Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
The Way I See It!
Falsifications of Historical Role of Stalin: Anti‐Communists Unite
By: Don Currie
Chair Canadians for Peace and Socialism
Editor Focus on Socialism
August 8, 2010
www.FocusOnSocialism.ca
The Way I See It!
Don Currie, Chair Canadians for Peace and Socialism
www.FocusOnSocialism.ca
The falsification by anti‐communism of the historical role of Stalin can only gain acceptance
among the uninformed and gullible if it is spread by those claiming to do so in the name of a
new and better 21st century socialism. Such friends of socialism are the biggest asset in the
ideological tool box of imperialism. Their role intended or not, theoretically disarms workers
and invites them to doubt their own revolutionary history and achievements.
The demonization of Stalin is spread by imperialists and their ideologues, some
masquerading as friends of socialism, for one reason only. To attempt to prevent a
discussion among the working people of North America about the successes of real
socialism as it unfolded in the Soviet Union and other European socialist states and as it is
exists today in the remaining socialist states and those states embarking on the transition to
socialism in the 21st Century.
Those modern day disillusioned friends of socialism, such as the late Mr. Howard Zinn and
Mr. John Case and their counterparts in Canada, who discovered revolution and idealized it,
never cease to express their disappointment at what they perceive to be the failure of the
Soviet people to win and build socialism the way they imagined it would be and in the pure
form they mistakenly believed it was destined to unfold.
These friends of socialism spend most of their lives, explaining where we all went wrong. We
were mistaken to support Stalin when he led the Soviet Union in laying the economic basis
for socialism, led the movement for the collectivization of agriculture, raised up the
standards of living of the Soviet people, defeated Nazism and liberated all of Europe from its
oppression and pursued a post‐war foreign policy of international anti‐imperialist, working
class solidarity and peace with and for the working people of the world.
If one is serious about studying the history of the Soviet Union and not dismissing it in clever
sound bites as Mr. Case and others like him do, always with one eye on their liberal friends in
academia, one will find in such a study a long history of struggle between those Soviet
Communists who wielded power with the openly expressed purpose to suppress the old
www.FocusOnSocialism.ca Page 2 of 6
defeated capitalist classes and prevent their resurrection so socialism could be built, and
those friends of socialism who advocated reintroducing market economies that would be
certain to result in the re‐establishment of capitalism and its resurrection in a kinder gentler
form.
Real socialism in the Soviet Union was overthrown by counter‐revolution and it was done so
in the name of a new and better socialism led by new and better communists cleansed of
Stalinism. Today capitalist Russia and the dissolution of the European system of socialist
states is the result.
It was the absence of an exacting partisanship for real socialism at the top leadership of the
CPSU and in many Communist parties in the capitalist west that permitted that to happen. It
was a new communist friend of the west, M. Gorbachev thinking in a new flexible way about
a new socialism, and who did it with style and media panache that endeared him to the
capitalist media, that threw open the doors to counter revolution in the Soviet Union. He
and others like him were completely deluded that they could persuade imperialism to disarm
and reform itself. Such a fantasy to borrow Mr. Case’s word is what permitted the return of
market capitalism and the downfall of Soviet socialism. That did not and could not happen
under Stalin’s leadership.
The current leaderships of the Communist parties in North America, and I include the
Canadian, are theoretically negligent, expressed in a preoccupation in their theoretical work
with the alleged failures of socialism and the possibilities for the reform of 21st century
imperialism. They have failed to arm themselves and their membership with the necessary
historical materialist truths that would educate new and young Communists to confront
modern day anti‐communism and defeat it.
The Program of the Communist Party of Canada contains concessions to anti‐Sovietism
alleging failures of socialist legality in the Soviet Union and by extension to the entire
European socialist system of states. The opportunism expressed in such a statement is not
that it is said but that it is said and compounded by a theoretical gutlessness in failing to
elaborate in detail what is meant by such an allegation. If they did so the leaders of the
Communist parties of the USA and Canada would find themselves in bed with the most rabid
and virulent anti‐communists who equate Stalin with Hitler and Communism with Nazism.
It is not credible for Communist leaders in North America to make statements implying
crimes were committed in the Soviet Union by Stalin and expect workers to distinguish the
www.FocusOnSocialism.ca Page 3 of 6
intent of those statements from declarations made by the leaders of capitalist parties in the
Parliament of the EU, who, citing the same grounds, call for legislation banning Communist
symbols and organizations in the former European socialist states. Communists in Europe
are struggling to uphold the honour and achievements of real socialism while erstwhile
communists in North America remain silent.
It is up to the Communist leaders of the CPUSA and CPC who skirt around and tolerate such
contradictions to explain to us mere mortals why we should not brand such a stance as
opportunism and a concession to anti‐communism, the ideology of imperialism, and react
and criticize them for their obvious theoretical confusion and weakness.
These leaders are demonstrating a failure to think deeply about the nature of US
imperialism, its anti‐communist essence, and its role among its closest allies such as the
Harper Government in Canada. US imperialism and its G7 allies has an immense capacity for
war, depravity and deceit, including its ability to corrupt, co‐opt, intimidate and divert whole
progressive movements of the people such as that which brought Barack Obama to the
presidency of the USA. We do not help those masses of people attempting to organize and
fight for peace and a better life by creating the illusion that they can do it under the
leadership of a gentler kinder imperialist.
Israel is poised to attack Iran, possibly within weeks and certainly if not stopped sometime in
the next year. Obama can stop that impending war. Why would he? He has ordered US
imperialism to carry out joint maneuvers with its South Korean allies off the coast of the
DPRK a rehearsal for a possible reigniting of war on the Korean Peninsula. The US Fourth
fleet is poised to assist its Columbian ally to harass Venezuela from US bases in Columbia.
The US military strategists continue to plan attacks on Cuba. The US instigated wars in
Central Asia deepen and more of the working people of Afghanistan and Iraq die every day.
The USA has 750 military bases organized in global commands to intimidate and suppress
and coerce any threat to US finance capital and its unquenchable appetite for other people’s
resources and other people’s labour and wealth. The leaders of the USA proclaim its right to
the first strike use of nuclear weapons.
When will we hear from the leaders of the CPUSA telling their members and the working
class of the United States that the USA must begin to do as others do, live within its own
borders, use its own resources and begin the withdrawal from empire?
The Harper Government has just authorized the spending of $6 billion to buy 65 US
www.FocusOnSocialism.ca Page 4 of 6
produced fighter jets in preparation for joint participation in the new wars that NATO and
US imperialism are planning. NATO will be meeting this November in Portugal to plan new
aggressions. US and Canadian politicians will be returning demanding Parliament and
Congress rubber stamp more NATO plans for war…And Mr. Case, quoting Howard Zinn,
prattles on about Stalin.
Stalin never tired of exposing the stratagems of imperialism and neither should we if we
claim to be Communists.
The KKE (the Communist Party of Greece) is attempting to educate the working class in the
advanced capitalist states, about such matters. The KKE is demonstrating in the realm of
theory and action the need for the working class in the developed capitalist states, all of
which are at the final imperialist stage of their development, to confront finance capital and
challenge its political power devoid of reformist illusion.
To do that the working class must have its own organizations of struggle, with its own
program of revolutionary advance and its own interpretation of its own history. To relegate
the Communist Parties to a support role or a gadfly role in the mass movements will lead
them into dissolution and disappearance as the leading advocates of socialism in the
modern era. That does a disservice to the mass movements. It does not help them to
advance.
Soviet Socialism and its achievements continue to have not only a fine name, but also by its
example continues to inspire tens of millions of people who must labour to live and struggle
for a better life.
With respect, Mr. Case should be more concerned about the reputation of the USA.
Don Currie
Editor, Focus On Socialism
www.FocusOnSocialism.ca Page 5 of 6
www.FocusOnSocialism.ca Page 6 of 6