Die Neue Zeit
20th August 2011, 16:53
I must thank both CPGB comrade Nick Rogers for his article a couple of months ago on the Paris Commune (http://www.revleft.com/vb/paris-commune-inspirational-t155624/index.html), and comrade Psy for his fleshed-out posts on his "revolutionary army" concept, for it gave me further insight into the strengths and weaknesses of various forms of workers institutions and other workers organizations.
The Paris Commune was very much an interplay between the more petit-bourgeois Communal Council and the more proletarian National Guard, and I mean this in terms of their respective class content. The eventual ineptitude of the former, from the Bank of France question to the lack of political oversight over the National Guard itself (by means of installing deputies for political work) (http://www.revleft.com/vb/political-oversight-over-t157827/index.html) to the very late formation of the Committee of Public Safety, suggests the presence of comprador elements amongst the Parisian petit bourgeoisie:
My initial thoughts upon reading this article was that the Commune could have been saved... had the central committee of the National Guard itself become the Committee of Public Safety (read: breakthrough military coup) that the squabblers didn't form until it was too late.
I mean, it was the military actions of the National Guard itself that led to the Paris Commune in the first place! Now:
By staying dormant till they are needed and starting with non-lethal force so at the start they would just be like the Black Bloc just better organized leaving their firearms at home. As a revolutionary situation leads to a uprising the vanguard has to make the call when to take up arms to repel attempts by the bourgeois state to restore bourgeois order, this should be at a point where the revolutionary army can open its doors to recruits and quickly increase its size to match and eventually exceed the numbers of the bourgeoisie forces also the revolutionary situation has created a revolutionary authority parallel to bourgeois authority.
There are long-term pitfalls of the "revolutionary army only" model. Already it's embedded in the words "the vanguard." It conflicts with "a massive armed proletarian army like the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense but scaling it up far more and for the entire proletariat not just a oppressed minority" and "a revolutionary army with hundreds of millions of troops."
Mass political support is needed before a revolutionary situation.
In the short term, workers paramilitary organizations / paramilitias (more than mere "militias") are more capable of handling immediate political issues, during and outside a revolutionary situation, than non-party councils (as opposed to Military Revolutionary Committees) or traditional syndicates ever could, and without the influence of some party-movement. The bureaucratic processes of workers paramilitary organizations / paramilitias, such as when deployed for alternative culture and other social work, help in this regard. However, the requirement of strict centralization is another long-term deficiency.
The Paris Commune was very much an interplay between the more petit-bourgeois Communal Council and the more proletarian National Guard, and I mean this in terms of their respective class content. The eventual ineptitude of the former, from the Bank of France question to the lack of political oversight over the National Guard itself (by means of installing deputies for political work) (http://www.revleft.com/vb/political-oversight-over-t157827/index.html) to the very late formation of the Committee of Public Safety, suggests the presence of comprador elements amongst the Parisian petit bourgeoisie:
My initial thoughts upon reading this article was that the Commune could have been saved... had the central committee of the National Guard itself become the Committee of Public Safety (read: breakthrough military coup) that the squabblers didn't form until it was too late.
I mean, it was the military actions of the National Guard itself that led to the Paris Commune in the first place! Now:
By staying dormant till they are needed and starting with non-lethal force so at the start they would just be like the Black Bloc just better organized leaving their firearms at home. As a revolutionary situation leads to a uprising the vanguard has to make the call when to take up arms to repel attempts by the bourgeois state to restore bourgeois order, this should be at a point where the revolutionary army can open its doors to recruits and quickly increase its size to match and eventually exceed the numbers of the bourgeoisie forces also the revolutionary situation has created a revolutionary authority parallel to bourgeois authority.
There are long-term pitfalls of the "revolutionary army only" model. Already it's embedded in the words "the vanguard." It conflicts with "a massive armed proletarian army like the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense but scaling it up far more and for the entire proletariat not just a oppressed minority" and "a revolutionary army with hundreds of millions of troops."
Mass political support is needed before a revolutionary situation.
In the short term, workers paramilitary organizations / paramilitias (more than mere "militias") are more capable of handling immediate political issues, during and outside a revolutionary situation, than non-party councils (as opposed to Military Revolutionary Committees) or traditional syndicates ever could, and without the influence of some party-movement. The bureaucratic processes of workers paramilitary organizations / paramilitias, such as when deployed for alternative culture and other social work, help in this regard. However, the requirement of strict centralization is another long-term deficiency.