Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 08:45:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
To: marxism-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
Subject: Fighting the battles of yore


On Tue, 16 Apr 1996, David Walters wrote:

> Adolfo Olaecheas defense of Comintern policy vis-a-vis  Bill
> Alexanders regurgitation of  Stalinist half-truths and outright
> lies is to be expected, I guess.
> 

Louis: Since it was my endorsement of the Loach film rather than Doug 
Henwood's that prompted this exchange between Walters and Olaechea, I 
suppose I should say something.

It is actually directed to Walters, not Olaechea. Walters has been on 
this list for some time and this is the most substantial post we've seen 
>from him. He has had scant words about the American class struggle, the 
country he does political work in, but he has lots to say about the Spanish 
class struggle in 1935. Isn't this symptomatic of the problem of 
Trotskyism? This current lives in the past, refighting battles that are 
long dead. There is no more Comintern. The CPUSA is a tiny group. What is 
he fighting against? A foe that exists only in history.

As far as Olaechea is concerned, doesn't it occur to people that to 
uphold Stalin's ideas in 1996 doesn't get you very far. In 1936 it may 
have gotten you a job in the State Department or a trade union post. 
Today it takes enormous will-power, even stubborness, to defend Stalin. 
Pro-Stalin groups are swimming against the current, just as pro-Trotsky 
groups were in the 1930s. It takes the same kind of zealousness to defend 
Stalin today as it did to defend Trotsky in the 1930s.

So who is Walters taking up the cudgel against. The handful of people on 
this list who are pro-Stalin? Is he concerned that a young graduate 
student may be misled by Olaechea's views on the Spanish Civil War?

Get real.

Here at Columbia University, when students occupied Low Library to win an 
ethnic studies department, there were no banners of Stalin. There were no 
copies of pro-Stalin newspapers being sold. There has not even been the 
slightest interest in Stalin's ideas among left wing students here.

I wish David Walters would give some thought to the American class 
struggle of 1996 and contribute a Marxist analysis to the list. That is 
what is needed, not commentary on the fights of yesteryear.


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