How did Trotsky help organise international socialist struggle?

Capitalism is a worldwide problem. Since the days of Karl Marx, socialists have worked towards a worldwide solution.

But there have been multiple attempts to organise international associations of revolutionaries. Each rose and then fell for different reasons.

What can we learn from their successes and failures? What was Trotsky’s part in building ‘internationals’? And what are the prospects for building a mass, revolutionary, working-class international going forward?

This episode of Socialism looks at the struggle for a world party of revolution: Trotsky and the Fourth International.

The CWI is producing a new book on Trotsky’s life and ideas for the 80th anniversary of his assassination, which this podcast series is following. It’s called ‘Leon Trotsky - A Revolutionary Whose Ideas Couldn’t Be Killed’. You can pre-order it now at www.leftbooks.co.uk.

Further reading

• The Rise and Fall of the Communist International: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/Trotsky/cominternframe.htm
• 1938 anniversary: Founding the Fourth International: http://socialismtoday.org/archive/124/international.html
• A Socialist World Is Possible: The History of the CWI: http://leftbooks.co.uk/epages/950002679.sf/en_GB/?ObjectID=2017051
• In Defence of Trotskyism: http://leftbooks.co.uk/epages/950002679.sf/en_GB/?ObjectID=49575330