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State Capitalism and World Revolution c. L. R. JAMES STATE CAPITALISM STATE CAPITALISM & and WORLD REVOLUTION WORLD REVOLUTION Written in Collaboration with Raya Dunayevskaya & Grace Lee c. L. R. JAMES With aNew Introduction by Paul Buhle Chicago Cb8rl�s H. K�rr PubllsblQg COIQPSQY 1986 The Publisher Gratefolly Acknowledges the Assistance of TABLE OF CONTENTS George Rawick in Publishing Fully and Absolutely Assured This Book (Author's Foreword to 1986 Edition) .............vii Introduction to 1986 Edition by Paul Buhle. xi Preface to Third Edition (1968) by Martin Glaberman . xxiv Preface to Second Edition (1956) ... ..... ..... xxix State Capitalism and rtbrld Revolution Copyright 1986 Introduction. .. ., . 1 Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company I. What Is Stalinism? .. .... ... ..... ... ... 4 II. The Stalinists and the Theory of State-Capitalism... ....9 Library binding: ISBN 0-88286-078-X III. Lenin and State-Capitalism. .. .. .. .. 18 Paperback: 0-88286-079-8 IV. Rearming the Party of World Revolution . ..... 28 V. The Class Struggle. .. 34 VI. The Theory of the Party. .. .. .. .. ... .. 55 VII. Methodology . .... ... ..... ........ .. 60 VIII. Leninism and the Transitional Regime... ...74 IX . Yugoslavia . ... .......... .... ..........78 . 106 Cbarlcs H. Rerr 'Publllblqg COlllpaIlY X. Some Political Conclusions. E.ltablishcd 1886 XI . Philosophy and State Capitalism .... ...... ... 113 P.O. Box 914 Glossary . .. .. 136 Chicago, Illinois 60690 Author's Foreword to New Edition FULLY AND ABSOLUTELY ASSURED Thirty years ago those who adhered to revolutionary Marxism or who thought about it were in ferment. Dominating the discussion were the views of Trotsky, who was universally looked upon as continuing the Marx, Engels and Lenin tradi­ tion. In fact Trotsky's name was used most often in associa­ tion with Lenin. Lenin and Trotsky summed up the official Marxist position of the day. The importance of State Capitalism and World Revolu­ tion, published in 1950, was that it not only projected a theory of state capitalism, but at its very beginning it stated definitely and unequivocally that Trotsky's whole method of analysis and results were to be repudiated. As I look back at the appearance of this document and those days, I am fre­ quently reminded of the fact that some of the people in the United States who read it were not so much impressed at the beginning with the theory of state capita lism: They were startled and, in fact, bewildered at the fact that I had challenged directly the Marxist ipeas of Lenin and Trotsky (as they thought it)-the Trotsky who had led the October Revolution to victory. The power of the Johnson-Forest Tendency which led them to challenge with such effrontery the leader of the Third Inter­ national and the initiator of the Fourth, was the last writings of Lenin. Today, thirty years after this document State Capitalism and World Revolution was produced, the writings of Lenin, particularly in his last days, still remain the founda­ tion of any attempt to observe, to organize, to assist in any vii way the movement towards Marxism-that is to say towards absolutely, in language I have not seen or heard anywhere the emancipation of the working class. else, the U.S.S.R. That last phrase sounds awkward in my ears today. Today The historical parallel that he made was a bureaucratic I do not know of any body of people who speak or preach organization of society with the mass of the population as with any confidence of the "emancipation of the working serfs that had not yet reached the feudal system in its maturity. class." People are not against, not at all-but they are not I want to correct or, strictly speaking, indulge myself and for. Political thought in relation to society at this most state some of the terms he used-pre-feudal for the state and critical period in human history is in a state of suspended bureaucratic-serf culture for the people. I may appear to be animation. That is not quite true. There is no animation, but militant to the point of ferocity. I am because these most there is not stagnation. There is a conscious desire to wait and important writings, the summation of the greatest political see. experience the world has ever had, the formation of the In Poland in 1981 the working class and the people of Bolshevik Party and the creation of the first Workers' Poland registered the first basis of the new conception of the State-this summation is entirely neglected and, I am now emancipation of the working class. The people of Poland convinced, not by any chance. My experience is the people on formed a socialist party-but this was a party to end all parties. the left and generally anti-capitalist, are afraid of it. It consisted of ten million Polish people. In fact the able­ I shall now conclude by stating what they are afraid of. bodied people of Poland, the men and women, formed a party Here is Lenin's summation that he entitles Explanatory which did not represent the people, but itself consisted of the Notes: people. The people were the party and the party was the people. "The Soviets are a new state apparatus, which, in the first place, provides an armed force of workers and peasants; and I do not think that I should go in here to the ideas which this force is not divorced from the people, as was the old stan­ are sufficiently expounded and bear up against all the prob­ ding army, but is fused with the people in the closest possible lems of the day, in the document State Capitalism and World fashion. From a military point of view, this force is incom­ Revolution. However, for me Marxism is itself the movement parably more powerful than previous forces; from the point of history and I cannot do better than to make clear that what of view of the revolution it cannot be replaced by anything the reader will find in this document is a restatement in con­ else. temporary terms of Lenin's most profound reflections in "Secondly, this apparatus provides a bond with the 1923 as he knew he was dying and wanted to leave the masses, with the majority of the people, so intimate, so in­ heritage of the experience to the party, the Russian people dissoluble, so readily contollable and renewable, that there and the world revolution. The articles which really matter was nothing remotely like it in the previous state apparatus. are-On Cooperation (January 4th 1923), again On Coopera­ "Thirdly, this apparatus, by virtue of the fact that it is tion (January 6th 1923), How We Should Reorganize the elected and subject to recall at the will of the people without Workers' and Peasants' Inspection (January 23rd 1923) and any bureaucratic formalities, is far more democratic than any Better Fewer, But Better (March 2nd 1923). I think he was previous apparatus. unable to write part of these last articles and had to dictate "Fourthly, it provides a close contact with the most diverse them. I wish to say only that in those articles he condemned occupations, thus facilitating the adoption of the most varied viii ix and most radical reforms without a bureaucracy, "Fifthly, it provides a form of organization of the vanguard, i.e., of the most class-conscious, most energetic and most progressive section of the oppressed classes, the workers and peasants, and thus constitutes an apparatus with the help of which the vanguard of the oppressed classes can INTRODUCTION elevate, educate and lead the gigantic masses of these classes, which hitherto have stood remote from political life and from history. Two generations ago, C. L. R. James and a small circle of col­ "Sixthly, it provides the possibility of combining the ad­ laborators set forth a revolutionary critique of industrial civiliza­ vantages of parliamentarism with the advantages of im­ tion. Their vision possessed a striking originality. So insular was the political context of their theoretical breakthroughs, however, mediate and direct democracy, i.e., of uniting in the persons and so thoroughly did their optimistic expectations for working­ of the elected representatives of the people both legislative class activity defy trends away from class and social issues to the so­ and executive functions. Compared with bourgeois called "End of Ideology," that the documents of the signal effort parliamentarism, this represents an advance in the develop­ never reached public view. ment of democracy which is of historical and worldwide Happily, times have changed. James has become a late-life significance. " celebrity, near-legendary eminence grise of Pan-Africanism, (V. I. Lenin, Selected Works, Vol. VIII, p. 454.) admired cultural critic. The corpus of his theoretical work is available in three volumes of selected essays, a philosophical work, There is one aspect of Lenin which cannot be omitted in Notes on Dialectics, and his major work of literary criticism, what I believe was the very last article, Better Fewer, But Better Mariners, Renegades and Castaways. Readers have discovered (March 2nd 1923). Near the end, after outlining the prospects much, even afterall these years, to challenge Marxist (or any other) orthodoxy. They will never find a more succinct version of James' of the world revolution, he concludes: general conclusions than State Capitalism and World Revolution. I "In the last analysis, the outcome of the struggle will be In this slim volume, James and his comrades successfully predict determined by the fact that Russia, India, China, etc., ac­ the future course of Marxism. Contrary to reigning Old Left count for the overwhelming majority of the population of the dogmas, they argue that workers on both sides of the Iron Curtain globe. And during the past few years it is this majority that and under any variety of state or private ownership face the same has been drawn into the struggle for emancipation with ex­ essential contradictions.
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