If John Reimann had been on lbo-talk back in its glory days in the early years of this century, certain characters I interacted with there would have eaten him for breakfast with pleasure. There were some every sharp minds on that listserv.. A few there really went after me , consistently for my harping on Stalinism, insinuating such a stance was a capitulation to US Imperialism, which can be a eventual destination point as we all now , as witness the neo-cons.
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2002/2002-December/027942.html Carrol Cox ( cbcox at ilstu.edu ( http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk ) )>...Read through the archives on this list... Indeed http://www.google.com/search?q=Carrol+%22stalinist%22+lbo-talk ,Carrol always put scare quotes around Stalinist. http://nuance.dhs.org/lbo-talk/0011/1094.html Carrol>...tired old pejorative like "stalinist." From one of the best ever lbo-talk threads, "Heart of a Leftist, " http://squawk.ca/lbo-talk/0007/0262.html Carrol and Yoshie>...Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > >>So, Yoshie, can Stalinist be criticized and excoriatedwithout > >>commiting the horrible vice of red-baiting? > > > >Nope. Stalinism can't be criticized without it turning into > >red-baiting. It really is not hard to avoid red-baiting. Criticize/attack *positions* without resorting to the lazy habit of replacing argument with labels. There is even a label for this practice: it's called principled criticism... If Yoshie, with her forwarding of French Trotskyist Daniel Bensaid a few days ago is coming to her senses, hurray! To Carrol, her is what Earl Browder said in 1938 about calling himself a Stalinist w/o scare quotes. "The vigillence and unity of our members...is a unity based upon understanding and science, the science of history, founded by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels and, developed in the present era of imperialism and the rise of socialism as a world power, by Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin...With the deepest pride we accept the name of our most beloved teacher and guide. We are indeed Stalinists, and we hope to become ever more worthy of such a glorious name...Truly it is a proud name, Stalinist, and we must bear it with all modesty, for it carries with it a tremendous responsibility." Earl Browder, "The Democratic Front, " Workers Library, 1938, g. 84, as cited in fn. 25, pg. 17 of Aileen Kraditor, "Jimmy Higgins: Inside the Mental World of the American Rank-And-File Communist, 1930-1958. " Kraditor, as you might know wrote several books on the abolitionists and suffragists. She was in the CPUSA from the late 40's to the late 50's. The above quote from Browder's written work can also be backed up with an interview he conducted with NYC newspaper reporters, just after the Pact was announced in '39 where he calls himself a proud Stalinist, again. as cited by Harvey Klehr in his history of the CPUSA in the 30's blurbed by Hal Draper. As for principled criticism, esp. when Charles Brown was here, others and I brought up the histories of the Communist movement written by such as Fernando Claudin of the Spanish PCE that was published by Monthly Review Pres in the 70's, to no avail. C.L.R. James, Agnes Heller, Ferenc Feher and Gyorgy Markus on, "Dictatorship Over Needs, " Rudolf Bahro in, "The Alternative in Eastern Europe." Many others. But, these communists are all just red-baiters, to some. Michael Pugliese More recently came across a similar quote , on the DSA DB , via an old post by Jason Schulman. “ The ( https://discussion.dsausa.org/t/the-working-class-is-not-interested-in-the-marxist-paradigm/29442/62 ) social-democrat lackeys often call us stalinists and they think that in this way they insult the communists. But we are proud of this honorary appellation as we are proud of the appellation leninists. There is no greater honor for a revolutionary than being a true leninist, a true stalinist, a devoted disciple of Lenin and Stalin until the end. And there is no greater happiness for the communists than fighting under the guidance of Stalin for the triumph of the international proletariat’s just cause. Not everybody can be a stalinist. The honorary appellation leninist-stalinist has to be won through bolshevik struggle, persistence and unlimited devotion to the cause of the working class." (G. Dimitrov, “Stalin and the international proletariat”, 1939). -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#28560): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/28560 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/103690802/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
