Lenin: On Confounding Politics for Pedagogics

In a discussion on Bob Avakian, and conceptions of communist leadership, one comment recommended this piece by Lenin. "Worth a read, stressing the importance of doing communist work and not letting a slogan of "to the masses" mean a denigration of doing precisely communist work among those masses."

Lenin: On Confounding Politics with Pedagogics

[NOTE: in lenin's time, before the Russian revolution, communists were known as "social democrats." Paragraphing of excerpts is added for emphasis.]

"It is our duty always to intensify and broaden our work and influence among the masses. A Social-Democrat who does not do this is no Social-Democrat. No branch, group, or circle can be considered a Social-Democratic organisation if it does not work to this end steadily and regularly.

"To a great extent, the purpose of our strict separation as a distinct and independent party of the proletariat consists in the fact that we always and undeviatingly conduct this Marxist work of raising the whole working class, as far as possible, to the level of Social-Democratic consciousness, allowing no political gales, still less political changes of scenery, to turn us away from this urgent task.

"Without this work, political activity would inevitably degenerate into a game, because this activity acquires real importance for the proletariat only when and insofar as it arouses the mass of a definite class, wins its interest, and mobilises it to take an active, foremost part in events."

&&&&&&&&&&&

"There is and always will be an element of pedagogics in the political activity of the Social-Democratic Party. We must educate the whole class of wage-workers to the role of fighters for the emancipation of mankind from all oppression. We must constantly teach more and more sections of this class; we must learn to approach the most backward, the most undeveloped members of this class, those who are least influenced by our science and the science of life, so as to be able to speak to them, to draw closer to them, to raise them steadily and patiently to the level of Social-Democratic consciousness, without making a dry dogma out of our doctrine—to teach them not only from books, but through participation in the daily struggle for existence of these backward and undeveloped strata of the proletariat. There is, we repeat, a certain element of pedagogics in this everyday activity.

"The Social-Democrat who lost sight of this activity would cease to be a Social-Democrat. That is true. But some of us often forget, these days, that a Social-Democrat who would reduce the tasks of politics to pedagogics would also, though for a different reason, cease to be a Social-Democrat. Whosoever might think of turning this “pedagogics” into a special slogan, of contraposing it to “politics”, of building a special trend upon it, and of appealing to the masses under this slogan against the “politicians” of Social-Democracy, would instantly and unavoidably descend to demagogy. "

Comments

[Mass Line Tip]

One can find a lot of use being made of this piece, unpublished in Lenin's lifetime, here:

http://www.massline.info/mlms/mlms.htm

I've never seen anything else that uses this work of Lenin's as much as the Mass Line and the American Revolutionary Movement book.

[friendly fire]

I wonder who this missive is for?

The Mass Line site is a good resource, and whatever problems the author has had with the party do not detract from the seriousness of his criticism.

The Mass Line is something communists should constantly debate.

Not tailing the masses, not tailoring our positions to whatever activist consensus holds sway.

Going deep among different sectors of the people, learning what their needs and concerns are – and developing programmatic responses, movements, mass organizations, institutions and forums to bring out the revolutionary kernal.

It means political leadership, not a slippery barometer of what people already think they know.

The Mass Line also certainly involves the consistent spread of revolutionary communist agitation and propaganda.

Those organizations which pay lip service to the Mass Line while ignoring this defining aspect of what it is, are engaging in demogoguery. Whether they subjectively intend to do it or not, they are promoting revisionism.

I'm saying that with friendly fire.

We don't need Menshevism.

We need Bolshevism, with red flags on the ground. We need to engage millions of people with the highest and loftiest ideas of our movement. That there are no gods, no justice in the hereafter, no Democratic Party "Rainbow."

Those who dismiss communist political work dismiss the need for a party, refuse to combat revisionism and at the end of the day, over and over again all around the world, subordinate the class struggle to a "better deal" under the existing ruling class.

This is why revisionists in South Asia like the UML in Nepal or the CPI-Marxist will go so far as to engage in counter-insurgency before they get their own house in order.

It's why supposedly ML parties here will tail Islamists, nationalists, even communists at times, while training their members and supporters in what Lenin called Menshevism.

Today the word for Menshevism is "Refoundation."

[friendly fire]

Let me put it another way: If you are a member or supporter of an organization that calls itself communist (or "socialist"), and you are dedicated to fighting through to the rule of the proletariat – I ask: do you engage in regular, public and organizational advocacy of communism?

Do you ever do that?

And if not, what are you doing to further the communist movement? Not just "the" movement.

How would you contrast the subordination of communist politics now to "felt needs" with the writings of Eduard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky, Teng Xioping, Sam Webb, Kruschev and all the other revisionists who have used a Marxist vocabulary to promote the rule of the bourgeoisie?

[the burningman]

"I wonder who this missive is for?"

All of us.