Indeed, this issue is one debated by many supporters of the Left. I am often asked why we need a revolutionary vanguard party by many people who consider themsleves as "true leftists" or "democratic leftists". I myself adhere to Marxist-Leninist ideology and to ignore the question of the vanguard party would be careless of me. We Marxist-Leninists acknowledge that change and Revolution must be carried out by the workers themselves-to disagree with this would be drifting away from Marxist ideas and into the dogmas of Stalinism.
I support the use of a vanguard party because the working-class do not automatically become great intellectual Marxists. They also do not automatically turn into great heroic workers ready to fight the capitalist state and after the Revolution, fight off external enemies. If workers were to keep up their militancy and consciousness at all times, then the idea of a vanguard party would be absurd for the very simple reason that they wouldn't need it. However, this is not the case in today's society.
"How do we overcome this difficulty then?" the reader will ask.
We need a permanent set of individuals who are active at all times in the fight for Socialism and Communism, who have a high level class consciousness and militancy at all times. In no way are these people "god-like" figures who stand as arbiters above the working-class. Quite the contrary. They have devoted their lives to the workers cause, they have studied Marxism constantly to share Marxist-Leninist ideas with the workers and to help them liberate themselves from the yoke of capital. Its these people who have been criticised for being "elitist" and "selfish" acting "above the working class". These criticisms have arised mainly from pro-capitalist ideologues from the West but believe it or not, these criticisms have also came from our supposed comrades in the Anarchist and Ultra Left "councilist" positions. I find it quite extraordinary that such "comrades" count themselves as being associated with workers power and liberation. Its just shows that these people show their true colours when it comes to the burning questions of the revolutionary movement. We must not believe their mere words.
The Anarchists and Ultra-Left's make the arbitary supposition that workers will "spontaneously" fight against the capitalist regime and the workers will know everything that is needed to progress to Communism. This assumption is utterly utopian and has no use for the modern international working-class.
All the problems the working-class is faced with during the Revolution; running the economy, reducing social inequality, defending their country from external threat; the expansion of the socialist revolution across the world; fighting reactionary ideas within the working-class etc, these problems cannot be "spontaneously" dealt with like the Anarchists and Ultra Left's wishful thinking. These problems can only be solved by principled intervention of the revolutionary vanguard party armed with a revolutionary Marxist programme.
The Anarchists and Ultra Left's look back in their history books and spell out to us how the vanguard party became bureaucratised in Russia and that the Leninist vanguardism lead to the Stalinist "vanguardism". The Bolsheviks were a vanguard party and were always enemies of bureaucracy. Now, do the Anarchists and Ultra Left's take into account the fact that Stalin had to physically destroy and dismantle the Bolshevik party in order usurp power away from the working-class? I am guessing that some of them choose to ignore this fact. A peculiar mixture of subjective and objective factors contributed to this degeneration, to spell them out to you would lead us too far away from our subject.
The Anarchists and Ultra Left's make another presumption of how vanguard revolutionaries are always going to be isolated from the working-class. Well Lenin and the Bolsheviks were vanguard-were they isolated from the working-class? I think not! Vanguard revolutionaries can particpate in working-class activity. If you are a vanguard revolutionary and have a high level of class consciousness and militancy, one could only say that this could only benefit working class activity and be more constructive in building working-class organizations. Again, the vanguard revolutionaries claim no "elitist" positions and don't consider themselves more "special" than the rest of the workers, they are there because of their ouright devotion to the workers cause.
And here, i come to the end of this article hoping that my invisible audience have been convinced not by me, but by Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory. A child could take a glance at this article and know the fundemental importance of a vanguard party. It is the duty of every Marxist-Leninist to fight wrong ideas that arise from the Anarchist and Ultra Left positions.
Start Building the Vanguard Party!
Push the Revolution forward!
Long Live Marxism-Leninism!
I support the use of a vanguard party because the working-class do not automatically become great intellectual Marxists. They also do not automatically turn into great heroic workers ready to fight the capitalist state and after the Revolution, fight off external enemies. If workers were to keep up their militancy and consciousness at all times, then the idea of a vanguard party would be absurd for the very simple reason that they wouldn't need it. However, this is not the case in today's society.
"How do we overcome this difficulty then?" the reader will ask.
We need a permanent set of individuals who are active at all times in the fight for Socialism and Communism, who have a high level class consciousness and militancy at all times. In no way are these people "god-like" figures who stand as arbiters above the working-class. Quite the contrary. They have devoted their lives to the workers cause, they have studied Marxism constantly to share Marxist-Leninist ideas with the workers and to help them liberate themselves from the yoke of capital. Its these people who have been criticised for being "elitist" and "selfish" acting "above the working class". These criticisms have arised mainly from pro-capitalist ideologues from the West but believe it or not, these criticisms have also came from our supposed comrades in the Anarchist and Ultra Left "councilist" positions. I find it quite extraordinary that such "comrades" count themselves as being associated with workers power and liberation. Its just shows that these people show their true colours when it comes to the burning questions of the revolutionary movement. We must not believe their mere words.
The Anarchists and Ultra-Left's make the arbitary supposition that workers will "spontaneously" fight against the capitalist regime and the workers will know everything that is needed to progress to Communism. This assumption is utterly utopian and has no use for the modern international working-class.
All the problems the working-class is faced with during the Revolution; running the economy, reducing social inequality, defending their country from external threat; the expansion of the socialist revolution across the world; fighting reactionary ideas within the working-class etc, these problems cannot be "spontaneously" dealt with like the Anarchists and Ultra Left's wishful thinking. These problems can only be solved by principled intervention of the revolutionary vanguard party armed with a revolutionary Marxist programme.
The Anarchists and Ultra Left's look back in their history books and spell out to us how the vanguard party became bureaucratised in Russia and that the Leninist vanguardism lead to the Stalinist "vanguardism". The Bolsheviks were a vanguard party and were always enemies of bureaucracy. Now, do the Anarchists and Ultra Left's take into account the fact that Stalin had to physically destroy and dismantle the Bolshevik party in order usurp power away from the working-class? I am guessing that some of them choose to ignore this fact. A peculiar mixture of subjective and objective factors contributed to this degeneration, to spell them out to you would lead us too far away from our subject.
The Anarchists and Ultra Left's make another presumption of how vanguard revolutionaries are always going to be isolated from the working-class. Well Lenin and the Bolsheviks were vanguard-were they isolated from the working-class? I think not! Vanguard revolutionaries can particpate in working-class activity. If you are a vanguard revolutionary and have a high level of class consciousness and militancy, one could only say that this could only benefit working class activity and be more constructive in building working-class organizations. Again, the vanguard revolutionaries claim no "elitist" positions and don't consider themselves more "special" than the rest of the workers, they are there because of their ouright devotion to the workers cause.
And here, i come to the end of this article hoping that my invisible audience have been convinced not by me, but by Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory. A child could take a glance at this article and know the fundemental importance of a vanguard party. It is the duty of every Marxist-Leninist to fight wrong ideas that arise from the Anarchist and Ultra Left positions.
Start Building the Vanguard Party!
Push the Revolution forward!
Long Live Marxism-Leninism!
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