The role of communists

[Osman Ghazi]

I'm still not exactly clear on what we should be doing as communists. The way I see it, there are three roads we can take.

1) Even though we recognize that the world is not yet ready for communism, we can sieze power for the workers regardless of the fact that the new socialist state will be threatened by it's capitlaist neighbours.

2) We can sit back, relax and wait for the immiseration of the proletariat to be complete, all the while biding our time and building our forces until the working class is ready to strike.

3) We can actively engage in bringing about the conditions necessary for a worldwide communist revolution i.e. actively engage in the immiseration of the proletariat. i.e. make things worse for the working people, in order to bring the revolution closer.

One is quite possibly folly as can be shown by all socialist states. It is no guarantee that it will actually make things better because defence measures may have to be taken in order to safeguard the state, which may actually worsen the conditions of the people i.e. Cuba.

Two just seems lazy but also the only viable option.

Three seems to me to be most right but it is far too dangerous an idea to be put into practice as it may alienate the working class from the communist movement. Along these lines would be bombing stock exchanges. although in the short run it would cause economic depression and consequently bring misery to the people, economic depression is necessary for a communist revolution.

What do you guys think?

[The Feral Underclass]

Originally posted by Osman [email protected] 1 2004, 03:28 AM
1) Even though we recognize that the world is not yet ready for communism, we can sieze power for the workers regardless of the fact that the new socialist state will be threatened by it's capitlaist neighbours.
Unilateral action by "intellectuals" or "professional revolutionaries" has been tried over and over again, and failed. It fails for two reasons. One, because the working class are not conscious of the action, therefore can not understand it and therefore not support it and secondly, because of this reason, they must perpetrate a state in order to some how manipulate society into communism. You can not do this. You can not use the state to create something like communism or workers liberation. The state acts as a being, a set of functions, designed to perpetuate the rule of a ruling class. The socialist state is the same. In order for communism to be achieved, these "intellectuals" have to maintain rule over the workers, which in turn means they must restrict freedoms and demand more and more obdience to the state and its managment. In some areas the state must increase in order to do this. If that is the case, how then can it wither away? It can't. What you get is Stalins and then capitalism. The socialist state can not achieve workers liberation, especially controlled by a small group of people.


2) We can sit back, relax and wait for the immiseration of the proletariat to be complete, all the while biding our time and building our forces until the working class is ready to strike.

You mean like drinking tea and watching eastenders, until the workers are ready to take up arms? I am not sure what you mean by waiting? Of course there will come a time when the working class will become disheartened with the ruling class and at which point they will start to make trouble.


3) We can actively engage in bringing about the conditions necessary for a worldwide communist revolution i.e. actively engage in the immiseration of the proletariat. i.e. make things worse for the working people, in order to bring the revolution closer.

I dont think this is necessary. I would say that some of 2 and some of 3 is what we need. Our role as communists is to educate the workers and fight for achieving consciousness. This means, getting the workers to a point where they understand their material conditions. This can be done through many things. The movements role is to attempt to show that capitalism does not work. Either through argument or through practical ways. Community work, united front and work place agitation are three popular ways of getting a platform to speak to oppressed people.

We do not need to make things worse for the workers. Their lifes are already pretty shit already. What we have to do is show them that that is the case. Communists need to be imaginitive. Find new ways that will give the movement opporuntities to talk with the workers. Once a movement has grown a little in size, you take the organizing up a notch. You organize forums, events, you have a paper to sell, you make a presents within society. You build the movement with the objective of creating a workers revolution. At which point, when the movement is big enough, confrontation will come in many different ways. It's simply a question of organizing.