Week 2: The Second International: Lenin and Luxemburg

Seminar Question: What do Lenin and Rosa Luxemburgs accounts of the

imperialist stage of capitalism tell us about the dynamics of revolution?
Key Readings:
Lenin, V! "#$%&' Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism
Lenin, V! "#$()' State and Revolution: The Marxist Teaching on the State and the
Tasks of the Proletariat in the Revolution
Luxemburg, R "#$)#' The Russian Revolution, narchism and the !eneral Strike
(! Introduction
Last *ee+ *e examined ,arxs original statement of the -.he /istorical .endency of
the 0apitalism ,ode of 1roduction 2pecifically *e loo+ed at3
.he emergence of the ,404, relation as the dominant mode of economic
activity
.he maturation of industrial capitalism3 the application of machine
technologies to the productive process5 the capitali6ation of every branch of
productive activity5 the progressive increase in the ratio of -fixed to organic
capital
0ontradictions in the mode of production3 over4production, under4
consumption, over4capitali6ation resulting in a constantly declining rate of
profit
7s the average rate of profit falls, so the system becomes more exploitative3
longer hours, more intensive *or+, lo*er *ages, des+illing, universal
impoverishment, increasing unemployment
!deology and class consciousness3 cyclical crises produce and increasingly
homogeneous *or+ing class5 the collective experience of exploitation
ruptures the sphere of bourgeois ideology5 the proletariat achieves a
revolutionary self4consciousness
Responses3 imperialism, colonialism, authoritarianism
.he final crisis3 armed confrontation bet*een the bourgeoisie and the
proletariat5 the dictatorship of the proletariat5 the transition of communism
What *e have in ,arxs analysis therefore is a straightfor*ardly materialist account
of the emergence of the revolutionary the *or+ing class3
"i' !ncreasing exploitation produces increasing self4consciousness5
"ii' 1olitical organi6ation emerges spontaneously from *ithin the body of
exploited humanity5
#
"iii' .herefore the transition to communism is immanent in the regime of
capitalism
.his ho*ever begs a number of important 8uestions 9 8uestions *hich *ere the focus
of the Second International"s attempts to apply ,arxs ideas to the *orld situation
immediately after his death "#:($4#$#&'3
!s the collapse of *orld capitalism economically determined?
.o *hat extent is imperialism able to provide a solution to problems of over4
capitali6ation of mar+ets?
What is the effect of the internationali6ation of mar+ets on the revolutionary
body of the *or+ing class?
.o *hat extent does the possibility of a socialist revolution emerge
simultaneously *ith the possibility of barbarism and the end of human
society?
0an capitalism be reformed to meet ,arxs demands for freedom and
e8uality?
What is the nature of the spontaneous political organi6ation *hich arises in the
*or+ing class?
What is the nature of the transition form capitalism to socialism?
What *ould post4capitalism society loo+ li+e?
What ! *ant to do therefore is to elaborate the ideas of the t*o most influential
thin+ers of the 2econd !nternational 9 Lenin "#:(;4#$<&' and Rosa Luxemburg
"#:(;4#$#$' 4 on these 8uestions
(2! The Second International (#$%&%'!
7round the time of ,arxs death in #::%, the state of *orld capitalism appeared to be
follo*ing the tra=ectory he had set out in Capital3 crises of over4capitali6ation, the
proliferation of conflicts over foreign colonies, and the emergence of increasingly
militant *or+ers movements
.he formation of the Second International therefore *as an attempt to form a
strategy for the coming revolutionary struggle 9 to theori6e the role that *or+ing class
*ould ta+e in the transition from 0apitalism to 2ocialism
.he !nternational itself *as divided bet*een re(olutionaries "Lenin and Luxemburg,
for example' and re)ormers "">ernstein and ?auts+y for example' 9 the latter
believing in the possibility of reforming the fundamental structures of capitalism to
accommodate ,arxs revolutionary demands
<
Let me begin by examining Lenin and Luxemburgs respective analyses of the
im*erialist *hase of capitalism
(+! Lenin and Luxemburg on Im*erialism
!n chapter fourteen of 0apital "olume Three ho*ever ,arx identifies six
-counteracting factors through *hich capitalism manages to slo* do*n the speed at
*hich the average of rate profit declines3 the fifth of theses is the gro*th of )oreign
trade .he effect this has is to3
Lo*ering the cost of ra* materials, thereby lo*ering expenditure on fixed
capital, and increasing the rate of profit on the same commodities
Less developed "non4Western' economies provide ne*, under4capitali6ed
mar+ets in *hich commodities can be sold at higher prices
.hus as industriali6ed mar+ets become increasingly monopolistic, so the opportunity
for higher rates of profit offered by pre and partially capitalist mar+ets becomes
essential to the reproduction capital "I#id$ %&:'
! *ant then to examine Lenin and Luxemburgs respective accounts of this process
Luxemburg: The Accumulation of Capital (%+!
Let me briefly summari6e the argument from chapter <) of The ccumulation of
Capital "Luxemburg, #$):3 %&:4%)('3
"i' @or capital to continue to turn over there must be enough disposable
*ealth "*ages A profits' in the economy to absorb the commodities
produced in each round of production5
"ii' /o*ever, this -ideal unity can never be achieved3 more and more
commodities are produced that are *orth less and less5 and so the internal
mar+et of developed economies is al*ays mar+ed by falling demand and
underconsumption5
"iii' Luxemburg maintains that ,arx severely underestimated capitalisms
dependency on imperialistic control of undeveloped economies, under4
exploited classes, and enclaves of craft manufacture5
"iv' .hus ,arxs account of the -countervailing factors *hich slo* do*n the
collapse of developed economies, actually conceals a much more rapid
temporality of decline *hich emerges as -*re&ca*italist milieu" are used
up
"v' @or Luxemburg this ob=ective tendency *as visible in the imperialist
conflicts played out in the years leading up to the @irst World War5
conflicts *hich, for her, portended the final crisis of *orld capitalism
%
Lenin: Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (%,!
Lenins analysis of the imperialist phase of capitalism is in fact very similar to
Luxemburgs Let me summari6e3
"i' .he free mar+et capitalism *hich predominated for most of the nineteenth
century gives rise to cartels, syndicates and trusts through *hich the
largest corporations monopoli6ed the ma=or branches of industrial
production5
"ii' .his consolidation of industrial corporations is reinforced by the gro*th of
finance capital5 for *ithout the enormous amount of credit *hich is
provided by the ban+s, the constant development of the means of
production *hich is re8uired by monopoly capitalism could not ta+e place5
"iii' 7s the internal mar+ets of the most economically developed countries
become over4capitali6ed, so the ex*ort of capital to less developed nations
becomes essential to the reproduction of corporate profits5
"iv' 0onse8uently the big corporations of each of the ma=or industrial po*ers
"Lenin specifies @rance, Bermany, >ritain and 7merica' begin the process
of *artitioning the *orld3 each nation acts to consolidate its military,
economic and political presence in the colonies it has already ac8uired and
to expand its influence over those *hich currently belong to its
competitors5
"v' .he outcome of this universal competition for resources is the total
partitioning of the globe5 for every territory *hich is, or might become,
useful to the maintenance of a particular monopoly is appropriated by one
or other of the ma=or po*ers "Lenin, #$%&3 :#'5
"vi' .hus competition among imperial nations is al*ays about re&*artitioning5
it is a violent struggle *hich constantly alters both the distribution of finite
resources and the geopolitical organi6ation of hegemony "I#id$ :%4:&'
2o, the accounts of capitalist imperialism presented by Lenin and Luxemburg are
complementary rather than exclusive >oth3
Cmphasi6e the lin+ bet*een monopoly capitalism and the competition for
colonial territories
1rovide an account of the gro*ing dependency of finance and industrial
capital on the exploitation of external mar+ets
0onceive imperialism as the final phase of the conflict bet*een private
appropriation and the sociali6ation of the means of production
&
Lenin and Luxemburgs basic agreement on the relationship bet*een capitalism and
imperialism ho*ever does not extend to the politics of revolutionary change
Lenin"s criti-ue o) .*ro(identialism":
"i' 7lthough the imperialist stage of capitalism is mar+ed by increasingly
violent conflicts, the crises that arise from the partitioning of the *orld do
not necessarily produce the +ind of revolutionary class consciousness
*hich could bring about the transition to socialism5

"ii' !ndeed he claims that imperialism has led to the emergence of a
constellation of ideological illusions *hich he groups together under the
term .o**ortunism"5
"iii' 2o, as the financial oligarchies and industrial corporations accumulate
more and more capital in the most prosperous nations, an increasingly
large section of the *or+ing class is bought off by the promise of higher
*ages, a greater say in the government of the state and the possibility of
exerting a moderating influence over the *orst excesses of capitalism
"Lenin, #$%&3 $&'5
"iv' .he theoretical counterpart of this cooption of the *or+ing class is, for
Lenin, to be found in Kautsky"s notion o) .ultra&im*erialism"
#
3 the idea
that the concentration of finance and industrial capital in the hands of a
fe* imperialist nations mar+s the point at *hich it is possible to conceive
of a cosmopolitan association of states *hich *ould function to preserve
international peace and the e8ual distribution of resources "I#id$ #;)'
"v' Lenins response to this providential ,arxism is to argue that the
dynamics of monopoly capital are such as to exclude the attribution of
idealistic motives "universal respect for humanity, the pursuit of perpetual
peace
<
' to those nations *ho are struggling to expand their share of a
totally partitioned *orld "I#id$ ##%'
"vi' .he only *ay to bring about the peaceful coexistence of humanity
therefore is through the abolition of capitalism5 and this, for Lenin,
re8uires the strategic intervention and leadership of the /ommunist 0arty
in the formation of revolutionary class consciousness
Leninist criti8ues of Luxemburg maintain that her account of social revolution
commits the same +ind of idealist fallacy as ?auts+y
@or even though she re=ects the idea of reformism on the same grounds as Lenin, it
has been argued that her belief in the brea+do*n of capitalism led her to maintain that
revolutionary praxis *ould arise spontaneously from the conflicts inherent in its
imperialist stage
#
Kautsky1 K "#$#&' -Dltra4!mperialism in %ie &eu 'eit$ .he possibility of a cosmopolitan
association of capitalist states to restrict competition
<
E
We need therefore to specify the difference bet*een Luxemburgs revolutionary
autonomism and Lenins account of the strategic necessities of class and party
organi6ation
('! Re(olutionary 0olitics and the /risis o) /a*italism
.he 8uestion ! *ant to examine is the one *hich preoccupied the ,arxists of the
2econd !nternational5 that is, *hether capitalism gives rise to spontaneous
associations *hose very -untimeliness offers the chance of revolutionary change
"Luxemburg', or *hether such movements re8uire the strategic activity of the party
apparatus in order to become effective "Lenin'
We need therefore to examine Luxemburgs idea of the -Revolutionary Wave and
Lenins account of the destruction of the bourgeois state apparatus
Luxemburg: The Russian Revolution, Anarchism and the Mass Strike (%2,!
Luxemburgs analysis remains solidly -,arxist in the sense that she maintained the
impossibility of reforming the capitalism, and that it *as the *or+ing class *ho *ere
the proper agent of revolutionary change
/o*ever, her analysis of the unsuccessful Russian revolutions of #:$) and #$;E
present a theory of the autonomous formulation of the proletariat as an intrinsically
democratic body 2he argues that3
"i' .he economic conditions *hich bring about the mass stri+e "the
depression of average *ages, increasing unemployment, the exhaustion of
under4capitali6ed mar+ets' should be understood as part of a process of
political formation that is intrinsic to the capitalist mode of production
"ii' .his process is one in *hich the commonality of all sections of the masses
is at sta+e @or as the momentum of the stri+e begins to pic+ up, and its
economic demands become the focus of strategic and ideological
confrontations, so those groups *ho have been consigned to the margins of
the class struggle "not =ust ,arxs lumpenproletariat, but also d(class(
entrepreneurs, petty bourgeois officials, artists and *riters' are dra*n into
the revolutionary movement of the proletariat
"iii' .hus for Luxemburg the unsuccessful revolution of #$;E should be seen in
terms of the *ave of stri+e activity *hich began in Russia in #:$), and
*hich spread from industry to industry until the state *as forced violently
to suppress the *or+ers movement *hich had been formed in the struggle
for social and economic emancipation "Luxemburg, <;;&3 pp #;4<)'
"iv' .he disparate elements of the oppressed therefore create their
commonality through the economic and political conflicts *hich arise
from capitalism5 and so the transformation of human society is brought
)
about through a collecti(e *raxis *hich is originally and spontaneously
democratic "Luxemburg3 <;;&3 p <<'
.hus, for Luxemburg the concept of a socialist revolution depends upon the
spontaneous alliances that arise from the economic conflicts of capitalism
Without this spontaneity the revolution ceases to be socialist and lapses into the old
forms of authoritarianism
Lenin: The State and Revolution (%$!
.he Leninist response to Luxemburgs account of revolutionary politics is that it
lapses into a +ind of providentialism
@or in so far as she maintained that it *as the mechanism of capital accumulation
*hich *ould determine the conditions under *hich revolutionary class consciousness
*ould emerge, she failed to develop a theory of ho* the sovereign body of the
*or+ing class *ould sei6e po*er from the repressive apparatus of the state
The State and Revolution, on the other hand, sets out a complex analysis of the
political bodies through *hich class solidarity becomes a sovereign po*er, and the
*ays in *hich these bodies should function to destroy the relations of servitude *ere
the essence of bourgeois democracy "Lenin, #$()3 pp &&4):' /e argues that3
"i' .he bourgeois state is not =ust an administrative structure5 it is constituted
through repressive functions *hich are designed to perpetuate the system
of private property and private appropriation .hese -s*ecial )unctions
include3 the la*, parliamentary democracy, cooption of *or+ers
movements, military force5

"ii' .he tas+ of the revolutionary body of the proletariat therefore is to smash
the state apparatus @or *ithout this act of historical violence the transition
to communism cannot ta+e place5
"iii' .hus, the struggle of the proletariat against the state apparatus is the +ey to
the revolution, and this re8uires the strategic and intellectual leadership of
the 0ommunist 1arty5
"iv' !t is only through this leadership that it is possible for the revolution to
ta+e place5 for there *ill never be a providential con=unction of the
brea+do*n of capitalism and the emergence of a revolutionary proletariat5
"v' .he 1arty, in other *ords, has to orchestrate the action of the proletariat
*ithin its present historical circumstances ".he Russian Revolution, for
example, arises in one of the more bac+*ard Curopean economies'5
"vi' Fnce po*er is sei6ed, it is the tas+ of the 1arty to dismantle the state
apparatus .his involves the establishment of a -dictatorship of the
proletariat to +eep *atch over the atavistic forms of bourgeois life and
culture ".he ?oula+s, for example'5
(
"vii' !t is only after this that a spontaneously democratic order can emerge
(3! /onclusion: Leninism (ersus 4utonomism

.here is a sense in *hich the -Lenin or Luxemburg debate is both irresolvable, and
irreduci#l) contemporar)
!t mar+s a point of division *ithin ,arxism bet*een those *ho prioriti6e the strategic
necessities of political struggle "0allinicos, Cagleton, 7nderson etc' and those *ho
emphasi6e the recognition of difference as essential to democratic socialism "?lein,
/ardt and Gegri etc'
.hus there is a sense in *hich the spirit of Luxemburgs claim that -freedom is al*ays
the freedom of dissenters returns in the contemporary anti4capitalist movement3
7 belief in the spontaneous constitution of lines of communication and
cooperation among disparate protesting groups "anarchists, greens, feminists,
deep ecologists, farmers, union members etc'5
7n idea of democracy and diversity as the strength3 a body *hich is constantly
in a nomadic state is impossible to isolate an +ill
Dtili6ation of the technological instruments of global capitalism as means of
intensified communication5
Ge* forms of sabotage3 -s+ulling, -hac+ing, -do4it4yourself etc as forms of
undermining corporate ideology, tarnishing brands etc
,ore conventionally Leninist approaches to the 7nti40apitalist movement ho*ever
tend to see it as a -young movement *hich re8uires3 "a' education about its common
class position5 and "b' the strategic guidance of a coordinated party apparatus
! *ill return to these debates in the final *ee+ of the module on -Late4,arxism
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