The People magazine it shrouded aldama hurdling grew stiff. I'm cold the heart's blood died. It's every fold then raise the Scarlet standard high within its shade we live and I don'tHours Flinch and traitors sneer. We'll keep the red flag flying here. Hello out there. It's a chilly Rainy Night in November 2019 in the swamps of South Carolina. We're a couple of generations into late capitalism fascism is on the rise and climate change Looms on the horizon like an Executioner's axe. The limits of the two-party system and the institutions that have governed American society have been exposed as useless at best and designed to really marginalize and limit descent at worst. So Americans are looking for answers answers as to Why things just never seem to get any better despite empty promises from really both sides of the aisle promises from Republicans and Democrats. Like so many Americans, I believe that socialism is the answer. So let's talk about socialist theory for a moment socialist theory is a supposition or system of ideas intended to explain something especially one based on general principles independent of the thing that is being explained Praxis on the other hand is the General application or use of that theory under real-world conditions. I'm so this podcast is going to take a little dive into some of the theory that informs our Praxis presented in an easy-to-understand and thoughtful way and hopefully get a good conversation going between myself and you The Listener we're going to be discussing texts from important historical figures and writers and thinkers Karl Marx Vladimir, Lenin and Mao Tse-tung Rosa Luxemburg Etc. So stick around and let's learn together. I'm CJ bones. This is the red banner. So the first bit of theory we are going to talk about is Vladimir Lenin's the state and Revolution. So this first episode is going to deal with the preface and first chapter. So basically I'm going to be reading along with selected passages from this chapter and providing a little bit of context. So let's get to it. I'm Making a Red Hook mothers of the sun raspberry Cezanne and getting comfortable. So, let's Dive Right In hmm. Here we go in the preface of the state and Revolution linen summarizes the political situation of late 1917 during that time. Russia was simultaneously in the middle of a socialist Revolution, but also, dealing with the Fallout of World War One So obviously most of the devastation of World War 1 fell upon the backs of the working class who had to not only topple the Russian monarchy but also fight off Invasion from Germany and her allies at the time and the world really had never seen such man-made destruction on such a large scale before indeed World War 1 introduced entirely new methods of warfighting such as the deployment of chemical weapons the introduction of trench warfare mechanized Infantry. And so on and linen describe such developments as quote the unprecedented Horrors and miseries of the protracted War. He goes on to say that whores are quote making the people's position unbearable and increasing their anger. So he establishes what I see as a direct connection between those internal and external stress forces and the development of a revolutionary proletariat. Yet however the path towards revolution in early 20th century. Russia was not always a smooth one. And I think that's a theme we will continue to come back to throughout this text and probably throughout this podcast Lynn discusses The Perils of what he calls social chauvinism fairly early in the preface women describes social chauvinism as quote socialism in words and chauvinism in Deeds. So what I interpreted Linens meaning behind the word chauvinism is essentially irrational patriotism particularly during wartime in support of One's Own nation state versus other nation states, although chauvinism is mostly associated with right-wing of most social movements at the time many socialists also moved away from their anti militaristic stance and their belief in an international proletariat. Chauvinism and warmongering saber-rattling and nationalism etcetera. So Lennon sites a few examples of this from the time period specifically organizations like the German Social Democratic party and French Socialist Party. He points out the that such chauvinism is the threat to the international struggle of the proletariat. So I think it's it's safe to say or safe to infer here that a socialist society cannot be achieved without a sense of shared Destiny and camaraderie amongst the global working class, which is critical to challenge the money power resources. And in many ways Unity of the ruling class part of promoting this sense of shared Destiny and purpose. Takes the form of pushing back against revisionism that is to say a struggle against the opportunist prejudices concerning the state linen identify as other writers and thinkers within the left Pantheon such as Karl kautsky as particularly in egregious at pushing this line of thought. So that's another name. We're going to see more than once here in this episode as the preface comes to a close. I'll let in sets up some of the key discussion points that appear throughout the book placed within this historical context that we discussed earlier the frames the question of the world right worldwide proletariat Revolution as quote the most urgent problem of the day unquote and the purpose of the book as quote explaining to the masses what they will have to do before long to free themselves from capitalist. Tyranny. I think this is a really good. I have kind of tying it all together and getting into the meat of the text. So that was the preface of Linens the state and Revolution will take a short break and then we're going to get back into the first chapter and the first section of that chapter, which is called a product of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms, or I'm sorry the state the product of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms I'm CJ bones. This is the red banner. Welcome back. So here we go into Section 1 of chapter one, which is called the state a product of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms. Take a little sip of my Red Hook here mothers of the sea raspberry Cezanne and let's get to it. Maybe it's weird that I'm talking about. What kind of beer that I'm drinking during a socialist Theory podcast, but I like beer so fight me. I don't know. All right, here we go. Linen Begins the first section of the chapter by making a comparison between Marxist theory and the life stories of revolutionaries throughout the world up until that point. I feel so makes a direct link in what he These as the weakening or diluting of Marxist theory to how emancipatory figures throughout human history are essentially canonized and made both larger and than life but also less than human. So there's a lot of subtlety a lot of nuance and a lot of real human death that is Stripped Away From A lot of these revolutionary figures and I'll quote here a little bit from the text. Quote attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons into hallo their names to a certain extent while at the same time robbing the Revolutionary theory of its substance blunting its revolutionary Edge. So quick sidebar here. I think a good example here in the United States might be Martin Luther King Jr. Who was transformed into a staunch anti-war activist and friend to the unions in the sort of a guess for lack of a better term a pacifist liberal sink. Martin Luther King jr. Is presented in far too many textbooks without any criticism of the systemic failures of capitalism when included at all so back to the text then focuses his criticism and on the labor movement of the time observing that opportunists and Bourgeois Z within the movement are essentially following a toothless version of Marxist theory without ebony any revolutionary soul and goes on to suggest that It's a distorted version of Marxist theory does not have the theoretical underpinnings to seriously confronted P realist Wars or avoid the slide into extreme nationalism. So given these circumstances LED and quickly moves to establish the main goal of the text, which is getting back to the basics of Marxist theory and to avoid the distortions of what he calls kautsky ISM at its core Marxist. Theory says that a nation that nation-states exist because of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms at the same time the Since of that state proves the class antagonisms are in fact irreconcilable. So we'll pull up a little bit from the text here. The state is an organ for the oppression of one class by another it is the creation of quote order unquote which legalizes and perpetuates this oppression by moderating the conflict between classes in the opinion of the petty Bourgeois politicians. However order means the reconciliation of classes and not Not the oppression of one class by another. Linen sites the menshevik position during the Russian Revolution of 1917 to back this point up which was still very much in full swing at the time. So another brief aside here men should exit along with Bolsheviks were two factions of the Socialist movement in Russia during the early 20th century an important difference here is that mensheviks were more inclined to work with liberal Bourgeois Democratic parties such as the Constitutional Democrats to Socialism and overthrow the czarist regime other faction Bolsheviks believe that constitutional Democrats were not radical enough and could not lead a socialist Revolution. They also believed that armed struggle would be the most effective way to go through the monarchy as opposed to say the strategies like empowering trade unions and other more legal methods, which were favored. and metrics when ends the first section by reiterating the following hypothesis If the state is the product the irreconcilability of class antagonisms, if it is a power standing above society and alienating itself more and more from it. It is clear that the liberation of the oppressed class is impossible not only without a violent revolution, but also without the destruction of the apparatus of state power which which created during which was created by the ruling class and which is the embodiment of this. Alienation so that pretty much wraps up the first section of chapter 1 next we will get into the section the second section of chapter one known as special bodies of armed men prisons Etc. Most of the section gets into criticisms of a very specific. Cific type of state power and that is the power that comes from the end of a gun Linens shares a quote from Frederick Engels here that will frame much of the observations later on in the section. There's a quote. As distinct from the old tribal or Clan order. So he's talking about like Prius 3. Basically the state first divides its subjects according to territory. The second distinguishing feature is the establishment of a public power which no longer directly coincides with the population organizing itself as an armed Force. The special Public Power is necessary because a self Acting armed organization of the population has become impossible since the split into classes this Public Power exists in every state. It consists. Not merely of armed men. But also of material adjuncts prisons and institutions of origin of all kinds of which tribal or Clan Society knew nothing when then goes on to summarize the quote by stating like already. Ellucian are thinkers Engels tries to draw the attention of the class conscious workers to what prevailing give us T nism regards as least worthy of attention a standing army and police of the chief instruments of state power. And I think this is really important to emphasize will say that again a standing army and police are the chief instruments of state power. Linen notes that indeed a self-acting armed organization of workers is a foreign concept for most people at the time and I think it's probably not unreasonable to say that it's still a foreign concept for folks here in the United States in 2019, but that doesn't cancel out the fact that Society is still split into these antagonistic classes and because of that split into antagonist two classes organizing into armed groups of workers. Would lead into an armed struggle between them. So essentially take all that off the table these so-called special parties of armed men act as an apparatus to oppress the proletariat in favor of the in favor of the Bourgeois. See it's a lot harder organized if there's a cop on every corner. It is critical when it says to instead create a new kind of armed organization made up of the proletariat capable of quote serving be exploited instead of the exploiters. Obviously in 1917 and again in 2019 this concept of organizing armed groups for at First Mutual defense and invention and eventually to advance Revolution activity is generally it's not something that a lot of folks on the left talk about but nothing's for certain right nothing lasts forever. And there's no reason to believe this trend will continue indefinitely Linden takes note of such potential development. By quoting Ingles sing something along the same lines. quote the Public Power grows stronger, however, in proportion as class antagonisms within the state become more acute and as adjacent States become larger and more populous, we have only to look at our present day Europe or class struggle and rivalry and Conquest have turned up the public power to such a pitch that it threatens to swallow the whole of society and even the state Lynn puts this quote in the context for the follow-up quote the turn towards imperialism meaning the complete domination of the truss the omnipotence of the big Banks a grand scale Colonial policy and so forth was only just beginning in France who is even weaker in North America and in Germany, and remember the work from angles that linen is referring to here was written in the late 1800s. So this is like late 19th early 20th century. This is all All kind of the groundwork for the Russian Revolution and I think of a lot of revolutionary activity of the time this section is wrapped up with what I think is a sober assessment of the state of early 20th century imperialism. sorry early 20th century imperialism with the following quote since then rivalry in Conquest has taken a gigantic stride all the more because by the beginning of the second decade of the 20th century the world had been completely divided up among the great predatory great Powers since then military and Naval armaments have grown fantastically the predatory war of 10:14 to 1917 for the domination of the World by Britain or Germany or the this division of the spoils has brought in the swallowing of all forces of society by the rapacious state power close to complete catastrophe the quote continues. Angles could as early as 1891 point to quote rivalry in Conquest unquote as one of the most important distinguishing features of the foreign policy of the great Powers while the social chauvinist Scoundrels have ever since 1914 when this rivalry many time intensified gave rise to an imperialist war and he's talking about World War one here. Obviously. I've been covering up the defense of predatory interest of Their Own. Who's YZ with phrases about defense of the Fatherland defense of the Republic and the revolution Etc. So that'll wrap up section 2 we're going to take a short break and move on to section 3 and 4 of the first chapter, so I'm going to grab another beverage and join you here in a little bit. Enjoy the music. This is CJ bones. This is the red banner. Welcome back. So we're going to get into Section 3 of my Tamir Linens the state and Revolution. So this third chapter is called the state an instrument for the exploitation of the oppressed class. So in this section, we start to see lemon talk about linking the previous two sections together the irreconcilability of class difference on Hand and the police military and other armed extensions of the ruling class on the other. So most obvious here is the observation that in order for this arrangement to work and not immediately erupt into armed Revolt the state must be seen as legitimate to clarify the quote that linen uses is above Society specifically, but I'd like to add the word legitimate for our discussion here shifting back to American politics for a moment. Obviously the 2016 election is the biggest recent example of how broken our system is, but it's definitely not the only example rampant gerrymandering the rolling back of voting rights by instituting strict ID policies the Strategic lack of resources and polling locations for predominantly POC neighborhoods, the passage of citizens united in the Supreme Court in 2010 and the Fallout from the highly contested election in 2000 all point to A system that is clearly designed. To limit Choice disenfranchised millions and keep the ruling class in power despite their continued to unpopularity. So we see over and over again these emotional and irrational appeals to patriotism to keep from to keep folks from looking beyond the Overton window. We're seeing a doubling down of chauvinistic language as a flight from the right and they're liberal enablers as they fight with each other to prove who loves Daddy America the most although the group's may have different talking points and certainly look different. They often use similar appeals to the military the police and to some amorphous sense of national identity to get their message out. And that message is this vote for our people. We love America more than they do we know what is best for America. They just want to destroy America. So such language and arguments begin from a flawed hypothesis. The United States has a moral is a moral good in the world. The United States is The Shining City on the hill that continues to bring freedom and democracy to an often scary and unjust world, but the foundation moral goodness can be only accepted if you know folks buy into the idea or at least if they're willing to defend that idea with violence that the United States has a legitimate right to dictate to the rest. The world what is good just and Democratic when it is failed to live up to those ideas over and over again since day one the truth is much more simple, the ruling class draws material political and social benefits from the fact that this country was built on the blood and labor of millions of indigenous and enslaved human beings. It continues to draw that wealth upward through methods, like union-busting mass incarceration discriminatory banking. practices environmental racism and other methods It's designed with the purposes of steadily funding funneling wealth upward away from the public area reproduce that both in the first place. It's a scam promoted by and protected by folks who want to keep that scam going regardless. They're Republican or Democrat back to the text here linen continues to discuss the theory of the state being above Society. He cites Frederick Engels once more. Because the state arose from the need to hold class antagonisms and check but because it arose same time in the midst of the conflict of these classes. It is as a rule the state of the most powerful economically dominant class which through the medium of the state becomes also the politically dominant class and thus acquires new means of holding down and exploiting the oppressed glass. Does that sound familiar angles continues? the modern representative state is an instrument of exploitation of wage labor by Capital by way of exception however periods occur in which the warring classes balance each other so nearly the state power as a sensible mediator acquires for the moment a certain degree of independence of both and linens sites European monarchies of the 17th and 18th centuries the first and second Bonaparte empires in France, and the Regime in Germany as examples, but I don't think it's much of a stretch to see how this kind of arrangement works out in the United States in 2019. One doesn't have to dig deep to find examples of Buchwald Representatives happily doing the bidding of private Equity firms and pharmaceutical companies rather than actually serving the folks that put them in office in the first place. You don't have to watch the news for a long time to see how militarized police will violently attack protesters with impunity all in the name of protecting privacy. Your property which was built with exploited labor on Stolen land. back to the text once born we take a sip linen uses a critical lens to examine the karinski government and Republican Russia when it began to turn against the revolutionaries blaming the leadership of what he calls petty petty Bourgeois Democrats and in Democratic Republic angles continues wealth exercises power indirectly, but all the more surely first by means of the direct Corruption of officials, and he uses the United States as an example here and then Only by means of an alliance of the government and the stock exchange in which he uses an example of France and the us here. One passage that I find particularly helpful. Here is the quote that the Democratic Republic is the best possible political shell for capitalism. And therefore once capitalism has gained possession of this very best. Shell it establishes its power so securely so firmly that no change of persons institutions are parties in the Bourgeois Democratic Republic can shake it. When in paints a damning picture of electoral ISM here and honestly, I think this is something that many folks on the left. Don't talk nearly enough about In 2019 organizations like the Democratic socialists of America are doing a good job at getting folks talking about socialism and myself included and Thinking Beyond the narrow political party Obsession. So common here in the United States. However, when a lot of folks in organizations like DSA and other leftist groups in the United States start to get into deeper Dives on Theory quote no attempt is made to gauge the breadth and depth of the Revolution that this relegating of the whole Machinery of the state. It to a museum of Antiquities implies in most cases. We do not even find an understanding of what angles calls the state machine. So I think this is something that we can and should improve upon. Otherwise this entire discussion becomes about hypotheticals and not about tangible measurable results. So that's the end of Section 3. We are going to move on to section for the withering away of the state and violent revolution. I'm going to share most of the quote from angles that linen sites here as it's pretty important to understanding the entire basis on what marxist-leninist theory is built on top of the proletariat ceases from State power and turns the means of production if the state property to begin with but there by it abolishes itself as the proletariat abolishes all class distinctions and class antagonisms and abolishes. Also the state as state Society thus far operating Mid class antagonisms needed the state that is an organization of the particular exploiting class for the maintenance of its external conditions of production and therefore especially for the purpose of forcibly keeping the exploited class in the conditions of Oppression determined by the given mode of production. That would be slavery serfdom or bondage or wage labor here. The state was the official representative of society as a whole its concentration in a visible Corporation. But this was only insofar as it was the state of that class which itself represented for its own time society as a whole in ancient times the state of slave-owning citizens in the middle ages of the feudal nobility in our own time of the Bush, Rossi. When at last it becomes the real representative of the whole of society, it renders itself unnecessary. As soon as there is no longer any social class to be held in subjection as soon as class rule in the individual struggle for existence based on the present Anarchy in production with the collisions and excesses arising from the struggle are removed. Nothing more remains to be held in subjection. Nothing necessitating a special course at force a state the First Act by which which the state really comes forward as the representative of the whole of society that taking possession of the means of production in the name of society is also its last independent act as the state state interference in Social relations becomes in one domain after another Superfluous then dies down on itself. The government of persons is replaced by the administration of things and by the conduct of processes of production. The state is not abolished it Withers away. So that was a pretty big quote. Let's get into it letting defines the withering away of the state as separate and distinct from his view of the intercoastal approach which is to abolish the state quickly and not seize the power that state. However, we must also note that there is a distinct separation between the idea of a velocity State a poet Aryan state was to be abolished and what Withers away we'll get into that shortly. When it provides what most would consider a somewhat Orthodox view of Marxism here Drawing the Line in the Sand against opportunism and against slow gradual reform is mmm this interpretation. He says quote only leaves a vague notion of a slow even gradual change of absence of bleep sandstorms an absence of Revolution the current widespread popular for one may say so conception of the withering away of the state undoubtedly means of securing if not, UDA Ting Revolution Lenin again site singles to clear things up here. Engel speaks here of the proletariat Revolution abolishing the Bourgeois State while the words about the state withering away refer to the remnants of the proletarian state after the Socialist Revolution according to angles. The bhujbal state does not wither away but is abolished by the proletariat in the course of the Revolution what Withers away after this revolution is the proletarian state for semistate. So when it doesn't mince words here, he doesn't speak in vague utopian missives. This book presents a sober-minded realistic assessment of what it will take to win this thing. Another quote here. The state is a special course of force and from it follows that the special horse of forest from the suppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie of millions of working people by handfuls of the rich must be replaced by a special course of force for the suppression of the bourgeoisie by the proletariat the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is precisely what is meant by the abolition of the state as State. This is precisely the act of taking possession of the means of production in the name of Towards the end of this final section of the first chapter linen digs into Engels argument for the significance of violent revolution and notes how these types of arguments and discussions aren't very common in socialist organizations from 1970 not to mention 2019 linen then emphasizes that the idea of violent revolution is forever linked with the withering away of the state violent revolution. According to the quote from Ingalls is the Midwife of every old society, which is pregnant with a new one. That is the instrument with Which social movement forces its way through and shatters the dead fossilized political forms being realistic about the Revolutionary process and not abandoning it to obsessions over Party politics or eclecticism is a central tenet of Marxist theory plan argues and the rise of Social chauvinists and followers of folks like cats key is in his view of betrayal of that theory. So through careful scientific study of existing Revolutions of the time and he cites the Paris commune of 1871 as an example when in concludes that the movement from a usual state into a proletarian state is impossible without violent revolution following that the abolition of the proletarian state is impossible except for the process of withering away as a state itself becomes ever more Superfluous and unnecessary. This ends chapter 1 of Linens the state and Revolution join me next time when we get into chapter 2 entitled the experience of 1848 through 1851. The text of this was taken from a Marxist dot-org archive and I'll make sure to post a link for y'all in the episode description a lot of material. I'll be covering with this podcast is available online for free. Don't pay for it if you don't have to Thanks for hanging out with me tonight. I look forward to reading more Theory with y'all. If you have any questions, please email me at the address posted in the episode description. If we hashes all this out together. It might make these big history books little easier to understand. I'm CJ bones and this is the red banner. Y'all be good.
The Red Banner is a podcast dedicated to socialist literature, reading and theory. In the debut episode, I analyze the preface and first chapter of Vladimir Lenin's The State And Revolution, paying attention to what it means for organizing today. Got any suggestions on what you'd like me to study next? Have any recommendations for good things to drink while reading? 