No subject

centred on the relationship of the Party to the proletariat and the
development of a revolutionary consciousness among the working class.
Even those who seemed to believe in a semi-automatic breakdown of
capitalism - Kautsky or Luxemburg in their different ways - were
enthusiastic about party organisation (Kautsky) or such tactics as the
mass strike (Luxemburg). But with the growing reformism of large
sections of the working class in the West, including the Trade Union
leadership, and the lack of the clear polarisation of society, Lenin's
idea of a "vanguard" party which would instil revolutionary ideas into
the working class became attractive. With the success of 1917, the
Leninist model in which the Party incarnated the consciousness of the
working class (as theorised by Lukacs) became dominant. In the Soviet
Union under Stalin, this conception was used to implement a violent
revolution from above. In China the Party, claiming to embody the
consciousness of a largely non-existing proletariat, tended to become
equally divorced from the people, in spite of such efforts as the
Cultural Revolution. Those in the West, like Korsch and the Council
Communists, who retained their commitment to workers'
self-emancipation, were disillusioned. The Frankfurt School and the
structuralists both reflected this lack of faith in the revolutionary
potential of the working class. The only thinker to unite predominant
interest in the superstructure with active commitment to politics was
Gramsci.


It is in this context that the return to the revolutionary and
democratic core of Marxism in the present work is welcome. In the
careful dissection of the ways in which Marx and the Bolsheviks united
theory and practice, Dr Marik gives us an important contribution to our
understanding of the relation of Marx and the Bolsheviks to democracy.
There is an excellent discussion of Marx's views on the Paris Commune.
The contributions of Engels, Bebel and Zetkin are well explicated. And
Dr Marik clearly shows the effect of the fateful ban on factions within
the Party in 1921 - no control over the leadership and growing
bureaucratization. It is no surprise, therefore, that the thinker for
whom Dr Marik has the most admiration is Luxemburg. It should be noted
also that the analysis is much enriched by the careful attention to the
question of gender displayed in the various political/historical
contexts discussed.


This is a major work of scholarship. The footnotes alone embody an
excellent bibliographical guide to the vast literature involved. This
book is unsurpassed as a guide to the theoretical and practical
achievements of Marx and the Bolsheviks - and to their shortcomings. I
recommend it to all potential readers unreservedly.