Rob Schaap:
>Well, Lenin did write the following:
>
>'We have said that there could not have been social democratic consciousness
>among the workers. It would have had to be brought to them from without.
>The history of all countries shows that the working class, exclusively by
>its own effort, is able to develop only trade union consciousness ... The
>theory of socialism, however. grew out ofd the philosophical, historical and
>economic theories elaborated by educated representatives of the propertied
>classes, by intellectuals.' (*Works*, vol. 5, p 375)
Actually, this was Lenin's application of an idea that was widespread in
Social Democracy.George Plekhanov, eighteen years before the publication of
"What is to be Done?" stated that "the socialist intelligentsia...must
become the leader of the working class in the impending emancipation
movement, explain to it its political and economic interests and also the
interdependence of those interests and must prepare them to play an
independent role in the social life of Russia." In 1898, Pavel Axelrod
wrote that "the proletariat, according to the consciousness of the Social
Democrats, does not possess a ready-made, historically elaborated social
ideal," and "it goes without saying that these conditions, without the
energetic participation of the Social Democrats, may cause our proletariat
to remain in its condition as a listless and somnolent force in respect of
its political development." The Austrian Hainfeld program of the Social
Democrats said that "Socialist consciousness is something that is brought
into the proletarian class struggle from the outside, not something that
organically develops out of the class struggle." Kautsky, the world's
leading Marxist during this period, stated that "socialism and the class
struggle arise side by side and not one out of the other; each arises under
different conditions. Modern socialist consciousness can arise only on the
basis of profound scientific knowledge."
Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
_______________________________________________
Crashlist website: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base
