Carrol
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On
> Behalf Of James Heartfield
> Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2012 4:34 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Hobsbawm
>
> Carrol asks of me
>
>
>
> 'What, in this context, does "Stalinism" mean?'
>
>
>
> I explained in the article, in the 8th, 9th and 10th paragraphs, the
section that
> begins 'Communism as a movement grew alongside and out of the class
> struggle... and end '...the most forward-looking and militant people in
the 1930s
> and 1940s were left championing the cause of the most reactionary and
> destructive regime.'
>
>
>
> Stalinism means pretty much what it always meant to those that coined the
term.
> Stalinism was a worldwide political movement arising out of the decay of
the
> Communist International. Stalinism means the transition from an
internationalist
> perspective, towards one based on the defence of Socialism in One Country
> (namely the USSR), the policy that Stalin advanced in 1926. This was the
policy
> that transformed all the parties of the Communist International into a
defensive
> posture of 'defending the gains' of the regime in Moscow - though of
course there
> were no gains: Stalin had turned Russia into a slaughterhouse, where tens
of
> millions were sacrificed through famine and repression to die early
deaths.
>
>
>
> Stalinism was the policy that dominated Hobsbawm's life, since it was in
pursuit of
> that goal that he became a defender of the betrayal of the Spanish
Republic, then
> a champion of the British Empire (once Stalin broke with Hitler), then a
defender
> of the Soviet invasion of Hungary, and finally a champion of the new
realism policy
> of the Labour Party leadership in the 1980s.
>
>
>
> Chuck asks whether any of this ancient history matters. Well, no, it
doesn't really,
> except that Hobsbawm is an historian, and his best-selling history Age of
Extremes
> is a boiler-plate apology for the most vicious betrayals that the
Stalinist movement
> made. As long as Age of Extremes remains a point of reference then
historical
> truth demands that its many outrageous misrepresentations of history are
> explained.
>
>
>
> James
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