Today I woke up without much energy to work, feeling a bit disappointed with everything. I just watched an interview with American Senator Bernie Sanders about why the American elections elected Trump. He seems to believe that the issue was simply that the Democratic Party abandoned the working class. Well, they did abandon them, but it’s no use returning to the old “we need to raise the minimum wage, we need to increase social security.” What needs to be declared at this moment is the race to create a socialist state that eliminates the ruling classes. If the solution is just to give more handouts to the people, it is clear that what always happens will happen—inflation with the loss of revolutionary momentum and, after that, the reorganization of the ruling class that will try to eliminate these advances in the future.
There is no longer a solution other than to follow and accept the path of class struggle. This must be the focus from now on, and it will not be the Democratic Party that will lead this movement.
Reading the book “In Defense of Lenin” has been therapeutic for me. Besides being phenomenally written by Alan Woods and his brother, it portrays a story of overcoming obstacles. And not just anyone’s story. We are talking about Lenin, according to Jack Reed, the great architect of the Russian Revolution.
It is very interesting to understand that the entire revolutionary process is full of ups and downs. It’s no wonder Lenin wrote “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.” Deportations, imprisonments, lack of money, support, few people, and internal dissensions within the party seem to be the tone of every revolutionary process. We can see this more clearly or to a lesser extent in all revolutionary movements.
Regarding Bernie, I remembered the first party conference when even Trotsky was against Lenin. The clash of ideas was about who could be considered a party member or not. They wanted to open it up to people who wanted to eventually debate socialism, and Lenin was absolutely against this position. For him, the party should consist solely and exclusively of militants, people who actually participated in the day-to-day activities of the party. Martov, on the other hand, wanted to open it up to everyone. Lenin’s idea was to prevent opportunists from joining the party. For Rob Sewell and Alan Woods:
The party was not a debating society or a forum in which every individual is free to express any ideas that occur to them. It is a weapon in the fight to change society. Everything was subordinated to this fact.
Rob Sewell & Alan Woods. In-Defence-of-Lenin-yzviu8 (Locais do Kindle 2040-2041). Edição do Kindle.
Trotsky later admitted that Lenin was right about this. The moral of the story: following the majority’s desire does not always mean you are right.
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