Erin Russell
In most of the world, Stalinist states have long since disintegrated. Many of the Communist parties that supported them have likewise collapsed. But even where organised Stalinism appears to have vanished, its ideological legacy lives on. As in every oppressive state, the Stalinist bureaucracy had to produce an ideology that justified its existence. We are used to the rulers of free market capitalist societies promoting some mixture of nationalism, “democratic” values and religious piety to convince their victims that we're all on the same team. Stalinism had its own versions of those tricks. But they were almost all expressed in the language of Marxism. That has left a poisonous legacy that holds back social movements to this day. This talk will explain how Stalinism distorted Marxism, and why these ideas persist in parts of the left today.