On Sat, Sep 7, 2024 at 07:41 PM, Charlie wrote: > > Composer Michael Tippett "was certain in his belief – typical for a > Trotskyist of the day – that it was better to overturn the British Empire > than the German dictatorship.
There have always been eccentric artists and intellectuals who embraced Stalinism and anarchism as well as Trotskyism to épater les bourgeois. I had never heard of the composer Tippett and his brief flirtation with Trotskyism until Charlie made him an exemplar of the movement. Charlie is living proof that the Trotsky-Stalin debate has been a theoretical exercise without any practical consequence for our generation. His Stalinist forebears wouldn’t have spent a moment trading barbs in a discussion circle with Trotskyist wreckers and splitters and other enemies of the working class. Like my dad’s CPUSA activist cousin Bill, they were engaging in the class struggle at home and volunteering to fight in Spain. We can’t blame Charlie for the fact that those political opportunities and bitter tactical controversies no longer exist, only for acting as if they still do. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#32102): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/32102 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/108305074/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
