Libertarian Communism - your thoughts?

[LooseWilly]

52. What part of Leninism has you hung up?

I think of Leninism as mostly the clarification of some points of Marxism, as well as the additional analysis of imperialism.

Anti-Leninism smacks of Trotskyite notions that there should somehow be no leadership of the workers, no organization... that one should wait for the workers to... organize themselves?... (though, if one with organizational skills and an idea of a goal, especially a Marxist-Leninist, or even Stalinist, goal... demures from leading for some sort of Trotskyite fear of a "vanguard party leading workers"... then who will ever lead/organize?... by Trotskyite reasoning anyone who sees the goal is barred from leading... it is ridiculous when you think about it... a forced waiting until the most uncertain amongst the workers finally decides to lead all the others who already know what to do.)

And as to the idea that the workers in the USSR were "still oppressed"... I guess you'll need to define oppression in your sense of the word, because they weren't by the Marxist definition of the word. Even the "monster" Stalin was reputed to listen to the notions voiced by the soviets, and even attended meetings himself sometimes. The idea of a worker at McDonald's having a representative to speak at something like a soviet is enough to give some idea of the difference... let alone having someone(s) who could actually regulate the workplace sit in on the meeting themselves. No member of the president's cabinet will ever sit in on a union negotiation. The USSR's central committee, on the other hand, especially in the '30s through the '50s, were potentially liable to.

Did the workers have to work? Yes. Were the dissidents apt to be treated harshly? Yes. (Were US strikers apt to be treated harshly during WWII? Yes.) Does this mean the workers were "oppressed" still?... I'm inclined to say no.

If the vanguard party of the USSR had tried to do what it did without the support of the majority of the people/workers/ex-serfs... then they wouldn't've been able to fight off the White Russian armies of the West, let alone the Nazis. There would've been too many opportunists and defectors and double agents and surrenders... but there weren't. There just weren't.