Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 09:31:52 -0500 (EST)
Subject: M-TH: Reply to Hillel Ticktin


On Tue, 25 Mar 1997, Hillel Ticktin wrote:

> The doctrine [Stalinism] is necessarily
> nationalist and hence leads to the support of nationalist movements, as
> against proletarian movements, particularly in the third world.

Louis: Nationalism covers a lot of territory, doesn't it? Ho Chi-Minh was
a nationalist, and so was Sukharno. Within nationalist movements there are
Marxist currents and there are bourgeois currents. Sectarianism removes
this problem by simply standing apart from the mass movement. The
opposition to "nationalism" by Trotskyism is a latter-day expression of
Rosa Luxemburg's politics. She opposed Polish nationalism because it was
not a pure expression of the working-class. Most Trotskyists of today
defend Lenin's historical position but share her sectarian politics.

> viewpoint many ended up partly or sometimes largely justifying it. The US
> SWP, for instance, has ended up supporting Cuba, which is certainly
> Stalinist in terms of the definition given above. 

Louis: Cuba is Stalinist? This is a bizarre notion. By this standard, the
USSR was Stalinist from the very beginning since there is very little to
distinguish pre-Stalinist USSR from Cuba. 



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