re: What Is to Be Done?

["Ricardo Duchesne" <RDUCHESN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Date sent:      Thu, 11 Dec 1997 18:52:32 -0500 (EST)
> Send reply to:  pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> From:           Paul Zarembka <zarembka@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To:             pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject:        re: What Is to Be Done?

> On Thu, 11 Dec 1997, Ricardo Duchesne wrote:
>
> > No, What Is to Be Done? is Lenin's most original political text;
> > indeed it is the foundation of Bolshevism: the working class
> > movement does not have a revolutionary consciousness of its own; left
> > to itself, such movement will never develop beyond trade-union
> > consciousness. A marxist consciousness can only be brought
> > from the outside by a centralized party.
>
> "Centralized" party.  I thought it was a party of "democratic
> centralism", not the Stalinist distortion.


Stalin used "democratic centralism" for his own ends.


> > What worries marxists about this text is that Lenin is right.
> > Luxemburg is wrong. A centralized party, like the Bolshevik Party,
> > which claims to have a "true" understanding of the interests of the
> > working class, is a must. The workers themselves are incapable of
> > marxist consciousness, incapable of knowing their "real" interests.
>
> I don't think Lenin thought the workers as "incapable" as described
> above.  Maybe it is correct that spending 8-12 hours a day in a factory
> burns one's energy up, but...


But...if they spend less time, and earn more, they will definitely
have no revolutionary consciousness.

ricardo


> Paul
>
>