Ah the USSR, a beacon of living conditions and life expectancy.
Not surprising from a Trotskyist, but a statement like this is why I could never even consider voting for him or PBP.
Certainly the shock therapy under Yeltsin was a disaster, Gorbachev still was pretty authoritarian when it came to the Baltics before he relented but hard to argue that the fall of Soviet domination of the Eastern Bloc wasn’t a good thing. There’s a reason why the communist states collapsed once the treat of violence was gone thanks to Gorbachev and I cannot imagine thinking that the fall of the Berlin wall was a bad thing …
He also ended the Soviet Afghan war, which definitely needed to happen. Overall I think it’s clear that his impact on the world was incredibly positive.
Paul Murphy continues to make me glad I don’t vote for his party, even if I agree with a lot of their domestic policies.
I’m pretty sure that’s Yeltsin’s legacy.
Ah yes, what a shame those Stalinist states ceased to exist. What a shame people aren’t shot anymore trying to escape the paradise that was Eastern Europe. Not having to wait 13 years for a washing machine or car is truly the worst excess of Capitalism. If people had to queue for bread and milk like in the old days, everybody would get more exercise.
Say what you want about the Stasi, but they kept people in line! It’s disgusting that nowadays you can discuss politics or the government in groups larger than 5 people without fearing of one of them being an informant.
I think Brano Milanovic (formerly of the World Bank) summed up Gorbachev’s life in a more measured, but imo far more critical way:
>By the standards of statecraft, he must be judged harshly, like one of the most extraordinary failures in history. By the standards of humanity, he must be judged much more kindly: he allowed millions to regain freedom, not only proclaimed, but stuck to the principles of non-violence in domestic and foreign affairs, and left his office willingly, when he did not need to do, simply because he did not want to fight and risk lives in order to keep it. But being nice and, in fact, anti-political, he left the field open to much worse men.
Paul Murphy doing a Paul Murphy. Gorbachev ended the spectre of nuclear war that hovered over the world for 50 years, it’s something to be commended.
The USSR was doomed to fail and Gorbachev was a steady pair of hands to try to make that state failure as smooth as possible for his people, and it mostly was. Gorbachev saw the writing on the wall and wasn’t afraid to do the right thing when it was absolutely necessary.
What a fucking clown. Also, a very apt time to broadcast those views. Can’t imagine why anyone wanted to change the utopian ways of the USSR…
How could you possibly vote for this fucking communist idiot?
Christ I can’t wait for all these fringe far left parties to lose all their TDs at the next election.
A bold statement to make in a country with a significant minority of Eastern Europeans.
Is there anyone in the whole world that Paul Murphy doesn’t have an issue with?
While the 1990s were a major boom for the west, all of the former Soviet states suffered terribly. There were varying degrees, but the worst by far was Russia. Jeff Sachs was able to help Poland use the catholic church as more of a “moral” transition to capitalism, but no such thing occurred in Russia (Putin learned to use Orthodox church to his own means later on). The standard of living in Russia is not what it was during the Soviet era, and that’s why most Russians hate Gorbachev, rightfully so.
People seem to love to shit on eastern Europe, but it wasn’t that long ago Ireland was impoverished itself.
He’s absolutely right. That, and it’s Yeltsin’s fault too.
Defending Stalinism is as bad as defending Nazism. Paul is a fucking joke of a man.
Paul Murphy in favour of socialist imperialism of Eastern Europe. Shocker
The smell of stale cigarettes, anoraks and fart off this tweet.
He’s not wrong. There’s a reason he’s hailed as a hero in the West and despised in the East. Gorbachev didn’t want the Soviet Union to fall, a lot of what he is praised for by the West fundamentally went against his political goals, but I guess he was a compromiser and that’s rare in a Russian leader. In the end, the Cold War never really ended, and Russia was devastated economically in the 90s. The West just got the the upper hand and has pretty much maintained it for the last 40 years. Without a leader like Gorbachev the West would not have gotten that upper hand.
Only paul murphy could use a mans death to slate him for freeing a country from tyranny
Gorbachev had an idea of moving the Soviet Union towards a type of democratic socialism,a type of Scandinavia-on-steroids.I don’t think it was ever particularly well fleshed out though,and he definitely didn’t moved boldly enough to sideline the old-guard Communists and seize the initiative from Yeltsin,who was an opportunist.
I think Gorbachev’s legacy is an immensely positive one and this is pretty tone-deaf from Paul Murphy.Though it is a particularly standard Trotskyite viewpoint.
Classic Paul Murphy tweet.
Why are Irish ‘lefties’ so reactionary? It’s like they have no experience of real world politics. They just want to wind the clock back to a time before they were old enough to vote or were even born. They poo-pooh anybody’s experience if they haven’t heard it from 5th year history classes it doesn’t exist and you say ‘Stalinist countries’ like it was a good thing. Factually of course, he’s completely wildly irresponsibly incorrect but there you go.
God you can tell so many here haven’t opened a history book. Talking about 80’s SU as if it was peak Stalinist gulag time lmao. He did a lot of good, and it’s obvious why the west seems to love him, but his legacy amongst the Russian people is rightfully fairly poor given the state of Russia in the 90’s, people were far worse off on average than in the 80’s SU
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Ah the USSR, a beacon of living conditions and life expectancy.
Not surprising from a Trotskyist, but a statement like this is why I could never even consider voting for him or PBP.
Certainly the shock therapy under Yeltsin was a disaster, Gorbachev still was pretty authoritarian when it came to the Baltics before he relented but hard to argue that the fall of Soviet domination of the Eastern Bloc wasn’t a good thing. There’s a reason why the communist states collapsed once the treat of violence was gone thanks to Gorbachev and I cannot imagine thinking that the fall of the Berlin wall was a bad thing …
He also ended the Soviet Afghan war, which definitely needed to happen. Overall I think it’s clear that his impact on the world was incredibly positive.
Paul Murphy continues to make me glad I don’t vote for his party, even if I agree with a lot of their domestic policies.
I’m pretty sure that’s Yeltsin’s legacy.
Ah yes, what a shame those Stalinist states ceased to exist. What a shame people aren’t shot anymore trying to escape the paradise that was Eastern Europe. Not having to wait 13 years for a washing machine or car is truly the worst excess of Capitalism. If people had to queue for bread and milk like in the old days, everybody would get more exercise.
Say what you want about the Stasi, but they kept people in line! It’s disgusting that nowadays you can discuss politics or the government in groups larger than 5 people without fearing of one of them being an informant.
I think Brano Milanovic (formerly of the World Bank) summed up Gorbachev’s life in a more measured, but imo far more critical way:
>By the standards of statecraft, he must be judged harshly, like one of the most extraordinary failures in history. By the standards of humanity, he must be judged much more kindly: he allowed millions to regain freedom, not only proclaimed, but stuck to the principles of non-violence in domestic and foreign affairs, and left his office willingly, when he did not need to do, simply because he did not want to fight and risk lives in order to keep it. But being nice and, in fact, anti-political, he left the field open to much worse men.
Paul Murphy doing a Paul Murphy. Gorbachev ended the spectre of nuclear war that hovered over the world for 50 years, it’s something to be commended.
The USSR was doomed to fail and Gorbachev was a steady pair of hands to try to make that state failure as smooth as possible for his people, and it mostly was. Gorbachev saw the writing on the wall and wasn’t afraid to do the right thing when it was absolutely necessary.
What a fucking clown. Also, a very apt time to broadcast those views. Can’t imagine why anyone wanted to change the utopian ways of the USSR…
How could you possibly vote for this fucking communist idiot?
Christ I can’t wait for all these fringe far left parties to lose all their TDs at the next election.
A bold statement to make in a country with a significant minority of Eastern Europeans.
Is there anyone in the whole world that Paul Murphy doesn’t have an issue with?
While the 1990s were a major boom for the west, all of the former Soviet states suffered terribly. There were varying degrees, but the worst by far was Russia. Jeff Sachs was able to help Poland use the catholic church as more of a “moral” transition to capitalism, but no such thing occurred in Russia (Putin learned to use Orthodox church to his own means later on). The standard of living in Russia is not what it was during the Soviet era, and that’s why most Russians hate Gorbachev, rightfully so.
People seem to love to shit on eastern Europe, but it wasn’t that long ago Ireland was impoverished itself.
He’s absolutely right. That, and it’s Yeltsin’s fault too.
Defending Stalinism is as bad as defending Nazism. Paul is a fucking joke of a man.
Paul Murphy in favour of socialist imperialism of Eastern Europe. Shocker
The smell of stale cigarettes, anoraks and fart off this tweet.
He’s not wrong. There’s a reason he’s hailed as a hero in the West and despised in the East. Gorbachev didn’t want the Soviet Union to fall, a lot of what he is praised for by the West fundamentally went against his political goals, but I guess he was a compromiser and that’s rare in a Russian leader. In the end, the Cold War never really ended, and Russia was devastated economically in the 90s. The West just got the the upper hand and has pretty much maintained it for the last 40 years. Without a leader like Gorbachev the West would not have gotten that upper hand.
Only paul murphy could use a mans death to slate him for freeing a country from tyranny
Gorbachev had an idea of moving the Soviet Union towards a type of democratic socialism,a type of Scandinavia-on-steroids.I don’t think it was ever particularly well fleshed out though,and he definitely didn’t moved boldly enough to sideline the old-guard Communists and seize the initiative from Yeltsin,who was an opportunist.
I think Gorbachev’s legacy is an immensely positive one and this is pretty tone-deaf from Paul Murphy.Though it is a particularly standard Trotskyite viewpoint.
Classic Paul Murphy tweet.
Why are Irish ‘lefties’ so reactionary? It’s like they have no experience of real world politics. They just want to wind the clock back to a time before they were old enough to vote or were even born. They poo-pooh anybody’s experience if they haven’t heard it from 5th year history classes it doesn’t exist and you say ‘Stalinist countries’ like it was a good thing. Factually of course, he’s completely wildly irresponsibly incorrect but there you go.
God you can tell so many here haven’t opened a history book. Talking about 80’s SU as if it was peak Stalinist gulag time lmao. He did a lot of good, and it’s obvious why the west seems to love him, but his legacy amongst the Russian people is rightfully fairly poor given the state of Russia in the 90’s, people were far worse off on average than in the 80’s SU
all of these things are true