Agreed, but that is because the legacy of Leninism has to be considered as a tradition that exceeds Lenin's contributions. The notion that it is a kind of program to approach the particularities of the predicament Lenin faced has to be abandoned. As Lukacs argues, Leninism is the unmechanical practice of Dialectics, the practical implications of historical materialism on the level of Realpolitik. In this sense, there is no difference between Leninism and Marxism, it is Orthodox Marxism, if you will. Just calling yourself a Leninist doesn't mean anything, especially not at times when self-proclaimed Leninists uphold their arbitrary identity. If one wants to be a Leninist, they have to be a socialist in practice in the first place.
That seems like the sensible position to take, although I believe Leninist is also appropriate, to distinguish oneself from anti-Leninist Marxists (who these days are an anachronism or just closet anarchists/left communists). In the end though it only means something to us; Marxism-Leninism is often considered even by many ignorant academics to mean the embodiment of Marxism and Leninism.
I've started to read Bordiga because Rafiq once argued that China (SU, etc.) had already undergone a bourgeois revolution. It was a completely new and also curious position to me but in the end I happened to agree - Bordiga provided the necessary fundament to understand "real socialism". Apart from that, I haven't read much by Bordiga, I don't even know what Organic Centralism is. I'm certainly not a Bordigist. Generally, I find it silly to identify with this or this sectarian movement that dogmatically discusses history with other silly tendencies. Today, when it comes to being a practical socialist, all those fancy labels don't mean shit. I consider myself a Marxist, and that's all I need.
Where you place yourself in terms of Marxist thought? Your posts speak to me and got me interested in Bordiga a little more than I already was (his thesis on the USSR is particularly enthralling). Are you a Bordigist yourself? I find "Organic Centralism" to be pretty contemptible and anti-Marxist so I stray away from the label myself - not they matter so much.
