ABSTRACT
This chapter charts the doctrines of the different Trotskyist organizations and families, the ways in which they are reproduced and the treatment of rival viewpoints. It starts with the Orthodox Trotskyist family because it illustrates with particular clarity the key role of doctrine. In order of their emergence, the major families can be labelled Mainstream, Third Camp and Institutional whilst the other families – Radical, Workerist and Latin American – are discussed briefly. The chapter explores the role of charismatic leadership and its many dysfunctional consequences, as well as the role of membership education and control before brief comments on Trotskyist commemorations of the centenary of 1917. The most striking corollary of orthodoxy is sectarianism, an intense hostility and antagonism towards other organizations, above all those belonging to rival Trotskyist families. In contrast, the Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL) only moved towards Third Camp Trotskyism in the late 1980s when it adopted the state capitalist analysis of the USSR.
