Eleanor Roosevelt Re: Do Everythinger

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Fri May 24 22:33:51 PDT 2002


One bit of evidence that someone knows nothing whatever either of Lenin or the history of Lenin's Party -- the RSDLP -- is the assumption that Lenin = Democratic Centralism (at least as practiced in the 3d international).

For a quick introduction to empirical reality I would recommend Hal Draper, "The Myth of Lenin's 'Concept of the Party': Or What They Did to _What Is To Be Done_," _Historical Materialism_ 4. Or, there is an even simpler route. Instead of deducing what someone _must_ believe, read what they say instead. No one on this list as far as I know has ever argued for democratic centralism.

Hint: Lenin believed, and says so over and over again, that spontaneous political action by the masses is a precondition of revolution. Of course necessary conditions are not sufficient conditions.

Carrol



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list