Stalinism (was Re: Anti-Democratic America)

[Charles Brown]

See Khrushev's speech on Stalin's crimes. I by and large accept that denunciation of Stalin. Supporting the Soviet Union in WWII does not imply support for Stalin's crimes. So, no I do not "support" or  I do denounce Stalin and the Stalinists for the muders of Bolsheviks , including Trotsky.  I am not a Stalinist, but I don't buy the many anti-Soviet versions of the specifics of Stalin's crimes. For example, pertinent to this thread, I don't think Stalinism was imperialism.  The crimes were against internal opponents of Stalin. 

However, I do think the German-SU non-aggression pact was for purposes of buying time from the Soviets's standpoint.

CB


>>> "Mr P.A. Van Heusden" <pvanheus at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk> 12/10/99 11:04AM >>>
Maybe the fact that Anarchists and Stalinists (alongside all sorts of
other trends of thought) can share space on this list is testimony both to
Doug's role as moderator, and to the nature of the times...

I don't particularly want to get into a long argument about Stalin and
Stalinism, but I was just wondering: Charles, what is your opinion of the
Moscow Trials? Do you think the execution of Old Bolsheviks was a
'necessary evil'? And what do you think of Trotsky - was he, as Stalin
claimed, a counter-revolutionary? Should he have been murdered?

Peter
--
Peter van Heusden : pvanheus at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk : PGP key available
Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man
shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the 
chain and pluck the living flower. - Karl Marx 

           NOTE: I do not speak for the HGMP or the MRC.