James saw Stalinism as an inevitable stage of worker development

Evidence

Trotsky had been unwilling to recognize the true significance of Stalinism: “stalinism as a necessary, an inevitable, form of development of the labour movement. The workers are not mistaken. They are not deceived. Not in any serious sense of these words. They are making an experience that is necessary to their own development” (p. 30). — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1307

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with Robinson’s broader thesis that Marxist categories failed to grasp non-European revolutionary impulses.