Date: Sun, 25 Jun 1995 15:48:04 -0500
From: marquit-AT-physics.spa.umn.edu
Subject: Leo Casey, Stalinism, and the Canadian CP


Dear Leo Casey,
Your reply to my post of 24 June avoids the basic issue. If you
wish to label the Canadian CP "Stalinist" then you should be 
able to cite from their progrmammitic documents or publications
evidence that they are so. Many CP's have reassessed the "Stalin
legacy" and have rejected it essentially completely or in various
degrees (and some not at all) while retaining or restoring what
they regard as the Leninist tradition. Some also have discarded
Lenin as well. To characterize all those that retain the Leninist
tradition (mainly involving the concept of a vanguard party) as
Stalinist obscures the efforts that many of the CP's have been
making to institutionalize democratic practices in their 
organizational structure. I have observed the events in the
Canadian CP over several party conventions (in connection
mostly with book tables set up there by the Marxist Educational
Press with which I am associated) and have seen this process of
democratization of organizational practice unfold.
Erwin Marquit


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