The lessons of Stalinism
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How Marxists registered and learned from - or failed to register and learn from - the great expansion of Stalinism after World War Two. Click here to download pdf.
Marxism and Stalinism
The fall of Stalinism in Eastern Europe — Workers' Liberty 3/25:
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Download pdf (see "attachment"), or read online.
Timeline
Introduction
1. The risen people: Eastern Europe after the revolutions
2. What’s in the coffin at the funeral of socialism?
3. Lies against socialism answered
4. Stalin’s system collapses
5. Why socialists should support the banning of the CPSU
6. The triumph of unreason: market madness in the ex-USSR
7. What was the Bolsheviks’ conception of the 1917 revolution?
8. Why the workers want to restore capitalism
9. In the beginning was the critique of capitalism
10. An open letter to Ernest Mandel
11. Trotsky and the collapse of Stalinism
12. And where were Jacob Sverdlov's sons?
Sources
Workers' Liberty 3/11: 1917 - revolution for freedom and equality
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The Russian Revolution, the Stalinist counter-revolution, and the working class (Analyses from Labor Action and The New International, 1942 to 1957)
Download pdfs (without pictures): pages 1 to 8; pages 9 to 16.
What was the Stalinist USSR? A Marxist debate
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The main viewpoints summarised: contributions by Martin Thomas and Sean Matgamna from Workers' Liberty 16; by Martin Thomas from Workers' Liberty 43; by Tom Rigby from Workers' Liberty 45. Download as pdf.
Stalin’s Place in History: Assessing the Social Role of the Great Assassin
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Stalin is the greatest man of all times, of all epochs and peoples.—Sergei Kirov
Bans likely to backfire
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In my previous comment about the Stalinists on London May Day marches (Solidarity 286), I wrote that we should look to “do with the Stalinists what some AWL comrades did in 2009 with a contingent of the Sinhalese-chauvinist JVP on the London May Day march: challenge them, heckle them, demand answers. (The JVP quit the march)”.
How Stalin destroyed communism
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70 years ago, on 22 May 1943, Stalin announced the formal shutting-down of the Communist International, the association of revolutionary socialist parties across the world set up after the Russian Revolution.
How to marginalise Stalin
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I share Eric Lee's revulsion at the portraits of Stalin on banners at the London May Day march (Solidarity 285), but disagree with his proposed solution: a "no-platform" for the Stalinists.
Greek CP makes fake left turn
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In the run-up to its 19th congress, on 11-13 April, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) pleasantly surprised us by publishing much debate, mainly in its paper Rizospastis.
Stalin in Clerkenwell Green
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It was a beautiful May morning, one of the first warm and sunny days we’ve had all year. In Clerkenwell Green, hundreds of people were assembling for the annual official London May Day march...