[Edited Message Follows] To frame Hari’s question in its historical context, can capitalism be overthrown in a state where bourgeois democratic institutions are non-existent or a hollow shell by other than by a centralized party of self-disciplined and politically conscious cadre able to lead a mass revolutionary upsurge to a successful conclusion?
Other than in Cuba, every victorious armed struggle which culminated in the overthrow of capitalism was led by revolutionaries whose model of party and state organization derived from Lenin and the Bolsheviks. The July 26th movement was not Leninist though Raul and Che and other leaders certainly were, but circumstances ultimately forced it also to break with the national bourgeoisie and, renaming itself as the Communist Party, to construct a single party state with a nationalized economy aligned with the Soviet Union. Whether these parties should truly be called “Leninist” or whether and how they could have acted differently in power has been fiercely debated for more than a century, but it's pretty much a settled question for me that a party of the Leninist type would still be required to lead a successful mass revolutionary uprising if one were to break out in similar conditions of economic collapse and political repression. Leninist parties in capitalist countries where the ruling class has been able to improve living conditions and steer mass discontent into the electoral system have never gained popular support other than by adapting to bourgeois democracy. Those which haven't adapted have been consigned to the margins and therefore subject to developing sectarian characteristics. However, they still continue to produce a disproportionate number of highly dedicated and politically educated and skilled organizers in today’s social movements and would be well placed to grow and challenge for leadership were these movements to ever develop in a revolutionary direction. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39542): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39542 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116410536/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
