Socialist Party on
Canadian Bolsheviks Meeting
The following is reprinted, with permission, from the December 1,
2004 "Monthly Report Newsletter" sent by John Ayers, General Secretary of
the Socialist Party of Canada, to the party's members.
"Red & Black" refers to "Red and Black Notes," a publication that
criticized the SPC and is mentioned
elsewhere in Ayers' report. "Adam Buick's reply" refers to an article
entitled "Bolshevik Bullshit" that has circulated by e-mail and is to be
published in a future SPC newsletter; it criticizes Ian Angus's essay
What Socialists Learned from
the Winnipeg General Strike.
On Thursday, November 25th. I attended a meeting of
the Canadian Bolsheviks to promote another edition of the book similarly
titled.
Ian Angus (author) gave historical perspectives
from the book with mention of the SPC and its influence in the early part
of the century. He characterized us as “abstract” and “doctrinaire”. To
me, his abstract meant a strong commitment to actually studying and
learning Marxist principles, something of which the Bolsheviks,
Trotskyists and Communist Parties could never be accused! Doctrinaire, I
believe, means applying those principles in a consistent manner to arrive
at the logical answer.
The night was replete with the words “leaders” and
“vanguard”. Thus I conclude these groups require followers and believe in
a minority capturing power. To consider this is to misunderstand the
democratic nature of socialist revolution and to rely on armed
insurrection against vastly superior forces. They apparently believe that
the Russian Revolution was a genuine socialist one that would have
succeeded if only Trotsky had won the struggle for power against Stalin
and, in so doing, completely ignore the lack of conditions present in
Russia for a true socialist revolution. Even Lenin had the good sense to
state that capitalism had to be established. Now, if Red & Black notes
wrote that these people are 100 years out of date, I would agree.
Ian did give an accurate assessment of the
communist parties as dupes of Stalin after the “golden period” of the
1920s. Many of the groups present, as is their wont, to attract new
members, proclaimed their support for any rally for systemic reforms, the
best one being one that threw its weight behind a rally to promote the
lies of the current Liberal Provincial government! Probably organized by
the Conservative Party of Ontario. Finally, as a measure of their
understanding of Marx’s works, Cuba was held up as an example of
socialism! Adam Buick’s reply to Ian’s criticism of our role in the
Winnipeg general strike was presented and a promise of a reply was given.
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