Revolutionary Readings: Revolutionary Organization

As we struggle to survive and resist capitalism, we create many kinds of organizations, such as trade unions, tenant associations or community groups. This reading list is about revolutionary organizations like Unity and Struggle: what they are, and what they can contribute to the emergence of a revolutionary movement. 

These aren’t settled questions. Most revolutionary traditions have some concept of revolutionary organization, but they often disagree about what it’s supposed to do. This study surveys different views, from the “classics” of the last century to contemporary debates. How do groups like Unity and Struggle arise? How should we relate to mass movements and existing groups in neighborhoods and workplaces? What role should we play in the struggle for a free society? This study will help you to propose your own answers, and put them into action. 

The study is designed to be done with a group. Each section has four parts:

  1. Key terms to define as you read;
  2. Summary questions to help you put the authors’ concepts in your own words;
  3. Critical thinking questions to put the text in dialogue with your own experience and arguments from other authors; 
  4. An experiential exercise to practice applying the ideas in your organizing.

Some sections also have audio / video or side readings, and friendly debates to engage with the ways other political traditions have interpreted the text. We recommend giving one or two people each meeting the responsibility for answering the summarization questions, to kick off the discussion. Then, you can focus together on the critical thinking, debate, and experiential prompts. It can also be helpful to build a shared glossary of key terms as you go.

Introduction

Media: Listen to Enzo’s talk “How should we organize ourselves?”

1. Discussion Questions

  1. Why are you studying revolutionary organization? Write down one practical problem and one theoretical question that has brought you to this study. Then share and compare with others in your study group. 
  2. Look at a mass movement you are participating in, such as the movement for Black lives or the labor movement. From this list, pick a metaphor that best describes how the movement works. Then compare your pick with others: what aspects of movements do your metaphors capture, and what do they miss?
  • A machine
  • An ecosystem
  • A brain
  • A culture
  • A battlefield
  • A church
  • A hobbyist convention
  • A scientific community
  1. Now, pick a metaphor that best describes the relationship between a revolutionary organization and mass movements. Once again, compare your pick with others. Then discuss: which metaphor do you think is closest to the relationship Enzo advocates for in his talk?
  • Cop to suspect
  • Surfer to wave
  • Coach to athlete
  • Nurse to patient
  • Lawyer to the jury
  • Team captain to team
  • Salesperson to customer
  • Preacher to congregation
  • Sheepdog to sheep
  • Forager to forest
  • Therapist to client
  • Fish in water

Lenin, 1903, What is To Be Done?

Readings: We recommend Lars Lih’s translation, available here

Lenin wrote WITBD in early 20th century Russia, when revolutionaries were struggling to organize themselves under a repressive regime. The text is a key reference point for socialists, communists, anarchists and anti-colonialists — whether they model themselves on it, or define themselves against it. It helps us understand the role that leftists have tried to play in past revolutions, and the role we could play today. But it’s also lengthy and difficult. 

Break into four groups, and have each group read a different chunk of WITBD. Groups can cover: (a) sections I and II; (b) section III; (c) section IV; (d) section V and Conclusion. In each group, define the key terms and answer the summary questions that seem to correspond to your section. Then, put all of WITBD together, using the summary questions as a guide. 

Media: podcast on Lars Lih’s new translation and history of WITBD (listen to the first 30 mins)
Pair with: Twenty Years in Underground Russia: Memoirs of a Rank-and-File Bolshevik, chapter V, by Cecilia Bobrovskaya (start at “When I arrived, Ivan’s spirits immediately rose”)

1. Key Terms

  • Revisionism
  • Political
  • Economic
  • Economism
  • Spontaneous / Stikhiinost
  • Consciousness / Awareness / Purposeiveness
  • Vanguard
  • Professional revolutionary / Revolutionary by trade

2. Summarization

  • What strengths and weaknesses does Lenin see in the popularization of Marxist theory?
  • What does Lenin think of spontaneous strikes, and of the way other groups are relating to them?
  • What are party circles currently talking about with workers–and what does Lenin think they should be talking about? Why is this so important to him?
  • What is the typical “life cycle” of a party circle? How does Lenin envision party circles operating in the future, and relating to other organizations and struggles?
  • Why does Lenin think a nationwide newspaper will help the party grow into something more effective?

3. Critical Thinking

  • Do you think spontaneous movements and organizations today get stuck in “trade union consciousness” or something like it? Why or why not?
  • Do you think revolutionaries bring communist consciousness to the working class from the outside? If not, what do we bring?
  • Which characteristics of Lenin’s party do you think we should adopt in our own group, and which can we nix?
  • Have you interacted with “Leninist” groups before? Based on what you observed, how do you think they were interpreting and applying the ideas in WITBD?

4. Friendly Debates

  • Some Leninists treat people like they’re naive and act like the bosses of struggles. How might one interpret WITBD in a way that justifies this kind of behavior?
  • Many Leninists think building the party should take priority over other things, since Lenin argues that revolution is impossible without a vanguard party possessing correct theory. What are some drawbacks to this approach? How might something like a party emerge in the course of struggle?
  • “Anti-revisionists” use WITBD to attack anyone who reinterprets Marx or applies his ideas in new ways to new conditions. Why is this misguided? How can we tell which debates renew Marxism and which dilute it?
  • d) Bonus question: if you studied the Unity and Struggle Marxism syllabus, draw a connection between Lenin and Marx. How does Lenin apply Marx’s notions of practico-critical activity or fetishization? How might Marx’s concepts challenge Lenin’s model of the party?

5. Experiential Exercise

  • Make your own What Is To Be Done for today. In small groups, plan a video communique you could post on social media for other revolutionaries. Include your views on the typical “life cycle” of radical collectives, how they relate to spontaneous movements, how movements themselves become revolutionary, and how you think revolutionaries ought to organize. Come back and perform your videos. 

Rosa Luxemburg, 1906, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions

Readings: Rosa Luxemburg, 1906, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions

Luxemburg’s experience in the 1905 Russian revolution compelled her to reassess how movements and organizations work, and reimagine the role of revolutionaries. The result is Mass Strike. It’s a classic, but (you guessed it) also lengthy and difficult. 

Break into three groups, and have each group read a chunk of Mass Strike: (a) sections I and II, (b) sections III and IV, and (c) sections VI and VIII. Each group pick one quote that sums up the main point of your chunk. Then summarize Luxemburg’s argument together.

Media: “Understanding Rosa Luxemburg’s Life and Work” with Peter Hudis
Pair With: Red Rosa graphic novel, pages 67-84

1. Key Themes and Terms

  • General Strike 
  • Mass Strike
  • Economic
  • Political
  • Spontaneous
  • Leadership

2. Summarization

  • What does Luxemburg think is mistaken about the way anarchists and social democrats imagine strikes to happen? Can you think of any contemporary examples of this style of thinking?
  • What is the relationship between “economic” and “political” struggles, for Luxemburg? Have you seen movements unfold in a similar way? What does she think the party should do when mass strikes break out?
  • How does Luxemburg expect mass strikes will change the relationship between organized and unorganized workers? Between parties and trade unions?

3. Critical Thinking

  • Compare / contrast the views of Lenin and Luxemburg. Pay attention to their views on the economic and political, and their assessment of spontaneity and the party.
  • Lenin was writing in a repressive regime, where socialist parties and publications were illegal. Luxemburg was writing in Germany, where socialist “mass parties” could organize publicly. How might their contexts have shaped their ideas about revolutionary organization?
  • What do you think our organization should take and leave from Lenin? What should we take and leave from Luxemburg?

4. Experiential Exercise

  • Pick a recent mass uprising that everyone knows about, and imagine you are part of a loose network of collectives taking part in it. Split into two groups, “Leninists” and “Luxemburgists,” and come up with a plan for how your collectives should relate to the uprising. Come together and debate which proposal your network should enact.

Party and Self-Activity

Readings: C.L.R. James, Grace Lee Boggs and Cornelius Castoriadis, 1958, Facing Reality (pg 90-129)

In the decade after World War II, official and wildcat strikes roiled Western countries while revolts also erupted in the state socialist world, most notably in Hungary where workers councils were crushed by Soviet tanks. Independent Marxist groups that had broken with Trotskyism, such as the Johnson-Forest Tendency in the U.S. and Socialisme ou Barbarie in France, believed these events exposed the negative role of labor bureaucracies and vanguard parties. Their members collaborated to write Facing Reality, arguing that a new relationship was needed between revolutionary organizations and the self-activity of the working class.

Media: Noel Ignatiev talk at Red Emma’s Bookstore

1. Key Terms

  • Daily activity
  • New society
  • Recognize and record
  • Independent editorial committees

2. Summarization

  • How do vanguard parties relate to everyday class struggle, according to the authors? How do they think revolutionary organizations should relate to everyday struggles?
  • Why do the authors think it is important to document and circulate information about the new society as expressed in the daily activity of workers?
  • The authors of Facing Reality and Noel Ignatiev all give examples of workers’ self-activity. Pick one and recap: what were workers doing, and what did the authors or Noel find significant about it?

3. Critical Thinking

  • Some communists critique the authors for seeing revolutionary organizations as mere passive observers or documentarians of the class struggle. Do you agree? What might it look like to actively participate and intervene in movements in ways that build upon Facing Reality?
  • The authors are confident that working class people can overcome their internal contradictions in a liberatory way. But capitalist practices and ideologies also influence workers in the opposite direction. To what extent does Facing Reality grapple with the need to challenge reactionary elements of working class activity?

4. Experiential Exercise

  • Pick a workplace or community with which you are familiar, and describe the self-activity happening there. How does it anticipate a new society? What is holding it back? How could it be recognized, recorded, and elaborated?

“Party” and “Advanced Workers” Today

Readings:
Salar Mohandesi, 2020, “The Party as Articulator”
Rodrigo Nunes, 2021, “Elements of a Theory of Organisation I” 		Scott Nappalos, 2010, “Defining Practice”
Mike Ely, 2013, Sites of a Communist Beginning, Parts 1-2

Mass movements have taken new forms since the 2008 economic crisis, prompting new ideas about the role of revolutionary organizations and how “advanced workers” emerge at the grassroots today. This section samples some of the debates Unity and Struggle has found relevant, and takes as an example the 2014-2015 movement for Black lives. 

This time, break into two groups. One group read Nunes and Mohandesi, the other Nappalos and Ely. Then as a whole group, teach your readings to each other, using the summarization questions as a guide. 

Media: watch a selection from Whose Streets? documentary (start at 26:00)

1. Key Themes and Terms

  • Ecology
  • Vanguard function
  • Articulate
  • Intermediate layer
  • Fault lines
  • Nodules of the advanced

2. Summarization

  • What does a movement ecology consist of, for Nunes, and what kinds of leadership do vanguards offer within it? 
  • What does Mohandesi imagine a party doing today, in relation to mass movements or the state? Have we seen any groups do this successfully?
  • How does Nappalos define the intermediate layer, and how do layers change as struggles ebb and flow? Can you think of intermediate layers around you?
  • Where do “nodules of the advanced” come from, in Ely’s view, and how does he think we should relate to them? 

3. Critical Thinking

  • Compare Mohandesi’s and Nunes’ ideas about the party with the classical authors you’ve read already. What do each of them have in common with Lenin, and with Luxemburg? 
  • Compare Nappalos and Ely the same way. How do their ideas about “intermediate layers” and “nodules of the advanced” compare with Lenin and Luxemburg?

4. Experiential Exercise

  • In small groups, draw on the Whose Streets documentary and your own experience to analyze the movement for Black lives as the authors would. How are intermediate layers or nodules of the advanced forming? Then, develop a proposal for a project your group could launch, which would “articulate” different parts of the movement around a political “fault line”. Come back and propose your project, and discuss whose to take up. 

Debate: Councils and the Party

Readings:
Gramsci, 1919, “Workers’ Democracy”
Gramsci,1920,  “Two Revolutions”
Pannekoek, 1936, “Workers Councils”		Bordiga, 1920, “Seize Power or Seize the Factory?”
Bordiga,1921, “Party and Class”
Bordiga, 1921, “Party and Class Action”

1917 sparked a revolutionary wave that swept the globe from Cairo to Seattle. In many countries, workers seized factories and socialist parties argued over whether and how to take power. The resulting debates raised questions about the forms of working class organization that tend to emerge during crises, and how revolutionaries should relate to them. This section contrasts the ideas of Antonio Gramsci and Anton Pannekoek with those of Amadeo Bordiga. 

Gramsci and Bordiga were Italian socialists who later founded the Italian Communist Party. They clashed on many issues, but in the 1920s Gramsci was especially excited about factory councils, while Bordiga insisted on the importance of a party. Pannekoek, a Dutch socialist, later advocated a form of council communism that saw no need for a party at all. You can compare their ideas to contemporary worker and community councils in Greece or Venezuela. 

Media: watch Seizing the Means of Production: A Spotlight on Vio.Me and In Commune: Altos de Lídice

1. Key Themes and Terms

  • Factory council or workers council
  • Bourgeois state
  • Proletarian state
  • Class
  • Party

2. Summarization

  • What kind of council organization do Gramsci and Pannekoek envision developing in the course of a revolution, and how do they imagine it will take power?
  • What are the “two revolutions” Gramsci is talking about, and what is the relationship between them, in his view?
  • What are the defining features of a class and a party, for Bordiga? What does Bordiga mean when he says a party can exist in a “material if not yet in a formal way”? 
  • Bordiga disagrees with syndicalists who focus on the factory, and “mass parties” that focus on elections. Sum-up both critiques in your own words, and clarify what he thinks the party should do. 

3. Critical Thinking

  • Go around and number off as either Gramsci, Pannekoek, or Bordiga. Then, put all the authors from the previous sections into a hat, and have each member draw one name. Take five minutes alone to write, comparing how your two authors envision the relationship between party and class. Then come back and share. 
  • Break into three groups of Gramscians, Pannekoekites, and Bordigists. In each group, outline a “story of the revolution” in three acts: in act one, introduce the social groups who play a role in the struggle; in act two, the challenges they encounter, and in act three, how they resolve these challenges to make revolution. Then compare your stories: where do they overlap and diverge, and why? 

4. Experiential Exercise

  • Break into two groups. In one group, imagine you are in the Greek factory occupation movement: brainstorm your strengths and the practical challenges you face in taking over society. In the other group, do the same imagining you are in the commune movement in Venezuela. (If you know more about a different context, feel free to imagine that one instead.) Come back together, and compare your group’s assessments.

Class Composition and Organization

Readings: Notes From Below, 2018, “The Workers’ Inquiry and Social Composition”
Readings:
Sergio Bologna, 1972, “Class Composition and the Theory of the Party at the Origins of the Workers’ Council Movement”		James Boggs, 1963, The American Revolution, chapters 2-4Amilcar Cabral, 1964, “Brief Analysis of the Social Structure in Guinea”

In the 1960s, revolutionaries found that anticolonial struggles, ghetto revolts and student protests looked very different from the movements of earlier times. So they began to reexamine the communities they organized in, and create new forms of organization to fit their daily struggles. Italian communists fashioned an especially useful toolkit for doing this, using the concepts of workers’ inquiry and class composition. Their methods can help us to imagine how to study our own context today, and forge organizations to fit it. 

For this section, everyone can read Notes From Below’s introduction to inquiry and composition. Then, split up so that everyone reads one other piece by Bologna, Boggs, or Cabral. Each piece analyzes class composition in a specific place and time (Bologna’s is longer and looks back at the history surrounding some of the pieces you read earlier.) 

Media: watch Darcus Howe, “Civil Rights, Brixton, 1975” 

1. Key Terms

  • Workers Inquiry 
  • Technical composition
  • Social composition
  • Political composition

2. Summarization

  • Bologna argues that skilled workers were the key to the council movement. How does he believe their role in the production process, and their place in the broader capitalist economy, shaped the way they contributed to struggles? 
  • How does Bologna think the organizing models of Luxemburg, Lenin, and the IWW fit the class compositions in which they found themselves?
  • What effect does Boggs expect automation will have on the working class and the aims of a revolution? How does he think revolutionaries should revamp their thinking in turn?
  • What different strata does Cabral describe in Guinea-Bissau, and what kinds of contradictions does he see between and within them? How does his party relate to these different strata, and why?

3. Critical Thinking

  • Often activists argue we should prioritize a given group because it is the “most oppressed” and has “nothing to lose,” or because it is privileged and so “has time to organize.” What criteria do these authors use to categorize the groups around them, and weigh their potentials for struggle? Which might be useful to you?
  • Imagine you are Darcus Howe, organizing with black street youth and black workers in Brixton. Pick one of the three authors from this section at random, and describe how you could use their ideas to help you forge a united black movement.

4. Experiential Exercise

  • First, draw a diagram representing the technical, social, and political composition of the neighborhood or workplace you are currently organizing in. Next, reflect on the group you are organizing with: what technical, social, or political composition does it reflect? Finally, describe some ways your group could merge with the class composition in your neighborhood or workplace. What kinds of organization and activity could you adopt, where and with whom?

Race and Gender Autonomy

Readings:
C.L.R. James, 1948, “The Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Question in the U.S.A.”		Selma James, 1973, “The Perspective of WinningFLOC, 2015, To make many lines, to form many bonds // Thoughts on
Autonomous Organizing		Andaiye, 2008, “Organizing Within and Against Race Divides”

In the mid-20th century, some Marxists began to explore the creative power of struggles of women, Black people and colonized people, and rethink how revolutionary organizations could learn from them and link with them. This section looks at three ways that autonomous struggles around race and gender, and their links to revolutionary organizations, have been conceived. 

C.L.R. James helped lead the Johnson-Forest Tendency faction within the Socialist Workers Party, and reexamined the U.S. Black struggle. Selma James forged a network of feminist groups in the International Wages for Housework campaign. Andaiye organized the Working People’s Alliance in Guyana, which united Black and Indian groups in struggle against their neocolonial regime. 

Media: Jade Crimson, “What is autonomist Marxism?”
Pair With: Big Brick Energy section on “Race Politics Findings” 

1. Key Terms

  • Ferment
  • Democratic rights
  • Autonomy
  • Unity

2. Summarization

  • How does C.L.R. James think the Black struggle will shape the proletarian struggle, and vice-versa?
  • Why did some white militants in C.L.R. James’ party oppose working with autonomous Black struggles? Why did some Black militants?
  • Why does Selma James think women should attack capital autonomously from unions and labor parties? How does she think this will influence male wage workers and the overall class struggle? 
  • How did Black and Indian autonomy change over time in Andaiye’s account? Why does she think they should have maintained some autonomy even after unifying in a single organization?

3. Critical Thinking

  • Selma James describes women organizing autonomously when attacking capital, while Andaiye describes Black and Indian groups uniting on the attack, and turning to autonomous concerns afterward. How have you seen autonomy change in the ebb and flow of struggles?
  • C.L.R. James was in a multiracial party that participated in both white-dominated and autonomous Black movements. Based on your experience, what kinds of challenges could arise in this work? 

4. Experiential Exercise

  • Pick an autonomous movement you know of, whether along the lines of race, gender, or something else. What revolutionary questions might it confront as it develops? How might it shape the development of a broader revolutionary movement? Develop a plan for how you can support the autonomous movement from the inside and outside. 

Debate: Syndicalism, Especifismo and Insurrectionism

Readings:
Solidarity Federation, 2012, Fighting for Ourselves chapter 5, “Anarcho-Syndicalism in the 21st Century”		Adam Weaver, 2006, “Especifismo: The anarchist praxis of building popular movements and revolutionary organization in South America“Alfredo Bonanno, 1982, “Why Insurrection?”
The Invisible Committee, 2007, The Coming Insurrection (start from the “Get Going!” section)

Anarchists have a range of answers on whether they should form revolutionary organizations, and if so, what those organizations should do. This section surveys three prevalent approaches to revolutionary organization in the anarchist tradition, and compares them with the communist methods we’ve surveyed so far and to the 2019 uprising in Chile. 

Media: watch Chile Awakens, “Inicia en Chile huelga general de varios sindicatos” (turn on auto-subtitles) and “A rapist in your path” 

1. Key Themes and Terms

  • Revolutionary union
  • Political organization
  • Theoretical and tactical unity
  • Program
  • Specific minority
  • Informal organization

2. Summarization

  • What does SolFed think a revolutionary union is good for? Why is it better than a political organization or existing trade unions?
  • What role do especifistas try to play in relation to mass movements? Why do they think having a program is better than just having theoretical and tactical unity?
  • What is insurrection, according to the insurrectionaries, and who makes it? What kinds of organization are useful for insurrectionary action?

3. Critical Thinking

  • Compare all three tendencies in terms of (i) how they think an anarchist minority should relate to the broader class, and (ii) how they think anarchists should approach analyzing their objective conditions.
  • Hot takes: break into pairs. Pick out of a hat one of the classical authors we’ve read (Lenin, Luxemburg, Gramsci or Bordiga) and do the same for one of the three anarchist tendencies. Write what the author would say about the tendency in a tweet, and another tweet with the tendency’s reply. Come back and share. 

4. Experiential Exercise

  • Split into three groups: anarcho-syndicalists, especifistas, and insurrectionaries. Based on what you know of your tendency and Chile, discuss how you would view a crisis like the 2019 uprising, and how you would seek to participate in it. Then, write down three things you would do to prepare for a similar uprising in the future. Come back together and share your orientation.

Conclusion

Now that you have completed the study, get together one last time and reflect!

1. Synthesize and Apply

  • Look over the “5 Roles of a Revolutionary Organization” document that we refer to in Unity and Struggle
  • How do these roles compare with the various ideas about revolutionary organization you have encountered throughout the study? 
  • How do these roles compare with what you do in your Unity and Struggle local, or another group you are active in? 
  • Would you change anything about how your local or group is moving, based on what you have studied?

2. Give Feedback

  • Go back through the study syllabus and take a brief look at each section. Discuss what worked and what didn’t, and give feedback to improve the syllabus for next time. (If you aren’t a member of Unity and Struggle, feel free to hit us up on social media @UnityandStrug or by email at redmaroons [at] gmail.com.)

Further Reading

Organizational Theory

Organizational Histories