Revolutionary Marxism and Social Reality in the 20th Century: Collected Essays

228 Pages·1994·3.968 MB·English

by  Ernest Mandel

Revolutionary Marxism and Social
Reality in the 20th Century
REVOLUTIONARY STUDIES
Series Editor: PAUL LE BLANC
Socialism from Below
Hal Draper
Essays Selected, Edited, and with an Introduction
by E. Haber/tern
Max Shachtman and His Left:
A Socialist’s Odyssey through the “American Century”
Peter Dru cker
World Revolution 1 91 7— 1 936
The Rise and Fall of the Communist International
C. L. R. James
Marxism in Latin America from 1909
to the Present: An Anthology
Edited by Michael Lo'wy
On Changing the World
Essays in Political Philosophy,
from Karl Marx to Walter Benjamin
Michael Lo'wy
The Place of Marxism in History
Ernest Mandel
Revolutionary Marxism and Social Reality
in the 20th Century
Ernest Mandel
Collected Essays Edited and with an Introduction
by Steve Bloom
C. L. R. James and Revolutionary Marxism:
Selected Writings of C. L. R. James 1939—1949
Edited by Scott McLemee and Paul Le Blanc
The Marxists and the Jewish Question:
The History of a Debate (1843—1943)
Enzo Traverso
The USSR 1987—1991:
Marxist Perspectives
Edited by Marilyn Vogt-Downey
The Responsibility of Intellectuals: Selected Essays
on Marxist Traditions in Cultural Commitment
Alan M Wald
Revolutionary Marxism
and Social Reality
in the 2 0 t h Century
ERNEST MANDEL
Collected Essays Edited
and with an Introduction by
STEVE BLOOM
W
HUMANITIES PRESS
NEW JERSEY
First published in 1994 by Humanities Press International, Inc.,
Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey 07716.
© 1994 by Ernest Mandel
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mandel, Ernest.
Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century :
collected essays of Ernest Mandel / edited and with an introduction
by Steve Bloom.
p. cm. — (Revolutionary studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0—391—03800—1 (pbk)
1. Communism—History—ZOth century. 1. Bloom, Steve, 1946—
11. Title. III. Series.
HX40.M2564 1993
320.5’32'0904—dc20 92—33943
CIP
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without written permission from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction ix
PART I. HISTORICAL ESSAYS
—i Trotsky: The Man and His Work
DI
[\‘ Solzhenitsyn’s Assault on Stalinism .. . and on the
October Revolution 19
3 Rosa Luxemburg and German Social Democracy 32
$0 Trotsky’s Economic Ideas and the Soviet Union Today 50
PART II. LENINIST ORGANIZATION
Vanguard Parties 60
The Leninist Theory of Organization: Its Relevance for
Today 77
PART III. MARXIST PROGRAM AND THEORY
What Is the Theory of Permanent Revolution? 130
Reasons for Founding the Fourth International
and Why They Remain Valid Today 143
The Marxist Case for Revolution Today 179
Index 207

Preface
When putting together a book made up of essays that were originally
written to stand on their own there are always different possibilities for
organizing the material. One, obviously, is simply to put everything in
chronological order. Another is by theme or subject. I have chosen to divide
this book into three general categories: historical essays, the Leninist theory
of organization, and other questions of Marxist program— and theory.
Within these broad subject areas things appear chronologically—except for
the question of Leninist organization.
The reasons for separating organization from the other questions of a
programmatic or theoretical nature and reversing the chronological order of
the two items that appear in this section were both practical and pedagogic.
There were two essays that dealt specifically with this topic. Had I put them
together with the other theoretical works and divided the book into only
two sections, Part I would have turned out dramatically shorter than Part II.
Therefore, the three-part structure made some sense.
It was also my goal, in organizing this material, to try to make Mandel’s
more theoretical writings less imposing for the reader who may be unfamil-
iar with even basic Marxist ideas and terminology. Therefore, the shorter,
more popularly written pieces appear in Part I and can begin to introduce
some of these ideas and concepts. The first item in Part II then followed
logically, because it was initially presented as a lecture rather than in written
form and should also be more easily assimilated by those who lack any
substantial previous experience with Marxism. Reading it before the
second, longer piece—which looks exhaustively at the philosophical and
theoretical basis for Lenin’s ideas on party organization—may help provide
a transition between the more easily accessible materials in Part I and the
longer, more abstract articles.
When editing older writing for republication—things that date from
before the early 19705 when we all became conscious (as a result of the
second wave of feminism) about the inherent sexist bias in Western
languages—one can be faced with a dilemma: What to do about the use of
the masculine form to refer to the entire human species? In the present
volume this arises especially in “Trotsky: The Man and His Work,” first
published in 1947. I have chosen not to alter the way things appeared in the
original English publication on this point, and ask the reader to keep in
vii
vfii PREFACE
mind that, where it appears, the use of such terms as “he” and “mankind”
to refer to all humanity stems from a universal literary tendency at the time
the material was written. In later works, Mandel himself corrects this—
reflecting his commitment to the complete equality of women in language
as well as in society as a whole (a general theme he repeats throughout the
essays in this book).
Notes which are not by Mandel will indicate their source, being identified
as either a “translators’ note” or “editor’s note.”
STEVE BLOOM
Introduction
The earliest essay in this book was published in 1947. The latest appeared in
1990. This spans more than four decades of work and dedication by Ernest
Mandel to the Fourth International and to revolutionary Marxism. The begin-
nings ofhis activity in the world Trotskyist movement go back even further—
to the anti-Nazi struggle in Europe during World War II and before.
It is rare, to say the least, for young revolutionary militants to maintain
their consciousness and commitment for so long, to become, we might say,
old revolutionary militants. Most often, youthful enthusiasm succumbs to
the innumerable material pressures that bear down in our society, or to
cynicism and demoralization as a result of the difficulties of the struggle, or
else it falls Victim to the murderous repression which is so often inflicted on
those who fight for the liberation of humanity.
This ordinarily rapid turnover of individuals is something for which our
movement pays a substantial price. An activist With even a decade’s experi-
ence in building a revolutionary organization will inevitably have gained
considerable practical knowledge. If we combine that practical knowledge
with a little theoretical and programmatic understanding gained through
basic educational work, or through dealing with specific problems of the
class struggle as they arise, it is easy to see how difficult it can be to replace a
lost cadre with a new recruit. More is involved than a question of how
many people belong to the revolutionary organization. We also have to ask
how much collective consciousness and experience these people represent.
This general problem is important to keep in mind when reading these
pages—not, in particular, as a personal tribute to Ernest Mandel for con-
tinuing in his seventh decade of life as an active revolutionary leader.
Rather, it is significant because it helps us to appreciate that behind these
essays lies a truly profound commitment to the cause of working people, to
studying—and contributing to—the program and theory of social change,
as well as a considerable depth of experience during more than half a
century of struggle.
It is a well-known fact that for years Mandel has been acknowledged as
the foremost Marxist economist in the world. But his experience and
expertise are not limited to economics, as the broad range of subjects
covered by this book clearly demonstrates. They range from an assessment
of Rosa Luxemburg’s role in the social-democratic movement during the
ix