oe Writing CANADIAN COMMUNISM: THE STALIN YEARS AND BEYOND. By Norman Penner. Methuen, 256 Pages. Available through the People’s Co-op Bookstore. The main thesis of Canadian Commu- nism: The Stalin Years and Beyond, is that after Lenin’s death, Stalin assumed dicta- torial power over the Communist Party of Soviet Union and over the world commu- nist movement as a whole. Author Norman Penner asserts that all communist parties in the world were obliged to follow Stalin’s diktat through the Comintern (the international organi- zation of communist parties), and other forms. Penner, a political scientist at Toronto’s York University, writes that Stalin imposed a political line of ultra-leftism in which social democracy was the main 20th Congress, he states, Stalin’s line, although now collectively administered, has continued. Canadian Communism chronicles the debates, questions, problems and errors of the Communist Party of Canada. It is an effort to show that the fundamental cause of all these difficulties was either accep- tance of Stalin’s orders or his political line. Beyond that thesis there is not much else in the way of historical depth to the book, particularly in its analysis of the period after 1945. Penner’s determination to prove his thesis at any cost has pro- duced a book of questionable historical value. enemy. Except for a brief respite after the : history without analysis Canadian Communism rests largely on allegation, with the excuse that documen- tation was denied the author. What is particular to Penner’s analysis is his implied interpretation of how politi- cal theory develops. His analysis clothes in Marxist terms a non-Marxist approach to history. In Marxism, ideas develop in the context of specific reality, specific condi- tions and activity. While Marxists do not deny the role of individuals, like Stalin, in history, they know that ideas and theories are never the sole product of either bril- liant or corrupt individuals. In retrospect, from the vantage point of nearly 50 years of world experience, the Communist Party has accepted that the class-against-class approach of the 1920s was dangerously sectarian, and that the characterization of social democracy as social fascism was mistaken and contrib- uted to the disastrous victory of fascism in Germany. But is it correct to suggest, as Penner does, that the error was the sole responsi- bility of Stalin? Did it not arise out of the conditions of the day: out of the role social democracy played, and the very real need to differentiate between reformism and revisionism? With the benefit of hindsight it is easy to underestimate the implications of a period in which Communists were firmly convinced that revolution was just around the corner. However, Penner takes no account of the conditions and the level of theory of the day. He asserts that only when the Soviet Union’s foreign policy needed it did of Stalin’s policies. Communist parties drop the characteriza- tion of social fascism and that the policy of the united front was foisted on the parties of the world movement at the Seventh Congress of the Comintern. By Penner’s logic the Communist parties should have refused to apply united front policies to their conditions in order to be “‘independ- ent of Moscow”. : However, Penner argues that the united front policies, although never correctly applied (in his opinion), were responsible for what he calls “the heyday” of influence and success enjoyed by the Communists after the Second World War, including in Canada. Penner deals with the real problems in the history of a Communist party in a manner that shows an intellectual disho- nesty not worthy of a historian. Penner was a leading member of the Communist Party of Canada, and while he might dis- agree with its principles and basic con- cepts, he does know what they are. These concepts, peculiar to a Marxist- Leninist party, are crucial to even a rudi- mentary éxplanation of the history of the Communist Party of Canada. If basic concepts such as democratic centralism and proletarian internationalism are men- tioned only in passing, how can the abso- lutely unique relationship among Commu- COMMUNIST PARTY IN MAY DAY PARADE, 1935... ‘this is in order to serve the interests of . more than just an echo nist parties and within the Comintern be explained to the reader? Penner conve- niently omits to explain the specific role of the Comintern and of democratic central ism when many Communist parties were new and illegal and when survival meant discipline. It is hard not to wonder why Penner wrote this book. It lacks the scholarship to become a serious work of history (which does not prevent it from being promoted and used as such). Penner states that communism is one of the most important developments of the 20th century and expresses, without much conviction, the hope that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorba- chev will succeed in the attempt to reform Soviet industry and society. But Penner puts forward no alternative other than a defence of the reformist positions he fought for while in the party. ) No one would deny that right. But we ~ can wonder why he has joined those who work to perpetuate anti-communist myths. Does he see that as serving the interests of the Canadian people? Today the world working class move- ment is struggling to understand how the mistakes of the past can be prevented. But working people — not their enemies. — Maggie Bizzell — For May Day reading FIGHTING HERITAGE Edited by Sean Griffin 26 » Pacific Tribune, April 27, 1988 @ The On-to-Ottawa Trek @ The Corbin Strike @ The Longshore Strike, 1935 @® The 1938 Post Office sitdown @ The story of the Tribune $5.95 People’s Co-op Bookstore Tribune Publishing Co. Ltd. 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5 Available at or order from MAY DAY GREETINGS to all workers and fighters for peace CANADIAN YUGOSLAV COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION oe Mackenzie-Papineau Batallion of the In memory of those who fell in the first anti-fascist war. Spain 1936-139. Veterans of the MAY DAY GREETINGS © on the occasion of the 51st anniversary of the formation of the International Brigades. Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.