> Mike Beggs wrote: "I think a dictatorship of a party is not a Dictatorship of the Proletariat." I agree, and I think Trotsky and Lenin would have agreed, too. The suspension of the soviets was not a decision that they welcomed, nor saw as permanent, but as an emergency measure that if it persisted would lead to bureaucratic dictatorship. Lenin said so at the time, Trotsky made Lenin's warning the organising principle of the next great battle in his life.
I think it was actually Mike Ballard that said that, though I don't disagree with it. It's unfortunate that with two Mike Bs on this list we're both in Australia... though fortunately I usually like what the other one says so I don't mind getting mixed up with him! Incidentally neither of us identify as anarchists, though Ballard is a Wobbly.
The other Mike B