Revolutionaries are against gradual changes in social institutions?

Answer 1

There are different types of "revolutionaries," for instance, many "revolutionaries" are for gradual changes in social institutions RATHER than a so-called immediate "revolution." Some of these groups and tendencies have a history with "revolutionary" politics but have either abandoned them over time (Social Democracy) but perhaps still occasionally draw on that history or loosely on the word "revolutionary;" or in practice advocate reformism through exceptions of one type or another. For instance, the Stalinist/Maoist "Two Stage Theory" which holds that a third world country must undergo a "bourgeois revolution" before it can undergo a "socialist revolution." In practice this means supporting the activities of reformist nationalist forces who do not want to revolutionize the country's institutions or property rights. Similarly, a Stalinist-Maoist group in Europe or North America might argue in terms of "Lesser-Evilism" whereby a reformist or more centrist "bourgeois" political party/tendency is supported, perhaps critically, because "revolution" is deemed impractical or conditions are deemed immature. Therefore these groups can claim to be "revolutionary" but work to prevent revolution in practice. Many groups claim to subscribe to revolutionary tendencies with more explicitly revolutionary stances, for instance to Trotskyism and its "Permanent Revolution" as opposed to "Two Stage Theory." However, many of these groups reject "Permanent Revolution" and practice subordination to "bourgeois" political groups and tendencies in practice and so use Trotskyism only as a reference point. The strict Trotskyists, however, called Ortho-Trotskyists (Orthodox Trotskyists), of whom there are few, would actually argue, not that gradual changes in social institutions should be opposed, but that it should be recognized both that such reform cannot end the "contradictions of capitalism" and that it consequently cannot meet the needs and demands of the "working class." Only the "working class" taking power into their own hands through a mass democratic revolution can effect meaningful change; in other words, they would say gradual changes in social institutions cannot resolve the "crisis of capitalism" and in fact the conditions of social institutions is bound to get worst. Ortho-Trotskyists would cite social cuts, unemployment, cost rises, etc. as a sign that the health of social institutions cannot be reconciled with the "decline of capitalism."

-TM