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Radical Road – Photo by Ulli Diemer

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Stone is serious, deeply serious, committed, and often appalled and angry at the truths he discovers. But he’s aware that a ponderous, moralizing tone wins few converts. Reading the articulate, urbane, and frequently witty Weekly was a reading pleasure, not a self-imposed penance dutifully performed.
Twenty Years of I. F. Stone

Perhaps the major irony of the Trotskyists’ insistence on a united disciplined party under centralized leadership is that what this model actually produces is factionalism, disunity, and split after split. Every Leninist with leadership pretensions secretly imagines himself to be the new Lenin, the infallible leader prepared to split any organization that deviates from what he sees as the correct line. The hothouse world of the Trotskyist vanguard party concentrates tensions and egos that sooner or later explode.
Trotskyism and the Vanguard Party

Varsity Articles (selection)
By Ulli Diemer


The Canada-Soviet hockey summit 1972
Written shortly after the end of the 1972 hockey series between a Soviet team and a Canadian team comprised of players from the National Hockey League.
Viet peace will come with victory
Editorial on the Vietnam War.
The Householder’s Guide to Community Defence Against Bureaucratic Aggression
Organizational principles and campaign tactics communities can use to fight projects or developments being foisted on them.
Trotskyism and the Vanguard Party
Trotskyists maintain that the vanguard party model holds the key to bringing about revolutionary change but the record of Trotksyism shows that vanguard parties are actually a political dead end.
Hungary 1956: A workers’ revolt crushed by the “workers’ state”
The Hungarian revolution, brief though it was, did as much as a century of socialist theorizing to show what a united and determined people could do to transform their society.
Twenty years of I.F. Stone
Perceptive, analytical, well-written, witty, and drawing on a vast, eclectic store of knowledge.
New Hogtown Press
Profile of a left-wing Canadian book and magazine publisher.
Lewis attacks Waffle, begins to purge faction from NDP
In March 1972, Ontarion NDP leader Stephen Lewis delivered a major attack against the party's left-wing Waffle group, laying the ground for forcing the Waffle to either disband or to leave the party.
Auto worker says automation creates worker alienation
It is only struggle, says Martin Glaberman, that creates an awareness of collective strength.
OUCH!
Ads targetting propaganda spread by right-wing business lobby.
How they shot those campus bums
Book review of The Truth About Kent State.
U.S. academics dominate Canadian ivory towers
the desire to end U.S. domination of Canadian universities touches an important problem.
For Reasons of State
Review of essays by Noam Chomsky.
From Lenin to Stalin
Review of a first-hand account of the Stalinist takeover in Russia (review).
Review of the Press: Portugal 1974
The subtext of mainstream media coverage of social upheavals in post-fascist Portugal is that a return to dictatorship is necessary and inevitable to preserve the social order.
Students Mean Trouble for Business
Students have negative views of business, and business leaders are worried.
International communism well documented in new publications
A review of International Communism in the era of Lenin: A Documentary History; Soviet Russia Masters the Comintern: International Communism in the Era of Stalin’s Ascendancy; and The First Three Internationals: Their History and Lessons.
Review of Israel: A Colonial Settler State
The tragedy of two peoples brought into conflict by forces largely outside of their control.
The Unfashionable Human Body
A journey through the vagaries of fashion (book review).
Ten Lost Years
Review of Barry Broadfoot’s oral history of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Occupation began peacefully
Occupation of university building was peaceful, until the cops showed up.
Day-care issue remains unsolved
A look at the daycare issue at the University of Toronto in the fall of 1972.
Sociology department’s hiring of Americans causes discord
University of Toronto sociology department thrown into a turmoil over its hiring of eight foreigners – and no Canadians – to teach sociology to Canadian students (September 1974).
The Social Passion: book review
Richard Allen’s contribution to the understanding of the development of Canadian society and Canadian political history is invaluable.
“Corporate welfare bums”
NDP leader David Lewis criticizes policies that favour corporations at the expense of working people.
Architect fears Toronto may resemble New York
Developer and citizen advocate debate the future of the city.
Briemburg visits China and discovers a radically new society
Canadians should be critical in their attitude toward China, but at the same time they should realize that they have much to learn from China’s efforts to build a new society, says Mordecai Briemberg.
Bookworm’s goulash: A taster’s choice of the good, bad and indifferent
Potpourri of books.
Review of press coverage of strikes
When a major strike breaks out, the media pull out all the stops in their efforts to smear striking workers.
Canada is nice, American author declares
American author flails at straw men.
Zeitlin lifts Sociology election veto
Sociology department politics.
Joey Smallwood tells his story
A review of Joey Smallwood’s autobiography, “I Chose Canada.”
Quaint rural photos lack a clear theme
Why did these photos become a book?.
Sellout: a short review
A discussion of the misdevelopment of Canadian energy resources.
History text has pinpoint accuracy (except for the facts)
History as propaganda.
The Movable Airport book review
A valuable record of the manoeuvring and bureaucratic runaround that went into the planning of the Pickering airport, and of the resistance that it produced.
Canadian history in cartoons
A review of Caricature History of Canadian Politics.
Viet peace will come with victory
Editorial on the Vietnam War.

 

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