Author's note: I have linked to this piece of mine in a previous post, but this is the first time I am posting it on this blog in full. I have changed a few words here and there for the sake of grammatical accuracy, but it remains nearly the same as the first version.
The Libertarian Marxist Manifesto
An opinion by putinsbearhandler
It is not hard to see that our country is broken. Look around you, look at the half a million homeless cast out onto our streets, at the destitute masses cast aside and left to starve. While we slave, while we starve, the ruling class rests comfortably upon the fruit of our labor. They distract us with their antics, their inventions and scandals and frivolities. When we see through their illusions and fight for our freedom, they turn us against each other. Their lackeys, our fellow workers poisoned by their lies, the police, shoot us down and keep us in the dirt. We are slaves to the system, to money, to the ruling class. Capitalism, racism, bigotry, and tyranny are the weapons of the rulers. We, the people, will strike them down.
The problem is capitalism, the solution is communism. This is our banner under which we will fight for the freedom of all humanity. When we say freedom, we truly mean freedom, not just tyranny disguised as liberation. To this end, we do not aim to establish a Soviet-style entity. The point of communism is not to establish state supremacy over the economy. The point of communism is not to “make everyone equal” by erecting city blocks of uniform concrete. The point of communism is not to replace tyranny with red tyranny. The point of communism is to fight for the liberation of humankind.
How, then, should we, the people, carry out this fight? The answer does not lie in reform. The establishment of socialism, the process of the people taking what is rightfully ours, by definition requires revolution. Ending the tyranny of the banks, the state, the police, the capitalists, all of this would never be permitted to occur through parliamentary reform - in fact, in the rare historical instances of a parliamentary socialist victory, reactionary forces have struck them down after a few years every time. Socialist parties have existed in our country for well over a century, yet we are presently no closer to abolishing capitalism than we were at the dawn of American socialism. That being said, we should not discount the considerable victories that have been gradually won through prolonged agitation - what little economic freedom we workers have today are owed to the valiant struggles of our proletarian ancestors, the socialists, anarchists, and labor movements of times past. Thus, while we unequivocally reject parliamentary participation, we have nothing but respect for our mainstream leftist allies, both historical and present-day. Our comrades do not deserve ridicule or rejection, but solidarity and discussion. On a related note, while we reject parliamentary participation, we uncompromisingly reject the ridiculous notion that all agitation should be strictly related to class struggle. Protesting for the rights and common humanity of race, gender, sexual, romantic, and physical minorities is essential. Fighting against the manifest suffering and oppression of the least among us is more important than slavish devotion to an abstract concept of class. By no means does this entail weakening our commitment to class struggle; rather, it means that one cannot destroy tyranny without taking into account the unique struggles of the myriad minorities among us. While we reject parliamentary socialist agitation, we still emphasize the importance of fighting against bigotry and tyranny. To this end, we support non-socialist struggles with sufficiently progressive tendencies, such as Black Lives Matter and the Rainbow Underground. Additionally, while we do not advocate for a unified party to organize workers into a single union, we support the struggles of the various labor unions to improve the material conditions of the people and raise class consciousness.
We have shown that reform has no chance of destroying capitalism. On the other extreme of the road towards communism is immediate revolution, an approach we also reject. The harsh truth is that were a communist revolution to erupt right now, the people would by and large not be willing to take up arms against the state. This is not to say revolution is wrong; rather, it would be detrimental to the cause to launch a revolution that would only have the support of a small section of the people. The people must believe in the cause, they must truly believewhat they’re fighting for. This is for two reasons: one, that a revolution without mass support would be crushed, and two, that revolution, a true movement for liberation, cannot be forced upon an unwilling populace. The point of communism is not to replace one unpopular system with another. The point is to fight for a better future. To this end, we advocate a prolonged campaign of raising class consciousness through community organizing and service. The homeless, the starving, the afflicted, the destitute - these are the least among us, our brothers and sisters left behind. They are the people most savagely crushed by capitalism. They have lost the most, yet they have a world to win. As communists, it is our duty to humanity to relieve suffering. Thus, establishing common housing, nourishment, healthcare, and education for all those in need will be our first step towards building revolution. We will uplift the people from their suffering, and through our example, we will show the world what we can do. With the outcasts now lifted up and committed to our fight for liberation, we will march forward with our program of raising class consciousness and building revolution.
I would like to take a moment to discuss the intersection of language and theory. We reject any ideations of “leading the working class”. Similarly, we reject the concept of a “vanguard party”. To create an elite club of “educated” or “professional” revolutionaries separate from and above the working class is an abomination, a perversion of everything socialism stands for. We will not “lead the people”, we will not “lead the revolution”. We will become one with the people. We will become the revolution. While we do advocate for the creation of a revolutionary party, we support a party in the style of the Black Panthers - not a vanguard, but an organization one and the same with the people. In fact, we do not advocate for revolution until a significant majority of the population supports it - as previously stated, we have no desire to force revolution upon an unwilling people. To this end, we view a party as a necessary tool to build revolution - not to dictate the working class, and not as decentralized as the anarchists, but simply as a tool to organize revolution.
We will continue to build class consciousness until a nationwide plebiscite on revolution is conducted. If, and only if, the people support it, we will launch our revolution. Marxist theory (and I am referring here to Marx alone, not Lenin or later theorists) advocates for the creation of a Dictatorship of the Proletariat as an intermediate stage between capitalism and communism. Most people have a negative reaction to the word “dictatorship”, but Marx was not describing the totalitarian rule of a single ruler. Marx theorized that capitalist society was, in essence, a Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie - that is, a society dominated by the bourgeoisie ruling class, upheld and defended by an iron fist at gunpoint. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat is what follows a communist revolution - or, to be more precise, it follows the outbreak of a communist revolution; the continued existence of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat should technically be regarded as a continuation of the revolution, which does not truly end until capitalism is completely abolished. Communism is the antithesis to capitalism: it has no state, no currency, no classes. Marx realized that such a society could not possibly be brought about immediately following a revolution - after all, how can government, money, and class be completely abolished when every other nation on the planet is diametrically opposed to such a society? Would class not still exist, as the treacherous bourgeoisie foment counterrevolution in a desperate bid to reclaim their former dominance? Would a government not still exist as a necessary means to defend against capitalist aggression, and to spread the revolution? However, although we accept the necessity of a revolutionary state, we do not do so without reservation. We are painfully aware of the excuse frequently made by vanguardists, the claim that a so-called “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” is a positive development, even when such “revolutionary” states have done nothing to liberate the international working class or to give power to their own workers for decades on end. We have no desire to establish a stagnant Dictatorship of the Proletariat, and we certainly have no desire to establish “Socialism in One Country”. The longer a Dictatorship of the Proletariat exists, the more likely it will develop capitalist, bureaucratic trends. Thus, at the very moment a Dictatorship of the Proletariat is born, it begins a deadly struggle against itself, a struggle to expand the revolution internationally or to regress into state capitalist bureaucracy. In this vein, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat must be at constant war with the entire world. A Dictatorship of the Proletariat that remains static will wither and die. The only way to perpetuate the revolution and to continue towards complete communism is to constantly expand. By this, we do not mean to send in the tanks and “conquer” anyone, Soviet-style; as previously stated, revolution cannot be forced upon an unwilling populace. Rather, we must ideologically spread the revolution to all corners of the globe, and once individual populaces support us, we launch revolution there. We continue this process of infiltration, agitation, conversion, and revolution, until we have an international Dictatorship of the Proletariat that can stand up to the world’s ruling class. We will fan the flames of revolution until all of humankind is free. With a global, total Dictatorship of the Proletariat, capital will no longer pose a threat. With the support of the people, we will have no bourgeoisie to defend against. We will not need money to fund wars, we will not need governments to direct people. We will have peace, security, stability. We will have humanity. We will have our freedom.
That being said, we have no faith in “human nature” to simply allow the revolutionary state to wither away. We must be constantly on guard against opportunists who would take advantage of their authority to give in to the allure of capital. Additionally, while we agree with Marx that the global triumph of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat will create the conditions necessary to make it redundant, we stress the need for a deliberate, dedicated effort to gradually dismantle the revolutionary state apparatus.
What will the Dictatorship of the Proletariat look like? It will most likely arise in a single country. Although we firmly reject all aspects of nationalism, especially the contradictory concept of “Socialism in One Country”, we acknowledge the simple fact that it is convenient to build revolution among a common (or at least, ostensibly common) culture. This is not to say that any particular country is a “better” starting point for revolution; we are simply advocating the strategy employed, on some level, by all political parties. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat, whenever and wherever it is established, will replace the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie. As previously stated, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat is not an immediate transition from an unjust capitalist society to a perfectly equal, classless one. It will not be a Jacobin-esque reign of terror, and it will not be a party-dominated orgy of authoritarianism. Contrary to the most common interpretation of the concept, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat will not entail the revolutionary state taking control of the entire economy. In fact, the managing of the economy - that is, the way in which the workers conduct their labor - should be left to the workers themselves. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat should have no control over any function unless it absolutely cannot be managed by the workers themselves. At the time of writing, I am of the belief that it needs control only over social services (seizing, distributing, and creating housing, food, healthcare, education, etc.) and the formation of a revolutionary army, which would encourage mass enlistment from the people (voluntarily, of course). Everyone willing and able to fight will be needed if we are to liberate the entire world. I would like to again emphasize that as many functions as possible should be handled by the workers themselves so as to limit the authority of the revolutionary state. Much like the revolutionary party, the revolutionary state is an inherently dangerous, decaying structure. Its only reason for existing is that its end goal - complete communism - is not yet achievable. Its only purpose is to relieve the suffering of the people and to spread the revolution across the globe. As such, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat should coordinate the seizure and distribution of housing, food, medical services, education, and mental and emotional health, including the liberation of neurodivergent children from “mental health” camps and counseling and services for all gender, sexual, and romantic minorities in need of assistance.
As previously stated, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat is not the same thing as communism; rather, it is a transitory stage between the tyranny of capitalism and the future of communism. As such, it is not an immediate establishment of a perfectly peaceful, democratic society for all. The only way to protect and perpetuate the revolution is to suppress our class enemies. Although this blunt application of state power is, by bourgeois, Western standards, undemocratic, it is both justified and necessary. However, by no means does this justify cruelty. While I do not advocate a completely, immediately, and thoroughly democratic anarchist-style society established through revolution, I am vehemently opposed to all manifestations of tyranny. Seizing the factories, the mansions, the streets and the fields from the bourgeoisie does not require heads to roll. We will take what we need so that we all may live our lives free from suffering.
Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!
