Trotsky reconsidered

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

Trotsky still fails my litmus test of non-violence, as to being somebody I'd support wholeheartedly.

However, he does seem to have left an impressive legacy in the form of writers, activists, and investigators.

Sidney Hook started as a Trotskyite. (ended up getting a medal of freedom or something from the gipper, but along the way wrote some memorable words about Marx and other topics)

Lyndon Larouche started as a Trotskyite, and from the Larouche ranks come the investigators who wrote the unauthorized bio of GHW Bush, available free on the web - note that Webster and Tarpley say pretty outrageous things in there, but have never been sued for them

AJ Muste was a Trotskyite, who (rather humorously, I tend to think) left the movement after meeting with Trotsky in Sweden. That was only one leg of a European vacation for him and his wife, though: on the Paris leg he visited Chartres and had an epiphany that brought him back to Christianity and made of him a lifelong peace activist (founder of Fellowship of Reconciliation)

And then the controversial historian Lenni Brenner apparently is a Trotskyite.

As far as I know, none of them emulated Trotsky in terms of building a revolutionary Army and motivating them by threatening to harm their families - but apparently instead were inspired by him to think critically and write incisively.





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