And what struck me was how in the process how little time was devoted to exposing the crimes of Franco and fascism with the onus therefor being shifted to the "Stalinists", many of whom were victims of fascist repression, arguments recycled and coopted constantly by neo-cons, ex-trot or not: quite frankly an anti-communist obsession that fit in well with the atmosphere in this country at that time, explaining how bad those commies really were. After having gotten to know some communists later I started to question that orthodoxy which kind of went against the grain of my upbringing in a liberal FDR loving family of WW2 veterans, not that Stalin wasn't a creep, the 1939 pact with Hitler being the all time low for him and the CPs who upheld that.
> From: [email protected] > Date: Sun, 8 Nov 2009 14:14:28 -0500 > Subject: Re: [Marxism] A few words In Defense of the Black Panther Party > To: [email protected] > > Louis, I can understand why from this vantage-point one can consider the > founding of the Fourth International a "sectarian mistake." However, at the > time that Trotsky proposed it, Stalinism was not only a mass movement in the > working class throughout the world, it was capable of any kind of crime > imaginable. The Spanish Civil War, for example, was in progress at the time > that the F.I. was being organized and was at the center of political debate. > It always struck me as a new recruit to the YSA in 1969 how much energy the > older generation used to denounce Stalinism and educate us on its crimes. > The Fourth International was launched to combat Stalinism and social > democracy in the working class, with the belief that without doing so > socialist revolution was not possible. > _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft's powerful SPAM protection. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/ http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/ ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
