| I have never commented on San Francisco one way or the other. Communism, or Marxism- Leninism, is inherently revolutionary and dictatorial. That was the argument between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks, over the use of "bourgeois democracy" and incremental socialism. Lenin himself would not allow rival Leftist parties to participate in elections, and in some instances executed their members. The big argument between Stalin and Trotsky was over whether their should be "permanent revolution", or the consolidation of gains in one country. The use of incentives was generally approved by the Poliburo, although not completely egalitarian. Stalin was determined to nationalize and develop industry, in pursuit of autarchy, to make the Soviet Union more independent. Khruschev, who had been a loyal henchman, criticized Stalin for turning the apparatus of the police state on the nomenklatura, and disrupting the Party. Leftists throughout the world recognized Stalin as "the real thing", although some disapproved of dictatorship........ |
