Labor Cartels vs Vanguard

[Anarcho-Brocialist]

I've read some comments by various Revleft members about the said topic [Mainly from Marxists and M-L's]. Mainly this consists of the inadequate usefulness of Labor Cartels on defense of obtained land and after revolution from outside sources.

I think if the unions that consisted of forming the labor cartels were in-sync enough to engender revolution why wouldn't they be organized enough to react expeditiously to defend what they've acquired?

[Stadtsmasher]

I've never understood why people see this as an "either-or" question.

Can't a revolutionary vanguard exist side by side with more syndicalist groups?

[roy]

I personally have no problem with identifying the 'Vanguard' as the most class-conscious section of the proletariat. I do, however, disagree with the Leninist vanguard which seeks state power. Should such a vanguard perform a successful coup d'etat, it will assume the role of the bourgeoisie, and if the revolution stagnates, it will obviously be forced to kowtow to the dominance of global capitalism.

[ckaihatsu]

I personally have no problem with identifying the 'Vanguard' as the most class-conscious section of the proletariat.




I do, however, disagree with the Leninist vanguard which seeks state power. Should such a vanguard perform a successful coup d'etat, it will assume the role of the bourgeoisie, and if the revolution stagnates, it will obviously be forced to kowtow to the dominance of global capitalism.


By definition a 'vanguard' does *not* perform a coup d'etat, since it is -- as you've pointed out -- the most class-conscious section of the proletariat. A revolution by a widespread-class-conscious proletariat is *not* a coup d'etat, therefore the vanguard, as a section of the working class, is not performing a coup d'etat, either.

(Again by definition, the seizure of state power is necessary in order to dispossess the bourgeoisie of it. If a revolutionary working class is unwilling to allow state power in elitist *bourgeois* hands, it shouldn't allow any potentially elitist *vanguard* to retain control of it either.)