RE: [xmca] Banners of Brazil [without oppositions]

[Brett Bligh <Brett.Bligh@nottingham.ac.uk>]

Thanks. My apologies to the original poster for veering a bit off the course of the original discussion, but it may interest a few of you to know that discussing the topic of "what Lenin really said" has become bizarrely important in the various British anti-capitalist movements over the past few years.

There are apparently two sides to this coin.

Firstly, some of the horizontalist and media-savvy protest groups like the UK parts of the Occupy movement and "UK Uncut" (which conducts protests in branches of large corporations embroiled in high-profile tax dodging cases) are quite hostile to centralised decision-making that they label "Leninist". I think that the Indignados in Spain and others have a similar stance. Furthermore, recent attempts to produce serious left-wing forces in UK politics such as the Left Unity initiative and the People's Assembly (whose recent indoor planning meeting in central London attracted more than 4000 people) have been marked by their overt determination not to be dominated by any one particular established sect; the word "Leninist" gets thrown around pejoratively in those discussions, too.

Secondly, the existing Trotskyist left in the UK is in a state of meltdown. The Socialist Workers Party, a very established force, has been torn apart and demobilised by a series of recent scandals. These apparently stem from the party bureaucracy operating a regime of unaccountability, secrecy, cover-ups and bullying. Several members who conducted a Facebook conversation about whether they might form a faction at the upcoming party conference were expelled; a huge scandal has erupted because it seems that a rape allegation within the party has been grossly mishandled; the conference itself was a disaster and subsequent witchhunting led to a large group of experienced members walking out of the organisation; etc. The main point is that the SWP *defend* the form of their internal regime on the basis that they are copying the example of Lenin and the Bolsheviks, for them the most successful revolutionary force in history  (one example, written by the SWP's de facto leader: http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=12210 ). Other Trostykist groups, such as Socialist Party in England and Wales (formerly Militant Labour) are experiencing their own mini-crises, too, in a slightly similar vein.

Into this situation have stepped a variety of Marxist scholars who point out that all of these types of groups don't seem to have a clue as to how Lenin worked and the Bolsheviks actually operated. Basically, if this argument is correct then what the Occupy movement are attacking, and what the SWP are defending, are both to a large degree straw men. The newspaper 'Weekly Worker' (quite a unique publication, well worth reading) and academics like Lars Lih suggest that Lenin operated very differently from popular perception.

In effect, it seems that the regime of the Bolsheviks allowed for comrades to air their differences publicly and debate at very great length. Factions were numerous. Lenin particiapted enthusiatically in debates with those who vehemently disagreed with him -- through publicly available newspapers, very extended party conferences, etc. The point was to air differences *in front of the class*. Though Lenin is retrospectively seen as the central figure of the group, in fact he was repeatedly on the losing end of debates. (One example: Lenin argued passionately *against* renaming the party as the Bolsheviks in the first place, which was originally a nickname he disliked, arguing to retain the original name of RSDLP). The party's rigorously debated programme was a key mechanism for holding the leadership to account. To cut short what is turning into as very lengthy email, the SWP etc seem to be a parody of Leninism, while the Occupy movement etc aren't learning Lenin's key lessons -- and thus seem doomed to exist as exciting but short-lived *phenomena* that are unable to sustain themselves and build organisational and societal momentum over long periods.

Andy's "Interdisciplinary Theory of Activity" book, which I am about half-way through reading, talks about Marx's dramaturgical metaphor, where people act by "don[ning] the costumes of a hero from the past or from literature and mythology" (p100). I guess I see this Lenin-related storm as an interesting example whereby this is done problematically -- perhaps by donning the negation of the costume(?), by trying but getting the costume wrong, and then by having to go back and examine what the costume was in the first place, having been led down the garden path.

Brett


________________________________________
From: mike cole [lchcmike@gmail.com]
Sent: 29 June 2013 17:13
To: ablunden@mira.net
Cc: Brett Bligh; eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] Banners of Brazil [without oppositions]

Thanks for the context, Brett. Always helpful.
mike

On Sat, Jun 29, 2013 at 5:44 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net<mailto:ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:
Well found, Brett!
Andy


Brett Bligh wrote:
I'd agree with Andy that these kind of quotations usually turn out to be bunk and that in this case this is so.

For the record, though, I think the quotation and comment arises from a *misunderstanding* of a passage in "Leftwing Communism: An Infantile Disorder". Lenin is reacting to some points made by the fiery Sylvia Pankhurst, who has quoted approvingly an enraged letter to a newspaper alleging that the BSP and ILP, some so-called working class organisations of the time, have been captured by careerists. Lenin's reaction is extensive, but begins with these two paragraphs:

--
In my opinion, this letter to the editor expresses excellently the temper and point of view of the young Communists, or of rank-and-file workers who are only just beginning to accept communism. This temper is highly gratifying and valuable; we must learn to appreciate and support it for, in its absence, it would be hopeless to expect the victory of the proletarian revolution in Great Britain, or in any other country for that matter. People who can give expression to this temper of the masses, and are able to evoke such a temper (which is very often dormant, unconscious and latent) among the masses, should be appreciated and given every assistance. At the same time, we must tell them openly and frankly that a state of mind is by itself insufficient for leadership of the masses in a great revolutionary struggle, and that the cause of the revolution may well be harmed by certain errors that people who are most devoted to the cause of the revolution are about to commit, or are committing. Comrade Gallacher's letter undoubtedly reveals the rudiments of all the mistakes that are being made by the German "Left" Communists and were made by the Russian "Left" Bolsheviks in 1908 and 1918.

The writer of the letter is full of a noble and working-class hatred for the bourgeois "class politicians" (a hatred understood and shared, however, not only by proletarians but by all working people, by all Kleinen Leuten to use the German expression). In a representative of the oppressed and exploited masses, this hatred is truly the "beginning of all wisdom", the basis of any socialist and communist movement and of its success. The writer, however, has apparently lost sight of the fact that politics is a science and an art that does not fall from the skies or come gratis, and that, if it wants to overcome the bourgeoisie, the proletariat must train its own proletarian "class politicians", of a kind in no way inferior to bourgeois politicians.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/ch09.htm

--

Hopefully even this brief extract shows that Lenin was making quite a different point to the one being attributed to him.

Brett


-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu> [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu>] On Behalf Of mike cole
Sent: 29 June 2013 02:03
To: ablunden@mira.net<mailto:ablunden@mira.net>
Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] Banners of Brazil [without oppositions]

I am perfectly ready to believe that it was not lenin who said that.
Whoever it was Peter was urging us to consider as a key idea. I did not like the idea. It has deadly consequences when isolated in that fashion.

mike

On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 5:41 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net<mailto:ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:


Don't be quick to condemn, Mike. I searched Lenins CW at marxists.org<http://marxists.org> and there is no record of Lenin having said that or anything vaguely similar.
In my experience, at least 90% of the quotes imputed to Marx or other Marxists turn out to be either outright hoaxes or urban myths.

Andy

mike cole wrote:


I agree with a lot of what you said, Peter. American citizenry is not, yet, in such a situation. Although the outpouring of support for the woman who dared to stand up for reproductive rights in Texas provided such an experience for many and has engaged many beyond.

I do not agree with Lenin, however, that anger is the root of ALL wisdom.
What a dim view of the human experience.

mike

On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 8:48 AM, Peter Feigenbaum [Staff] < pfeigenbaum@fordham.edu<mailto:pfeigenbaum@fordham.edu>> wrote:




Dear Brazilian colleagues,

I find myself in envy of your situation. The struggle to create a better life for working-class and middle-class families in the US has been frustrating and demoralizing these past few years. Directly and through their political representatives, the capitalists have done severe damage to unions and their efforts to organize workers, and the community activists and union activists I'm involved with are worn out and exasperated from many defeats. So the news of a mass outpouring of people onto the streets of Brazil, and the possibility of truly progressive social change in your country, comes as welcome and uplifting news to those of us suffering in the "belly of the beast".

For purely selfish reasons, I'm sorry that the events of the past few weeks did not occur last year--when I was visiting Brazil and lecturing at the University of Sao Paulo. It's been a long time since I had the opportunity in my own country to participate in mass demonstrations where the power and strength of the people becomes a palpable and conscious experience. The shared sense that the social order could be changed by our mass action is an exhilarating feeling! I remember thinking that the feeling is fragile, however, because it arose spontaneously and there was no understanding or plan for establishing the conditions for its continuation. Thus, the experience of <people power> was always episodic rather than sustained.
In
countries where socialism has already been achieved, however, such as Cuba, it's a different story, of course: the people are able to deliberately experience their own power simply by summoning to action their mass organizations such as the Federation of Cuban Women and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, which can mobilize 95% of the population on short notice.

The events transpiring in Brazil were not consciously planned, but instead arose from an outpouring of emotion. (Lenin wrote that "anger is the root of all wisdom"). It seems to me that to sustain what has begun--to preserve and nurture people's sense of their own power--is going to require a conscious approach from here onward. It will be necessary to identify the material obstacles to realizing people's unity, and to develop concrete plans for overcoming those obstacles, whether they be ideological, theoretical, political, economic, technical, linguistic, etc.

I cherish the reports of events in Brazil that have been shared on this listserve. I appreciate knowing what is happening through the lenses of your personal and professional perspectives.  I also appreciate the difficulty you must be having trying to reconcile the emotional and the rational sides of these events, particularly since the events are still in their infancy. As developments allow, please keep us appraised of your progress. Your achievements are heartwarming to those of us in need of such news.

In solidarity (and with best wishes), Peter





On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 10:07 AM, Achilles Delari Junior <
achilles_delari@hotmail.com<mailto:achilles_delari@hotmail.com>> wrote:




Internationally working. I believe and hope. :)




From: Phillip.White@ucdenver.edu<mailto:Phillip.White@ucdenver.edu>
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 07:53:04 -0600
Subject: RE: [xmca] Banners of Brazil [without oppositions]


Achilles - both you're welcome, and truly there is nothing to apologize



for.  clarity of communication through the internet is daunting.  and,



yes,



again, here's working for greater transformations in Brazil.



phillip


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From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu> [xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu>] On



Behalf Of Achilles Delari Junior [achilles_delari@hotmail.com<mailto:achilles_delari@hotmail.com>]



Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2013 2:56 PM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Subject: RE: [xmca] Banners of Brazil [without oppositions]

Philip, thank you very much. I sincerely believe that me and you are



talking maybe not about the same things, but with a more important and



deep



agreement in the essential ethical values. Because this, please accept
my
apologizes because my aggressive way to talk,  and my real respect in
relation to your patience and solidarity inside your critical



thinking... I



guess after some time all we will can understand better what is going
on,
in the eye of the hurricane is not so easy. But you give us some



important



insights - I will reflect about all your tips. Sincerely, my best wishes
for you and all people that have the dignity for don't leave another
strange person talking alone, only because different forms of



disagreement



epistemological, ethical or political. This is an actual aptitude of an
international scholar. Thank you. I hope to see you soon. Achilles.



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