Organizing for Workers' Power
Beyond Trade Unionism & Vanguardism

Sofri, Adriano
http://www.connexions.org/CxLibrary/Docs/CX5613-BeyondTradeUnionism_LR.pdf
http://libcom.org/library/italy-1973-workers-struggles-capitalist-crisis-potere-operaio
http://motkraft.net/temasidor/teori-och-ideologi/tema22/autonomi/tema_adriano_sofri_organizing_for_workers_power/
Year First Published:  {11832 Organizing for Workers' Power ORGANIZING FOR WORKERS POWER Beyond Trade Unionism & Vanguardism Sofri, Adriano http://www.connexions.org/CxLibrary/Docs/CX5613-BeyondTradeUnionism_LR.pdf http://libcom.org/library/italy-1973-workers-struggles-capitalist-crisis-potere-operaio http://motkraft.net/temasidor/teori-och-ideologi/tema22/autonomi/tema_adriano_sofri_organizing_for_workers_power/ A discussion of the problem of "vanguardism," and the role of leadership in revolutionary organization, and its evolution through different stages of class struggle, by Adriano Sofri of the Italian socialist group Lotta Continua, with an introduction by militants in southern Ontario. 1968 1969 19pp BC11832w-BeyondTradeUnionism.jpg PMP Pamphlet - <br> <br>Extract: <br>Worker's parties suffer from several deficiencies. First, it is often assumed that good political leadership is tantamount to the party's development. Leadership also often makes claims to legitimacy by unfounded identifications with past heroes of the movement - i.e. "revolutionary strategy is always seen as a 'return' to the 'correct' revolutionary tradition." "Correct" leadership, however, can only come from its "capacity to be the conscious and general expression of the revolutionary needs of the oppressed masses." Yet Lenin's view of leaders as Marxist intellectuals who have broken with their bourgeois past does not take into account the complex identities found in the advanced capitalist countries in the second half of the 20th century. What is necessary is a "mass vanguard," implying a change from " the perspective of insurrection to the perspective of protracted (eventually armed) struggle, even in the advanced capitalist countries." <br> <br> <br>A copy of this pamphlet is available in the Connexions Archive. CX5613 1 false true false CX5613.htm [0xc0015381b0 0xc000d22e10 0xc001859050 0xc00260bda0 0xc001805320 0xc0027b0c90 0xc0027f08a0 0xc0028050b0] Cx}
Year Published:  1969
Pages:  19pp   Resource Type:  Pamphlet
Cx Number:  CX5613

A discussion of the problem of "vanguardism," and the role of leadership in revolutionary organization, and its evolution through different stages of class struggle, by Adriano Sofri of the Italian socialist group Lotta Continua, with an introduction by militants in southern Ontario.

Abstract: 
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Extract:
Worker's parties suffer from several deficiencies. First, it is often assumed that good political leadership is tantamount to the party's development. Leadership also often makes claims to legitimacy by unfounded identifications with past heroes of the movement - i.e. "revolutionary strategy is always seen as a 'return' to the 'correct' revolutionary tradition." "Correct" leadership, however, can only come from its "capacity to be the conscious and general expression of the revolutionary needs of the oppressed masses." Yet Lenin's view of leaders as Marxist intellectuals who have broken with their bourgeois past does not take into account the complex identities found in the advanced capitalist countries in the second half of the 20th century. What is necessary is a "mass vanguard," implying a change from " the perspective of insurrection to the perspective of protracted (eventually armed) struggle, even in the advanced capitalist countries."


A copy of this pamphlet is available in the Connexions Archive.

Subject Headings

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