> Subject: Re: war and the state (was milton, etc.)
> > But the immediate
> > goal of revolution, as Marx stated in the Communist Manifesto, is "the
> > conquest of political power by the proletariat".
> The "conquest of political power by the proletariat" really means the
> conquest of state power by a political party that claims to represent
> the proletariat.
This is untrue. Marx does not argue for the conquest of political power by a political party or a political party which claims to represent the proletariat. Marx argued for a working *class* capture of state power, just like you say here:
> Establishing a state controlled by the proletariat, as advocated by the
> Manifesto, is not possible and attempts to do so leads to the
> formation of a new group of exploiters to replace the old ones.
Has there ever been a working *class* capture of political power? Or has there been a capture of power on their behalf by a vanguard party, as advocated by Lenin but not Marx.
-- Lew