Base and Superstructure

The famous discussions of the mechanical materialists were about the `role of the individual in history'. Gеоrgі Plеkhаnоv, Thе Rоlе оf thе Іndіvіduаl іn Hіstоry, оp. cіt. But it was not the individual, but the party, which became central for the non-mechanical, non-voluntaristic materialism of the revolutionary years after 1917.

Trotsky explains in his masterpiece, the History of the Russian Revolution, that revolutions occur precisely because the superstructure does not change mechanically with every change in the economic base:

`Society does not change its institutions as the need arises the way a mechanic changes his instruments. On the contrary, society actually takes the institutions which hang upon it as given once and for all. For decades the oppositional criticism is nothing more than a safety valve for mass dissatisfaction, a condition of the stability of the social structure.' Lеоn Trоtsky, Hіstоry оf thе Russіаn Rеvоlutіоn, Lоndоn 1965, Prеfаcе tо Vоl. 1, p. 18.

The `radical turns which take place in the course of a revolution' are not simply the result of `episodic economic disturbances'. `It would be the crudest mistake to assume that the second revolution [of 1917] was accomplished eight months after the first owing to the fact that the bread ration was lowered from one and a half pounds to three quarters of a pound.' An attempt to explain things in these terms `exposes to perfection the worthlessness of that vulgarly economic interpretation of history which is frequently given out as Marxism'. іbіd., Іntrоductіоn tо Vоls. 2 & 3, p. 510.

What become decisive are `swift, intense and passionate changes in the psychology of classes which have already been formed before the revolution'. іbіd., Prеfаcе, p. 8. `Revolutions are accomplished through people, although they be nameless. Materialism does not ignore the feeling, thinking, acting man, but explains him'. іbіd., Іntrоductіоn, p. 511.

Parties are an integral part of the revolutionary process:

`They constitute not an independent, but nevertheless a very important element in the process.

Without the guiding organisation, the energy of the masses would dissipate like steam not enclosed in a piston box. But nevertheless, what moves things is not the piston or the box, but the steam.' іbіd., p. 9.

But parties always involve a subjective element in the way that economic forces and the formation of classes do not. Parties have to be organised around certain ideological postulates, and that requires the effort, activity and argument of individuals.

In Russia in 1917 the contradictions in material reality could not be resolved without the working class seizing power. But the working class could not become conscious of that need without a minority in the class separating itself off from the ideas of the majority. There needed to be `the break of the proletarian vanguard with the petty bourgeois bloc'. іbіd., Vоl. 1, p. 334. Many workers began to move, under the pressure of events, to make this break. But they were held back at first from consummating the break because of their own confused ideas: `They did not know how to refuse the premise about the bourgeois character of the revolution and the danger of the isolation of the proletariat'. іbіd., p. 302. `The dictatorship of the proletariat was to be inferred from the whole situation, but it had still to be established. It could not be established without a party'. іbіd., p. 343.

The fact that the human material existed to build a party before 1917 was a result of objective historical developments. But these developments had to find expression in the activity and ideas of individuals. And once the revolution started, the activity of the party was not a blind reflection of reality. True, `The party could fulfil its mission only by understanding it', іbіd, p. 343. but that depended on the ability of different individuals to articulate ideas about the objective situation and to win party members to them.

This was where, for Trotsky, one individual, Lenin, did play an unparalleled role. He was `needed' for the party to understand events and act effectively. `Until his arrival, not one of the Bolshevik leaders dared to make a diagnosis of the revolution.'

He was not a `demiurge of the revolutionary process', acting on it as an arbitrary element from outside. `He merely entered into the chain of objective historical forces. But he was a great link in that chain.' Without Lenin many workers were beginning to grope towards a knowledge of what needed to be done. But their groping needed to be generalised, to become part of a new total view of the revolution. `Lenin did not impose a plan on the masses: he helped the masses to recognise and realise their own plan'. іbіd, p. 339.

The arguments would have taken place without him. But there is no guarantee they would have been resolved in a way which would have enabled the party to act decisively:

`Inner struggle in the Bolshevik Party was absolutely unavoidable. Lenin's arrival merely hastened the process. His personal influence shortened the crisis.

Is it possible, however, to say confidently that the party without him would have found its road? We would by no means make bold to say that. The factor of time is decisive here, and it is difficult in retrospect to tell time historically.

Dialectical materialism at any rate has nothing in common with fatalism. Without Lenin the crisis, which the opportunist leadership was inevitably bound to produce, would have assumed an extraordinarily sharp and protracted character. The conditions of war and revolution, however, would not allow the party a long period for fulfilling its mission. Thus it is by no means excluded that a disoriented and split party may have let slip the revolutionary opportunity for many years.' іbіd, p. 343.

The individual plays a role in history, but only insofar as the individual is part of the process by which a party enables the class to become conscious of itself.

An individual personality is a product of objective history (experience of the class relations of the society in which he or she grows up, previous attempts at rebellion, the prevailing culture, and so on). But if he or she plays a role in the way a section of the class becomes conscious of itself and organises itself as a party, he or she feeds back into the historical process, becoming `a link in the historical chain'.

For revolutionaries to deny this is to fall into a fatalism which tries to shrug off all responsibility for the outcome of any struggle. It can be just as dangerous as the opposed error of believing that the activity of revolutionaries is the only thing that matters.

The point is absolutely relevant today. In modem capitalism there are continual pressures on revolutionary Marxists to succumb to the pressures of mechanical materialism on the one hand and of voluntaristic idealism on the other.

Mechanical materialism fits the life of the bureaucracies of the Labour movement. Their positions rest upon the slow accretion of influence within existing society. They believe the future will always be a result of gradual organic growth out of the present, without the leaps and bounds of qualitative change. That is why a Marxism which is adjusted to their work (like that of the former Militant tendency or the pro-Russian wing of the old Communist Party) tends to be a Kautskyite Marxism.

The voluntarism of the new idealism fits in with the aspirations of the new middle class and of reformist intellectuals. They live lives cut off from the real process of production and exploitation, and easily fall into believing that ideological conviction and commitment alone can remove from the world the spectres of crisis, famine and war.

Revolutionary Marxism can only survive these pressures if it can group fighting minorities into parties. These cannot jump outside material history, but the contradictions of history cannot be resolved without their own, conscious activity.