Stalinism and Maoism versus Socialism from Below – a four-part study group based on Red Flags: A Reckoning with Communism for the Future of the Left, by David Camfield, Fernwood Books 2025

Increasingly, people are responding to the contemporary crises of capitalism by exploring the politics of communism. Some have taken a sympathetic, even nostalgic, view of “actually existing socialist” (AES) societies past and present, including the USSR, China, and Cuba, and the Marxist-Leninist political tradition associated with them. They see these states as a powerful alternative to capitalism, governed by parties genuinely committed to socialism and staunchly resisting Western imperialism. But were these societies really in transition towards a classless, stateless society of freedom — the original communist goal? Is Marxism-Leninism the political approach that should orient people on the left now? Are there alternative traditions of communism?

Red Flags traces the path from the 1917 Russian Revolution to the construction of the world’s first AES society: the USSR. It also looks at the post-revolution societies created along the same lines in China and Cuba. Using the intellectual tools of historical materialism, Red Flags argues that they were not in fact moving towards communism because the social relations remained fixed in class exploitation. The workers were never liberated.

At a time of burgeoning anti-communism from both conservatives and liberals, this book is an accessible, vibrant synthesis of the history of communism that draws on the latest research to develop a rigorous analysis of the contradictions and uneasy truths the left needs to confront if it is to build a genuinely liberatory alternative to capitalism.

First session: The Russian revolution and the Stalinist Counter-revolution (Sunday, Aug. 17)
• Chapters 1-3

Second session: Stalinism adapted: China and Cuba (Sunday, Aug. 31)
• Chapters 4-6

Third session: Marxism-Leninism today versus Socialism from Below (Sunday, Sept. 14)
• Chapters 7 -9

Fourth session: Questions and answers with the author, David Camfield (Sunday, Sept. 28)
• Zoom session, no additional reading required

Details: This in-person study group will meet in downtown Ottawa every second Sunday at 7 pm, starting on August 17th. The final session (September 28th) will be a zoom discussion with the author. Each session is expected to last about 90 minutes. The venue for the in-person sessions is still to be determined.

Book: Red Flags is currently available in Ottawa at Octopus Books and Perfect Books. It is also available for purchase online.

For more information or to sign-up: Send an email to brianmcdougall25@gmail.com

Organizers: This study group is being organized by Ottawa supporters of the Tempest Collective, an American-Canadian revolutionary socialist group. For more information about the Tempest Collective see: https://tempestmag.org/