Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 07:44:43 +0100 (MET)
Subject: M-G: Proyects Hat trick on Stalinphobia!


In reply to Ali. Louis P writes;
>
>Louis: I have no idea of what your intention is, but that is not really what
>interests me. I am dealing with another question and that is how to maintain
>a civil atmosphere on the list.
>
>You are introducing questions that we have learned from bitter experience
>open up flame wars despite people's best intentions. We have a number of
>comrades on the list from a Maoist or a CP tradition who regard Stalin's
>role as positive.
>
>There are also a much larger number of people who are not pro-Stalin, but
>who don't want to stigmatize people who are. I think in the context of left
>politics in 1997, being "for" Stalin means being for proletarian revolution
>and drawing a class sharp line. We are not running the risk that we will
>create a police state in the future because we accept pro-Stalin socialists
>in the broad movement we are trying to create.

Ali opens a can of worms and out pop all the neo Stalinist Mensheviks 
screaming Stalinism is dead! It is only those horrible Trotskyists who talk 
about Stalinism. But the point is that the Stalinists are trying to distance 
themselve from old Joe (except for a few like Aldolfo) in order to clean up 
the diarerr they have left around in the form of politics like the popular 
front, the stage theory of revolution. among numerous other historical turns 
by just the Stalinists. (Spain,Germany for example) This new turn is to drop 
Stalin in name and carry on the usual bankrupt Stalinist politics as usual 
under a new umbrella. While continuing the smear campaign against those 
horrible Trotskyists.. That is the hat trick going on here. 

Since when are the Stalinists "for" proletarain revolution? There is not one 
Stalinist on this list who defends any thing near independent proletarian 
struggle. never mind a revolution. Proyect is trying to blow smoke rings 
around the political line of Stalinism. In fact just two of the main 
political pillars of Stalinist politics-the stage theory of revolution, the 
popular front--are two good reasons why the Stalinists gave up on any kind 
of proletarian revolution a long time ago and replaced it with the above 
political line which has led to poitical defeat and disaster time and again. 

But he is right about any kind of palace coup by the Stalinists in the 
future.Because Stalinism has no future. It was already doomed in Germany 
after the defeat in the 30ties. It took 50 or more years for a 
counter-revolution in the former Soviet Union to bring the Stalinists to the 
end of the trail. And the most horrible crime of all! Is that they gave the 
gains of October back to Imperialism. That is just about the last and one of 
the biggest nails in the dying corpse!

That Proyect has and appetite to build a broadie (all inclusive) rotten 
block of Stalinists,new leftists, and reformists and call it something while 
trashing the Bolshevik Leninists is quite clear to many and this letter 
confirms this! But historically the Mensheviks and the Stalinists have 
always been politicall bedmates since the fiasco of the "third period" 
Stalinist turn in Germany.

>In the struggle to overthrow Batista in Cuba, Fidel Castro did not demand
>that people joining the July 26th Movement pass a litmus test on Stalin. He
>actually fused with the Cuban pro-Moscow party at a turning point in the
>Cuban revoluion. This fusion actually helped the revolution succeed because
>the CP had critical working-class support and was also able to cement ties
>with the Soviet Union, necessary for Cuba's survival as a socialist society.
>Was Castro soft on Stalinism? The proof that this is not so is that Cuba has
>been the freest socialist nation in the 20th century. Despite all of the
>terror and blockade directed against it, Cuba has been a more open
>society--to use Karl Popper's term--than anybody could reasonably expect.

The "fusion" in fact was a rotten block between the Stalinists and the 
Guerillas and it took Cuba down the road of being dependent on the Soviet 
Union. This was all done while Fidel was locking up the Trotskyists.
>
>Furthermore, there is no such thing as "Stalinism" any more. This was a
>historical phenomenon. People who are absorbed with this are looking at a
>wrong set of problems. We should be devoting our energy to understanding the
>ruling class rather than a political movement that was linked inextricably
>to the USSR of the 1930s through 1950s.

Sure Proyect! Stalin is dead. But the rotten politics of the broadies, the 
popular front and the stage theory of revolution make their daily appearance 
on this list in the clone version of Stalinism in a cleaned up version. 

Proyect appears to be able to unite with anything as long as it doesn,t 
represent the line of the Bolshevik Leninists (Trotskyists) on this list or 
any other list. And he is one of the more intelligent, albeit viscious, 
clones of this epoch.

But everyonce and a while he produces stuff like this which shows his real 
appetite and political thrust. Let all those be warned. Proyect is quite 
clearly in the camp of the neo Stalinist Menshevik clones of cyber space!

And I see with this mornings post that Ali (Hats off to Ali) has got a 
number of the Stalinists to climb down from their highwire act and talk real 
politics for a change. 
So the above answer goes for them also. Except Barkely who is using the 
Stalinist stuff to beat the deformed North Korean state on the head with. 
Barkely shows his appetite to side with imperialism against North Korea and 
Louis G. a neo clean up Stalinism Stalinist does everything to convince 
people that the North Korean Stalinists have embarked on a "Swedish" mixed 
economy. WoW talking about opening a can of worms. Ali farted and the whole 
list and especially those who think they run the list got diareer! 

Bob Malecki
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