Post by Admin on Nov 7, 2023 10:42:57 GMT
David North introduces the Turkish-language edition of Leon Trotsky and the Struggle for Socialism in the Twenty-First Century at the Istanbul Book Fair
“A man of his time, ahead of his time and, now, of our time”
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/07/thuz-n07.html
These remarks were delivered by World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board Chairman David North on Sunday, November 5, 2023, at the Istanbul Book Fair in Turkey.
I am grateful to have the opportunity today to present my book, Leon Trotsky and the Struggle for Socialism in the Twenty-First Century. Permit me to express my gratitude for the excellent facilities provided by the organizers of the Istanbul Book Fair for this presentation, as well as to my comrades in the Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu for having translated my book into Turkish, without which, of course, this presentation would not have been possible.
My book consists of essays and lectures that were written over a period of four decades. The opening section of the book consists of four essays that were written in the autumn of 1982. The book concludes with a statement that I wrote just seven months ago, in April 2023. When the first essays were written, I was a comparatively young man, with only a decade of experience in the revolutionary socialist movement. The last document is the work of a person who, somewhat to my own surprise, has passed beyond the Biblical age of 70 and has been active in the Fourth International for over a half century.
However, despite the many years that separate the writing of the book’s opening and concluding sections, they are connected by the same fundamental premise, which is, as I have written in the preface, “that Leon Trotsky was the most significant figure in the history of socialism during the first four decades of the twentieth century, and that his legacy remains the critical and indispensable theoretical and political foundation of the ongoing contemporary struggle for the victory of world socialism. The events of the last forty years have powerfully substantiated this appraisal of Trotsky’s place in history and his enduring political significance.”
“A man of his time, ahead of his time and, now, of our time”
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/07/thuz-n07.html
These remarks were delivered by World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board Chairman David North on Sunday, November 5, 2023, at the Istanbul Book Fair in Turkey.
I am grateful to have the opportunity today to present my book, Leon Trotsky and the Struggle for Socialism in the Twenty-First Century. Permit me to express my gratitude for the excellent facilities provided by the organizers of the Istanbul Book Fair for this presentation, as well as to my comrades in the Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu for having translated my book into Turkish, without which, of course, this presentation would not have been possible.
My book consists of essays and lectures that were written over a period of four decades. The opening section of the book consists of four essays that were written in the autumn of 1982. The book concludes with a statement that I wrote just seven months ago, in April 2023. When the first essays were written, I was a comparatively young man, with only a decade of experience in the revolutionary socialist movement. The last document is the work of a person who, somewhat to my own surprise, has passed beyond the Biblical age of 70 and has been active in the Fourth International for over a half century.
However, despite the many years that separate the writing of the book’s opening and concluding sections, they are connected by the same fundamental premise, which is, as I have written in the preface, “that Leon Trotsky was the most significant figure in the history of socialism during the first four decades of the twentieth century, and that his legacy remains the critical and indispensable theoretical and political foundation of the ongoing contemporary struggle for the victory of world socialism. The events of the last forty years have powerfully substantiated this appraisal of Trotsky’s place in history and his enduring political significance.”