Wheeler Hall
University of California Berkeley, Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94720
USA
For those of us interested in building a social movement capable of defending and expanding our basic social rights (e.g. the right to a healthcare, education, access to culture and a good job), perhaps the most pressing question is the approach to organizing. Lenin’s “What is to be Done?” perhaps the definitive text on organizing written in the 20th century, provides a clear and cutting argument for a democratic organization firmly based on principle, prepared to wage an unrelenting theoretical and political struggle against all forms of opportunism that would, wittingly or unwittingly, pull the wool over the eyes of workers. Unsurprisingly, this work has endured a century of sustained, vitriolic (and generally unfounded) criticism from opportunists of all stripes.
We feel that “What is to be Done?” is so critical that we are spending two classes on it. This week, we read a piece by David North, chairman of the editorial board of the WSWS, called “The Origins of Bolshevism and What Is To Be Done”. This short piece provides historical context for Lenin’s groundbreaking work, and rebuts a few of the most-common objections raised by anti-Marxists and pseudo-Marxists alike
In two weeks, we will discuss the whole of “What is to be Done?”
Here is a link to David North’s lecture: http://intsse.com/wswspdf/en/articles/2005/09/le3-all.pdf
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