In light of mistaken positions on the issues of Catalonia, Brexit, and Hong Kong, we must review Trotsky’s Theory of Permanent Revolution. Trotsky’s theory stated that Capitalism, as a world economic system, will break down on a world scale, not along a separate, isolated or parallel model for each and every nation. This meant that advanced capitalist governments may not fall first, as many Marxists predicted, followed by other, more backwards countries’. Trotsky predicted the breakdown of capitalism in Russia and other lesser developed countries, where the international proletariat constituted only a fraction of the populace.

The relative power of states, or Stalinist Unity, should not factor into the Revolutionary Movements’ decisions regarding revolutionary potential or the advisability of the workers taking the power in the capital. The revolution benefits from any capital falling. The revolution should never postpone itself so that the capitalist parties can accomplish more of their objectives in any territory. While we may justify delays in order to increase preparations, the EU, the Spanish monarchy, and Maoist China do not represent progressive forces, and the attempts by the party bureaucracy to characterize them as such harken back to the Stalinist Bureaucratic Unity with Hitler, in order to unify and strengthen Germany vis a vis France and the UK, “the real imperialists” (as if this does not encourage nationalism), in order to take the power only after the Nazis willingly stepped down.

The Fourth International cannot indulge in such luxury and liberty.  We do not point to one imperialist, the bad imperialist of history.  All imperialists form a part of the imperialist system, with the smaller ones controlling the larger ones, like large beasts, by their heads.  Neither can the revolution expect the imperialists to step down willingly.  Given that rational expectation, anything that strengthens the imperialists, such as a united Europe or a territorially expanding Stalinist bureaucracy in Asia, strengthens the imperialists against the revolution as well.  If the far right opposes such expansion for its own reasons, that should by no means force the workers out of the opposition.  

A revolutionary Catalonia or UK or Hong Kong, while not as powerful as Spain or the EU or China, could hold on to independence and provide economically for its people while providing resources to the revolution that only a revolutionary state could do, regardless of its relative size in comparison to the imperialist powers. For that reason, their efforts need our support. An independent Catalonia, Hong Kong, and Great Britain! Unification must wait for revolution! No to Stalinist Bureaucratic Unity!

The Stalinist betrayal of support for the regimes of Madrid, Brussels, and Beijing, over the world revolution and over the international working class requires an investigation. Such a departure from Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism, and the Theory of Permanent Revolution deserves a serious, official explanation from the ICFI.