Editing Trotskyism (section)

== Definition ==
According to Trotsky, his programme could be distinguished from other Marxist theories by five key elements:
* Support for the strategy of [[permanent revolution]] in opposition to the [[two-stage theory]] of his opponents.<ref>{{cite book |first=Leon |last=Trotsky |author-link=Leon Trotsky |title=The Permanent Revolution |orig-date=1928 |publisher=New Park Publications |location=London |date=1962}}</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2025}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Leon |last=Trotsky |author-link=Leon Trotsky |title=Results and Prospects |orig-date=1906 |publisher=New Park Publications |location=London |date=1962}}</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2025}}
* Criticism of the post-1924 leadership of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and analysis of its features,<ref>{{cite book |author-first=Leon |author-last=Trotsky |author-link=Leon Trotsky |title=Revolution Betrayed |date=1936}}</ref> after 1933, also support for [[political revolution (Trotskyism)|political revolution]] in the USSR and what Trotskyists term the [[degenerated workers' state]]s.
* Support for [[social revolution]] in the advanced capitalist countries through working-class mass action.
* Support for [[proletarian internationalism]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Ernest |last=Mandel |author-link=Ernest Mandel |title=What is Trotskyism |date=1973}}</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2025}}
* Use of a transitional programme of demands that bridge between daily struggles of the working class and the maximal ideas of the socialist transformation of society.<ref>{{cite book |first=Leon |last=Trotsky |author-link=Leon Trotsky |title=The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of The Fourth International |date=1938}}</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2025}}

On the [[political spectrum]] of [[Marxism]], Trotskyists are usually considered to be on the left. In the 1920s, they called themselves the [[Left Opposition]], although today's [[left communism]] is distinct and usually non-Bolshevik. The terminological disagreement can be confusing because different versions of a [[left–right politics|left-right political spectrum]] are used. [[Anti-Revisionism|Anti-revisionists]] consider themselves the ultimate leftists on a spectrum from communism on the left to imperialist capitalism on the right. However, given that [[Stalinism]] is often labelled rightist within the communist spectrum and [[left communism]] leftist, anti-revisionists' idea of the left is very different from that of left communism. Despite being Bolshevik-Leninist comrades during the [[Russian Revolution]] and [[Russian Civil War]], Trotsky and Stalin became enemies in the 1920s and, after that, opposed the legitimacy of each other's forms of Leninism. Trotsky was highly [[Anti-Stalinism|critical of the Stalinist USSR]] for suppressing democracy and the lack of adequate economic planning.<ref name=":0"/>

Overall, Trotsky and the Left-United Opposition factions advocated for rapid [[industrialization]], voluntary collectivisation of agriculture, and the expansion of a [[soviet democracy|worker's democracy]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mandel |first1=Ernest |title=Trotsky as Alternative |date=5 May 2020 |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |isbn=978-1-78960-701-7 |pages=32–66 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVmcEAAAQBAJ&dq=trotsky+as+alternative+mandel&pg=PT80 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Trotsky |first=Leon |author-link=Leon Trotsky |title=Platform of the Joint Opposition |date=1927 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1927/opposition/index.htm |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]]}}</ref>