I warmly recommend the latest offering from Red Letter Press, The Crisis of World Trotskyism: Perspectives from the Struggle for a Revolutionary Socialist Feminist Party. This pamphlet is chock-full of practical and theoretically grounded lessons from over 50 years of organizing that are vital for committed activists. Given today’s colossal problems, even skeptics of the revolutionary left movement should check out this optimistic look at how we can build international working-class power to overcome capitalism and end the global oppression it is based on.
The authors Stephen Durham and Susan Williams present a sweeping overview of the history of the world Trotskyist movement, its challenges, successes and failures. Durham and Williams were participants in many of the events described and recount how the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) has fought for decades to keep alive Trotsky’s theory of Permanent Revolution and the internationalism and socialist feminism integral to it. These efforts resulted in the formation of the Committee for Revolutionary International Regroupment (CRIR) in 2013.
Permanent Revolution is based on the understanding that all oppressions are connected and in today’s world these democratic struggles can only succeed through socialist revolution. Therefore the best chance for collective liberation lies in working-class solidarity and the leadership of the most oppressed. Communities of color, both within and outside of imperialist centers, have been perpetually subjugated and are consequently critical to the revolution.
Inherent to Permanent Revolution is the principle that socialist revolution must be international. Permanent Revolution reinforces the tenets of socialist feminism by recognizing that women are among the most oppressed globally. They are the oldest and largest marginalized group and include all others, which is why women collectively have the most revolutionary potential.
The power of the combination of socialism and feminism cannot be overstated. As someone who was first radicalized in the feminist movement, I find socialist feminism to be an unmistakably affirming theory. I was assigned “female” at birth but now identify as non-binary, and exploring the concept of gender unveiled my serious personal qualms with some feminists’ newest brand of exclusion directed at my fellow trans and gender non-conforming siblings. Rejection of any minorities within the working class is antithetical to revolutionary principles.
The integrity of the party’s theoretical foundations, which were forged through decades of study and practice in building international working class organizing, is what attracted me to the party in the first place and gave me the sense of finding a political home. My hope is that others will find this program equally compelling and join the struggle for it!
Order online at RedLetterPress.org or send $9 (includes postage) to P.O. Box 1076, Seattle, WA 98111. Also available in Spanish.
