We publish here two pieces written by Leon Trotsky – in 1917 and 1923 respectively – on the question of the “United States of Europe”. As Trotsky stresses, the only way forward for the working class of Europe is along the lines of a European-wide socialist revolution. As the capitalist European project unravels today, Trotsky’s analysis remains as relevant as ever.

In this article, first published in 2004, Rob Sewell deals with the important contribution Lenin made on the national question and how such a correct stand on this issue guaranteed the success of the Bolshevik Party in October 1917. The national question remains a key issue for Marxists in the current epoch of capitalist crisis.

The epoch of world growth fueled by globalisation is over. Two giant free trade deals are being thrashed out which would place the United States at the centre of its own strategically drawn up domain. But far from being a means to open up the world to a further intensification of trade and to liberate capitalism from its own fetters, these deals, engineered by US imperialism, represent protectionism masquerading as free trade.