Organisation, politics and theory

By Adrien Welsh 

Can one be a good organiser without understanding theoretical elements of Marxism-Leninism, and vice-versa? This is an interesting question that touches different topics. In other words, the question refers to consider what is a political cadre or, to use more contemporary words, a political organiser in the way we, communists, understand it and this, no matter what their responsibility is.

Can we organise a club without knowing the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism? Can we be a good unionist, a good student leader without having read What is to be done or any other classic? Or, to the opposite, can we have read all classics without having recruited one person to the organisation and identify as a « cadre »? Can we identify as a « communist theorist » without having distributed one leaflet only once? Or can we be a revolutionary simply because of vibrant speeches without being so vibrant when it comes to send an e-mail or to achieve administrative tasks?

"Fuck it all": Review of the Spring 2015 Quebec student strike

Marianne Breton Fontaine

We need to be careful not to underestimate the importance of ideology in shaping our strategies and our daily struggles. This is demonstrated by the latest attempted general strike, which the Quebec student movement initiated last spring. This strike was conducted primarily based on anarchist principles. It was also the result of dissatisfaction among activists from the Maple Spring which ended in 2012, a dissatisfaction that comes from an incorrect analysis of the transformative potential of a student strike.

The Student Movement, Class & Revolution

Jenna Amirault & Drew Garvie

The upcoming school semester brings about renewed opportunities for student mobilization, solidarity with labour, and the creation of wider coalitions in the battle against austerity. The need to organize militant cross-Canada action has been made apparent by all the bourgeois political parties’ failure to take student issues seriously in this election and their failure, more generally, to represent the working class as a whole. In today’s economy students make up a new generation of debt owners with little prospects of getting a job upon graduation and insufficient social services to lessen their economic disparity in times of hardship. Colonialism and institutional sexism and racism create barriers to education that are left unaddressed by bourgeois politicians. It is pressing that students organize to challenge the limitations of the current education system and work with labour to overthrow capitalism itself. But what role can students play in revolutionary action? Why is the demand for access to education important, if it is not in itself revolutionary? And why is student-worker solidarity important?

Historical Materialism - who were Marx and Engels trying to influence in writing The German ideology?

A cartoon by Friedrich Engels of ragging party times
at the Hippel Cafe in Berlin, home of the Young Hegelians

In 1845 a young Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, age 27 and 25 respectively, sat down to write one of their first joint works in what would prove to be the beginning of a life-long effort of collaboration. The two radicals were unable to find a publisher for their work, which would remain unprinted until the early 1930s; since then it has been understood as an important polemic against materialist philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach which further deepened the method of historical materialism.

In writing The German Ideology, the young Marx and Engels no doubt believed (and, would later say) they were completing a work addressing an entire contemporary debate which was captivating a generation of German philosophy students. These thinkers, whose spirit had been inflamed by the jargon of Hegel’s dialectics, were struggling to turn from the nebulous world of the Spirit, to the world of everyday life with its political problems.

For those young Hegelians, Feuerbach therefore provided a sort of bridge; his theories presented a kind of intellectual passage-way built partly of older French Enlightenment thinking (which saw man as a product of nature, not disembodied Spirit) and retaining some of Hegel’s dialectics. It is not God who creates man, Feuerbach essentially wrote, but man who creates God.

Re-thinking Buy Nothing Day

Fred Vorhees,
Special to Rebel Youth

Who said individualist uncoordinated consumer boycotts don't work? I just heard Buy Nothing Day was a great success. Hooray, the revolution has arrived!

In case you haven't heard, Buy Nothing Day is an international day of protest against consumerism held on Black Friday, usually at the end of November.  According to Wikipedia, "Buy Nothing Day was founded in Vancouver by artist Ted Dave and subsequently promoted by Adbusters magazine [...] as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption."

It strikes me that there is a weird parallel between Buy Nothing Day and the ideology of Neoliberals.  Now there's a wild idea. But consider the following.

Peace, love and the need for theory

Antoine SteMarie,
Guest commentary

A recent discussion with friends over facebook had me thinking about why we should consider theory important for the direction of social movements and activism. Here are just a few thoughts.

First of all, theorists and their theories are not simply some separate intellectual strata of people whose ideas have little bearing on the state of the world; at least, not substantial theorists. Theory is an attempt to understand the world.

That's not to deny that a good theory also needs to be easily digestible. Theoretical ideas need to be put in as accessible a format as possible.

Needless to say, a good understanding of the world is required for effective action. It is the same as a doctor requiring real understanding of the body to give an accurate diagnosis and thus a cure. Just taking any theory won't achieve the desired result.

Old school, new school, revolution

A classic text about the role and purpose of Young Communist Leagues is Lenin's The Tasks of the Youth Leagues (1920). This excerpt, which will be part of a series from this pamphlet presented here, talks about a number of themes: the difference between simply negating the old capitalist society and building a new, socialist society which develops and improves from past human knowledge; the idea of theory and practice and its necessary interconnection; and what is Marxism? Headings are by Rebel Youth.

Rift between books and life

One of the greatest evils and misfortunes left to us by the old, capitalist society is the complete rift between books and practical life; we have had books explaining everything in the best possible manner, yet in most cases these books contained the most pernicious and hypocritical lies, a false description of capitalist society.