Two Lenin criterion of revolutionary workers party
25.09.2012, 10:22
Two Lenin criterion of revolutionary workers party
Revolutionism
is the main requirement Marxism to the vanguard party of the working
class. But what is a «revolutionary»? What is the point of investing
Marxists in the concept of «revolutionary»?
To answer this
question we must go back to the origins of Bolshevism, to Lenin. «Social
democracy, " Lenin wrote in the «Iskra» in 1900, " there is connection
of the workers movement with socialism, its task is not a passive
service of the labor movement, at each of its separate stages, while the
representation of the interests of the movement as a whole, an
indication of the movement's ultimate goal, its political tasks, and to
safeguard its political and ideological independence» (the Complete
works, volume 4, p. 373). In this definition allocated the initial and
in this sense, the main thing in the Marxist understanding of the
essence of a proletarian party, without which we can not disclose its
essential features as the party of the revolution. Lenin in the «What to
do?» showed that, firstly, socialist consciousness does not arise
directly from the spontaneous workers ' movement, it was in his
revolutionary party, the ideology of which is Marxism; secondly, the
class struggle can bring the working class to victory only when it will
be sent to the scientific socialist program.
The working party
may not be revolutionary, if its activities is not based on a scientific
basis, is not based on Marxism as a science. Nothing can replace a
strictly defined theoretical platform of Marxism. «Without revolutionary
theory can be no revolutionary movement» wrote Lenin in 1902 (MSS, t.
6. with. 24). And further: « ... the Role of the best of the fighter can
perform only the party, led by the advanced theory» (ibid., p. 25).
This is the first criterion of a revolutionary workers ' party. Neglect
of Marxist theory, pragmatic adaptation to the «real politics»,
replacing the theory of a set of slogans, «understandable simple
workers», etc. - all these are the first steps on the way to the
degradation and destruction of the working party as a revolutionary
organization.
Next. Communists have to cope with this situation,
and not to allow the situation mastered them. They do not have the right
to go on about the spontaneous workers ' movement, shall not be
entitled to adapt to short-term needs of specific groups or sectors of
the working class, to put myself at the service, may not rise to the
ideological and cultural level of the proletariat. On the contrary, they
are obliged to raise the proletariat to its level - the level of the
Marxist vanguard, are obliged to keep ahead of the workers, carrying
them for themselves, are obliged to defend the General interests of the
proletariat as a class. This is the second criterion of revolutionary
workers ' parties. « ... «Ideologist» - in the words of Lenin, - and
only then deserves the title of a ideologist, when going in front of the
spontaneous movement, showing him the way, when can he used the other
to resolve all of the theoretical, political, tactical and
organizational questions, to which «the material elements of the»
movement spontaneously encounter» (MSS, t. 5, p. 363). «The more the
spontaneous upsurge of the masses, " said Lenin, " the greater becomes
the movement, so much faster increases the demand on mass consciousness
and theoretical, and in the political and in the organisation of the
social-democracy» (MSS, t. 6, p. 52).
Acts of the working masses
themselves are not able to break the bourgeoisie. If such performance
will not be linked with the prospect of the conquest of power, will not
be led by the revolutionary party, they are not beyond the scope of
capitalism and, ultimately, become subject to the bourgeois-reformist
goals and will end in the defeat of the workers. «Often they say: " the
working class spontaneously attracts to socialism. "Wrote Lenin in the
«What to do?». - This is certainly true in the sense that the socialist
theory of all deeper and all rather determines the causes of the
disasters of the working class, but because the working and learn it so
easy, if this theory itself does not fall to стихийностью, if only she
subdues the spontaneity... the working class spontaneously attracts to
socialism, but the most common (and constantly воскрешаемая in a variety
of forms) bourgeois ideology nevertheless spontaneously more than are
imposed on the worker» (MSS, t. 6. with. 41).
Spontaneous strikes
of workers of any kind, if a party does not make them clear
consciousness of the class of tasks, do not represent a fatal threat to
the fundamentals of capitalism. Moreover, they can be used by the
bourgeoisie in their counter-revolutionary purposes, for the struggle
against the workers ' movement, against the socialist gains of the
workers. An example of this is the events of 1953 in East Berlin and
1956 in Hungary, when a part of the working class rose up in struggle
against the Stalinist bureaucracy, but in the absence of a revolutionary
Marxist vanguard objectively could not become anything other, except as
part of the counter-revolutionary imperialist front. Imperialism was
again strengthened its position due to the fact that he was able to use
spontaneous discontent of the workers, as, for example,
anti-bureaucratic performances of Polish workers of the period of
«Solidarity» or miners ' strike in the early 90-ies of the last century
in the USSR.
The proletariat, as well as any social phenomenon,
диалектичен. The proletarian movement is always specifically with regard
to the different countries and historical periods, it is inconsistent
and fragmented, consists of various groups and layers that are in one
way or another under the influence of the reformist or openly bourgeois
ideology and policy, even, sometimes, a fascist. «Pure» of the
proletariat in General, with a perfect fullness of expressing the social
behaviour of their objective of world-historical interest, in
conditions of capitalism there is no and can not be. «Capitalism, "
Lenin wrote, - would not be capitalism, if the «net proletariat» was not
surrounded by a mass of extremely colorful transitional types of
полупролетария to the small farmer (and the small artisan, handicraft,
хозяйчику at all), from the farmer to the middle, etc.; if the inside of
the proletariat was not the tick marks on a more or less developed
layers, divisions of the compatriots', professional, sometimes
religious, etc.». (MSS, t. 41, p. 58-59). This creates an objective
opportunity for dissemination in the working class of different kind of
bourgeois views and prejudices. Moreover, the working class in bourgeois
society, constantly under the the influence of the imperialist
ideology, imposed with the help of mass media. «We, " Lenin wrote, " the
party of the class, and because almost all of the class (and in times
of war, in the era of the civil war, and quite the whole class) should
operate under the leadership of our party, should join our party as
tight as you can, but it would be маниловщиной and «tail-ISM» to think
that when-or almost the whole class or the entire class in a state under
capitalism, the climb up to the consciousness and activity of their
vanguard, his social-democratic party» (MSS, t. 8, p. 245). To
achieve under these conditions, an adequate reflection of all or a
majority of the proletariat of its objective historical role, the role
of the hegemon of the revolution, can only Marxist-Leninist party by
making a broad layers of the proletariat the consciousness of its
revolutionary role. The party of Bolsheviks led by Lenin in fact
brilliantly showed what a huge influence on the development of the
revolution the socialist theory, skillfully combined with spontaneously
growing struggle of the masses against the power of capital, practically
confirmed the correctness of the two fundamental principles of
revolutionary, which were proposed by Lenin Russian social-democracy at
the beginning of the 20th century.
