Lenin’s “What is to be Done?” Part II

We invite you to join us for a discussion of sections 4-end of Lenin’s ‘What is to be Done?’

Here is a link to a PDF version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/svjglfdimf2wyfc/WITBD121011.pdf

Lenin’s definitive work on the role of a political party in catalyzing a mass socialist movement of the working class lays out the fundamental task, the fight to bring a scientific socialist perspective to workers. Lenin makes a case for the creation of mass newspaper, whose perspective is guided by an uncompromising Marxist analysis of world events, to help workers understand how their immediate struggles are related to the broader struggles of workers across the Russia and the world, and to expose and study the class relations that underly society. This is the perspective behind the World Socialist Website, wsws.org.

Lenin comes out both barrels blazing against an orientation toward spontaneity or a rejection of the political struggle in favor of a struggle simply for better wages and working conditions. More broadly, Lenin makes the case for an unrelenting fight to expose the class interests behind opportunist and reformist political tendencies of all sorts. This work’s continuing significance is demonstrated perhaps most vividly by the unrelenting efforts of so-called “left” tendencies of all sorts to falsify, obscure and attack Lenin’s unambiguous arguments. Lenin is labeled an elitist, an authoritarian, a revisionist of Marxism (among pseudo-Marxists), a true adherent of Marxism (among anti-Marxists), and ridiculous claims are made that Lenin himself backed away from these views because he didn’t immediately reprint the work after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia.

So, what is the truth? In the current rapidly changing period of history, what is to be done? We invite you to join us on October 8 to discuss “What is to be Done?”.