Bill Bland

Bill Bland (April 28, 1916–March 13 2001) was a British Stalinist and optician who was notable as a worldwide leader of the rather small movement that backed Enver Hoxha, the Albanian communist leader, in the struggles over Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy in the later 1960s. Before becoming a leader of the small anti-revisionist movement Bland was a member of the Communist Party of New Zealand and the Communist Party of Great Britain. Bland considered Mao Zedong a left-deviationist while still maintaining that Hoxha himself was a true Marxist-Leninist in the tradition of Marx, Lenin and Stalin. Bland's line on Mao was problematic since Hoxha supported Mao at that time. Bland's position was strengthened after the Sino-Albanian split and he formed the Communist League of Great Britain. After the Sino-Albanian split, a whole raft of formerly Maoist Marxist-Leninist groups went over to a Hoxhaist position, notably Hardial Bains and the parties he had formed.

Bland was one of the founders of the Albanian Society, and three years after its foundation he became secretary of the society, a post which he held almost continuously for 30 years until the restoration of capitalism in Albania. He was Editor of the journal of the society, "Albanian Life".

Bland was one of the founding members of the Stalin Society in Britain.

External links

* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/bland/ Articles by Bill Bland at the Marxist Internet Archive]
* [http://www.mltranslations.org/Britain/StalinBB.htm Bland on the 'Cult of the Individual']
* [http://freespace.virgin.net/pep.talk/Bland.htm Bland on 'Stalinism']
* [http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv7n2/blandobit.htm Obituary]