>Charles: "Most resolute" , "pushes forward all others" can very, very, very
>reasonably be interpreted as the modern term "leaders". "Pushes forward all
>others" becomes metaphorical, and of course if metaphorically you are pushing,
>you are behind , not ahead. But at this point the metaphors must be seen as
>metaphors. And what is the honest interpretation of the metaphor of "pushing
>forward" ? It is that of a leader , of course. It is someone who is more
>acutely aware of the goal, and more RESOLUTE in sticking to it than those she
>must push forward at certain points. This is common sense.
I think if Marx had meant pushing to mean leadership he would have explicitly said so. The fact that he did not say this is consistent with his argument concerning working class self-emancipation.
>Charles: Marx and Engels exact words do not directly imply your conclusion that
>their words specifically rule out a Leninist type of organization.
>From a circular letter signed by Marx and Engels in 1879:
"When the International was formed we expressly formulated the battle cry: The emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves. We cannot, therefore, co-operate with people who openly state that the workers are too uneducated to emancipate themselves and must be freed from above by philanthropic big bourgeois and petty bourgeois."
-- Lew