As we discussed in section H.5.1, anarchists argue that the assumptions of vanguardism leads to party rule over the working class. Needless to say, followers of Lenin disagree that the idea that vanguardism results in such an outcome. For example, Chris Harman of the British Socialist Workers Party argues the opposite case in his essay "Party and Class." However, his own argument suggests the elitist conclusions we have draw from Lenin's.
Harman argues that there are two ways to look at the revolutionary party, the Leninist way and the traditional social-democratic way (as represented by the likes of Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg in 1903-5). "The latter," he argues, "was thought of as a party of the whole [working] class . . . All the tendencies within the class had to be represented within it. Any split within it was to be conceived of as a split within the class. Centralisation, although recognised as necessary, was feared as a centralisation over and against the spontaneous activity of the class. Yet it was precisely in this kind of party that the 'autocratic' tendencies warned against by Luxemburg were to develop most. For within it the confusion of member and sympathiser, the massive apparatus needed to hold together a mass of only half-politicised members in a series of social activities, led to a toning down of political debate, a lack of political seriousness, which in turn reduced the ability of the members to make independent political evaluations and increased the need for apparatus-induced involvement." [Party and Class, p. 32]
Thus, the lumping together into one organisation all those who consider themselves as "socialist" and agree with the party's aims creates in a mass which results in "autocratic" tendencies within the party organisation. As such, it is important to remember that "the Party, as the vanguard of the working class, must not be confused with the entire class." [Op. Cit., p. 22] For this reason, the party must be organised in a specific manner which reflect his Leninist assumptions:
"The alternative [to the vanguard party] is the 'marsh' — where elements motivated by scientific precision are so mixed up with those who are irremediably confused as to prevent any decisive action, effectively allowing the most backward to lead." [Op. Cit., p. 30]
The problem for Harman is now how to explain how the proletariat can become the ruling class if this is true. He argues that "the party is not the embryo of the workers' state — the workers' council is. The working class as a whole will be involved in the organisations that constitute the state, the most backward as well as the most progressive elements." As such, the "function of the party is not to be the state." [Op. Cit., p. 33] Thus, the implication is that the working class will take an active part in the decision making process during the revolution (although the level of this "involvement" is unspecified, probably for good reasons as we explain). If this is the case, then the problem of the mass party reappears, but in a new form (we must also note that this problem must have also appearing in 1917, when the Bolshevik party opened its doors to become a mass party).
As the "organisations that constitute the state" are made up of the working class "as a whole," then, obviously, they cannot be expected to wield power (i.e. directly manage the revolution from below). If they did, then the party would be "mixed up" with the "irremediably confused" and so could not lead (as we discuss in section H.5.5, Lenin links "opportunism" to "primitive" democracy, i.e. self-management, within the party). Hence the need for party power. Which, of course, explains Lenin's 1920 comments that an organisation embracing the whole working class cannot exercise the "dictatorship of the proletariat" and that a "vanguard" is required to do so (see section H.1.2 for details). Of course, Harman does not explain how the "irremediably confused" are able to judge that the party is the best representative of its interests. Surely if someone is competent enough to pick their ruler, they must also be competent enough to manage their own affairs directly? Equally, if the "irremediably confused" vote against the party once it is in power, what happens? Will the party submit to the "leadership" of what it considers "the most backward"? If the Bolsheviks are anything to go by, the answer has to be no.
Ironically, he argues that it "is worth noting that in Russia a real victory of the apparatus over the party required precisely the bringing into the party hundreds of thousands of 'sympathisers,' a dilution of the 'party' by the 'class.' . . . The Leninist party does not suffer from this tendency to bureaucratic control precisely because it restricts its membership to those willing to be serious and disciplined enough to take political and theoretical issues as their starting point, and to subordinate all their activities to those." [Op. Cit., p. 33] Yet, in order to have a socialist revolution, the working class as a whole must participate in the process and that implies self-management. Thus the decision making organisations will be based on the party being "mixed up" with the "irremediably confused" as if they were part of a non-Leninist party.
From Harman's own assumptions, this by necessity results in an "autocratic" regime within the new "workers' state." This was implicitly recognised by the Bolsheviks when they stressed that the function of the party was to become the government, the head of the state. Lenin and Trotsky continually stressed this fact, urging that the party "assume power," that the Bolsheviks "can and must take state power into their own hands." Indeed, "take over full state power alone." [Lenin, Selected Works, vol. 2, p. 329, p. 328 and p. 352] Thus, while the working class "as a whole" will be "involved in the organisations that constitute the state," the party (in practice, its leadership) will hold power (see section H.3.8 for a further discussion of this Bolshevik position). And for Trotsky, this substitution of the party for the class was inevitable:
"We have more than once been accused of having substituted for the dictatorship of the Soviets the dictatorship of our party. Yet it can be said with complete justice that the dictatorship of the Soviets became possible only by means of the dictatorship of the party. It is thanks to the clarity of its theoretical vision and its strong revolutionary organisation that the party has afforded to the Soviets the possibility of becoming transformed from shapeless parliaments of labour into the apparatus of the supremacy of labour. In this 'substitution' of the power of the party for the power of the working class there is nothing accidental, and in reality there is no substitution at all. The Communists express the fundamental interests of the working class. It is quite natural that, in the period in which history brings up those interests . . . the Communists have become the recognised representatives of the working class as a whole." [Terrorism and Communism, p. 109]
He notes that within the state, "the last word belongs to the Central Committee of the party." [Op. Cit., p. 107] In 1937, he repeats this argument, explicitly linking the "objective necessity" of the "revolutionary dictatorship of a proletarian party" to the "heterogeneity of the revolutionary class, the necessity for a selected vanguard in order to assure the victory." Stressed the "dictatorship of a party," he argued that "[a]bstractly speaking, it would be very well if the party dictatorship could be replaced by the 'dictatorship' of the whole toiling people without any party, but this presupposes such a high level of political development among the masses that it can never be achieved under capitalist conditions." [Writings 1936-37, pp. 513-4]
This means that given Harman's own assumptions, autocratic rule by the party is inevitable. Ironically, he argues that "to be a 'vanguard' is not the same as to substitute one's own desires, or policies or interests, for those of the class." He stresses that an "organisation that is concerned with participating in the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism by the working class cannot conceive of substituting itself for the organs of the direct rule of that class." [Op. Cit., p. 33 and p. 34] However, the logic of his argument suggests otherwise. Simply put, his arguments against a broad party organisation are also applicable to self-management during the class struggle and revolution. The rank and file party members are "mixed up" in the class. This leads to party members becoming subject to bourgeois influences. This necessitates the power of the higher bodies over the lower (see section H.5.5). The highest party organ, the central committee, must rule over the party machine, which in turn rules over the party members, who, in turn, rule over the workers. This logical chain was, ironically enough, recognised by Trotsky in 1904 in his polemic against Lenin. He argued:
"The organisation of the party substitutes itself for the party as a whole; then the central committee substitutes itself for the organisation; and finally the 'dictator' substitutes himself for the central committee." [quoted by Harman, Op. Cit., p. 22]
Obviously once in power in 1920 this substitution was less of a concern for him than in 1904! Which, however, does not deny the insight Trotsky showed in 1904 about the dangers inherent in the Bolshevik assumptions on working class spontaneity and how revolutionary ideas develop. Dangers which he, ironically, helped provide empirical evidence for.
This false picture of the party (and its role) explains the progression of the Bolshevik party after 1917. As the soviets organised all workers, we have the problem that the party (with its "scientific" knowledge) is swamped by the class. The task of the party is to "persuade, not coerce these [workers] into accepting its lead" and, as Lenin made clear, for it to take political power. [Harman, Op. Cit., p. 34] Once in power, the decisions of the party are in constant danger of being overthrown by the working class, which necessitates a state run with "iron discipline" (and the necessary means of coercion) by the party. With the disempowering of the mass organisations by the party, the party itself becomes a substitute for popular democracy as being a party member is the only way to influence policy. As the party grows, the influx of new members "dilutes" the organisation, necessitating a similar growth of centralised power at the top of the organisation. This eliminates the substitute for proletarian democracy which had developed within the party (which explains the banning of factions within the Bolshevik party in 1921). Slowly but surely, power concentrates into fewer and fewer hands, which, ironically enough, necessitates a bureaucracy to feed the party leaders information and execute its will. Isolated from all, the party inevitably degenerates and Stalinism results.
We are sure that many Trotskyists will object to our analysis, arguing that we ignore the problems facing the Russian Revolution in our discussion. Harman argues that it was "not the form of the party that produces party as opposed to soviet rule, but the decimation of the working class" that occurred during the Russian Revolution. [Op. Cit., p. 37] This is false. As noted, Lenin was always explicit that about the fact that the Bolshevik's sought party rule ("full state power") and that their rule was working class rule. As such, we have the first, most basic, substitution of party power for workers power. Secondly, as we discuss in section H.4, the Bolshevik party had been gerrymandering and disbanding soviets before the start of the Civil War, so proving that it cannot be held accountable for this process of substitution. Thirdly, Leninists are meant to know that civil war is inevitable during a revolution. To blame the inevitable for the degeneration of the revolution is hardly convincing (particularly as the degeneration started before the civil war broke out).
Unsurprisingly, anarchists reject the underlying basis of this progression, the idea that the working class, by its own efforts, is incapable of developing beyond a "trade union consciousness." The actions of the working class itself condemned these attitudes as outdated and simply wrong long before Lenin's infamous comments were put on paper. In every struggle, the working class has created its own organisations to co-ordinate its struggle (to use Trotsky's analogy, the steam creates its own piston and constantly has). In the process of struggle, the working class changes its perspectives. This process is uneven in both quantity and quality, but it does happen. As such, anarchists do not think that all working class people will, at the same time, spontaneously become anarchists. If they did, we would be in an anarchist society today!
As we argued in sections J.3 and H.2.10, anarchists acknowledge that political development within the working class is uneven. The difference between anarchism and Leninism is how we see socialist ideas developing. In every class struggle there is a radical minority which takes the lead and many of this miinority develop revolutionary conclusions from their experiences. As such, members of the working class develop their own revolutionary theory and it does not need bourgeois intellectuals to inject it into them.
Anarchists go on to argue that this minority (along with any members of other classes who have broken with their background and become libertarians) should organise and work together. The role of this revolutionary organisation is to co-ordinate revolutionary activity, discuss and revise ideas and help others draw the same conclusions as they have from their own, and others, experiences. The aim of such a group is, by word and deed, to assist the working class in its struggles and to draw out and clarify the libertarian aspects of this struggle. It seeks to abolish the rigid division between leaders and led which is the hallmark of class society by drawing the vast majority of the working class into social struggle and revolutionary politics by encouraging their direct management of the class struggle. Only this participation and the political discussion it generates will allow revolutionary ideas to become widespread.
In other words, anarchists argue that precisely because of political differences ("unevenness") we need the fullest possible democracy and freedom to discuss issues and reach agreements. Only by discussion and self-activity can the political perspectives of those in struggle develop and change. In other words, the fact Bolshevism uses to justify its support for party power is the strongest argument against it.
Our differences with vanguardism could not be more clear.