This is a translation of one of the parts from <IBT로부터의 분립과 혁명 사상의 연속성(The Split from the IBT and the Continuation of Revolutionary Idea)>.

The long lasting hegemony of British-US imperialism, Anglo chauvinism and the degeneration of Trotskyism

 

When World War Ⅰ broke out, most of the “Marxists,” living in Germany, Britain and France, bowed to the pressure of their own imperialists and revealed the true nature of opportunism that had been increasingly growing for decades. In a fight among predators over who would have the exclusive right to rob the world, the so-called Marxists supported their own governments. In the meantime, they shared the imperialist super-profit crumbs, and they shared the same interests as their own imperialists. In a time of peace, the opportunism was hidden behind plausible Marxist rhetoric, but the war that pushed contradictions to the extreme no longer tolerated their opportunist double face.

 

World War II had similar results. A second war for imperialist supremacy put intense pressure on Marxists, including the so-called “Trotskyist” camp. Furthermore in August 1940, Trotsky himself, the most tenacious defender of revolutionary ideas and the one who elaborately represented it, was assassinated by Stalin’s assassin. The opportunists, those who had silently crawled during his lifetime, now got busier. The dam of revolutionary ideology cracked here and there and the cracks were not repaired. The occurrence of a small retreat soon led to a major setback. The successive setbacks eventually became a “tradition.”

 

Imperialist Britain and the United States have ruled the world for a hundred and decades. Their global domination was consolidated without a hitch, as they defeated rivals who challenged the hegemony in World War I&Ⅱ. For a hundred and decades, British and American imperialism super-exploited the entire world population and threw them into misery. That long period of super-exploitation has made the labor aristocracy thicker and stronger especially in the British and the US imperialist empire. This laid the foundation of “Anglo-chauvinism.” This filthy sentiment had become an atmosphere which seemed unharmful and gradually tainted not only the Anglo-working class but also the “Marxists”.(fragmentary descriptions of this phenomenon can be found in the document of ICL, “The Struggle Against the Chauvinist HYDRA”).

 

Labor aristocrats within the imperialist camp share super-profit debris from super exploitation both in abroad and domestic, share partial interests with imperialism and identify themselves with imperialists. They antagonize the resistance of the oppressed around the world and support the brutal imperialist violence that breaks their bones and tears their flesh. This is because privileges as the “first-class citizen” who is favored anywhere in the world and a relatively rich life depend on the victory of their own imperialists.

The ostensive Marxists, especially Anglo-chauvinists, are cynical about the racial or national liberation movement of “the uncivilized rabble.” They consider those movements as a challenge or a threat to their privileged status. So they become passive or even distance themselves by disparaging the movements consciously or unconsciously. Their instinctive disparagement is not absurd. Because the racial/colonial liberation movement is a direct attack on their racial and imperialist privileges.

 

This Anglo-chauvinism has seriously contaminated and degenerated the so-called “Trotskyist” movement. The taint was already sustained by thick layer of material foundation during Trotsky’s lifetime. Some of those who were contaminated were grumbling at revolutionary ideas. Meanwhile, the death of Trotsky and the chauvinistic pressure heightened by World War II promoted their voices to mainstream.

 

The attitude of holding back the Black liberation and self-determination of Palestinians, Quebecois, Northern Irish, until the advent of “socialist revolution”, and the attitude of intentionally taking a neutral stance on the conflicts between imperialists and colonies (the recent cases were Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Egypt and Turkey) were the most notable consequences of the degeneration.