A left-wing criticism of Marxism-Leninism

"After the Revolution" is a pamphlet published in 1978 by New York Labor News, the publishing arm of the Socialist Labor Party (SLP). At the time, this rather obscure political group was attempting to disseminate its particular brand of Marxism (known as Marxism-De Leonism) to a wider audience on the American left. "The SLP and the USSR" and "The nature of Soviet society" are two other relatively intelligent pamphlets written by the SLP during this period.

"After the revolution" is a polemic against the Guardian newspaper, at the time a broadly Maoist publication, and its call for a new Marxist-Leninist party, issued in 1977. (In the end, nothing much came out of it.) The SLP argues that Maoism and Marxism-Leninism in general have nothing to do with real Marxism. Here is a pertinent quote: "The SLP, and all who wish to remain in the tradition of Marx and Engels, hold that the organs of proletarian rule must be the classwide, democratic organizations of the workers themselves based at the point of production. It is they, not the party, that will be the source of power and the building blocks of a proletarian government".

The SLP then argues that the radically democratic Paris Commune was an example of "the dictatorship of the proletariat". So were the soviets during the Russian revolution. They also believe that Daniel De Leon's concept of Socialist Industrial Unions is another form of democratic workers' rule, similar to the Commune and the soviets. In another chapter, the SLP criticizes Lenin's concept of a vanguard party, but nevertheless promotes the idea of a cohesive, disciplined, and ideologically homogenous political party. To anarchists or social democrats, this will seem as almost the same thing! Indeed, the SLP have historically probably been just as monolithic as the Bolshevik Party (or even more so).

"After the Revolution" might not be of much interest to the general reader, but could perhaps be read by avid left-watchers. (See also my reviews of other SLP material on this site.)