From: Godenas-AT-aol.com
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 09:33:38 -0500
Subject: Re: Charlotte and Scott: Conf...


Scott and Charlotte; You, as fellow members of the CPUSA, are free to do as
you choose, but I would do a little more investigating about Trotsky and
"Carlos'" facile assertions about the European parties.  His recent posts
suggest he is well suited to editing "Shiny Shit" and  fulfilling his role as
slanderer and provocateur (roles not unknown to trotskyists--remember Irving
Brown and Jay Lovestone?)  While there is certainly much to criticize about
all the left organizations in the US, including, I suspect, those with whom
"Carlos" has sought to identify himself, at one time or another, one must
examine such criticisms with care.  As far as my own (admittedly limited)
experience with trots go, I have found them to always be the most militantly
talking--almost to the point of recklessness--but, given time, nearly all of
them ended up on the right of the workers' movement (the ISO for example,
supported Lech Walesa, the mujadaheen in Afghanistan, and currently support,
in their peculiarly romantic fashion, Hamas and other religious
fundamentallists).  Their one unifying point--really, the core of their
creed--is hatred of "Stalinism," (anyone who defends the achievements of
communist parties anywhere in the world falls into this loathesome category).
 This trajectory replicates almost exactly that of their founder, who, as was
pointed out elsewhere on this list, made a career in exile of  increasingly
pandering to the most reactionary elements in the west.  His first stop in
Britain was not a left-wing newspaper or organization of workers, but Lord
Beaverbrook's Daily Mail.  And it went downhill from there.  I do not know if
Trotsky was an agent of Adolf Hitler.  I do not find that prospect wholly
unbelievable, as even Trotsky's defenders acknowledge the egomaniacal nature
of the man and his desire for power above all else.  We can only know that it
was the Soviet Union, under Stalin, that defeated the Nazi beast, that
provided the theoretical wherewhithall, and a good deal of material aid, in
facilitating the overthrow of neo-colonialism, that modernized the Soviet
Union (although of course not without great cost) and made it, for better or
worse, the chief protagonist of not only US imperialism, but for Hitler's
successors in Bonn, London, and Tokyo.
Stalin's record was flawed and ambiguous, but that he has great achievements
to his credit is, to me, undeniable.
Scott and Charlotte, I invite you to examine closely the record of these
trotskyites.  Where have they led revolution?  Where have they made even
significant contributions?  I know people from Rifondazione Comunista, the
PDS, and the PCE.  Trotskite influence in these organizations, believe me, is
not at all what "Carlos" says it is.  Or, let's look closer to home.   At
"Carlos" himself.  Here is someone who slanders and villifies (with Professor
Proyect's silent approval) the most important revolutionary current in the
Americas.  Yet, what has he done.  Organize a rump of the Peace and Freedom
Party!  That is now, according to his friends, defunct.  Now his time is
spent on this list, running off his filthy mouth, his unstable political
positions in tatters, shaking his mouse in impotent rage at real
revolutionaries, for whom he hasn't the time of day.
Scott and Charlotte, I have a good deal of respect for both of you.  Bear
with us on this list.  The truth will out.
                                          Louis Godena    


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