‘Socialist Voice’ (2004-11) Now Available as a Searchable Archive
A complete set of Socialist Voice, a Marxist publication based in Canada, has been posted by Marxists Internet Archive. The following text on the MIA site introduces a fully linked Socialist Voice table of contents.–JR
Introduction to ‘Socialist Voice’
A ‘Socialist Voice’ pamphlet by Suzanne Weiss.
Socialist Voice: Marxist Perspectives for the 21st Century was an online journal published in Canada from 2004 to 2011. During that time 475 articles were posted on the website SocialistVoice.ca; many were also distributed by email to subscribers. In addition, Socialist Voice published 17 pamphlets in both hard copy and pdf form.
The founding Editors of Socialist Voice were Roger Annis and John Riddell. They were subsequently joined by Ian Angus. Over time, contributing editors from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Nicaragua, and the United States joined the project, and an online discussion forum, SV-Circle, was created for discussion among editors and readers.
Most of Socialist Voice’s editors and contributors had been involved, directly or indirectly, with the current of the Fourth International led by the Socialist Workers Party (U.S.). Socialist Voice represented the only organized break from the SWP-led current after 1983.
The creation of Socialist Voice was sparked by the expulsion of John Riddell and Roger Annis from the Communist League, the SWP’s affiliate in Canada, on the grounds of their support for the movement against the U.S. war in Iraq. The first issue of SV contained statements by Riddell and Annis on this issue, along with replies by the SWP.
By John Riddell and Suzanne Weiss
The dominant theme in Socialist Voice was international solidarity, expressed above all in support of Cuba and its allies in Venezuela, Bolivia, and elsewhere. It frequently published translations of statements by leading figures from those countries. SV was a partisan of Palestinian freedom, opposed U.S.-led attacks on Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, and strongly supported popular movements in Haiti.
In Canada, Socialist Voice favored indigenous and Quebec sovereignty, regularly publishing documents and articles that were not widely available, and it was an early advocate of ecosocialism.
It often jointly published articles with other radical publications, including Green Left Weekly, Links, Seven Oaks, Rabble, and Socialist Project Bullet.
By Ian Angus
In March 2011, the editors announced that they were suspending publication, explaining that “our commitments to broader movements for justice and social change have made it difficult for the editors to devote the time that a publication of this scope requires.”
Some Notes on This Archive
The Socialist Voice Archive contains all of the articles and pamphlets published by Socialist Voice between 2004 and 2011. The articles were originally posted one at a time on the website SocialistVoice.ca; many were also distributed by email and in hard copy. For convenience, we have grouped them into PDF files, each containing the articles for a full month. The actual date each was originally posted is given.
For privacy reasons, email addresses, phone numbers and addresses have been removed. Hyperlinks have been removed, but many URLs remain, although most no longer work.
Comments posted on the SV website by readers are not included, except where the editors reposted them as separate articles.
Great job John. This is an important archive for historians and activists.
Thanks, Katheryne. Socialist Voice was inspired by the legacy of Pat Schulz’s activism back into the 1950s. John
Dear John, Thanks for your continuing and extremely valuable work on the Communist International.
Unfortunately, I was very disappointed with Klara Zetkin’s speeches and resolutions on fascism which to me while including some excellent formulations were more examples of revolutionary diplomacy than an honest reckoning with what had gone wrong in Italy. Klara knew only too well what went wrong in Italy but seeing how her spartacist co-leadership of the German Communist Party were removed because of the Italian debacle, she was clearly unwilling to even mention the disastrous Communist split in Livorno and the disaster that flowed from it.
In particular, Clara failed to properly deal with the key years 1920-1922 when it would have been possible to defeat Mussolini. Sadly, in this failure she joins almost all of the leninist movement (trotskyist and stalinist) who find what happened to be highly embarrassing to write about. Especially on how the Communist International spent its time and resources in splitting the Socialist Party and creating a new ultraleft Communist Party that adopted a third period approach towards fascism and opened the way to Mussolini’s capture of power.
The unwillingness of the communist left to properly examine how Mussolini had been able to defeat the strong Italian socialist and union movement in the 1920s meant that few lessons were learnt in order to prevent Hiler’s ascent to power ten years or so later. Thus, Stalin’s famous telegram to the German Communist Party leadership minimising the scale of the Nazi defeat and assuring them that their turn would be next, was almost a copy of the positions adopted by Lenin and Trotsky in 1922. If my memory serves me well, the Communist International also sent a telegram under Lenin and Trostsky’s name reassuring the new PCI leadership and predicting that their time would be next.
To try to correct the record, I am attaching a case study on how the Communist International’s policy in Italy in 1920-22 helped Mussolini to come to power. I think it can stimulate a long overdue debate on the tragedy of what happened in Italy.
Warm regards,
Pat Byrne
P.S. This case Study is part of a longer document briefly comparing the different approaches of socialists towards the mass workers parties: from Marx and Engels; to Lenin before the Russian Revolution; and then onto the Comintern.
On the Comintern and Italian fascism, please see:
https://johnriddell.com/2014/06/01/fumble-and-late-recovery-the-comintern-response-to-italian-fascism/