Re: [Marxism] Re: Democracy within socialist states

[Einde O'Callaghan <einde@xxxxxx>]

patrickryan@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Thanks for all the great information to everyone, but tack another
> question on my thread I noticed there is criticism that Trotsky had an
> idea to militarize the Trade Unions, which meant running the economy
> like a military - is this true?
Within a con text where it appeared taht War Communism would continue to
be policy Trotsky suggested the militarisation of labour as a means of
rebuilding the shattered economy. This debate is quite well-known. Lenin
criticised Trotsky for looking at the question from an overly
administrative viewpoint - as an alternative he recommended the New
Economic Policy. Interestingly enough Trotsky had made some general
suggestions of a similar nature about a year earlier and only came up
with the militarisation of labour when his suggestions were rejected at
that time.

There's nothing particularly secret about any of this. It is extensively
discussed in its context by Deutscher in his biography which has been
available for over 40 years and just about every socialist biographer of
Trotsky has discussed the issue extensively as well.

Einde O'Callaghan


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism