Shachtmanism is the form of
Marxism associated with
Max Shachtman (1904–1972). It has two major components: a
bureaucratic collectivist analysis of the
Soviet Union and a
third camp approach to world politics. Shachtmanites believe that the
Stalinist
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...
rulers of proclaimed socialist countries are a
new ruling class distinct from the workers and reject
Trotsky's description of Stalinist Russia as a "
degenerated workers' state".
Origin
Shachtmanism originated as a tendency within the
US Socialist Workers Party in 1939, as Shachtman's supporters left that group to form the
Workers Party in 1940. The tensions that led to the split extended as far back as 1931. However, the theory of "bureaucratic collectivism," the idea that the USSR was ruled by a new bureaucratic class and was not capitalist, did not originate with Shachtman, but seems to have originated within the Trotskyist movement with
Yvan Craipeau, a member of the French Section of the
Fourth International, and
Bruno Rizzi
Bruno Rizzi (March 20, 1901 – January 13, 1977) was an Italian unorthodox political theorist.
Early activities
Bruno Rizzi was born on March 20, 1901, in Porto Mantovano. In 1918, he joined the Italian Socialist Party but left in 1921 to be ...
.
Although Shachtman groups resignation from the SWP was not only over the defence of the
Soviet Union, rather than the class nature of the state itself, that was a major point in the internal polemics of the time.
Currents influenced by Shachtman
Regardless of its origins in the American SWP, Shachtmanism's core belief is opposition to the American SWP's defence of the Soviet Union. This originated not with Shachtman but
Joseph Carter (1910–1970) and
James Burnham (1905–1987), who proposed this at the founding of the SWP in 1938.
C. L. R. James (1901–1989) referred to the implied theory, from which he dissented, as Carter's little liver pill. The theory was never fully developed by anybody in the Workers Party and Shachtman's book, published many years later in 1961, consists earlier articles from the pages of ''
New International
''The New International'' is a magazine of Marxist theory published first by the Socialist Workers Party of the United States (SWP) from 1934 to 1940, then by the Workers Party from 1940 to 1958,
and then revived by the SWP since 1983.
Cur ...
'' with some political conclusions reversed.
Ted Grant (1913–2006) has alleged that some Trotskyist thinkers, including
Tony Cliff (1917–2000), who have described such societies as "
state capitalist" share an implicit theoretical agreement with some elements of Shachtmanism. Cliff, who published a critique of Shachtmanism in the late 1940s,
[Tony Cliff]
"The theory of bureaucratic collectivism: A critique"
(1948) at Marxists.org
Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Enge ...
. would have rejected this allegation.
Left Shachtmanism
Left Shachtmanism, influenced by Max Shachtman's work of the 1940s, sees
Stalinist
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...
nations as being potentially
imperialist and does not offer any support to their leadership. This has been crudely described as seeing the Stalinist and capitalist countries as being equally bad, although it would be more accurate to say that neither is seen as occupying a more progressive stage in the global
class struggle
Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor.
The forms ...
.
A more current term for Left Shachtmanism is Third Camp Trotskyism, the Third Camp being differentiated from
capitalism and
Stalinism
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
. Prominent
Third Camp groupings include the
Workers' Liberty grouping in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and the
United Kingdom and by the International Socialist predecessor of
Solidarity
''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...
.
The foremost left Shachtmanite was
Hal Draper (1914–1990), an independent scholar who worked as a librarian at the
University of California, Berkeley, where he organized the
Independent Socialist Club and became influential with
left-wing students during the
Free Speech Movement.
Julius Jacobson
Julius Jacobson (1922 – March 8, 2003) was an American socialist writer and editor who edited ''Anvil,'' ''New International,'' and '' New Politics'', all publications in the Third Camp tradition of socialism, a democratic Marxist tradition so ...
(1922–2003) and the
New Politics journal continued to develop and apply this political tradition.
Social democratic Shachtmanism
Social democratic
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...
Shachtmanism, later developed by Shachtman and associated with some members of the
Social Democrats, USA, holds
Soviet Communist states to be so repressive that communism must be
contained and, when possible, defeated by the collective action of the working class. Consequently, adherents support anti-communist
labor union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
s and democracy movements around the world. Domestically, they organized in the civil rights movement and in the labor movement. Social democrats influenced by Shachtman rejected calls for an immediate cease-fire and the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam, but rather opposed bombings in Vietnam and supported a negotiated peace that would allow pro-US labour unions and government-opposition to survive. Such social democrats helped provide funding and supplies to the US-backed
Solidarity, the Polish labor union.
Libertarian Shachtmanism
Libertarian socialist tendencies developed within early Shachtmanism, leading to certain individuals and groups moving towards
anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...
and
libertarian Marxism.
Dwight Macdonald
Dwight Macdonald (March 24, 1906 – December 19, 1982) was an American writer, editor, film critic, social critic, literary critic, philosopher, and activist. Macdonald was a member of the New York Intellectuals and editor of their leftist maga ...
left the Workers Party shortly after it was first established, founding the ''
Politics'' magazine and becoming an
anarcho-pacifist
Anarcho-pacifism, also referred to as anarchist pacifism and pacifist anarchism, is an anarchist school of thought that advocates for the use of peaceful, non-violent forms of resistance in the struggle for social change. Anarcho-pacifism rejects ...
during
World War II. While still within the Workers Party, the
Johnson–Forest Tendency developed a form of libertarian Marxism that characterized the Soviet Union as
state capitalist, while also developing a
black liberationist program. The trade union activist
Stan Weir
Stanley Brian Weir (born March 17, 1952) is a Canadian former ice hockey centre. He played on five different teams for the National Hockey League, and one season in the World Hockey Association, over an 11-year career that lasted from 1972 to ...
was in turn inspired by the Johnsonites to reject
vanguardism and traditional
trade unionism, in favor of a bottom-up
syndicalist
Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of pr ...
model. While
Murray Bookchin
Murray Bookchin (January 14, 1921 – July 30, 2006) was an American social theorist, author, orator, historian, and political philosopher. A pioneer in the environmental movement, Bookchin formulated and developed the theory of social ec ...
himself had stayed with the Cannonite Socialist Workers Party, he briefly joined a group that worked together with the Shachtmanite Workers Party, later developing towards a
green anarchist philosophy - which he labelled "
social ecology Social ecology may refer to:
* Social ecology (academic field), the study of relationships between people and their environment, often the interdependence of people, collectives and institutions
* Social ecology (Bookchin), a theory about the relat ...
".
In the wake of World War II, the Independent Socialist League began to forge alliances with other "third camp" groups, holding joint conferences with such organizations as the
Industrial Workers of the World, the
Libertarian League
The Libertarian Book Club and Libertarian League were two postwar anarchist groups in New York City associated with Sam and Esther Dolgoff.
Libertarian Book Club
The Libertarian Book Club was an anarchist circle in postwar New York City. E ...
and the
War Resisters League. An anarchist newspaper noted that the ISL's political thought had developed greatly since its break with orthodox Trotskyism in 1939, stating that "in some respects these comrades are evolving in a generally libertarian direction." However, as Shachtman himself moved towards social democratic tendencies, the further left segments led by Hal Draper split to form the International Socialists, attracting many libertarian socialists through Draper's pamphlet ''Two Souls of Socialism'' - which advocated for a popular and democratic "socialism from below". However, due to the International Socialists' preoccupation with
electoralism
Electoralism is a term first used by Terry Karl, professor of political science at Stanford University, to describe a "half-way" transition from authoritarian rule toward democratic rule. As a topic in the dominant party system political scienc ...
, revolutionary socialists split from the organization to form the
Revolutionary Socialist League, which included a sizeable number of libertarian socialists. Libertarians of the RSL, led by Christopher Z. Hobson and Ron Tabor, eventually broke entirely from Trotskyism, Leninism and Marxism, becoming anarchists and forming the founding nucleus of the Love & Rage Anarchist Federation. Tabor later identified Left Shachtmanism as having provided a bridge between Trotskyism and anarchism, through the concepts of the "Third Camp", "socialism from below" and the "
united front". He also criticized the International Socialists for its
social democratic
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...
,
centrist and
reformist tendencies. Draper, in turn, has criticized anarchism as "fundamentally antidemocratic in ideology", labeling it as an
elitist and
authoritarian
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...
ideology.
The
International Socialist Organization also established itself around Draper's conception of "socialism from below", and like the Revolutionary Socialist League before it, a number of anarchists have since left the organization after developing towards more libertarian philosophies.
Bibliography
*
*{{cite journal, title=From Shachtmanite Trotskyism to Anarchism, last=Price, first=Wayne, date=November 1, 2016, journal=The Utopian, volume=15, issue=2, location=
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, oclc=50734962, url=http://utopianmag.com/archives/tag-The%20Utopian%20Vol.%2015.2%20-%202016/utopian-vol-15-no-2/, pages=59–74
References
Further reading
* ''The Fate of the Russian Revolution, Lost Texts of Critical Marxism Vol 1'', edited by Sean Matgamna: Max Shachtman, Hal Draper, CLR James, Al Glotzer, Joseph Carter, Leon Trotsky, a.o
hoenix Press, 1998
External links
The Lubitz Trotskyana.Net- biographical sketch and selective bibliography
Collection of writings by and on Shachtmanon the
Workers' Liberty website
Max Shachtman Internet Archiveat
Marxists.org
Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Enge ...
''New International'' Archive (1940-1946)in the ''Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL)''
Eponymous political ideologies
Shachtmanism
Types of socialism
Anti-Stalinist left