I'm sorry I used a flippant term to close my response to Chuck G ("Try again"), but his post really was totally unresponsive to the question posed, in that it implied indifferently to the RCP, the SWP, & the Jesuit Order.
Carrol
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On
> Behalf Of Marv Gandall
> Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012 2:51 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Stalinism (was Eric Hobsbawm)
>
>
> On 2012-10-11, at 10:28 AM, Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> > My original question did not refer to the Soviet Union but to use of the
> > word to label parties or individuals in the capitalist world. Was the
French
> > Communist Party in (say) 1968 a "Stalinist Party"? If it was, what
features
> > identified it as suc? Was the SWP in 1968 a "Stalinist Party"? (If we
follow
> > Chuck G's definition it was.) If the SWP was not and the CPF was, what
> > differentiated them?
> >
> > I want to know what is the justification for using the word "Stalinist"
to
> > label an opponent _today.
>
>
> It's become more of an an epithet than a political characterization,
typically
> employed by present and former orthodox Trotskyists against other Marxists
with
> CP and Maoist backgrounds who advocate for alliances with liberals in mass
> movements and political parties. It's an echo of the strong criticism
Trotsky and
> his supporters levelled against the Popular Front policies of the
Stalinist Comintern
> in the 30's. But the term has little relevance to today's anarchist and
non-affiliated
> activists, both those who favour and those who are hostile to allying with
liberals.
> It began to lose its political utility following the "destalinization"
campaigns in the
> USSR and pro-Soviet parties, and especially following the subsequent
demise of
> these parties and the turn away from Maoism in the Chinese Communist
Party.
>
> In 1968, the French Maoist groups revered Stalin and could be legitimately
> described as "Stalinist", but the PCF and the other mass-based European
CP's had
> long since distanced themselves from Stalin's regime, at least in respect
to the
> repression associated with it. Most Trotskyists, however, continued to
label them
> as Stalinists, despite their disclaimers, since they still adhered to a
popular front
> strategy based on alliances with liberal forces, as against than the
Trotskyist
> insistence on united fronts restricted to communist and social democratic
parties
> based in the working class movement. Rather than representing a continuing
> fidelity to to the Stalinist legacy, however, the unshakeable commitment
to
> popular front politics by these European and other CP's more reflected
their steady
> evolution towards social democracy, which shares their perspective of
reaching
> out to liberals, including within the DP.
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