Study of Transitional Program (Trotsky, 1938)

Okay then, first questions;
1) What was Trotsky's purpose in formulating this text?
and
2) How can we adapt this text to suit our purposes?

Here's an immediately relevant question related to this book study:

What would it mean to actually apply the method, general strategy and tactics of this Transitional Program to the current situation regarding the Spanish popular protests?

Isakenaz wrote:Okay then, first questions;
1) What was Trotsky's purpose in formulating this text?
and
2) How can we adapt this text to suit our purposes?

I'll try to revive this discussion.

Trotsky's purpose is to show how the world is ready for proletarian revolution, and how to lead workers to revolution transitionally from an original program of minimum demands.

I'll answer more questions soon.

Godfaesten wrote:I'll try to revive this discussion.

Trotsky's purpose is to show how the world is ready for proletarian revolution, and how to lead workers to revolution transitionally from an original program of minimum demands.

I'll answer more questions soon.

That's correct, Gf. He says that the objective problem isn't that the world isn't yet ripe for socialism, but that the worldwide crisis of proletarian revolutionary leadership is the main problem hold us back from actualizing socialism. That's much more true today, over 70 years later after Trotsky originally wrote the TP.

The Transitional Program is a methodological and practical guide for revolutionary socialists to resolving that chief problem: the crisis of leadership. You surely notice that he doesn't suggest this problem is resolvable through polite discussions with a trendy Left scene.

Isakenaz wrote:Okay then, first questions;
1) What was Trotsky's purpose in formulating this text?
and
2) How can we adapt this text to suit our purposes?

2. The general idea Trotsky has is to take up the struggle for the minimum demands of the workers and use it to transition to the maximum demand, i.e., socialist revolution. He proceeds to describe the specific minimum demands that should be made, e.g., sliding scale of wages, opening the books, etc. Now, Trotsky's also points out that the workers' minimum demands depend on the objective conditions in the capitalist system as well as the actions of the left misleaderships. So perhaps some of our demands ought to be different, perhaps new ones ought to be added, perhaps the focus of some should be changed, but all in all, I think the application of the transitional program would be helpful to our cause.

Godfaesten wrote:2. The general idea Trotsky has is to take up the struggle for the minimum demands of the workers and use it to transition to the maximum demand, i.e., socialist revolution. He proceeds to describe the specific minimum demands that should be made, e.g., sliding scale of wages, opening the books, etc. Now, Trotsky's also points out that the workers' minimum demands depend on the objective conditions in the capitalist system as well as the actions of the left misleaderships. So perhaps some of our demands ought to be different, perhaps new ones ought to be added, perhaps the focus of some should be changed, but all in all, I think the application of the transitional program would be helpful to our cause.

But also, we need to continue spreading word about our group and ideas before we can seriously consider an endeavour into the application of Trotsky's ideas.

Godfaesten wrote:But also, we need to continue spreading word about our group and ideas before we can seriously consider an endeavour into the application of Trotsky's ideas.

Any group is its comrades (its core dedicated contributors), and its program (its values and aims), and its activity (its practical method applied among specific target segments of the population).
So you have to start with a few of the right people in the beginning. These people have to actually want to do whatever it takes to change the world, and they have to share enough in common in their values and aims to belong in a common disciplined organization with a common program, and they have to generally agree on the sort of activities and methods with specific target segments of the population to achieve their aims.
This is why broad left unity dreams fail. It isn't enough to embrace everyone who calls themselves 'progressives' or 'socialists' into a common organization, unless there is no real intention of actually doing anything to change the world (ie., unless the goal is to just have an talk-shop or alternative lifestyle scene, like most of the "Left' is today).

These first few revolutionary comrades form the beginning of an organized distinct tendency group, and their primary task is to lay the foundation basis for the advancement to the next pre-party stage: the fighting propaganda group. That means they write our their perspectives and tasks statement, they write our their program, they write our their key critique statements that explain why it was necessary to found a new revolutionary tendency. This isn't usually done by just one person authoring such statements in isolation, but rather after a lot of discussion and study and often even debate between the comrades involved. To get that discussion, study, and debate going among the sort of comrades we need to gather and involve, the new tendency founders usually initiate their own 'Iskra'-type journal (or today, it might be a blog), and then this is 'marketed' everywhere it is deemed most likely that they would find revolutionary-minded advanced workers who would generally agree (i.e., it ain't kept a hidden secret, and merely waiting for others to just spontaneously arrive at similar conclusions is rejected).

Remember that this is where the initial battle takes place for the right people with the right foundation of ideas/aims and the right orientation and activist method for the eventual launching of a successful revolutionary socialist fighting propaganda group. This initial stage cannot be skipped over, or you'll be stuck in the faux-left's quicksand and utterly dependant upon them. This initial stage cannot be skipped over, or you'll end up with a broad left mish-mash bandwagon where even the core leading comrades have deep fundamental differences with each other, and the result will be a confused message to both other comrades and to the masses, or appeasement to the lowest (centrist or reformist) common denominator in this broad left coalition type grouping (usually meaning that the revolutionary wing has to shut up to 'get along' or gets suppressed/expelled).

The beginning is half of the battle to victory.