One last time, Yoshi. I am aware that Stalinism, after having practically destroyed the left here and elsewhere, has fallen on hard times. There are almost certainly more Buddhists than Marxists or socialists of any kind in America, but what is your point? That we should close ranks and be chummy with everyone who calls herself or himself some sort leftist in an uncritical manner? I disagree with Doug that the term is not useful; it was the major form of Marxism for a long time and still has its devotees, some of them on this list.
I don't think that the critique of Stalinism has the urgency it did when Stalinism was a more live option--and never mind Cuba and N. Korea, it's not dead in China, among other other places,a fifth of the world's population, where they have Stalinocapitalism, showing that Stalinism can outlive whatever minor virtues it may once have had, such as being an alternative to capitalism.
Still I think we will not get anywhere with the more important business if we are not clear on the historical account, which is that Stalinism was an almost unmitigated disaster for the workers, for the left, for the world. And don't start talking about the Great Patriotic War, the one flash of genuine glory Stalinism tried to claim for itself; that was the achievement of the Soviet people, not of the Stalinist system. If it hadn't been for Stalinism, the Soviet people would not have had to fend the enemy from the gates of Leningrad and back through the gates of Stalingrad.
I think we got into this because people who had never paid the price for left wing convictions accused me, who lost my job and first career to redbaiting, of red-baiting. I said, if I recall, that legitimate criticism of evil was not "baiting" of any sort. I guess my position is clear, although some here seem to think that if I reject the Lubyanka I am a tool, stooge, and defender of U.S. imperialism, but there's nothing to be done about that sort of thinking. Still, let's let it go.
Btw, the problem with the CPUSA was _always) that it was complicit with the Democrats--at least since the Pop front.
--jks
In a message dated Fri, 7 Jul 2000 4:07:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> writes:
<< > > So be it. It's a big tent here on LBO, really, with so many
>open-minded people committed to irony & skepticism. :)
>
>Sure, let's be open minded about Stalinism and skeptical of
>critiques about it, those a notable Stalinist virtues.
>
>--jks
One last time, Justin. Stalinism is *dead* in America (it's dead in the former Eastern bloc, too; Maoism is dead in China; North Korea will soon be a poorer part of the unified capitalist Korea; Cuban socialism will probably hobble on until Castro dies, but who knows what will happen after his death). The problem of the CPUSA at present is their loyal support of the Democratic Party, which they share with most African-Americans, many unionists, and the majority of social democratically-minded people in America. In this sense (in addition to the remaining legacies of the New Deal & multiculturalism), Communism may have become indeed Americanism. It hardly matters one way or another, though, in that the CPUSA has no influence on American politics, and neither do any Marxists of any variety. There probably are more Tibetan Buddhists than Marxists in America, for all I know.
Yoshie
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