Reformism and DotP.

[IWantToLearn]

Hi, im making this post to clarify some of my doubts about reformism wich i have come across.

1. What is exactly a reform, is it a law?, can a law be a reform? or is it something else?.

2. Where does ends a tendency (if its a tendency) like reformism and starts capitalist tendencies like social democracy wich if i understand right it tries to tax the rich and possibly implant other stuff that may benefit the proletariat.

3. What are the differences between reformism and the DotP?.
Wikipedia states that "In Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a state in which the proletariat, or the working class, has control of political power.", i have not read anything about the DotP and the part about the stat kind of confuses me.


Can you please recommend me any lecture about this issue?, preferably not something too extensive like Das Capital.

[La Guaneña]

Hi, im making this post to clarify some of my doubts about reformism wich i have come across.

1. What is exactly a reform, is it a law?, can a law be a reform? or is it something else?.

2. Where does ends a tendency (if its a tendency) like reformism and starts capitalist tendencies like social democracy wich if i understand right it tries to tax the rich and possibly implant other stuff that may benefit the proletariat.

3. What are the differences between reformism and the DotP?.
Wikipedia states that "In Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a state in which the proletariat, or the working class, has control of political power.", i have not read anything about the DotP and the part about the stat kind of confuses me.


Can you please recommend me any lecture about this issue?, preferably not something too extensive like Das Capital.

1. Yes, a law can be considered a reform. A reform in generally any kind of change inside the structure of the bourgeois state. That can mean a public health system, changes in education, retirment policies, etc

2. If I understand what you are asking here, reformism is a political theory that understands that the working class can simply take over the bourgeois state and use it as an own tool of class domination. In other words, take the state out of the bourgeoisie's hands and expropriate it using the state.

What you refer to as Social Democracy is not taking the state as far as a tool of class domination, just offering some sort of "humanitarian capitalism" in place. In theory, it is a state that offers free and public healthcare and education, a strong welfare network, good living conditions etc., without defeating the bourgeoisie.

3. Some stripes of reformism seek to take over the state through peaceful means, and argue that "smashing the bourgeois state" is a merely propagandistic term, and that even the bolsheviks were limited to taking over the old Tsarist state and changing a few of its institutions. So they understand that in the modern bourgeois states not even the violent takeover is necessary, it is possible to do so through parliament.

This means that they see Parliamentism as a strategy, opposed to Leninists (both ML and Trotskyists) who see Parliament as a tactic. This means that they go beyond using bourgeois ellections to agitate and propagandise for socialist revolution, but use it as the actual road to socialism instead of revolution.

[La Guaneña]

Lenin has a kinda small book where he talks about the need to smash the bourgeois state, called State and Revolution. I guess it's pretty much the basic on this subject.