File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/marxism-international.9707, message 124


Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1997 13:12:28 -0400
From: malecki-AT-algonet.se (Robert Malecki)
Subject: Re: M-I: Mass Organizing


>  When Bukharin was in
>exile during 1914, he started an official Bolshevik newspaper called "The
>Star"  which was financed by party funds. The newspaper dissented strongly
>from Lenin's ideas on the First World War and other matters of party
>program. It adopted a consistently *left* if not ultraleft orientation. It
>wrote article after article denouncing Lenin's call for democratic demands
>while urging the adoption of purely socialist demands. 
>
>What was Lenin's reaction to this violation of democratic centralism?
>There were no expulsions of the "renegade" newspaper staff. Lenin's
>reaction was merely to question the use of scarce party funds to start a
>new paper. Other than that, there was no objection since the Bolshevik
>Party functioned completely differently from the Marxist-Leninist sects of
>today that trace their origins to Zinoviev's caricature of the Bolshevik
>model. This caricature was made official at the 5th Congress of the
>Comintern in 1924-25. Trotsky, who never really understood the Bolshevik
>organizational model. adopted Zinoviev's model as his own and every
>Trotskyist group is based on it.

Time and again Proyect comes back to his pet theory for two fundemental 
reasons. Naturally to trash the "Trotskyists" here on the lists but even 
more so because of his own ideas of party building of a broad model where 
despite real political positions that put Proyects "Comrades" on the 
opposite side of the barricades they still can be in the same party. 

 Because in reality that is the model that is being purposed here time and 
again by Proyect both in his conception of discussions but also the broad 
party view that he presented a few months back and which I labeled at best 
as some sort of "Yankee Doodle" socialism. Leaving aside that Proyect has 
been guilty both of organising "fraction" fights with a Stalinist flavor of 
bureaucratic exclusion and special rules but also a lot of personalistic 
stuff directed at political opponents. In fact the very first reply to Brown 
on this list by Proyect was entirely personalistic and slanderous and had 
nothing to do with politics at all. Brown's crime was pointing out how 
"progressive" the American CP was durinf the war in regards to the Japanese 
and Brown own quite colorful experience with the CP and the KKK! 

In fact nothing could be futher from the truth that the Lenin model of party 
building was some sort of collective septic tank where all views on politics 
was accepted
as in the "party of the whole class" Kautskyite conception. In fact many 
times in the struggle with the Bernsteinians and the Mensheviks unity in 
fact was imposed on the party from the outside (for example the German 
social Democracy) or Lenin and the Bolsheviks made a treaty with their 
political opponents which was usually broken by the Mensheviks while at the 
same time accusing Lenin and the Bolsheviks of being splitters.

Nor is Proyects empirical approach connected to any kind of political 
reality or that the evovlement of the Bolshevik party from being a part of 
the second International which collapsed in August 1914 leading up to first 
the February revolution and on to October revolution to building of the 
Third International and the famouis "21 conditions" of membership mean 
anything to Proyect in the sense of evolvement of the Bolshevik model on the 
party question. In fact Proyect proves like many of the new left spokesman 
that a democratic centralist party forged around program and tactics not 
only on the National level but also the International level is nothing for them.

This is because partially of decades of Stalinist politics, but also today 
because of a very large jump to the right by the so called "new left" into 
trying to find and all incompassing progressive party of some sort on the 
National level, but also capitulating to anything that might be able to be 
called "anti-imperialist" on the other. In Proyects case it is a combination 
of uncritical support to the Cuban deformed workers state side with side to 
support to the FLSN who gave it away in and election to the class enemy and 
at best today are trying to rewtite the Nicaraguan national anthym and 
moving over to Africa we have Proyects support for Kabila in Zaire as the 
latest example of people who are his comrades. And in the USA itself Proyect 
came with the most pretendious social patriotic party building model of all 
a few months back and he has the nerve to talk about splits in the so called 
"Trotskyist" movements. 

Besides many of the splits among "Trotskyists" groups has hardly anything to 
do with the "Zinoviev" model as he claims. But a lot to do with decades of 
Stalinist practice in the workers movement. In fact the closet thing to the 
model that he claims is law for all "Trotskyist" groups and splinters in 
fact has more to do with Stalinism and Pabloite liquidationism then anything 
else.

Does Proyect deny that the Bolshevik model never took one step forward from 
the late 1890's, all through the ealry 1900 leading uo to the outbreak of 
the first imperialist war? And does he claim that the formation of the Third 
international and the 21 conditions was not and even futher evolvement of 
thr Bolshevik organisational model? I think he does! He is looking for a 
scapegoat to batter on the "Trotskyist" groups and people represented on the 
lists while at the same time putting forth the 
Kautsky version of the party of the whole class both on the National level 
but also the International level. But it is Kautskyism with a neo-Stalinist 
twist involving all kinds of popular front politics and anti imperialist 
United Fronts to liquidate into   in order to build this "new" broad neo 
Stalinist version of a party.

In reality Proyect is using Lenin to practice Kautsky's ideas on the party 
of the whole class and even classes! And he is using Zinoviev to pounce on 
Cannon's SWP model which in practice because of historical reasons the one 
Trotskyist organisation in the world that for many years could function as a 
democratic centralist revolutionary Trotskyist organisation. And this as 
nothing to do with the bizaar clone that developed in the SWP as it was 
moving towards the right and finally stepped into the reformist politics of 
the Social Democracy. The best phrase that one can see from the Peter Camejo 
days in the SWP and also later on in the Mandelite USec was the label 
"disloyality to the party" as the excuse to expel any left opposition to 
their rightward adaption to both Stalinism and the Social Democracy. So in 
reality it had nothing what so ever to do with Proyects above arguements. 
This is just a theroretical cover for his hate of anything that claims to be 
Trotskyist but also his own political trajectory on the party question both 
nationally and Internationally.

Finally a democratic centralist party of the Bolshevik/Leninist model must 
be buildt on the fundemental programatic positions of both the history of 
the Bolshevik Party and not in the least around its evolvement from the 2nd 
International into a Russian organisation that through October created the 
Third International. The first four congresses of the Third International 
naturally including the 21 conditions going on to the politics of the left 
opposition of Trotsky against the Stalinists and leading up to the creation 
of the fourth International. It will also have to take to task the 
degeneration of Trotskyist politics not so much under the pressue of  
Zinoviev'ism as PRoyect claims. But much more both Stalinist and reformist 
liquidation on politics connected to a Stalinist conception of the party.

Another decisive question I think will be when a party begins to get a 
sizeable cadre from the working class which has not been the case since the 
second world war. It is much easier to have a million splits when the entire 
new left was and still is made up of petty bougeois intellectuals with no 
solid working class base of cadre. The one thing which Lenin was extremely 
careful about was winning these precioous cadre to his politics. He paid 
dearly in this perspective and the majority (the Mensheviks) 
organisationally were always larger then the Bolsheviks up to and including 
the February revolution. It was only after the July days and leading up to 
October that Lenin conception of the party linked to program and politics 
over a whole historical cycle paid off only a few years later to be beheaded 
not by  Zinoviev'
but in fact Stalin and his line which certainly had nothing to to with 
democratic centralism but liquidating all opposition to him and his followers.

Finally I see that Louis his accusing Brown of being some sort of "snot 
nosed" something or other and actually is threatening Brown with something 
or other. Haven't the MI moderaters a rule that they made up for this kind 
of activity or is it just Aldolfo and the "Trotskyists" that the special 
rules are made up for. But don't worry Brown Proyect is quite harmless other 
then his big anti Trotskyist mouth and 
and naturally his usual tactic historically is not violence in anyway. For 
example he claims if you look back in the archives that Malecki is and 
"agent provacateur" in the pay of the CIA. 

I would never go to such lengths in the case of Proyect. My favorite is the 
neo Stalinist yellow journalist with a love for his old SWP scrapbooks and 
poster clue..Occasionally he still has to resort to the SWP in order to take 
on the state caps and others. But this man has moved very far to the right 
more then likely futher then the now bizaar politics of the SWP he once was 
a member of.

And to Brown I would like to say I remember Camejo coming to Sweden to rally 
his little band of supporters against the Mandelite International Majority 
Tendency back in the ealy seventies. I find it quite interesting the story 
of how this fake Trotskyist ended up. But he was not alone. Look at Tariq 
Ali (another favorite of Proyects) by the way. Ask him to publish the stuff 
he wrote on this IMT wonder child and what he is doing today. Then I can 
publish my answer to that garbage on M-I..

Warm Regards
Bob Malecki 
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