Like this... ------- Forwarded message ------- From: "Sebastian Budgen" <sebastian at amadeobordiga.u-net.com> To: aut-op-sy at lists.village.virginia.edu Subject: Re: AUT: Re: "Workers' Opposition" Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2004 10:06:32 +0200
On Sep 5, 2004, at 3:26 AM, Harald Beyer-Arnesen wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sébastien Budgen" <sebastien.budgen at wanadoo.fr>
> To: <aut-op-sy at lists.village.Virginia.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 4:21 PM
> Subject: Re: AUT: Re: "Workers' Opposition"
>
> Sébastien, thanks for the further ordering information for
> Barbara C. Allen, "Worker, Trade Unionist, Revolutionary:
> A Political Biography of Alexander Shliapnikov, 1905-1922".
> I managed it this time, but as will now have it before 6-8
> weeks as I choose the cheapest shipping.
>
> To the "What about Kronstadt? etc etc," which suppose
> you imply Kronstadt 1921 ( that is very late ) and not
> the counter-revolutionary year of 1918, I have this to
> say: I do not find any common ground to discuss with
> an apologist for a regime which was "Red on the outside
> and White on the inside", to cite the approving words
> of a supporter of "red fascism", that is Nicolai Ustryalov, a
> leading figure within the so-called "changing landmark
> movement," comprised of monarchists and others of
> old right who originally had put their hopes on the Whites.
> Calling oneself "a trot" is no innocent thing. If not
> a postion based on complete ignorance, it implies taking
> a principled stand for the mass-slaugthering, oppression
> and exploitation of workers and peasants, and signals
> support to the ultra-rightist theoretical and practical
> policies of Trotskii, Lenin, Dzerzhinskii, amongst others.
> Like other inquisitors before them, it is not unlikely
> they also saw themselves as crusaders for an abstract
> Justice in en eternal struggle against Evil, sometimes
> embodied in whores to be shot for getting sailors
> drunk.
>
Need I say more? As I predicted, when the person you are 'debating' with accuses you "taking a principled stand for the mass-slaugthering, oppression and exploitation of workers and peasants... etc.", there is clearly no room for slightest rational exchange - let alone an informed confrontation of ideas - any more than there would be between a Nazi and a communist. I think I'll just leave it there. Another place, another time, maybe, one hopes.
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