Andrew wrote in [OPE-L:2733]:
> I do not, however, agree that Lenin and Trotsky had the same position in the
> trade union debate, as Jerry seems to imply.
Well they did have the same position on the NEP (at the time the NEP was
introduced) and they had both earlier (in 1920) opposed Kollantai and the
Workers' Opposition. Of course, they were not in agreement on all matters
regarding the nature of Soviet rule during the early period, e.g. Trotsky
opposed Lenin's call for a "dictatorship of the proletariat and the
peasantry" by arguing that it should be a "dictatorship of the proletariat
assisted by the peasantry" (although, both Lenin and Trotsky were later to
claim that their positions were in practice virtually identical on this
question).
But, I agree with Andrew's desire not to now get into the
"particularities" of this period. As I am re-teaching a class on
"Capitalism & Socialism" in the Fall at Pratt, which includes a major
section on Soviet economic history, this subject must have been more on my
mind than usual and provoked a digressive commentary.
In OPE-L Solidarity,
Jerry