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?

"Fate la rivoluzione in casa vostra!"

I agree with WF in their argument that we should support Ukraine's right to seek arms for its self-defence, and with WF's call for us to campaign for strings-free economic aid to Ukraine to survive the war and to reconstruct after it, and for cancellation of debt.

Zheng Chaolin, great Chinese revolutionary socialist

Zheng Chaolin (1901-98), the veteran leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Trotskyist movement, devoted his entire life to the cause of the liberation of the Chinese workers and peasants. Now at last Zheng Chaolin’s Selected Writings have been translated and published. Gregor Benton, who translated and edited these texts and Prophets Unarmed (2015), deserves huge praise for making the writings available in English. Every revolutionary socialist worth their salt should know the life and writings of Zheng Chaolin. Life Zheng Chaolin was born in 1901 in Fujian province. In...

From the archives: How the STUC ratted on Solidarnosc in 1982

In late 1981 Stalinist Poland's one-party state imposed martial law in an attempt to crush the free trade union Solidarnosc. Mass arrests of its leaders were carried out, the riot police were used to break strikes, and government forces shot and killed demonstrators. The following report from Socialist Organiser (predecessor of Solidarity ) describes the debate on Poland at the 1982 STUC congress and the controversy triggered by motions advocating that the STUC sever links, as an act of solidarity with Solidarnosc, with the fake Stalinist "trade unions" in Eastern Europe. … The need for such...

Zheng Chaolin, great Chinese revolutionary socialist

Zheng Chaolin (1901-98), the veteran leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Trotskyist movement, devoted his entire life to the cause of the liberation of the Chinese workers and peasants. Now at last Zheng Chaolin’s Selected Writings have been translated and published. Gregor Benton, who translated and edited these texts and Prophets Unarmed (2015), deserves huge praise for making the writings available in English. Every revolutionary socialist worth their salt should know the life and writings of Zheng Chaolin. Life Zheng Chaolin was born in 1901 in Fujian province. In...

Stalinism, religion, and the workers' fight

The sight of these two reactionary forces huddled in a tete-a-tete - officially called the Dialogue between Marxism (!) and Christianity - is startling enough to provoke thought.

Letters: Hands off Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg

I was nauseated by Eric Lee’s unwarranted attack on Clara Zetkin in Solidarity 664 . Zetkin was an outstanding revolutionary socialist, feminist and fighter for working class politics over 50 years, whose mistakes towards the end of her life did not make her a loyal Stalinist. Zetkin’s incredible life (1857-1933) and record deserve to be better known. She joined the German Social Democratic Party in 1878 and became one of its most prominent leaders. They built a mass working class party of one million members, a model followed by the best socialists of that epoch, including the Bolsheviks...

The tragedy of Clara Zetkin

As International Women’s Day approaches (8 March) some mainstream media will run their usual articles about the day and its history. Some may point out that the original name was International Working Women’s Day and that it was decided upon at a 1910 socialist congress in Copenhagen. It may be mentioned that one of the proponents of the holiday was Clara Zetkin, a little-remembered German socialist today who was, at the time, a household name. Among some of the famous revolutionary women of that time, Zetkin stands out. Her friend Rosa Luxemburg was an early critic both of Lenin’s ideas about...

Holodomor: the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33

Etymologically, the Ukrainian word Holodomor is composed of holod, hunger, and demoryty, which has no direct equivalent in French and can be rendered as 'to let perish deliberately'. In this formulation, intentionality is decisive: to allow someone to perish is to murder.

Mao's China was no workers' state

In this article the Chinese Trotskyist Wang Fanxi gave his assessment of the new Maoist state soon after the victory of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949. The CCP came to power on an announced programme of land redistribution and preserving capitalist relations in industry. It quickly established a totalitarian state, and moved to gain control over the economy for that state. By 1955-6 most of the remaining private capitalists were squeezed out, and the government moved to “collectivise” agriculture. A move to “People’s Communes” and attempted forced-march industrialisation in 1958-9...

"The People Immortal"

Above: Grossman (on left) in Berlin, 1945 Many readers will no doubt already be acquainted with Vasily Grossman’s much-praised epic novel, Life and Fate which centres on the battle for Stalingrad during the winter months of 1942-43. This new translation of The People Immortal (Maclehose Press, 2022), an earlier novel of his, takes us to the very first months of Operation Barbarossa (the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, commenced 22 June, 1941), when the Soviet army was in retreat in both Ukraine and Belarus. Grossman was a reporter attached to the Red Army and popular among the troops for...

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