Tankie

Tankie is a term which originally referred to members of the Communist Party of Great Britain that followed the CPSU line, agreeing with the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and later the Prague Spring of 1968 by Soviet tanks; or more broadly, those who followed a traditional pro-Soviet or Stalinist position.[1] More recently it has seen a less specific use of the term, referring to hardline authoritarian or Marxist–Leninist positions on the left.

Red Army T-54 tanks in Budapest, 1956.

Definition

According to The Independent, after the Prague Spring, "In Communist Party circles, including those of the British CP, the term 'tankie' was subsequently used to describe those party members who supported the crushing of the Prague Spring by force of arms."[2] According to The Guardian, "tankie" is a term for Stalinists.[3]

Leftist writer Carl Beijer claims there are two distinct uses: the original, which was "exemplified in the sending of tanks into Hungary to crush resistance to Soviet communism. More generally, a tankie is someone who tends to support militant opposition to capitalism", and the more modern online variation which means "something like 'a self-proclaimed communist who indulges in conspiracy theories and whose rhetoric is largely performative'", although he is critical of both uses.[4] "Tankie" has thereby re-emerged as internet slang for an authoritarian left-winger or socialist.[5] According to Vice, the contemporary expression is particularly popular among young democratic socialists.[6]

According to Christina Petterson, "Politically speaking, tankies regard past and current socialist systems as legitimate attempts at creating communism, and thus have not distanced themselves from Stalin, China, etc."[7]

History

The term originated as a phrase for British hardline members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The "Tankie" wing of the CPGB was also sometimes called "Stalinist" and was associated with the views of the strong CPGB presence in trades unions.[8][9] Journalist Peter Paterson asked Amalgamated Engineering Union official Reg Birch about his election to the CPGB Executive after the Hungarian invasion in 1956:

When I asked him how he could possibly have sided with the "tankies", so called because of the use of Russian tanks to quell the revolt, he said "they wanted a trade unionist who could stomach Hungary, and I fitted the bill."[10][11]

The support of the invasion of Hungary was disastrous for the party's credibility.[1] The CPGB opposed the invasion in Czechoslovakia in 1968, though a hardline faction supported it.

The term continued to be used into the 1980s, especially in relation to the split between the reform-minded "Eurocommunist" wing of the CPGB, and the traditionalist, pro-Moscow group; the latter continuing to be labelled 'tankies'. For instance, in the 2006 play Rock 'n Roll by the Anglo-Czech author Tom Stoppard, the character Max, based on Eric Hobsbawm,[12] discusses with Stephen what to read to hear what is happening in the Party, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Their options are Marxism Today and the daily paper, the Morning Star:

MAX: Marxism Today? It's not so much the Eurocommunism. In the end it was the mail order gifts thing. I couldn't take the socks with little hammers and sickles on them.

STEPHEN: Well, Read the Morning Star and keep up with the Tankies.

MAX: The Tankies … How the years roll by. Dubcek is back. Russia agrees to withdraw its garrisons. Czechoslovakia takes her knickers off for capitalism. And all that remains of August '68 is a derisive nickname for the only real communists left in the Communist Party.[13]

The term is sometimes used within the UK Labour Party as slang for a politically old fashioned leftist. Alasdair Campbell reports a conversation about modernising education, in which Tony Blair:

"said 'I'm with George Walden on selection' … DM [ David Miliband ] looked aghast … [Blair] said when it came to education, DM and I were just a couple of old tankies."[14]

More pejoratively, in 2014, Boris Johnson referred to Jeremy Corbyn and the left wing of the Labour party as "tankies and trots".[15]

See also

• Brezhnev Doctrine

References

1. Stephen Drive Understanding British Party Politics, p. 154
2. Paterson, Tony. "Hard-line Czech communist Vasil Bilak dies: Last surviving 'tankie' who supported 1968 invasion of his own country by Soviet Union passes away at 96". www.independent.co.uk. The Independent. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
3. Rickett, Oscar (2017-10-23). "From latte socialist to gauche caviar – how to spot good-time leftwingers around the world". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-08-23.
4. Peyser, Eve. "Corncob? Donut? Binch? A Guide to Weird Leftist Internet Slang". www.vice.com. Vice. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
5. Rickett, Oscar. "From latte socialist to gauche caviar – how to spot good-time leftwingers around the world". www.theguardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
6. Pearl, Mike. "How a Real Class War, Like with Guns, Could Actually Happen". www.vice.com. Vice. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
7. Petterson, Christina (2020). Apostles of Revolution? Marxism and Biblical Studies. Brill. p. 11. ISBN 9004432205.
8. See for instance, The Scottish Labour Party: History, Institutions and Ideas, Gerry Hassan, Edinburgh University Press, 2004 p220-22 for an account of the CPGB's influence in Scottish trades unionism
9. See also Trade Union Merger Strategies:Purpose, Process, and Performance: Purpose, Process, and Performance, Roger Undy Oxford University Press, 2008 p178
10. How Much More of This, Old Boy-- ?: Scenes from a Reporter's Life, Peter Paterson p. 181
11. Reg Birch's hardline attitudes later led him to split away from the CPGB to form a pro-Albanian Maoist party.
12. Tom Stoppard: Bucking the Postmodern, Daniel K. Jernigan 2012 p187
13. Rock 'n' roll, Tom Stoppard, Faber and Faber, 2006, p79
14. The Alastair Campbell Diaries: Prelude to Power 1994-1997, Alastair Campbell p531
15. Watt, Nicholas. "Boris Johnson: Jeremy Corbyn and Labour left are 'tankies and trots'". www.theguardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 11 August 2020.