Date: Fri, 24 Nov 1995 18:23:09 -0500 (EST)
From: ROSSERJB-AT-VAX1.ACS.JMU.EDU
Subject: State and Revolution


     In response to Scott Marshall I shall say that I
misspoke to some extent.  _State and Revolution_ is 
indeed a well-crafted and carefully written book.  What
is actually most apalling is the contrast between it and
what Lenin actually did, as I laid out in my previous post.
     In particular, to flesh it out, the conception of the
"dictatorship of the proletariat" according to Marx and 
Engels as quoted by Lenin involves mass "universal suffrage"
in the commune which is to replace the bourgeois state.
"Bourgeois democracy" is criticized and parliaments are to
be eliminated and replaced by the commune.  But that commune
is to have universal suffrage.  
     The results of the Bolshevik coup d'etat were neither
universal suffrage nor the replacement of the state by a 
commune.  It was the dictatorship by a small "vanguard" group
and I defy anybody on this list to find anything in Marx or
Engels that would support what Lenin and his cohorts did in Russia.
Barkley Rosser


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