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This is a blog for a community of students in Sociology 101A: "Sociological Theory," in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, Fall, 2008.
Welcome!
This is the informal blog spot for errant questions, random ramblings, and clever musings. For the rest of the semester, we'll use this blog to clarify the work(s) of Lenin, Gramsci and Fanon. Feel free to endlessly post, and don't forget: Theory Rocks!
Will Obama bring the U.S. closer to socialism?
Obama: A Traditional or Organic Intellectual?
Grappling with Gramsci
"The mode of being of the new intellectual can no longer consist in eloquence, which is an exterior and momentary mover of feelings and passions, but in active participation in practical life, as constructor, organizer, 'permanent persuader' and not just a simple orator (but superior at the same time to the abstract mathematical spirit) ..." (Prison Notebooks, 10).
"The relationship between the intellectuals and the world of production is not as direct as it is with the fundamental social groups but is, in varying degrees, 'mediated' by the whole fabric of society and by the complex of superstructures, of which the intellectual are, precisely, the 'functionaries'" (Prison Notebooks 12).
"The superstructure of civil society are like the trench-systems of modern warfare. In war it would sometimes happen that a fierce artillery attack seemed to have destroyed the outer perimeter; and at the moment of their advance and attack the assailants would find themselves confronted by a line of defense which was still effective" (Prison Notebooks 235).
"The massive structures of modern democracies, both as State organizations, and as complexes of associations in civil society, constitute for the art of politics as it were the 'trenches' and the permanent fortifications of the front in the war of position ..." (Prison Notebooks 243).
"... [I]t is obvious that all the essential questions of sociology are nothing other than the questions of political science" (Prison Notebooks 244).
"As long as the class-State exists the regulated society cannot exist, other than metaphorically---i.e. only in the sense that the class-State too is a regulated society" (Prison Notebooks 257).
What did you think of the Rosa Luxemburg film?
Oh No He Didn't: Endless, Evolving and Perplexing Lenin Quotables
"We are in favour of a democratic republic as the best form of state for the proletariat under capitalism" (The State and Revolution, 323).
"Simultaneously with an immense expansion of democracy, which for the first time become democracy for the poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the money-bags, the dictatorship of the proletariat imposes a series of restrictions on the freedom of the oppressors, the exploiters, the capitalists. We must suppress them in order to free humanity from wage slavery, their resistance must be crushed by force; it is clear that there is no freedom and no democracy where there is suppression and where there is violence" (The State and Revolution, 373).
"The expression 'the state withers away' is very well chosen, for it indicates both the gradual and the spontaneous nature of the process. Only habit can, and undoubtedly will, have such an effect ..." (The State and Revolution, 374).
What did you think of Salt of the Earth?
Who got it right?
Blog Archive
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2008
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November
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- A Different Wretched of the Earth!
- Fanon in Context
- Frantz Fanon
- The Thousand Threads and Obama's Economic Advisors
- Theory Barocks Assignment
- Rosa Luxemburg
- The revolutionary visions of Rosa Luxemberg
- Rosa Luxemburg's Fight for Revolution
- Will Obama bring the U.S. closer to socialism?
- Is Obama connected to the state with a thosuand th...
- Lenin on Obama
- Lenin's view of Obama
- Theory BAROCKS!!!
- Lenin and Obama
- Lenin: "Obama and his capitalist tendencies"
- Lenin and Obama,
- Thousand Threads Remain
- Baracks Assignment
- Theory Barocks
- The "Revolutionary" Question
- Lenin says...
- Lenin on Obama
- Lenin on Obama's Victory
- Obama and Lenin
- What would Lenin say about Obama's Victory....
- Lenin vs Obama
- Revolutionary Transitions: Luxemburg and Lenin
- Luxemburg & Lenin
- Lenin believes that Obama’s.....
- what would lenin say
- Obama and Lenin
- Traditional vs. Organic
- Traditional vs. Organic
- Thousand Threads Connected to Congress Too?
- Gramsci on Luxemburg
- Sounds like a Gramsci Studybreak!
- Jeopardy Question: Class in Itself
- Luxemburg meets Burawoy
- Vida de Gramsci
- yay for today's debate!!!
- 1981 PATCO Strike
- Kropotkin's Letter to Lenin
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November
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2 comments:
The leaders of the German Social Democrats (GSD), Kautsky, Bernstein, and Luxemburg, have differing opinions about the transitions after capitalism. Kautsky was a reformist who believed that the German Proletariat class should wait for the right conditions of the breakdown of capitalism. On the other hand, Bernstein argued that revolution was unnecessary because capitalism will eventually evolve into socialism, since he believed that no crisis was coming. Luxemburg was the most revolutionary of because she believed the conditions necessary for a revolution were ripe because there was a crisis. Luxemburg strongly argued that a mass strike was necessary to overthrow the existing capitalist state and to become a dictatorship of the proletariat, although the rest of the GSD, including Kautsky and Bernstein, opposed it because they believed the GSD weren’t ready to revolutionize.
Luxemburg’s disagreement with Kautsky and Bernstein relates to Marx’s theory of the inevitable destruction of capitalism regarding the necessity of a revolution. Although Marx and Luxemburg both believe that a revolution is necessary to overthrow the existing capitalist state of their time, their belief differs regarding what capitalism leads to and when it occurs. Marx argues that capitalism (socialized production and privatized appropriation) leads to a crisis of overproduction (708) and class struggle (480), which leads to communism (socialized production and socialized appropriation) because capitalism undermines itself through Bob’s your uncle theory. In this theory, he believes that the bourgeoisie created its own “grave-diggers” (483), the working class that revolted against the ruling class based on the developed working class solidarity. Luxemburg, on the other hand, believed that a working class revolution was necessary to overthrow the capitalist state and bring them to socialism because the solidarity that would be established makes changes for the working class stronger. Capitalism was never overthrown for both theorists were because the revolutions never occurred.
Just as there were differences with Marx and Luxemburg’s theory of the destruction of capitalism, Lenin also had differences from Luxemburg. Although both theorists believed that a revolution is necessary to overthrow capitalism, Lenin’s theory of revolution doesn’t require a crisis and a socialism stage like Luxemburg’s theory (Lenin’s Graph). Lenin argues that a “violent revolution [and] the destruction of the state power” (315) is necessary to liberate the working class and to transition to communism because the state is an “organ of repression” (320). In contrast, Luxemburg argues that a state and class struggle must coexist to transition from capitalism to socialism, in order to rid the “muck of all ages” (193), and then transition to communism.
Therefore, although each theorist believed that a revolution was necessary to overthrow the capitalist state, they differed regarding when revolution should occur and what capitalism would transition into.
interesting paper Winnie. I was wondering if you could agree with any of these theorists? Do you believe that MoP has to be fully developed before a socialist revolution? If MoP isn't fully developed, wouldn't it be very difficult for the working class to communicate and organize?
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