Theory vs Reality

[DiggerII]

Hey Everyone,
I'm brand new to revleft and I'm really excited that I finally get to communicate with people who think like me! I've been reading the site a lot lately and it seems to be full of comrades with incredible amounts of knowledge. So I'd like to start with a topic that is probably coverd on the site, but has plagued my mind lately:

Are communist revolutions, like those in Russia, Cuba, and China, doomed to totalitarian rule? Is there some kind of action that is to be taken against such despots, like Stalin, that may rise to power? Or is there a theory set forth by Marx or others that addresses this issue?

-thanks

[RGacky3]

Anarchism, Anarcho-Syndicalism, Anarcho-Communism.

All movements that were mainly anarchist in nature never became totalitarian, almost all were destroyed by force, but never became even remotly totalitarian.

The theory is simple, don't give anyone innate power.

All of those revolutions were done by Vanguardists who's goal was to TAKE state and economic power, not get rid of it, whenever you have a group of people who SAY they will do things for the people's sake, and you give they innate power (or they take it), things will probably go bad because they have no one to answer to but themselves. Revolutions should be about destroying ALL power, Capital and State.

"If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be worse than the Czar himself." Mikhail Bakunin

Almost all Anarchists split from supporting the Russian Revolution early on, seeing it for what it was, red painted tyranny.

[DiggerII]

then when will a revolution be successfull? under what circumstances?

[Rawthentic]

I think that it is too simplistic to say that that is why communist revolutions failed. It has a lot to do with the backwards material conditions and the rise of the Parties as ruling classes. In order to pave the way to a stateless, classless society, state power needs to be taken by the workers to suppress the counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie.

[DiggerII]

Originally posted by [email protected] 06, 2007 05:06 am
I think that it is too simplistic to say that that is why communist revolutions failed. It has a lot to do with the backwards material conditions and the rise of the Parties as ruling classes. In order to pave the way to a stateless, classless society, state power needs to be taken by the workers to suppress the counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie.
and what would that look like? As workers will probably constitute that majority, they'll have loads of different opinions. So will they take on state power in a democratic way or....?