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On 10.04.2011 07:07, Tom O'Lincoln wrote:
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I went to the link DR provided and found this:
China and Cuba, like the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, have
nothing to do with socialism. We support the struggles of workers in
these countries against the bureaucratic ruling class.<
This may sort of represent a departure from the term "state capitalism"
but only in the sense that some abstract terminology has been
concretised. I've been associated with the international socialist
tendency for about 40 years, and we've used terms like "bureaucratic
ruling class" quite often in that tiime.
I've also been associated with the IST for about 35 years and I can only
echo what Tom says above. Banging on about "state capitalism" or more
specifically "bureaucratic state capitalism" has never been a feature of
the tradition in my experience. And lots of loose "synonyms" have been
used in discussions and agitational articles.
Acceptance of a state capitalist analysis has never been a condition of
membership. Indeed when I joined I was an "orthodox" Trotskyist on the
"Russian Question" - I joined because I was impressed by what the
organisation was actually doing in the struggles I was involved in - but
in the course of my own study I came to agree with the "bureaucratic
state capitalist" analysis - leavened a bit by the analyses of Raya
Dunayevskaya and CLR James. Nobody ever saw it as their duty to hammer
"the party line" into me.
To a great extent the position on the "Russian Question" is today only
a minor issue, mainly of historical interest. For this reason, in my
opinion, all that needs to be emphasised by a revolutionary socialist
organisation is that the pre-1991 system in the Soviet Union had nothing
to do with socialism as we understand it, whatever it's historic origins.
Einde O'Callaghan
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