Now I'm a Trotskyist

My four decades of active anti-Communism, as my closest friends know, have often caused me quite a lot of harsh criticism and I never found the row an easy one to hoe, but I hoed it, oh yessir I did! It was a very isolating position to hold in the circles among which I moved (school, academy and activism), particularly before 1989 when the Wall came down -- after which the Left tended to fall into an ... err ... umm ... embarrassed silence.

As far as I can recall, I have not found that history has required me to recant a single one of the great many anti-Marxist-Leninist statement I have made since the mid-1960s. Like Nazism, Leninism is a scourge on the face of the earth.

However, every now and again, because of my progressive views, I have been accused of being a Communist! Once, Hugh Morgan, AO, called the magazine I was editing "Bolshevist". Ironically, this was about the same time in 1984 that the Australia-Russian Friendship Association, an actual Bolshevist front organisation in Sydney, ordered People for Nuclear Disarmament not to publish any more of my articles (they had published an article of mine about the persecution of the peace movement behind the Iron Curtain), at risk of ARFA revoking the free rent which it gave PND. That was some grin!

Today I'm grinning again, because I have just been labelled a Trotskyist, despite all those decades of strenuous anti-Trotskyism. I shouldn't gloat too much, because the writer, an Australian radio presenter, is obviously what we call in Australia a 'deadshit', but it does show the kinds of fools who have come out of the woodwork since has-been politician John Stone's anti-Muslim polemic 'Some will not integrate' was published online this week. I thought it would sink like a Stone, but I underestimated the virulence of xenophobia and ignorance.

I have decided not to waste any more breath on these scoundrels and Lilliputians in the discussion forum, but it was quite an eye-opener to find such racism still exists. One of my would-be antagonists writes, "Niggers and Muslims are both generally despised. This is hardly surprising given their generally unacceptable group behaviour, their almost total inability to integrate, their high levels of welfare dependency, and their growing population proportions." Another appears to be referring to your almanackist when citing "an exclusive hatred towards anything white". Logic is in scarce supply in the forum.

Perhaps if you have any anti-racist thoughts you might add them there. I spent some time in the forum and it made me feel like having a bath.

Tagged: racism, communism, anarchism, trotskyism, bolshevism, bigotry, islam, muslim, muslims, african-american