Blake's Baby

Thanks for your responses.

I guess this raises the question, ''Is the party-form itself counter-revolutionary?''

p.s I think it's impressive that you have a library.

Regarding the conception of the party, it has often been said that Lenin backtracked on much of what he wrote in WITBD after 1905, do you have any info regards this?

Regarding the April Thesis, this is perhaps what is best in the Leninist legacy- i.e the willingness to seize power, the willingness to risk failure, instead of waiting for a spontaneous revolution- I think many Marxists of that time were guilty of historical determinism.

For me Lenin did many good things. For example, his conception of the party, I think, was one of the main reasons that the Russian party was able to maintain it's revolutionary and internationalist positions. Likewise I think the ''State and Revolution'' was a masterpiece. I also think he should be applauded for the fact that his party had the revolutionary audacity to seize power instead of waiting around for it to spontaneously happen.

Can you provide me with any interesting material regarding Kronstadt? I had no idea that they were mostly bolsheviks.

Do you view Lenin as a positive figure? And why do you think Kronstadt was suppressed, because the Bolsheviks thought it would be harmful to the revolution or because they wanted to maintain a state capitalist dictatorship?

In a hypothetical situation like 1917 Russia, in an isolated workers state, where the workers have seized the factories but their state is isolated, would it be advisable to construct a state capitalist economy under the direction of the workers state until such time the revolution spreads? Or would you advocate leaving the means of production under private ownership until the revolution has spread so that a new worldwide socialist mode of production can be created immediately after socialization of the means of production?

Hi comrade. This is probably going to seem a bit random but I'd be interested to hear whatever stories you have about your experiences working with the Communist Left.

Transitionally, perhaps we should concede that there are more stages: DOTP and economic democracy, early "socialism," "developed socialism," lower phase, higher phase. That pools all the schools of thought together, from the market-socialists to "Brezhnevites" to left-coms and gift-economy advocates.