Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 11:21:36 -0700 (MST)
From: R Lyon <rlyon-AT-gpu.srv.ualberta.ca>
Subject: Re: M-G: Reading books


Lenin would have approved of a deal with the Nazi's?  I must - like you you
- speculate on this.  Had Lenin survived and remained in power - this would
have invariable held that the international revolution hads ucceeded to some
extent - that the German revolution would have succeeded at least -
otherwise Lenin would not have survived.  Even if he had, the SU would still
have degenerated into the reactionary regime that it turned into.  As well,
keeping the Red Army organized as a revolutionary militia, ie. the red army
under Trotsky - and not heirarchial bureaucratic appartus of Stalin - and
had production not been floundered by the zig zags of Stalinist economic
economic policy, but continued under a democratic peaceful gradual process
of collectivization etc, the Su would have been infinitly stronger than Nazi
Germany - or Nazi Germany would never have existed - so I don't think under
these circumstances would Lenin have signed a pact with anyone.
	Also, Vlad seems to bash around theoreticians - was that not what
Lenin was before the October Revolution?  A theoretician?  The things that
the theoreticians say can not be ruled out - some of what they say is
speculation, none of it verified, but we should listen to it - and what they
say does make sense on the basis of facts.  Had any theoreticians (or anyone
remotely intelligent for that matter) survived the purges and remained in
power - it is completely logical to say that there would have been a very
different history today - a history in which the SU did not fail, and become
a red stain on our movement and history in general.  Besides what is it that
we are doing?  "Reading Books" is the topic of this recent discussion -
reading academic, intellectual works, and taking about them in that manner -
meanwhile thousands are starving and oppressed - we are in ourselves being
theoreticians (some of us better than others).  What did the Trotskyists
achieve?  On the basis of history and controlling states - nothing - because
we were persecuted and killed off - but those who survive and operate today
can be proud that they stuck to their beliefs, never wavered, and offered a
truly democratic solution to the problems of the world - Trotsky and the
Trotskyists have never wavered from the goals set out by the Great October
Socialist Revolution?  Have you ever read Leopold Treppers book?
	That brings us to the question - What did the Stalinists achieve?
They lied (through the wonderful process of doublethink), they destroyed
revolutions - the German, Spanish, Greek etc, and they have the blood of the
millions of innocent people that they murdered in their own lovely
concentration camps (which morally make them no better than the Nazis).  So
the Trotskyist can be proud that we tried - while Stalinist can be proud of
failing - or in other words - murder, death, destruction, lies, idiocy, and
turning one of the greatest events in human history into one of the most
brutal events in human history.

Aufwiedersehen, with comradely greetings!

Rob



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