File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-03-18.151, message 89


Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 07:47:33 GMT
From: Chris Burford <cburford-AT-gn.apc.org>
Subject: M-I: The truth ?


I am still catching up on digests after being away only a
few days. There seem to be many voices saying how sterile is
the battle between those blaming everything on "Stalinism" and
those appearing to defend "Stalinism".

I thought one of Lenin's remarks was that the truth is 
always concrete. If people want serious discussion of 
the past, this is a question of being prepared to argue in 
a detailed and concrete way, and not just symbolically, and 
I would suggest to recognise the achievements and the
efforts of past attempts at socialism, as well as the serious
problems. If that cannot be done on this list without 
constantly reverting to a symbolic war of counterposed 
gestures, and the moderators decide to ban that, I 
am quite willing to conform.

Meanwhile the remedy for the list overall seems to me
to concentrate on more serious discussion of the concrete,
often more difficult than the abstract. And an understanding
that the moderators can only do so much. Basically unless 
all subscribers understand a willingness to moderate themselves,
the list is not workable, and therefore unselfmoderated
contributions are better rewarded with little attention.

I am still in favour of a very wide forum, however, partly
because, not in spite of, my sympathy for a Monthly Review
type of position. I think that position has survived over
the years by being open to debate with neighbouring 
perspectives, not by being closed off. If so, such a general 
viewpoint would continue to grow and spread in the conditions
of the internet. That is my guess anyway.

Chris Burford




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