Lenin and Revolution: A Critique—Yesterday and Today

ABSTRACT Lenin’s theories and tactics are specific to the early twentieth century and cannot be repeated. His project should be considered in terms of its methodology, its understanding of capitalism, the political agency of the working class and the geo-political structures of economic and political power. Lenin combined political economy, geo-politics, political organisation and a sociology of social structure to form an innovative revolutionary praxis. He was correct in his appraisal of the social forces in support of revolutions in Russia. But he provided an over-optimistic prediction for the disintegration of monopoly capitalism and a partial analysis of the working classes in the advanced capitalist countries. His political approach requires a redefinition of countervailing forces and class alliances and a shift of focus away from the semi-periphery to the “strongest links” in the capitalist chain. His proposals for a “party of a new type” and the “dictatorship of the proletariat” require revision. A “renewal” of Lenin has to consider the contradictions of global capitalism and the re-territorialisation of classes. The author considers that a “return to Lenin” is not to adopt his policies but a prompt to reinvent a socialist political and economic vision derived from Marx’s analysis of capitalism.