The concept of “revolution in permanence” was developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1850s; and was popularised by Leon Trotsky. It stresses on the need for the freedom struggle to not stop at the first stage and to continue until the human relations in that society are fundamentally transformed.
Although the concept of permanent revolution was largely developed by Leon Trotsky at the time of 1905 Russian revolution, but Mao also believed that, any single revolution is never enough to end the struggle. This is primarily because, the reactionary elements keep on emerging again and again; and so there is a gradual need to change the system regularly. For example- Mao started the Cultural Revolution after the end of communist revolution.
Thus “revolution in permanence” can be considered to be a strategy of the revolutionary class who are pursuing their own interest independently to that of society’s interest.
Marx in his later work, ‘the critique of the Gotha program’ also talked about the concept of “the movement of negation of the negation”. In this book, he talked about the fair distribution of proceeds ofblabour in any society. According to him, in any society- the initial stages of post-revolutionary society arei ncomplete and always bear the birthmarks of the capitalist society. So, he talked about the vision of full emancipation. For this, it was necessary to abolish the division between the mental and manual labour.
He also stressed on the subordination of individual to the division of labour and labour itself becoming not just the means but also the prime self-activity of life.
The concept of permanent revolution was not just limited to Marx and Trotsky but even Lenin wanted to this technique to secure communism. This shows the primacy of the idea of “ongoing” and “ageless” revolution.
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