The following text was posted by a Scottish party member on Facebook to commemorate the death of Comrade Josef Stalin, known affectionately to progressive workers everywhere as Uncle Joe.

Over the years our party has written extensively on why we esteem Comrade Stalin so highly, and what the significance of his leadership was to the workers of the world.

For a brief introduction to those views, see our article commemorating the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution: October 1917: the defining event of our epoch.

Tribute to JV Stalin

Imagine a leader taking over a country that has just lost a world war, which has just again been invaded by 14 other countries, where only one in three men and one in ten women can read and write, where 80 percent of the population are peasants, where life expectancy is 32 and where all wealth until very recently was controlled by a royal family, a church and their cronies.

By the time that leader has finished, the same country has complete literacy, guaranteed free education, guaranteed free healthcare and guaranteed jobs for all.

Besides this, the country has built entire new cities for the now city-dwelling former peasants, wiped out homelessness, enshrined equality between the sexes and races in both law and practice, eradicated private property, grown the national income by 500 percent in 12 years alone, built the greatest army in the world, defeated the Nazis, freed Europe, ended the holocaust and sent men, women and satellites into space.

It’s 65 years to the day since Stalin died. That he achieved all this (and so much more), and that these achievements are not only ignored but he is actually vilified, should tell you much more about the people who control the flow of ideas in our world than it could ever tell you about Stalin himself.