Editing Trotskyism (section)

=== Political ethics and morality ===

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|bgcolor=|quote=A means can be justified only by its end. But the end in turn needs to be justified. From the Marxist point of view, which expresses the historical interests of the proletariat, the end is justified if it leads to increasing the power of man over nature and to the abolition of the power of man over man.|source=—Trotsky's writings on "The Dialectical Interpedence of Ends and Means".{{sfn|Knei-Paz|1978|p=559}}}}

In 1938, Trotsky had written ''[[Their Morals and Ours: The class foundations of moral practice|Their Morals and Ours]]'' which consisted of [[ethics|ethical polemics]] in response to criticisms around his actions concerning the [[Kronstadt rebellion]] and wider questions posed around the perceived, "[[amorality|amoral]]" methods of the Bolsheviks. Critics believed these methods seemed to emulate the [[Jesuit]] [[Maxim (philosophy)|maxim]] that the "[[Consequentialism|ends justifies the means]]". Trotsky argued that Marxism situated the foundation of morality as a product of society to [[Marxian class theory|serve social interests]] rather than “"eternal moral truths" proclaimed by institutional religions.{{sfn|Knei-Paz|1978|pp=556–560}} On the other hand, he regarded it as farcical to assert that an end could justify any criminal means and viewed this to be a distorted representation of the Jesuit maxim. Instead, Trotsky believed that the means and ends frequently “exchanged places” as when [[democracy]] is sought by the [[working class]] as an instrument to actualize socialism. He also viewed revolution to be deducible from the [[dialectical materialism|laws of the development]] and primarily the [[class struggle]] but this did not mean all means are permissible.{{sfn|Knei-Paz|1978|pp=556–560}} Fundamentally, Trotsky argued that ends "rejects" means which are incompatible with itself.{{sfn|Deutscher|2015|p=1482}} In other words, [[socialism]] cannot be furthered through [[fraud]], [[The Stalin School of Falsification|deceit]] or [[Stalin's cult of personality|the worship of leaders]] but through honesty and integrity as essential elements of [[revolutionary]] morality in dealing with the working masses.{{sfn|Deutscher|2015|p=1482}}