IIRC, my first hearing of the term,"Trotskyite," used derisively, was as a young undergraduate marxist, around 18 yrs. old back in 1980, when chatting with a legendary Santa Cruz radical, Tom Scribner <http://www.scribnerfamilies.org/Documents/Family%20Reports/Tom%20Biography.pdf>. As he was an old Wobbly, I was taken aback, when he exclaimed to me,"The only problem with Stalin was that he didn't kill enough of you Trotskyites." As I had a deep respect for Trotskyists, but didn't consider myself one, considering it, by then a semi-moribund tradition, I tried to argue back, to little effect. If one does a search at the MIA "Trotskyist <https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=8859-1&oe=8859-1&as_occt=body&num=25&sitesearch=www.marxists.org%2Freference%2Farchive%2Fstalin&as_epq=Trotskyist+&as_oq=&as_q=&as_eq=&as_occt=all&btnG=Google+Search%21>" site:www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin and compares it to " Trotskyite <https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=8859-1&oe=8859-1&as_occt=body&num=25&sitesearch=www.marxists.org%2Freference%2Farchive%2Fstalin&as_epq=Trotskyite+&as_oq=&as_q=&as_eq=&as_occt=all&btnG=Google+Search%21>" site:www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin , to my surprise Uncle Joe used the former, as much as the latter. I will dig deeper, in those 3 pgs. of hits, on each, but, again to my surprise, ,"Trotskyists," was still in use in the CPSU, as late as 1936 <https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1937/03/03.htm> , 17 times, albeit in speeches by Stalin, which were entitled, using the derisive,"Trotskyite."
"Trotskyite," @ the MIA <https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Trotskyite+%22+site:www.marxists.org/&sca_esv=db24f329069a3ff6&hl=en&sxsrf=AE3TifMwu2-yL3nAcjsF7j9CMdREd6e7Hw:1762713289117&ei=yd4QaYn5Bru5kPIP26f1-Qw&start=30&sa=N&sstk=Af77f_fO0wr9fKyfQ_HxXBMsQt3pPmPoHsJR7w4pxCfFo4pq22UKMtao05UPKWgvVmgXkDyqOmCq_Ift133OyemoTSp1e33T-R_bb2yXMHoTj0QQxuqoRbavji0ZGYkuomdMs4dHi6ELu_YfLWiWJGd7_LeYggcYfPQ&ved=2ahUKEwjJgcHb2uWQAxW7HEQIHdtTPc84FBDw0wN6BAgKEBc&biw=1920&bih=945&dpr=1>, overall, otherwise, was deployed quite often, a handy example being pamphlets such as ,"The Trotskyite 5th Column in the Labor Movement." M.J. Olgin in his polemic <https://www.marxists.org/archive/olgin/1935/trotskyism/index.htm> vs. Trotskyism, used it 57 times in this chapter <https://www.marxists.org/archive/olgin/1935/trotskyism/13.htm>! "Trotskyite," 99 times in this classic Soviet compilation,"Against Trotskyism <https://annas-archive.org/md5/21af68533a505fe9b2608b74aa5fca96>," published in the early 70's. Lenin in 1911 , on Trotsky and the Trotskyites," via, page 31 of Trotsky's Challenge : The Literary Discussion of 1924 and the Fight for the Bolshevik Revolution <https://annas-archive.org/slow_download/580d1f35a05d7220d2e66361ea8a4290/0/4> "The ‘Literary Discussion’ and the Reinvention of ‘Trotskyism’ The ‘literary discussion’ was more than the sum of its parts. It sought to diminish Trotsky in increments, to hollow out the man and his ideas in order to delegitimise and disarm him, to destroy him existentially. In ‘The Lessons of October’, Trotsky had used the term ‘opposition’ to imply that the leaders’ mistakes had been guided by some coherent, perhaps organised, design. The ‘literary discussion’ did much the same with the terms ‘Trotskyism’ and ‘Trotskyist’. Both terms had been in use prior to the ‘discussion’, although inflected with a range of meanings. Long before the revolution, the Kadet leader Pavel Miliukov had used the term ‘Trotskyist’ to characterise the ‘extremist slogans’ used by Trotsky and Parvus in the moderate socialist press.140 In an article in 1911, Lenin had used the term to denote an anti-party tendency, tying the term very firmly to the personal actions and invidious design of Trotsky: Trotsky and the ‘Trotskyites and conciliators’ like him are more pernicious than any liquidator; the convinced liquidators state their views bluntly, and it is easy for the workers to detect where they are wrong, whereas the Trotskys deceive the workers,cover up the evil, and make it impossible to expose the evil and to remedy it. Whoever supports Trotsky’s puny group supports a policy of lying and of deceiving the workers, a policy of shielding the liquidators.141 In the useful volume by Aileen Kraditor, *Jimmy Higgins: The Mental World of the American Rank-And-File Communist, 1930-1958, <https://annas-archive.org/md5/d148b43df44a7ccad5f7101e4c132bce>" a member of the CPUSA after WWII, for over a decade, out of 21 usages of the term,"Trotskyite," coincidentally, Olgin's pamphlet, was the 1st quoting of the term. Except below. Pages 46-47. * "The Party's closed environment reinforced the members' parochialism. One document that illustrates this style of thinking is the book Trotskyism: Counter-Revolution in Disguise, by M. J. Olgin, a major CP theoretician during the 1930s. The book's ostensible purpose was to prove the wickedness of Trotskyites and to mobilize hatred against them. Yet a large portion of the work deals with highly technical, theoretical matters, discussed in a scholastic manner incomprehensible and boring to anyone not immersed in Party ide- ology. Nevertheless, Olgin obviously assumed that everyone interested in world affairs would find the tract interesting and enlightening. He began by insulting any reader who was not already convinced: Before we proceed we must say a word about the method applied here in discussing Trotskyism. The question is treated from the point of view of Marxism-Leninism. It is assumed that Leninism has proved itself correct both as the theory and as the practice of revolution. It is therefore taken for granted that opposition to Leninism is incorrect. Now, we are fully aware of the fact that many a reader may disagree with the Leninist point of view. He may be opposed to the proletarian revolution, to the dictatorship of the proletariat, to the socialist system. Such a reader may find solace in Trotsky's attacks upon Leninism. But then he must admit that he seeks in Trotsky not a confirmation but a repudiation of the Leninist solution of the social problem. With a man of this kind, who draws from the muddy stream of Trotsky's denunciations convenient arguments against Socialism and against the Communists of his country, we have no argument on these pages. The only thing a person of this stripe is requested to do is to acknowledge that he uses the Trotsky ammunition against everything that Marx, Engels and Lenin stood for and against everything Stalin, together with the Communist International, stand for today. And via page 415 of : Heyday of American Communism the Depression Decade <https://annas-archive.org/md5/91638f347f79cc4ee83e3c71278b22b8>, by Harvey Klehr. "In the last analysis, one thing gave every Communist party its specific character among radical movements—its special relationship to the Soviet Union. When the American Communists' enemies began to call them "Stalinists" to suggest their slavish adherence to the Russian dictator, Browder in 1934 proudly appropriated the term: "We are indeed Stalinists, and we hope to become ever more worthy of such a glorious name." The Communists, he admitted in 1938, judged potential allies and enemies by how they evaluated Stalin. Any enemy of Stalin's was an enemy of theirs. "Anyone who is politically literate, who reads the cur- rent literature, who is informed about world affairs, and yet at the sametime gives a negative reaction to Stalin—that person is moving towards, or is under the influence of, fascist ideologies." Scrolling through CPUSA journals such as The Communist, one will find as in this article by William Z. Foster from 1939,"LENIN AND STALIN AS MASS LEADERS <https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/communist/v18n12-dec-1939-The-Communist-OCR.pdf>," the expression,"Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist." "Scarcely a month after Browder himself was expelled, on March 15, 1946, a group calling itself the New Committee for Publications (NCP) was established in New York. Originally a study group, its stated purpose was “to bring about the establishment of a real Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist party in the United States.” [9] <https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/1946-1956/costello01.htm#fw09>," quoting from <https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/1946-1956/costello01.htm> ,"*Theoretical Review," * No. 11, July-August 1979, pps. 10-17 at the EROL of the MIA. Youth for Stalin – Stalinist Workers Group for Afro-American National Liberation and a New Communist International "In 1968, differences within and around Hammer & Steel led to the formation of a group called Youth for Stalin, which later that year issued a long polemic entitled, “The Role of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat in the International Marxist-Leninist Movement. The October Revolution vs. the ’Cultural Revolution’.“ Shortly thereafter, the group changed its name to the Stalinist Workers Group for Afro-American National Liberation and a New Communist International. The Stalinist Workers Group issued an irregular publication, the *Stalinist Workers Group Bulletin* until at least 1973. In 1976 the group renamed itself Ray O. Light." > > _._,_._,_ > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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