"Mr P.A. Van Heusden" wrote:
> 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?
I don't know how Charles will answer, but I thought I'd butt in here. I can accept any opinion on them except two -- the one that attempts to simply exclude them from our history and the one that tries to identify our history with them. ("Our" here is the international working class, during those periods when it comes into existence). Perhaps that answer generates a third opinion that I can' accept -- the one that holds to be a marxist one *must* have an opinion on Stalin.
I do have one opinion on him that Sebastiano Timpanaro (no Stalinist) pointed to -- his "Marxism and Linguistics" is of theoretical interest in pointing out that (in terms of the base/ superstructure metaphor) base and superstructure do *not* cover everything. They don't cover language for example.
Carrol