Marxism and Stalinism

Marxist assessments of Stalinism. What was the class nature of the Stalin-Khrushchev-Brezhnev USSR? And of other countries modelled on it? What has been the legacy of Stalinism for the left?

The two Trotskyisms during World War 2: Workers' Liberty 3/48

Tracing the development of "two Trotskyisms" through from the 1940 split to the 1944 polemic between Harry Braverman and Max Shachtman. Click here to download as pdf or read online . The pagination in the pdf is correct, but, by a mishap, the pages of the printed version of Workers' Liberty 3/48, as a pull-out in Solidarity 347, are in the wrong order. Our apologies to readers. Check the printed version with the pdf, or follow this guide: Page 2 has been mistakenly swapped with page 6, and page 7 with page 11. The printed pull-out can be navigated as follows: 1: the first page, with the...

Editorials - March 1995

Editorial comments on the ongoing influence of Stalinism in the British labour movement, the need for a campaign to defend the welfare state, and calling for justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal. Click here to download article as pdf .

The lessons of Stalinism

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.

The fall of Stalinism in Eastern Europe — Workers' Liberty 3/25

Download as pdf , or read online below. 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...

What was the Stalinist USSR? A Marxist debate

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. The USSR was not state-capitalist , by Roger Clarke (WL44) Cliff's 'state capitalism' in perspective , by Sean Matgamna (WL 56) The USSR and non-linear capitalism , by Martin Thomas (WL59) Stalinism in theory and history , by Pablo Velasco A debate between Raya Dunayevskaya and Max Shachtman , from 1947, with an introduction by Chris Ford Review articles by Paresh Chattopadhyay and Martin Thomas on the book...

Critical notes on postcolonial theory

"Postcolonial theory came to prominence during a period of massive political defeats for the Left… [But in universities] there is a mass base for what we might call oppression studies…"

Whatever happened to Sylvia Ageloff?

Since her association with Leon Trotsky’s assassin, Ramón Mercader, Sylvia Ageloff has been demonised and vilified, pushed to the margins of history or simply ignored. What has been all too frequently lacking is any sense of respect, sympathy or understanding of her as a human being, a political activist and someone thrust into a situation not of her making. This short essay attempts to set the record straight. Introduction At the time of the 80th anniversary (August 2020) of the assassination of Leon Trotsky among all the many and varied tributes and accounts of his life, there was little if...

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