SpiritiualMarxist
22nd April 2012, 22:54
So I'm pretty much a noob with in depth leftist theory and I joined the ISO through the occupy movement after about a month of them requiting me. I'm personally anarcho/liberatrian leaning but there's no group with those tendencies that had their shit together in my city. One of the sticking points that I thought about deeply was what is to be the role of the state. I got a pretty vague answer in that workers are to be in control (duh) but eventually I joined anyways because I agreed with 90% of what they said, they weren't nutjobs and unlike MANY organized marxist groups, they actually were involved with local campaigns so I said "Why not?"
So eventually, I read more and watched more lectures and came across what my hero Noam Chomsky had to say about leninism and how Lenin acted against The worker's opposition and him being anti-democratic and pretty damn authoritarian in silencing them. The reason why I didn't know about this at first is because I got a schooling in "Why Russia Failed" through the lens of Paul D'Amato who failed to mention The Worker's Opposition entirely and Kronstadt entirely. Pretty much chalked Stalin's raise to Russia being poor.
But my assessment of the whole scenario is that the Worker's Opposition, even if there was some elitism within the unions, pointed out the growing bureaucracy in the CP in the first place but instead of listening to them, Lenin stomped them out and unleashed terrible economic plan that opened the door for an emerging upper class which opened the door for Stalinism. Also, even if the Worker's Opposition was wrong, this is no way to address opposition in the first place and then go call yourself democratic.
So, since I'm a noob, I'm wondering if my assessment is correct. Because if it is, I'm probably gonna leave the ISO because even though they claim to be "Trotskyist" and trotsky did protest against some of the bureaucratic crap (after he fell out of the bureaucracy's grace), they still pedal the line that Lenin was a god and his brand of (un)democratic centrism would've worked if Russia wasn't poor.
Also, I could be missing something please let me know. Also, any other political objections with Leninism or "democratic" centralism please let me know.
P.S. This isn't another ISO slander thread, I read them all before and after I joined and I put ZERO weight in anecdotal evidence and rumores, keep it on topic and political please.
So eventually, I read more and watched more lectures and came across what my hero Noam Chomsky had to say about leninism and how Lenin acted against The worker's opposition and him being anti-democratic and pretty damn authoritarian in silencing them. The reason why I didn't know about this at first is because I got a schooling in "Why Russia Failed" through the lens of Paul D'Amato who failed to mention The Worker's Opposition entirely and Kronstadt entirely. Pretty much chalked Stalin's raise to Russia being poor.
But my assessment of the whole scenario is that the Worker's Opposition, even if there was some elitism within the unions, pointed out the growing bureaucracy in the CP in the first place but instead of listening to them, Lenin stomped them out and unleashed terrible economic plan that opened the door for an emerging upper class which opened the door for Stalinism. Also, even if the Worker's Opposition was wrong, this is no way to address opposition in the first place and then go call yourself democratic.
So, since I'm a noob, I'm wondering if my assessment is correct. Because if it is, I'm probably gonna leave the ISO because even though they claim to be "Trotskyist" and trotsky did protest against some of the bureaucratic crap (after he fell out of the bureaucracy's grace), they still pedal the line that Lenin was a god and his brand of (un)democratic centrism would've worked if Russia wasn't poor.
Also, I could be missing something please let me know. Also, any other political objections with Leninism or "democratic" centralism please let me know.
P.S. This isn't another ISO slander thread, I read them all before and after I joined and I put ZERO weight in anecdotal evidence and rumores, keep it on topic and political please.