Marxism 101: Dictatorship of the Proletariat, What is it?
Understanding one of the most common Marxist phrases and it's real world application.
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“The dictatorship of the proletariat cannot be "complete" democracy, democracy for all, for the rich as well as for the poor; the dictatorship of the proletariat "must be a state that is democratic in a new way (for the proletarians and the non-propertied in general) and dictatorial in a new way (against the bourgeoisie)" The talk of Kautsky and Co. about universal equality, about "pure" democracy, about "perfect" democracy, and the like, is a bourgeois disguise of the indubitable fact that equality between exploited and exploiters is impossible.”
-Foundations of Leninism, Stalin.
The dictatorship of the proletariat is put simple a state in which the rule is controlled directly or indirectly by the working class and non-propertied. As opposed to the dictatorship of capital, which is direct or indirect rule of the wealthiest of society. No matter how democratic it may be, no system is nor can it be full democracy, otherwise it ignores the ever-present class contradictions & their interests that rival one another.
The first piece of text that tackles the topic of workers democracy is in Marx’s “Critique of the Gotha Programme.” Hyper democratic society to advance the masses to stamp out the last of the bourgeois and prepare people for lower communism.
"Between capitalist and communist society lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat." -Marx
“State and Revolution” by Lenin also covers it as well.
“Secondly, the state is a “special coercive force". Engels gives this splendid and extremely profound definition here with the utmost lucidity. And from it follows that the “special coercive force” for the suppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie, of millions of working people by handfuls of the rich, must be replaced by a “special coercive force” for the suppression of the bourgeoisie by the proletariat (the dictatorship of the proletariat). This is precisely what is meant by “abolition of the state as state". This is precisely the “act” of taking possession of the means of production in the name of society. And it is self-evident that such a replacement of one (bourgeois) “special force” by another (proletarian) “special force” cannot possibly take place in the form of “withering away".”
“Thirdly, in speaking of the state “withering away”, and the even more graphic and colorful “dying down of itself”, Engels refers quite clearly and definitely to the period after “the state has taken possession of the means of production in the name of the whole of society”, that is, after the socialist revolution.” -Lenin
How it is Applied in History:
Of the many examples of the dictatorship of the proletariat being applied in history and current, the first example which many others are based off of, is the way the Soviet Union maintained this form of workers democracy:
“To sit in with these small groups of workers, to attend the larger production conferences, is to see the term "creative democracy" come alive. At the top the knowledge of the experts, along the way the capacities of the managers and technicians, make .the Plan possible. At the bottom it is the experience and the will of the workers that makes the Plan the fusion of the lives of all in forming the shape of things to come. So democracy becomes more than the exercise of rights. In its economic form it is the common effort to achieve common aims.”
“It must be remembered that the purpose of the Soviet electoral system is not to put a party in office but ta select the persons best fitted to manage the joint business of the people. In the U.S.S.R. this includes the national economy, national and social security, the health, education, 1 culture, and recreation of all the people. So the persons nominated as "deputies" in the Soviets are those known to have rendered outstanding service to the nation or the community, in the government, the economy, the I war, the professions, arts or sciences. The list of nominees in the election of February, 1946, included, besides leading members of the government and heroes of the war, professors and farmers, poets and steel workers. artists and engineers, composers and miners, writers and engine drivers; and among the women, an oil worker, a physician, a tractor driver, and a People's Actress. Thus the impressive difference between a Soviet and other democratic legislative bodies is that it is a cross-section of the whole working population, from the soil to the laboratory, the mill to the study, the mine to the office.”
The requirement is that a representative must be a person to whom the common people can come readily and talk easily. A deputy is required to keep in close contact with his constituency by Article 142 of the Constitution: "It is the duty of every deputy to report to his electors on his work and on the work of the Soviet of Working People's Deputies." Accordingly, a professor in the University of Moscow elected to the City Soviet from an apartment house constituency covered his district by assigning one evening to each apartment house for several weeks before the session.
“The Soviet system is also a direct democracy in the powers it gives to the elected representatives of the people, instead of to a President, Premier, or appointed Supreme Court. The Supreme Soviet, at a joint sitting of both chambers, elects its Presidium-a combination of collective chairman and executive committee. It consists of a President, sixteen Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, and twenty four members; it is accountable to the Supreme Soviet for all its activities. The more important of its duties and powers are: to interpret the laws and issue decrees; to.annul cabinet decisions and orders that do not conform to the law; in the intervals between sessions to. dismiss or appoint cabinet members on the recommendation of the Chairman of the Cabinet and subject to confirmation by the Supreme Soviet; to exercise the right of pardon; to appoint and remove the higher commands of the armed forces; in the intervals between sessions to proclaim a state of war in the event of armed attack or when necessary to fulfill international obligations concerning mutual defense against aggression; to order general or partial mobilization and proclaim martial law in the interests of defense, public order and security; to ratify and denounce treaties, appoint or recall plenipotentiary representatives to foreign states”
“On the question regarding only one party, the Soviet people say: "Well, you nominate from two or more parties, we nominate from many organizations." This overlooks the fact that Communist Party members are, as the Constitution says, "the core," and usually the leaders of these organizations. The basic point to be understood and remembered is that the Communist Party in the Soviet Union is not a political party in our sense of the term. Its. function is to enlist, train and discipline the most capable and reliable persons to lead the Soviet people through the difficult and dangerous stages of a new socialist society. It was supposed by Lenin to make itself unnecessary in the course of time. Its leaden would say that the fact that Communists occupy 70 per cent of the seats in the Supreme Soviet (in the local Soviets the proportion is just about reversed) is evidence that the Party has succeeded in its aim of developing leaders who were elected not because they belong to the Party, but because of their services to'the community and the nation.”
“So the Soviet Constitution provides that a Soviet deputy "is liable to be recalled at any time in the manner established by law upon decision of a majority of the electors." A recall election can be demanded by one-third of the voters. The same right belong to members of the labor
This is just some text documenting the, specifically, Soviet application of workers democracy. The book covering it is 50 pages of this documentation, and while the Soviet blueprint is not universal, it is a starting foundations which all other Socialist societies have studied and took largely into account for creating their own worker democracy.
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