study it as a guide to action today.

addicting books
The Trotsky Writings books are addicting. The short pithy, wise articles, interviews, polemics, the illuminating and interesting notes, and the drama of Trotsky's struggle in exile are available on a week
t week, month to month, year to year basis across from 1929 until 1940.

You end up reading the next article, and the next article, and you have to discipline yourself to put it down if you can. A constantfeature is the continued interviews by newspaperswspapers,international press services from the US, Britain, and around the world, because even in exile, even these bourgeois forces knew that Trotsky was one man who could put together the trends in the world. As much as they teach us about history,these books teach us evolutionary answers to questions we need to answer today: how to gofrom small revolutionary movements to a revolution like Trotsky and Lenin led in 1917, how to fight themiddle class bureaucrats in the former Soviet Union and China, how to win with workers, farmers, women and oppressed women. ... Read more

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Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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An assessment of the social and economic crisis that shook France in the mid-1930s in the aftermath of Hitler's rise to power in Germany, and a program to unite the working class and exploited peasantry to confront it.

Glossary, other writings by Trotsky on France, 1929-40, index. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Greatly underrated
The fact that Trotsky tried to devise a revolutionary strategy to cope with the issues aroused by the existence of a Popular Front government in 1930s France made this collection of short pieces and pamphlets to remain consistently out of fashion for the next 70 years, as Marxists tended more and more to make a fetish out of Liberal Bourgeois political forms. Therefore the relevance of this book, as a discussion of the shortcomings of said Bourgeois Democracy in terms of the overall sclerosis imposed by it on the Body Politic.

Rich lessons from struggles in the 1930s
Paris, February 1934: tens of thousands of rightists attempted to overthrow the French government in a violent demonstration. The Radical government was soon replaced with a Bonapartist ruler. How could the powerful working class movement respond? The French Communist Party was moving to the "Peoples Front" alliance with the Socialists and the Radicals, in reflection of Stalin's search for alliances with one or other of the imperialist powers moving towards war to redivide the world. Together with the Socialists, the Stalinists politically disoriented the French workers. Six years on from the 1934 demonstrations, Hitler was able to crush France, and the fascist Petain ascended to power. "Leon Trotsky on France", a collection of writings from throughout those six years, brings the light of Marxism and the experience of the Russian Revolution to bear in showing the way for workers seeking a revolutionary way forward. As the 21st century takes us deeper into a situation like the 1930s -- economic depression, political volatility and instability, rapidly sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry, the rise of ultrarightist forces -- the lessons of the 1930s loom large. With each passing year, books like this one are becoming more relevant for workers and fighters for social justice.

Depression, fascism, war-- how can workers fight back?
More than a history text, this is a compelling day-by-day analysis of the great political developments in France during the 1930s depression-- and incisive arguments for what working class parties needed-- and failed -- to do to fight their way victoriously out of the crisis. The brutal economic depression and the crisis of capitalist political rule, the approaching world war, the fascist uprising in 1934, the rise of Bonapartist-police state regimes, the great workers strike wave of 1936, the stakes in organizing a workers militia, the political basis for alliances in working class struggles-- all are explained clearly and logically, with the aim of helping working people understand and organize to defend their interests.

Trotsky writes with the experience of a leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution and the early years of building an international communist workers movement. He was particularly familiar with the French workers movement from years in exile before 1917, and spent time in France in the 1930s after being expelled from the Soviet Union by Stalin and his henchmen-- this experience helping him give rich political detail to his writings.

Above all, the questions posed here do not belong just to the 1930s. The perspectives of the capitalists, the petty-bourgeoisie, the workers and the peasants, and the question of leadership of the working class, of the forging of a revolutionary party with a correct program and the confidence to act are issues for today and tomorrow. Trotsky's writings here are invaluable in helping understand and organize in today's world.

Fighting for the lives of French workers
Best part of the book -- Part Two: A Program for the French Revolution. For anyone who has had to deal with trade union brass who caution that the union membership must be careful not to alienate the friendly wing of management, for anyone who has had to suffer through debates in parties such as Canada's New Democratic Party, this book helps straighten things out clearly. As Europe thrashed its way through the 1930s, socialist revolution or fascist victory was put on the agenda in country after country. Trotsky goes over all the key issues as they arose concretely in France: elections and picket lines, workers armed defense versus reliance on the middle class, the relationship of general strike to the fight for a revolutionary change in government, how to win over the farmers. He hammers away at the fact that while capitalism was degenerating before everyone's eyes, nothing was automatic, nothing would inevitably change for the better without conscious action and organization by the powerful French working class. He pointed out that he was fighting for the lives of French workers who went into the streets in strike waves, who occupied their workplaces, who fought the police and fascist gangs over and over throughout the decade. And went down to defeat. Difficult to read simply as a historical document since so many issues are of burning relevance today.

preparing for the struggles of the future
France in the 1930s was wracked by mass struggles by workers, fascist, monarchist and other right-wing conspiracies two futures: the future of war, Nazi occupation and the Petain regime that aped fascism, and a victory of workers and farmers like the one in Russia in 1917 and Cuba in 1960s. Battles went on that could have prevented World War two, prevented fascism in Spain, and more.
Trotsky's advice here is not just directed to analyzing the big questions, but also discussing how small groups of revolutionists were affected by these big events, how they could deepen their role in the mass struggle.
With war, and what some call a gathering world depression looming in front of working people around the world, the same questions before French workers in the 1930s are coming before workers, youth, farmers and others who want to fight today.We are fortunate to read these writings by Trotsky to fight to avoid a future of war and fascism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Lessons of the Paris Commune
George Bernard Shaw once called Leon Trotsky the ` Prince of Pamphleteers' and his little book on the Paris Commune certainly bears this out. All militants pay homage to the memory of the Commune. For a historical narrative of the events surrounding the rise and fall of the Commune look elsewhere. However, if you want to draw the lessons of the Commune this book offers a superior strategic study. Not surprisingly Trotsky, the organizer of the Russian October Revolution in 1917 and creator of the Red Army, uses the strength and weaknesses of the Commune against the experiences of the October Revolution to educate the militants of his day. Today some of those lessons are still valid for the international labor movement in the seemingly one-sided class struggle being waged against it.

When one studies the history of the Paris Commune of 1871 one learns something new even though from the perspective of revolutionary strategy the Communards made virtually every mistake in the book. Nevertheless, one can still learn lessons and measure them against the experience acquired by later revolutionary struggles and above all by later revolutions, not only the successful Russian Revolution of October 1917 but the failed German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Chinese and Spanish revolutions in the immediate aftermath of World War I. More contemporaneously we also have the experiences of the partial victories of the later Chinese, Cuban and Vietnamese revolutions.Trotsky's analysis follows this path.

Notwithstanding the contradictory nature of later experiences cited above, and as if to show that history is not always totally a history of horrors against the fate of the masses, Trotsky honored the Paris Commune as a beacon of the coming world socialistrevolution. It is just for that reason that Karl Marx fought tooth and nail in the First International to defend it against the rage of capitalist Europe and the faint-hearted elements in the European labor movement. It is truly one of the revolutionary peaks.

The Commune nevertheless also presented in embryo the first post-1848 Revolution instance of what was to be later characterized by Lenin at the beginning of World War I as the crisis of revolutionary leadership of the international labor movement. Moreover, after Lenin's death this question preoccupied Trotsky for much of the later part of his life. Trotsky's placing the problems facing the Commune in this context made me realize that this crisis really has a much longer lineage that I had previously recognized. Unfortunately, that question is still to be resolved.

Many working class tendencies, Anarchist, Anarcho-Syndicalist, Left Social Democratic and Communist justifiably pay homage to the defenders of the Paris Commune and claim its traditions. Why does an organization of short duration and subject to savage reprisals still command our attention?The Commune shows us the heroism of the working masses, their capacity to unite for action, their capacity to sacrifice themselves in the name of a future, more just, organization of society. Every working class tendency can honor those qualities, particularly when far removed from any active need to do more than pay homage to the memory of the fallen Communards.

Nevertheless,as Trotsky notes, to truly honor the Communards it is necessary to understand that at the same time the Commune shows us the many times frustrating incapacity of the masses to act in their objective interests, their indecision in the leadership of the movement, their almost always fatal desire to halt after the first successes. Obviously, only a revolutionary party can provide that kind of leadership in order fight against these negative traits. At that stage in the development of the European working class where political class consciousness was limited to the vanguard, capitalism was still capable of progressive expansion and other urban classes were at least verbally espousing socialist solutions it is improbable that such an organization could have been formed. Nevertheless such an organization was objectively necessary.

It is a truism in politics, including revolutionary politics, that timing is important and many times decisive. As Trotsky noted seizure of power by the Commune came too late. It had all the possibilities of taking the power on September 4, 1870 rather than March 18, 1871 and that would have permitted the proletariat of Paris to place itself at the head of the workers of the whole country in their struggle. At the very least, it would have allowed time for the workers of other cities and the peasantry in the smaller towns and villages to galvanize their forces for action in defense of Paris and to create their own communes. Unfortunately the Parisian proletariat had neither a party, nor leaders forged by previous struggles who could or would reach out to the rest of France.

Moreover, a revolutionary workers' party, while entirely capable of using parliamentary methods is not, and should not, be a machine for parliamentary wrangling. In a revolution such activity at times amounts to parliamentary cretinism. The Central Committee of the National Guard, the embodiment of organizational power, had more than its share of such wrangling and confusionist politics. In contrast, a revolutionary party is the accumulated and organized experience of the proletariat. It is only with the aid of the party, which rests upon the whole history of its past, which foresees theoretically the road forward, all its stages, and knows how to act in the situation, that the proletariat avoids making the same historical mistakes, overcomes its hesitations, and acts decisively to seize power. Needless to say those same qualities are necessary to retain power against the inevitable counter-revolutionary onslaught. The proletariat of Paris did not have such a party. The result was that the revolution broke out in their very midst, too late, and Paris was encircled. Like other revolutionary opportunities six months delay proved fatal. Capitalism cruelly exacted its revenge. That is a great lesson of the Commune, for others read this book.
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Leon Trotsky (Twayne's world leader series; TWLS 72)
I first borrowed this book from my local library and found that I liked it enough to want to own a copy. It is a compact account of the life of Trotsky, convenient for those people who do not want to have to wade through large biographies. As one example of how the author covers this history, on the one hand he emphasizes Trotsky's supreme writing talent and organizing abilities, and on the other hand shows Trotsky's hesitancy to take on the burdens of leadership by replacing Lenin as head of state, thus opening the door to Stalin -the account does not make Stalin the sole villain in Trotsky's downfall, but instead shows that Trotsky's persona itself paved the way for this outcome. When the author makes conjectures he indicates these clearly, but these are kept to a minimum. As a whole, it is a carefully-balanced story of the factors involved in Trotsky's life and it is the work of a good historian. ... Read more

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The major political questions of the 20th century, discussed by an outstanding communist leader. Includes a defense of the right to revolution, made in 1906 in the prisoner's dock of the tsarist courts; speeches as a leader of the revolutionary government following the Bolshevik-led revolution; and I Stake My Life, Trotsky's 1937 defense of his 20-year Bolshevik course and challenge to the organizers of Joseph Stalin's frame-up trials. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Organizing and Defending a Revolution
Organizing and Defending a Revolution

Leon Trotsky was a participant in the most significant class battles of the 20th century. This book collects some of Trotsky's key speeches and writings from the Russian Revolution, and his effort to defend it even when persecuted by the Stalin gang that usurped power and murdered the revolution's leaders. It is a great introduction to the Russian revolution and to Trotsky's other works. Read about how the Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies (Trotsky was the President) organized the insurrection; the revolutionary government's efforts to lead working people forward; how Stalin undermined the Soviet Union by seeking a pact with Hitler.

Speeches of a working class leader in action
I found a lot to be learned from this collection of talks, reports and declarations by this leader of the Russian Revolution, given in wildly different settings to different audiences, over decades of revolutionary working class struggle.

Above all, you see Trotsky appealing to, educating, and inspiring workers and peasants with an understanding of the challenges they faced and a confidence in their ability to take on unprecedented historical tasks.

His speech in a Czarist court defending the workers councils (Soviets) of the 1905 Russian revolution is of the same spirit as Nelson Mandela or Fidel Castro when they in turn were on trial by their oppressors.Read the messages and transcripts of speeches given during the whirlwind of the October Revolution in Russia-- a working class leader in day-by-day action.

And especially worth studying, Trotsky's talks to gatherings of workers, soldiers, and party members analyzing the changing relations between the major world powers and between the toiling and exploiting classes of those nations, and the different policies pursued by the new Soviet government as these circumstances changed-- you'll learn a lot about how society works and what it takes to really change it.

Passion, Reason, Power to find our way out
Trotsky was a great orator, a great writer, but above all he was impassioned by his faith in the power of working people to change the world, a vision he never lost.This is where the power of these great speeches comes from.Read them and learn how to harness that power for today's fights. The speeches here don't appeal to cheap emotion, nor do they appeal to fancy phraseology, they appeal to reason, they appeal to history, they appeal to the power of working people to change the world. Read these speeches not for history, but for how their ideas can be used to fight our way out of the disaster modern capitalism has left the world in, and to find a way out for the peoples in the former Stalinized countries.

Attests to Trotsky's genius.
If you're reading this review, you probably already own, or have read some of Trotsky's writings. Which means I don't have to expound to you his genius as a theorist and literary critic. What I will do is explain howthis book further displays Trotsky's remarkable abilities.

Most educatedpeople have a rudimentary knowledge of Trotsky's life, and are well awareof the fact he was one of the greatest orators of the twentieth century.But what 'Leon Trotsky Speaks' does, is succintly show the reader"why" Trotsky was a great orator. 'Trotsky speaks' is ananthology of Trotsky's speeches from the first Russian Revolution of 1905,to his years of exile in the 1930's. When I opened the book, I wasabsolutely dumbfounded by the incredible length of his speeches, everyspeech of his would take hours to recite, which is remarkable, the longestI can give a speech before having my voice go hoarse is about half-an hour.Not only were his speeches long, they are interesting, just reading thespeeches, I realize why audiences were captivated by his words. Although Iwrite from a biased position, being a Trotskist, I highly recommend thisbook, not only will it improve your understanding of Trotsky's genius, itwill also give an aspiring speechwriter a flawless orator to emulate. ... Read more

Product Description
This historical and organizational study focuses on Leon Trotsky's efforts to create a military intelligence operation of global significance and his subsequent efforts in the 4th International to recreate an earlier success. New material from Mexican sources is delineated and the various assassination plots against him in the late 30's are unraveled. Obscure aspects of the affair such as Trotsky's attempt to obtain an American visa and the makeup of his (mostly North American) bodyguard are discussed in satisfying detail. ... Read more