Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 12:17:43 +0100
From: Iain McKay <iain.mckay-AT-zetnet.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Anarcho-Quiz


Answers to Anarcho-Quiz

1. No. He was clear that "the organisational principle of revolutionary 
Social-Democracy" was to "proceed from the top downward." It was 
"opportunist Social-Democracy" which strove "to proceed from the bottom 
upward" (the "overzealous" carried this "to the point of anarchism"). 

2. He redefined "workers' democracy" to mean "democracy within the 
party" while supporting party dictatorship. 1923 saw him argue that 
the "dictatorship of the Party" did "not require revision." In 1927, 
it was a case of "the Leninist principle, inviolable for every
Bolshevik, 
that the dictatorship of the proletariat is and can be realised only 
through the dictatorship of the party."The 1930s saw similar comments.

3. He argued that "because the leaders of the CNT renounced dictatorship 
for themselves they left the place open for the Stalinist dictatorship." 
This was because the "dictatorship of a proletarian party" was an 
"objective necessity." So much for "workers' power." 

4. Trotsky. He planned to use poison gas against the Kronstadt rebels 
revolting for soviet democracy in 1921 if conventional warfare failed.