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 are realized. practices. There are formal rules (liberal The ability to exercise power within a democracy) and informal rules, like Structure & System given set of institutions and structures aspects of culture. depends on the variable access to re- In its simplest expression, structures can sources of different social groups within be defined as sets of internally related Organizations those institutions and their associated objects or practices, e.g. landlord-tenant structures. So in a capitalist system, relation with private property, rent, and Organizations consist of groups of when power connects its structure and the production of economic surplus individuals bound together by some institutions, different classes have dif- form a structure. Structures are not common objectives. Firms, trade ferent resources and therefore different visible; we have to abstract them from unions, co-operatives are examples transformative capacities and ability to concrete relations among things. The of economic organizations; political exercise their domination. Capitalists system is the reproduction of these rela- parties are the organizations of classes; and the working class have unequal tions between various actors or collec- the Senate is an organizational part of resources that they bring to bear within tivities over time, organized as regular the State; religious bodies, sports clubs, the institutions of liberal-democratic social practices, e.g. capitalist system. A are examples of social organizations. society. That is why capitalist maintain social system is thus a ‘structured total- For example hockey is an institution their domination in this system. When ity.’ When structures create recurrent in terms of the rules of game and how this domination is routine and a social social practices as an interdependent to play; but hockey teams are orga- practice then we can say that capitalism relation between individuals or groups, nizations, as are the leagues in which is a system. we see them as social systems. they play. Similarly liberal democracy is an institution, that is, how to elect a Individual Agency Very important to note is that a struc- government and run it. But the con- servative, liberal and social democratic ture occupies a level of reality below The way I have ‘mechanically’ connected parties are all organizations. surface appearances. The terms system all the above concepts could lead to the and structure overlap, but a system de- Power accusation that I have ignored ‘human fines a characteristic of structure. When agency’ in it all – like the disappearance a social system exists through time Power connects institutions and struc- of the subject or the end of the individ- and flows during social interaction it tures. It is a relational concept. Liberals ual. I’ll try to explain the individual in it acquires structural properties, but they look at power as a capability of an actor without lapsing into subjectivism. Also, I are not structures in themselves. The to achieve his will at the expense of do not want to exclude the unconscious identification of structure should not be resistance of others (Max Weber); or as drives and motives, but want to explain the only aim of sociological investiga- a property of collectivity (Parsons). But that the unconscious can only be ex- tion (for academic purposes) and social the analysis starts from individual to plored in relation to the consciousness. investigation (for more in terms of politi- collective. On the other hand, Marx- cal practice) but how structures work for ists treat power as the property of a The conscious level of thought is the re- the reproduction of social systems as a flexive monitoring and rationalization of Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 5 sense of priority, order, or relationship Fig. 3 Dual Power Projects amongst these various categories.

Let me explain the capitalist system and some of the concepts above through Imperialism our IPOE approach (See Figure 1). In capitalism, the category Ideological consists aspects individualism, consum- erism, racism, etc. Political aspects of capitalism include liberal democracy. Power connects ideology and politics through the organization of capitalists (political parties), as well as through other organizations of the capitalists, like NGOs, corporations and capitalists (see top to bottom of Figure 1.). They have corporations, NGOs, and charities as their mass organizations, and their political organizations are their parties, like conservative and liberal parties, Womens Workers who actually run liberal democracy. Racism They are responsible for the promotion of bourgeois freedoms and rights, as the Issues ideological forms of individualism, etc. conduct, which is grounded in practical On Page 3-4 in Stella’s essay in Volume (see from bottom to top of Figure 1). consciousness. Action or agency is not a 3. of Uprising, in the section “Trans- series of discrete acts combined togeth- forming the Capitalist Superstructure”, Politics happens in the visible and con- er but a continuous flow of conduct (In we need to make a distinction between crete aspects of the superstructure, and our case not piecemeal struggles but an structure and superstructure. It should lieutenants of the bourgeoisie use these organized struggle). Individual actions be connected with the following to control us. When comrade Stella talks and structures presuppose one another, sections, “One Divides into Two: ‘Use about them it simply means all types and the relation between them is a Function’ versus ‘Control Function’ in of knowledge forms. We need to define dialectical one. the Superstructure” and “Lieutenants of “politics”. What is politics? I would define the Bourgeoisie: the Professionalization it as the contestation of power – a pow- Defining agency like this, two points fol- of ‘Use’ and ‘Control’.” Here we deal with er struggle. What we see in bourgeois low based on the foregoing analysis: expertise knowledge. So the conclusion politics is a combination power struggle of this part is that we need to build the within the bourgeois class, and against (1) Structures or structural analysis does “working class expertise, and a new the subaltern classes. not mean disappearance of agency, but working class knowledge and science We should remember that current rather points us in the direction of how of social organization” [p.5, end of mainstream theory of liberal legalism the collection of individual agencies middle column]. can be organized to break the capital- is new institutionalism, which insists ists structure and make a structure. The First, let me separate structure and on stability of institutions like liberal protracted co-existence of two struc- superstructure. Institutions as defined democracy. It does not even think about tures is what we call dual power – a above are superstructural. An example structures. In mainstream liberal politics situation that will exist in the lead up to of a formal institution would be liberal and activism, we often hear terms like a revolution. democracy and informal institutions ‘good governance’, ‘flexibility’, ‘improve would be cultural practices. These participation’, ‘foster experimentation (2) Agency/action described like so is institutions also include ideology and and deliberation’, ‘complex multi-level not random, unconscious, or a bunch consciousness. systems,’ ‘bottom-up approaches,’ ‘use of angry individuals. Rather it must be of soft law along with hard law,’ ‘law- a self-conscious collective being with In Revolutionary Initiative, we tend to like processes,’ ‘opportunity structures,’ organized and coherent thought and organize our plans, actions, and assess- ‘participatory development,’ etc. These rationality having a continuous flow of ments in Ideological, Political, Organi- are all different forms of institutional conduct. zational and Economic1 terms, and we arrangements (rules of game) within the have tended to do this somewhat un- capitalism system aimed at reproducing Building the “working class” expertise: conscious of how these terms relate to the same structure. All above terms are Distinguishing between structure and structure and superstructure. Without forms of expertise knowledge produce superstructure this clarification, we cannot have any by “lieutenants of the bourgeoisie” to exercise a control function over the 6 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 Fig. 4 Mass Organizations capability (power) which connects their structure with their institutions. This is a situation of dual power.

This approach to building revolutionary I Ideology power can be accused of economism, (focused) For NGOism, and charity work, like a liberal Party project. But Comrade Stella is aware of this and immediately explains the dif- ference.

P Party Liberal Projects of Charity vs ‘Dual (Strict Rules) Power’ Projects How are such community projects and mass organizations any different from liberal projects? The answer to this O Organization question is found in the following part ( exible rules) of Stella B’s article, “Avoid the Trap of Economism, NGOism, and Charity Work.” Here are my thoughts:

(1) Liberal projects are based on indi- Broader Economic and viduals helping others on a piecemeal E Social Issues basis, such as a human rights case, For Mass taking up a deportation case, helping a worker, etc. and doing so under the Org pretense of liberal democratic society. As opposed to this, our projects are col- lective efforts and are geared towards building organizations in a coherent MASSES fashion that can lead to a contestation masses from within the superstructure. resources of earth and their sustainable of power (politics). The working class also participates in collective use. For this we believe in (2) In liberal projects, assistance often these institutions (politics) but they a new democracy or socialist democ- comes from state, or at least refuses to have unequal resources (power) and racy – in either case a politics on its challenge the state. Elite individual char- hence always lose. All institutionalist way to communism, which must be led ity foundations funded by corporations explanations in a capitalist structure by a working class party (Clandestine actively hinder the capacity of collec- are meant to reinforced the position of or open depending upon the stage of tive initiative on the part of the people. the dominant class, and leave silent the struggle). At the level of organization, As opposed to this, in our efforts the question of the working class. we must build a party that works with people themselves build their projects. the masses through our mass orga- In these proejcts, much of the resources Comrade Stella emphasizes the need nizations that defend the rights and and capacity are mobilized from within to build “working class expertise, a new welfare of the people and bring them the community itself. This way people working class knowledge, and science into a power struggle with their class build their collective capacity, in which of social organization.” But is she refer- enemies. In practice, when we build a individual is able to flourish. ring to the pre-existing superstructural serve-the-people project, it means we elements of bourgeois society? No. She are building a new economic structure (3) Mutual-aid cooperatives that refuse is referring to a proletarian revolution- where working class collectively man- to move beyond legal structures only ary ideology, politics, organization, ages its economic problems. When we reinforce the capitalist system. As and to the extent that we can prior to do this we are devising new rules of the opposed to this, our projects aim to a structural transformation of society, game (institution), which are different constitute power structures that are not economics. What is this? See Fig 2 for than how peoples needs are met (or completely reliant upon the capitalist concepts of system, structure, super- not met) under capitalism. We develop system, in preparation for revolutionary structure, institutions, and agency in a new knowledge of managing the struggle. It is different than cooperatives our conception of building dual power. affairs of the people. We build a totally of utopian socialists for correcting the Ideologically, we stand for ideology new consciousness (ideology) of work- capitalist system within or transition to of collectivism amongst the masses, ing class – on that is collective. In this socialism as is in social democracy. sacrifice and solidarity. As opposed to way the working class acquires a new consumerism, we stand preserving the Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 7 Fig. 5 - Working Class structure, superstructure and institutions emerge related through a party formation we can bring institutions and back to the masses. [See Fig 5] Ideology - consciousness Theory/ consequent Let me illustrate this process with the I (collectivism, solidarity, sacri- Abstract consciousness. TURE Actually they example of a cop watch project or com- are happening munity self-policing. We, being the part at the same of community, are facing this problem Politics - New Democracy time. Our proj- and this comes directly out of social P (People’s Power) ects are not sim- investigation. People will ask first for ply conscious- legal help/advice within the system [A SUPERSTRU C ness-raising liberal project will stop here and confine exercises (like itself to this]. We slowly will come to petty-bourgeois know that this is a vicious circle and may er and socialism POWER projects of re- proceed to encourage and assist with w Organization - Revolutionary forms are often the creation of parent councils and com- O Party + mass organizations based around), munity councils to keep an eye out for s p o ’ but aimed at the cops [A liberal project will convince TURE creating new the people how should obey law and structures. partake in some friendly games with police]. By systematizing people’s experi- Economic - cooperatives, Practice/

STRU C (6) Here when I ences and encouraging organization, peopl e E worker run factories, food Concrete say institutions, I we can convince the community to keep am now talk- an eye on police harassment and slowly (4) In liberal projects, first they want ing about ‘New build their capacity not to involve police. to disarm you from your politics. They Institutions.’ ‘New formal’ institutions This will result in mass organization. This start from depoliticization, dispersion, in the sense of how we run projects mass organization will create a space fragmentation and difference. If you talk economically and lay down our orga- where we can talk about new laws and to liberals about anti-imperialism, they nizational rules; and by ‘New informal,’ I new political change and new constitu- will start insisting there is women’s issue, mean a new culture of socialist camara- tional rights. In a way we can build our race, gender, that is completely distinct derie and solidarity. new expertise and institutions where we from imperialism. Focus is dispersed can have collective policing of future. and dispersed forces have no power to Connecting a project, mass organization, effectively assert themselves [See Fig party and Ideology- Consciousness Through a process like this, we can build 3]. However, in our projects, we follow the people’s consciousness alongside the bottom-up IPOE. We first talk about In our efforts to organize the people and and within new structures that can women’s issues, workers, peasants, meet their needs, we often start with increase our power against our class urban poor etc. then we connect it with social investigation among vast masses, enemies. a critique of existing bourgeoisie institu- where we take ideas and concerns from tions and organizations, and convince the masses. In doing this, people tell us I hope this helps clarify some of the the people how they are unable to solve about their economic and social issues. terms we need to understand in con- their issues in a dispersed way. Then we We ask them or try to understand which structing dual power. More to follow. push all struggles against imperialism in problems are most urgent to solve first. Then we help them plan some a pincer movement that is focused [Fig Fig. 6 Cop Watch Project 4]. economic/social projects. This is E in our IPOE – the economic. Peoples Police as a front of (5) Our projects are aimed not merely Based on this, people (we with I at changing consciousness (superstruc- them) organize and make a mass society/ community ture) first, which is how poststructuralist organization, with some voluntary discourse analysis, critical legal studies, flexible rules. We should avoid two New political base (law and subaltern studies see things. Rather, extremes in our mass work, which P political change) ours is to build a new structure, that will is tailsim and vanguardism. Dur- New constitutional changes slowly give rise to new institutions (as ing organizing the masses, some (rights) rules of the game), and a dual power people try to proceed immedi- that will connect our new structures ately to form parties with stricter with institutions in opposition to our rules than the masses are able to O Parent or Community class enemy and its institutions and handle without being disciplined Councils organizations. While doing this a new and trained in mass organiza- consciousness and ideology will emerge. tions. What is distilled through Let us make it clear here that we need to Police Harrassment the process of building such mass E build structure first and then there will organizations is ideology, which Legal help/ advice

8 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 Between hype and hubris: a communist perspective on revolutionary prospects in Latin America

by Comrade Victor Hampton these electoral projects. The so-called failed to address the main grievances of For almost a decade, the political devel- ‘pink tide’ theory, which emanates people around the cost and quality of opments in Latin American have been a largely from liberal/social democratic/ education; to fierce resistance from Ma- topic of considerable discussion and de- NGO sectors, seeks to reduce the puche communities to continued sacking bate within academia, the mainstream current political conjuncture in Latin of resources from their ancestral lands in media and among ‘the Left’ (broadly America to an electoral domino effect, the south of the country. The policies of defined). Much of this attention, how- where charismatic ‘left’ leaders and the Bachelet government, as well as other ever, has been relegated to assessments their emergent parties are building ‘centre-left’ governments in the region, of electoral movements and events from each others momentum, captur- represented in-large part a continuity of and has especially focused on govern- ing the imagination and aspirations neoliberal capitalism despite in its pro- ments that have been categorized as of the people in successive elections gramme and as such, the masses and with ‘left of centre’ and as such, the debate across the region. This view sees gov- advanced sectors and organizations were has been predominantly between those ernments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, mobilized against many of their proposals. who almost uncritically support these Chile (up until the election of Sebastian governments and those who outright Pinera), Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Indeed, the election of centre-left govern- dismiss these processes. Paraguay (during the brief government ments has, in almost all of the aforemen- of Francisco Lugo), Uruguay and Ven- tioned countries, not resulted in meaning- It shouldn’t surprising then that when ezuela as part of a unified and regional ful redistribution of resources, let alone a these complex and contradictory electoral ‘trend’. revolutionary transformation of society. political processes in Latin America are In post-neoliberal Latin America, national examined, the critiques are more often What is implicit in this analysis is rein- bourgeoisies arguably have more power then not centred on those in positions forcement of the reformist notion that today, despite a widespread repudiation of leadership in government as well social transformation is accomplished of the completely subservient comprador as their electoral apparatus. From a primarily, if not exclusively, through bourgeoisies to North American and Euro- revolutionary perspective, certainly the winning elections and subsequently pean imperialism. There is not a example positions and trajectory of governments seeking to reform the state appara- in Latin America today where revolution- cannot be ignored but neither can the tus through the government. Among ary mass movements do not find them- relationship and orientation of mass many things, what is obfuscated in this selves at odds – at least from time to time movements to these governments. analysis is the dramatic difference in the – with decisions and positions of those in Omission of this critical component political character of particular gov- government in their respective countries. leads to two main errors in evaluations ernments, which are reflected in their More importantly, few if any purport to of the current political moment in Latin particular political programmes as well build socialism merely through incremen- America. as the positioning of advanced sectors tal government reforms. and the organized popular masses to On the one hand is the interpretation of it. For example, despite having elected The view that presents the progressive, na- what is taking place in Latin America as a President from Socialist Party in Chile tionalist governments in Latin America as more or less an electoral process, albeit under Michelle Bachelet, there were proof of the feasibility of a non-confronta- with varying degrees of engagement massive mobilizations by the student tional transition to socialism ignore three from social movements in and around sector against education reforms which basic facts of Latin America today: (1) the Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 9 means of production, including much and mobilized millions of people while can see that there are clearly important of the land base, are still in the hands of facilitating the accumulation of forces and positive initiatives underway to the bourgeoisie in all of Latin America; and strength of revolutionary mass draw inspiration and lessons from. More (2) elements and attitudes of the ‘old movements. For all the continued importantly, far from being destined to state’ endure in spite of the measures problems and contradictions that of failure there are most definitely signs and campaigns against them (where Latin America’s leftist and center-leftist for optimism as struggle transforms the such measures have been attempted); governments, the political shifts in the people who become more organized and (3) that the many advanced mass region has opened up opportunities and determined to see their processes movements and revolutionary organi- for a reorganization of revolutionary radicalize. zations in the region (including those forces that had dispersed by the end of that are in some measure supporting a the 1980s and early 1990s. Some of the Venezuela government within their locality) do not current governments in Latin American actually purport to suggest that social- are the fruit of the increasing and evolv- Compared to other countries in the ism will be achieved simply by forming ing mobilization of the masses since region, historically Venezuela’s revolu- the next government. the 1990s. These struggles, mostly in tionary left was an active but relegated response to the imposition of neolib- force for much of the second half of the On the other hand, there is a perspec- eral economic reforms, had the effect of 20th century. tive among a section of the ‘radical left,’ realigning political forces, discrediting Following the popular rebellions against including those with anarchist and anti- market economics and its proponents the Perez Jimenez regime in 1958, the revisionist orientations, that tends to (from both the right and ‘left’ par- social democratic Accion Democratica dismiss the entirety of the government- ties). In certain cases, gains have been (AD) colluded with other political forces mass political projects in Latin America, made in areas such as health, educa- to isolate the Venezuelan Communist with others in the region even position- tion, infrastructure and communica- Party and cement its role as a the power ing themselves in opposition to them tions as well as other areas (which will broker ‘on the left’. From the signing (for example, the Communist Party of not be mentioned in this article, but of the Punto Fijo pact (a power sharing Ecuador- Marxist Leninist and the Com- are considerable in certain countries). agreement signed by the AD with two munist Party of Ecuador – Red Sun who These victories have not only been the other parties), the AD retained a tight are in opposition to the Correa govern- result of popular struggle but have grip on the main worker and peasant ment and in the case of Red Sun, also in turn, raised the expectations and organizations of the country, bringing in opposition to the Venezuelan gov- consciousness of the people to demand them into a corporatist arrangement ernment). The basis of these critiques deeper transformation. In a few cases, with capital and the state. range from a general distrust of the role these struggles have put the building of the government / state as well as mili- of ‘socialism’ (albeit in ambiguous and Venezuela has been exploiting its oil tary in these processes; the correct point inconsistent terms) back on the agenda. resources since the turn of the last cen- of the continuity of the old regimes and In terms of mass struggle, some of tury. The revenues from oil, mostly con- the ‘revolutionary’ governments in the these processes are providing political ceded to US capital, generated revenues form of bureaucratism, corruption and space and resources that have in some for mega projects (most of which were cronyism; the continued concentra- cases, facilitated the development of flawed due to skimming and corruption) tion of production in private hands; the dual power. as well as for generating a clientelist penetration of Chinese capita; among relationship between politicians and the a wide array of other valid criticisms While proletarian internationalists have people. Moreover, a labour aristocracy of Latin America’s leftist governments. a duty to observe closely and provide was created in the oil sector where some They reaffirm, correctly, that these criticism to what we perceive as errors workers, technicians, professionals as processes have not undergone social- being committed by our comrades in well as trade unionists, lived materially ist transformation. But in the end, their other lands, we also need to appreciate well-off compared to the majority of the final analysis is one of dismissal for what the political moment and take advan- population. these processes are not. In coming to tage of opportunities presented to such a conclusion, these forces negate strike against the principle enemies and Within this scenario, armed organiza- to recognize potential and opportunity advance our overall objective. That said tions waging guerrilla wars formed to in these processes to accelerating the we must be clear about the contradic- foment a popular uprising, although struggle. tions that still exist (as most advanced these organizations never grew to the sectors in these countries are not shy to capacity of organizations in Colombia Nonetheless, between these two errone- acknowledge and confront) and guard or Central America. Of these, the most ous positions that generally negate the against arriving at erroneous conclu- significant armed organization was the agency of the masses, is the view which sions, particularly those that have a nar- Armed Forces of National Liberation recognizes that what is developing in row electoral or gubernatorial focus. (FALN), which was comprised of mem- Latin America – with the disparity and bers from the PCV as well as the Move- complexity that defines the many un- By looking at the examples of the ment of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). folding of processes in all their particu- developing revolutionary mass move- The FALN was active from 1960 into the larities – is a process that has politicized ments in Venezuela and Ecuador, we 10 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 Bolivarianism, as ecclectic as it is has nonetheless adopted the call of building peoples power 1970s and modelled itself on the Cuban themselves into the electoral sphere, with a main campaign promise to call July 26th Movement, concentrating starting electoral parties such as the a constituent assembly to change the itself in the countryside. The group had Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) or constitution of the country. Importantly presence throughout the country and Causa R. here, Chavez did not merely win an certainly impacted Venezuelan poli- election due to some mystical charisma. tics, but was never able to repeat the In fact, such was the effectiveness of With the experience and networks achievements of the movement they corporatism in Venezuela that it was previously worked out from his clandes- were modelled on. By the early 1980s, held up and lauded by liberals and tine Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement the armed struggle dissipated. conservatives alike as an ‘exceptional ‘200’, they spent several years organiz- democracy’. That is, until this facade ing, weaving together scattered groups What’s more, many of the figures from was lifted during the Caracazo rebel- and organizations with the demand of a the period of armed struggle integrated lion of 1989. A severe structural reform constitutional assembly. and austerity package imposed by the International Monetary Fund and While constitutional reform still oper- implemented by the Accion Democrati- ates within the framework of bourgeois ca led to dramatic increases of the price democracy, the importance of this de- of oil and basic food stuff, leading to a mand in laying the foundation for mass mass uprising throughout the country politicization and mobilization as well and severe state repression. In the as for left regroupement cannot be over aftermath, with up to 3000 people mas- stated. By calling for a constitutional as- sacred, traditional political parties were sembly not only was the entire founda- discredited and the entire political- tion of the previous socio-political (not economic system was in disrepute. yet economic) system fundamentally questioned and rejected, but it also In this crisis of illegitimacy for the Ven- opened the door for widespread orga- ezuelan state and all its political actors, nization and agitation, winning over the people to materializing all of their steps in a paratrooper named Hugo concrete demands as the legal foun- Chavez Frias, who was widely recog- dation for how society should be and nized for having played a leading role operate. Using the constitutional as- in a failed coup attempt in 1992 that semblies as vehicles for mass education sought to implement a progressive and democratization, tens of thousands nationalist platform. Following his Argimiro Gabaldon, a were politicized and organized, while jailing and release, Chavez campaigned mass organizations and advanced sec- leader of the FALN. heavily and won the presidency in 1998 tors benefitted from the opportunity to Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 11 the United Socialist Party of Venezuela The Venezuelan masses flooded to the streets against (PSUV) under the same electoral banner the imperialist backed coup with leading mass organizations, many of whom are independent from and hold critical positions of the PSUV and its leadership.

The call for people to organize them- selves was adopted and institutional- ized by the government under Chavez. In Caracas and other places people began to organize themselves in their neighbourhoods order to carry out some of the reforms passed by the gov- ernment including land regularization and surveying. Some places enjoyed a longer tradition of community self- organization, such as the ‘23 de Enero’ neighbourhood where the Movimiento Tupamaro had effectively built a form of local dual power including the creation accumulate forces. zation on national scales. This ranged of an armed counter-balance to the from the Bolivarian circles to more police. From these experiences, ad- Moreover, the new constitution pro- specialized neighbourhood commit- vanced organizations began to develop vided an ongoing reference for the tees addressing specific issues. In this geographically-based organizations people when making their demands as regard, insufficient credit is given to for community control, which led to well as a tool for political education for Hugo Chavez, who despite occasional the passing of the Law of Communal the masses that reframed the traditional outbursts at not only at the Venezuelan Councils in 2006 and a strategy for the bourgeois paradigms of representa- Communist Party but also at revolu- creation of communal power, which tion and paternalism. The constitu- tionary organizations such as the Alexis effectively created parallel structures tion not only guaranteed civil rights, Vive collective or La Piedrita (both of popular control over territory and but also social rights such as access to political-military organizations based resources. The subsequent laws passed education, health care, culture, etc. and predominantly in Caracas), consistently including the Law of Communal Coun- rested these on a foundation of popular recognized the role and necessity of cils and Law of Communes outlined participation where the masses and organized mass and advanced (even a model for communities to follow in organized communities had the right armed) movements and encouraged organizing themselves so as to access to participate in any and all aspects of the people to exercise political and resources to meet the identified needs social, political and economic life. With economic power. This was increasingly of the community. Importantly, these the passing of the 1999 constitution, present in Chavez’s political discourse laws were a case where government re- not only was the stage set for an accel- and emphasis where he called on the sponded to popular calls and initiatives, eration of struggle as the people began people to organize and assume political not the other way around. to organize themselves, but also the power through the manifestations of foundations where set for the sectors of their organization. To date, more than 30,000 communal the Venezuelan people with the most councils have been created, organizing revolutionary potential to build and/or While most of the early government ini- literally millions of people. Importantly, consolidate dual power. tiatives towards creating popular mass movements like the Corriente Revo- organizations were not as successful as lucionario Bolivar Zamora, a merger However, with a few notable excep- expected, throughout the development between the Ezequiel Zamora National tions, at the start of the Bolivarian of the Bolivarian process the organiza- Campesino Front with other organiza- process there were few large, seasoned tion of the people has grown exponen- tions, have been able to use these Laws mass organizations to play a lead- tially. Thousands of cooperatives have of People Power to organize on larger ing role in advancing and radicalizing been formed, numerous factories oc- levels, including communes (groupings the process. This is evidenced by the cupied and reorganized under workers of numerous neighbouring communal absence of organizations to direct the control, hundreds of community and al- councils) as well as communal cities Caracazo rebellion, leading instead to ternative media form and unified under (groupings of communes) to effectively the military rebellion two years later. a network as well as sectoral organiza- create popular control on large swaths During the early years of the Bolivarian tion. Moreover, there has been increas- of territory. process then, the government made ing coalescing of revolutionary forces various attempts to initiate, stimulate as demonstrated by the creation of From the sour experiences of dealing or encourage different forms of organi- the Great Patriotic Pole, which brought with government bureaucracy, corrup- 12 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 tion and indifference under the previous There are today numerous revolutionary the decade however, the AVC had been governments – which unsurprisingly movements and organizations building liquidated by the government of Febres carries into the new government – the popular control using the constitution Cordero and the remaining AVC mem- initiative of communal power took on and laws passed to control territory bers signed a peace agreement and the objective of countering represen- and air waves. While some of these created a legal party. tative, bourgeois structures. Until his groups are more inclined to participate death, Chavez reaffirmed the call of in the government-created People’s In the 1990s, however, Ecuador became many revolutionary mass organizations Militias (which number in the hundreds the Latin American epicentre of mass and adopted the slogan “commune or of thousands), some retain their own mobilization and social upheaval. Popu- nothing” as the path for the Bolivarian armed structures. Notwithstanding lar organizations in general and Indig- process. Far from being subsumed into the numerous challenges ahead, it is enous organizations operating under government, revolutionary mass move- clear that there is an active and sizeable the Indigenous National Confederation ments are vigorously guarding their revolutionary mass movement that is of Ecuador (CONAIE) initiated a mas- autonomy from the Bolivarian govern- determined to fight for popular power sive anti-neoliberal and anti-imperialist ment, as well as the PSUV. For these and socialist revolution, even commu- front that brought down a number of movements, the objective is socialism nism, and that they see the continuation presidents through mass mobilizations. under popular power, with the orga- of struggle within the current Bolivar- During the uprising against the Mahuad nized people exercising direct control ian process as the most viable form to government in 2000, a brief popular over geographic communities, resources advance this. junta was established that included the and media just to name a few. The Boli- President of CONAIE, the head of the Su- varian process has been an opportunity Ecuador preme Court and the leader of a section for the people to prepare, in ideological of the military that supported the upris- as well as in practical terms, to wrest and Unlike Venezuela, Ecuador has a more ing, Colonel Lucio Gutierrez. Gutierrez exercise power. recent experience of revolutionary would subsequently be elected with a armed struggle and mass struggle out of coalition of parliamentary and extra- The masses have been steadily radical- which the current situation emerges. parliamentary popular left forces on a izing and increasing their capacity and progressive and anti-imperialist platform organization while pushing for the Building from previous revolution- (which included opposition to the Plan Bolivarian process also radicalize. At ary collectives, the Eloy Alfaro Popular Colombia proposal) in 2003. Included times, this has been reactive, as with the Armed Forces (more commonly known in the coalition that formed part of the fall out of the attempted coup and oil as Alfaro Vive Carajo) formed in 1983 Gutierrez cabinet included the electoral strike. At other times, it has been proac- to wage a people’s war modelled on wing of CONAIE, Pachakutik and the tive, as with the proliferation of popular the Cuban ‘focoist’ strategy, but with a Popular Democratic Movement (MPD), initiatives to place production and com- mostly urban base. While most guerrilla the electoral mass front of the Commu- munities under popular control (as with movements in Latin America were based nist Party of Ecuador- Marxist Leninist the worker run factories and communal in the country-side particularly during (PCMLE). councils). this period, the AVC were predominantly based in urban centres. By the end of Gutierrez quickly betrayed the move- ment and changed his orientation to a The Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization Eloy Alfaro pro-US, pro-IMF line which generated a desertion of the previous support base. Popular Armed Forces (Alfaro Vive Carajo) form a signifi- Pachakutik was first to withdraw, with cant group within the new Ecuadorian government. the MPD withdrawing support after about 6 months. Again, the masses took to the streets in huge numbers, demanding the resignation of Gutierrez. With the military withdrawing its sup- port of Gutierrez, he was forced to leave Ecuador and sought refuge in Brazil in 2005.

Following the ousting of Gutierrez, fresh elections resulted in Rafael Correa win- ning the Presidency

Correa, a US-educated economist who was Minister of Finance under Alfredo Palacio, the successor of Gutierrez, was well-regarded as an honest politician for his resignation from the Palacios govern-

Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 13 to the Correa government, with the MPD concerns about tendencies towards cua- even supporting the 2010 coup d’etat dillismo, seeing himself as the process as attempt by police and army officials and opposed to an instrument of it. As such, backed by imperialism. There are cer- the tendency towards sacrificing prin- tainly grounds for scepticism and oppo- ciple and progressive policy in order to sition to aspects of Correa’s governance perpetuate his government remains and and policies, including what is perceived signals that revolutionary mass move- at times to be an arrogant attitude, not ments currently aligned with the process to mention the neo-developmentalist could find themselves at odds with the orientation of its extractive policies. government in the near future.

Similar to Venezuela however, the pro- While the process in Ecuador may not cess in Ecuador has not only consisted be as advanced in terms of revolution- of increased social expenditures and ary organization of the people and The Ecuadorian masses some positive position on international construction of people’s power, it does overthrew several Presi- affairs (as evidenced by the firm posi- nonetheless appear to be heading in dents between 1998-2005 tion against the Colombian bombing of that direction. As in Venezuela however, a FARC camp in Ecuador as well as the this will largely depend on the organi- ment due to an unwillingness on the granting of asylum to Julian Assange) zation of the people and the ability of part of that administration to challenge but also a process of mass mobilization revolutionary organizations to manoeu- the IMF loan repayment demands. and facilitation of creating popular con- vre through the apparent contradic- trol. Aside from the significant levels of tions of the state-led projects, taking From his election in 2006, Correa and his participation in elections since the 2007 advantage of opportunities to organize, allies in government along with mass Constitutional Assembly, mass mobiliza- build unity among revolutionaries and movements began a similar Constituent tions have been constant including the accumulate forces and power while not Assembly process as in Venezuela under mass response to the 2010 coup d’etat, being sucked into or entangled by bour- the banner of a ‘Citizen Revolution’. As where tens of thousands mobilized to geois reformism. with Venezuela, the Ecuadorian consti- confront the short-lived coup. In addi- tution contained dramatically different tion, mass organizations pushed for a Additional thoughts philosophical foundations, enshrin- democratization of the media achiev- ing the Sumak Kawsay, an indigenous ing a law that distributed 34% of the A revolutionary analysis of what is taking principle translated as ‘good living’ as airwaves to organized communities. place in Latin America must begin with the guiding principle of government an examination of what revolutionary policy. The constitution also provided In the past few years also, there has been mass movements are doing and say- for mass participation in all aspects of an increase in extra-parliamentary orga- ing, and where these movements are governance, and prohibited any foreign nizing with new revolutionary forma- heading. Indeed, they must be viewed military bases on Ecuadorian territory tions taking advantage of the favour- as ongoing processes, as opportunities (effectively removing the US military able social and politican conditions to for revolutionary forces to make gains in base located in Manta). organize themselves, while also calling preparation for intensification of open for a deepening of the process. Revo- conflict with enemy classes within. Despite the comparatively progressive lutionary mass organizations have not character of Correa in relation to Gutier- only been at the forefront of the calls to The sites of greatest prospects for revo- rez, in the aftermath of the Gutierrez reject US military presence in Ecuador lutionary advancement are those where government, there were significant po- and the democratization of media, but advanced movements, autonomous litical developments that impacted left have also been calling for ‘agrarian revo- from government and not subsumed in formations. The influx of money coming lution’ to redistribute land. There are also governing parties, are taking advantage from North America and Europe to fund reports that there is greater coordination of the circumstances of being able to NGOs, particularly those working on with armed struggle organizations in Co- shape policies and access resources to environmental issues and with Indig- lombia including the FARC, who are also build forces while also utilizing their enous communities, served to continue assisting in training and arming people space and legitimacy to push for radi- the cooption of leaders within mass in the event of another coup attempt. calization. Indeed, when one compares movements, particularly the CONAIE. Ecuador or Venezuela – where the newer The MPD also emerged weakened from It must be stated however, that unlike mass parties have entered into govern- the Gutierrez experiment, and has in- in Venezuela where Chavez was always ment – to Nicaragua, El Salvador, Brazil creasingly been at odds with the Correa largely aligned with the advanced ele- or Uruguay, where revisionist left parties government in almost every respect, ments and organizations among the with longer histories and tighter reigns but particularly over education reforms, masses, Correa has more than once been over mass organizations, the importance which is a base of MPD membership. at odds with certain elements within of the self-organization, renewal and Both CONAIE (and its electoral wing) as the mass movements and even within independence of mass movements and well as the MPD have been in opposition his own party. Indeed, there are valid revolutionary organizations in pushing 14 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 for radicalization of government poli- the history of our liberatory, communist in Latin America recognize this – that cies and an intensification of struggle is movement in so far as they are recogniz- there is currently a war of position which evident. ing that people need to be prepared not requires revolutionary forces to prepare only to take power, but also to exercise themselves and the masses for intensifi- Other important but less emphasized it. Despite being the creators of all cation of struggle. The bourgeoisie and aspects of these processes include the value, the history of revolutions from imperialism will not allow for a peaceful broader attempts towards regional inte- the French to the Russian to the Chinese construction of socialism and a transfer gration to create a united front against to the Cuban have shown that there is a of wealth and power to the people. In imperialism while also mitigating the steep learning curve to creating social- both Ecuador and Venezuela, there have social and economic impact of economic ism. While bourgeois attitudes linger in been numerous examples to illustrate and political sabotage (as with the em- people and transpose into remodelled the validity of this assertion. Within a bargoes that were applied to Cuba, Chile institutions, the people must learn how protracted struggle, preparation must and Nicaragua). By creating regional to govern and how to control produc- include the creation of dual power up alliances and institutions to ensure and tion through trial and error. into and including the capacity of the expand regional trade of goods and people to defend themselves militarily materials, the ability of US imperialism If we can make generalizations about against internal and external threats. We to attack processes by refusing to export the more advanced processes in Latin salute those forces that are advancing or intervening to deny and even with- America such as those profiled here, these calls and preparations, and see hold credit for imports, is dramatically while it can be argued that they are not this as a sign of the reason to identify weakened. yet socialist and are not yet revolution- positive development in the revolution- ary, are undoubtedly anti-imperialist, ary struggle in Latin America. Indeed, it can be said that these experi- popular and are preparing the ground ences have learned from past struggles, for revolutionary ruptures in the fu- At the same time, from a Marxist-Lenin- including the Chilean tragedy of 1973 ture. The accumulated struggles in ist perspective, the absence of a leading where the Socialist government of Salva- the region have led to the creation of ideological and organizing collectiv- dor Allende was overthrown in a bloody space and gains, not usually permit- ity, represents an obvious concern and military coup. In that case, the Chilean ted or conceded by the bourgeoisie, to weakness. Without a strong reference left became divided on the question of build revolutionary organization and and centre for the masses to push the arming the people, which was ultimately consciousness among the people. The process across sectors along a revolu- rejected by the Allende government bourgeoisie have been forced to yield tionary path, the ability to withstand and the Socialist and Communist Party. this territory because of the strength the offensives of the bourgeoisie and In Venezuela, the creation of a militia and organization of the masses under imperialism are low and the possibilities as well as the tacit approval given (by these processes, including the demon- of defeat and dispersal, high. Chavez at least) to armed revolutionary strated capacity to withstand, repel and groups speaks to the realization that the respond to violence of the ruling class All revolutions must be conceived as people need to be able to defend them- (with Ecuadorians overthrowing several processes with different stages, and the selves and their gains against violent Presidents and Venezuelans repelling task of communist revolutionaries is enemies. the coup attempt of 2002). to progressively improve our position (strength) relative to our enemy. As out- Importantly, these processes are also However, it must be clearly under- lined in the article by comrade Amil K. learning from previous experiences in stood – and the advanced movements in this issue, this requires consideration not only of the capacity of force that the enemy has in terms of arms and man- power, but also the tools and factors that allow it to rule by consent. Any accumulation of forces must contest with this reality, and take into account that the building of dual power as a necessity to decisively break the power of the ruling class over the people and prepare for decisive engagement with it. As the revolutionary movements in Latin America develop and the people learn and prepare, an internationalist’s duty is to accompany these processes so that experience and victories ac- cumulate along with our forces, while The Tupamaro Revolutionary Movement, one of several errors and defeats are progressively urban military/ political organizations in Venezuela. minimized.

Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 15 Justice for Sammy Means Fighting the Central Committee of Revolutionary Initiative (Canada) the narratives spun in the media that make The brazen execution of 18-year old Sam- Police Services as quickly as possible and the victim into the perpetrator and the cop my Yatim by a Toronto police officer on channel popular discontentment onto into the victim and the hero. July 27, 2013 has unleashed an unprec- this single cop, James Forcillo, who is nei- If there was no footage, Sammy Yatim’s edented level of popular disdain for the ther extraordinary for his act of violence name would have never hit the headlines. Canadian state’s third-largest armed ap- nor his killing of yet another unarmed Video footage is the distinguishing factor of paratus – the Toronto Police Service (TPS). youth in Toronto. The only exception Sammy’s untimely and undeserved killing, The popular outrage over the nine shots is that he was caught on camera. As a thanks to which the world now knows. fired at young Sammy has forced virtually consequence, the state at municipal and every major media outlet to echo the provincial levels may be forced to charge Yet another extra-judicial killing indignation of the masses; meanwhile, and convict this officer and may even Let’s call it what it is: an extra-judicial killing. bureaucrats, politicians and the labour have to implement some minor reforms. And Sammy Yatim is only the latest victim in aristocracy have make unprecedented The mass movement we need must be a long running list that has stacked up over public condemnations of the TPS and on guard against any reforms that seek to the decades in Toronto and across Canada. have called for changes to training and deflate and disperse an upcoming move- How else should we refer to the execution misconduct investigation practices. ment, while leaving the structure of our of youth like Sammy, which just happened enemy virtually in tact. Why has Sammy’s execution to be caught on camera; or native people, sparked so much attention? The only thing that distinguishes this especially women, all across the country? latest incident is that the encounter was The vast majority of victims of these trigger- But all the hype amounts to little more recorded on a civilian’s camera, which happy cowboys are racialized proletarians, than smokescreen while the agents of subsequently disrupted the usual con- the homeless, and Indigenous peoples – all this miserable system work frantically to spiracy of silence by the media, or else of whom the agents of the Canadian state re-establish the legitimacy of the Toronto

16 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 Sammy’s family and many young friends have been on the frontlines of this struggle. can and have always done away with is. While we see these forms of rebellion brutality and arsenal on display at the G20 while hardly batting an eye. as justifiable expressions of the indigna- Summit in Toronto in 2010 on the one tion of the people, we must make clear hand, and the daily harassment, surveil- When the people hit back… that they will never result in fundamental lance and terror imposed on racialized Such killings have often been sparks for change and they are no substitute for the proletarians in Toronto, on the other hand, mass mobilization, and in some cases conscious and organized revolutionary are contemporary examples of these two even rebellious upsurges. When the two offensive against the system. functions of policing – counter-revolution officers who killed unarmed black teen- and containment. And programs like The role of the police in a capi- ager Michael Wade Lawson were acquit- TAVIS, policies like Form 208 “Carding”, ted in April 1992, and a month later a talist society: Counter-revolu- and paramilitary operations such as the Jamaican man was shot dead by Toronto tion and containment ‘Project Traveller’ raids at Dixon/Kipling in Police, over 1000 people took to the To serve and protect who? mid June 2013, clearly illustrate how the streets in the so-called “Yonge Street Riot”, racialized segments of the working class, breaking windows on Bay St. and clashing The Toronto Police Service – or any other especially the African segments of the with police. police body in Canada, for that matter population, are being fiercely targeted – is not simply a bureaucracy or institu- for subjugation. The same logic applies In August 2008 when Montreal Police tion onto itself: they represent the armed to Africans in cities like Ottawa, Montreal shot 18-year old Fredy Villanueva to apparatus of the state and the first line and Halifax; and to Indigenous peoples in death, his neighbourhood erupted in of defense for the rich. Overall, municipal Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Edmonton, rebellion as stores were looted, cars set police forces throughout Canadian his- and other cities out west. on fire, and most significantly, police were tory have served two primary functions: met with projectiles and gunfire. A para- (1) Repress the most advanced political Therefore, the impunity of the police is medic and an officer were injured while strata of the masses which the ruling only possible because the ruling classes another policewoman was shot. class sees as hostile to itself; and (2) con- need to preserve their image and keep them readied and on guard as a repres- Such spontaneous uprisings or the threat tain the most impoverished, unruly and oppressed sections of society. sive and quasi-paramilitary force against of them have in deed had the effect of the masses. To reign in the police and to curbing police killings for a time. The Historically, we see this with the Toronto check such wreckless behaviour would ‘Yonge Street Riots’ in 1992 had a part in Police gaining its first mounted unit in contradict these basic functions of the po- bringing to a halt for the better part of the response to the Streetcar Strike of 1886; lice, potentially causing the cops to waver 1990s the common occurrence of police and later with the establishment of its when they really need to crack down on shooting Black men throughout Toronto criminal investigative capacities after the the masses, not to mention blunting the – one of the outcomes of which was the waves of immigration from Southern and racism and terror that constitutes the creation of the Special Investigations Unit, Eastern Europe in the early 1900s. The daily work of police in poor, racialized however much of a sham that institution Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 17 communities. ary forces. rors in relation to resisting police violence. The rightist solutions will come in the The police function not to prevent crime We need to build the capacity to con- form of the “sugar-coated bullets” that the but to enforce the social order of the front patrols, raids and assaults on state and the reformists will put forward capitalist system through the active use of a neighbourhood level, but this can to kill the movement, such as charging and threat of violence. And the police do only be done through mass action and Forcillo and maybe offering some token everything they can to maintain the rul- widespread vigilance and a long-term reforms. ing class’s monopoly on violence, letting building of capacity and conscious resis- that monopoly slip only to permit or even tance. To do this, mass campaigns must On the other hand, we also need to ac- facilitate horizontal and reactionary forms be launched and maintained all across tively challenge the limitations of the all- of violence amongst the people, such as urban centers where police containment too-easy calls for “smashing the state” and through the drug trade and by provok- and repression are leading to killings like “fuck the police” in the course of our ac- ing conflicts among groups of youth and that of Sammy Yatim, not to mention the tive campaigning and agitating amongst street gangs. daily raiding of our communities for our the masses, which, although express our sons, brothers, fathers, comrades, and sentiments and long-term goals, have Transform outrage into conscious friends through repressive ‘Tough on no meaningful short-term demands or organization and resistance Crime’ policies. goals that could be tactically effective in accumulating forces of mass struggle and In the urban centers of imperialist coun- We must take up the most advanced recruiting revolutionary forces therefrom. tries, one of the fruitful sites for building demands of the masses currently cir- dual power and fostering revolutionary culating, including a disarming of the What we require are calls and demands consciousness lies in this space between police altogether and dismantling the that neither legitimize the state nor bol- the most oppressed masses and the Special Investigations Unit. The moth- sten illusions concerning its ability to re- repressive institutions of the state. As ers, workers, even the semi-lumpenized form, but demands that are still perfectly the only element in that bureaucracy youth who have the greatest hatred for reasonable in the eyes of the masses. It is to regularly employ physical violence, this system, but who are alienated and through organizing around such de- municipal police forces provoke the most excluded from most radical anti-capitalist mands – demands that accumulate forces consistent and radical opposition from movements, must be brought into mass for reforms which, if passed, would not the populace. Therefore, we must see any organization and eventually revolution- liquidate them – that we can make the attempt to divert this anger by placing ary organization, and must come to fighting capacity of the people stronger. the terms of the struggle in the hands of recognize and take ownership over these Let us not let Sammy Yatim’s death pass in the ruling class, media, politicians and struggles. bureaucrats is defeatist and opportunistic vain, as with so many other extra-judicial in the extreme. Communists and revolutionaries must killings of young men in recent years in build the mass organizations and mass Toronto, from Jeffrey Reodica, Alwy Al Aside from typical leftist forces, Sammy movement necessary to bring the most Nahdir, Byron Debassige, Michael Eligon, Yatim’s killing has mobilized not only impacted class forces into full political Junior Manon and many more. the large family and many working class life, to oppose, contend with and eventu- Let’s feed the fire sparked by those nine youth who knew him, but new swathes of ally defeat the power of the police and shots. We can’t afford to let our enemies people with no previous presence at ral- the Canadian state as a whole alongside drown the movement that’s waiting to lies and demonstrations. There is a major the rest of what must be a revolution of flare up. Seize the time! opportunity at this point for the masses to all oppressed and exploited peoples in make serious inroads into their defensive this country. THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS capabilities to prevent the state’s war of GUILTY OF SAMMY’S DEATH! attrition on proletarians in this city, espe- In the course of building this work, we cially racialized people, not to mention to must contend with and challenge both BUILD PEOPLE’S POWER TO advance the accumulation of revolution- the right opportunism and “ultra-left” er- DEFEND OUR COMMUNITIES!

18 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 Towards the War of Position: Gramsci in Continuity and Rupture with Marxism-Leninism By Comrade Amil

Introduction: It’s Time to Jailbreak to Italy from their safe haven in the Soviet The revolutionary crisis that spanned the Gramsci’s Ideas Union after the Second Inter-imperialist course of the immediate postwar years War (WWII), the revolutionary content of revealed serious limitations in how the Among the leading figures of the interna- his ideas would be contained by the revi- ‘October Road’ to revolution that the tional communist movement (ICM) in the sionism of the ‘Eurocommunists’, of which Bolsheviks inspired came to be understood twentieth century – Lenin, Stalin, Ho Chi the PCI’s Togliatti was at the forefront. and applied throughout the Communist Minh… – Antonio Gramsci, leader of the Liberal academics would later further International. The insurrections that were Partito Comunista d’Italia / Italian Com- strip Gramsci’s thought of its clearly com- inspired by the Russian revolution in the munist Party (PCI), features less promi- munist objectives. immediate postwar years all failed – from nently than many others – this in spite of Europe to North America to the failed 1927 his canonical status in the liberal acad- For these reasons, it can be said that insurrections in China. The Revolutionary emy. Granted, he didn’t lead a successful Gramsci has had, at best, very little im- Communist Party of Canada (RCP Canada) revolution. But no communist party in pact on communist strategy in the twen- and the new Communist Party of Italy the imperialist countries did. Also, that tieth century. But Gramsci had much (nPCI) today uphold the idea (with some the bulk of Gramsci’s theorizing – and to say on the challenges of accumulat- conceptual differences between them) that certainly most of his original and most ing revolutionary forces in imperialist this was the result of inappropriate strategy: penetrating texts – were written in posi- countries that should not be overlooked, the insurrectionary strategy underesti- tion of captivity in Italy’s fascist prisons and I would argue, have much import for mates the resilience of the state and that contained Gramsci’s reflections on com- the task of reconceptualizing communist something akin to a protracted people’s munist strategy. Gramsci’s thought would strategy today. It’s time to jailbreak some war strategy is required. I would like to ap- remain quite inaccessible to ICM and of these ideas out of the confines of the proach this problem (in a way that builds even the PCI until well after his death. But liberal academy. upon the critique of insurrectionism carried even when his prison notebooks return out by RCP Canada and nPCI) by digging a

Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 19 little deeper into how the State and bour- State and Revolution, but also builds appropriations, but for reconceptualizing geois power were conceived at this time upon elements of and far surpasses it. In the place of these ideas within our project within revolutionary Marxism, particularly this way, Gramsci’s ideas are in continuity of reconceptualizing communist strategy by comparing Lenin’s State and Revolu- and rupture with elements of Leninism. today. tion with Gramsci’s prison notebooks. Gramsci’s inclusion of bourgeois civil society within his theorization of the The Strengths and Limitations The conception of the state contained bourgeois state elaborates a theory of of Lenin’s State and Revolution within Lenin’s 1917 publication State and class power and domination that is more Revolution came to be widely accepted in comprehensive than Lenin’s. And this As the title of Lenin’s State and Revolution the international communist movement conception of class power points us in (S&R) suggests,the question of the State and in turn informed the insurrection- the direction of a communist strategy and the question of revolution are inter- ary approach to revolution and a very that somewhat more protracted (not to twined; and the first should be answered specific expression of the vanguard Party. be confused with reformist) in its concep- before the second. How one conceptual- Whether we attribute the success of the tualization of accumulating proletarian izes the State comes to bear upon how Russian revolution to the contingencies revolutionary forces. one conceptualizes the revolution that is of a particular historical conjuncture or required to overthrow it. whether reactionary regimes were more Gramsci’s moment, though separated prepared for proletarian revolution in the from us by eighty years and in a very S&R is written in the throes of the first wake of the October 1917 revolution – different context from our own, in certain inter-imperialist war and published on the likely both factors apply – the ‘October ways is like our own. Gramsci’s prison eve of the Russian revolution in August Road’ led only to bloody defeats wherever notebooks commence a project of com- 1917. S&R was intended to be a decisive else it was attempted. And out of the munist reconceptualization after the polemical intervention against all the revi- depths of these defeats, Antonio Gramsci wave of failed insurrectionary attempts sionist forces of the Second International was at the forefront of articulating a more in the international communist move- and their “superstitions concerning the comprehensive strategy for the advanc- ment that has yet to be adequately taken ‘State’” (Lenin, State and Revolution, p.5), ing the proletarian revolution in countries up by the ICM. more than any others the Mensheviks and where capitalist social relations and the Socialist Revolutionaries who were sup- hegemony of the bourgeoisie was more Upon a critical re-examination of Lenin’s porting the bourgeois Kerensky govern- advanced. conception of the state and revolution, ment after the February revolution. we can establish the points of continuity Gramsci’s contributions to communist and rupture of Gramsci vis-a-vis Lenin. The approach of Lenin’s S&R is to reclaim theory are many, but among the most It is the argument of this essay that ap- the ideas of Marx and Engels, or “those important is his substantial elaboration prehending these points of continuity aspects of their teachings which have to the conceptualization of the bourgeois and rupture with Leninism are not only been forgotten or opportunistically State, one that falls within Marxist-Le- fundamental to rescuing Gramsci’s ideas distorted” (p.6) by “resuscitat[ing] the real ninist orthodoxy as articulated in Lenin’s from the clutches of liberal academic teachings of Marx on the state” (p.7). In es- sence, Lenin is making a series of affirma-

In March 1927, the General Labor Union in Shanghai, under direction of the Chinese Communist Party, launched a general strike and an armed insurrection of some 600,000 workers (image to left) against the warlords and in support of the approaching Revolutionary Nationalist Army led by the Kuomintang, which the communists were members of. While praising the unions publicly, Chiang Kai-shek proceeded to secretly raise a paramilitary force with support from the bourgeoisie and the criminal underworld to drown the communist forces in their own blood. On April 12, these reactionary paramilitary elements launched a series of attacks against the city’s large unions against the now disarmed work- ers (image to right). Union members were slaughtered, arrested, and disarmed. When townspeople, workers, and students staged a protest rally the next day, they were fired on by Kuomintang troops, with executions continuing for weeks. The General Labor Union organizations were declared illegal, and all strike activity in the city ceased. At this time, the CCP operated with a strategy of urban-based insurrection based on the proletariat. This event encouraged the shift to the protracted people’s war in the countryside with the peasantry becoming the main force of the revolution. 20 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 tions of revolutionary Marxism in light transition from capitalism to Commu- Those aspects of bourgeois power of the Second International’s usurpation, nism, up to the period of overthrow- constituted in the realm of civil society degeneration, and revisionism of some of ing and completely abolishing the were already well-developed and quite the basic tenets put forward by Marx and bourgeoisie… the state during this formidable in the capitalist-imperialist Engels. Among these affirmations include period inevitably must be a state that countries to the West in Lenin’s time, and the points that: is democratic in a new way (for the certainly underwent further development proletariat and the poor in general) between the inter-imperialist wars with • “The state is the product and the and dictatorial in a new way (against the vast expansion of the productive base manifestation of the irreconcilability the bourgeoisie) (30-1). of capitalism. Gramsci acknowledged the of class antagonisms,” and, therefore, differences between the Russian state “the existence of the state proves In affirming these essential theses of and the western European states at the that the state class antagonisms are Marxism on the question of the state, moment of the Russian revolution when irreconcilable” (p.8); Lenin is affirming an analysis of the state he reflected more than a decade later in that while evidently applicable to Russia his prison notebooks that • The state is an instrument for the – considering the success of the Russian exploitation of In the East the oppressed the State was classes; and everything, finally, civil society was primordial and • The state is gelatinous; in made up of the West, there “special bodies was a proper re- of armed men lation between who have at State and civil their disposal society, and prisons, etc.” when the state (p.10), which tottered, a is contrasted sturdy structure with the “self- of civil society acting armed was immediate- organization of ly revealed. The the population” State was just a that preceded forward trench; the rise of the behind it stood state. A monument to Gramsci under construction in 2013 at a housing a succession of sturdy These ideological complex in the Bronx. So people still find Gramsci relevant. fortresses and interventions were emplacements. essential on the eve of the Russian revo- revolution – is arguably less applicable (Gramsci [1930-32], Selections from lution for establishing a definite clarity to other western States at the time of the Prison Notebooks, 238). about the inability of the bourgeois state Lenin’s writing. Lenin’s exclusive empha- (managed by the Kerensky government, sis on the coercive aspects of the state Therefore, the urban insurrection that after the February revolution) to serve – as a dictatorship of the ruling class(es), succeeded in Russia would prove less as a mediating force for resolving the with its “special bodies of armed men” than sufficient to topple the more “sturdy antagonism of classes in Russia. The third –while essential, overlooks those aspects fortresses” of the more advanced capital- affirmation, concerning “special bod- of bourgeois power that are beyond the ist regimes, as the postwar period would ies of armed men” in the service of class repressive apparatus, such as in ideol- reveal at the expense of great losses to dictatorship, underscores the need for an ogy and civil society where consensual the proletarian movement. armed force of the proletariat to replace domination is exercised, the realm of bourgeois dictatorship with a transitional hegemony. It is difficult and would be er- But with the triumph of the Russian revo- proletarian dictatorship. A substantial roneous to fault Lenin with not develop- lution, the enormous prestige of Lenin- part of the rest of S&R is dedicated to ing a theory of the state more applicable ism in its wake, and the urgent necessity defending the historical necessity of a to the conditions of societies other than of building an international communist dictatorship of the proletariat as an in- Russia. S&R, while arguably containing movement in the context of the postwar strument for repressing the bourgeoisie. certain universal positions on the bour- revolutionary situation meant that the As Lenin puts it, geois state, is not a completely universal Communist Party of the Soviet Union served as a major pole of attraction for Opportunism does not lead the view of the State in its modern form, or even in Lenin’s day. new communist parties around the world. recognition of class struggle up to In the context of the revolutionary situ- the main point, up to the period of Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 21 ation in the immediate postwar period by Lenin that the bourgeois state does socialist society closer and closer to com- where a rapid regroupement of commu- not “wither away…but is ‘put an end to’ munism. When the problem is posed like nist forces was required, unfortunately by the proletariat in the course of the so, the question then arises of what forms emulation trumped innovation. The revolution. What withers away after the of proletarian power are necessary in the consequence of inadequate theorization revolution is the proletarian state or lead up to a revolution in order to best of the state in the ICM led to the applica- semi-state” (17). Engels’ own polemic was secure the dictatorship of the proletariat tion of strategies and tactics ill-conceived aimed at both the reformists and the after the revolution? The answer to this for contexts other than where they were anarchists: the former for their rejection question entails a rethinking of both originally formulated. of revolution, the latter for refusing to forms of States – the dictatorships of the understand the state (in all its forms) bourgeoisie and of the proletariat. And to This is not to suggest that there were no is not simply “smashed” in one grand these questions Gramsci responds with contributions by Lenin that were uni- night. Lenin further clarifies his position a protracted revolutionary strategy that versal, and that should not have been on this point later in the text when he elaborates the Leninist party form and appropriated of by the new Communist states: “the proletarian state will begin communist strategy in a way that articu- Parties. Lenin’s conception of the van- to wither away immediately after its vic- lates the relationship between the Party guard party and the Bolshevik example tory, because in a society without class and the organizations of the masses that set it apart from the failed ‘mass parties’ antagonisms, the state is unnecessary had not yet been clearly articulated in the of social democracy that placed the and impossible” (25). international communist movement, and proletariat under the leadership of the was only just beginning to take form in petty-bourgeoisie, labour aristocracy, and Once again, in making these affirmations, the Chinese Communist Party. opportunists almost universally. Lenin’s Lenin was countering the distortions of theory of imperialism was also a signifi- the opportunists. But what S&R has to The Historical Context and cant theoretical contribution, not only in say on this question is historically limited Gramsci’s Political Work Prior advancing internationalism and develop- by virtue of a socialist society having not to the Prison Notebooks ing anti-colonialism within the commu- yet existed. But the historical experience nist movement, but also in explaining of socialist society that follows the Rus- It must be said that Gramsci’s conceptual the relationship between imperialism sian revolution reveals in practice that, apparatus is not entirely original. This is and the corruption of the ‘bourgeoisi- quite the opposite of withering away, not a diminution of Gramsci’s thought, fied’ section of the working-class. These class struggle rages on within socialist but rather a recognition that Gramsci elements of Leninism all contributed to society, and not just against the old en- quite clearly builds upon Marxist-Leninist its widespread appeal for communist emies, the bourgeoisie, but new ones as foundations. But to be sure, Gramsci does regroupement in the immediate postwar well. The bourgeoisie and its foreign im- not simply apply what he called “philoso- period. But the strength of Leninism, and perialist sponsors in Russia are militarily phy of praxis” (Marxism) to the Italian situ- its canonization in the Communist Inter- defeated by the end of the Civil War; and ation – you know, break out the old Marx- national, also relieved communist parties any remnants of the rural bourgeoisie ist tool bag and begin putting them to of their duty of creatively adapting and are liquidated by the forced collectiviza- work in Italy. Rather, Gramsci articulates developing Marxism-Leninism in relation tion policies of the late 1920s. However, a conceptual apparatus that attempts to to their domestic contexts. this does not prevent the rise of a new get beyond some of the limitations and bourgeoisie within the Soviet Union, under-developed aspects of Leninism, Another major limitation of S&R that which in time comes to exercise influ- ideas that may be instructive for our own should be mentioned here, and is rel- ence, leadership, and ultimately control challenges today. evant to the conceptual innovations by over the CPSU in subsequent decades. Gramsci, concerns the supposed “wither- Suffice it to say that for the purposes of The communist movement proved insuf- ing away of the state” after the revolution this essay that the protracted and violent ficiently capable of emerging victoriously that Lenin defends in his book. Lenin struggles within the Soviet Union itself, from the revolutionary crisis after World defends Engels’ position on the ques- from the civil war to the forced collec- War I. Its gains were important; but its tion of the “withering away” of the state, tivizations, certainly bears its mark upon defeats were not insignificant and owed which was that it can only come after Gramsci’s notion of the sort of proletar- a lot to the lack of preparation of Com- the proletarian revolution, and that it is ian power that would be required to munist Parties for the tasks they faced. an act of socialist society. Lenin affirms make revolution in countries with even With the exception of the Bolsheviks, Engels’ position against the opportunists more powerful and deeply entrenched virtually all communist parties emerged who use this phrase against the essence bourgeois social relations. Gramsci was as breakaways or left-poles of pre-existing of what Engels meant in order to propose afforded with the hindsight to see that social democratic, socialist and/or syndi- a process of “slow, even, gradual change, the greatest challenge facing the dicta- calist organizations which either had no free from the leaps and storms, free from torship of the proletariat was not simply clear strategy for revolution, or were not revolution. The current popular concep- in seizing state power, but holding on working towards a forceful revolutionary tion…of the ‘withering away’ of the state to it, maintaining the dictatorship of the transformation. In Italy, the base for the undoubtedly means a slurring over, if proletariat in the face of all external and formation of the PCI was the left ten- not a negation, of revolution” (State and internal enemies in a way that moved dency in the Socialist Party that defined Revolution, 16). The point is reiterated 22 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 themselves as ‘electoral absentionists’ (the same Socialist Party out of which Italian “Red Guards” – dated 20 September 1920 Mussolini originates!). None of these formations were prepared to meet the challenges of proletarian revolution and all the questions that went along with it. None were prepared to answer the ques- tion of by what means can the proletariat take and hold onto power and crush the resistance of the exploiters and oppres- sors.

By the time of the formation of the Par- tito Comunista d’Italia (PCI), the postwar revolutionary crisis already peaked and passed with the Turin metalworkers strike in April 1920, where an effective dual power existed between revolu- tionary workers and the bosses (Hoare and Nowell Smith: xl-xli “Introduction” to Gramsci’s Selections from Prison Notebooks). The closest Italy came to its insurrectionary moment was later in In September 1923, Gramsci proposed alliance between northern workers 1920 with the factory council movement creating a new working-class daily, Unitá, and southern peasants; which extended from Milan to Turin and along the lines of the Ordine Nuevo of all across much of the country. Hoare and 1919-1920, and proposed the creation of 3. A new programme of political Nowell, the editors of the first English “a federal republic of workers and peas- education in the party to overcome edition of the Selections from the Prison ants” as ideological preparation for a So- past divisions that were no longer Notebooks, summarize the failures of the viet regime in Italy. As Hoare and Nowell decisive; and early Italian communist movement: recount, “Gramsci sided with Bordiga in resisting the Comintern’s advice of adhe- 4. Stepping up communist activity in [Gramsci’s] Ordine Nuovo might sion to the PSI, but broke with him on a the émigré population in France. have implanted an idea that had series of other questions, particularly his The foundation of Gramsci’s strategic caught imagination of the masses; lack of a positive strategy for Italy and his points was his new conception of the the intransigents and Bordiga’s desire to start an internationalist opposi- Party: abstentionist fraction might have tion to the Comintern” (lxi). Gramsci also defined an attitude which rejected differentiated himself from Bordiga on The error of the party has been to all compromises; but not even these the question of the relationship between have accorded priority in an abstract forces – and how much less the mass Party and masses. Taking historical fashion to the problem of organisa- organizations, the Party, and the inspiration from how the commissioni tion, which in practice has simply trade unions – had made any serious interne of the factory councils 1919-1920 meant creating an apparatus of attempt to organize the proletariat, served as a counter to the leadership of functionaries who could be depended on a national scale, for a revolutionary the reformist trade union movement, on for their orthodoxy towards the assault on the capitalist state. Instead, the Confederazione Generale del Lavora official view… The communist party what transpired was the state taking (CGL), Gramsci argued that the mass has even been against the formation initiative to disarm the movement organizations of proletarian revolution of factory cells. Any participation of through concessions, while begin- were the institutional basis of the dicta- the masses in the activity and internal ning to arm and finance the fascist torship of the proletariat. life of the party, other than on big oc- squads. In short, they lacked even the casions and following a formal decree In response to the setbacks to the PCI, sort of disciplined vanguard organiza- from the centre, has been seen as the and with Bordiga in captivity, Gramsci tion that Lenin had been advocating result of a dialectical process in which proposed a new strategic orientation since 1903 as an alternative to the the spontaneous movement of the for the communist movement in Italy. opportunist organizational structures revolutionary masses and the organis- Gramsci strategic points included: of social democracy, and that Gramsci ing and directing will of the centre would come to further elaborate converge; it has been seen merely upon. Bordiga’s effective leadership 1. Intensive propaganda for a worker- peasant government; as something suspended in the air, within the Party came to an end with something with its own autonomous the smashing of the Party apparatus, 2. A struggle against the labour aris- and self-generated development, which reduced its membership by tocracy and reformism to cement an something which the masses will join 80% to 5000 members (lv). Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 23 when the situation is right and the slower and more prudent, and there- proletariat in its struggle against the crest of the revolutionary wave is at fore requires of the revolutionary ruling class, and subsequently on the its highest point, or when the party party a strategy and tactics alto- shifting terrain to struggle against all centre decides to initiate an offensive gether more complex and long-term compromise and capitulation; and stoops to the level of the masses than those which were necessary for in order to arouse them and lead the Bolsheviks in the period between 4. A more precise formulation of the them into action (lxii-iii). March and November 1917 (lxvi-ii). worker-peasant alliance under the slogan of “a republic of worker and This is essentially a critique of the party The period in which Gramsci led the PCI peasant soviets in Italy”; form under Bordiga, a bureaucratic cen- was the practical basis for the working tralist organizational structure. Bordiga’s out of his thinking in prison. Gramsci 5. Fascism as a particular expression of conception of the Party may have op- dismissed Zinoviev’s scapegoating of the bourgeois revolution on the basis posed the reformist structures of the the German Communist Party’s Brandler of Italy’s specificities, which included Second International parties. But neither for the failure of the 1923 attempt at the lack of unity amongst Italy’s could the conception of the Party that he an insurrection, and offered a deeper bourgeoisie; maintained bring about a positive strat- critique of its attempt as being putschist. egy for the making of revolution in Italy, Under the new strategy and Gramsci’s 6. Countering the weight of the Catho- nor an organizational form to identify leadership, the PCI made considerable lic Church; and and carry through such a strategy. By the advances despite the growing strength 7. The necessity of proletarian hege- spring 1924 election in which the PCI par- of fascism. As repression intensified mony over the peasantry (xci). ticipated, under the guidance of Grams- throughout 1925, Gramsci viewed ci’s strategic changes, the Party had once insurrection as only possible through a From some of Gramsci’s strategic points, again grown to 12,000 members. unification of workers and peasants com- I believe we can extrapolate questions of mittees well prepared in advance. The significance for the entire international The foundation of Gramsci’s strategy was former would take the form of autono- communist movement (many of which a class analysis that embraced Lenin’s the- mous factory committees, while defend- have been responded to by Maoism. But ory of the labour aristocracy and applied ing the independence of the CGL from let’s hold off on elaborating those for Part it to Italy, recognizing the obstacles that fascist liquidation. Attempts were also II of this essay.). I find that these general this stratum of labour posed to proletar- being made to create an underground contributions consist at least of the fol- ian revolution. However, at this period apparatus. Despite intensifying repres- lowing: of time, this stratum of labour only really sion, PCI membership rose to 27,000 dominated the labour movement in the members, with an increasing proportion • The question of actual proletarian advanced capitalist-imperialist countries, coming from the ranks of the peasantry. leadership in the proletarian revo- where the bourgeoisified stratum of la- Gramsci came to recognize that the situ- lutionary party, to which Gramsci bour plays its part in disciplining the pro- ation was qualitatively changing, and this responds with the “organic intellectu- letariat and channeling its struggles into led to his 1926 paper on the Southern al” and to which Mao responds with arenas of struggle where the bourgeoisie Question, in which he articulated his the concept of the mass line [Point 1 always wins. Whereas the backwardness theses on the dual role of the northern above]; and under-developed nature of capital- proletariat and the southern peasantry. ism in Russia had meant that the masses • An understanding of the military were not under the domination of a In the early months of Gramsci’s incarcer- question as a political question, of labour aristocracy, Gramsci pointed out ation, before facing solitary confinement, war as politics and political struggle that in: Gramsci’s political agitation in prison as a form of military struggle [Point 2 can be seen as the seminal form of the above]; …Central and western Europe the profound theoretical points that he later development of capitalism has worked out in prison notebooks over the • A class analysis that differentiates determined not only the formation coming decade. These theoretical points among the popular classes which will of broad proletarian strata, but also consisted of the following: play the leading role in the revolu- and as a consequence has created the tion, which constitute a numerically higher stratum, the labour aristocracy 1. The conception of the party as being main force, and which must follow with its appendages of trade-union led by the organic intellectuals of the hegemony of other classes bureaucracy and the social-demo- the proletariat; [Points 4 and 7]. cratic groups. The determination, which in Russia was direct and drove 2. The need for military organization It was only incidentally that Gramsci’s the masses into the streets for a understood not in narrow technical sister-in-law Tatiana Schucht was able revolutionary uprising, in central and terms but broad political terms; to smuggle out his 33 prison notebooks western Europe is complicated by all after his death, allowing us to study how these superstructures, created by the 3. The importance of the intermediate Gramsci develops these points over greater development of capitalism; slogan of “constituent assembly,” as the course of nearly a decade in fascist this makes the action of the masses first a means of winning allies for the prisons. 24 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 The Prison Notebooks: Towards is the organic but contradictory unity are not unified and cannot unite until a ‘War of Position’ between the dominant and subaltern they are able to become a “State”: social groups in a given historical period, their history, therefore, is intertwined The main concern of the prison note- the relations of which are historically with that of civil society, and thereby books is the development of “the philoso- emergent and need to be understood as with the history of States and groups phy of praxis” with the aim of rejuvenat- such in order to understand the nature of of States. Hence it is necessary to ing communist strategy in light of the the relations among these social groups study: 1. The objective formation of failures and setbacks in Gramsci’s period. in the present. Whereas ‘nature’ here is subaltern social groups, by develop- However fragmentary the passages of considered relatively fixed and generally ments and transformations occurring the notebooks are, they compose a total- changes only over much longer periods, in the sphere of economic production; izing system of thought in which a major the ‘Spirit’ is the contradictory unity their quantitative diffusion and their focal point is the question of strategy. between structural and super-structural origins in pre-existing social groups, While there is so much more to the prison elements in a bloc of time. On the one whose mentality, ideology, and aims notebooks in terms of Gramsci’s intellec- hand, the concept of the historical bloc is they conserve for a time; 2. their ac- tual contributions than questions of class a rather orthodox reformulation of Marx’s tive or passive affiliation to the domi- war and strategy – hence, the Gramsci historical materialism, a principle thesis nant social formation, their attempts being a treasure trove for liberal academ- of which Gramsci paraphrases at certain to influence the programmes of these ics – many of the notes point back to points throughout the prison notebooks: formations in order to press claims of what Gramsci calls the war of position. “1. That no social formation disappears their own… 3. the birth of new parties But this concept can only be appreciated as long as the productive forces which of the dominant groups, intended by unpacking some of the conceptual have developed within it still find room to conserve the assent of the subal- apparatus built up around it throughout for further forward movement; that a tern groups and to maintain control the prison notebooks, which includes society does not set itself tasks for whose over them; 4. the formations which concepts such as the historical bloc; solution the necessary conditions have the subaltern groups themselves the ‘analysis of situations’; hegemony; not already been incubated” (106). produce, in order to press claims of a Gramsci’s concept of philosophy and the limited and partial character; 5. those organic intellectual; his distinct notion of On the other hand, Gramsci’s elabora- new formations which assert the the Party;and finally, his explanation of tion of the architecture of the historic autonomy of the subaltern groups, civil society. bloc (without actually referencing the but within the old framework; 6. those term) throughout the prison notebooks formations which assert the integral Understanding the Historical Bloc reveals an awareness of the incredibly autonomy (52). dynamic and ever-shifting character One of the core concepts of Gramsci’s of the relationships among the “discor- This schematic outline for studying prison notebooks is the ‘historical bloc’. dant…ensemble of the social relations of the subaltern is a major component While the term is only scarcely men- production” (366). The acute awareness for understanding the historical bloc. tioned in the prison notebooks, given of the dynamism at play amongst various This method of historical analysis is the the concept’s role in framing much of levels of relations of force is a feature means by which a communist forma- Gramsci’s conceptual apparatus it can be of Gramsci’s thinking that makes his tion ultimately determines whether or argued that Gramsci’s prison notebooks analyses of history so penetrating and his not a favourable situation exists for the are a long-running elaboration of the overall method of historical and political subaltern social groups to accumulate concept. There is no section dedicated analysis such a force of rejuvenation for revolutionary forces and whether the to the historical bloc, only a couple short “the philosophy of praxis” and the com- situation is favourable to them becoming passages: munist movement. Of particular impor- the ruling class at a given conjuncture tance for Gramsci, and for any commu- of history; in other words, the essence of Concept of ‘historical bloc’, i.e. unity nist movement, is a comprehensive study this historiographical method reduces to between nature and spirit (structure of the oppressed and exploited classes the question of whether the situation is and superstructure) unity of oppo- within their own historical bloc. favourable for revolution in the present sites and of distincts (137). historical bloc. In his note “History of the Subaltern Structures and superstructures form Classes: Methodological Criteria”, Gramsci The factor driving the dynamism within an ‘historical bloc’. That is to say the provides a schema for what such a Gramsci’s historical schema ultimately re- complex, contradictory and discor- historical reconnaissance actually con- duces into a question of the development dant ensemble of the superstructures sists of when it comes to the “subaltern of the mode of production. As Gramsci is the reflection of the ensemble of classes.” Whereas the historical unity of reiterates in his outlining of the concept the social relations of production the ruling classes is realized in the State of the passive revolution, (366). (and therefore its historical development can be traced through the development No formation disappears as long as If I may take the liberty to flesh this out of the State as well), the productive forces which have somewhat, in light of my reading of the developed within it still find room prison notebooks, the historical bloc The subaltern classes, by definition, for further forward movement; 2. Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 25 that a society does not set itself tasks overly focused upon what he calls the Once one has resolved “the problem of for whose solution the necessary rapid war of siege/war of maneuver. the relations between structure and su- conditions have not already been Gramsci directly critiques Trotsky’s perstructure” – in other words, the nature incubated, etc. It goes without say- concept of ‘permanent revolution’, Lux- of the contradictions in the structure of ing that these principles must first emburg’s advocacy of the mass strike, society and the trajectory of their devel- be developed critically in all their and syndicalism’s methods in general opment – one can proceed to correctly implications, and purged of every for each for overestimating the capacity analyze the role of the forces that are residue of mechanism and fatalism. of the war of maneuver (238) to over- active in the history of a particular period. They must therefore be referred whelm bourgeois power and all of them However, one must also be able to distin- back to the description of the three being laden with notions of spontane- guish between the organic (or structural) fundamental moments into which a ity because – as we shall see in further and the conjunctural crises, which differ ‘situation’ or an equilibrium of forces elucidations of Gramsci’ notions on state from one another by virtue of being long- can be distinguished, with the great- and civil society below – they misidentify term crises consisting of basic contradic- est possible stress on the second mo- the locus of power of the bourgeoisie, at tion in the structure of society versus ment (equilibrium of political forces), least in the case of the more advanced the conjunctural phenomenon arising and especially on the third moment capitalist countries where civil society is from “occasional, immediate, and almost (politico-military equilibrium) (106-7). more advanced. A proper analysis of a accidental” movements in the superstruc- situation is a precondition for revealing ture (177). “A common error in historico- Here, Gramsci directly links his method the objective conditions for or against political analysis consists in an inability of historical analysis to an elaboration of the revolution. to find the correct relation between what the philosophy of praxis that he provides is organic and what is conjunctural,” and in his note “Analysis of situations.” The im- “The study of how ‘situations’ should be Gramsci warns that such lines of research plicit statement here is that the object of analyzed,” Gramsci tells us, is to “estab- are “most serious in the art of politics, the study of history and an account of the lish the various levels of the relations when it is not reconstructing past his- historical bloc is to grasp the situation, of forces,” and this, ultimately, is what tory but the construction of present and and the various levels of force that make constitutes the “elementary exposition of future history which is at stake” (178-9). up a given situation. the science and art of politics” (175). Such What this reconstruction consists of is a an analysis of the situation, Gramsci tells determination of the immediate relations Grasping ‘the situation’ and Relations of us, is the basis for formulation of the stra- of force that define the situation. Force at Three Levels tegic plan with a strategy and tactics, for propaganda and agitation, for develop- Gramsci defines three levels of relations of In his explication of the notion of ‘a situ- ing the command structure, organization force, beginning from the most structural ation’ the contours of a theory of revolu- of the armed forces, and resolving other and proceeding into the superstructural. tion begin to emerge which distinguishes questions pertaining to organizational The first is the relation of social forces, Gramsci from communist strategies structure (175). which is

closely linked to the structure, objec- tive, independent of human will and which can be measured with the sys- tems of the exact or physical scienc- es… By studying these fundamental data it is possible to discover whether in a particular society there exist the necessary and sufficient conditions for its transformation (181).

The development of any clash of politi- cal or military forces will originate from contradictions at this level.

The subsequent moment is the relation of political forces, “in other words, an evaluation of the degree of homogeneity, self-awareness, and organisation attained by the various social classes” (181). By way of example pulled from elsewhere Despite the overthrow of immensely popular liberation theology priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide twice in a decade by in the prison notebooks, Gramsci’s U.S.-led imperialism, for years after the 2004 occupation the Haitian masses remained militant and mobilized. But Aris- methodological criteria for conducting tide never supported arming the people during his term, nor after he was overthrown. Neither was his political party, historical research into the subaltern Lavalas, willing to build an armed struggle after the occupation, despite armed resistance from the urban masses in classes – points four through to six, which

26 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 deal with the political formations created We support the people armed… but armed by who? At their own initiative and with their own by the subaltern classes, ranging from resources, or backed and armed by the imperialists? What social classes and which political forces are those limited to pressing their claims in a animating the civil war from within Syria? Is this Syria’s revolutionary situation? Or is the temporary limited manner and in dependence upon military balance of power being propped up by imperialism? the bourgeoisie all the way up to an inte- gral and revolutionary way – are methods by which one can determine the level of political forces of the subaltern classes (52).

The third moment is the relation of mili- tary forces, which Gramsci breaks down further into military forces and politico- military forces, which become decisive for the subordinate social classes if and only when all three levels of relations of forces exist in the favour of the subaltern social classes and are seized upon by the social, political, and military actors they have constituted. Of course, oppressed people can take armed action without the social and political relations of forces being favourable. But these are always defeated and are easily dismissed as acts of force that correspond to every level state and civil society. For the historically of terrorism (no matter the actual content of relations of force. And for the political progressive forces to actually prevail in of the armed act) if the political forces are relations of force to be in the favour of an objectively favourable situation, the not sufficiently capable of defending the the proletariat and its allies in countries question of leadership must be correctly armed actions. But if the social, political, under circumstances where bourgeois posed and correctly answered; which and military relations of force are indeed power extends beyond the formal brings us to Gramsci’s concepts of hege- favourable and sufficiently mature, then institutions of government and State, its mony, the role of intellectuals, and his what it means for a situation to be seized leading forces must do more than muster conceptualization of the Party. With these upon is as follows: an army for a pitched battle and a day’s concepts at hand, we can gain a fuller ap- victory. preciation of Gramsci’s idea of revolution- The decisive element in every situ- ary strategy – the war of position. ation is the permanently organised This formulation is a sharp critique of the and long-prepared force which can way insurrection came to be conceived Hegemony: Coercion & Consent be put into the field when it is judged within the Communist International, the that a situation is favourable (and it worst expression of which was Trotsky’s Beginning first with the question of can be favourable only in so far as ‘permanent revolution’. But it is also a hegemony: Dominant social groups such a force exists, and is full of fight- much sharper formulation of how to maintain their power in two distinct ways: ing spirit). Therefore the essential task perform a general analysis of a situation through domination / coercion, and is that of systematically and patiently than that offered by Lenin. Lenin defined through intellectual-moral leadership / ensuring that this force is formed, a revolutionary situation as one in which consent. Dominant social groups domi- developed, and rendered ever more the ruling class could no longer go on nate the classes with which they have an homogeneous, compact, and self- ruling the same way, when the suffering antagonistic relationship by liquidating or aware (185). of the masses had reached an intoler- subjugating them through armed force able level, and when, consequently, the (57); but they lead “kindred and allied What we have here, in an abstract and masses burst into political activity (Lenin groups” by providing moral and intellec- simple outline, is an historical-materialist 1915). But this definition neither differ- tual direction. So long as the productive analysis of how to determine if and entiates between structural or conjunc- forces still have room for greater develop- how to make a revolution and under tural crises, nor does it offer precision ment under a given mode of production, what conditions can the conscious in the analysis of relations of forces that the dominant social groups can maintain intervention of the vanguard forces of Gramsci’s philosophy of praxis revealed their hegemony by making leadership the historically progressive classes be to be necessary. primary and domination secondary. But successful in providing leadership to a an organic crisis – which consists of the revolution. Revolution does not consist of To fully appreciate how Gramsci’s theory shifting of the social composition of soci- the momentary numerical superiority of of revolution goes beyond Lenin’s foun- ety, the classes and the relations among the masses in a mass strike or an insur- dational but historically- and contextual- them – will engender crises in leadership rection – that is, momentarily favourable ly-limited articulation, one must further as the dominant social groups rely more military relations of force – but relations understand Gramsci’s theory of the heavily upon coercion to subdue their an- Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 27 tagonists and even formerly allied classes. In contrast to these philosophies, “the historical theorization of parties in order philosophy of praxis does not tend to better situate the particular tasks of What is Philosophy and who is the ‘Or- to leave the ‘simple’ in their primitive the party of the proletariat. The history ganic Intellectual’ philosophy of common sense, but rather of the political party is not the history of to lead them to a higher conception of electoralism or the party construed in The place of intellectuals in ruling class life… to construct an intellectual-moral such narrow terms, but rather the history hegemony is through diffusion of its bloc which can make politically possible of the social classes themselves. With poli- moral and intellectual culture. Gramsci the intellectual progress of the mass and tics theorized at a superstructural level as understands that there is not a direct cor- not only of small intellectual groups” being a reflection of contradictions in the respondence between the ruling social (333). Gramsci is clear in his position that fundamental structure of society, par- groups and its intellectual functionaries, for the communist movement such an ties appear all throughout history where but that the latter are dependent on the intellectual élite – while its effect must we find basic class contradictions in the former for their existence and serve them be diffuse and hegemonic – is not an structure of society. The history of politi- accordingly: “The intellectuals are the unorganized and undisciplined current. cal parties is not the history of its found- dominant group’s ‘deputies’ exercising Rather it is the Party that is the “elabora- ers or leading intellectual thinkers, but the subaltern functions of social hegemo- tor of new integral and totalitarian [i.e. rather the intricate network of relations ny and political government,” for which unified and all-absorbing] intelligentsias with which the party is attached to and they are compensated. Gramsci includes and the crucibles where the unification organizes its social class. the work of such intellectuals within the of theory and practice, understood as a overall operation and power of the ruling real historical process, takes place” (335). Gramsci argues that all parties have (1) a class, not outside of it. The need for such a unified if dynamic mass element “whose participation takes intellectual current leads Gramsci to the form of discipline and loyalty, rather It should be said at this point that Grams- clear reject parties on the “pattern of than any creative spirit or organizational ci sees each and every person as a phi- the British Labour Party” in favour of ability (2) a cadre element, “the principal losopher, albeit whose capacity to think the Leninist/Bolshevik vanguard model. cohesive element,” without which the for- independently relates to the dynamics of However, as we should see further below, mer would “scatter into an impotent dias- the overall situation, the most important the deeply democratic and pedagogical pora and vanish into nothing”; and (3) “an question of which is: Has a given class tasks of the communist party should not intermediate element, which articulates produced the political forces to think and be overlooked in Gramsci’s thinking. the first element with the second and act independently, and to what extent maintains contact between them (152-3). are these forces developed? The intellectual work of such an intellec- This schematic outline of the Party form is tual-moral bloc includes: (1) the repeti- offered as a matter of objective historical Gramsci sees each human being as a tion of its basic arguments; and (2) to fact, one that the communist party must philosopher, since every person has a raise the intellectual level of the masses observe if it is to succeed in its task. The conception of the world. For Gramsci, and to raise new intellectuals directly out distinction with the Communist Party is there is no pure philosophy, but “various of the masses. These intellectuals raised that it represents a class whose histori- philosophies or conceptions of the world from the ranks of the exploited and op- cal mission is to abolish class distinctions exist” (326). As for those philosophies that pressed masses are what Gramsci called altogether. are disconnected from the people, elite organic intellectuals, and small, ‘indepen- intellectual cultures of and in support of dent’ intellectual currents cannot take up That Gramsci had a distinctly Leninist the dominant social classes, Gramsci asks: the task of seriously cultivating this sort view on the party, but a Leninist view nonetheless, is evident from this hierar- Is a philosophical movement prop- of leadership. This can only be taken up chical structuring of the Party and the erly so called when it is devoted to by the Party, or a Party of sorts. tasks that it must be prepared to con- creating a specialised culture among The Party: the consciousness of a class front. Of particular interest to Gramsci restricted intellectual groups, or concerning the various strata of the party rather when, and only when, in the At this point it is worthwhile to briefly is how these strata must be organized process of elaborating a form of consider what exactly is a Party. Gener- to guard against destruction. Gramsci thought superior to ‘common sense’ ally, the word Party invokes the idea of an argues that firstly, an iron conviction must and coherent on a scientific plane, electoral formation, united by a program prevail amongst the various strata that it never forgets to remain in contact sufficient to unite its functionaries, a solution has been found to the histori- with the ‘simple’ and indeed finds candidates, elected members, rank-and- cal problems faced by its class. Gramsci’s in this contact the source of the file membership and sufficiently united views on philosophy clarify that such an problems it sets out to study and to to present itself to a wider electorate. iron conviction is not based on dogma, resolve? Only by this contact does a But this is only a very specific form of a but on the development of a philoso- philosophy become ‘historical’, purify Party – the electoral Party – and not the phy of praxis that actually addresses the itself of intellectualistic elements of general sort that Gramsci brings our at- problems of the masses and adequately an individual character and become tention to. reflects the contours of the historical bloc. ‘life’ (330). Without this ‘iron discipline,’ the interme- Gramsci’s Modern Prince offers a general diate strata cannot be formed. But this 28 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 The Black Panthers succeeded like no other revolutionary organization in its era – arguably in the whole of the twentieth century America – in the recruitment of this “mass element.” However, the breakneck speed of the organization’s growth overwhelmed its capacity to preserve the unity of its cadre – that “principle cohesive element” – when faced with repression and counter-intelligence. philosophy of praxis, as we have seen in is the entire complex of practical and one should not ape the methods of the the foregoing analysis on philosophy, is theoretical activities with which the rul- ruling class, or one will fall into easy am- not a simplified Marxism. Gramsci was ing class not only justifies and maintains bushes” (232). Reflecting on the postwar a harsh critic of crude materialism and its dominance, but manages to win the situation in Italy, Gramsci warns in the economism, and understood the dan- active consent of those over whom it prison notebooks of trying to counter the gers of such an articulation of Marxism rules” (244). In other words, a theorization illegal private armed organizations of the included losing its connection with a top of the State must include those organs of ruling classes with similar commando-like layer of intellectuals that it needed to bourgeois power that are outside official tactics: bring under its hegemony (164). bourgeois-democratic state organs – the mere “outer ditch” of bourgeois power It is stupid to believe that when one Gramsci uses the metaphor of the – to include the exercise of bourgeois is confronted by illegal private action “modern prince,” building on Machiavelli’s domination of civil society, where bour- one can counterpose to it another concept of the Prince, to stand in for the geois power is constituted “in a powerful similar action – in other words, com- role required of the communist party to system of fortresses and earthworks” bat commando tactics by means of develop a national-popular will, not a will (238). commando tactics… The class factor developed around an individual, but a leads to a fundamental difference: a collective will of the popular masses: “The Therefore, based on the foregoing expli- class which has to work fixed hours protagonist of the new Prince could not cation of Gramsci’s conceptualizations of every day cannot have permanent in the modern epoch be an individual the historical bloc, relations of force and and specialised assault organiza- hero, but only the political party” (147). the analysis of situations, philosophy, the tions – as can a class which has ample organic intellectual, the Party, and the financial resources and all of whose The State and Civil Society State and civil society, we can develop members are not tied down by fixed a fuller appreciation of Gramsci’s under- work (232). Returning to the question of the state standing of revolutionary strategy. and civil society, Gramsci’s definition of Gramsci also dismisses the rapid war the State is not limited to “formal politi- War of Position vs. War of Maneuver of movement / war of manoeuvre as a cal society,” which includes the official strategy for the proletariat by focusing organs of the State, but instead “the State Gramsci warned that “in political struggle on Luxemburg’s conceptualization of the Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 29 mass strike, wherein (235). This is an argument against spon- (237). taneity. It sometimes seems like “a fierce the immediate economic element artillery attack seemed to have destroyed Therefore, the war of position, undertak- (crises, etc.) is seen as the field artil- the enemy’s entire defensive system, en and led by a proletarian revolutionary lery which in war opens a breach whereas in fact it had only destroyed the vanguard Party on the basis of the criteria in the enemy’s defenses – a breach outer perimeter… The same happens in outlined above, is the only strategic ap- sufficient for one’s own troops to rush politics, during great economic crises” proach Gramsci viewed as feasible for rev- in and obtain a definitive (strategic) (235). Therefore, Gramsci warns, those olution in the imperialist countries of his victory… This view was a form of iron elements of bourgeois civil society that day. The task of future communist parties economic determinism, with the ag- constituted strong defensive ramparts would have to be to identify the open- gravating factor that it was conceived must be closely studied. Gramsci’s entire ings and necessary points of intervention of as operating with lightning speed conception of philosophy and the role within ‘civil society’ wherein the commu- in time and space. It was thus out and of the party is arguably worked out in nist party could make its interventions out historical mysticism (233). relation to the ideological and cultural and entrench itself for the long battle for defensive ramparts of the bourgeoisie ‘terrain’ within the matrices of bourgeois For the modern proletariat, however, it that must be ruptured. society. This isn’t an argument for operat- is the war of position that is the strategy ing exclusively or even mainly within the for proletarian revolution – a protracted Gramsci’s sees the Russian revolution to hegemony of bourgeois society, such revolutionary strategy (more on the have corresponded to a war of maneuver as through its institutions; but rather to parallels with Mao’s protracted people’s – a successful one at that. But he is con- rupture those institutions by building up war in Part II of this paper). With the failed cerned that to the extent that “1917 has a dual power of the popular classes. attempts at proletarian revolutions in been studied – [it has been only] from the early 1920s weighing heavily upon superficial and banal viewpoints” (235). In the face of the failures of European Gramsci’s conscience, he recognized Gramsci accuses Trotsky’s formulation of communist parties in the early 1920s, that “in the case of the most advanced the permanent revolution as constituting Gramsci recognized that a more formi- States, where ‘civil society’ has become a a “reflection of the theory of the war of dable proletarian counter-hegemony was very complex structure and one which is maneuver” (236), which Gramsci views required in advance of an insurrectionary resistant to the catastrophic ‘incursions’ of in hindsight as having been inappropri- moment, and that only these advanced the immediate economic element (crises, ate for the postwar situation. Whereas preparations could consolidate the dicta- depressions, etc.)” then the proletarian Trotsky upheld the universality of the torship of the proletariat post-revolution. revolution must focus its strategy on “frontal attack in a period in which it only Posed as such, revolutionary strategy can carving out power within “the superstruc- produced defeats,” Gramsci views the be understood as a continuous process tures of civil society” which are “like the postwar situation as having been one of accumulating revolutionary forces trench-systems of modern warfare” (235). wherein the shift to the war of position that is punctuated with the rupture of In light of the ICM’s failures, Gramsci had was necessary, a strategic shift which revolution, or revolutions. In other words, the hindsight to recognize and boldness Lenin understood: “Illich understood that a protracted war of position would have to state “a crisis cannot give the attacking a change was necessary from the war of to precede the rapid war of maneuver. In forces the ability to organize with light- manoeuvre applied victoriously in the revolutionary communist theory today, I ning speed in time and in space; still less East in 1917, to a war of position which believe that this conception bears some can it endow them with fighting spirit” was the only form possible in the West” similarity with the protracted peoples war

During the Winnipeg General Strike in the summer of 1919, workers inspired by the Russian revolution completely took control of the city (image to left). While the local ruling elites and the Canadian government completely lost political power for a span of weeks within the city, the Citizens’ Committee of One Thou- sand (image to right) – a secretive organization of Winnipeg’s bourgeoisie created – was created to maintain the unity of its class and counter the revolution- ary advances, and finally, facilitate the Canadian state’s quasi-military repression of the strike in late June 1919. 30 Uprising Volume 4, 2013 strategies of the Revolutionary Com- the Chinese revolution. The answers that the ideologies of the imperialist ruling classes munist Party of Canada – though much each gives to the question of Marxism- predominate, the communist alternative has remains unclear to me about their stra- Leninism’s limitations in the 1920s are yet to be reasserted, recreated, reinvented. tegic formulation – and especially that of strikingly similar, however different and the new Communist Party of Italy (nPCI). particularized to their very different Ironically, however, in contrast to forty years For the nPCI in particular, insurrection is contexts. ago, when the objective conditions were not conceptualized as necessary but only as ripe for revolution in the imperialist coun- a momentary tactical maneuver within To reiterate, Gramsci’s prison notebooks tries, even if the subjective conditions were a wider protracted popular war. Without constitute a major rejuvenation of revo- advanced, we are living in a period defined intending to split hairs in the ICM today, lutionary Marxism, or the ‘philosophy of by the obverse: mature objective conditions, we should seriously consider whether praxis’. While upholding many of the ap- and the underdeveloped subjective factor. Gramsci’s war of position is a more clear plicable and valid elements of Marxism- To understand this situation - to understand and correct articulation of what our tasks Leninism, Gramsci substantially revises how bourgeois hegemony is exercised in our are in the imperialist countries today. and breaks with elements of orthodoxy present day - we would do well to revisit the Gramsci’s strategic framework was spe- that proved disastrous and tragic in conceptual tools forged by Gramsci, assess cifically developed with the hegemony their application within the Comintern. what remains valid, and apply them whole- of the imperialist bourgeoisies in mind, Gramsci’s theoretical contributions range heartedly to these increasingly barbaric days and the term war of position has the from questions of historical materialism, of the late period of the capitalist epoch of added benefit of clearing up confusions the party form, state and civil society, human civilization. and strawman arguments that are easy to philosophy, and revolutionary strategy, make about the idea of PPW in an impe- albeit in a fragmentary unity. Although Bibliography rialist country. However, the working out Gramsci’s prison sentence would claim Hoare, Quintin and Geoffrey Nowell Smith of these ideas – Gramsci in comparison his health and ultimately his life, it’s (eds.). Selections from the Prison Notebooks to Mao Tse-Tung’s thought in particular doubtful that this level of theoretical of Antonio Gramsci. International Publishers and the modern conceptions of PPW in development would have been possible Co. Inc.: New York, 1971. general – is the main object of Part II of without an extended period of solitude that he faced. All the other communist this essay. Lenin, V.I. [1915]. “The Collapse of the Second leaders of Gramsci’s caliber would gener- International” in Lenin’s Collected Works. Prog- Concluding Thoughts: Is Gramsci a ally have been killed or too pre-occupied ress Publishers: Moscow, 1974. launching point for reconceptualizing with the day-to-day tasks of developing communist strategy today? the communist party to embark upon Lenin, V.I. [1917] State and Revolution. Interna- the huge and necessary intellectual tional Publishers Co. Inc.: New York, 1932. The war of position is never actually ap- project that Gramsci commenced. We plied to the context of Italy, or anywhere owe it to the communist movement, to else in the imperialist countries, for that ourselves, and to the liberation of all op- matter. Although, the PCI develops a pressed and exploited peoples to return substantial armed apparatus in the early to Gramsci, and take what we must from 1940s before the fall of Mussolini, it is dis- his contributions. But first, let us consider armed, and under American occupation Gramsci alongside Mao… and in the postwar period, the PCI played a leading role in Europe in blazing a trail As the acute and momentary financial of parliamentarism and reformism that crisis of 2008 pulled the imperialist comes to be known as ‘Eurocommunism’. economies deeper into stagnation and With the center of gravity of the inter- the residents and citizens of those coun- national communist movement (ICM) tries just a little bit closer to the long- having completed its shift to the third running crises faced by the third world world by the end of world war two, the for decades, the hideous lie of neoliberal- parties of the ICM in the imperialist coun- ism has been exposed for what it is. No tries never seriously take up Gramsci’s longer do the Fukayama and Thatcher’s ideas. Mao Tse-Tung is (rightfully) looked myths that capitalism is “the end of histo- to as the leading strategic thinker in the ry” and that “there is no alternative” hold International Communist Movement water. Instead, we are moving into an era after 1960, this at a time when the name where the ruling classes are propagating of Gramsci remained obscure for most forms of apocalypse as inevitable and as communists “the end of history.”

In Part II of this essay, I will explore what Rebellions are unfolding across the I believe to be the striking similarities world; the masses are looking for, re- between Gramsci’s reconceptualizing discovering, a solution to the capitalist communist strategy and that of Mao and problem of human civilization. Yet, while Volume 4, 2013 Uprising 31 www.ri-ir.org