19.10.1995

Correction

Due to an editorial error in ‘The clash of ideas’ in last week’s paper it is felt that the article gave the wrong impression that the author was referring to Open Polemic comrades as “incorrigible sectarians and eccentrics”.

The passage towards the end of the article should have read:

“... In the same spirit, we should effectively turn the Weekly Worker into a version of the Open Polemic journal. This would enable us to engage with forces such as the Stalin Society, the Partisan group and others - fragments of official communism who must be “tidied up” before moving on.

“OP’s approach to such forces is prompted by their formal agreement with abstract canons of ‘Marxist-Leninist’ orthodoxy - the leading role of the party, proletarian internationalism, the dictatorship of the proletariat and so on. But there is no content in their adherence to these principles - they are dead, sectarian mantras for them.

“The process of communist rapprochement cannot be aided by organised genuine communist forces retreating into an agnostic limbo to facilitate unity with incorrigible sectarians and eccentrics.”

The section in bold was unduly cut. The editorial team apologises for this error and the confusion it caused.