I support Left media because of course I do, I'm not going to get my news after it has been heavily censored by the bourgoisie, but there isn't an issue of The Communist (the newspaper of the IMT in Britain formerly known as Socialist Appeal) which gets printed that doesn't dedicate some part to attacking The Morning Star (the newspaper of the CPB), The Communist Party of Britain, or Stalin, and usually they work something in there about modern China too.
The most recent beef between the IMT and the CPB as far as I have been paying attention springs from this article published by The Communist in response to a series of articles on Lenin published by The Morning Star:
Despite its name, this party [The Communist Party of Britain] has long ago become a reformist organisation, little different from the trade union and Labour ‘lefts’
While probably a bit true this is also funny, since before changing their name to The Communist and announcing the launch of the new Revolutionary Communist Party, Socialist Appeal had been a force dedicated to entry-ism within the Labour party, that is before it was finally ruled in July 2021 that anyone associated with Socialist Appeal would automatically be expelled from the Labour party. Prior to this, Socialist Appeal had been very clear that they had no other aspirations besides pulling the Labour party left, and actually their entire existence can traced back to a previous round of left purges within the Labour party prior even to Blair, when in 1991 the left group Militant abandoned Labour to form their own party (later known as the Socialist party, they made impressive gains as part of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition in 2015 before throwing their support behind Corbyn a few years later).
Those who remained within the Labour party went on to become Socialist Appeal, and it is just funny to me how things have come full circle since then. Those within the Socialist party must be feeling quite vindicated by now.
Then in the latest issue of The Communist, there is this article:
FROM OPPORTUNISM TO ULTRA-LEFTISM:
THE CRIMINAL ZIG-ZAGS OF THE STALINISTS
The launch of The Communist and
the planned launch of the Revolutionary Communist Party in May
has met with great enthusiasm from our
supporters.
However, as we reported in the last
issue, the misnamed Communist Party
of Britain (CPB) has clearly been stung by
our successes, and attacked us as coming from an “anti-communist” tradition.
On the contrary, we have consistently defended genuine communism.
But in doing so we reject the tradition
of Stalinism, which has played, and still
plays, a criminal role.
It is good to see left newspapers fighting eachother over disagreements which occurred over 100 years ago. If only there was some way we could use the benefit of hindsight to evaluate who was right and who was wrong, what worked and what didn't, what needs to be done differently next time, but sadly there is a huge overlap between people willing and able to write lengthy articles in fringe newspapers and people who are actually just huge dorks, heavily invested in squabbling over petty minutaee and championing their favourite heroes, like they are comic book characters.
What does it matter if Trotsky is right about permanent revolution, if no Trot organisation has ever accomplished anything in 100 years? Was Stalin wrong to withdraw support from the international community and order others to lay down their arms and co-operate with the bourgeoisie? For sure, the USSR was villified for supporting them anyway. Was Stalin wrong for cracking down on security within the USSR? I don't know, have you seen what happens to fledgling communist states when they do not?
I really don't know enough to be able to comment on everything, and I don't see the need to, either. Just the bitchiness from these orgs is such a turn-off, stop fighting and kiss eachother. Oh no, Special Branch wouldn't like that.
Mac