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leon trotsky
To be a ‘Trot’ means to be a rebel, someone who wants to overthrow the system. But how many know what Leon Trotsky really stood for?
The newspapers, journalists and university professors tell us that the collapse of Soviet Russia and Eastern Europe proves that communism doesn’t work. But how often do we learn in school, on TV or in the press about the great communist who first warned that the Soviet system would collapse unless it changed?
Official society fears Trotsky for a reason. The whole history of his life proves that revolution is not just a dream but can be made to happen. And that’s not all. Trotsky fought against the Stalinists bureaucrats who took over in Russia. He showed that they were not building a real communist society but a sick caricature of it. To be a Trotskyist today means to reject the idea that communism has failed. That is why the rich and powerful everywhere are still afraid of Trotsky and his ideas.
Leon Trotsky was born in 1879 in what was then the Russian Empire. He joined the revolutionary movement and his talents and commitment quickly earned his respect from the workers and other revolutionaries. He was elected the president of the Petrograd Soviet (workers’ council) during the failed 1905 Russian Revolution. In 1917, he would again be elected head of the Soviet, and after joining the Bolshevik Party, together with V.I. Lenin Trotsky led the October Revolution which resulted in the world’s first workers’ state.
During the ensuing capitalist invasions and civil war, Trotsky founded and led the Red Army, saving the infant revolution from being crushed. Following the death of Lenin though in 1924, Stalin and the bureaucratic caste that supported him usurped power and oversaw the degeneration of the Russian Revolution. Trotsky and others founded the Left Opposition to fight against Stalinism. For his defense of workers’ democracy and international, permanent revolution he was exiled by Stalin and hounded by Stalinist assassins across the globe. In 1938 Trotsky and his supporters founded the Fourth International - an international party of socialist revolution which still exists. In 1940 however, Stalin’s assassins finally caught up with him in Coyacun, Mexico and put an ice pick though his head. His political legacy though still lives on, and is the inspiration of YSA’s politics.
