[Marxism] Fw: Joe Hansen's Contributions as a Marxist-Leninist Political Writer

["Graham M." <gkmilner@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Graham M. 
To: socialist alliance 
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2004 5:42 AM
Subject: Joe Hansen's Contributions as a Marxist-Leninist Political Writer


Dear Comrades,
                       The socialist movement has produced many fine 
theoreticians and writers, and one of the finest political writers that 
revolutionary Marxism has given us was Joseph Hansen (1910-1979).   Hansen 
joined the US Trotskysist current as a student, in the 1930s, and spent three 
years working as Trotsky's secretary in Mexico, until the great Russian 
revolutionary was assassinated by a Stalinist agent in 1940.

   Hansen played a significant role in the discussion within the Fourth 
International surrounding the social and political transformations in Eastern 
Europe following World War Two.   These transformations, along with the more 
indigenous revolutions in Yugoslavia and, later, China, had led to the 
establishment of 'deformed' workers' states, with Stalinist regimes.   The 
discussion of the post-war events allowed the revolutionary Marxist movement to 
predict and then recognise other examples of 'workers' and farmers' 
governments', the emergence of which had been forecast by the Communist 
International at its 1922 Fourth World Congress (in the 'Theses on Tactics').  

   It was the experience of the Cuban revolution, which brought Fidel Castro's 
July 26th Movement to power in January 1959, that most clearly demonstrated the 
possibility that workers' and farmers' governments could be formed by 
petty-bourgeois currents other than Stalinist ones.   Joe Hansen's analyses of 
the actions of the new Cuban government, a government which had proceeded to 
break up the existing state in Cuba, push through a radical land reform, 
nationalise foreign- and domestically-owned industry, arm the people, and thus 
consolidate the first workers' state in the Western hemisphere, stand out as a 
fluent and insightful account of the nature of the Castro government and of the 
process underway.   Hansen's writings on Cuba are collected in the volume 
Dynamics of the Cuban Revolution: the Trotskyist View (Pathfinder Press, New 
York, 1978) [later editions have a slightly different title].   The Cuban 
revolution took place in a context where the colonial liberation movement had 
been on the upturn throughout the Third World.   The Cuban revolution's 
successes promoted the reunification of the Fourth International, both public 
factions of which body (these public factions had been in existence since a 
split in the International in 1953) recognised the importance of the events in 
Cuba for international socialism and the world revolution.

   Hansen found himself compelled to polemicise against the views of an 
ultra-left, sectarian grouping within the 'International Committee' faction (of 
which Hansen's US Socialist Workers Party was a part), which refused to 
acknowledge that a socialist revolution had taken place in Cuba, and which 
claimed that Fidel Castro was another dictator like Batista.   Hansen deals 
expertly with the metaphysics and mystification from leaders of this grouping 
(the British Socialist Labour League), such as Gerry Healy and Cliff Slaughter. 
  Later, Hansen was to edit two fine selections of material detailing the 
subsequent evolution of this sectarian grouping (see US Socialist Workers Party 
Education for Socialists Bulletins: Marxism Versus Ultraleftism: the Record of 
Healy's Break with Trotskyism, and Healy's Big Lie: the Slander Campaign 
Against Joseph Hansen, George Novack, and the Fourth International).

   Hansen recognised the requirement for revolutionary Marxists to link up with 
the Cuban revolutionary government, and favourably assessed the Cubans' 
attempts to build a revolutionary current in Latin America in the 1960s.   The 
OLAS (Organisation of Latin American Solidarity) conferences of that decade 
promoted a more militant approach than the one endorsed by the Stalinist Latin 
American Communist parties (with their commitment to 'peaceful coexistence').   
However, Hansen did not endorse Cuban leader Che Guevara's 'guerilla warfare' 
strategy, the deficiencies of which were demonstrated by the failure of 
guerilla fronts in several Latin American countries, and finally by Guevara's 
own defeat and death in Bolivia in 1967.

   The Leninist Strategy of Party Building: the Debate on Guerilla Warfare in 
Latin America (Pathfinder Press, New York, 1979) collects in one volume the 
brilliant writings Joe Hansen contributed to a discussion within the Fourth 
International in the 1960s and 70s.   The world Trotskyist movement had 
adopted, at its 1969 World Congress, a 'turn' to guerilla warfare, in 
accordance with the Guevarist 'foco' theory, at a time when the revolutionary 
Left in Latin America was taking stock of setbacks sustained partly because of 
this mistaken approach.   Hansen's polemics articulate the classical Leninist 
perspective on the primacy of party-building in the struggle for revolutionary 
social change, and with great verve and wit they restate lessons which have 
been transmitted through the experience of the genuine revolutionary socialist 
movement in the 20th century.

   The majority tendency of the Fourth International, which had embraced the 
guerilla warfare orientation, finally acknowledged its error and issued a 
'self-criticism' in 1976.   The factions which had come into existence around 
this question were subsequently dissolved.

   The defence of the Cuban revolution remains a central task for socialists 
throughout the world.   The mightiest imperialist power on earth, the USA, 
continues to look upon Cuba's revolution, and the example it represents to the 
Third World in particular, in areas such as education, health, and popular 
participation in politics, as a menace to be stamped out.   Joe Hansen's 
writings on the Cuban revolution and its global impact have lessons for all 
socialists, and will continue to stand out as some of the most significant 
political polemics of the 20th century.


                                                                    In 
solidarity,


                                                                                
    Graham Milner


*  Joe Hansen's books should be available through the Resistance bookshop in 
Perth, or alternatively by contacting Pathfinder Australia: P.O. Box 164, 
Campsie, NSW, 2194 or E.Mail  pathfinder_sydney@xxxxxxxxxxx 
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