Greeting from the US Socialist League at the ISL´s internationalist rally 80 years since Leon Trotsky´s assassination

By Luis Meiners

Comrades, we are living in extraordinary times. The pandemic has triggered a social and economic crisis worsened by the actions of governments all over the world.

In the US Trump´s criminal denialism has led to more than 170 thousand deaths. But people are fighting back. Over the past few months millions have taken to the streets all over the US to struggle against structural racism and police brutality. It has been a multiracial rebellion led by black working class youth that has shaken the foundations of the US capitalist and imperialist state and will produce long lasting changes. These developments have proven that those who said revolutionary change was a thing of the past were deeply mistaken. Three months of rebellion have had a much deeper effect than decades of reformist lobbying. They have opened a new stage in class struggle, shifted the political narrative to the left and produced a historical opening for socialist ideas

80 years after Trotsky´s murder by stalinist agents, his ideas are still valid. They give us the tools to understand the historical decadence of the capitalist system, and to prepare for the uprisings that will continue to develop. Against the reformists of his time, Trotsky understood that the victory of the working class was not the product of gradual evolution, but rather a strategic task that requires organization. We have huge opportunities ahead, and also great dangers. The outcome depends on our actions. The revolutionary ideas of Leon Trotsky are more important than ever to give us the tools and audacity to meet the moment, and he is a banner in all our struggles.

For socialism, long live Leon Trotsky!