Socialism and Revolution

Gorz, Andre

Publisher: Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York, USA
Year First Published: {12426 Socialism and Revolution SOCIALISM AND REVOLUTION Gorz, Andre Anchor Press/Doubleday New York USA Representative democracy in every industrially advanced country is in a state of profound crisis. But we have been accustomed for so long to accept democracy in the form of its outward appearances and parliamentary institutions that its decay often does not become apparent to us until those institutions have been either brushed aside or reduced to a purely decorative role. 1967 1973 270pp BC12426-SocialRevolution.jpg B Book 0-385-04831-9 320.531 Gorz belongs to the oft-suppressed 'third tradition' of socialism: the tradition of libertarian socialism that is fiercely critical of both social democracy and Leninism. At the same time, he stresses the need for a revolutionary party -- but a mass, democratic party. Although a collection of essays, this book is remarkably unified in the development of its arguments. He deals with a number of fundamental issues: imperialism, unions, functions of a revolutionary party, reformism, the "ideological front", the state, work, lesiure and culture, changes in the working class. Excerpt: Andre Gorz writes: The fact that there is "revolutionary potential" does not, however, mean that revolution is "ripe" or is "maturing" spontaneously within the masses. It means only that the working class has old and new motives for not being reconciled with capitalist exploitation and that in favorable circumstances these motives lead to action. Outbreaks of violent mass insurordination, though they may be construed as signs of a pre-revolutionary or (as in France) of a pre-insurrectional situation, endanger the survival of capitalism only if the seizure of power becomes an open issue in the course of mass action. And this in turn can happen only if mass action is led and organized in such a way as to build up within the factories and cities organs of direct popular power, such as workers' councils and citizens' councils. These organs of "dual power" become effective in taking power and in destroying the capitalist state when they are co-ordinated organizationally and unified ideologically by an overall political vision and a credible political leadership. Co-ordination and political-ideological vision and leadership must not be superimposed from outside: if they are to lead to the building of popular power and a new state, they must be internal to the mass struggles themselves, so as not to create from the outset a new social division between those who lead and those who are led, between the workers and their "spokesmen," between the masses and the vanguard, between state power and the people. It is the actual process of revolutionary mass struggle and change that teaches the masses self-organization instead of subjection to power. To change minds and outlooks, to liberate the energies and imaginations that will look for new solutions and new political forms in keeping with liberated needs, there must be revolutionary action. Neither the needs nor the solutions can be blue-printed by a vanguard party. Hence the need for spontaneity in all genuine mass movements. Conversly, the capacity to anticipate the possibility of new solutions -- new social and economic relations and a new way of life -- is a necessary element in mobilizing and liberating repressed aspirations and energies. Hence the tendency to voluntaristic and elitist forms of "vanguardism" which, when organizationally separated from the immediate struggles and aspirations of the masses, always degenerate into dogmatic, bureaucratic political machines or sects. One of the intrinsic difficulties of revolutionary leadership and education is that they can be entrusted to neither an "enlightened" and self-appointed vanguard, nor the spontaneity of the masses, who are never "ready" or "prepared" for revolution: revolution, in this respect, is always "premature." CX6566 0 true true false CX6566.htm [0xc000dff4a0 0xc000f832f0 0xc001047860 0xc001073440 0xc0022b5920 0xc0024723c0 0xc000e4ebd0 0xc0004dd920 0xc0005544b0 0xc00023da40 0xc00024b980 0xc0000f5410 0xc0000f5980 0xc0001877a0 0xc000236240 0xc0004c6c90 0xc000b07560 0xc000bd1800 0xc000c559b0 0xc000e57380 0xc0010b98c0 0xc0004fa690 0xc0005caae0 0xc0017187e0 0xc000a4fcb0 0xc000a73470 0xc000b0e780 0xc000b8cc00 0xc000c2b1d0 0xc0010240c0 0xc00190b5c0 0xc00191f1a0 0xc001e4a900 0xc0021d4ed0 0xc0022ac1b0 0xc00232d410 0xc002516e40 0xc00058bcb0 0xc0007cc060 0xc0009ee300 0xc000bed140 0xc000f20780 0xc00103a240 0xc00110e660 0xc0012b7260 0xc0018457d0 0xc001859c50 0xc0020b6d20 0xc002679290 0xc002ab0d20 0xc002af01b0] Cx}
Year Published: 1973
Pages: 270pp ISBN: 0-385-04831-9
Dewey: 320.531
Resource Type: Book
Cx Number: CX6566

Representative democracy in every industrially advanced country is in a state of profound crisis. But we have been accustomed for so long to accept democracy in the form of its outward appearances and parliamentary institutions that its decay often does not become apparent to us until those institutions have been either brushed aside or reduced to a purely decorative role.

Abstract:
Gorz belongs to the oft-suppressed 'third tradition' of socialism: the tradition of libertarian socialism that is fiercely critical of both social democracy and Leninism. At the same time, he stresses the need for a revolutionary party -- but a mass, democratic party.
Although a collection of essays, this book is remarkably unified in the development of its arguments. He deals with a number of fundamental issues: imperialism, unions, functions of a revolutionary party, reformism, the "ideological front", the state, work, lesiure and culture, changes in the working class.

Excerpt:
Andre Gorz writes: The fact that there is "revolutionary potential" does not, however, mean that revolution is "ripe" or is "maturing" spontaneously within the masses. It means only that the working class has old and new motives for not being reconciled with capitalist exploitation and that in favorable circumstances these motives lead to action. Outbreaks of violent mass insurordination, though they may be construed as signs of a pre-revolutionary or (as in France) of a pre-insurrectional situation, endanger the survival of capitalism only if the seizure of power becomes an open issue in the course of mass action. And this in turn can happen only if mass action is led and organized in such a way as to build up within the factories and cities organs of direct popular power, such as workers' councils and citizens' councils. These organs of "dual power" become effective in taking power and in destroying the capitalist state when they are co-ordinated organizationally and unified ideologically by an overall political vision and a credible political leadership. Co-ordination and political-ideological vision and leadership must not be superimposed from outside: if they are to lead to the building of popular power and a new state, they must be internal to the mass struggles themselves, so as not to create from the outset a new social division between those who lead and those who are led, between the workers and their "spokesmen," between the masses and the vanguard, between state power and the people.
It is the actual process of revolutionary mass struggle and change that teaches the masses self-organization instead of subjection to power. To change minds and outlooks, to liberate the energies and imaginations that will look for new solutions and new political forms in keeping with liberated needs, there must be revolutionary action. Neither the needs nor the solutions can be blue-printed by a vanguard party. Hence the need for spontaneity in all genuine mass movements.
Conversly, the capacity to anticipate the possibility of new solutions -- new social and economic relations and a new way of life -- is a necessary element in mobilizing and liberating repressed aspirations and energies. Hence the tendency to voluntaristic and elitist forms of "vanguardism" which, when organizationally separated from the immediate struggles and aspirations of the masses, always degenerate into dogmatic, bureaucratic political machines or sects. One of the intrinsic difficulties of revolutionary leadership and education is that they can be entrusted to neither an "enlightened" and self-appointed vanguard, nor the spontaneity of the masses, who are never "ready" or "prepared" for revolution: revolution, in this respect, is always "premature."

Socialism and Revolution

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