• Socialist Alliance
• Communist Party of Great Britain
• Socialist Unity Network
• Socialist Workers Party
• Scottish Socialist Party
• Solidarity - Scotland's Socialist Movement
• Republican Communist Network

Without revolutionary theory, no revolutionary movement
From Marx to Trotsky the theory of permanent revolution has been the basis for revolutionary strategy and programme. The RDG believes we need a new version of the theory for revolutionary democracy communist politics in the 21 st century.

The revolutionary democratic or state capitalist theory of Permanent Revolution was developed in the mid-1980's. This is an alternative to Trotsky's theory. It was first openly discussed in "Republican Worker" journal No 6 of the Revolutionary Democratic Group (summer 1988).

Class leadership

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.

State capitalism

No national revolution has ever introduced socialism nor 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 new thesis on permanent revolution - was summarized in the following sixteen propositions, published in the last issue of Republican Worker journal No 7 (spring 1989)

1. International Capitalism or imperialism has developed into a world wide 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 to‑day 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. (i.e. the international transformation of capitalism.)

4. There can be no national socialist revolution. Capitalism cannot be abolished in one (or a few) country, 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

i) the political (i.e. class) leadership

ii) 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.

• 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.

3rd January 2000

Siding with Murdoch - Weekly Worker

Fact and Fiction - what's happened in the SSP? - Socialist Unity Network

RCN Statement on the Split in the Scottish Socialist Party - Republican Communist Network