Anyone merits the appellation "Stalinist" who professes some variant of both these two things:
--the USSR was a socialist state (or, even worse, society). --he considers himself a socialist (or, even worse, communist).
the rest is trivia.
Shane Mage
"Thunderbolt steers all things." Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64
On Oct 11, 2012, at 3:50 PM, Marv Gandall wrote:
>
> 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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