Entrism
Entrism is a tactic used by various communist , especially Trotskyist organizations, of targeted (sometimes secret) penetration into organizations, especially parties of the labor movement , and more rarely other social movements . The aim can be to influence political decisions from within, to spread one's ideology , to win members, to change the course of the organization or to not be completely isolated from political events in times of marginalization or the prohibition of revolutionary organizations ("Winter Entrismus") or to have a legal political job opportunity.
Historical development
The tactic of entryism was used from the mid-1920s by members of the Essen branch of the KAPD - the later Red Fighters as well as by some of Karl Korsch's supporters within the SPD and from 1931 also in the SAPD . In 1934, on advice from Trotsky, the majority of French Trotskyists joined the social democratic SFIO , as part of the party youth in this group were moving to revolutionary, including Trotskyist positions, and Trotsky wanted to win them over to the construction of the Fourth International .
Trotsky himself said on the subject of entryism: "Entryism into a reformist party does not have a long-term perspective, but can be used temporarily under certain conditions."
Similar steps, limited to a few years and often ending with exclusion, were taken in the USA and Belgium. The success of the tactic in France was limited, in the USA it managed to win the majority of the (numerically small) youth organization of the Socialist Party of America .
At the beginning of the 1950s, the members of the Fourth International around Ernest Mandel and Michel Pablo joined social democratic or Soviet-oriented communist parties in Western Europe , as it was assumed that a future radicalization of the working class would primarily take place in the existing workers' parties would play. This approach was abandoned in the course of the student movement in 1968 and the simultaneous strike movements in France and Italy, for example.
The organizations of the CWI, inspired by Ted Grant (in the Federal Republic of Germany the Voran section worked from 1974 to January 1992 in real terms and formally in 1994 in the SPD) pursued the entry-level strategy until the early 1990s. In contrast to “classical” concepts of entryism, Grant and his supporters assume that radicalizations of the working class are initially reflected in the mass organizations of the working class. In order to come into contact with radicalized workers and young people in reformist parties and to win them over to revolutionary Marxism, one's own roots in those mass organizations of the working class are required. The aim is not to transform the existing reformist parties, but to prepare new mass revolutionary parties. Ted Grant therefore speaks of the strategy of preparatory entry , while the concept of permanent entry is rejected. With the help of this method it was possible to win a majority in the British Labor Party locally and temporarily in Liverpool and in the Labor Youth League.
A minority expelled by the CWI, International Marxist Tendency (IMT), continues this policy to this day. The German IMT section, Der Funke, is currently clearly orienting its work towards Christianity towards cooperation in the youth structures of the Left Party. The Austrian IMT section, Der Funke , continues to consistently orient its work towards Christianity towards cooperation in the Socialist Youth of Austria of the SPÖ . The old pre -Strömung succeeded in each regional Jusogliederungen to be influential. The IMT section in Switzerland focuses in its work on the Swiss Young Socialists , who are the young party of the SP Switzerland .
In contrast, the entry of the Linksruck group , which the group practiced between 1994 and 1999, was short-term and had little influence on the membership of the SPD and Jusos. Members were mainly won from previously unorganized people. The Linksruck Association announced in May 2007 that it was liquidating itself in favor of participating in the Left Party via the “ marx21 ” platform .
literature
- Herbert Meißner : Trotsky and Trotskyism: yesterday and today; a Marxist analysis . Wiljo Heinen, Berlin 2011.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Trotsky, Writings 1935-36, p. 31.