One thing that I believe a lot of young Marxists seem mystified by is just how revolutions happen. There is a kind of general sentiment which suggests that people think you convince enough people about communism, and then they all go out and fight the government, and boom, you got a republic for the workers.
And they get awfully disappointed when that just doesn’t seem very intuitive. After all, how could Marx possibly suggest revolutions being inevitable, when it seems like such a distant idea?
That’s because of, simply put, propaganda. The history of the Bolsheviks, the Red Chinese, the Cuban Guerillas and so on, is clouded in vagueness. One day they’re marching on the streets, the next day they’re at war, and following that, a government is born. How does that make any sense?
If you’ve been on demonstrations, then you know it’s an exhausting and sometimes demoralising ordeal. It frequently results in disillusionment, and demands are rarely met. Even the most common sense reforms will often take years of careful organising to employ, so how on earth is this meant to bring about greater change?
Simply put: It doesn’t. Demonstrations can be a useful way of getting people out in the streets, of becoming visible, of demonstrating something. But without this something, then what are you demonstrating? Your placard making skills? Your ability to walk really far in hot weather? Demonstrations quickly lose their purpose when they lack that something.
And it’s precisely the something, that is so important.
That something is not a communist idea by any stretch of the imagination, in fact, it is an historical thing. That something is, simply put, community.
At least in archaic terms. In Marxism, this something is known as dual power. Dual power is the key to making sense out of revolution. And guess what? It’s far from impossible, you can begin assembling dual power right now.
All you really need is a bit of sway with your community. To understand the people in that community, and to recognise their needs and their discontent.
Everywhere around the world, young people especially are struggling to be seen, heard and recognised. The last two generations have spent most of their lives living indoors, alienated from society. With unemployment, draconian surveillance, mass media, low incomes and high costs driving people off of the streets.
Millions of people are therefore starved for the opportunity to go out and do something. To feel part of something. To make a difference and set things right. There is a labour deficit in this regard, a high demand for people to get involved, and very few outlets.
That’s what dual power is about. Dual power is a society within a society, a community driven by the democracy of workers. An organisation which is known as a Worker’s Party. Not to be confused with an election party, this is a party more similar to a community organisation, like the Black Panthers.
If you can just get 10 people into a room, who are all willing to pitch in and give it a try, then you can start off something great.
All you need to do to get started is to understand a few basic principles:
Principle 1. Discipline from Above, Mandate from Below.
You are not a government, nor are you a legal institution. Every rule, every policy, every implementation of an idea must be carried by example. IE: Discipline from above. The leaders of dual power must be very strict on themselves, and follow the party line very carefully. This is the only way to lead people in democracy, you do not tell them what to do, but show them.
The people, and the rank and file of your organisation, are the ones who set the mandate. This means you interview them, talk to them, figure out what people want, and then take the most commonly held ideas, and put them into a mandate, a kind of list of things that needs to be done.
A good mandate always follows the path of least resistance, and looks at what is the easiest and most rewarding task to do. This assures confidence in the ability of the leadership, and makes people more excited to participate in the future.
So your main objective is to get results. If people for instance are complaining about their apartment buildings being dirty, and you could put together a few people to clean things up in an afternoon, then that would be a good way to show you can actually get things done. It might seem trivial, but it inspires confidence to deliver direct results, this pays off during more demanding tasks.
Then you say “See? That wasn’t so hard, what else?” Suddenly you are setting up social programmes. The Black Panthers built a lot of power with social programmes. Everything from night classes, to free lunches, to pest control, anything that the working class, especially the downtrodden needed.
Exchange favors, help out, look out for people, if someone has a problem, be the person who solves it. Impress people by how the party, upon hearing that someone has a problem, can assemble and resolve it. Even smaller chores and similar things. Once people ask “Why would you do this and expect nothing in return?”, THAT is when you start delivering the good news. Show before telling.
A lot of people in poverty are unemployed, and collect welfare, these people are extremely useful and capable. Having nothing to do in the day, they grow restless and unfulfilled, if you offer them a little bit of help they will gladly pay it back tenfold — especially for a good cause.
In my experience, the new lumpenproletariat are not merely wastrels and feckless criminals. Most have technical skills, education, trades and similar things. Sometimes self-taught, sometimes in an official capacity. They are not the illiterate pickpockets of the Victorian era.
So the mandate works as a kind of motivational tool, as well as a democratic method of organising. The job of the party leadership is to plan the mandate, and figure out what issues are the most productive to focus on as to provide new and better ways to achieve the other issues.
What the people do is to vote on the mandate, this is why communists have so many meetings. At first when there’s only a handful of people then you obviously don’t need a referendum with everything, but once you start to fill a room with a few dozens, then it’s good to make sure the majority approve of your goals.
Another reason why discipline must come from above is because of opportunism — as your organisation gets more powerful, people will want to steal that power from the people. This is one of the most common reasons why organisations fall apart.
Leaders of an organisation will be attacked in all manner of ways by opportunists, usually resorting to toxic and dishonest methods. Every communist organiser will have a chapter of their lives in which they were accused, berated, slandered and demeaned. This is when you require party discipline, and people who will act principled and demand the truth.
This is why the ides of “No investigation; No opinion” became so popular among the Chinese, because mob justice and trial by gossip can be very dangerous if you do not assure honest and principled leadership.
Opportunists will generally rely on outrage. The phenomenon of cancel culture is a good example here, how it’s always very ham fisted accusations intended to cause as much drama as possible, often so outrageous so that even the demand of evidence gets you labelled as a cohort. Most commonly accusing people of racism, fascism, sexual misconduct, you name it.
Since, after all, you’re not a racist are you? You’re hardly gonna support these vile racist people by demanding things like say, proof of how any of this is true?
Obviously if these things actually happen then that requires recourse. But let’s not be naïve here, this is politics we’re talking about. Liberals are not Marxists, they put profit first, and will exploit any poor sod to get it.
Usually these opportunists are not part of the founders of a party, they are generally outsiders who are drawn in by the reputation of the organisation.
If you fail to repel them, then you will likely be expulsed in disgrace, and if you succeed, then they will likely attempt a split — trying to poach as much of your party’s resources and members in the process.
But guess what? If you follow the principle: Discipline from above, mandate from below, then these people are powerless.
Because you have transparency, you have public records, you personally know most people involved as they know you. You have a good standing with the community, and lots of familiar faces who know who you are. Opportunists exploit the blindspots of an organisation in which leadership and rank and file are separated, permitting them to play on people’s unfamiliarity.
If you are a good party, and you present yourselves well, if you participate in the day to day affairs of the party and invite the public into your meetings, then opportunism is impossible. Any such outrageous accusations will fall on deaf ears, too busy laughing at these desperate hucksters.
But it is important to keep this in mind, how you must always, no matter what, maintain good discipline and lead by a good example. This will protect your party from the inevitable political attacks once you have something worth stealing.
Principle 2: Material gains
There are no ideological or political victories, only material victories. All projects should have the aim of building dual power. Some kind of material goal. Perhaps it is more membership, more funding, finding more useful contacts and networking, getting to know local businesses and venues, whatever it might be.
Nothing should be symbolic, or based on reaction to current events. It should have clear motives of material gain rather than empty spectacle. To learn this strategy is to abandon liberalism, and start doing Marxism.
Talk is cheap, but actions will seem like a magic trick to the politically disillusioned working classes. Turning wine into water is no longer needed, the standard has been lowered since then. Simply getting 2 people together for a grocery drive for the disabled is a miracle in its own right when people suffer austerity and hardship.
Principle 3: Learn, teach, learn, teach, learn, teach…
This article is just meant to enflame the imagination. Before getting into things, you need to study, a lot, with others. You need to also share this knowledge. The knowledge of one person is useless, the knowledge of 10 people is power. The knowledge of a million people is a revolution. Reading, studying, tutelage and education is vital. One task of the dual power system is to alleviate the demands of labour and poverty as to permit ordinary people to find the time and resources to educate themselves.
Most Marxist revolutionaries end up reading hundreds of books in their lifetime, and probably write a handful of them too. This is vitally important.
If you follow these 3 principles, especially number 3 since this is just an article that outlines the basics of how revolution works, and you will begin to get some idea.
Then, once you survive opportunism, get more results, complete more mandates, you are no longer a small party. You will have thousands of people, and if you follow principle 3, then you will know all the ins and outs of democratic centralism, mass line and delegations, permitting you to organise all these people.
And then, following that, the ruling classes will get a bit nervous about your efforts to build democracy, and that’s when they start to fight you.
But by the time this happens, you should have organised labour. Water, electricity, internet, public infrastructure, transportation, taxpayers, etc, all under your party’s control.
So all you need to do is to pull the switch, and shut everything down in a general strike. After that, a few hardliners will continue fighting, but then the revolution will be over, and you will have completed the assembly of a worker’s state.
It’s far from easy, but it is pretty simple. The revolution is always relatively bloodless compared to conventional war, and for the most part the workers will already have built their own government, prepared to replace the old one.
But that all begins with a handful of people willing to build large networks and good will by offering to do their communities favors and prove to the people that it is possible to make the world a better place. Whether it is Lenin’s effort to teach people how to read, or Che’s efforts to… well, teach people how to read.
Figure out what the “reading” of your community is, something they really need, but nobody is giving them, and you will figure out how to move the workers to democracy.
