Re: [CrashList] Leninism

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>> carob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 12/10/01 11:25AM >>>

And to Charles, I suggest the bolsheviks were only a (thin) majority due to
a walk-out on the part of a couple of dissenting socialist organisations.

((((((((

CB: How did they allow themselves to get pegged with the name "Minority" if they were really tuned into democracy ? In democracy, a thin majority is still a majority.

The point about involving workers in politics is democratic point too. The Mensheviks were against involving workers directly in politics, let alone workers developing their own theory and consciousness to socialist consciousness.  What is missed about Lenin's quote about the necessity of intellectuals bringing a missing  element to workers consciousness is that the Mensheviks did not  have the position that , "oh no, workers can develop socialist consciousness  on their own and spontaneously". The Mensheviks would have intellectuals also serve exclusively as the workers political representatives. The Mensheviks were to the right of Lenin on this issue.

Also, in one pamphlet around the revolution of 1905, Lenin proposes a 20 to one ratio of workers to intellectuals in the Party as optimum.