In the late 70's a big conference was held convened by Eurocommunists, Trotskyists and Socialists to analyze and support working class and intelligentsia left opposition currents and individuals in the USSR and Eastern Europe. Addressed by dozens of prominent marxists like Althusser, Ernest Mandel. Ink Links a Trot press in the UK published the conference proceedings in a volume entitled, "Power and Opposition In Post- Revolutionary Societies."
Likewise when Rudolf Bahro was imprisoned a conference was held addressed by Herbert Marcusem Rudi Deutschke et. al. M.E. Sharpe published the conference papers.
Here in Amerikka, not on lbo-talk but in the more unreflective precincts of the radleft we see such polemics as the below.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------- Forwarded message ------- From: DavidMcR at aol.com To: kelly at blythe.org, asdnet at igc.topica.com, socialistsunmoderated at debs.pinko.net Subject: RE: [ASDnet] Cuba, Iraq & White-Glove Tea-Party Socialists Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 23:41:50 EDT Hi - am passing this on to the lists and blind copies (if AOL speeds up a bit). David << Subj: Cuba, Iraq & White-Glove Tea-Party Socialists Date: 4/12/03 10:23:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: kelly at blythe.org (Kathleen L Kelly) To: redsolidarity at yahoo.com (John Metz) CC: DavidMcR at aol.com, asdnet at igc.topica.com, jdeneen at student.flint.umich.edu, ttd at igc.org, socunity at topica.com, jschaffner at igc.apc.org, cbloice at calnurses.org, lesliecagan at igc.org, simon at rhc.cu, bkoehnlein at nyc.rr.com, kenncruz at pacbell.net, mikadri at infomed.sld.cu, crazy_commie at hotmail.com, garland at valleypiper.com, spnatcomlist at topica.com, socialistsunmoderated at debs.pinko.net, jlandy at igc.org, ethanyoung at earthlink.net, mm247 at columbia.edu, CMitch5575 at aol.com American Leftists Believe in Walt Disney; Cuba Doesn't. Get Used to It. We are sending this to David McReynolds and his original list. It probably won't reach the many who have replied to his, and whose replies reached us, because we don't belong to these endless lists. Feel free to pass it on, but we don't promise to read all the endless replies. To all the liberal infantile US "leftists" who have been mewling over Cuba this week -- Puhhleeze. These "dissidents" are Cuban whores who have sold out their right to speak for "democracy" and "human rights" for a few thousand yankee dollars; they deserve exactly their best hope -- to be traded for the Cuban 5 political prisoners (lately released from solitary in US dungeons) who WERE fighting terrorism. At best, they deserve the life of misery and spiritual impoverishment they can expect as honored Exiles in Miami. Here's a bit of the real story, from Reuters! -- we haven't yet seen a full translation from the Spanish of Filepe Perez Roque's 4-hour press conference, which was loaded with details, including the handmaid's tale of Marta Beatriz Roque, who last year spent her wad of yankee blood money hiring a MAID, and giving press conferences to excoriate the cuban public health system attempts to eradicate dengue-infecteed mosquitos. One hopes the maid, as well as the secretary, was working for the revolution and carefully sorting the trash along with her dirty laundry. These "dissident" creatures all deserve much worse than they will get. As one friend said, Cuba can ill-afford giving them 3 squares a day for free. They deserve Miami forever. It is not without good reason that the Cubans (in their more candid, less diplomatic moments) call the disgusting USA "Disney-landia." A land of cruel and stupid, selfish children who have no clue as to how stupid, how ignorant, and how self- indulgent they really are. Meanwhile, the US proceeds in its attila-the-hun campaign to destroy the entire middle east and everything that might lead toward some kind of real peace. Their actions have branded them as worse than the Nazis, who at least had the good taste and wit to save all those wonderful paintings they looted from their victims, and to save all those docments that of course condemned them at Nuremburg. Not the barbarians from the Land of the "Free." As for the leftists of the Kenneth Roth Human Rights Watch quisling variety: THINK of the context in which this is happening, people -- this is more than a message to the greedy Nike-hungry Cubans; it's a message to the USA and the relentless CIA campaigners in Langley against Cuba. Along with the death penalty for 3 of the 11 violent Havana ferry hijackers, the message in the context of the US declaration of war on the entire world that won't bow down to Rummy, Scummy and Dummy is: "not everyone is a pushover." The Cuban revolution has not survived by having tea parties with the scum the CIA has hired to destroy it. The soft-headed, soft-hearted "leftists" who want the world to be a "nice place" -- especially those "socialists" from the former socialist republics -- can't bear to know what their liberal allegiance paid for this month in Iraq; they can't bear to think about what they CANNOT remedy, so they whine about a bunch of second-rate hirelings of the CIA and try to believe they doing something politically ethical. These are the same people who 40 years ago were tsk-tsking that the NLF in Vietnam played hardball and telling them to play nicely. Grow Up, People. The world is not a nice place.. Luckily for the planet, Disney- land values like these only encourage the Evil Empire and give its hypocrisy lip service. They are helping the USA dig its own stinking pungee pit -- into which it sinks deeper by the day. For another lesson into the USA, Land of Hypocrisy, see the second article below on the Saddam Monster and the HISTORY of how long we was "ourbastard." He signed on long before 1979, like twenty years before. Another monster Made in the USA..-- NY Transfer News. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------- Forwarded message ------- From: Michael Pugliese <debsian at pacbell.net> To: Kathleen L Kelly <kelly at blythe.org>, John Metz <redsolidarity at yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Cuba, Iraq & White-Glove Tea-Party Socialists Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 19:50:45 -0800 BTW, first off I sent that UPI story on the CIA and Saddam the butcher of thousands of Communists around to many folks. Now for>"...Human Rights Watch quisling variety..." You know that Reed Brophy who wrote, "Contra Terror in Nicaragua, " for South End Press in '86 works for HRW As does, Joe Stork, former editor of the leftist MERIP magazine on the Middle East. They were interviewed by the editors of Rethinking Marxism last yr. or the yr. before. And it was a tough, probing interview but, did not stoop anywhere near your language redolent of the worst I've read in copies of The New Masses from the CPUSA I have when they were calling Trotskyists twins of Nazi fascists. Michael Pugliese