Marxism and Stalinism

Marxist assessments of Stalinism. What was the class nature of the Stalin-Khrushchev-Brezhnev USSR? And of other countries modelled on it? What has been the legacy of Stalinism for the left?

Cable Street 1936 : 75th Anniversary - When Workers Stopped the Fascists

October marks the anniversary of the memorable day when the workers of East London stopped police-protected fascists marching through the Jewish areas of the East End. The Battle of Cable Street was an epic, and is now a myth-enshrouded event in British working-class history. The against fascism may once more become a matter of life and death to the labour movement. What lessons for this work can we learn from the anti-fascist struggle in East London? Did 'objective conditions' and, after 1934, Establishment disapproval kill off Mosleyism, or was it direct action on the streets? What are the...

The fantasy of state capitalism in the USSR

By Paul Hampton Click here for the debate around this contribution Chris Ford’s plea for more attention to Raya Dunayevskaya (Transcending our fragmented tradition Solidarity 3/111, 3 May 2007) rests heavily on her “extensively researched original analysis of the USSR as a state-capitalist society which she first outlined in 1941.” Aside from a rather overblown cultist reverence, the substance this argument simply does not stand up. Dunayevskaya’s state capitalist view was not particularly original and suffered from the same errors made by others who used the label to describe Stalinism. At...

The death of the USSR and the rebirth of socialism

A collection of articles Stalin's system collapses (August 1991) Why the workers want to restore capitalism: the legacy of Stalinism (August 1991) Why we should support the banning of the CPSU (October 1991) Market madness in the ex-USSR: the triumph of unreason (January 1992) The end of the USSR: in the beginning was the critique of capitalism (February 1992) The left's verdict on the USSR: was August 1991 a capitalist counter-revolution against a workers' state? (March 1992) The SWP and the collapse of the USSR: Sectarian lessons from afar (March 1992) Download whole collection as pdf The...

The anti-Stalinist revolutions in Eastern Europe, 1989-90

A collection of articles on solidarity with workers in Eastern Europe before the revolutions of 1989, and on those revolutions and the prospects they opened up Socialism, yes! Stalinism, no! (November 1989) The risen people: Eastern Europe after the revolutions (January 1990) A socialist manifesto by Socialist Organiser (February 1990) What's in the coffin at the funeral of socialism? (March 1990) Their nightmare, our hope (September 1990) (1990) Arthur Scargill and Lech Walesa see each other in a distorting mirror (1984) British workers and the Stalinist state 'unions' (1981)

The nature of Stalinist imperialism

By Hal Draper THERE is a paradox - only an apparent one - in the development of Stalinist imperialism. Stalinism arose out of the counter-revolution in Russia under the slogan of building “socialism in one country” as against the perspective of “world revolution” represented by the Bolshevik left wing under Trotsky. An historic internal struggle took place within the party under these different banners, in which, as everybody knows, the Stalinist wing won out. To the Stalinists, the theory of “socialism in one country” which they put forward meant: Let’s keep our eyes fixed on our problems at...

The End of an Experience (Johnson-Forest in 1950)

By Max Shachtman, from Labor Action, 6 November 1950 One of the most important measuring rods in politics is: What did we expect and what did we get? Trotsky often applied it to the politics of the old Communist Party, and he was right. It is likewise applicable to the politics of all classes and of all organisations that take themselves seriously. It is valid in two senses. First: how far did events refute or confirm an analysis that was made? Second: How much did results justify or condemn a policy that was followed? Unless this key question is asked and answered periodically, it is...

What is Trotskyism? The Debate on Our Fragmented Traditions: Shachtman, Draper, James, Dunayevskaya:

What is Trotskyism? - Our fragmented tradition , by Sean Matgamna Fragmented Trotskyist tradition? Remember C L R James and Raya Dunayevskaya too , by Chris Ford James-Dunayevskaya? Like the Koran and the Bible! , by Barry Finger The Shachtman-Johnson donnybrook , by Ernest Haberkern The fantasy of state capitalism in the USSR , by Paul Hampton C L R James , by Sean Matgamna Don't be starry-eyed about James , by Jane Ryan The Johnson-Forest tendency , by Sean Matgamna James-Dunayevskaya: the End of an Experience , by Max Shachtman James-Dunayevskaya split from SWP(USA) - at 8.30 sharp , by Max...

British workers and the Stalinist state "unions"

British workers and the Stalinist state 'unions' Workers' Action 182, March 1981 [At the head of the article stand two news clippings]: From the Financial Times: Soviet union leader 'poorly' The leader of the Soviet Union's first independent trade union, Mr Vladimir Klebanov, was reported yesterday to be in poor physical condition after treatment with strong behaviour modification drugs in a special psychiatric hospital in Dnepropetrovsk. Mr Klebanov, a former mining foreman from the Donbas region, tried in December 1976 to organise a union which would fight for Soviet workers' rights outside...

A socialist manifesto from the editorial board of Socialist Organiser

A socialist manifesto from the editorial board of Socialist Organiser Socialist Organiser 434, 15 February 1990 Today the bourgeoisie can march in triumph right across Europe. Ex-Stalinists, ex-socialists, ex-Marxists, ex-radicals join the loyal crowds. But beyond the cheering squads, off the thoroughfares, out of the limelight, grow bitterness and anger, lacking only confidence to turn into rebellion. As the economy of the free market and private profit spreads in Eastern Europe, the exuberant joy of the democratic revolutions will turn into the hard, set, strained faces of the workers on the...

Socialism, yes! Stalinism, no!

Socialism, yes! Stalinism, no! Socialist Organiser 425, 22 November 1989 As we go to press Czechoslovakia seems set to follow Poland's, Hungary's and East Germany's lead in losing its monopoly of power or having it severely knocked out of shape. Miners are reported to be on strike. Theatre workers and students are certainly on strike. Hundred of thousands march in Prague every day, demanding free elections, the resignation of the Party leader Milos Jakes, and the release of political prisoners. The Stalinists' puppet parties have started to rediscover some independence. Prime Minister Ladislav...

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