Tony Cliff's Lenin
Britain: Socialist Workers Party members debate 'Leninism', party democracy (updated Feb. 3)
The first document below was produced by opposition members of British Socialist Workers Party (SWP) (authors listed at its conclusion, the best known include Richard Seymour, Neil Davidson and China Miéville). The SWP is the dominant party within the International Socialist Tendency, with affiliates around the world. The SWP is presently in the midst of a major dispute over inner-party democracy. The article is a reply to SWP leader Alex Callinicos' recent article, "Is Leninism finished?"
Following that are two articles by Tom Walker, a former Socialist Worker journalist who resigned from the SWP during the current dispute.
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Paul Le Blanc: The great Lenin debate -- history and politics
Lenin "favoured an organisation that functioned like a democratic, cohesive, activist collectivity".
Tony Cliff: biography of a devoted and enthusiastic socialist
Tony Cliff: A Marxist for His Time
by Ian Birchall
Lars Lih: Bolshevism and revolutionary social democracy
Lenin.
By Lars Lih
Lars Lih: How Lenin's party became (Bolshevik)
By Lars T. Lih
[Click HERE to follow the entire debate on Lenin.]
By Paul Le Blanc
April 5, 2012 -- Weekly Worker, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission -- I would like to respond to two problematical contentions advanced by Pham Binh in his article ‘Wanting to get Lenin wrong’ (Weekly Worker, March 29, 2012). One of these contentions is about my motivation for disagreeing with his interpretation of Lenin’s thought, and the other has to do with a historical question -- when the Bolsheviks became a separate party. This is part of an extended debate having to do with history and politics (Lenin and the Bolsheviks; tasks facing socialists today). My own contributions touching on these questions can be found at http://links.org.au/taxonomy/term/579.
The Lenin wars: Over a Cliff with Lars Lih
Nadezhda Krupskaya and Lenin wi
Lars Lih: Falling out over a Cliff
Click HERE to follow the entire debate on Tony Cliff's Lenin. For more discussion on revolutionary organisation, click HERE.More articles by Lars Lih are available at http://links.org.au/taxonomy/term/500.
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Remarks on the 1905 Congress and the 1912 conference of the Russian Social Democratic Worker Party (RSDWP)
By Lars T. Lih
Paul Le Blanc: Revolutionary organisation and the ‘Occupy moment’
Occupy Pittsburgh, October 15, 2011.