Revolutionary vanguard
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A Revolutionary vanguard movement, revolutionary vanguard party, vanguard movement, vanguard party, revolutionary vanguard, or sometimes simply vanguard is the solution to the practical problem of governing after a socialist revolution is achieved. It is an attempt to create a "permanent revolution" through an institutionalized party.
While it takes years of ideological indoctrination and training to overthrow an existing regime, the objective can be achieved in a moment. There is a tendency to rest on one's laurels, and a danger of taking on the corrupt characteristics of the former regime.
Stagnation and corruption will ensue unless "revolutionary fervor," class hatred, and bigotry become institutionalized in the new Socialist ruling party and bureaucracy. Hence is born the concept of ongoing or "permanent revolution." This, and "institutionalized revolution" are just two examples of the oxymoronic thinking common to Marxist theory.
Origins of term[edit]
Lenin's ideological contribution was to make the Communist party itself the exclusive "vanguard of the proletariat" and thus the final arbiter of what was proletarian or bourgeois.[1] In Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder[2] written in 1920, Lenin discovered his earlier account of the workers' consciousness was too optimistic. Workers are not only indifferent to revolution, they oppose it. To some extent the workers are positively "reactionary." Two stubborn obstacles remain: "force of habit," the powerful attachment to "the forces and traditions of the old society," and "small-scale production," which continues "spontaneously and on a mass scale." Lenin calls "habit", using a Marxian term, "bourgeois passions," the inclination of people to acquire, love, and defend what is their own to the exclusion of others in the community. Springing from and reinforcing this "force of habit in millions and tens of millions" are "millions upon millions of petty proprietors" and "small commodity producers" whose private mode of production continues to foster the non-socialist habits that stand in the way of transition to communism. Since the workers and the rest of the people "can (and must) be remodeled and re-educated only by very prolonged, slow, cautious organizational work" the party must continue to rule dictatorially on behalf of the workers just as it earlier took the lead in making the revolution. This process will take "very many years." The "proletarian vanguard," Lenin admits, is the Politburo of the party, consisting of Lenin and a handful of close colleagues.[3]
Vanguard of the proletariat[edit]
The proletariat was seen as selflessly striving for progress in the building of socialism, whereas the bourgeoisie was seen as selfishly fighting to maintain the status quo. According to Marxist ideology, class struggle was the engine of change in all social development. Vladimir Lenin's ideological contribution was to make the party itself the exclusive “vanguard of the proletariat” and thus the final arbiter of what was proletarian or bourgeois.[4][5]
See also[edit]
- Left Inside/Outside Project
- Antifa
- Black Lives Matter
- Chinese Communist Party
- Code Pink
- Committees of Correspondence for Democratic Socialism
- Communist Party of the United States of America
- Congressional Progressive Caucus
- Democratic Socialists of America
- Justice Democrats
- Liberation Road
- National Lawyers Guild
- New Consensus
- New Party
- NextGen America
- Our Revolution
- Party for Socialism and Liberation
- Refuse Fascism
- Revolutionary Communist Party
- Sandinistas
- Socialist Alternative
- Sunrise Movement
- Workers World Party
- Peoples Temple
- STORM
- Nomenklatura
References[edit]
- ↑ Revelations from the Russian Archives, Attacks on Intelligentsia: Suppressing Dissidents, Library of Congress Exhibit. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
- ↑ V. I. Lenin, "Left-Wing" Communism, An Infantile Disorder (1920) V. I. Lenin, Selected Works, English edition, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1952, Vol. II, Part 2.
- ↑ Marx and Lenin, Thomas G. West, The Claremont Institute, Posted on October 10, 2006. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
- ↑ https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/intn.html#atts
- ↑ https://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/1924/lenin/ch03.htm
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