Was there ever a dotp in Russia? What is the leftcom view of the dotp? and more

  1. Fourth Internationalist
    So, to leftcoms, was there ever a dotp in Russia?

    Why or why not? If so, when?

    What was the nature the USSR (under Lenin, then Stalin, and after him)?

    Also, what is the leftcom view of the nature of the dotp?

    Is it socialist (as MLs and MLMs would argue)?

    Is it a transitional phase (between capitalism and socialism)?

    Any more details of how it should be set up?

    What does the left-wing of capital mean?

    Isn't that a bit sectarian?

    Do you see a difference in the nature of the state and the mode of production?
  2. Alf
    Alf
    A lot of questions....
    There are different views in the left communist tradition, from those like the council communists who ended up rejecting the idea that there had ever been a dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia, to the Bordigists who have little to criticise in the early years of the revolution. But all of them would agree that Stalin's USSR was a capitalist state.
    The ICC has written extensively about the Russian revolution so it's hard to know where to start. We (the ICC, and other left communists) certainly think that there was a genuine seizure of power by the working class in October 1917 but also that the isolation of the revolution made a process of degeneration from within inevitable.
    We agree with Marx that there needs to be a period of transition between capitalism and communism. We don't call it 'socialism' because it's not a stable mode of production, more of a struggle between the the process of spreading communist social relations and the weight of the old world, expressed in particular in the remnants of commodity relations.
    The dictatorship of the proletariat has to be exercised directly by the workers' own organs, such as soviets. It can't be delegated to a party.
    The left wing of capital described the role played by organisations like the Labour party and the Communist parties in the actual management of capital or in the sabotage of workers' struggles from the 'inside'. The Labour party and the CPs have been directly responsible for crushing strikes and revolutionary uprisings (eg Germany 1919, Spain 1937, Britain 1945, Hungary 1956, etc) and mobilising workers for imperialist wars from world war one to the present day. If denouncing them for all this is sectarian, then so be it, but we think it's just telling the truth. The Maoists and Trotskyists who apologise for these crimes are the left of the left wing of capital.
  3. Brotto Rühle
    Brotto Rühle
    I think it's safe to say that it was never fully established before everything disintegrated.