Comment To my knowledge no one on the list limit the class struggle to a concept of struggle for reform. The struggle of the proletariat as a property form of class must lead to the overthrow of the bourgeois property relations or the bourgeois mode of commodity production, or the thing that makes it proletariat in the first place. The overthrow of bourgeois property doesn't take place based on, will not take place based on and cannot take place based on armed struggle or "the need of the armed struggle as a stage of revolutionary activity," but rather as the culmination of the revolutionary crisis and insurrectionary process. Siege Insurrection in the mouth of Marxists means the process by which revolutionaries siege the old holders of state power and capture - seize, the commanding heights of power; and then establish the rule of a new class. In old Russia and in our country - in my opinion, this process "by which revolutionaries capture the commanding heights of power" means the mass struggle rather than a concept of "the armed struggle." Specifically the mass uprising. In Russia this mass uprising involved and was based on the Soviets and not just the Soldiers Soviets. The role of being armed within the mass uprising is subordinate to the mass uprising. Lenin describes a revolutionary era as a period wherein the masses batter the state until it is dislodged and turn inward upon itself and becomes paralyzed. This process is described as the ruling class being unable to rule in the same old way and the masses refusing to be ruled in the same old way. That is to say, the organs of the state turn inward against itself and a huge sector of this organization of violence goes over to the social revolution of the proletariat. The state as state does not need to be educated to the fact that it is an armed organization of violence. The state being armed is why it is the state. Our task is to count on winning over a decisive sector of this organization of violence as opposed to "training, agitation and propaganda (which) include the realization for and need of the armed struggle as a stage of revolutionary activity." I disagree with the proposition that "the armed struggle as (IS) a stage of revolutionary activity." In place of this concept of "the armed struggle as a stage of revolutionary activity," is the "revolutionary crisis" AS A STAGE OF THE SOCIAL/POLITICAL REVOLUTION and the growth of the insurrectionary proletariat. The insurrectionary proletariat is the vanguard of the proletariat prepared to acquire the commanding heights of power. The proletariat becomes an insurrectionary force when it is prepared to acquire the commanding heights of power and not because it is armed or to the degree it is armed. This is actually Lenin concept of the revolutionary crisis and revolutionary process. The bottom line is that LRNA and no other Marxist group I am ware of agree with Mr. Scott interpretation of Lenin. Scott obliterates several features of the revolutionary crisis and revolutionary process as described by Lenin, in favor of reckless calls for armed struggle and demands for communists to alter our literature in his conception, which becomes indistinguishable from doctrines of political terrorism. What of the mass uprising Sir? Between the 1965 Watts uprising and the Tampa Florida revolt of 1989 more than 2,000 such uprising took place in America. What distinguished these uprising was their mass rather than their arms and no place in America was the uprising as violent as Detroit 1967. Scott writes that anyone that does not adhere to his personal concept of the revolutionary process as meaning armed struggle - rather than the mass uprising, cowers at the bourgeois power. Sir, there is no reason to condemn comrades who have a different interpretation of what Lenin wrote and how we might understand our own history . . . even if we are wrong. What is the understanding advanced above is wrong but more actually express Lenin's thinking that what you present? What if you are MORE mistaken? The act of insurrection and the meaning of the insurrectionary movement, which embraces the mass uprising; b). the state turning inwards and collapsing upon itself - "set at loggerhead," and c). extreme polarization within the parliamentary arena and all social life is a general outline of the revolutionary collapse. The revolutionary process or crisis - at a certain stage, does not become ARMED STRUGGLE, but an insurrectionary movement based on the popular class. Anyone that disagrees with Scott and ask for an examination of Russia history and the role of Soviets is somehow a coward and bourgeois humanists, as if being human is not sacred - inviolable. Mr. Scott theory or interpretation of Lenin displaces the insurrectionary movement - the essence of political Leninism and the meaning of "a party of a new type," with a concept of armed struggle. Seems to me the military aspects of the insurrectionary movement are dependent upon the mass uprising - movement of the vanguard of the proletariat. Further, Scott demands that communists as individuals and groups alter their forms of propaganda to conform to his individualized vision of the revolutionary process. Hence, Scott teeters in and out of ideological doctrines of terrorism. Waistline
In a message dated 12/28/2010 8:11:51 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, _mark1scot...@yahoo.com_ (mailto:mark1scot...@yahoo.com) writes: The class struggle being limited to mere reforms is not a Marxist concept of the class struggle but its distortion. The class struggle bound up in all of its parts must conclude in the seizure of power by armed struggle resulting in the dictatorship of the proletariat that through the use of arms suppresses the reactionary bourgeoisie until all class distinctions and antagonisms finally wither away. The struggle for economic reforms is only a small part of the struggle and to limit class struggle to this form is as Lenin states "harmful and reactionary". The struggle for economic reforms must be related to and connected with the ideological struggle to educate the working-class to understand every aspect of the class struggle. This is accomplished not just through fighting for reforms but using this aspect of the class struggle to present the most possible comprehensive exposures of the capitalist system. This understanding is accomplished through the practical struggle as well as through training which includes agitation and propaganda by the Marxist vanguard revolutionaries. This training, agitation and propaganda must include the realization for and need of the armed struggle as a stage of revolutionary activity without which the proletariat cannot achive its historical role as the "grave-diggers" of capitalism and establish the armed dictatorship of the proletariat - the new ruling-class that does not exploit. _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list Marxist-Leninist-List@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
