On Mon, Dec 1, 2025 at 03:29 PM, Mark Baugher wrote: > > Marv, I served in three branches of a self-described Leninist organization > that was not at all that selective.
My experience and others on the list as well. They couldn't afford to be selective if they were to survive, unlike in past periods of class struggle when there was a large pool of social democratic workers on their right and anarcho-syndicalists to their left from which they could selectively recruit. That's why I was careful to say "m embership is not open to all who apply but only in theory to the most politically conscious and dedicated activists..." > > ...petty-bourgeois political tendencies, which get banned when the > vanguard party captures power. It has served as a rationale for one-party > states. Is that Leninist? Not as Lenin conceived it in WITBD and as it was practiced prior to the revolution. Tendencies were permitted, although dissidents would leave or be expelled, which is not uncommon in other parties. But I think there's some truth to the saying that it's easier to capture power than to exercise it, which is when the ban on factions and other repressive measures began. These were greatly accelerated after Lenin's death and finally culminated in the mass murder and Siberian exile of so many veteran revolutionaries loyal to the USSR on fantastic charges of aiding the fascist powers. As I earlier suggested, I doubt a Leninist party which inherited an advanced economy with a dominant military and a history of popular struggles for democratic rights would have suffered the same fate. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39571): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39571 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116549413/21656 -=-=- 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]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
