Title: 4 Marxism, Lenin and the Logic of Hegemony: Spontaneity and Consciousness in the Class Struggle
Abstract: Lenin's critics have counterposed its account of the development of working-class consciousness to one of Marx's central tenets, the thesis that 'the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves'. The occasion of Lenin's retreat into revolutionary idealism is sometimes held to be his supposed disappointment at the meagre results of the spontaneous struggle of the Russian workers. Lenin's thesis is compatible with various forms of organisation, including democratic forms. Lenin begins the chapter on spontaneity and consciousness by posing the political problem, but he proceeds immediately to set it in historical context. The thesis that consciousness must be imported into the spontaneous working-class movement from without is a necessary precondition for the importation of proletarian spontaneity into consciousness, into Marxist theory, and consequently for a concrete, and not merely rhetorical, appreciation of the Marxist thesis of proletarian self-emancipation.Keywords: Lenin; Marx; Marxist theory; Russian workers; self-emancipation; spontaneous struggle
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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