stalinists, trotskyists

[Hiero]

I was recently told that "communists are generally divided into 2, stalinists, trotskyists" what are your thoughts on this. I believe that it is not that simple to divide people into these categories.

[The Children of the Revolution]

This could be a reference to the Soviet Union just after the death of Lenin... ( :( )

There was a power struggle, the main contenders being Trotsky and Stalin. Trotsky favoured a policy of "World Revolution" whilst Stalin championed the cause of "Socialism in one Country". There was a bitter rivalry between the two; in any event, Stalin cheated his way to victory in the power struggle and later had Trotsky assassinated.

But I don't think the comment was directed at Communists, more like the two "brances" of Soviet Communism...

[Zanzibar]

No one but the criminaly insane claim to be a stalinist.
There are 2343543645645 different "trotskiests."


Myself, I'm a marxist leninist :redstar2000:

[redstar2000]

Some folks of antiquarian proclivities have actually constructed elaborate "family trees" (more like bushes) of how various left trends have "descended" from previous trends.

No one calls themselves "Stalinist" any more, of course, but Stalin had many "children"...that is, political tendencies that ultimately derive from Stalin's views.

One "branch" of the "tree" might look like this:

Lenin -> Stalin -> Mao -> Guevara -> Avakian?

Trotsky had even more "children" than Stalin, though none of them have ever been very successful. If I'm not mistaken, only in Spain (mid-1930s) and Sri Lanka (sometime in the 60s) have Trotskyist tendencies been politically significant.

To really get into "political genealogy" requires an unusual "mind-set"...but some folks do find it fascinating.

I'm not one of them.
http://anarchist-action.org/forums/images/smiles/redstar.gif

The RedStar2000 Papers (http://www.anarchist-action.org/marxists/redstar2000/)
A site about communist ideas

[canikickit]

Originally posted by comrade [email protected] 2 2004, 07:05 AM
I was recently told that "communists are generally divided into 2, stalinists, trotskyists" what are your thoughts on this.
I think it's really stupid. It's an attitude taken on by many members (particularily those restricted "Stalinists") who dismiss everything as either "trotskyite crap" or "Western propaganda".

It's bullshite.

[Zanzibar]

Stalin on stalinism :D

http://marxists.org/reference/archive/stal.../1929/cpusa.htm (http://marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1929/cpusa.htm)

[sanpal]

Originally posted by comrade [email protected] 2 2004, 07:05 AM
I was recently told that "communists are generally divided into 2, stalinists, trotskyists" what are your thoughts on this. I believe that it is not that simple to divide people into these categories.
I think, that communists are generally divided into 2, duringists (unscientific "marxists", stalinists, maoists, trotskyists, etc) and scientific marxists. Lenin was closer than others in theoretical understanding of scientific marxism, but in practical actions he has failed because of some mistakes and because of lines of the objective adverse reasons.