Date: 01 Mar 97 22:59:07 EST From: jonathan flanders <72763.2240-AT-CompuServe.COM> Subject: M-I: Bureaucrats and Stalinists >> > In the US, the working class equivalent of a Stalin figure is Jimmy > Hoffa, the Teamster leader, or if you go a little further back, John L. Lewis of the miners.<< An insult to the memory of Hoffa and Lewis! Hoffa and Lewis were, in part, popularist trade union bureaucrats. Stalin was the consumate functionary who was about as capable of making eloquent public speeches as Vito Genovese. << G. Levy Jon Flanders: Admittedly the analogy only goes so far. One wonders though, what either Lewis or Hoffa would have done if they had state power. Read Alinsky's account of the expulsion of Phil Murray from the UMWA for a stomach turning account of "stalinist" behavior. The point is that the working class, lacking education, bombarded with propaganda, intimidated by the specter of poverty, and pounded into submission by the bosses, can be expected to be vulnerable to the blandishments of "all-powerful" leaders offering a paternalistic kind of security. Stalin may not have been an eloquent speaker, but he carried the reputation of an "Old Bolshevik" man of steel who faithfully served Lenin. That served as well as a brilliant speech to impress a lot of workers. His being a consummate functionary would have gotten him nowhere without those "Leninist" credentials. Jon Flanders, using OzWin 2.12.1 --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005