Another world is possible?

Carlo Giuliani's father said that "Carlo didn't accept the notion that eight leaders of the world should decide the life and death of hundreds of thousands of people." A perspective we can all agree with. Let us see if the Bolshevism is an improvement. In Left-wing Communism we find Lenin describing the Bolshevik regime as follows:

"The Party, which holds annual congresses... , is directed by a Central Committee of nineteen elected at the congress... This, then, looks like a real 'oligarchy.' Not a single important political decision is decided by any State institution in our republic without the guiding instructions of the Central Committee of the Party..."

Combined with "non-Party workers' and peasants' conferences" and Soviet Congresses, this was "the general mechanism of the proletarian state power viewed 'from above,' from the standpoint of the practical realisation of the dictatorship." And so "all talk about 'from above' or 'from below,' about 'the dictatorship of leaders' or 'the dictatorship of the masses,' cannot but appear to be ridiculous, childish nonsense."

Yet if the congresses of soviets were "more democratic" than anything in the "best democratic republics of the bourgeois world," why did the Bolsheviks need non-Party conferences "to be able to watch the mood of the masses, to come closer to them, to respond to their demands"?

And how did Lenin "respond" to their "demands"? The conferences met a similar fate to the soviets in 1918: they were disbanded. For during the labour disturbances of late 1920 and early 1921 they provided an effective platform for criticism of Bolshevik policies. The Bolshevik repression of the revolts, strikes and protests explains why Lenin did not bother to view "proletarian state power" from "below," from the perspective of the working class.

So the difference is clear. Under capitalism, 8 people make life and death decisions for millions. Under Bolshevism, 19 people made them.

A massive improvement in terms of freedom and democracy, all would agree.

This text is available as part of the PDF file below

PDF file of State or Revolution

The State or Revolution
An anarchist answer to Lenin, written for Marxism 2003

The SWP versus Anarchism
Here are a few quotes from Pat Stack's Socialist Review article "Anarchy in the UK?" which formed the basis of his talk at Marxism 2001. Ask yourself why the SWP leadership systematically lies about anarchism.

Lenin, History's "Hidden Democrat," speaks!
Stright form the horses mouth

Anarcho-Quiz on the SWP
Test your knowledge

What is Anarchism?
There is an alternative to Leninism's state capitalism and party power. It is called anarchism, a socialism which places freedom and working class management of society at the core of its vision of struggle, revolution and socialism.

Another world is possible?
Under capitalism, 8 people make life and death decisions for millions. Under Bolshevism, 19 people made them

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