After the Second World War, the followers of Leon Trotsky were faced with three dilemmas. Trotsky had predicted that after the war the Soviet Union would be wracked by political instability, that the West would be plunged into severe economic crisis and that national liberation in the Third World would only be brought to victory by the working class. Instead Stalin extended Russia's expire in Eastern Europe, the West entered the 'long boom' and national liberation movements came to power without the active intervention of the working class.
Under these conditions, socialists who looked to the ideas of Trotsky were forced either to abandon socialism or reinterpret the reality they faced. This was precisely the task undertaken by Tony Cliff who established the Socialist Workers Party on a firm foundation of Trotskyist politics.
Taking the First, Second and Third Worlds, Cliff developed the theories of 'Permanent Arms Economy', 'State Capitalism in Russia' and 'Deflected Permanent Revolution' which coherently explained the international capitalist system in Marxist terms.
Brought together here are three talks that Tony Cliff delivered at 'Marxism at the Millennium' covering his groundbreaking analysis that ensured the relevance of revolutionary Marxist organisation into the 21st century.