--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> were plenty of problems with Leninism itself -
> secrecy, hierarchy, a
> lack of internal democracy - but those can't be
> separated from the
> czarist state they were rebelling against.
Really? Then how do you account for the fact that even the Western Communist Parties which followed Leninism (I am not talking about Eurocommunist parties) had similar internal problems of democracy?
I am speaking from my own personal experience, as well as other people whom I know, as well as the many accounts, such as Tim Wohlforth's work on his career in the American Trotskyist movement, Max Elbaum's review of the Maoist movement of the 70s & 80s. This was also my experience with leninist groups in France and Italy. As far as I know, the US, France and Italy have never had a Czar. I think this line to excuse the lack of democracy in the Soviet Union on the basis of outward enemies and czarism can, at best, only partially explain the problem.
-Thomas
-Thomas
Stalin
> sucked - the
> revolution betrayed, to coin a phrase. The USSR
> after
> de-Stalinization wasn't such a bad place, as far as
> I can tell. But
> whenever western leftists get on their high horse
> and denouce commie
> repression, they have to say how they would cope
> with attacks from
> the capitalists, led by the U.S. That's especially
> true of Cuba, 90
> miles from the U.S. and all. And there's a lot to
> admire, despite the
> repression, in Cuba.
>
> The CPUSA also did many admirable things, even when
> they were
> apologizing for Stalinism. What other predominantly
> white group gave
> a damn about black people in the 1930s? They also
> did a lot of fine
> work organizing tenants into associations and
> workers into unions.
>
> No doubt someone will mount that proverbial high
> horse and tell me
> I'm forgetting about the history of repression and
> lies. I'm not,
> which is why I'm ambivalent and not a cheerleader.
> But, again, how do
> you deal with capital strikes and external
> hostility? Ask Allende,
> the Sandinistas, and Chavez.
>
> Doug
===== <<Be like me! The Primal Mother, eternally creative, eternally impelling into life,
eternally drawing satisfaction from the ceaseless flux of phenomena.>>
-Nietzsche, "The Birth of Tragedy"
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