Charles is right that it is dishonest to talk about "the USSR" today, although the title of the article is obviously a coy British pun referring to the Beatles song. However, Blacks in the USSR reported a lot of racism and ignorance. There is a nice book I read nearly 20 years ago about a black American woman who was a student at Moscow State in the late 70s, early 80s, not hostile to the USSR, has harraising tales of racism and bigotry quite nakedly expressed, jkjs ^^^^^^ CB: The various Black people who lived in or visited the USSR whom I have talked with or read, have noted "Great white" Russian prejudice there
despite Pushkin being Black :>). However, a distinction that seems significant here is the intolerance or tolerance of widespread racist _violence_, racist police brutality and ganging ,tolerance by the "authorities", Soviet communist vs Russian capitalist. Chris D.'s response is more evidence that the Communist "elite", "nomenklatura", Stalinists had a better record on this issue of democracy than the new bourgeois elite, or the American elite, nomenklatura , for that matter. An ongoing "thread" here is the vices and virtues of the Soviet dictators/leaders. The evidence of their virtues tends to get understated, or as with the title of this article, slandered. And why is this long term thread important on a left list ? Well, of course, because any revival , now or in the future, of a socialist , communist movement in our country will have to cope with the history of the Soviet Union , and other socialist countries. If we allow the anti-Sovieteers to tell their onesided story to our political descendants, they will be less likely to believe that it is possible to build a successful and viable socialism, a communism that they can believe in and trust. Michael Pugliese has commented that if he were on a "liberal" list he would post more pro-Soviet material. But honestly , Michael, what strikes me when you say that is that you seem to think that most of the people on this list are deluded by pro-Soviet propaganda that you need to disabuse them of. That just doesn't seem accurate. There is plenty of awareness here of the crimes and failures of the Soviet Union, Stalinists, Leninists , Maoists, etc. We are not some exception to the general American consciousness that is plenty packed with anti-Soviet and anti-communist information. Really what is needed here for balance and historical accuracy is that extremely rare thing in America: appreciation of what the Soviets and Communists did right.