[lbo-talk] Angela Davis

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Wed Aug 12 12:55:40 PDT 2009


Trotskyists regularly call anyone vaguely associated with any group vaguely associated with or 'descended' from a Third-International party a "Stalinist." Really dedicated anti-communists may well call anyone who has ever said a good word about socialism a Stalinist. The term is meaningless.

There is one way it could be made meaningful, but that way will never be accepted by those who use the word. It would mean all those groups and persons who actively engaged in or supported the Moscow Purge Trials. That's what the word is always associated with, but users of it would not want to be precise, because then it would use its scare-value.

Some people also call themselves Stalinist merely to indicate that they are real serious reds.

Carrol



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