[lbo-talk] Lenin quote

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Apr 15 20:40:25 PDT 2009


On Apr 15, 2009, at 11:29 PM, comvox at flash.net wrote:


>> From the "Report on the International Situation and the Fundamental
>> Tasks of
> the Communist International", July 19, 1920, at the 2nd CI Congress:
>
> "Comrades, we have now come to the question of the revolutionary
> crisis as
> the basis of our revolutionary action. And here we must first of all
> note two
> widespread errors. On the one hand, bourgeois economists depict this
> crisis
> simply as 'unrest,' to use the elegant expression of the British. On
> the
> other hand, revolutionaries simply try to prove that the crisis is
> absolutely
> insoluble.
>
> "This is a mistake. There is not such thing as an absolutely hopeless
> situation. The bourgeoisie are behaving like barefaced plunderers
> who have
> lost their heads; they are committing folly after folly, thus
> aggravating the
> situation and hastening their doom. All that is true. But nobody can
> 'prove'
> that it is absolutely impossible for them to pacify a minority of the
> exploited with some petty concessions, and suppress some movement or
> uprising
> of some section of the oppressed and exploited. To try to 'prove' in
> advance
> that there is 'absolutely' no way out of the situation wuld be sheer
> pedantry, or playing with concepts and catchwords. Practice alone
> can serve
> as real 'proof' in this and similar questions. All over the world, the
> bourgeois system is experiencing a tremendous revolutionary crisis.
> The
> revolutionary parties must now 'prove' in practice that they have
> sufficient
> understanding and determination and skill to utilise this crisis for a
> successful, a victorious revolution."

Thank you. The "quote" looks like a paraphrase of this.

Smart fellow, Lenin.

Doug



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