[The dictatorship of the proletariat is a transitional…]

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The dictatorship of the proletariat is a transitional period between capitalism and socialism, commencing with the seizure of power by the armed Lenin also extended and developed Marx's analysis of the capitalist state, the capitalist economic crisis and the struggle of nations for self-determination.

His lifelong commitment to internationalism was demonstrated by his fight for the foundation of the Third (Communist) International in 1919.

But his death in 1924 marked the consolidation of the power of the Stalinist bureaucracy, which usurped Lenin's name in the pursuit of their own reactionary nationalist positions. working class led by the revolutionary party.

During this period it is necessary for the working class to establish its authority and begin the expropriation of the employers and lay the foundations for a planned economy and the social transformation of society.

While this social transformation is taking place, classes do not automatically disappear but continue to exist.

But whereas captialism represents the dictatorship of the bosses -whether in its bourgeois democratic or totalitarian form-over other classes in society, the dictatorship of the proletariat represents the dictatorship of the working class-. the vast majority ofsocietyover the capitalists through its control of central government, military force and workers' control of industry. Trotsky after 1905, and subsequently adopted by Lenin, stressing the leading role of the working class in revolutionary struggles in backward, colonial and underdeveloped countries. Trotsky showed in his book Permanent Revolution that in these countries even democratic demands such as national independence and land reform could only be carried out by a revolution led by the working class at the head of the peasantry.

In accomplishing these tasks, the revolution would then go beyond the limits of bourgeois private property and result in the completion of the socialist defeatism The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 brought a profound spiit in the ranks of the Second international, as the social democratic party in each imperialist country declared itself for the defence of its "own fatherland" against foreign aggression.

Lenin, Trotsky, Luxemburg and a tiny minority of the Second International stood out against this position, which they pointed out amounted to no more than support from these parties to their "own" ruling