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The New International, September 1942

Leon Trotsky

The Road for India

 

From New International, Vol. VIII No. 8, September 1942, p. 245.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.

 

Achievement of Workers’ and Peasants’ Democracy

When and under what conditions a colonial country becomes ripe for the real revolutionary solution of its agrarian and its national problems cannot be foretold. But in any case, we can assert today with full certainty that not only China, but also India, will attain genuine popular democracy, that is, workers’ and peasants’ democracy, only through the dictatorship of the proletariat. On that road many stages, steps and phases can still arise. Under the pressure of the masses of the people the bourgeoisie will still take various steps to the Left, in order then to turn all the more mercilessly against the people. Periods of dual power are possible and probable. But what there will not be, what there cannot be, is a genuine democratic dictatorship that is not the dictatorship of the proletariat. (The Permanent Revolution)
 

Congress Bourgeoisie Is Counter-Revolutionary

Our liberal bourgeoisie comes forward as counter-revolutionary even before the revolutionary climax. In every critical moment, our intellectual democracy only demonstrates its impotence. .The peasantry in its entirety represents an elementary rebellion. It can be put at the service of the revolution only by the force that takes over state power. The vanguard position of the working class in the revolution, the direct connection between it and the revolutionary village, the spell by which it conquers the army – all this pushes it inevitably to power. The complete victory of the revolution means the victory of the proletariat. (Our Revolution)
 

The Working Class Leads the Nation

With regard to the countries with a belated bourgeois development, especially the colonial and semi-colonial countries, the theory of the permanent revolution signifies that the complete and genuine solution of their tasks, democratic and national emancipation, is conceivable only through the dictatorship of the proletariat as the leader of the subjugated nation, above all of its peasant masses. (The Permanent Revolution)
 

Alliance of the Proletariat and the Peasantry

Not only the agrarian, but also the national question, assigns to the peasantry, the overwhelming majority of the population of the backward countries, an important place in the democratic revolution. Without an alliance of the proletariat with the peasantry, the tasks of the democratic revolution cannot be solved, nor even seriously posed. But the alliance of these two classes can be realized in no other way than through an intransigent struggle against the influence of the national liberal bourgeoisie. (The Permanent Revolution)
 

Revolutionary Party Is Fundamental Key

No matter how the first episodic stages of the revolution may be in the individual countries, the realization of the revolutionary alliance between the proletariat and the peasantry is conceivable only under the political direction of the proletarian vanguard, organized in the revolutionary party. (The Permanent Revolution)

 
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Last updated on 17 January 2015