Editing Trotskyism (section)

=== United front and theory of fascism ===
[[File:Fascism.png|thumb|Leon Trotsky's original pamphlet '''''"[[Fascism]]: What it is and how to fight it"''''' argued for the tactical method of a united front to counter the rise of [[Nazi Germany]]]]
{{Main|United front|The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany}}
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|bgcolor=|quote=At a time when hundreds of thousands and millions of workers, especially in Germany, are departing from Communism, in part to fascism and in the main into the camp of indifferentism, thousands and tens of thousands of Social Democratic workers, under the impact of the self-same defeat, are evolving into the left, to the side of Communism. There cannot, however, even be talk of their accepting the hopelessly discredited Stalinist leadership.|source=—Trotsky's writings on the challenge of Stalinism and fascism in 1933.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trotsky |first1=Leon |author-link=Leon Trotsky |title=The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany |date=1971 |publisher=Pathfinder Press |isbn=978-0-87348-136-6 |pages=555–556 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nH5KwgEACAAJ |language=en}}</ref>}}

Trotsky was a central figure in the [[Comintern]] during its first four congresses. During this time, he helped to generalize the strategy and tactics of the Bolsheviks to newly formed Communist parties across Europe and further afield. From 1921 onwards, the [[united front]], a method of uniting revolutionaries and reformists in the common struggle while winning some of the workers to revolution, was the central tactic put forward by the Comintern after the defeat of the German revolution.

After he was exiled and politically marginalized by Stalinism, Trotsky continued to argue for a united front against fascism in Germany and Spain. According to Joseph Choonara of the British [[Socialist Workers Party (UK)|Socialist Workers Party]] in ''[[International Socialism (magazine)|International Socialism]]'', his articles on the united front represent an essential part of his political legacy.<ref>Joseph Choonara, [http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=397&issue=117 "The United Front"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080107230355/http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=397&issue=117 |date=7 January 2008}}, ''[[International Socialism (magazine)|International Socialism]]'', 117.</ref>

Trotsky also formulated a theory of fascism based on a dialectical interpretation of events to analyze the manifestation of [[Italian fascism]] and the early emergence of Nazi Germany from 1930 to 1933.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wistrich |first1=Robert S. |title=Leon Trotsky's Theory of Fascism |journal=[[Journal of Contemporary History]] |date=1976 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=157–184 |doi=10.1177/002200947601100409 |jstor=260195 |s2cid=140420352 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/260195 |issn=0022-0094}}</ref>

Marxist theorist and economist [[Hillel Ticktin]] argued that his political strategy and approach to fascism such as the emphasis on an organisational bloc between the [[Communist Party of Germany|German Communist Party]] and [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social-Democratic party]] during the interwar period would very likely have prevented [[Adolf Hitler]] [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power#Weimar parties fail to halt Nazis|from ascending to political power]].{{sfn|Ticktin|1992|p=227}}