CLASS 2 - Lenin and the Path to Revolution

I'll wait for the live signal okay we're live um welcome everybody welcome back to our course on Lenin leninism and the path to Revolution with Brian Becker uh we had an incredible first session last week uh I hope you were all with us if you weren't with us you can actually watch the recording on YouTube so I encourage you to do that um and if you haven't registered for the class yet even if you're watching us online please go to our website and register for the class so we can send you all the readings and supplementary materials um welcome everyone good evening I'm so happy to see you all again my name is Leanne um I'm here with Brian Becker and we're going to get started into our second session of this class soon I want to just make a couple of announcements and first just congratulate everyone on another week of incredible uh high level high energy mobilizations for Palestine in the face of the terrible news of the so-called humanitarian truce which we all know wasn't really a truce the uh Israeli occupation continued pushing forward and assassinating and shelling um but they're back now on an even more intense bombardment campaign um and it's been incredible to see a lot of faces in this room that I've been seeing on the street and in our volunteer meetings and uh also everyone online and everyone is also committing to this by being in this class to study the theory of revolution is only going to make our interventions In This Moment stronger so it's really incredible to see you all here uh the the video on YouTube actually circulated it was viewed probably now over 6,000 views I think uh the first video which is really incredible and says a lot about the moment that we're in um so please do share the the recordings with your with your friends and comrades and let's make sure that we're all having these discussions in in this critical time so we do have many people on the YouTube I want to just make a quick logistical announcement there uh we have the YouTube chat open we want it to be used really for collecting questions uh either we'll be able to get to them or we will address them in future iterations of the class we just today agreed that we will have a fourth session a virtual session that is completely just for Q&A um because there's a lot more questions than we're going to be able to get to in these sessions um so please if you're in the room and we didn't get to your question make sure you send it in if you're on the YouTube chat make sure you're keeping the chat uh dedicated to putting questions uh and comments related to this class uh so we don't distract or or uh make it difficult for people to follow along um with that I want to welcome Brian Becker back to the classroom and and uh and welcome you to the room and thank you so much for being here thank you thank you Lan um yeah the great interest in the class last week which I think is an indicator of two things one is that we are generally speaking in the recent period in a period of more intense political struggle uh and as a consequence of that people become interested in in socialism and revolutionary Theory and history and politics so it actually flows from the moment that we're in the specific moment and I'm spe speaking specifically about the uh events in Gaza and in historic Palestine for the past two months and then there's the broader interest that's growing still in socialism which has been taking place in the United States for the past few years but I I want to just ask people here if you could just get a sense of the room here I know there's a lot of people who are on YouTube how many people here um have participated in some demonstration related to Palestine say in the last seven eight weeks how many people and I'll raise my hand as well all right so that's almost everybody so it speaks to my point that we're we're in a period of intense political struggle I want to also ask you uh again um how many of you have either read about or studied Lenin works at any time in the past okay so how how many let's to just to get a sense of it how many have never read anything by Lenin okay a a fairly small number um and how many have read all 46 volumes of Lennon perfect so we have some ground to cover one person I've looked at you've looked at them we have somebody's looked at all 46 volumes that's very impressive um I want to I want to start by going over some of the some of the goals of this class uh because you know we're only in session we're we had three uh sessions scheduled last week this week and next week now as Leanne mentioned we're going to have a fourth week which will be virtual which will be entirely Q&A there will be no opening talk it'll be questions that people have from from this class and also for people who are on on YouTube or in the chat or those who are in the room uh if you don't understand something write it down if you have a question about something write it down uh we can't get to everything all at once but we do want to be able to go over everyone's questions so you won't get an instant answer and don't feel frustrated it's the nature of not knowing the reason we're taking a class is that we're trying to learn things we don't know so take notes when you stumble upon something you're like I don't know what that means I don't know what this phrase means I don't know who that person is I don't know what time frame we're talking in write it down take notes it's like very important part of study and to recognize that we can't have instant gratification in terms of having instant responses and knowledge about things we don't know the whole point of study is to immerse ourselves in in in this case in a very complicated topic recognizing that it takes lots of study lots of reading and lots of talking with people who are interested in the subject to have a better sense of Lenin and Lenin what Lenin meant by the path towards Revolution we also have done some readings for the class um we had three readings they're pretty short from leftwing communism and infantile disorder uh Lenin published that in 1920 uh that went out how many of you in the room have had a chance to look at summer all of that those readings okay very good good response it shows why adult education is better than uh the education at school because the education in school everything people are reading because they have to because it's mandatory because it's a checklist because you're going to take have an exam we're not going to have any exams uh and we know people are studying this involved in this because they want to learn not because they have to graduate from this that course so um I want to I want to start by going over again what some of the goals are for me the most important goal is to help everybody read Lenin study Lenin and talk about Lenin more than they have before and in order to do that to understand the context of Lenin's writings again that was my main point the way I started last week was if you don't know what's going on in Lenin's head you won't understand what he's writing about because everything that Lenin wrote is essentially a pmic he is involved in a fight he's fighting somebody and if you don't know who he's fighting or what the fighting is about You'll Think of Lenin's words in an abstract way and you cannot understand Lenin in an abstraction and I made the point that marxists don't read Lenin the way Christians or sort of Orthodox Christianity would read the Bible meaning the Bible is the word of God it is the word and now our goal is to learn the word perhaps memorize the word and then spread the word the good news the gospel don't think of reading Marxism or leninism in that way because it is not the final word on anything if you read what lennin wrote in 1903 about the state about his version or view of the state or the Revolutionary tasks of the movement in relationship to the state they are not the same thoughts and words that Lenin wrote in 1917 1918 in other words Lenin like all of us is growing Lenin is evolving Lenin is learning Lenin is involved in debates and pmics and some of the debates and pmics some of the debates and pmics he loses and he goes back and restudies the same topic and comes back and changes his basic core position or essential and important parts of the position that's very true about the book The State and Revolution which is considered a classic Lenin wrote State and Revolution at the beginning of 1917 he finished is it by the end of 1917 we republished the book we in the party for socialism and Liberation republished the book in another book entitled Revolution Manifesto where we talked about what we thought was the most important and continually relevant about Lenin's work on State and Revolution a hundred years later but Lenin himself actually went through a profound change on his view of what the Revolutionary the Revolutionary tasks of the movement were in relationship to the old capitalist State just before the Revolution in 1917 and then it becomes almost a a classic work of Lenin again this means that Lenin like all of us is evolving you know you can read all 46 volumes of Lenin's collected works can you imagine if somebody collected every one of your letters every one of your thoughts every one of your articles every one of the comments that you made and typed it all out and transcribed it and said here's the collected works of any of us and then later in life you're looking back well now I'm 50 and then I was 20 look what I said and is that are those my thoughts my feelings well they were my thoughts and my feelings then in other words everybody is going through an evolution so when we read lennin and read marks don't think of it as the gospel don't think of it as the final word contextualize what the debate and the argument is so my goal one of the goals of the class is to help people read and study and and to do it properly which is to provide context so what I'm doing is in this class is providing some of the context for some of the key battles that Lenin fought with the hope that you will recognize that you have to keep contextualizing all of that another goal for this class is to understand the Revolutionary essence of Marxism Lenin revives Marxism and transforms Marxism which had really become by 1910 a Doctrine for reform and revitalizes the Revolutionary nature of Marxism in relationship to the state in in relationship to the armed struggle in relationship to smashing the state and creating the dictatorship of the proletariat which are terms that we're going to go over we're going to try to un you know sort of talk about what some of those words mean another goal of the class is to understand what Lenin what kind of organization was Lenin trying to build and why again when when we when you read about Lenin or leninism even by those people who say that they are leninists they'll say that Lenin Lenin's contribution to Marxism was that he created a party of a new type remember that formula a party of a new type meaning unlike the Socialist parties that existed in the second International and just for context to make it more contemporary the party for socialism and liberation for instance is a leninist party and has built itself on the organizational principles as we interpret them of leninism and Democratic centralism Democratic socialists of America DSA is an organization that is built not on a leninist on a leninist basis but along the organizational principles of the second International now what is that exact mean in the second International the Socialists built what was called a the the primary leaders they were building what was called a party of the whole class A Party of the whole proletariat meaning that you had to represent the different strata the different currents the different Trends the different constituencies that it was the party of the whole class and Lenin accepted this thesis even after the Bolsheviks were formed I want people to really try to remember this and take notes and if you try to understand what I'm saying because this gets to the kernel of a misunderstanding of leninism a misunderstanding when Lennon was forming and helping to form the Russian Social Democratic labor party in 1903 he was not trying to build a party of a new type he was trying to build a party like the German Social Democratic party but it was a party that was being built under the conditions of zaris of of of a of a police state where workingclass people and anyone for that matter did not have free speech rights you didn't have any civil liberties you couldn't form a union you couldn't form a Socialist Party the question was how under the circumstances of zarus Russia are you going to build a party like the other parties like the German Social Democratic party for instance it was only later that Lenin rejects this model altogether of the party of a whole class and I want to and we're going to get into why why he rejects it because this is really later in Lennon's political career where the party of a new type is born party for socialism and ation for by for by way of example would be the party of a new type that comes later in Lenin's uh political activity and political career DSA Democratic Socialist of America still using the same organizational model in essence from the second International so for instance if you join the PSL you you go through through a candidacy program and there are 16 different candidacy classes that you go through when you're a candidate member of the party and you learn everything about what the party stands for what it's the what its view on the Soviet Union is what its view on China is what its view on on the national oppression of Black America on the colonial question on the lgbtq question on women's oppression on how to function within trade unions uh a whole range of issues and we have a very highly refined View and after you go through this candidacy program um you know or you might know do I agree with this is this really what I believe in or or not and then you decide and the party also decides are do do you agree do you want to be in the organization you know that there's a a fully developed political program around which the unity of the party is constructed and it's very refined if it wasn't a party of a new type if it was let's say DSA you would say I want to join the party here's my whatever the dues is $15 dues I agree in general with the principles you're now a member of the party so in DSA for instance you have people who are communists marxists and people who believe in leninism you have people who believe in the who are completely reject leninism you have a whole range of different political opinions within the same political party and then at each moment debates are held um you know there's a sort of an outcome a determination what's our position in a in a party like a Democratic centralist party of a new type a leninist party if something happen say October 7th October 7th when the Hamas and resistance forces attack uh attack uh the Israeli government and reconquer and take back at least for a moment some of the territory that was stolen from the Palestinian people the party for socialism and Liberation doesn't didn't really need to debate what to do we already had a highly refined position the highly refined position is that the PO that the colonized people in Palestine the people who were suffering from colonization had the right to carry out resistance they had the right to move instantly does it mean that we agree with all tactics of all all different factions or Trends within the Palestinian movement not necessarily but that's not the point we knew that in that battle we were going to stand with the Palestinian people and we had an action-oriented plan so by the next day we were in Time Square we were in the streets and afterwards the DSA I think sponsored the demonstration but then there was a wave of attacks against the demonstration by right-wing pro-israeli forces and people who wanted to demonize it and caricature it and and stereotype it and then DSA had a great big debate well should they or should they not have sponsored the the protest now that's an organizational model I'm not I'm not trying to say this derisively my point is not to tell you dsa's model is bad psls model is good that's not the point the point is it's a different model and the model that was constructed by the parties of the third international were premised on having a high degree of centralization and the ability to act what is the Democratic part of democratic centralism according to Lenin you have a party Congress the party congress makes final decisions the Congress has elected delegates the word of the Congress is the final word at least until the next Congress the Congress is the highest um organization of the party the highest body it's higher than the Central Committee it's higher than any individual the party Congress is the ultimate decider in a Democratic centralist party after that in addition to agreeing to the political program the Central Committee is also elected at the party Congress and the Central Committee is empowered to act so that if anything happens at any given moment the Central Committee can give a directive to the entire organization and say we are moving in this direction we're going to do this this is the plan and everybody conforms to the plan if people think the plan is bad if they think the leadership is wrong if they think the leadership has made a mistake they can then criticize the leadership they can even call for the recall of the leadership if the mistakes are that bad they can demand a new election or a new Congress so that the current leadership can be replaced so there is a lively period before every Congress of pre Congress discussion of debates and then at the Congress there's final decisions made a Central Committee elected and there's an empowered leadership a leadership that has a centralist capacity to act and to act quickly very quickly if if the police raided this place if the police raided some office we would have a leadership that would be in motion instantly because the point of centralism is not to make a fetish out of centralism or authority the point of centralism is to have the ability to act quickly against an enemy that is mobilized quickly and acts quickly and acts decisively in other words to combat the Monstrous centralism of the capitalist State the working class needs its own centralism if you're out on the street and the police are attacking we have a leadership that's been empowered if people if the leadership says we're going to go forward people go forward if the leadership says we're going to retreat we Retreat we have the capacity to act decisively we don't say well we don't know we're going to have a collective discussion at the moment the police are attacking us we have an empowered leadership we think of all issues in the same same sort of mode of being able to act and to act decisively and that was ultimately the party that Lenin created but I want to read to you how Lenin viewed the menic bolik split which I talked about a little bit last time and again bulvik means majority menic means minority Lenin had the majority at the Congress by one vote and to after the Congress he he was the minority for the rest of the time but they kept the name Bolshevik majority and menik minority so that's how the two Trends knew each other but here's what Lennon says in 1909 seven years after what is to be done is written six years after the uh the split between the menik and the bulvik this is what he writes in our party bolism our party meaning the Russian Social Democratic labor labor party in our party bolshevism is represented by the Bolshevik section but a section is not a party a party can contain a whole gamut of opinions and shades of opinion the extremes of which may be sharply contradictory now that sounds like what I'm describing for DSA right this is Lenin writing in 1909 in the German party the German Social Democratic party which was the flagship party they had one-third of the seats in Parliament in the German party side by side with pronouncedly re the Revolutionary wing of Kowski kowsky is the leader of the Revolutionary Wing in 1909 we see the ultra revisionist wing of Bernstein this is not the case within the section meaning like the Bolsheviks a section in a party is a group of likeminded persons formed for the purpose primarily of influencing the party in a definite direction for the purpose of securing acceptance for their principles in the party in the purest possible form for this meaning for the section real unanimity of opinion is necessary the different standards we set for party unity and sectional Unity must be grasped in everyone who wants to know how the question of internal Discord in the bolik section really stands so lennin in 1909 seven years after what is to be done and six years after the split with the menik is saying the Bolsheviks are not their own party we're just a section of the party what changes in Lenin's conception is what happened in World War I and I want to go back to this we touched on it last time because again context is everything right now he's still trying to win the argument inside the party he wants to win the menix over he wants to win the panov panov group over he wants to win the Jewish Bund over the Jewish Bund were part of the party but they insisted that when it came to matters related to the Jewish proletariat or Jewish peasantry that their wing of the party their section of the party the Jewish Wing would have complete autonomy over the direction of things related to Jewish people and lennin was absolutely opposed to that he supported the right of all the oppressed Nations to be self-determining to be independent to secede from the Russian Empire but within the party he insisted that all the sections regardless of ethnicity or nationality be equal party members and that they all conform to the party program the decisions of the Congress that there not be autonomy what changes is 1914 because in 1914 as I said last time but I want to go into into it a little bit more World War I begins and all of the manifestos the resolutions from the sto guard Conference of the second International the basil Switzerland Congress where they had all promised each other because they could see a war was coming a war between all the capitalist Powers a war to divide the colonies because all the capitalists already had colonized all the world now it was to be to redivide the world Britain and France wanted Germany's colonies in Africa and vice versa so all the Socialists could see that this was a war for colonization a war to redivide the world and the people the majority in Africa Latin America Asia and the Middle East they were just they were just to be taken over by the capitalists in Western Europe and America so they all said we're going to oppose the war and should the war come we're going to take advantage of the war we're going to promote the idea of revolutionary defeatism and we're going to take advantage to overthrow our own Bourgeois make Revolution create social a socialist government and then begin the the union of socialist republics meaning all the republics of the world would join together in a Union of Soviet Socialist republics Lenin's view of the USSR was not to have it be a Russian thing he hoped Germany would be part of the USSR he hoped Hungary would be France he was hoping that the Revolution was spreading uh everywhere and that all these countries would become part of a Union of Soviet Socialist republics and when the war broke out the whole socialist movement changed their position and instead of opposing the war and taking advantage of the war and making Revolution they all supported the war why did they support the war well this was the big question why did a Socialist Party in Germany that had onethird of the seats in the r tag the parliament the leadership the flagship party of the second International why did each and every member of the parliament vote Yes to the war well you can you can identify a couple elements one is cowardice because if you vote no to the war you're going to end up like Eugene Debs and go to prison Debs went to prison for 10 years at age 66 because he spoke out against us entrance into World War I in the case of the Russian parliamentary group The Duma those people were sentenced to they were going being sentenced to death for opposing voting for war so the one-third of the members of the r tag they didn't want to go to prison they wanted to be socialist politicians who collected their socialist politician salaries and some travel allowances and maybe an apartment sound familiar people who don't want to give up the Privileges that go with being in Congress or the parliament so cowardice is one okay we can all understand cowardice nobody knows how we how strong you are or How brave you are until you're confronted with that kind of situation I can talk to each of you and say look I'm I'm a militant re revolutionary leninist but how am I in the face of authority that can only be that's only can be tested how people stand up when they're being really threatened so let's say cowardice is one level but the fact that they all did it only Lenin's party which is Tiny and the Serbian Socialist Party and parts of the US Socialist Party most of the almost all of the Socialists parties capitulated so Lenin's analysis was that it wasn't simply cowardice Lenin's analysis and this I think is a kernel a key kernel of leninism and how the concept of a party of a new type the the kind of different organization organizational models that I was describing come into being Lenin comes to the conclusion that the capitulation by the Socialist Party say in Germany is not simply coward it's also because they represent a strata in German society that is privileged that they represent the more well-off workers the middle class workers the workers who pay more attention to politics in general the people who vote as opposed to the poor poorest and most oppressed people who frequently in society are so busy just struggling to live that they can't fully engage in politics so let and and the leaders of the German party were workers August beel and some of the other key leaders they had been carpenters and you know skilled workers who came up through the ranks they weren't like uh the intelligency or the intellectuals from middle class they were workers who became trained communist orators and writers but Lennon said opportunism is a consequence of in a phenomena within the imperialist capitalist countries of a sort of what he calls the labor aristocracy the privileged sectors of the proletariat who actually identify with imperialism because they have material privilege as a consequence of the imperialists dominating and colonizing Africa Asia the Middle East and Latin America that the wealth and affluence in the West European countries or in the United States is from the excess or super profits gained by the extra profits made from the colonization the theft the enslavement of people in the colonized world and so Lenin's assessment is that this phenomena of capitulation at the beginning of World War I is is really rooted in a a deeper class analysis of society and a recognition that the society is not divided simply between the proletariat and the bisi but that there are many intermediate strata in society some of many of which are not super poor and super oppressed they are workers they are exploited they are oppressed they can be terminated fired their lives can be destroyed by the capitalists but for a given part of their life they're doing okay and that's Lenin's analysis and so lennin comes to the conclusion that in order for a Vanguard in order for a party to lead a revolution which he frequently which he says will come about mainly as a consequence of the dislocation and violence from war that you have to have a party that can actually stay true to its principles of internationalism and revolution in the face of this terrible social pressure and it's not simply the pressure of repression if the German com if the German Socialist Party had come out and said no to the war we're going to vote no to the war no to the war credits they would not have been hounded simply by the German police but by their fellow workers I mean think about what it was like in September 11th when the US was attacked you know it's so infrequent that the US is actually attacked on its own soil you know a lot of leftist that we knew we said let's start building we built the answer Coalition right away 3 days after September 11th we said let's start mobilizing bush is Bush and Cheney are going to cynically take advantage of the rage and grief and suffering because the US was attacked in order to carry out Wars against Iraq and Libya and Syria we have to fight now we have to go into the streets most people on the left said no we don't it's not appropriate you're going to be you're you guys are going to go to jail your offices are going to get raided it's going to be a terrible sort of Oppression that comes down or repression that comes down on the left it was hard now just think of the September 11th attack had been carried out where there was a second attack and a third attack and a fourth attack it wasn't just a oneoff I mean in the case of World War I Germans and French soldiers were going to kill each other and did kill each other so if you're a German and you say well I'm against this War I it's a boss's War it's a rich man's War we're going to stay true to our principles a lot of the people who at the beginning of the war are going to say well you're a traitor you're not just a socialist you're you're turning your back on your country our brothers and sisters and Sons and husbands are being killed by these awful French imperialists so the pressure is so great and Lenin's argument was that in order for the party not to capitulate at a critical moment when the prospects of Revolution actually open up because the war created a social crisis creating a revolutionary opportunity we have to have a party of a new type a party that is completely organized and unified and especially along principles of internationalism of anti-imperialism and of solidarity and an organization that has been tested and gone through many experiences because if you have a right a left in a center like the German party did the left is going to be overwhelmed at that moment so that's when lennin creates The Party envisions The Party of a new type after the Russian Revolution in 1917 when the world socialist movement looks to Russia they before that Lenin's friends in the west you could count them on the fingers of a couple hands not many more he was considered like a wild man like an extremist a sectarian somebody you shouldn't follow but they in 1917 the workers in Russia were like we don't want to fight anymore we are not going to fight anymore and who did they look to they look to the Bolsheviks especially because the Bolsheviks had told them from day one this war is a rich man's War this is a boss's War this is not our war we have more in common with the German and French and British workers and all the workers than we do with our own Russian bosses and we're willing to go to prison and even be executed to stick to our principles well the Russian masses learned from that experience that they had in that bolix a party that was serious in other words you can't simply lead the revolution because you lead the biggest and best and largest demonstrations in the mass movement when it's going at its Zenith how are you as a party at the moment when things are hardest most difficult the repression is greatest we asked everyone to read the different stages of bolshevism because lenon is saying after 197 when everybody now supporting Lenin in the Russian Revolution became a fad in 1916 everybody hated Lenin in 1917 everybody loved Lenin matter of fact in in America in the United States the Bolsheviks were very popular right here where we are The Amalgamated clothing workers in 1919 in the middle of the white Terror and Red Terror when the Bolsheviks were basically engaged in complete armed struggle against their enemies The Amalgamated clothing workers said hell the Bolsheviks we're all Bolshevik so did the international ladies garment Workers Union the largest Yiddish speaking newspaper Yiddish language newspaper the forward we love bolshevism we're all Bolsheviks all the most important black media including that uh edited by A Philip Randolph they were all about the bull Marcus Garvey who you know loved lennin and paid tribute to Lenin everybody the support for the Bolsheviks was very very high after the Russian Revolution and where the split happens inside the United States and in other places against Lenin is when Lenin says there are experiences from our what happened to us in these last 20 years including how to build a party and the type of party that's needed for revolution that have Universal applicability they're not simply Russian peculiar experiences that's why he says read the different stages of bolism there's 190 19 1905 to 197 1907 there was the re the revolution everybody's for the revolution then the revolution is crushed maybe that we have the the the slide I I promised last time I was going to use slides the the stpp and neck ties there's see these people executed that's 1906 1907 Stalin is the new prime minister the revolutions being crushed the Zar who you know Hollywood sort of makes movies about how wonderful Nikki and the zaren were this is the handiwork of the Zar 15,000 people were executed like this 15,000 in Russia these were called the punitive Expeditions so the the Bolsheviks are leading helping to lead the Revolution and then they don't succeed with the armed struggle the revolution is overtaken by counterrevolution everything that they had is lost the Bolsheviks lose everything not everything but they lost a lot then there's the period of 1907 to 1910 Lennon says this is the period of reaction he says the number of people I can count on as cadr I can count literally on the fingers of both hands everybody is like it's over just think about when you almost have an almost Revolution and you're almost there and you don't succeed but this is what ends this is what happens 15,000 people hung executed the stalp and neck ties as they were called where the nooses around the necks of all of the people who were executed and so a period of reaction sets in and then many people leave the movement in 19 in 1912 to 1914 there's a Revival why because workers in a gold field Lena Goldfield are on strike and their Massacre just like this the massacre that started the 1905 revolution in January 9th so then the the workingclass movement picks up and the Bolsheviks become the biggest of the Marxist parties between 1912 and 1914 so now the Bolsheviks are Riding High Soviet you know workers are setting up barricades it's almost it looks like another revolution in 1912 and then 1914 the re the war starts and the buic lose everything again so lennin is saying in leftwing communism in the readings we sent out for all of you who are now part of the FED meaning it's great to be with Lenin it's great to be a bolik they know how to make Revolution they're audacious they're bold I want to be like them I want to be that bold Lennon says well don't if if you want to really be like us don't think about how to make the revolution at the moment of Revolution think about 1905 think about 1907 think about the lessons we learned in these different stages of bism because the party has to be all-rounded its experiences have to to be able to show that you can go forward but you also have to retreat that you can be on the verge of Victory and then have it all taken away from you so Lenin's contribution to Marxism in the creation of what what I'm going to call leninism and the beginning of the building of a new a party of a new type really comes about in 1914 in terms of World War I and then in 19 19 17 everybody is looking to become and support the Bolsheviks and that's when the Bolsheviks in Lenin say we need to reorganize the Socialist movement so that all of the parties around the world can learn from the Russian experience that which is universal not every element of course there are differences between Russia and Germany or Russia zus Russia in the United States but what is universal in the Revolutionary process that everybody needs to learn if your goal is Revolution and so that's when Lenin and the bolik organized the Communist International they create a new international they require that all of the old socialist parties that want to be with the Bolsheviks and huge not Millions tens of millions of socialists want to be with the bulvik he said but you have to get rid of the opportunists we're not going to be a party of the whole class we're not going to have a a rightwing a center and a left we have to have a Unity that's premised on a revolutionary program rooted in internationalism rooted in the support of the right of colonized people for self-determination rooted in the idea that you can only make Revolution by Smashing the Old State and erecting creating a new State uh based on different a whole different class Force so this is the beginning I would say of leninism bolshevism isn't leninism until these other events take place especially the lesson of 1914 World War I how to combat opportunism why opportunism exists and why you have to organize the party on a different basis which is then codified in the new international and Ne in the next class I'm going to go in detail about what the third international was so let's think now let's just um summarize about where who L is and again it's all about context it's all about context keep trying to discover the context if you don't know the context if you're TR if you have trouble with it call me uh come to the LA the last class is going to be a Q&A we're going to just anything that people are troubled about uncertain about that's going to be nothing but Q&A that's not next week but the week after but you also can do all of your own research and look you have to you have to study you have to you have it's it's hard but you have to do it and if you want to be a socialist if you want to make Revolution you have to try to learn all of this so how do we where do we how do we place lennin let's go I want to put up a SL I'm going to call Lenin the fourth wave of socialism the fourth wave of socialism leninism is the fourth wave let's start with the first wave um no these are the utopian socialists so we have here Robert Owens HRI St Simone and Charles foyer Marx and Engles called these individuals utopian socialists what made them utopian it wasn't their political program Lenin I mean Marx and Engles thought their political program was hugely significant Robert Owens for instance was a Welsh U millionaire manufacturer industrialist he gave up all of his money like one of those really rich people who wants to help the movement by giving their money away you know those people rare but very important Robert Owens did that he created in Indiana a the the town of New Harmony which was a utopian commune a city where everyone would have a job everyone would have equal pay women would have rights there could be a Kinder Garden so that young kids could get public education uh these were these demands were not utopian because we realized them under capitalism many of them not all of them but kindergarten for instance uh but they were considered novel and extreme and revolutionary well what Owens did is he gave all of his money he created these communes he said by virtue of creating a better Society within the existing capitalist Society we're going to prove that socialism is better than capitalism and Marx and Engles called him a utopian not because his ideas were utopian the the actual forms but he thought the Bourgeois will not be convinced that your ideas are good ideas and thus get rid of their wealth the way you got rid of your wealth in fact they will fight tooth and nail they will engage an armed struggle as we could see with the American slavocracy you know which went to war in the bloodiest of all us Wars because they weren't going to give up their property meaning the enslaved people they'd rather fight and have a million people killed then give up their property so Marx and Engel said they're utopian because they don't believe that the class struggle is the wave to socialism they think you in a utopian way that you could convince the bisi to be good the buoi can't be good even if the bisi goes to church and thinks humble thoughts and really cares about the environment if they're the CEO of Exxon Mobile and they do all those wonderful things and donate their money and our philanthropists if they're not going to maximize profit for Exon Mobile in the next three months they're going to be fired because the goal of a capitalist institution is nothing other than to maximize profits and if some group of capitalists don't do it they'll either be undersold gone made bankrupt or in the case of the CEO replaced so Marx and Engles believe Scientific Socialism means only the proletarian class struggle can bring socialism and this is something else that differentiated lenon I mean Marx and Lenin from the utopians is the utopians looked at the working class as a victim class they thought these poor oppressed exploited illiterate workers who are stuffed into factories and work 12 14-hour days and so many of them children they're so they're such victims and Marx and Engel said yes the proletariat is a victim class but it's also the gravediggers of the bisi the proletariat isn't simply a victim class it is the class that can take hold of society reorganize Society reconstruct Society in the interest of society as opposed to the interest of a corporation maximizing profit in the next three months so Marx and Engles had this immense confidence that the proletariat in spite of its oppression with would be the class the only class that could reorganize Society The Peasants were a bigger working class more oppressed in many ways than the proletariat but they were atomized they were spread out they weren't concentrated they weren't in urban areas they didn't have the Strategic leverage their ability to strike and to close the means of production withhold their labor that didn't exist for the peasantry so Marx in Engles and Lennon felt that the pro that the peasantry would be a re evolutionary class but it couldn't be the Vanguard class that the proletariat because of the way it was organized and the collective character of it if you're a factory worker you let's say you're work in a factory and you have 10,000 workers the solution for the problems that you're facing is not to divide that factory up into 10,000 little pieces right your goal is to take control as a collective of the factory run it for the benefit of workers but if you're a poor peasant what you basically want is more land the peasantry wants more private property the oppression of the peasantry is that the that they are deprived of enough private property to live so they want more where the proletariat has a collectivist orientation because of its social position in society because of its relationship to the means of production as a collective Workforce but the the the Russian peasantry was so poor lennin said they will be the generator of revolutionary momentum and they were the October Revolution in Russia is a combination of the uprising of the urban proletariat and the masses of peasants seizing the Estates killing the landlords taking their land and Lenin and the bulvik said yes we're for you take the land land to the tillers and so the peasants thought that's a good government we don't haven't read marks but we agree with your decrees about land which is exactly how it happened okay these are the utopian socialists first wave second wave there you go Carl Marx Frederick Engles Scientific Socialism what was the party marks and Engles talked about the party if you read their stuff they say the party has to do this the party has to do this the party should take this POS I but there is no party it's a fiction it's kind of like they want it to be a party but Marx is basically the organizer of the first International the work international working men's association which was a decidedly non-marxist formation it was Catholic Workers uh Italian nationalists British trade unionists uh workers of all different types the only thing they had in common is they were all being screwed by the European bisi and whenever workers in France went on strike the French bis brought in German strike Breakers and so everybody could hate the German strike Breakers instead of their French bosses and so Marx created the first International as an organization an elementary organization of self-defense it lasts from 1864 until 19 1873 but really over by 1871 with the defeat of the Paris commune markx actually sent the headquarters of the Communist International to New York City because he knew it would die here he didn't want it to continue because it was going to fall under the influence of political forces that he thought were awful so we got it out of Europe but the Revolutionary wave after the defeat of the Paris commun ended second wave marks and Engles promoting the idea of the urban proletariat as a Vanguard class wanting to have a party but no party the third wave I don't have a picture of the third wave so I'll fill in the third wave the third wave was the second International so Engles is still alive Marx dies in 1883 the second International the Socialist International especially located in Germany is starting to get the worker the working class in Germany gets the right to vote at the same time as anti-socialist laws are eliminated and where the where the right to form unions is also taking place so as soon as the workers are forming unions they think like wait let's have our own political party it's the German Social Democratic labor German Socialist Party and so they start they because they were a majority class they start to elect all these socialists to the r t to the parliament so the second wave is the second International it begins in 1888 really a couple years earlier 1916 it ends why does it end World War I ends it you can't really seriously continue to promote the idea of workers of the World Unite when each of your sections of the international is supporting the war effort designed to slaughter the workers of The Other Nation so the idea of workers of the world uniting seems like a complete fiction like a fantasy and the second International collapses that's the third wave Lenin is the fourth wave can we have a picture of of some picture of Lennon okay okay there's a picture of Lennon right so let's go to the picture of Lennon's brother if we could okay just so we get how these W these waves of the first wave the utopian socialist second wave marks in Anglo Scientific Socialism third wave is the second International where parties really are created but those parties become reformist and then Lenin returns to the road of revolutionary Marxism by building a party of a new type based on the principles I outlined I wanted to show before we end this picture before we open it up for Q&A Alexander ulanoff Lenin's older brother this picture of him when he's about 20 shortly after this picture he's executed he was um sent to the Gallows he was part of a small group of the narodnik populist movement that having despaired over despaired over the failure of Russian Democratic Revolution to take place despaired over the fact that the peasantry which was the majority majority class hadn't made the revolution decided to take matters into their own hand and assassinate the Zar they felt if we could kill thear we could dispel the peasants sort of the Illusions about thear as a great father or somebody who had a Divine mandate showing that he was human and could be killed they were so despairing they were a Vanguard they were a Vanguard who was ready to die and did die he was 21 years old he goes into court Lenin is 17 his brother Alexander goes into court and says I take responsibility for this entire plot to kill Alexander II Alexander III thear it was my responsibility it's actually not true he wasn't even there at the time but he was part of the conspiracy he and four other people are executed he's Lennon was very close to his brother this young man was um um a scientist his was stunning worms he was a biologist he was sensitive quiet humble smart he was part of the rising sort of Russian educated class that was despairing over the conditions of Russia feudalism serfdom only ended in Russia in 1861 and most of the people were surfs in the countryside and most of the peasants who were who were either serfs or later were completely illiterate this was Russia at that time is half it's an Empire it's the biggest empire in the world but it's also half Colony dominated by Western capitalism backward because of zaris no free speech no civil rights no rights at all and so the Vanguard Alexander ready to fight and kill and die to make the revolution to bring Russia into the modern era this is the end really of this populist movement and Lenin young man 17 starts to study Marxism starts to learn from panov who's translated The Works of Marx and lenon is illuminated excited thrilled by the idea not of creating a Vanguard there already was a Vanguard they were the narodniks who proudly said we are terrorists we're going to use Terror to strike down this terrorist regime there was already a Vanguard of dedicated revolutionary Fighters but there was no revolutionary class there was no social basis and Lenin came to the conclusion by 1892 1893 that in Russia even though it was so backward capitalism would develop and with it would develop a proletariat and that proletariat as Mark said would be the gravediggers of capitalism and so his whole conception of building a party first in 1903 and then later the party of a new type is based on the idea that a Vanguard can never win that the masses make Revolution the Revolution and the masses need leaders ship they learned from the experience of World War I that it had to be a new kind of party a party of a new type in order to do that but the mission of the Bolsheviks was always the same to fuse the Vanguard with the workers movement fuse the Vanguard with the movement and the sufferings and strugglings of the poor peasants and to carry out Revolution I'll finish with this quote from Lenin in 1905 at the time of the Revolution he says major question in the life of nations are settled only by force I'll say it again major questions in the life of nations are settled only by force now in our current political atmosphere I said last week don't accuse me of trying to organize an armed struggle in the United States because I'm just teaching history because the conditions in the United States have become very repressive and people are everyone's words are being like looked at in part but let's tell the truth about history the life the major questions in the life of nations are settled by force when we look at what happened on October 7th in Palestine the whole world has changed in the last eight weeks hasn't it I mean you can say whatever you want about and all these Imperial and pro-imperialist and you can say whatever you want it has changed everything hasn't it the whole world has changed how did slavery end in Haiti the French Bazi was not going to say oh you know what I read the I read one of those utopian socialist books and you're all free no it was a violent struggle it was settled by force how did the how did slavery in the United States end it was the Civil War yes an election triggered it but even the election was uh the precursor to the election was John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry that made the slave ocracy convinced that Revolution was coming so the South started the Civil War through a counterrevolution but it led to the end of slavery the only social Revolution the US actually ever had was right then 1863 to 18 65 and for a couple years afterwards until the counterrevolution crushed it how did the indigenous people in the in North America lose all their lands it wasn't because the pilgrims came and they read their Bible to them and they said hey take our land it was Force of Arms I mean in the US you there's so much repression about what people say that you can't tell this basic truth but that is always the decis Force I mean there are some instances like in South Africa where the armed struggle was going to win and because of the collapse of the communist movement the US and Brit British imperialism thought they could negotiate an end to a partide and create majority rule and I guess from the river to the sea or the ocean to Ocean in South Africa black majority rule was negotiated in so there are instances where there can be a negotiation but would that have happened would that have happened if the Cuban volunteers had not gone to Angola and defeated the South African military in 1988 and showed that the South African fascist regime was not invincible so Lenin's next week we're going to talk about Lenin's tactics because these are historically true things about the role of force but Lennon's argument in building a party of a new type is don't simply look at the moment of Revolution at the Insurrection at the moment when there actually is violence to build a party of a new type you have to learn all these tactics how are you going to be in a trade Union how if you're elected the city council what are you going to do if you're elected to congress how are you going to be different than all other members of Congress right now and carry out the party's program how are you going to deal with your community if then Community needs a stop stop sign and kids are getting run over because there's no stop sign in the city is callous how are you going to get that stop sign every element of struggle not just the armed struggle is key to building a party that has the allegiance the Loyalty of the working class and the training to be able to navigate through all of these Troubled Waters so next time we're going to talk about the third international what the leninist tactics look like because there was a whole range of tactics and then I want to finish next week with how the third international I opened with this last week transforms communism from being essentially a European phenomena to becoming a phenomena of what was called the third world or now is called the global South and so the Socialist movement the Socialist Revolution goes east to Asia and it goes south to the Middle East and Africa and of course over to Latin America as well so that's where we're going to go but we'll leave it right here for now thank you [Applause] everyone okay so we're going to go to the question portion uh I'm sure there's lots of questions online and here in the room what I think we should do is take a couple questions first and then answer them together is that okay Brian yep um all right so I'm going to ask our amazing Tech Team Sidi and Ryan to send me uh any questions from our virtual attendees in the room if those of you who have questions can raise your hand I'm going to prioritize people who didn't get to speak last week okay raise them High all right so let's go here and then here and then we'll see where we are hi um last class you were saying that it's hard to understand it's hard to read Lenin out of context like if you just pick up a lenon book and start reading it you might misinterpret a lot of things is there any books that you would recommend that talk about Lennon in that way where you can avoid that Pitfall at all one of Lennon's books or any books in general that might have put lenon in context way I'm going to recommend five books by the way I should have I forgot another thing I forgot but I have five books that I'm going to recommend where is this and some of them are written by lenon hi Brian thanks so much for the amazing class um I guess my question is also a little bit similar um to the previous question in terms of like the general approach to reading lenon or studying lenon um you talked a little bit about how uh Lenin wasn't his views weren't always static they were evolving over time um and specifically his views on on Democratic centralism and and the party shifted um throughout his his life so I'm wondering like what the what you would recommend as like a general approach for trying to understand Lenin and and his views on Democratic centralism and and the party structure and maybe what some key text throughout or writings uh throughout his his career one could read to um get a better understanding yeah well maybe we should go to the books now is there a slide with the books okay so the first book here is called Lenin it's the critical live series it's just called Lenin actually by Lars T Lee it's not long it's a short book which um I think makes it very accessible uh I have like enormous disagreements with Lars T Lee so I want to say that in advance but this book really is great if you're if you're new to the subject and also if you're not new to the subject it's he's is a good writer and it really captures I think the essence of Lennon So Lars Lee um Lenin criticals live series there's other books by Lars te like Lenin rediscovered that's an 800 page or 900 page book um that's not the book I'm talking about I'm talking about this one which is 150 Pages second book red star over the third world by VJ prashad from tricontinental research we we're going to cover more of that topic next week because we'll talk about the Communist International and its impact on the colonized world vj's book is also very accessible and shows the impact of leninism and the communist the victory in Russia in especially in the colonized and sem colonized world the Russian Revolution view from the third world by Walter Rodney uh a lot of people know Walter Rodney for his book um how Europe underdeveloped Africa that's perhaps his most famous book sadly tragically he was assassinated at a young age um Russian Revolution gives you a lot of context of what was actually of Lenin's and some of the debates and controversies going on inside the Russian movement so I would definitely recommend Walter rney Revolution Manifesto by PSL uh do I that's a book we published um which is amazing um but what we did is we republished State and Revolution which is the easiest book I think to read without context so if you want to read something by Lenin that's a little bit out of that doesn't require a context it's more of a general it's Lenin's rethinking about the state and it's brilliant and you can't really be a Marxist or a leninist without reading State and Revolution so we republished that but we have the first half of the book is our own sort of thoughts about State and Revolution a 100 years after it was published so we have four or five articles that make up half the book um and I talk in that in that one of those sections about how Lenin did evolve starting in late 1916 uh on on the question of the state three sources three components by Marxism everybody should get that book it'll take you a half an hour to read it it's so tiny Lenin wrote this as a he was a lot of times when you read reading lenon you don't also know if he's writing for the sensor because if the if the sensor is involved he's he's using language that is softer avoids keywords like imperialism the highest stage of capitalism that is written for the censor uh so it's not Lennon's full view on imperialism he's writing it because he wants to get the book published in order to get a published it has to get through a sensor so he says these are the economic characteristics of imperialism so he's avoiding the Revolutionary you know tasks of the movement at that time because the censor would have silenced it three sources three components was written for an encyclopedia in Switzerland in 1913 very short it'll it'll give you a good way to read it uh State and Revolution okay here's a longer the last one Satan Revolution I already mentioned the Russian Revolution by by eh car eh Carr is not a Marxist he's a British historian that the Russian Revolution is three volumes 1917 to 1923 if you are have the time have the interest he's easy to read he's a good re he's a good writer excellent historian not a Marxist but so familiar with bolic Doctrine and Marxist Doctrine his whole examination of the Russian Revolution from 1917 to 23 is essentially a statement here's Marxist and Bolshevik and Lenin's theories and here's how they actually played out in life to the extent that they're not really applied fully in life it's because conditions don't allow it because after the Russian Revolution everything that Lenin did from 1917 till his death in uh in in 1924 January 21st everything is an emergency everything is a crisis everything is how are we going to survive and they're in Civil War so you can't really look at the period between 1917 and 1923 and look at Lennon's writings and say that's what lennin stands for you read it like that's what Lenin stands for in a civil war where 14 invading armies are 100 miles from Moscow and what do you do so everything is emergency emergency emergency because they're they're struggling to survive then the Civil War 3 million dead famine another 3 million die from Hunger all of that in the first years so Lenin in the bics are reacting to these immense problems and how to survive this book by eh car 3 books it gives you a very clear sense of how the doctrine which was so important to Lenin and to the Bolsheviks the doctrine the thoughts the ideas the principles how they're they're constantly being amended Ed by the exigency or the emergency of life when they're under such survival so you know struggling to survive great so that read all of these by next week let us know what you think all right homework assigned all right I see more hands in the room I'm going to take one there's great questions coming in online I'm going to say one of the questions online yeah and then we can go here and here okay so can you speak more about the way that Russia was dominated by American or uh European capitalism and how was it colonialist and then all right question yes sorry hi Brian um Hello thank you fantastic class um I have a question about um so it's actually really interesting to revisit history of the first and second Internationals um and just based on the sort of um murmurings of the crowd it seems like some of the the ideologies of of those groups and those people sort of resonate with what people are hearing or talking about with um people today um and so I was wondering if you could sort of maybe go through um you know why why do we see some of those um PR like principles or or things of the of the second International show up why do people still cling to those like political ideas even though they've proven to to be on the side of imperialism they've proven to sort of split and divide the movement to fail in the face of of a true revolutionary movement um I guess not really you know what what how they manifest today but really more like why since historically um the you know the history is very clear um and then how to sort of um um since I assume that most of us are organizers here how do we address those um those failed ideas in a way that um is accessible to people thank you uh yeah my question is uh you mentioned that both uh Lenin's work and Mars work should not be taken as a dogma and uh and also that you know should be contextualized and also it's constantly evolving right which is it's pragmatic so my question is like it's about revisionism which is a word that you see thrown around a lot on uh communist forums so you know in that context how how do you tell or how you know what makes something uh revisionist versus uh an evolution and you know like how how do you go about about throwing around that word and sort of like protecting uh the core values uh while allowing this Evolution good okay that's a good one they're all good by the way um so let me read a little bit um some facts about Russia this was the first question how did foreign capital I I describe the Russian Empire as half half Empire half Colony can you can you show the slide of uh one of the Russian Empire slides okay you see 1866 look at how big the Russian Empire is see that that's the red everything that's red is the Russian Empire so you have all the way all the way from the farthest east in to on the Pacific all the way over to to Poland Poland was not Poland was part of Russia Poland was part of the Russian Empire and of course Alaska not all things are settled by force Alaska was purchased um Hawaii not so so look at how big that is so you can see it's an Empire right okay here are some statistics at the at the time Lenin was uh coming into you know leadership Western investors owned 90% of all Russian mines 50% of the chemical industry 40% of all Russian engineering plants and 42% of the banks in Russia so half half Empire clearly an Empire big military Forest but the bis in Russia had been weakened and was not allowed to develop because of the reactionary pro- feudal elements of zaris so the bisi didn't didn't create the urban areas it wasn't from R the Russian bisi this Dynamic new robust social class which existed in France and Germany for instance or in the United States all of most of what contributed to the development of urban life or industrial or scientific life was imported from Western capitalists who thought they could make extra profits by investing in Russia so those are just a clear way to show the diff half Colony half Empire uh second question second and first International the repetition of ideas that have proved to be bad ideas in the past but they keep coming back they will always come back because the bad I what we consider to be the bad or not revolutionary ideas or the the move away from internationalism and solidarity they Mark said the ideas of any society are the ideas of its ruling class the ruling class molds public opinion I mean there's a reason like we turn on every television station there's different anchors they look different they have different colors and they say EX ly the same thing and so the working class and all of society keeps looking at all these same things and people who are considered themselves very smart and for follow for foreign policy they hear these repetitive positions over and over and over and over again they like well they start to Echo them and then then the debate becomes well of course you know I don't support Hamas but so the Liberals the liberal sort of answer to it isn't like a profound assessment of the colonial character of the Palestinian people and why resistance is ultimately inevitable I mean the Palestinian people were dispossessed from their land by force and the Israelis are taking more and more and more of it and so to the extent that people fight back the Bourgeois media demonizes the resistance while they explain over and over again on every channel why the Israelis actually have the right of self-defense and then all the horror stories about what happened to Israeli civilians so in each and every instance then if you want to go to work and say well look I'm actually for the Palestinians their cause is just and you get bombarded with what what about this and what about that and all the things that people are hearing on TV you start to you start to bend and you start to find what I would call the line of least resistance and we all do that the line of least resistance is a very functional part of living of survival like you can't say everything everywhere uh so the line of least resistance but in Social Circles if if the left and socialists and Communists are completely demonized as we were since 1945 and then you finally get some social socialists who get elected to congress as Democrats and only with the support of the democratic party and I'm not mentioning any names when those people want to show even Sympathy for the Palestinians they have to do that but of course but of course but of course but of course but of course but of course but of course however I think the US should put pressure on Israel to carry out its operations in Gaza with a concern about civilian life and so the Tilt The Tilt is the line of least resistance so it's very hard in a country which is the center of imperialism and where imperialist media anti-communism anti-revolutionary thoughts are so constantly repeated and and considered correct and right it's very hard to be take a left a strong left position and when we do we have to be clever about it in the sense of not sounding like a stereotype not sounding like we're just giving Trill rhetoric that's why we actually have to know our stuff we have to know facts we have to know the arguments we have to know how to talk to people when conditions are hard when you go into your job you know some of our comrades did a a d in at a hospital in Albuquerque New Mexico at the University of New Mexico this yesterday they they got workers and doctors and medical students and they actually did a a d in to protest the Gaza war in the hospital in the hospital now to to get to the point where you have workers and students risking their careers to take that kind of dramatic action you have to spend a lot of time with people ahead of time explaining this is why we're going to do it this is how we can do it and you don't start with necess necessarily in that case from The River To The Sea because you can't sustain that within that environment that environment requires you have to talk to people and use slogans that take into account what your environment is the question the the challenge for revolutionaries is this is really the I would say the the N the biggest sort of nut to crack so to speak and it's kind of what we'll talk about in Lenin its tactics next week we're pursuing a revolutionary policy in a non-revolutionary country in a non-revolutionary environment where the dominant Consciousness is still profoundly backward because of the strength of the Bourgeois the strangle hold the bisi has over the media so how do we take people from where they are to the next step to the next step and the next step now if you're going is just never to make Revolution you can take the next step and stop there but our idea is take the next step with the idea that you're take you're taking the next step to take the next step that the fruit of every struggle is the expansion of the struggle they take people beyond that but that's a process you know people who are whose entire political organizing life is online they get up and they like revolutionary slogans like showing how big and bad and militant they are well if you're going to organize a job action in a hospital that won't work that's not the way you do it and if you're just doing social media Revolution you can be whoever you want to be but if you want actually want to organize the masses of people you have to take these things into account you have to why why are the dominant ideas the so bad and so repeating second inter ational and again because of the bisi but we overcome them not by yelling and screaming revolutionary slogans but by being very um you know Adept and supple and and by the way we did during the Iraq War when the answer Coalition we developed a unit of of the answer Coalition of active duty GIS including people who were in Iraq people who were in the armed forces in the Navy in the Army in the Marines and we went to the bases and we were trying to recruit Soldiers and Sailors and Marines to become anti-war if you're going to go on the base you have to talk way different than if you're talking on a college campus but this is the test this is the challenge if you're going to be a serious movement uh we know why the bad ideas come about but the question is how do we in a concentrated way reach the people a lot of people counterpose direct action versus Mass organizing not for us the biggest direct action of course is the revolution but as lenon pointed out the Vanguard without the class doesn't win you can't the people make Revolution and once the revolution is going by the way the revolutionaries are not as revolutionary as the people when revolutions really start the leftwing the people who are marxists for decades they turn out to be not as militant as the people who have just like at the barricades they're like whoa It's like retribution time for to settle the scores of decades or centuries of Oppression so at that time the challenge for the revolutionaries is to keep it up but now when we're in a period where we're not like that we have to think tactically how to how to move forward all right what was the last one oh okay okay I'm going to restate your question in case people couldn't hear you the comrade asks this he said you I'm asserting that Marxism and leninism are not dogmas they're not like etched in scone you Stone you have to contextualize them and then there's also in the struggle in the Marxist movement a campaign against what's called revisionism people revising Marx's revolutionary teachings what's the difference how do you know if something is bad meaning an opportunist revision of marks versus like just taking into account that things are changing evolving and obviously we have to be flexible and and conform our uh what we're doing to reality the key to the answer to this question it's not really it seems like a riddle but only in the abstract in Spec in specificity in specific real terms it's not a riddle at all divisionism starts as a current inside the social the second International led by Edward Bernstein and Bernstein is a major political leader of the German party and he's looking at everything that's happening in Germany in 1900 1905 1910 the Socialists are getting to be onethird of the members of parliament are of the Socialist Party they're the biggest party bigger than the capitalist parties and but the workers mood is not like re reolution but they do want to vote for socialists and they'd like to avoid Bloodshed like everyone does in you associate Revolution with Bloodshed so why not find a peaceful Road and Bernstein says well you know Marx has to be revised this is where revisionism comes from Marx has to be revised because one the German proletariat is not revolutionary it's kind of comfortable and or secondly it wants to find another road and you know why can't that be a possibility why can't that be a possibility why is that revisionist as opposed to evolutionary thinking in and adaptation in the case of Bernstein it was very interesting and it's very I think this happens over and over again where Bernstein showed he was not simply evolving Marxism to take into account a different world than the one Marx lived in was on the colonial question because Bernstein also argued that Not only was the German proletariat not needing a revolution but that German capitalism could be reformed if enough socialists got elected to the Parliament and if they did they could actually bring a civilizing impact on the German on the people living in German colonies so instead of making Revolution against colonization a socialist Le Germany as opposed to an imperialist LED Germany could be a voice of progress in the third world I mean isn't that sort of these are the indicators racism and support for National oppression or Colonial oppression are usually the tip off for revisionism where the struggle of the most oppressed the struggle of the colonized the struggle of people suffering from National oppression takes back seat where people say well you know we have to preach class unity and white and black and Latino and Asian and Native and Arab we all have to get together and that's well yes I'm for that but not if it means you're diminishing the centrality of the fight against anti-black racism in America because that is in fact the center of capitalism was white supremacy but you see these kind of liberal revisionist socialists will always start to say some other people's struggle takes back seat where in fact the struggle the the black African-American Freedom struggle is the Detonator for all social movements in the United States is Central to the class struggle the overall class struggle and you can see it throughout history I mean the women's movement the gay rights movement the anti-war movement all of that came as a consequence of the black civil rights movement the revolution that was sweeping the country first in the South and then in the north from 1954 to 65 55 to 65 so that's one marker like look for that if somebody's like telling you well yeah we we want health care for all that's like really important but you don't want to talk about Palestine if you're in the United States in the center of imperialism that's oppressing the Palestinian people and those people at the moment are the Vanguard are the center of the world's struggle against imperialism which they clearly are nothing should take Primacy over that issue why not simply out of solidarity but for the US workers to build revolutionary Consciousness they have to grasp that they have to understand this you can't have a revolution in the belly of the beast in the center of imperialism and think that the colonial question or the fight against racism is somehow secondary it is key it is the central thing so this is another in my mind another marker but in the case of in the case of Bernstein he was wrong about Germany too because five years after he said all that the German Revolution did happen Russian Revolution happened because the B because the masses rose up and overthrew the Zar and then the Bolsheviks had a second Revolution and the war Russia got out of the war how did Germany get out of the war well in the United States on on November 11th we celebrate what's it called Veterans Day well that's the anniversary of the end of World War I how did it end the Russian the German working class rose up they had a revolution they created German Soviets German councils and they toppled the monarchy the German monarchy and that's how the World War I ended so Bernstein was wrong about that too the problem was the party didn't exist in Germany the party of a new type it was just in the beginning stages of being formed so Carl lick Rosa Luxembourg the real left-wing revolutionary elements um they were starting trying to form a party it had formed a party but they were the still really the leftwing of a larger party and I mean there are other reasons why the German Revolution didn't succeed I don't want to vulgarize it or oversimplify it but not having uh a party like that made all the difference if you look at Lennon's works and this is when you read the 46 volumes which I know all of you will from back to front front to back uh a huge amount most of what he's writing are internal polemics about what the party should do in 1904 in the during the Russo Japanese war that ended with the 1905 Revolution he only wrote three articles about the Russo Japanese war in the whole year all of it was internal polemics about how the party should be shaped informed for Lenin the issue of organization was primary he always believed that a Revolution was coming like his brother did like the others did they knew it was going to come because zaris had held Russia back so much question is what is the party how will it function what will it be so it's not a secondary question it is the primary question of Lenin this is also makes Lenin different from marks in Engles they couldn't create a party they wanted a party but even the parties that came after them couldn't be those kind of parties they were the get started parties but lennin that was the great contribution of Lennon or one of them okay amazing I think we have time for maybe two more questions okay two more questions so let me see Hands I know there were many okay I have one here and anyone else who hasn't spoken yet in this course behind Eden hi Brian thanks for this great class I actually have two questions can I ask them okay um I really appreciated what you said about um like how in World War I and generally in Wars they're not in the interest of the working class of the people and I'm wondering if that same logic can be applied to Israel Palestine as well or is that like a different situation because of the settler Colonial nature of Israel and the second question I had was about um the history of the Communist Party of cpusa and what their position has been on major events through time and also how the PSL like what strain they follow between Democratic centralism and the other one and also how PSL relates to the CP USA okay thank you and one final one um so I just wanted to ask I think you got into this a little bit but I wanted to ask about kind of the challenges and opportunities of building Democratic centralism and building I guess like working-class political power in the United States um I also I guess just wanted to reference like 2020 as being like a kind of fundamental crisis moment um and I guess any lessons from that as well just say a little bit more about 2020 though so I understand just the uprising and and and how uh you would relate that to um kind of the course of building Democratic centralism building a Democratic centralist party in the United States um or relate that to other historical events across time in the you know the Continuum of of the development of other political movements okay yeah that's good all right these are two good final questions or three CU you had two um so war in general you know as marxists Communists leninists were against war in militarism but Lenin makes it very clear that he's not a pacifist so Lenin makes the distinction between Wars between imperialists for the division or redivision of the colonized and semic colonized people of the world and Wars of National Liberation and he says if there's a war of National Liberation we support the war so how do we characterize the Palestinian struggle obviously the mainstream media says Hamas is a terrorist organization and and They carried out a terrorist attack on October 7th and so the struggle is between terrorism Hamas and Israel a democracy so in the media the wars always characterizes the Israeli Hamas War Israeli Hamas War like I'm sure if you had a chance to interview the 20,000 civilians who got killed or 10,000 children and asked them how many of you were Hamas members I'm pretty sure very few of them are Hamas members uh they weren't killed because they're Hamas they're killed because they're Palestinians so the you know the Covenant on genocide internationally recognized as the destruction of a people in whole or in part not because of what they've done but because of who they are so this is a genocidal type war against the Palestinian people and why because Hamas carried out a pretty successful military attack on Israeli territory on October 7th Where Do We Stand how do we view it I view it exactly the same way as I view the struggle of the African National Congress in South Africa that a colonizing party came and took the land of the people colonized them and the people who were colonized who were dispossessed by violent Force have the right to reclaim their land it's that simple would it be better to do it peacefully yes why because all humans prefer peace but when the Palestinians in Gaza had the great March of return in 2018 and went to that same wall the one that was bridged on October 7th every Friday and they had protests and they were nonviolent 100% nonviolent maybe some kids threw stones but mostly just 100% nonviolent Israeli snipers shot them shot thousands of them killed more than 240 including Medics press people if a colonizing power occupies illegally somebody else's land it does not have the right legally to claim self-defense that right that does not exist in either National or international law so as the as the Israelis commit the genocidal atrocity in Gaza in the name of self-defense we we reject it should the Palestinian people should Palestine be free from The River To The Sea yes because all places should be free from every place to every place uh it should be free what does freedom mean I think Freedom means an end to a partide a fre Freedom means an end to A system that has an exclusivist white supremacist Jewish supremacist position against the indigenous people can Jews and Christians and Muslims live in the same place yes they can and how do we know because they did for thousands of years it was only with the set the colonial settlement of this area by a majority European population that this conflict became as it is so we make a sharp distinction in a war of National Liberation the leninist position is to support those who are struggling for National Liberation that's why in the case of Vietnam when when I was very young I I held up a sign that said stop the bombing of Vietnam stop this madness what you're seeing in J in Gaza today we saw every day in Vietnam the people open their media every day Mass killing of Vietnamese so in the beginning people who are liberal like myself because most people who become socialists don't start as revolutionary socialists they start as liberals we transformed and we were like no uh I don't this isn't a mistake this is an imperialist war of domination and I want Vietnam to win so when I was drafted which I was at my draft physical I they first you had to sign a loyalty oath and I ripped that up of course and then I said please draft me because I would prefer to go into the military because I want to organize against the war inside because it'll be more impactful than just having Street protests and secondly I'll never go to Vietnam to kill Vietnamese people because I want them to win I thought that would maybe get me out of being drafted but it didn't but but um but that's not the way reason I did it but that's the thing is we wanted the Vietnamese to win we were by the end of the war by 1970 people were saying uh ho ho hoi Min the NLF is going to win we marched through Grand Central Station we wanted them to win because it's their country and the only reason the US invaded Vietnam and killed millions of Vietnamese was they wanted to maintain Colonial domination it had been a French colony in the US wanted to make sure didn't become a socialist government and today it's a socialist government and today it's a thriving country and we're always told if if the US leaves there'll be a bloodbath well the US left and the bloodbath ended and when a parthe ends the bloodbath in Palestine will [Applause] end your second question was about the cpusa ALS also a Democratic centralist party forly uh uh I would emphasize to the extent possible the things that we have in common between the different socialist groups I would say the same about DSA by the way which I had mentioned before I don't think groups should be trying to pick fights with each other yes discuss political differences they're important uh but let's not get into the squabbling the movement is already small enough no reason to create like a tempest in every teapot and um and have I'm using idioms that are old fashion unnecessary fighting that doesn't mean that much uh but there are differences and there's I would say a big difference between cpusa and PSL is bottom line the cpusa and this has been true since the seventh Congress of the Communist International in 1935 uh the Communist Party in the US like communist parties in much of Europe reoriented and their main goal was not really Revolution but to prevent the rightwing of the bisi from taking hold of the government and the most practical and best way according to cp's position um to stop right-wing Republicans from taking office is to support the Democrats so at each and every time time it's election time the CP generally they might not say vote for Hillary Clinton they might just say defeat Trump but for all intents and purposes it's essentially the same thing our position is it's not that we don't appreciate differences between say Obama and Trump there are differences they're not necessarily unimportant but both the Republicans and Democrats are ruling class parties both of them are steadfastly supporting the Israeli regime for the same reason not because they love Jewish people not because they're mortified by anti-Semitism but both parties see Israel as an extension of American Imperial power in a resourcer part of the world and a loyal Ally and a dependent Ally on the US and so if you're going to be in the Democratic party in Congress you can't really be for Palestinian Liberation because it will set you at odds with your party the Democratic party so we don't believe in reforming the Democratic Party we don't believe in getting a better Democratic party we want to have a third party if the if if our candidates Claudia De La Cruz Karina Garcia or other candidates but especially those two were in the nationally televised debates and they could talk about as as Karina did in a in a post today about how all these kids and their moms are losing uh Wick uh women and infant uh child support Port huge nutritional program because of a $1.2 billion deficit 60,000 families are losing this thing meanwhile that's nothing I mean the US that's less than one B1 bomber and Biden is saying well we have to send 100 billion right now for Ukraine and Israel so if Karina and Claudia were on national TV on the ballot in all 50 states instead of being kept out would millions of Americans say I haven't read marks and Engles I don't know about all that Lenin stuff but that sounds right to me and I prefer that to the Democrats or Republicans the answer is yes yes they would we would get millions and tens of millions of people supporting our candidates and that's precisely why American democracy is so undemocratic why it won't allow these candidates even when Ralph nater was on all 50 states and was polling at like eight or 10% and he's wellknown best consumer most well-known consumer advocate in the country they wouldn't let him in the debate they threatened to arrest him when he showed up to the debates because it's their system it's democracy for the bisi and it's just a it's giving the masses of people this sense of variety you can pick who's going to oppress you for the next four years will it be this oppressor or that oppressor it's your choice so this is the the fraudulent nature of bua democracy that said uh we're not going to support the Democratic party um and a final question and then was it was such a good one what was it 2020 Democratic centralism so when the masses of people rise up like they did in 2020 I have to say that all of the all of the left was trying to catch up because the masses of people were ahead but I'll tell you what we did and I this will and I'm going to end with this but this is a really excellent example of how Democratic centralism works on January 3rd 2020 uh we got a sense that the US was about to go to war with Iran and the next day and we called demonstrations for January 5th the next day uh General solomani was executed at the Baghdad airport with a dronist strike then we built an anti-war movement it went on for three weeks and it was almost a near Mass war with Iran and hundreds of thousands of people in different cities had come out then Co hit and we were like now we can't keep organizing what are we going to do and we created this entire online school to keep everybody organizing then 60 million people lost their job and people couldn't pay their rent and they were about to be evicted and we started a cancel the rents uh program and we were doing car Caravans and actions all around the country saying you can cancel the rent put a moratorium on rent and the government actually did put a moratorium on some evictions and then as we were planning at the end of May May 21st we were planning for the next big national day of action George Floyd was murdered and we told everybody stop what we're doing with cancel the rents we're going to shift because we could see in Minneapolis this was leading to an uprising we sent people to Minneapolis we sent media teams there we reoriented we sent out new slogans new placards we were able to really turn on a dime so you salomani anti-war movement covid mass unemployment people getting evicted there then a mass Uprising Against Racism turn again Democratic centralism allows an organization to move quickly and then because you have a leadership that is its discipline is under the program but it's empowered to act and to act quickly and then it's also EV can be evaluated criticized or replaced if it makes mistakes but it's empowered to act so the P the power of democratic centralism is really for Action uh it's not again a fetish with centralism it's like how do you in a complicated and big country how do you function quickly and be able to spin quickly on a dime almost in order to respond to different needs so um I don't know if that answers your question but it kind of it's an explanation of how we function and again we were behind all of the parties all of the organizations the masses of people were ready to go and you could see that everywhere the barricades went up people were tear like I in Washington where I was the first round of tear gas people ran second round of tear gas people ran SEC third round of tear gas people started picking up canisters and throwing them back fourth round people are like no let's go forward so people were learning on their own like instantly and all these young people from the community were the leaders it wasn't the left Marxist people it was the masses of people who were like being creative and Innovative and helping each other and showing solidarity but that's how revolutions happen that is precisely how revolutions happen revolutions seem to be impossible until they happen and then afterwards people say oh that was inevitable we could see that coming because conditions were so bad but until that when there's apathy or not political activity people just are no it'll never nothing will ever change until it changes so Democratic centralism is basically to facilitate that change all right thank you I said I was about to say thank you comrades and I know we're all comrades in the most General sense thank you everyone how wherever you are in the political line of things but let's keep studying Lenin together and Marxism and and hopefully next week we'll have the Finish to the class and then the week after we'll be all Q&A but maybe you have some announcements as well well one a big thank you to Brian for such a riveting class so much that's applicable to this moment right now thank you to everyone for coming this evening to participate everyone who's tuned in online again if you didn't get to ask your question please email it to education.org if you typed it in the chat we've saved it um we'll be back here next Tuesday looking forward to seeing you again at 6:30 but in the meantime if you're in New York City join us at Foley Square on Friday we are taking a big mobilization for Palestine to Wall Street to the banks of Zionism uh to show them that we understand how the system works and we're not okay with it um December 8th is also the anniversary of the first inala so it's a very important day to be out um and if you're in other places in the world go to shut itdown forp palestine. org and and find an action near you or organize one um December 8 is the next international call to action um and then again if you're in New York join us on Monday evenings we have really massive volunteer meetings uh for the movement for Palestine right now where people from all sorts of organizations and people who are not in organizations come together and work on projects together this week people are going out to every neighborhood in New York City and they're doing speak outs or Street teachings um getting to know the community and talking about uh what's going on in Palestine and and why we should be out on the streets and why we should be mobilizing um so it's a good opportunity to get involved but I just wanted to leave you with those announcements look in your emails for readings and other information for next class and we hope to see you next Tuesday or sooner thank you everyone

Channel: The People's Forum NYC

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Length: 123min 45sec (7425 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 06 2023