Third camp

The third camp, also known as third camp socialism or third camp Trotskyism, is a branch of socialism which aims to oppose both capitalism and Stalinism, by supporting the organised working class as a "third camp".

The term arose early during the Second World War, and refers to the idea of two "imperialist camps" competing to dominate the world: one led by the United Kingdom and France and supported by the United States, and the other led by Nazi Germany and supported by Fascist Italy.

Origins of the term

From the 1930s and beyond, Leon Trotsky and his American acolyte James P. Cannon described the Soviet Union as a "degenerated workers' state," the revolutionary gains of which should be defended against imperialist aggression despite the emergence of a gangster-like ruling stratum, the party bureaucracy. While defending the Russian revolution from outside aggression, Trotsky, Cannon, and their followers at the same time urged an anti-bureaucratic political revolution against Stalinism to be conducted by the Soviet working class themselves.

German nationalism in Austria

German nationalism (German: Deutschnationalismus) is a political ideology and historical current in Austrian politics. It arose in the 19th century as a nationalist movement amongst the German-speaking population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It favours close ties with Germany, which it views as the nation-state for all ethnic Germans, and the possibility of the incorporation of Austria into a Greater Germany.

Over the course of Austrian history, from the Austrian Empire, to Austria-Hungary, and the First and the Second Austrian Republics, several political parties and groups have expressed pan-German nationalist sentiment. National liberal and pan-Germanist parties have been termed the "Third Camp" (German: Drittes Lager) of Austrian politics, as they have traditionally been ranked behind mainstream Catholic conservatives and socialists. The Freedom Party of Austria, a far-right political party with representation in the Austrian parliament, has pan-Germanist roots. After the Second World War, both pan-Germanism and the idea of political union with Germany were discredited by their association with Nazism, and by the rising tide of a civic Austrian national identity.