Third camp
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(September 2022) |
| Part of aPolitics series |
| Third camp |
|---|
| Part ofa serieson |
| Trotskyism |
|---|
 |
Thethird camp,also known asthird camp socialismorthird camp Trotskyism,is a branch ofsocialismthat aims to oppose bothcapitalismandStalinismby supporting the organisedworking classas a "third camp".
The term arose early duringWorld War IIand refers to the idea of two "imperialist camps" competing to dominate the world: one led by theUnited KingdomandFranceand supported by theUnited States,and the other led byNazi GermanyandJapanand supported byFascist Italy.It did have a predecessor in theTrotskyistopposition to the Stalin-led Soviet Union, however.
Origins of the term
[edit]From the 1930s and beyond,Leon Trotskyand his American supporterJames P. Cannondescribed the Soviet Union as a "degenerated workers' state",the revolutionary gains of which should be defended against imperialist aggression despite the emergence of a gangster-like ruling stratum, the party bureaucracy. While defending the Russian revolution from outside aggression, Trotsky, Cannon and their followers at the same time urged an anti-bureaucraticpolitical revolutionagainstStalinismto be conducted by the Soviet working class themselves.
Dissidents in theTrotskyistSocialist Workers Party,witnessing the collaboration ofJoseph StalinandAdolf Hitlerin the invasion and the partition of Poland and the Soviet invasion of theBaltic states,argued that the Soviet Union had actually emerged as a new social formation, which was neither capitalist nor socialist. Adherents of that view, espoused most explicitly byMax Shachtmanand closely following the writings ofJames BurnhamandBruno Rizzi,argued that the Sovietbureaucratic collectivistregime had in fact entered one of two great imperialist "camps" aiming to wage war to divide the world. The first of the imperialist camps, which Stalin and the Soviet Union were said to have joined as a directly participating ally, was headed by Nazi Germany and included most notably Fascist Italy. In that original analysis, the "second imperialist camp" was headed by England and France, actively supported by the United States.[1]
Shachtman and his cothinkers argued for the establishment of a broad "third camp" to unite the workers and colonial peoples of the world in revolutionary struggle against the imperialism of the German-Soviet-Italian and the Anglo-American-French blocs. Shachtman concluded that the Soviet policy was one ofimperialismand that the best result for the international working class would be the defeat of the Soviet Union in the course of its military incursions. Conversely, Trotsky argued that a defeat for the Soviet Union would strengthen capitalism and reduce the possibilities for political revolution.[2]
With the demise of fascism in World War II and the emergence of Soviet-controlled governments in Central and Eastern Europe, the "three camps" conception was modified. The leading imperialist camp was held to be that of the chief capitalist powers (the United States, the United Kingdom and France), with the Soviet Union consigned to a second imperialist camp.
Over time, Shachtman's aggressive calls for the defeat of official communist nations' expansionism (the second camp) drifted rightward into support for thecapitalistnations (the first camp). That position has ledorthodox Trotskyistgroups to declare it reactionary. However, some supporters of the three camps analysis split with Shachtman and continued to develop their analyses of the changing world situation.
Organizational support
[edit]TheCongress Socialist Partyof India also adopted a third camp position, with the slogan "We want neither the rule of London or Berlin; nor the rule of Paris or Rome; nor that of Tokyo or Moscow" (September 1939).[3]
A third camp position is held today by theWorkers Libertygroups,[4]New Politics[5]and by some in the multi-tendency Marxist organizationSolidarityin the United States as well as some in theDemocratic Socialists of Americaand theSocialist Party USA.
Other uses of the term
[edit]More recently, a movement by theWorker-Communist Party of Iranand its leaders such asHamid TaqvaeeandMaryam Namazie,together with groups includingLeft Worker-communist Party of Iraq,has emerged calling for a third camp opposingAmerican militarismandIslamic terrorism.[6]However, this is unrelated to the Trotskyist third camp theory[citation needed]as neither organisation comes from a Trotskyist background.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Shachtman, Max(1 May 1940)."Against Both War Camps — For the Camp of World Labor!".Labor Action.p. 1 – viaMarxists Internet Archive.,and the May Day 1940 manifesto of theWorkers Party,the political offshoot of the SWP established by Burnham, Shachtman andMartin Abernin April 1940.
- ^A series of sharply critical articles and letters from Trotsky's debates with Shachtman was published posthumously under the titleIn Defense of Marxism.Cannon's polemics against Burnham and Shachtman are contained in the bookThe Struggle for a Proletarian Party.
- ^Stanley, Sherman (April 1940).India and the Third Camp– viaMarxists Internet Archive.
- ^"Workers' Liberty and the" Third Camp "".Workers Liberty.[dead link]
- ^Johnson, Alan (Summer 1999)."The Third Camp as History And a Living Legacy".New Politics.7(3).
- ^"Third camp".
Further reading
[edit]- Johnson, Alan (1999).""Neither Washington Nor Moscow": The Third Camp as History And a Living Legacy ".New Politics.7(3): 135–165.ISSN0028-6494.
- Kelly, John (2018).Contemporary Trotskyism: Parties, Sects and Social Movements in Britain.Routledge.pp. 26, 41, 85–90, 101, 226, 230, 236.ISBN978-1-138-94379-7.LCCN2017052868.