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 [0xc000e45140 0xc000f76f30 0xc00103d440 0xc001066ff0 0xc0022ac690 0xc0001c3ad0 0xc00027fe60 0xc0003a9050 0xc0004138f0 0xc000289290 0xc0002a31d0 0xc0005c0840 0xc0005c0db0 0xc0005eabd0 0xc0000aefc0 0xc000262960 0xc000674f60 0xc0008271a0 0xc0006d8ff0 0xc00080a9c0 0xc000ba8e70 0xc0003e5650 0xc0004a7a70 0xc0015458c0 0xc000b35c80 0xc000b813e0 0xc000c62690 0xc000cc0a50 0xc000d18f30 0xc001025b00 0xc001962810 0xc001c543f0 0xc00207da10 0xc002181e00 0xc00224f020 0xc0022c42a0 0xc00247f9b0 0xc000666720 0xc0008309f0 0xc000ae4bd0 0xc000d33980 0xc001018f00 0xc001106930 0xc0011eed50 0xc00132f8f0 0xc0018fdb30 0xc00191bfb0 0xc002132d20 0xc0026a0c00 0xc002ad1c50 0xc002b110e0] 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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