The Socialist Equality Party (Australia) will hold a series of six online lectures over the coming month, entitled: “Why Study the History of Trotskyism.”
The events, beginning on June 2, will outline the contemporary relevance of the revolutionary upheavals of the 20th century, and the protracted fight for a socialist and internationalist program in the working class. They will detail the key turning points in the decades-long struggle by the Trotskyist movement against every form of national-opportunism and for the political independence of the working class.
The burning importance of this history is underscored by the current breakdown of world capitalism, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has underscored, in living events, the incompatibility of the profit system with the needs and interests of billions of working people and the urgent necessity for international socialism.
But the achievement of this task requires the construction of the world party of socialist revolution established by Leon Trotsky in 1938, the Fourth International, and an understanding of the major political, theoretical and historical issues confronting the working class.
The first lecture, on June 2 at 7pm (AEST), will be delivered by leading World Socialist Web Site writer Nick Beams. It is entitled “October 1917: The Opening Shot of the World Revolution” and will focus on the origins of Leon Trotsky’s path-breaking theory of permanent revolution, which provided the foundation for the Russian Revolution and elaborated the Marxist perspective for the historical epoch in which we now live.
The event will be held on Zoom. To participate, download the app or join on a web browser, and click on this link before the lecture begins:
The following lectures, which will all be held at 7pm (AEST), are:
Lecture 2: The Left Opposition's struggle against Stalinism
June 9 (Zoom link)
Lecture 3: The founding of the Fourth International
June 16 (Zoom link)
Lecture 4: The ICFI and the war against Pabloism
June 23 (Zoom link)
Lecture 5: The 1985-86 split with the WRP and the renaissance of Marxism
June 30 (Zoom link)
Lecture 6: A new period of socialist revolution and the tasks of the Fourth International
July 7 (Zoom link)