Hi Mark,
As an internationalist, I have an internationalist position. Such a
position is right or wrong irrespective of in which country one lives.
Of course, depending on which country one lives, one can put more
emphasis on this or that aspect of the internationalist position.
I also thought that the Marxmail list is an international one and not an
American list. The RCIT statement for the Paris Conference - which was
the starting point of the whole debate - was an international statement
for an international conference which took place last weekend in Paris.
So it was not specifically related to the U.S.
In short, please do not view this or that position from an American but
from an internationalist point of view.
Am 16.05.2026 um 21:22 schrieb Mark Baugher:
Hi Michael
On May 15, 2026, at 06:09, RKOB via groups.io
<[email protected]> wrote:
I think it is absolutely wrong to defend the Stalinist system of
one-party dictatorship. Why do you think that all Cubans who oppose
imperialist subjugation must necessarily support the PCC?
Why do you suppose I was talking about Cubans? I live in the USA,
which is the ultimate source of their subjugation. I was speaking as
part of a chorus of US Americans who want US hands off Cuba. To be
effective, we must not confuse our demands and slogans with calls for
regime change from the imperialist press. Our demands and slogans in
the metropolis are directed at the US government, not Cubans. That's
how it should be.
...
But I am in favour of legal freedom for all forces who oppose U.S.
imperialism but don't necessarily support the regime. Unfortunately,
Castroism suppressed all other left-wing forces from the very
beginning (including the Cuban Trotskyists).
The USA Trotskyists in WW II felt much the same way towards the Soviet
Union. Trotsky's favorite party in the USA was able to both critique
the Soviet Union while defending it against imperialist attack: The
Socialist Workers Party press both called for defending the USSR
against the Nazi invasion and gave detailed Trotskyist critiques of
the Stalin regime and the Soviet government. And it wasn't just talk:
So many Socialist Workers Party merchant sailors died on Murmansk Runs
and arctic convoys during WW II that the small party voted to forbid
its members from going for fear of losing its entire merchant marine
fraction.
Similarly, 18 leaders of the SWP were imprisoned for agitating against
US entry into World War II. And at the same time, many SWP members
practiced its Proletarian Military Policy, which the SWP jointly
developed with Leon Trotsky; these members entered the military to
push demands for democratic rights for citizen-soldiers, popular
control of military training, and popular control of the conduct of
the war. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of defending the
democratic rights of US soldiers, which is something that I learned in
the US Army during the Vietnam War when I was drafted and served in
accordance with the PMP.
The PMP was meant to be a transitional position that avoided both
capitulation to patriotism and sectarian isolation from the working
class. The same is true of balancing the critique of a victimized
nation with its defense from an imperialist power.
Mark
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