04.01.1996
The revolutionary democratic road to socialism - part II
Dave Craig of the Revolutionary Democratic Group (faction of the SWP)
IN Weekly Worker 123 I argued that the Bolsheviks based their strategy on a revolutionary democratic road to socialism. This must now be understood as a ‘permanent revolution’, moving through the democratic revolution to the socialist revolution and communism. Lenin’s theory of consciousness and the vanguard party, as set out in What is to be done?, should be seen as complementary parts of the revolutionary democratic road.
Political consciousness
The Bolshevik orientation to the democratic revolution meant that they emphasised the political struggle to overthrow the Tsarist system. This emphasis on political struggle was similar to the Narodniks’. But the Narodniks saw terrorism as the means of political struggle.
The Bolsheviks rejected terrorism, and orientated to the struggles of the working class. They carried out agitation directed to workers in the factories. They were not simply supporting strikes, but raising the level of consciousness to the democratic revolution and the need for political struggle. Some Social Democrats began to see the economic struggle as an alternative to the political struggle. These ‘economists’ did not reject politics as such, but saw their role as “lending the economic struggle itself a political character”.
Lenin claimed that this trend emerged because of the enthusiasm of the younger, more inexperienced comrades for the economic struggle, as the more experienced political Marxists were arrested by the Tsarist police. The economists did not understand the revolutionary significance of the democratic question. As Lenin said, “A most characteristic feature of economism is its failure to understand this connection - more, this identity - of the most pressing needs of the proletariat with the need of the general democratic movement” (Lenin CW Vol 5 p432). So whilst the ‘politicians’ put before the working class its historic role as a fighter for democracy, for the abolition of Tsarism, the democratic and socialist revolutions, the economists emphasised the immediate issues that arose spontaneously on a day to day basis.
Consciousness or spontaneity
The debate between the ‘politicos’ and the economists is paralleled in the dispute over consciousness versus spontaneity. The Bolsheviks identified themselves as conscious democrats: that is, advanced working class democrats (ie, revolutionary social democrats), conscious of the centrality of the democratic revolution and the role the working class must play as the vanguard of that revolution. This politically advanced consciousness did not come directly from within the working class movement or through the experience of strike action. This experience was too narrow and limited historically, politically and internationally.
In 1900 the Russian working class, like the British working class today, had no experience of the democratic revolution. Therefore consciousness of democratic and socialist revolutions could only come from outside: that is, from working class science (ie, Marxism) which included philosophical, theoretical and practical experience.
The science of working class revolution has been created by the experience of previous generations of the working class struggle and working class revolution. It is intellectuals - or, if you prefer, working class scientists - who are the vital intermediaries between past experience and current theory. Hence Marx may have come up with the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, but he would not have arrived at that without the French revolutionary masses or later the Paris Commune.
The Russian working class of 1900 could not get its revolutionary theory from within itself. It had to go outside itself to the French working class, through the distorted prism of the intellectuals.
Russian Marxists could spend considerable time discussing the lessons of the French revolution. For those who worshipped spontaneity such activity was too ‘intellectual’ and a waste of time. Yet in the context of preparing a party and class for the democratic revolution it was of vital importance. This is why politically conscious democrats understand the importance of theoretical and ideological struggle. A party which artificially restricts the freedom for debate and exchange of information cannot fill its role as the theoretical, and hence practical, vanguard of the class. The science of working class revolution must be applied to the development and elaboration of a revolutionary programme, tactics and organisation, which comprise the revolutionary party. The party is the conscious element of revolutionary democratic and socialist politics.
Spontaneity and democratic reform
The working class, an oppressed class without political power, has always fought to extend democracy. When workers go on strike they create their own democratic organisations: strike committees and mass meetings, etc. Indeed the working class only becomes a class for itself by democratic organisation. Through democratic organisation (party, trade union, workplace) millions of individual workers begin to assert themselves as a collective body. Whilst the party comprises of class conscious democrats, the working class is a spontaneously democratic class. As the working class rebels and struggles for freedom, it becomes an organised democratic force. Trade unions are one of the lower forms of working class democracy. Workplace councils and soviets are higher forms which emerge spontaneously with a rising level of class struggle.
The class struggle propels workers in a democratic direction, towards the democratic revolution. In this sense the working class moves spontaneously towards socialism. Spontaneous outbreaks of struggle are not devoid of consciousness, but represent consciousness in embryonic form. Spontaneous struggles raise consciousness of the need for trade union organisation and democratic reforms, such as the right to strike, freedom of speech. Such consciousness, even if it leads towards revolutionary democracy, is quite compatible with capitalism, liberalism and Labourism. Lenin saw the spectre of reformism in the tendency to praise spontaneity and make economic struggle the focal point of activity.
A spontaneous movement for trade union and democratic reform can easily be incorporated into bourgeois politics. Indeed it is more likely to be so “for the simple reason that bourgeois ideology is far older in origin than socialist ideology, that it is more fully developed and that it has at its disposal immeasurably more means of dissemination.” (What is to be Done?,Progress Publishers, Moscow 1978 p42) So Lenin concludes that “The working class spontaneously gravitates towards socialism; nevertheless, most widespread bourgeois ideology spontaneously imposes itself upon the working class to a still greater degree.”
Both left reformism and anarchism are opposed to the democratic revolution. In this sense both ideologies reflect a lower level of working class consciousness: that is, spontaneous consciousness. Reformist and anarchist consciousness are therefore a barrier which advanced workers must overcome if the working class is to become the vanguard of the democratic revolution.
The reformists provide a programme of democratic reform as an alternative to democratic revolution. They persuade the masses to be content with trade unionism and democratic reform. Anarchism is not interested in democratic reform and opposes democratic revolution, since both are manifestations of the hated ‘politics’. Communism is claimed to be the only answer because it is an alternative to involvement in current democratic politics. This ‘propagandism’ goes hand in hand with worshipping spontaneity; which means that in practice the anarchists are dragged down the road of trade unionism and democratic reforms.
Vanguard party
Lenin identified the leading role that the working class must play in the democratic revolution. The party, as the vanguard of the class, must be the vanguard of the democratic revolution. To fill this role the party must develop the consciousness of the advanced section of the class. The German revolutionary, Paul Levi, summed up the revolutionary approach to politics when he said, “For communists the question is not: how do we get the bigger party? But this: how do we get the most conscious proletariat? In this sense the party is nothing and the proletariat everything” (Revolutionary History Vol 5 no2 p51). This encapsulates the difference between the Cliffites and Leninists today. The SWP poses the question of the party simply in terms of recruits. A programme is not merely irrelevant for such a task, but is a downright hindrance. It might put people off and became a barrier to growth! Leninists ask how should we develop the democratic consciousness of the working class and raise it to the level of the democratic and socialist revolutions.
To develop the democratic consciousness of the working class, the party must carry out political agitation. This must be as broad as possible and not confined to issues inside the workplace or in the working class movement. On the contrary political agitation must be conducted over every manifestation of police tyranny, bureaucratic oppression and the denial of democracy, which can affect every section of society.
The party must develop democratic consciousness by bringing political knowledge to the workers. To do this, “The Social Democrats must go among all classes of the population; they must dispatch units of their army in all directions. The sphere from which alone it is possible to obtain this knowledge is the sphere of relations of all classes and strata to the state and the government, the sphere of the interrelations between all classes” (CW Vol 5 p422). Agitation must be conducted in respect of every concrete example of this oppression. Lenin says,
“In as much as this oppression affects the most diverse classes of society, as much as it manifests itself in the most varied spheres of life and activity - vocational, civic, personal, family, religious, scientific - is it not evident that we shall not be fulfilling our task of developing the political consciousness of the workers if we do not undertake the organisation of the political exposure of the autocracy in all its aspects?” (CW Vol 5 p401)
Combating spontaneity
The spontaneous growth of the working class movement for trade union demands and democratic reforms puts enormous pressure on the revolutionaries to adapt themselves to this. Instead of ‘bowing to spontaneity’ or worshipping it, revolutionaries must “imbue” or “saturate” the advanced workers with revolutionary politics to prepare for the democratic revolution. Lenin made it absolutely clear that
“All worship of the spontaneity of the working class, all belittling of the role of the ‘conscious element’ of the role of social democracy means, quite independently of whether he who belittles that role desires it or not, a strengthening of the influence of bourgeois ideology on the workers” (CW Vol 5 p382).
Combating spontaneity does not mean combating the democratic consciousness of the working class or opposing its democratic struggles. It means diverting the spontaneous striving for trade unionism and democratic reform, onto the path of the democratic revolution. Lenin says that, “Our task, the task of social democracy, is to combat spontaneity, to divert the working class movement from the spontaneous trade union striving to come under the wing of the bourgeoisie and bring it under the wing of revolutionary social democracy” (CW Vol 5 384), which is acting as the vanguard of the democratic revolution.
The Social Democrats’ ideal
“should not be the trade union secretary, but the tribune of the people, who is able to react to every manifestation of tyranny and oppression, no matter where it appears, no matter what stratum or class of the people it affects; who is able to generalise all these manifestations ... in order to set forth before all his socialist convictions and his democratic demands” (CW Vol 5 p423).
Vanguard fighter for democracy
Class-conscious revolutionary demo-crats must play a leading role in the struggle for democracy. Communists support every revolutionary movement. Therefore, Lenin says: “We are obliged for that reason to expound and emphasise general democratic tasks before the whole people, without for a moment concealing our socialist convictions. He is no social democrat who forgets in practice his obligation to be ahead of all in raising, accentuating and solving every general democratic question.” Hence the task of class conscious democrats was “at the beginning of the ‘spontaneous’ movement to come forward with a most extensive programme and militant tactical line” (What is to be Done? p34). “At the very beginning they set for Russian social democracy the most far reaching historical tasks in general, and the task of overthrowing the autocracy in particular.” In other words they approached concrete reality from the perspective of the theory of democratic revolution. This orientation on the democratic revolution made the Bolsheviks the most militant party of the democratic revolution and the most forceful advocates of revolutionary republicanism.
This is the kind of party and strategy we need today.