[Marxism] Leninism

[Roberto Jorquera <robertojorquera@xxxxxxxxx>]

LeninismBy Jorge Jorquera

There is a new discussion going on about left political
organisation. For Marxists this is inescapably a discussion about
Leninism. In the advanced capitalist countries the general framework if
not stimulus for this discussion is the slow and even frustrated
beginings of post neoliberal politics - watching a politically decaying
neoliberalism yet to face sustained and generalised mass opposition let
alone an alternative. In important parts of the Third World (Latin
America and the Middle East), the discussion mostly has a different
framework - it's the dynamic of growing and sustained resistance and
the stimulus of revolutionary possibilities. 

What is it about Leninism that makes it an important contribution to
Marxism and has it stood the test of time? That we continue to live in
an epoch of wars and revolutions remains an undeniable and ever more
pertinent fact. But does it follow still that the key to revolutionary
politics is hence the construction of a party based on preparations for
revolution and for the construction of a new power - a cadre party? And
what relevance can such a party have in everyday politics? 

Firstly, we need to keep in mind that the left is asking itself
these questions in a period where we are only just emerging from two
decades of ideological retreat. This is not about what left
organisations thought or think - many may have kept the flag flying
with apparently little fundamental wavering. But among the class as a
whole, there was a massive ideological retreat. Of course national and
regional conditions make everything different, but the general trend
was that the millions of advanced workers, previously influenced by
Marxism, stepped back, lost confidence and became much less of a
practical factor in everyday politics. 

Why is this an important note? Not just because it tells us
something about the likely timidness of the left as it now enters this
new discussion on Leninism, but also because it means that the left -
or at least the left that sought to be relevant - has in practice ended
up influenced by and directing its politics at a more general mass,
rather than at the advanced sections of the class. This would be great
if it had occured in a period of upsurge - where the general mass of
workers is raised to the level of the advanced sections - but on the
contrary it occured in a period of retreat, where the general mass of
workers in the advanced capitalist countries (everywhere really) were
taking a beating and increasingly disenfranchised politically. 

So where did this leave the left? In essence, those whose only
measuring stick increasingly became "relevance", well they are mostly
in crisis. Those who never had this measuring stick, well they are
still irrelevant. Fortunately most of the left fits somewhere in
between. And here we are again, having this discussion about Leninism. 

Are there some basic points about Leninism that we can agree on, at least 
"theoretically" speaking?

1. The construction of a cadre party able to lead workers in a
revolutionary situation cannot be left to the moment of revolution, but
must be worked on continously. I agree. 

2. A cadre party is a party of action, not only for the "decisive
moment" but for the everyday also. I agree. But perhaps this is the
point where many of us go in different directions, at least in emphasis
and hence potentially along different strategic lines. What do we mean
by action? 

3. Where should the organising capacity of the cadre party be
fundamentally directed in the everyday? There's probably at least two
distinct directions that various left organisations have taken in
answering this question. The best left organisations of course try to
do both. 

a). Concentrate the organising capacity of the cadre party in the here and now 
on revolutionary propaganda;

b). Concentrate the organising capacity of the cadre party in the here and now 
on mass work.

4. To do both means to bring revolutionary propaganda alive through
actual struggle. By participating in the struggles of the day, the
cadre party can lay the best foundations for effective revolutionary
propaganda as well as effective education in revolutionary theory. 

How much can we agree on these general theoretical points about
Leninism? More importantly, can we implement them practically? Can we
engage in struggles and draw out revolutionary propaganda through these
engagements? It's not enough to make some left points - the Greens and
such can do that. Can we influence worker activists with Marxism,
politicise them? This is more than giving worker activists some
tactical advice about the current struggles they are involved in,
fundamentally it means winning them to the perspective of a long
(historical) class war, taking them beyond their single minded emphasis
on the immediate battle. This was another very important if not unique
contribution of Lenin's - his struggle against economism. 

There is another option - to put the Leninist party project aside,
maybe because it's just too much or too difficult. Most leftists can
all make a valuable individual contribution to the struggle doing
whatever it is they do, there's no doubting that. But in the end,
socialism is a collectivist project, and sooner or later we have to
face the challenge of constructing the collectives (organisations) that
can help map out and lead this project. I for one am a party person. I
prefer to work with others and not alone. Such collectivism is most
meaningful in a party framework, where there is (or should be) a
conscious and deliberate culture of political training - something you
won't and should not expect to find in movements and unions, except in
a limited sense. Single issue movement organisations and unions must
strive to prioritise the immediate needs of the masses, which precludes
their development into parties - with trained cadre and a purposeful
training environment aimed at developing rounded political cadre. Of
course it's a dialectical thing, and such groups still rely for success
on the work of cadre among their rank and file. 

So what should we be doing as Leninists in this period? There is no
universal answer worth anything practically but there are some general
considerations.

First of all we need to be engaged in every struggle that emerges.
In the thick of it - not just with our toes, "monitoring" things. It's
not always possible of course and the practical size and political
level of organisations determines a lot in terms of priorities and so
forth. But we have to be in battle and get out of the habit some got
into through the period of neoliberal retreat of expecting movements to
fail and not bothering to invest our cadre in attempts to lead them to
victory - yes, victoires for movements are possible! 

Secondly, we have to be engaged in a Leninist party building
project. Fundamentally this is a project to build a cadre organisation
able to lead struggles and prepare for bigger battles, and eventually
to lead a revolutionary uprising and the process of constructing a new
power based on working class organs. 

Of course depending on the local political context, a party building
project will not likely be a simple linear thing - joining people in
ones and twos until reaching a mass size.
The strategy of Leninist
party building is about building a leadership of the class and hence
will necessarily entail a range of tactics aimed at uniting all leading
elements in the class, this means - in addition to recruitment -
tactics aimed at whole sections of advanced workers as well as united
work with all other organisations marching in the same general
direction. For long periods this is likely to happen in the form of
united fronts - where unity in struggles allows different sectors and
left organisations to work out the real significance of their
differences. 

Of course such unity in struggle, when struggles reach levels of
generalised resistance and develop offensive characteristics, will
point in the direction of united organisations, but not likely before.
This is the history you will find if you look at almost any revolution
- Russian, Cuban, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan, etc. This is not fatalistic,
it's to be expected - how could real unity come out of anything but
actual struggle. Unity is certainly not the product of organisational
manouvres; they have a place in revolutionary politics but it's not in
the process of building left unity. 

So what can we do here in Australia? That's for all various
revolutionary left organisations to work out given their circumstances
and by participating in this discussion on Leninism that is beginning
to develop, at least globally. There is no one simple formula and in
most cases it's first and foremost a discussion that all organisations
have to have within themselves, before they start advancing proposals
for the rest of the left. If there is any general guide, it's only the
overall Leninist approach - join the fight and through it build a cadre
organisation with Marxist politics; throw yourself into the practical
and ideological struggle both. 

For those in the centre of great battles, like the comrades in
Venezuela today, and for all of us who pursue the same goals, we can
take heart from Lenin: "A pary which succeeds in consolidating itself
for persistent work in contact with the masses, a party of the advanced
class, which succeeds in organisng its vanguard, and which directs its
forces in such a way as to influence in a Social-Democratic spirit
every sign of life of the proletariat - such a party will win no matter
what happens." [On the Road, Collected Works] 

[A note on the author: Jorge Jorquera is part of Direct Action, a
group who left the Democratic Socialist Perspective but remain in
agreement with the historical program of the DSP]








www.directaction.org.au
jorge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx




                
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