On Thu, 11 Jan 2001 09:26:45 -0500 Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
>
Lenin, Plekhanov, Kautsky, and the other Social Democrats were
arguably simply reiterating Marx's own position on the development
of socialist consciousness. Didn't Marx in the Communist
Manifesto emphasize the importance of defections of sections
of the intellectuals from the bourgeoisie to the side of
the proletariat as being an important factor in the development
of proletarian class consciousness? As I recall this was one
issue that set him apart from anarchists like Bakunin who
preferred to emphasize spontaneity to the exclusion of almost
everything else.
Jim F.
>
> 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."
> 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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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