Hi Hari,
First, I would like to thank you for your short history (
https://mlrg.online/history/views-of-marx-and-engels-on-revolutionary-organisations/
) of the views and activity of Marx and Engels in relation to working class
organization. I had been familiar with bits and pieces of this history--but it
was quite useful to read an overview covering the entire period from Marx's
work as editor of the Rheinische Zeitung, in 1842, through the 1875 merger, at
Gotha, of the Lasallian and Marxist trends that created the German Social
Democratic Workers Party.
I have some criticism of your introduction and conclusion--but first would like
to briefly list the highlights of your history.
Highlights from the organizational work of Marx and Engels
(1) Your history covers three periods in the development of the international
workers movement as it transitions from small secret groups to large national
parties.
(a) From 1842 to 1852 -- This includes the creation
of the "Communist League", and the writing of
the Communist Manifesto (1848) and closes with
the repression of 1848 - 1852.
(b) From 1864 to 1872 -- This begins with the formation of
the first international (ie: "International Working Men's
Association") and ends with the crushing, in 1871, of
the Paris Commune and the dissolution of the IWMA
(c) From the 1870's -- this includes the development of
mass socialist parties in Germany, Britain, the U.S. and
other countries that formed the second international
(2) The first two periods begin with a rise in struggle, and conclude with
repression and the scattering of forces. (Your history covers the activity of
Marx and Engels, and so does not include the collapse of the second
international 20 years after the death of Engels.)
(3) During the periods of upsurge, working class organization had a mass
character, with the need for various kinds of principled alliances with
political trends within the working class movement which represented views
which were (a) simply wrong or (b) representative of other class interests.
These principled alliances combined:
(a) practical work that could draw workers into political activity with
(b) unyielding clarity on the nature of the opposing views.
During periods of lull, on the other hand, working class organizations, due to
circumstance, had a more isolated (and sectarian) character.
(4) The tasks of the working class movement were always twofold:
(a) Supporting (or helping complete) the tasks of the bourgeois
revolution against feudal (or other reactionary) class forces
(b) Putting forth a clear perspective of the need for the working
class, itself, to run society, rather than the bourgeoisie
As the working class grew in size and organization, and its movement gained
experience and self-confidence--the relative weight of these two tasks
increasingly shifted from the first to the second. Corresponding to this--the
attitude of the bourgeoisie also shifted--from viewing the workers as a lever
to use against more reactionary forces--to becoming afraid of the power of the
working class and opposing working class organization above all else.
Before continuing--I should add (for any readers who have not seen it) that the
movie "The Young Karl Marx" (2017) is an excellent introduction to the work of
Marx and Engels in the period leading up the writing of the Manifesto. This
film is structured around a series of necessary confrontations over the nature
of the working class movement and the ideas which must guide it. This is the
kind of movie which can be watched several times, growing deeper with each
viewing. The director, Raoul Peck, respects the intelligence of viewers, and
refuses to "dumb down" Marx. If you want pablum--watch Fox News.
Criticism -- We need an alternative that is not imaginary
>From your intro (I have broken into 4 parts--and added boldface):
(1) This discussion is of course far from 'academic' in today's USA
or any of the world's countries. In the USA, the Democratic
Socialists of America (DSA) hope to revitalize, or 'ginger up' the
Democratic Party (DP), rather than creating a party outside of the DP.
(2) Some voices however, attack the DP as irretrievably penetrated
and owned by the capitalist class and call for a new Leninist-type
party. We believe this to be correct.
(3) Meanwhile, there is no large, avowedly proletarian party
in the USA. The world's toilers are facing an enormous crisis,
and no large Marxist-Leninist party exists in any country.
(4) A discussion on the party is over-due.
Let's start with point 4. Yes, this would appear to be beyond dispute. And
yet, such a discussion has not taken place. There has been "some discussion",
to be sure, but nothing like the kind of discussion that is needed. Rome is
burning, yet people want to fiddle. So we need to ask ourselves why.
The most obvious answer is that the theoretical crisis on all questions related
to a "Leninist Party" has become so deep--that discussion has become impossible
within the ranks of people who use phrases such as "Leninist Party". Hence,
there is nothing to be done.
Yes, we need an organization which is independent of the Democratic Party. But
if our "alternative" to this is a "Leninist-type party" -- then we might as
well simply cut our throats.
Your document (which overall was quite good) shows that the term "party",
itself, has historically referred to a wide range of political organizations.
You imagine that you are adding clarity by adding the term "Leninist-type"?
This is bankruptcy.
If we do not have the ability to communicate ideas in clear language--then we
are engaging in academic play. Most participants on this ListServ may be
mainly interested in academic play (that is how it appears to me). That is
their right, of course. You, on the other hand, assert that we need something
more.
Fine. I agree with you. But then this means we need a discussion based on
clear language. You assert we need an independent party. But is this a party
that is real?
Lenin did not create a "Leninist-type" party. Rather, he studied the concrete
needs of the working class movement. We should do the same.
Depending on how it is sliced--there are at least 4 or 5 different types of
"party" that Lenin worked to create. In each case--the form of organization
that Lenin advocated was based on concrete conditions.
(1) Prior to 1912 -- there was a "party of parties" -- with Bolsheviks and
Mensheviks nested inside a single umbrella party--because this is what the
working class in Russia demanded.
(2) After 1912 -- the Bolsheviks discarded the Mensheviks like a used condom,
because the working class in Russia had become more conscious, and there was no
longer any need to keep the Mensheviks around
(3) By 1918 -- the Bolshevik Party merged with the state. There was zero
theoretical basis for this. This was simple necessity. This was an emergency
measure. There was no choice. It was "do this or die".
(4) By 1921 -- internal democracy had been shut down within the Bolshevik
Party. Again--there was no choice. This was an emergency measure--martial
law. If they did not do this--they would all have been dead within 6 months.
(5) After Lenin's death -- the various anti-democratic emergency measures were
codified into a feudal religion -- and proclaimed to the world as a "party of
the new type".
Never--at any point--did the working class actually rule Russia. At best,
working class rule was an aspiration for the future--which never came.
Instead--under the banner of this "Marxist-Leninist" feudal religion--the
Bolshevik Party carried out many of the tasks of the bourgeois revolution in
Russia. It developed industry--collectivized agriculture--and assisted the
anti-colonial movements worldwide. But there was also a lot of theoretical
confusion that had been generated.
Lenin died before he could create the kind of clarity that was needed as to
what had happened--but in his final major works (such as "The Tax in Kind", and
his last major speech--at the 11th Congress in 1922) he outlined how Soviet
Russia was on the path of becoming an ordinary capitalist state with lots of
red banners everywhere. Then he was incapacitated by a series of strokes. For
a century now--fools and villains have been free to speak in his name.
So, Hari--if you are going to claim that we need a "Leninist-type" party--I
must ask you: Which of the 5 kinds of party listed above do you believe we need?
If we cannot give a clear answer to this question--in language that people can
understand--then guess what? Activists will take the path of least
resistance--and end up subordinate to the Democratic Party--because there is no
core of activists with theoretical clarity that can offer an alternative that
does not require a lobotomy.
To be clear--I believe we need something closer to the first kind of
organization--that existed prior to 1912--where competing political trends
openly struggled in conditions that favored maximum transparency.
Transparency requires an independent public information platform
We are living in the century of information war. The productive forces the
proletariat needs are at our fingertips.
An independent public information platform (a digital nervous system--with
indexed public information, a level playing field with equal democratic rights
of access/contribution for all users, and democratic algorithms that users can
create and command) will prove itself decisive in the development of the kind
of open collaboration/competition between political trends that activists need
in order to come up to speed--in the most rapid way possible--with the nature
of our current crisis--where the working class movement lacks a pole of
political independence.
I welcome thoughtful questions and criticism.
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