Thread by @josephscalice

Stalinism is fundamentally the nationalist betrayal of Marxism. It is a historically developed phenomenon. What follows is a careful outline definition. 🧵

https://twitter.com/comradejoma/status/1507776909421301774

Lenin and Trotsky led the Russian revolution of 1917, a socialist revolution which created the world's first workers state, which they defined as a transitional form between capitalism and socialism. 2/

Russia confronted tasks that were classically referred to as the democratic revolution, tasks historically associated with capitalism:
a. break-up of landed estates
b. overthrow of autocracy & establishment of democratic governance
c. national unification & integration. 3/

The political program of the October 1917 revolution was the theory of Permanent Revolution, put forward by Trotsky and adopted in 1917 by Lenin in his April Theses. 4/

Permanent Revolution argued that
1. In countries of belated capitalist development, the capitalist class -- tied to imperialist finance capital & the landed estates, and hostile to the working class -- would play a counter-revolutionary role in the democratic revolution. 5/

2. The democratic revolution would thus be led by the working class. The peasantry, torn between the defense of property and the overthrow of oppression, could not play an independent role and would follow either the working class or the capitalist class. 6/

3. On taking power the working class would be compelled to carry out socialist measures. The working class could not govern over capitalist property relations, or it would be compelled to relinquish power to the capitalists. No joint rule of capitalists & workers was possible. 7/

4. The revolution thus could NOT be carried out in two stages -- first the democratic, then the socialist. Carrying out the democratic revolution required socialist measures. They were inseparably connected. 8/

5. The fate of the workers state rested with the expansion of socialist revolution around the globe, in particular into the advanced capitalist countries. Socialism could only be built by appropriating all the great achievements of capitalism including the world economy. 9/

Trotsky summed this up, "The completion of the socialist revolution within national limits is unthinkable. ... The socialist revolution begins on the national arena, it unfolds on the international arena, and is completed on the world arena." 10/

It was this perspective that guided Lenin and Trotsky in carrying out a socialist revolution in a country where the democratic revolution had not yet been completed. The fate of any workers state rests with the spread of socialist revolution internationally. 11/

Stalinism is the nationalist repudiation and betrayal of all these principles. 12/

The political program associated with Joseph Stalin expressed the national interests of privileged layers of the bureaucracy in the economically backward, isolated, and encircled workers state. 13/

The crushing of workers revolutions in Germany and elsewhere, betrayed by leadership of the Second International, left the Soviet Union isolated and consolidated the power of the bureaucracy. 14/

The bureaucracy was responsible for overseeing an unequal distribution of goods, as the economy lacked a basic surplus. They developed a set of privileges associated with overseeing the national economy. 15/

The first plank of Stalinism expressed these national interests. Bukharin put forward the perspective, adopted by Stalin, that it was possible to
1. Build Socialism in One Country 16/

The Soviet Union was no longer seen as a transitional workers state whose fate rested with world socialist revolution. It was a socialist country in construction whose fate hinged upon its own national economic development. 17/

From this argument grew the other planks of Stalinism. Everything was now subordinate to national economic construction. The fundamental task was not world socialist revolution, but securing the borders and trade relations of the USSR to ensure its internal development. 18/

The bureaucracy needed political capital with which to negotiate relations with capitalist governments. They found this in Communist Parties around the globe, which they directed through the apparatus of the Comintern. 19/

They rehabilitated an old theory of a rival party, the Mensheviks, which argued that the revolution should be conducted in two separate stages, a. democratic, b. socialist, with an interregnum between the two. This was the second plank of Stalinism:
2. A Two Stage Revolution. 20/

In the first stage, they argued, a section of the capitalist class -- the "national bourgeoisie" -- would play a progressive role. Workers needed to form an alliance with the national bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie, and peasantry. This was
3. The Bloc of Four Classes. 21/

On this basis, the Stalinists could pledge workers' support to a section of the capitalist class in exchange for friendly relations or economic ties. They would instruct workers to ally with capitalists, vote for capitalists, and to not go on strike in firms owned by allies. 22/

This then is the essence of Stalinism:
Socialism in one country, a two-stage revolution, and the bloc of four classes. It is nationalism and class collaboration. 23/

Both nationalism and collaboration with the capitalist class -- the enemy of the proletariat -- betray the interests of the working class. The need to retain control over the working class while betraying it drove Stalinism to all of its crimes. 24/

Lies, show trials, purges, assassinations, historical falsification -- all of these immense historical crimes inevitably emerge out of the program of Stalinism and its class betrayals. 25/

The class collaboration of Stalinism made possible the slaughter of the Chinese revolution in 1926-27, when Stalin instructed the CCP to support Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT. The KMT turned on the working class in Shanghai and elsewhere and murdered them. 26/

Stalinism made possible the rise to power of Hitler by refusing to form a united front of the working class with the SPD in Germany in opposition to the Nazis. 27/

Stalinism embraced imperialism in the name of the Popular Front alliance against Fascism. It instructed workers in India, the Philippines, and elsewhere that they should not fight for independence from colonialism because their imperialist rulers were allies against Hitler. 28/

It was the program of Stalinism that led Joma Sison to campaign for Ferdinand Marcos in 1965, and to enthusiastically support Duterte in 2016. I go into greater detail in my lecture of 2020, which I encourage you to read carefully. 29/
wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Stalinism inevitably adapts and makes concession to its elite partners. Over the past 30 years as the capitalist class has moved further and further to the right, Stalinism has tailended it. Support for Duterte was a culmination of this process. 30/

The party and the national democratic orgs that share its Stalinist political line have been transformed, almost unrecognizably. Decades of class collaboration have marked its cadre with a far-right and unprincipled character. It is this that is manifesting itself now. 31/end