Probing the essence of

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containing the essay by Tim Wohlforth The Theory of Structural Assimilation" (until now virtually unobtainable) and an introductory essay by theory to devlopments in Continued next week Hungary 1956-the possibility of political revolution The role of Stalinism in the post-war world is one of the most perplexing, intriguing, contradictory and practical problems confronting the Trotskyist movement.

And it is a problem that has in the main been only inadequately considered and superficially answered.

For all these reasons it has stood squarely at the centre of the post-war political crises that have brought the disorientation and disintegration of the Fourth International which was founded forty years ago as the continuity of the revolutionary Marxism and proletarian internationalism.

Dead The very reason for the foundation of the Fourth International was the analysis by Trotsky and the Left Opposition in 1933 that the Comintern-by then totally dominated by the Stalinist bureaucracy-was dead for the purposes of revolution and a thoroughly counterrevolutionary force within the international workers' movement.

Unstable

At the same time, the Stalinist bureaucracy itself was recognised as a fundamentally unstable, bonapartist form of rule, balancing between the nationalised property relations established in the October 1917 revolution and the international pressures of imperialism.

Trotsky established a clear position of unconditional defence of the Soviet Union as a workers' state against imperialism, coupled to the fight to prepare the leadership for a political revolution for the overthrow of the bureaucracy and restoration of soviet power.

This analysis has continually had to be defended both against tendencies that have attempted to see the Stalinist bureaucracy as a permanent and progressive force in the workers' movement (pre-war centrists, and currents in the post-war Fourth International up to the present day) and against those who see it as a permanent new ruling class in the Soviet Union (pre-war these positions increased dramatically when the postwar period found the Stalinist bureaucracy not only still in power but even extending its power into Eastern Europe.

"Evidence"

Each of the tendencies that has succumbed to this pressure has latched on to aspects of the post-war actions of the Stalinist bureaucracy as "evidence" for its one-sided and deceptive analysis.

This is because neither tendency is able to grasp the essentially contradictory nature of the Stalinist bureaucracy as a reactionary counter-revolutionary excrescence which nevertheless feeds off the nationalised property relations established in October 1917.

In its own, bureaucratic, fashion, the Kremlin bureaucracy seeks to defend these property relations (which are the source of its power and material privileges) against imperialism, while attempting to prevent the slightest movement towards political independence on the part of the working class internationally-which would disrupt the delicate balance of class forces on which the bureaucracy rests.

Thus its every action is shot through with the most profound • contradictions, defying all but the most rigorous analysis.

Independence

In defending the Trotskyist perspective, the most important starting point is therefore the question of the political independence of the working class from the Stalinist bureaucracy in the struggle for state power.

It is this question, combined with an analysis of the world counter-revolutionary strategy of Stalinism, which provides the key to refuting any idea that the Stalinist bureaucracy can evolve towards 'left centrism' , and to sharply exposing the reactionary nature of "Euro-communist" criticism of the regimes of Eastern Europe for political independence also confirms the need for the building of Trotskyist parties to carry through political revolution in Cuba, Vietnam, China and Yugoslavia as well as the USSR and Eastern Europe.

Correct

It is necessary for the world Trotskyist movement to re-examine those issues bearing on the post-war role of Stalinism in order to clarify and correct the wrong positions that have been adopted and that have disoriented and split the International itself.

Tim Wohlforth's essay The Theory of Structural Assimilation, written in 1961-3, is a major contribution to such a re-examination.

Yet it is a booklet which has been neglected by every major tendency terming itself Trotskyist.

The reason is clear. By re-opening discussion on the post-war events in Eastern Europe and China, Wohlforth attempted to find the key to the role and involvement of Stalinism in the Cuban revolution.

His objective was to reassert, on the basis of a thorough analysis of events, the consistently counterrevolutionary role of Stalinism even at the point where capitalist property relations were being overturned in Eastern Europe under the aegis of the Red Army and in China by Communist forces under Mao.

Retreated

But in doing SO Wohlforth was forced into conflict with the existing positions of all the leading figures in the post-war Fourth International.

And sooner than answer the points Wolforth raised, very one of those leaders avoided discussing them, clinging to their established positions.

Wohlforth succeeded admirably in proving his case in relation to the East European events.

But he was quite unable to go further and relate his Cuba-the actual starting point of his investigations.

And even having developed a theoretical understanding of post-war Stalinism far in advance of the leading members of the Trotskyist movement, Wohlforth retreated from a fight for his positions.

Instead he allowed his work to be brushed aside, ignored and virtually forgotten by all but a very few individuals.

Examine

Adam Westoby's essay On Wohlforth's 'Theory of Structural Assimilation', (completed in the winter of 1976) sets out to explain these curious aspects of Wohlforth's work.

It also goes on to expand its analysis of events in Eastern Europe and China, examine. some weaknesses within the Theory as it stands, and explore the prospects for applying the same theoretical approach to the Cuban revolution.

. Central to . both Westoby's approach land that of Wolforth is the conception of Stalinism as a system that operates on a world scale, and that must be viewed as a whole-contradictory as that whole picture may appear at first sight.

Any attempt to view the actions of Stalinism in this or that country is isolation from a historical and internațional analysis, they argue, must result in a descent to mere impressionism, opening the door to catastrophic political errors.

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PRESS, ednesday When a major r lational trade union and a c ommunity-based research group combine to produce a pamphlet on housing we should take notice.

When this same pamphlet calls for a major campaign in the labour movement for a housing policy to meet the needs of the working class we should be interested.

When the foreword to this pamphlet is written by Alan Fisher, one of the salesmen of the social contract, we should look out for diversions, evasions and contradictions. We will not be disappointed.

'Great debates' have become quite fashionable recently. Their function is to allow the coalition government to hide all the class implications of its policies under a mass of verbiage churned out by professional bodies, academics, bureaucrats HENRY ROSE reviews 'Up Against a Brickwall: the Dead-end in Housing Policy', a pamphlet by the National Union of Public Employees and Services to Community Action and Tenants (SCAT).

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Shachtmanites; and 'state capitalist' groups today. The pressure to revise