01.08.1996

Alternative theory of permanent revolution

Dave Craig of the RDG continues the debate on programme and the transitional method (see Weekly Worker July 25)

The revolutionary democratic or state capitalist theory of permanent revolution was developed in the mid 1980s. This is an alternative to Trotsky’s theory. It was first openly discussed in Republican Worker (No6, summer 1988) of the Revolutionary Democratic Group (faction of the SWP).

In essence the theory means the uninterrupted development of the national democratic revolution into the international socialist revolution. The national democratic revolution is the universal form of the national revolution. This revolution need not be limited to bourgeois democracy. A key question is therefore the leading role of the working class.

No national revolution has ever introduced socialism or abolished capitalism. Nor does such a possibility exist. Economically, the national revolution cannot establish anything more than state capitalism. But as Lenin himself noted, state capitalism under the dictatorship of the proletariat is radically different from state capitalism under the rule of the bourgeoisie.  

The thesis on permanent revolution was summarized in the following sixteen propositions, published in the last issue of Republican Worker (No 7, spring 1989).

1. International capitalism or imperialism has developed into a worldwide system of exploitation and oppression shaped by the law of combined and uneven development.

2. The world revolution is the revolt against imperialism. It exists today in the uneven and combined development of national revolutions.

3. The world revolution, in so far as it is led by and based on the political power of international working class, is transformed into the international socialist revolution (ie, the international transformation of capitalism).

4. There can be no national socialist revolution. Capitalism cannot be abolished in one (or a few) countries, nor socialism built in one country.

5. The national democratic revolution is an integral part of the world revolution. It signifies the fact that in every popular national revolution, or revolution ‘from below’, the oppressed mass of the people struggle for self-determination, expressed in new forms of national democracy.

6. The class nature of the national democratic revolution is defined as bourgeois or proletarian, depending on:

• the political (ie, class) leadership
• the class nature of the state that is established

This cannot be known for certain before the revolution (it cannot be established a priori). Any view of the future revolution can only be conditional.

7. National democracy may be based on either bourgeois democracy (parliamentary or peoples’ democracy) or on workers’ (soviet or council) democracy. These states represent the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie or the dictatorship of the proletariat.

8. Bourgeois (parliamentary) democracy can take a variety of political forms. These include constitutional monarchies, federal republics, centralised republics and dual power republics. These forms reflect the historical development of national democracy by the class struggle.

9. The dual power republic is a special type of bourgeois republic. It is politically unstable. It is the form taken in the transition from bourgeois to workers’ democracy.

10. The workers’ state is the highest, most advanced or most democratic form of national democracy.

11. The bourgeoisie may rule without national democracy by military and bureaucratic means, as for example under fascist or military dictatorships. The military, police and bureaucracy are an essential feature of all forms of bourgeois state, whether parliamentary or not.

12. There are no intermediate states between the bourgeois and proletarian. There are no petty bourgeois states or bourgeois workers’ states (these are usually called degenerate workers’ states, or bureaucratic workers’ states.)

13. The political or class leadership of the national democratic revolution can only be provided by the petty bourgeoisie or the working class.

14. The bourgeoisie, including its so‑called ‘progressive’ or ‘anti‑imperialist wing, is counter-revolutionary. There are no bourgeois-led national democratic revolutions.

15. The working class must fight for and win political leadership of the national and world revolution in the struggle for international socialism. To achieve this aim the working class must create its own independent party.

16. The permanent revolution is the theory and practice of the ongoing or uninterrupted revolution, developing through various stages of struggle, until the working class holds power on a world scale.