Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
clip- What I do find irrelevant is the whole vanguard party idea. In fact, I don't really understand what it means to be a Leninist in the USA in 2003. What's the program? What's the model of organization? Does it have anything to do with the Leninist parties that populate the fringes of the American left? If so, what's the plan to move out of the fringe?
****** CB: What's it mean to be a Marxist in the USA in 2003 ? Why is being a Marxist in 2003 in the USA less a fringe tendency than being a Leninist ? Surely Marx was for forming a revolutionary party . The Manifesto is of the Party. Surely Lenin would agree with Marx on what the model of the organization would be today ( even though we haven't heard from either one of them lately).
"Being" a Leninist in 2003 is just applying Marx's fundamental ideas to the concrete situation. Leninism is the concrete (Marxist) analysis of the concrete situation, as they say. It's treating Marxism not as a dogma, but as a guide to action, etc.
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