Vanguardism - Citizendia

In the context of revolutionary struggle, vanguardism is a strategy whereby an organization (usually a vanguard party) attempts to place itself at the center of the movement, and steer it in a direction consistent with its ideology. A revolution (from the Latin revolutio, "a turnaround" is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively A vanguard party is a Political party at the forefront of a mass action movement or revolution

1 Foundations of the Vanguard
2 Implementation in Imperial Russia
3 Current Use
4 Further reading

Foundations of the Vanguard

Lenin popularized political vanguardism as conceptualized by Karl Kautsky, detailing his thoughts in one of his earlier works, What is to be done?. Karl Kautsky ( October 16 1854 - October 17 1938) was a leading theoretician of Social democracy. What Is to Be Done? (Что делать? was a political pamphlet written by Vladimir Lenin at the end of 1901 and early 1902 Lenin explained that Marxism's complexity and the hostility of the establishment (the bourgeois state or, in the case of Imperial Russia, the feudal state) required a close-knit group of individuals—the vanguard—to safeguard the revolutionary ideology. Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The Russian Empire ( Pre-reform Russian: Pоссійская Имперія Modern Russian: Российская Империя translit: Rossiyskaya Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed While Lenin clearly wished for a revolutionary organization akin to his contemporary Social Democratic Party, which was open to the public and more democratic in organization, the contemporary Russian autocracy prevented this.

Clearly Lenin's ideal vanguard party would be one where membership is completely open hence: "The members of the Party are they who accept the principles of the Party programme and render the Party all possible support. " This party could be completely transparent "entire political arena is as open to the public view as is a theatre stage to the audience. " A party that implemented democracy to such an extent that "the general control (in the literal sense of the term) exercised over every act of a party man in the political field brings into existence an automatically operating mechanism which produces what in biology is called the “survival of the fittest”. " This party would be completely open to the public eye as it conducted its business which would mainly consist of educating the proletariat to remove the false consciousness that had been instilled in them. Theory The concept flows from the theory of Commodity fetishism &mdash that people experience social relationships as value relations between things e ^[1]

In its first phase, the vanguard party would exist for two reasons. Firstly, it would protect Marxism from outside corruption as well as advance its concepts. And secondly, it would educate the proletariat in Marxism in order to cleanse them of their false consciousness and instil the revolutionary class consciousness in them.

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Our task is not to champion the degrading of the revolutionary to the level of an amateur, but to raise the amateurs to the level of revolutionaries. ^[2]

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If the vanguard is successful in this lofty goal, on the eve of revolution, the entirety of the working class population would be enlightened, Marxist revolutionaries. (This would mean that they had achieved a sort of "taught"-class consciousness. Class consciousness, literally is consciousness of one's Social class. ) Furthermore a great number of them, namely their most intelligent members, would belong to the vanguard's inner circle as full-time revolutionaries. Thus the organization would quickly include the entire working class. ^[3]

Once the proletariat gained class consciousness and thus was prepared to revolt against the ruling classes, the vanguard party would serve another purpose. The party would coordinate the proletariat through its revolution by acting as a military command hub of sorts. This is a vital function as mass revolutions can sometimes be easily crushed by the disciplined military of the ruling classes. The vanguards would serve as commanders of the revolt, chosen to their positions by "democratic natural selection".

After the revolution the working class would implement the dictatorship of the proletariat to rule the new worker's state through the first phase of communism, socialism. The " dictatorship of the proletariat " or workers' state is a term employed by Marxists that refers to what they see as a temporary state between the Here it can be said that the vanguard disappears, as all of society now consists of revolutionaries.

Implementation in Imperial Russia

Because of Russia's strong autocratic state, the vanguard party had to be implemented differently. It was, by necessity, a highly secretive organization. Its members would print and distribute illegal pamphlets and newspapers (for the above-mentioned purpose of educating the masses), rarely would they sleep in the same bed twice. Members had to be skilled at evading the Czar's secret police as well as being knowledgable Marxists.

Despite these troubles the Russian communists were eventually successful in overthrowing the imperial government but only after countless cases of them being exiled, imprisoned and executed.

Current Use

Vanguardism continues to be used as a political strategy by Leninist parties of just about all varieties -- Trotskyist, Stalinist and Maoist. Leninism refers to various related political and economic theories elaborated by Bolshevik revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 Maoism, variably and officially known as Mao Zedong Thought ( is a variant of Marxism derived from the teachings of the late Chinese leader In countries like South Africa a number of NGOs have sought to use donor money to set themselves up as vanguard organisations. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa This has been vigorously rejected by mass based popular movements. ^[4]

Although most anarchists and radical libertarians reject vanguardism as inherently authoritarian, the practices of some anarchist groups have been criticized by their peers for constituting vanguardism of the intellectual, if not organizational, variety. Anarchism is a Political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support the elimination of all compulsory Government, i Libertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that aim to create a society without political economic or social hierarchies – a society in which all violent

Vanguardism may more generally refer to cooperation between avant-garde individuals advancing in any field. Avant-garde (avɑ̃gaʁd in French) means "advance guard" or "vanguard Innovative writers and artists are often described as being in the vanguard in development of new forms and styles of art.

Contents

Foundations of the Vanguard

Implementation in Imperial Russia

Current Use

Further reading