Two Conceptions of the World
Suppose that we asked the question, what determines the way that working people think and act? Obviously an adequate answer would be complicated. We would have to include such diverse factors as custom and tradition, experience, what is 'learned' in schools or heard on the TV, what people in the same general circles generally think and do, common sense, what it takes to 'get by'. Suppose we asked further, what underlies all of these factors which determine the way that working people think and act? Ultimately, if we push far enough, we will get to two basic factors which combine and interact to produce the specific ideology which motivates workers at any given time.
One major factor determining the content or working class ideology is the capitalist conception of the world which is imprinted on their consciousness. Working people are led to certain patterns of thought and action because they and their parents before them live in a capitalist society. The "ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas." Capitalist ideology and capitalist culture is in the air. To 'succeed', or to just get by workers normally must behave according to capitalist standards of rationality and practicability.
The rule of capital isn't exercised only, or even mainly through the use of overt economic, political, and military power by the capitalist class. It is manifested as well in the capitalist domination of the institutions and organizations which socialize individuals and groups and relate them to each other; not only the factory and the government, but also the schools, the churches, the mass media, the family, the political, fraternal, labor, nationality, social, and recreational organization. Through these forms, essential capitalist notions of what is right good and proper are transformed into material forces on the lives of working people.
The second factor determining the content of working class ideology is the potential of that class to become a ruling class. This potential is manifested in, and demonstrated by, ideas and actions which run counter to the capitalist conception of the world. As has been said, these ideas and actions become mass phenomena during periods of sharp struggle...often being articulated as the explicit basis of the struggle.
Since the ideology of the workers is the result of the interaction of these two hostile conceptions of the world, it is not surprising that it is not reasoned and coherent, but fragmentary and internally contradictory. Mixed in with the most primitive and backward prejudices are features which foreshadow the potential of the workers to collectively construct an entirely different social order. In fact, it's not uncommon to find ideas flowing from these hostile class outlooks expressed by a worker in the same sentence. How many times have we heard workers say that, 'communism is a good idea but it wouldn't work because people are basically selfish (or lazy, or dumb, etc.)'. In the capitalist conception of the world, there is no sense in which 'communism' is a good idea, while the notion that man is inherently selfish is a pillar of capitalist common sense.
There is always a struggle between these two conceptions of the world in the mind of the worker. However, under normal conditions the capitalist world view is much more potent. Its advocates are best organized. It is supported by the ruling class's ability to give rewards to 'right-thinkers' and provide sanctions against 'heretics'.
On the other hand, in conditions which are not normal, conditions of heightened class struggle, the lack of coherence and consistency in the imprinted capitalist conception of the world, its inability to explain the total social reality in which the worker exists, along with the presence of essentially contradictory elements within the worker's consciousness, come to the fore as political facts.
The break with the routine of working class life which takes place during mass struggles, provides a social framework in which workers begin to take their own politics, or lack of politics, seriously. More and more they become aware that how they think and act makes a difference, not just to their families and themselves, but to the society generally. Then it becomes possible for the party to show how what is in the worker's head is a source of power — insofar as it reflects the world view of the working class — and a source of weakness — insofar as it reflects the world view of the capitalist class. As the struggle grows more intense, the conflict between alternative conceptions of the world becomes sharper. Here is how the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, describes the process and its implications:
"...does it not often happen that there is a contradiction between the intellectual fact and the norm of conduct? What then will the real conception of the world be: the one which is logically affirmed as an intellectual fact, or the one which is implicit in his actions? And since actions are always political actions, can we not say that the real philosophy of anyone is contained in his politics? This conflict between thought and action, that is, the coexistence of two conceptions of the world, one affirmed in words and the other explaining itself in effective actions, is not always due to bad faith. Bad faith can be a satisfactory explanation for some individuals taken singly, or even for more or less numerous groups, but it is not satisfactory when the contrast shows itself in the life of large masses; then it cannot be other than the expression of more profound contradictions of an historical and social order. It means that a social group, which has its own conception of the world, even though embryonic (which shows itself in actions, and so only spasmodically, occasionally, that is, when such a group moves as an organic unity) has, as a result of intellectual subordination and submission, borrowed a conception it also believes it is following, because it does follow it in 'normal' times, when its conduct is not independent and autonomous, but precisely subordinate and submissive." (Gramsci, THE MODERN PRINCE, page 61.)
The first manifestation of this conflict between worldviews is when workers begin to act in ways which they would normally think were crazy. An experience of an unemployed organizer in a small town in central Missouri in the early 1930's provides a good example.
The organizer for the Unemployed Councils came into the town, which had lots of unemployment, but no homegrown radicals or mass organization, and set up a meeting. Despite harassment by the local officials, the meeting was successful and transformed itself into a large demonstration outside of the jail where a man had been imprisoned for not paying his debts. At first, the Mayor and the Chief of Police refused to meet with a delegation from the demonstration, but the situation quickly got too tense for the Mayor. He met the delegation, treated it to a long lecture on the particular worthlessness of the prisoner, but, finally, was forced to agree to release the man.
With the prisoner released, the Mayor saw an opportunity to make some political capital. Taking the prisoner to the front of the crowd of demonstrators, he took credit for everything and offered to buy the man and his family the 'best meal they'd ever had.' They went across the street together to the town's fancy restaurant with a big section of the demonstration following behind.
The Mayor ordered a big meal. The ex-prisoner and his wife, neither of whom had been at all active politically, ordered a glass of water, and, despite the Mayor's pleas, they refused anything more. It was a very simple action, but one that transformed the situation. Because of it, the Mayor's token gesture, which might have disorganized the struggle, played the opposite role. For our argument the important fact is that this is the kind of action which the couple would nave never taken in a 'normal' situation. In fact, in 'normal' times, it would have seemed absolutely crazy to take such a symbolic stand, bound to enrage the town powers and to result in no tangible benefits.
Dual Power
The two essential parts of our approach to the transformation of groups of exploited and oppressed workers into a revolutionary social bloc have now been clarified. The characteristics of the social bloc already exist in the attitudes, ideas, and experiences which are a part of the consciousness of the class. They will not have to be developed from scratch, or lectured into the workers. These autonomous characteristics are generally incorporated within, and subordinated to, the features of working class consciousness which are imprinted on the workers by the dominant ideology and culture, but the development of mass struggle tends to bring them out as competing political tendencies.
Second, the separation between conflicting worldviews is not a clear one, and, perhaps more important, it is temporary, present only 'spasmodically' and sporadically, in the heat of the struggle. As struggles subside, the characteristics which foreshadow the possibility of socialism are generally submerged, or turned into harmless formalities, as, for example, the preservation of the 'brother' and 'sister' form of address inside the trade unions where the actual relationships are anything but fraternal.
The basic strategic function of the party, then, is to take hold of each of these features of the struggle, clarify its revolutionary implications and the categorical nature of the break with old patterns of thinking and acting which it represents, and incorporate it into a more systematic challenge to capitalism. This is not primarily a job of agitation and propaganda, although clearly they are a part of what must be done.
The party has two main tasks: First, it must develop programs of activity and forms of mass organization which incorporate these features of working class consciousness as unifying and activating principles — as the basis for continuing the struggle. Second, the party must link these fragmentary elements together into a revolutionary dual power. In this fashion the party can begin to teach the working class that socialism is within its power.
To clarify our point, let us use a major struggle, the great Flint Sit-Down strike, as an example. On one level that strike was a reform struggle aimed at improving the wages and conditions of GM workers, and forcing the company to recognize the UAW as the representative of the workers. Most of the participants in the strike certainly did not see themselves as revolutionaries. Their goals were reforms — basic improvements in their immediate conditions.
But on another level, the Flint strike was a revolutionary struggle. The workers took possession of the means of production, not, it is true, to operate them for the common good, but as a lever to gain some power over the work process. The occupation of the plant was a challenge to the institution of private property. It was 'illegal' going far beyond the permissible bounds and limits of labor organizing at a time when even picketing was of dubious legality. Beyond this, the self-organization of the striking workers, particularly their refusal to accept any external authority, even that of the local UAW leadership, foreshadowed the possibility of workers’ self-government.
From our point of view, these revolutionary aspects of the Flint strike defined the major tasks of the party. They are what should have been built upon. Agitationally, the party should have emphasized that the strike was a violation of the sanctity of private property — that it showed that a united working class could force concessions from the capitalist, regardless of the laws, courts, and the rights of ownership. The mass participation and self-organization around broad class issues should have been developed and pointed in the direction of the formation of workers' councils, even if the viability of such formations in the long run was not highly probable.
However, the strike leadership, much of which was communist, took the opposite course. It emphasized the importance of obtaining the reform demands, and this inevitably played into the hands of the overtly reformist sections of the CIO who wanted to pass off the sit-down as merely a dramatic tactic to achieve the recognition of the union. In fact, G.M. and the capitalist press in Flint and around the country did much more than the communists to point out the strike’s revolutionary implications and characteristics.
With no communist leadership trying to socialize the revolutionary lessons of the struggle, the potential it developed was quickly lost. The remnants of the mass participation and self-organization built during the strike were gradually channeled into typical inner-union parliamentarianism and other such games.
This didn't happen just because of the strength and resilience of capitalism, but also as a consequence of the choices, mistakes, decisions, etc. of the workers, union organizers, and, particularly, of the communists who were involved in the Flint strike. No clear distinction was developed between a reformist and a revolutionary approach to the struggle, although this could clearly have been done. Whether or not the revolutionary perspective would have triumphed is another issue. However, to quote Marx:
"World history would indeed be very easy to make, if the struggle were taken up only on conditions of infallibly favorable chances." (Letter to Kugelmann, April 17, 1871.)
The Party
The revolutionary dual power is a constellation of individuals, organizations, and institutions developing from those features of the struggle against capital which manifest the potential of the working class to be a ruling class. The revolutionary party is the core of this social bloc, its primary source of cohesion. The responsibility of the party is to maintain the maximum pressure against the structure of capital that is consistent with the actual base of support which the bloc has been able to generate. The party combines a clear and critical estimate of social forces and processes with programs to clarify to the workers the ways in which their own actions, ideas, and relationships prefigure socialism. In this way the urgency of the revolution, can be transformed from an intellectual conclusion to a matter of felt need, and the workability of socialism can be changed from a matter of endless abstract debate to a fact of experience.
Up to this point the main focus of this paper has been the content of the party's strategic role. But now that-we have spelled this out as clearly as we can, another question must be considered. What sort of a party organization is needed to fulfill such a role — how will it be structured, how will it be related to the working class, how will it link theory and practice?
Discipline and Centralism
The party cannot work, and, indeed, will have problems merely surviving, as a loose federation of individual revolutionaries. If nothing were considered beyond the need for self-preservation, the party would have to be a disciplined and centralized organization. However, this does not mean that the party should be modeled after a well-trained army — not even a revolutionary people's army. In the party, discipline and centralism must be based on a conscious and critical rank and file membership. To the extent that a cult of obedience is substituted for such a membership, discipline and centralism will not work properly.
Beyond their disciplined and centralized character, party organizations must be collective organisms, with a pattern of internal relationships allowing noncompetitive, but critical, consideration of complicated and sticky aspects of work, without sacrificing the quality of the individual participation. Only under such conditions can party decisions represent the best thought of the entire membership, and only then will there be any assurance that decisions, once made, will be conscientiously implemented and critically reviewed. It should go without saying that these relationships must exist, not only at every organizational level of the party, but between the higher and the lower levels of the party as well.
Most treatments of the vanguard party, even that of Stalin, generally accept this conception of the necessity of both discipline and centralism and collectivity and criticism from below.
"This does not mean, of course, that the possibility of contests of opinion within the party are thereby precluded. On the contrary, iron discipline does not preclude, but presupposes criticism and contest of opinion within the party. Least of all does it mean that discipline must be 'blind'. On the contrary, iron discipline does not preclude, but presupposes conscious and voluntary submission, for only conscious discipline can be iron discipline." (Stalin, Foundations of Leninism, page 120.)
Why is it then that most Leninist party organizations, and particularly those communist parties which model themselves after the CPSU, are rightly notorious both for their bureaucratic leadership and their a-critical membership?
There is really no mystery. While it is generally agreed that a critical membership and a genuinely collective organization are desirable goals, they are not seen as absolute necessities. Often it seems more efficient to have the party membership carry out the line, without regard to whether or not they understand and accept it — not to mention whether or not they have had anything to do with developing it. As the argument goes, if the 'right' thing is done, it is a minor matter if those who did it were convinced that what they were doing was right. At the root of this practice is the same mechanical notion of efficiency that leads many Marxists to ignore the real problems involved in transforming the ideology and culture of the workers in the rush to 'get things done'; only now it is applied to what is supposedly the 'conscious' section of the class, the party.
In the course of this section on the party, it will become clear why we think that this sort of 'efficiency' is actually the most criminal sort of inefficiency. Now, we will make just two points:
First, the masses of people in this country will want to see a little socialism in practice, before they abandon all of the stereotypes and caricatures of socialism which are a part of capitalist propaganda. People will have a justifiable skepticism about revolutionaries whose organizational lifestyle fails to foreshadow the sort of a society that they are projecting as the alternative to capitalism. Just as devout Christians, members of revolutionary groups are constantly judged according to how well they practice what they preach.
There is a second and more compelling reason why the party must function collectively, and why each of its members must function critically.
The party must test out its theories and policies. The validity of the 'line' is not some inherent characteristic of it; it is an attribute that must be demonstrated in practice. And the point at which the political program of the party makes contact with the mass movement has to be the point where its critical evaluation begins and where its validity is demonstrated. This point of contact is the rank and file membership. A line which isn't properly understood by the membership, cannot be adequately criticized by it — if it is criticized at all — and thus an a-critical membership hamstrings the entire testing process by which the truth of the program is determined.