I thought it would be interesting to discuss the Lyons Theses. In what ways do you agree or disagree? Are there some areas that you think should be revamped?
I disagree with this: Consequently, the organ which leads the class struggle to its final victory is the class political party, which is the sole possible instrument firstly of revolutionary insurrection and then of government. I imagine you would considering what you wrote on the party question on the other thread. Devrim
What did he they mean with "and then of government"?
What did he they mean with "and then of government"? My interpretation is that the Theses is stating that the party should (post-revolution) take power.
That's what I'm not hoping they meant.
Unfortunately yes, that is what they meant. It is straight Bordigism. It is quite standard for them. Devrim
Funny, they have good critiques on Imperialism, and a good understanding of the structure of bourgeois democracy, but their program just sucks! I haven't read that whole pamplet yet, I'll probably finish it today. There is alot of Lenin praising in it, Lenin is this hero, he's more human than human. There' this big mistake in presenting history, almost everyone does it, and that's heroizing somebody.
Bordigism is ultra-Leninism. An example of this is their reply to Lenin's 'Left Wing Communism...';"'LEFT-WING' COMMUNISM, AN INFANTILE DISORDER" - CONDEMNATION OF THE RENEGADES TO COME: The most exploited and counterfeited text for over forty years by all opportunist swines, each swine being characterised and defined by the barefaced invocation of it. http://www.sinistra.net/lib/upt/coml...enegadeae.html But also there are much better things, for example 'The Democratic Principle': http://www.international-communist-p...h/22DemPri.htm Devrim
i think the democratic principle is the most important thing bordiga theorized, and makes a fundamental break from "communists" like silly maoists who fetishize the "will of the masses". although, funny thing is that i think most maoists never cared about the "will of the masses" anyway
I would say that the Lyons theses are 'pre-Bordigist' - it's just the Italian left of the early 20s. Bordiga was obviously a key figure but I doubt that he had yet become the 'brilliant leader' of the post-war party. The Italian left in exile always rejected the term Bordigist. Of course the 'modern' Bordigists reject the term as well, but it has more relevance to them precisely because of their tendency to form a cult around Bordiga and the notion of 'invariance'. That doesn't mean that the Italian left at the time of the Lyons theses didn't have the idea of the party exerting the proletarian distatorship. This idea was continued during the Bilan period. But by then it was increasingly in contradiction with the lessons that Bilan was drawing about the Russian revolution, in particular the necessity for the party to avoid being fused with the state.
