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Towards the War of Position: Gramsci in Continuity and Rupture with Marxism-Leninism - P SINGJournal of Revolutionary Initiative UP I Volume 4 - Sept 2013 Towards the War of Position: Gramsci in Continuity and Rupture with Marxism-Leninism - P. 15 IN THIS ISSUE: • Structure and Institutions in the building of Dual Power- P. 3 • Assessing Revolutionary Prospects in Latin America - P.7 • RI Response to Police Brutality - P.12 Towards a revolutionary strategy In this issue of UPRISING, we continue the bourgeoisie through consent, Comrade Azaad’s piece looks to dis- the discussion and debate around through their hegemony present in sect the terminology used previously revolutionary strategy, particularly as the superstructure of bourgeois soci- in articles relating to the building of concerns imperialist countries. ety, need to recognized. dual power, which relates consider- ably to the interrogation of Gramsci. The central focus of this issue is the From this, Comrade Amil raises It is essential to arrive at unified un- examination of the work of Antonio Gramsci’s ‘war of position’ as being derstandings of terms such as ‘insti- Gramsci and revolutionary strategy. similar to the concept of a protracted tution’ or ‘structure’ when discussing Comrade Amil undertook to place revolutionary struggle - what many dual power, and understanding how Gramsci’s work within the context of Maoists in the world today are calling a revolutionary proletarian institution his actual political work, rather than ‘Protracted People’s War’ articulated differs from a bourgeois one. the obtuse, pacified location that lib- for imperialist countries. Within the eral academia has relegated Gramsci ‘war of position’, communists must In Latin America, there are currently to. From this, the article suggests accumulate forces and wage struggle a number of places where popular, that Gramsci’s analysis of the failure to challenge bourgeois hegemony, political processes in development. In of European communist parties of the breaking the hold of the ruling class Venezuela, for example the Bolivar- 1920s and 1930s to successfully over- over the popular masses. Under- ian revolution has raised the ire of US throw their governments through an standing that a ‘war of position’ will imperialism but it has also generated insurrectionary strategy (a form of lead to opening for a ‘war of mane- much debate among left currents and ‘October Road’) indicates that there ouver’, that is, an opportunity where tendencies, many who attempt to are other considerations that need insurrection could be realized suc- validate their general political per- to taken into account. The extent to cessfully. spectives through either overly rosy which the masses are controlled by or utterly dismissive appraisals of the 2 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 in imperialist countries Bolivarian process. Needless to say, Revolutionary Initiative on the mur- ing power and direct our resources both of these miss the mark. der of an 18-year-old Sammy Yatim accordingly. by Toronto Police in the summer of Comrade Victor looks at two of the 2013. The incident, caught on video Unlike a chess game, where each processes in order to situate revolu- and circulated widely over social side has the same number of re- tionary currents within them as well media, provoked indignation and sources and there are rules of as their perspectives and projects. outrage from a considerable swath of engagement, we are in a struggle Rather than simply analyzing the society. What this incident revealed, against an enemy who has consider- players in government, this piece beyond the brutal and adhorrent ably more resources of a certain type stresses what advanced people’s nature of the police institution in and who tries to set and change the movements are doing and how they Canada, is the latent anger and rules to his advantage. Only through are relating to the state-led aspect distrust that considerable numbers appropriate strategy, one that seeks of these processes. While contradic- have towards institutions like the to build and concentrate our forces tions are sharpening daily, there are police. This is a site where rupture upon our relative strengths through important initiatives within the Boli- could occur. protracted struggle, can we have varian movements in Latin America hope of victory. that the masses are advancing which Certainly, when we talk about strat- deserve consideration and support egy, we need to realize that we have In this vein, we welcome and encour- from revolutionary communists. an strong adversary and that they age feedback on these articles and have their relative strengths but also in general, the strategy we need to Resituated to the context of Canada, weaknesses. If we study them, we employ in order to triumph. we are republishing the statement can pick up on what their patterns, made by the Central Committee of behaviours and sources of maintain- Central Committee of R.I. Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 3 Clarification of the Terms on Dual Power by Comrade Azaad In the past year, our organization has projects, institutions, and structures. In social/political structures with peoples’ been working to synthesize its expe- a forthcoming article, I’ll explain how institutions, giving birth to new conscious- riences and practice into a series of ‘dual power’ interacts with already exist- ness and adding to our theory (from the discussion documents on the question ing structures and institutions with masses). of what exactly it is we are developing different class bases (which is where in the immediate horizon, and how this revisionist and reformist forces spend Explaining the Terms: System, Structure, relates to revolutionary strategy. Our their all their energies). Certain pre- Superstructure, Institution, Organization, point of convergence has been dual existing structures of liberal-capitalist Power, Agency power. society are important to engage in, but how and in what way? This is the Let’s focus first on the parts of Stella’s Here, I would like to review two articles topic of a forthcoming article and will article with the sub-titles, “Build an Under- by comrades of Revolutionary Initiative address the question of alliances, the standing of Institutions” and “Institutions on the question of dual power, and I united front and other tactical issues. Meet Ideological, Political, Organizational, hope, with humility, that my contribu- Right now, our practice (in our proj- and Economic Structural Needs: Let’s tion will be to clarify and explain of few ects) is building ‘dual power’ in a way Talk Institutions of Working Class Power.” terms and concepts being used. Specifi- that connects peoples’ new economic/ Here Comrade Stella defines organiza- cally, the basis for my discus- sion are two articles: the first by Comrade Victor Hampton entitled “Breaking the Illu- Fig. 1 - Capitalist structure, superstructure and sion of Liberal Democracy institutions and Building ‘Dual Power’ in the Urban Setting” in Vol. 2 (2012) of Uprising; and the second essay is the exten- Ideology and consciousness Theory/ sion of the said essay by I another, Comrade Stella B. (individualism, consumerism, Abstract in Vol. 3 (2013), entitled “The liberalism, self-interest etc) Institutions and Elements of Working-Class Power”. First of all I want to congratulate our comrades and Revolu- Politics - Liberal Democracy tionary Initiative for develop- ing further the concept of P (policy, legislation, constitution) dual power. It is a bold break from the stale agit-propa- SUPERSTRUCTURE ganda and dogmatism of much of the left; and comes out of our important practice over the last half-decade or POWER so. Before I start, let me explain what this essay is not about. Organization - Bourgeois Parties, This is not an academic O Institutions of the State, NGO’s, exercise. It is a simple version of concepts and terms based Think-tanks on our very initial, though vital, practice. The actual situation is far more com- SYSTEM CAPITALIST plex and concepts can be Practice/ problematized at any level. Economic - corporations, Right now, I am isolating STRUCTURE E NGO’s, fronts of capitalist Concrete our attempts at dual power construction from already existing liberal-capitalist 4 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 tion as “structure designed to facilitate medium and Fig 2. Liberal Projects the process of building class unity and as an outcome, defending class struggle.” Furthermore that is, repro- “Institutions have organizational use duction in the and control functions.” Then, the com- super-structur- Womens Racism rade defines an institution of working al layer which Issues Workers class power as “a community-owned we’ll define and controlled organizational structure soon. that meets human need and performs the necessary tasks of organizing our Institutions communities and our society while generating new values, belief system, The most knowledge.” There are a lot of terms deeply-layered here: ‘institution’, ‘power’, and ‘organiza- practices con- tional structure’ (organization and struc- stitutive of so- ture together). But I think it is essential cial systems in to define separately the terms System, each of these Structure, Superstructure, Institution, senses are Organization, Power, and also human institutions. In Imperialism agency from a dialectical and historical a simple way, materialist point of view. At a later stage we can say I’ll try to illustrate the relation among institutions as the ‘rules these terms from the perspective of social group and a medium where class of the game’ as deeply-layered social building dual power. and common interests
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