File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1996/96-12-27.212, message 8


From: "Karl Carlile" <joseph-AT-indigo.ie>
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 12:03:07 +0000
Subject: Re: M-I: Secular Trends in Western Capitalism


KARL: Hi Bob!

BOB: And naturally the party like the Bolsheviks that gave 
the class the political conciousness!

KARL: I disagree with the above sentiment. The Bolshevik Party was a 
left counter-revolutionary force. Its purpose was to crush revolution 
>from the left so to speak. The evidence supports my thesis. 

The October revolution was not a workers' revolution but, at most, a
Boslhevik putsch. When the Bolsheviks seized state power they
proceeded to suppress the Soviets as workers' democtratic
institutions rather than assisting in the deveopment of  their
proletarian democratic character. Ultimately they were reduced to
rubber stamps for the the one party state that the Bosheviks
succeeded in establishing. They also suppressed the factory'
committees. They crushed the Kronstadt soviet was brutally crushed.
They crushed the Makhnovist movement, a popular anarchist movement.
They turned the workers' army from a a militia into a conventional
army modelled along bourgeois lines. This involved the abolition of
the democratic election of officers. The re-introduction of
privileges for officers. They suppressed all opposition whether left
or right that stood outside the party. Having gotten this under way
they then proceeded to suppress all internal opposition within the
Leininist party by banning factions.

Wherever a Soviet existed that was not Bolshevik they 
uncereremoniously and undemocratically replaced it with a Soviet that 
was packed with lackeys of theirs.

Underpinning all these incursions aagianst the mases the economy was 
taken out of the hands of the working class and put it into the hands of the 
Bolshevik party. The introduction of Taylorism and one man mangement 
in the factories shows a concern with efficiency and productivity at 
the expense workers' rights.

They crushed all oppositon by the peasantry whether left or right by 
under the pretext that they were dealing with the reactionary kulak. 
What we were not told is that at that time in Russia there were in 
effect no kulaks. This was label attached to any peasants they did 
not like. I could go on.

In short Leninism is not revolutionary but left 
counter-revolutionary. It has been very successful in strangling the 
Russian revolution. Stalinism is merely a modifed form of Leninism.

The Leninist party was never a marxist party. Rather it was an overly 
centralised non-democratic paty. It used workers democratic rhetoric as a 
ploy to fool the masses. It never had any interest in workers 
democracy. Instead, like many of its contemporary clones, it merely 
sought to manipulate the masses in order to empower itself 
at the expense of the masses. Both Lenin and Stalin have been jointly 
responsible for the deaths of millions of workers and peasants. 

If you look at present day Leninist parties you will find that
despite all their empty rhetoric concerning workers democracy and
democratic structures these organizaions, when it gets down to it,
are anything but democratic. They are usually undemocratically
controlled from the centre, an "elite core". This is why there has
been such a trail of splits and expulsions left by these stagnant
organizations. The purpose of these organizations is to prevent the
working class from deveoping into a solid vibrant revolutionary
force. This is why they always seeks to control any spontaneous
upsurge of the masses.This is why if there is an attempt to deveop
debate on these lists it is usually destroyed by the deliberate
sabotag of debate either through silence, abuse or trivialisation.
Connected with this, these organizations produce so called marxists
who are incapable of developing debate since to produce individuals
capable of deveoping debate would lead to their challenging these
organization and its politics.

These are dashed down thoughts concerning Leninism. 

                                         Karl 


 



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