Cam Hardy and Daniel Jacobs interviewed Shane Mage by letter. Mage was an original member of the Revolutionary Tendency within the Socialist Workers Party (SWP, U.S.) which became the Spartacist League and is a contributor to recent debates on Marxist theory in the Monthly Review. What follows is an edited version of their discussion.

[. . .]

“THE REVOLUTION MAROONED,” published in the Platypus Review #114, contains valuable observations on the heroism and tragedy of the Cuban revolution. It also demonstrates how Trotskyist methodology has lost the ability to explain the present convincingly. An examination of how Trotskyists responded to the Cuban revolution reveals degenerative weaknesses in their interpretation, most notably an equivocal conception of Stalinism.

[. . .]