The Role of the Soviets in Russia's Bourgeois Revolution: The Point of View of Julius Martov

Buick, Adam
http://www.theoryandpractice.org.uk/library/role-soviets-russias-bourgeois-revolution-point-view-julius-martov-adam-buick-1976
Date Written:  1976-04-01
Publisher:  Theory and Practice
Year Published:  1976
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX20271

An essay on Russian revolution.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

The basic principle defended by Marx throughout his forty years of socialist activity can be summed up in the clause of the General Rules of the First International that "the emancipation of the working class must be conquered by the working classes themselves". This is a rejection of the view that socialism can be introduced for the working class or that the working class can be led to socialism by some enlightened minority.

Those who set themselves up as leaders of the working class fall into two groups. First, there are the parliamentary reformists who tell the workers: "vote for us and we will introduce socialism for you". And then there are the various "vanguards" who see themselves leading the workers in a violent assault on the capitalist state. Both groups, despite being bitter antagonists, share a common standpoint: a denial that the majority of workers are capable of understanding and of organising themselves, without leaders, in order to achieve it.
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