What is the real Marxist tradition?

The years since Karl Marx’s death have seen the emergence of movements, organizations and governments declaring themselves to be "Marxist." How can we make sense of this development?

This short book is an attempt to untangle these "Marxisms," to establish criteria for evaluating claims to stand within the Marxist tradition, to examine the conflicting claims of Social Democracy, Stalinism, and the liberation movements of the Third World and to answer the question, "What is the real Marxist tradition?"

Included in this new edition is Leon Trotsky’s brilliant defense of the politics and practice of Bolshevism, Stalinism and Bolshevism. Trotsky makes the case that the rise of Stalin--and Stalinism--was not the inevitable consequence of Leninism, but rather its negation.