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A Critical and Comparative Analysis of Organisational Forms of Selected Marxist Parties, in Theory and in Practice, with Special Reference to the Last Half Century

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A Critical and Comparative Analysis of Organisational Forms of Selected Marxist Parties, in Theory and in Practice, with Special Reference to the Last Half Century Rahimi, M. (2009) A critical and comparative analysis of organisational forms of selected Marxist parties, in theory and in practice, with special reference to the last half century. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/688/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] A critical and comparative analysis of organisational forms of selected Marxist parties, in theory and in practice, with special reference to the last half century Mohammad Rahimi, BA, MSc Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Centre for the Study of Socialist Theory and Movement Faculty of Law, Business and Social Science University of Glasgow September 2008 The diversity of the proletariat during the final two decades of the 20 th century reached a point where traditional socialist and communist parties could not represent all sections of the working class. Moreover, the development of social movements other than the working class after the 1960s further sidelined traditional parties. The anti-capitalist movements in the 1970s and 1980s were looking for new political formations. This work is an effort to study the synthesis of the traditional vanguard socialist party and spontaneous working class movements with other social groups. The multi-tendency socialist organisation that formed in many countries after 1980 has its roots in the Marxist theories of earlier epochs. It is a mass organisation based on the direct initiatives of activists of all social movements springing from below. Its internal relations are not hierarchical but based on the horizontal relations between organs. This is an organisation belonging to both civil society and political society. This study does not suggest that the era for a vanguard Leninist party is completely over. In some dictatorial societies a centralised party is the most appropriate political method of organising workers and the poor, and fighting oppression and censorship. After the success of a political revolution such a party would face the question of coalition and cooperation with other progressive forces. Therefore in the transitional epoch of the early 21 st century both traditional types of vanguard parties and multi-tendency organisations coexist. The most successful socialist multi-tendency organisation is the one in which the communists and radical socialists are able to maintain the continuity of the organisation and influence a considerable section of the working class and poor. Though the formations of multi-tendency organisations have experienced setbacks in some countries those setbacks do not undermine their achievements in Latin America. The multi-tendency socialist organisation is the only viable alternative to the present capitalist system. Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 6 Introduction 7 Chapter One 39 Socio-economic change and the working class Chapter Two 80 Marxism, the party and class Chapter Three 121 Political parties and the need for an umbrella organisation Chapter Four 160 Democratic centralism Chapter Five 192 Viable socialist organisations for the 21 st century Conclusion 246 Appendix 1 281 The new left and their social base Appendix 2 304 Interview with Mani Azad Appendix 3 321 Interview with Jafar Resa Bibliography 330 List of Tables 1. The cycle of loan – growth – unemployment – loan 59 2. ICP Komala and Komala Party – Age group 287 3. History of activity with Komala 288 4. Occupational background before joining Komala 289 5. The level of education 290 6. Place of living before joining Komala 290 7. Family income 292 8. Political need of the Kurdish movement 293 9. Relationship between the two organisations post-split 294 10. Class alliances 295 11. How do you define yourself? 296 12. Organisation priority 297 13. The place of armed struggle 298 List of Figures 1. Incidence of temporary employment 1983 and 1994 43 2. Casual density by industry divisions 1984 and 1993 43 Acknowledgements There are many people without whose help and encouragement I could not have completed this project. Friends in the UK and abroad have shown a constant interest in the progress of the project. I thank them. The assistance of these people made it possible to improve the form and content of the project. Alicia Baron, Simon Browning, Liz Parker, Awat Rahimi, Parviz Khoshkdaman, and Hassan Rahimi all shared findings and opinions with me generously. I am indebted to them. In particular I should like to thank Professor Hillel H. Ticktin and Yassamin Mather for their comments and guidance for several years on every chapter. I am indebted to Dr Lea Haro for her patience in editing the whole work and her generous comments about various aspects of the project. And finally I especially thank Camelia who has submitted patiently to my obsession with this work. INTRODUCTION After the collapse of the USSR and Eastern bloc, a powerful shock wave hit Stalinist and semi-Stalinist political parties and organisations throughout the world. The political model they had taken for granted for so long had disappeared and the theories of such a model were facing a big question mark. Almost all Stalinist and semi-Stalinist parties and groups in most countries split. While dominant tendencies joined social democracy, the more radical sections started to look for an alternative model that was radically different from the Stalinist party- state model. The alternative, they argued during the 1990s, should be different from the Russian model. It had to be new, inclusive, and bringing solutions to the problem of the divided working class movement. Trotskyist and other Marxist parties and organisations had criticised the policies of the USSR and Eastern bloc for decades and had been seeking an alternative. However, the collapse of the political system in the Eastern bloc awakened these groups to the realities of the Soviet system forcing these groups to improve their methods of organisation and to distance themselves from Stalinism and so-called Russian communism. In order to achieve this they had to get rid of bureaucratic and sectarian aspects of their policies. Those sections of Trotskyist and Marxist organisations that realised this started to work toward a multi-tendency organisation to represent the interests of the 85% majority of society. The West interpreted the collapse of the USSR and Eastern European system as the collapse of communism. In order to survive under powerful anti-communist Western propaganda, the left as a whole needed a tool in order to move from its defensive position. It became the most urgent political task of all radical Marxist groups to work toward an anti-capitalist alternative that had clear differences from Stalinism and the bureaucratic system of the Eastern bloc. The socialist multi- tendency umbrella organisation was that alternative. 7 This work aims to study this alternative and for this purpose different methods will be used. Firstly, to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the multi- tendency umbrella organisation comparisons will be made between the multi- tendency socialist model and other models and in particular with the centralised and disciplined party model. This work will refer to this model as the traditional party model. Secondly, due to the limitations of theoretical sources in the last fifteen years, this work will use interviews with supporters and critics of multi- tendency model as well as political discussions of existing alliances, a survey among the activists, and Marxist literature related to the subject in order to describe the multi-tendency umbrella organisation model as the alternative put forward by the radical socialist left for the 21 st century. There are naturally limitations to this study and it is not within the scope of this work to embark upon a complete discussion about the aims and the structures of the multi-tendency umbrella organisation. This work started in the year 2000 and during the last eight years many multi-tendency organisations have experienced changes in their policies and structures. The multi-tendency umbrella organisation is a new model and it will take at least a few decades before it can endure future challenges. During that journey and like any other system this model will go through changes and improvements. It is because of the changing nature of the existing alliances of the socialist left that this study does not intend to go into the details of their aims and structures. Instead this work will concentrate on the common features of major alliances formed so far. The formation of multi-tendency umbrella organisations of the socialist left started with the formation of the Brazil Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores - PT) at the start of the 1980s. Multi-tendency organisations formed in many other countries in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Nearly two decades since the formation of the PT as the first major multi- tendency organisation, the party and many other umbrella organisations are no 8 longer the same organisations as when they started. The process was by no means straightforward. Shifts in policies, combined with setbacks, and internal fighting made the progress of multi-tendency umbrella organisations painfully slow. The slow progress consequently affected the length of this study. The leading ideas and organisations in the 1980s and1990s were an obstacle to progress within the next decades as in the case of the PT in Brazil.
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