The Workers International
League FAQ
The Theory of the
Permanent Revolution
The theory of the permanent revolution was
first developed by Trotsky as early as 1904. The permanent revolution, while accepting
that the objective tasks facing the Russian workers were those of the bourgeois democratic
revolution, nevertheless explained how in a backward country in the epoch of imperialism,
the "national bourgeoisie" was inseparably linked to the remains of feudalism on
the one hand and to imperialist capital on the other and was therefore completely unable
to carry through any of its historical tasks.
The situation is clearer still today. The national
bourgeoisie in the colonial countries entered into the scene of history too late, when the
world had already been divided up between a few imperialist powers. It was not able to
play any progressive role and was born completely subordinated to its former colonial
masters. The weak and degenerate bourgeoisie in Asia, Latin America and Africa is too
dependent on foreign capital and imperialism, to carry society forward. It is tied with a
thousand threads, not only to foreign capital, but with the class of landowners, with
which it forms a reactionary bloc that represents a bulwark against progress. Whatever
differences may exist between these elements are insignificant in comparison with the fear
that unites them against the masses. Only the proletariat, allied with the poor peasants
and urban poor, can solve the problems of society by taking power into its own hands,
expropriating the imperialists and the bourgeoisie, and beginning the task of transforming
society on socialist lines.
By setting itself at the head of the nation, leading the
oppressed layers of society (urban and rural petty-bourgeoisie), the proletariat could
take power and then carry through the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution (mainly
the land reform and the unification and liberation of the country from foreign
domination). However, once having come to power, the proletariat would not stop there but
would start to implement socialist measures of expropriation of the capitalists. And as
these tasks cannot be solved in one country alone, especially not in a backward country,
this would be the beginning of the world revolution. Thus the revolution is
"permanent" in two senses: because it starts with the bourgeois tasks and
continues with the socialist ones, and because it starts in one country and continues at
an international level. The revolutionary events in Indonesia, Iran, Bolivia, and
elsewhere can only be fully understood in this context.
Recommended further reading:
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