Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the theory of Communism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky advocated the advance of the Proletarian Revolution as set out in his theory of "Permanent Revolution", holding that "socialism in one country", as advocated by Joseph Stalin, was impossible. Trotsky criticized the government of the USSR, calling it a "bureaucratically deformed worker's state". Many of his criticisms were described in his book, The Revolution Betrayed.

Trotskyism has become a by-word used by Stalinists to mean a traitor; in the Spanish Civil War, being called a "Trotskyist" or "Trotskyite" by the Communist supported elements implied that the person was a fascist spy or agent provocateur. George Orwell wrote about this in Homage to Catalonia and in his essay Spilling the Spanish Beans.

In 1938 Trotsky established the Fourth International. After his death this organisation has split many times and it is not clear to outside observers which if any group has a claim to be the real Fourth International.