Germany, the overthrow of Stalinism and the left

In the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte Marx wrote:

Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.

Those on the left who argue for a return to the good ole days of Stalinism or imagine a state capitalist nirvana in the East or the West are stuck in the vice of history as farce.

Socialism from above is dead. Long live socialism from below.

The idea that the emancipation of the working class is the act of the working class is knocking on the door of history. We on the left should not be deaf to it.

The first step on the road to the liberation of humanity is the abolition of both versions of capitalism - “free market” and state capitalism. That is the world historic task of the international working class and should be the goal of the revolutionary left.