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From New International, Vol. XVI No. 3, May–June 1950, p. 191.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
To the Editors:
Walter Jason’s review of Sidney Lens’ Left, Right and Center in the January–February issue of the New International, while correctly stressing the positive contributions of the work toward an understanding of the American labor movement, has failed to deal adequately with Lens’ analysis of Stalinism.
The title Left, Right, and Center is revealing. Stalinism to Lens is still a centrist movement operating between the left and right in the labor movement. On page 214 of the book, we read:
“To understand Stalinism, one must understand that it is a movement based on cowardice and fear, that it has only one law, that of self-preservation and that all the Communist parties of the world are nothing but agencies to effectuate the preservation of the Stalinist clique within Russia – nothing more. The Communist parties do not want to destroy the fabric of capitalism. If they did they would have led revolutions in Italy and France at any time since 1945.”
Lens’ theory is not new, is more or less the theory of the Cannonites and the Ohlerites and does not correspond to what has happened on this planet. Stalinist parties have taken power in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, etc. Capitalism and capitalists in these countries are not exactly flourishing – to put it in a restrained sort of way. If the Stalinist party in France did not take power in 1945, all the evidence at our disposal indicates that it was not through fear or cowardice but because Russia was not yet ready for a showdown with American imperialism.
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C. Craig |
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Last updated on 18 October 2018