tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6058072377999486184.post3127135398440899869..comments2023-12-29T18:13:21.495-06:00Comments on pink scare: The Trotskyist Tradition and Black LiberationUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6058072377999486184.post-8842096392453734142013-01-29T09:23:24.854-06:002013-01-29T09:23:24.854-06:00Hey, yeah, and if socialism is supposedly so much ...Hey, yeah, and if socialism is supposedly so much better than capitalism, why isn't the world socialist by now?Arvillahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02966511261153415467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6058072377999486184.post-25643512344400023632012-05-08T21:27:45.152-05:002012-05-08T21:27:45.152-05:00You've now changed the subject. Before you wer...You've now changed the subject. Before you were asking why the CP had more success in the 30s and now you're asking why later Trotskyists weren't more effective later on--presumably from the period after WWII to the present. You and I both know that's a complex question. I recommend the following two essays (which I assume you've read, but at any rate my views are more or less the same as those expressed in them): <br /><br />http://www.marxists.org/archive/hallas/works/1977/07/reassess.htm<br /><br />http://www.marxists.de/trotism/hallas/fidecline.htmthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05268192967377248928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6058072377999486184.post-44551325645347349562012-05-08T13:52:23.539-05:002012-05-08T13:52:23.539-05:00"Early Trotskyists were marginalized, slander..."Early Trotskyists were marginalized, slandered and murdered by Stalinists. The CP, on the other hand, could piggy-back on the prestige of the october revolution and claim a link to the Comintern. in the 1930s the CP was a mass party with tens of thousands of members, lots of resources and serious influence in the working class. That's why they were more effective than the small bands of Trotskyists who had been expelled in the 20s."<br /><br />If this really is the explanation for why the Trotskyist tradition's contribution to Black liberation are wholly theoretical it begs the question: why haven't Trotskyists been able to create, lead, or become a mass parties able to win important fights against racism in the absence of all the above-named factors that allegedly made Trotskyism's success in the 1930s impossible?Binhhttp://www.planetanarchy.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6058072377999486184.post-51953447141263020522012-04-23T12:44:06.805-05:002012-04-23T12:44:06.805-05:00I find it unhelpful to ask the question in this su...I find it unhelpful to ask the question in this suggestive yet highly abstract way.<br /><br />Everyone on the Left interested in fighting racial oppression today should take seriously the good work the CP did in the 1930s. We should read Hammer and Hoe, Communists in Harlem During the Depression, and Red Chicago. But we should also be sober about the CP's mistakes. We should be perfectly willing to criticize their line and their tactics.<br /><br />One thing to say in reply to your question is so obvious that you must surely already know it. The Early Trotskyists were marginalized, slandered and murdered by Stalinists. The CP, on the other hand, could piggy-back on the prestige of the october revolution and claim a link to the Comintern. in the 1930s the CP was a mass party with tens of thousands of members, lots of resources and serious influence in the working class. That's why they were more effective than the small bands of Trotskyists who had been expelled in the 20s. Objectively speaking, the early Trots were in no position to be any more influential than they were. To blame this on their subjective failings is to attribute more power to them than they actually had to effect change. "Theoretical superiority" had virtually nothing to do with whether or not they had more pull in the 30s. <br /><br />Nobody except a few irrelevant seclets thinks that "theoretical superiority" is the sole factor in political success. This tendency has been widely criticized (see, e.g. Duncan Hallas's 1970s piece "Trotskyism Reassessed"). What matters is what a group is doing on the ground, how they relate to existing struggles, how they interact with people and how they speak to the concerns of oppressed peoples.<br /><br />That does require a clear political line--maybe you disagree but I don't think leading with the "black belt" analysis today is the best way to advance the struggle or win new recruits to the cause of black liberation. But having the right line, all by itself, is not worth much. I don't see why we can't both criticize Stalinism and learn from the practical successes that the CP had during the 1930s.thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05268192967377248928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6058072377999486184.post-18825349582193973432012-04-22T23:13:00.787-05:002012-04-22T23:13:00.787-05:00The real question is why the Stalinists accomplish...The real question is why the Stalinists accomplished so much more than the Trotskyists despite the latter's alleged theoretical superiority.Binhhttp://www.planetanarchy.net/articles.htmnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6058072377999486184.post-1450340927549075662012-04-21T12:02:00.275-05:002012-04-21T12:02:00.275-05:00Thanks for the recommendations. I haven't read...Thanks for the recommendations. I haven't read any of these, but I'm eager to take a look.thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05268192967377248928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6058072377999486184.post-65965751477330234002012-04-17T19:55:53.945-05:002012-04-17T19:55:53.945-05:00Thanks for this. Also worth looking at from the T...Thanks for this. Also worth looking at from the Trotskyist tradition: <br /><br />James Cannon on the Russian Revolution and the Black Freedom Struggle - https://epress.anu.edu.au/archive/cannon/works/1959/black.htm<br /><br />The American Socialist (Cochranites) archives and their coverage of the civil rights struggle - http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/amersocialist/american_socialist.htm<br /><br />Shachtman on self-determination and civil rights - http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/359herrnaphtahttp://herrnaphta.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com