A good review of the "IS/ISO" tradition, that I'm not surprised Justin knows much more about than JD by Milton Fisk is, http://www.marxists.de/trotism/fisk/ Socialism From Below in the United States
I think the, "Neither Washington Nor Moscow, " slogan, was originated by the UK SWP under "Tony Cliff" aka Y. Gluckstein. Goes back to 70's, if not earlier. http://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/index.htm The Nature of Stalinist russia (book), 1948 The theory of bureaucratic collectivism: A critique, 1948 The class nature of the "People's Democracies", July 1950 State Capitalism in Russia (book), 1955 Russia: a Marxist analysis (book), 1964 http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj97/mcgregor.htm Issue 97 of INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISM JOURNAL Published Winter 2002 Copyright (c) International Socialism Neither Washington nor Moscow
A review of Martin Amis, Koba the Dread (Jonathan Cape, 2002), £16.99; S A Smith, The Russian Revolution: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2002), £5.99; and Mike Haynes, Russia: Class and Power 1917-2000 (Bookmarks, 2002), £12 http://www.workersliberty.org/node/view/4281 The SWP and the "IS tradition" Cliff said that the USSR was state-capitalist, meaning that the workers there were exploited as they are in factories in Britain. Hence Neither Washington nor Moscow, but International Socialism - a Third Camp slogan - and support for popular revolts in Eastern Europe, e.g. 1953, 1956, 1968, 1980, etc. Part of the explanation for the decline of the CPGB was the impact of those revolts. http://www.iso.org.nz/resources/lectures/marxism_vs_stalinism.htm
Stalinism: Bureaucratised state capitalism
T. Cliff's State Capitalism in Russia, 1948.
Stalinist bureaucracy crystallised as a ruling class, exploiting and dominating workers.
Accumulation driven by competition with West.
Parallels with Nazi Germany.
"Neither Washington Nor Moscow But International Socialism."
And, I thought Leighs post was the type that feeds into neo-con tropes/stereotypes about New Leftist "moral equivalence."
-- Michael Pugliese