Post by [CHIMERA]Antioxos III Megas on Feb 7, 2017 22:20:50 GMT
Please check out Part I, it's the basis for understanding this part: thechimeraclan.freeforums.net/thread/50/marxism
Lenin expands, modifies, and recombines Marxism to update it for the unique conditions of colonial imperialism which was rampant by the early 20th century. Leninism is mostly associated with the unique condition of Russia which was afflicted heavily by the events of World War I and the global financial world of imperial capitalism.
Imperialism and Financial Capitalism:
Leninism takes World War I as a reference heavily, arguing that world war I was "an annexationist, predatory, plunderous war" among "empires" whose historic backgrounds are important to understand.
If you've read part I, you may recall the crisis capitalism reaches where it struggles with ways in which it can generate profit while being so immense and unstable after a certain amount of time. Lenin noticed that capitalism developed quite unevenly throughout the world, so, in order for the capitalists to generate more profits than they were capable of yielding, their banks and industrial cartels merged to create finance capitalism, which was the exportation and investment of wealth to poorer and less developed countries.
This financial system lead the world to become divided up into financial monopolies which were controlled by the great powers of Europe. Because of the scramble to control more profitable land throughout the globe, the various powers would inevitably reach a massive conflict to overtake each other's imperial/colonial possessions which would secure the exploitation of vast resources and populations around the world.
Imperialism is thus the "highest" form of capitalism, as capitalism required monopolies of labor and resource harvesting, and the exportation of finance-capital (as opposed to goods) to sustain itself. The massive profits garnered by the imperialists gave them the power to bribe and back political factions in the exploited colonies to politically secure their position, thwarting independence and revolt (A Leninist might argue this continues today.)
The Vanguard Party
In The Communist Manifesto, Marx discusses a "dictatorship of the proletariat", which meant that the working class would form a government of a vaguely defined structure which would replace the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie". Lenin's Vanguard Party was essentially a form of this proletarian "dictatorship" and was the Soviet Congress, a body of well educated Marxists who would guide the otherwise uncoordinated working classes through the process of democratization and revolutionary socialism, they would also organize military strategy and national administration.
National Self-Determinism
This follows mainly from theories on imperialism. Lenin recognized that a strong and acute sense of nationalism was developed in countries which had become de jure or de facto colonies of greater financial powers, thus, he advocated for the national freedom of all countries under such foreign yoke, such that imperial powers would be weakened and break, and these nations could democratically find their own path to socialism.
Lenin expands, modifies, and recombines Marxism to update it for the unique conditions of colonial imperialism which was rampant by the early 20th century. Leninism is mostly associated with the unique condition of Russia which was afflicted heavily by the events of World War I and the global financial world of imperial capitalism.
Imperialism and Financial Capitalism:
Leninism takes World War I as a reference heavily, arguing that world war I was "an annexationist, predatory, plunderous war" among "empires" whose historic backgrounds are important to understand.
If you've read part I, you may recall the crisis capitalism reaches where it struggles with ways in which it can generate profit while being so immense and unstable after a certain amount of time. Lenin noticed that capitalism developed quite unevenly throughout the world, so, in order for the capitalists to generate more profits than they were capable of yielding, their banks and industrial cartels merged to create finance capitalism, which was the exportation and investment of wealth to poorer and less developed countries.
This financial system lead the world to become divided up into financial monopolies which were controlled by the great powers of Europe. Because of the scramble to control more profitable land throughout the globe, the various powers would inevitably reach a massive conflict to overtake each other's imperial/colonial possessions which would secure the exploitation of vast resources and populations around the world.
Imperialism is thus the "highest" form of capitalism, as capitalism required monopolies of labor and resource harvesting, and the exportation of finance-capital (as opposed to goods) to sustain itself. The massive profits garnered by the imperialists gave them the power to bribe and back political factions in the exploited colonies to politically secure their position, thwarting independence and revolt (A Leninist might argue this continues today.)
The Vanguard Party
In The Communist Manifesto, Marx discusses a "dictatorship of the proletariat", which meant that the working class would form a government of a vaguely defined structure which would replace the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie". Lenin's Vanguard Party was essentially a form of this proletarian "dictatorship" and was the Soviet Congress, a body of well educated Marxists who would guide the otherwise uncoordinated working classes through the process of democratization and revolutionary socialism, they would also organize military strategy and national administration.
National Self-Determinism
This follows mainly from theories on imperialism. Lenin recognized that a strong and acute sense of nationalism was developed in countries which had become de jure or de facto colonies of greater financial powers, thus, he advocated for the national freedom of all countries under such foreign yoke, such that imperial powers would be weakened and break, and these nations could democratically find their own path to socialism.