Influential on the left, their theoretical tradition is built on lies and bad history. In Stalin’s Shadow, a new book by Marxist historian and regular Firebrand contributor Doug Enaa Greene, confronts the writers who’ve defended their hero’s counterrevolution. As Greene argues, apologetics for Stalinism inevitably lead to idealist distortions and irrational conspiracy theories.
Socialist Horizon, Firebrand, the International Socialist League, and Socialist Alternative (Australia) met to discuss our views of the revolutionary party and how to build it. While the political situation is dire, the No Kings rallies and resistance to ICE demonstrate an appetite for struggle. Building revolutionary socialist organization today is a crucial contribution to building on that struggle.
Stalinist academic Grover Furr has dedicated his career to zealous defense of the Soviet Union with cherrypicked data and crude falsehoods. His latest book, Trotsky’s Comintern Conspiracy, is no exception. Filled with conspiracy theories and pseudoscience, it justifies Stalin’s show trials with the logic of fairy tales and the Inquisition.
The authentic Marxist tradition has always stressed that democracy is fundamental to socialism. Marx defined socialism as the “self-emancipation of the working class.” In the Communist Manifesto, he and Engels said that the first step on the road to socialism and then...