JOSEPH STALIN

vol. 3, no. 7, September 16-30, 2010

Si vous voulez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

You will find below the link to l'Humanité in English, a selection of the daily communist newspaper published in Paris.

BEHIND BLUE EYES

« And no one knows what it’s like to be hated, to be fated. » This is a line from the wonderful song of the famous British rock band The Who. When we think about Joseph Stalin, we can’t help but humming these lyrics.

Since many Canadians still have an almost uncontrollable fear of Stalin, we must dwell on his era and discuss the issue. Yet digging in my working years in the construction industry in Québec, I do not remember hearing real criticism of the Stalin period in the USSR, in the day–to-day speech of the construction workers. Most of the time, we just ignored what was going on in Soviet Union. It was in the 1970s.

(Photo Le Marxiste-Léniniste: Berlin, 1945 - The Red Army's Victory over the Nazi regime in Europe, along side with the Allied Forces).

Later on, at the university campus in Québec City, his name was mentioned regularly, especially during the endless disputes between Maoists and Trotskyists. The Communist Party of Canada, that I joined, said that it was true : Stalin was directly responsible for many crimes. Strange attitude but "credible"; was it not usually accepted, said everywhere, and obvious for all?! This denunciation was followed by the promise that no such a thing would ever exist with socialism in Canada. We then became advocates of anti-Stalinism in the progressive grassroots organizations, attracting many people keen on struggling with the Communists.

However, stays in the USSR brought questions. The main one was for the author of these lines: why Moscow does look like an abandoned construction site? We were still in the 1970s. The overall impression of the Soviet capital, casting sight to all the cranes and infrastructure without animation, was that they had taken a vacation ... in the 1950s and that they never came back to work after.

Moreover, the Young Communist League of Canada visitors have rubbed shoulders with some Soviet officials - rather petty bourgeois- who envied goods and clothing of travelers from the West without understanding the ins and outs of the class struggle at the international level; especially the policies of Big capital towards workers in capitalist countries, to avoid that they switch on the socialist camp (since the defeat of socialism in the USSR, capitalists rush to take them back -e.g. Greece). Also the ground was set up by opponents of Stalin to plunge the economy into the doldrums, putting aside plans for economic development in USSR to the benefit of some kind of socialist market economy, that never really worked. Recent researchs of communist parties economists, including the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), highlighted it.

Joseph Stalin scared many "intellectuals" in the West and in socialist countries (they have contributed to defame him after Khrushchev's famous report -the bible - to the XXth Congress of the Communist Party of the USSR). In fact, why have they hurried up to hide it after ... (?) Denunciation without trial, that's weird! What would you say, if the whole thing had been framed to stop the development of soviet socialism and its influence amidst toiling people around the world?

(Photo Internet: Moscow, a neighbourhood, that kept its look from the time of Joseph Stalin).

However, this socialist country had quickly joined the levels of development of capitalist countries, including the United States. The book "Socialism Betrayed" (from US Communists Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny), published in USA by International Publishers, confirms this success.

Stalin’s economic, political and social achievements were a testimony of its commitment to the Soviet people. By the way, Stalin vowed unconditional love for the Russian people, while he himself was "immigrant" in Moscow, was he not Georgian? A bit like the Communist leader Tim Buck, who - even though he was British- , has dedicated his life to improving the living conditions of the English Canadian and Québec workers, while mapping the road for the Communist Party of Canada, in its struggle for socialism.

Still today, many immigrants, including the Club of Friends of KKE in Montréal, have linked their fate to the emancipation of the working class in Canada and have every desire to see particularly the youth, to enjoy a great future in our society. But first thing first, let’s be optimistic. We can foresee the future with joy and happiness.

Finally, it is no wonder that everywhere - and now, at the international level, the Communists themselves study the history of their movement and write it honestly. The "historians"and other bourgeois and petty-bourgeois "ideologists" don't have as their main orientation to fight against poverty, unemployment and misery. They can not match the progress for workers with social and political truth. After all, they will not bite the hand that feeds them ... Their snack, they earn it while inventing cock-and-bull stories about: communism, Soviet Union and Stalin.

(Photo Internet: Joseph Stalin).

Further they are never happy about anything. So we don’t have time to lose with them.
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NOTA BENE: Daniel Paquet has first studied Law at Laval University in Québec City and at the Québec University in Montréal (UQAM). He was particularly interested in criminal law. Later, he turned to Communications, where he graduated "with honours" in 1996 in journalism, always at UQAM. In 1979, he studied at the Higher School of communist parties cadres, under the direction of the Central Committee of Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Interested in the case of Joseph Stalin, he wanted to throw a new light on this great historical figure in order to understand the real legacy of the Bolshevik leader. He took contact with the Friends of USSR in the United States; and Michael Lucas and Dr. Adélard Paquin, publishers of Northstar Compass, specialized magazine on USSR (available in English in Toronto and in French in Montréal).
He is a member of the Communist Party of Canada and contributes to the establishment of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) in Canada.

danieleugpaquet@yahoo.ca

L'Humanité in English

Pour la Komintern now!: http://pourlakominternnow.blogspot.com/

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