Lenin's Interventionist Marxism

by Tom Freeman

Tom Freeman was a lifelong revolutionary and a member of the International Socialist Tendency for nearly 30 years. His work stands as a valuable contribution to what can be considered the field of "Lenin Studies" that has been blossoming over the past decade, taking its place with the varied, important contributions of Lars Lih, Antonio Negri, Alan Shandro, Tamás Krausz, August Nimtz, and others. His clear and meticulous research reveals a continuity between Lenin's revolutionary organisational perspectives of the early 1900s with those advanced during the revolutionary mass upsurge of 1905 - and this in a way that can be useful for revolutionary activists of today and tomorrow. Freeman highlights the dynamic interplay of theory and practice, of Marxism and mass struggle, of intellectual activists and radicalising workers and mass insurgencies that shaped the past and are the hope of the future.

336 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Tess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Through a rigorous examination of Lenin’s writings and the shifting contexts in which he wrote them, Freeman masterfully rebuffs both accusations towards Lenin of elitism, and the determinist conclusions that many have drawn from Lenin’s political legacy.

Freeman defends Lenin’s conception that revolutionary Marxist conclusions can only originate externally to the working class (after all, workers generally do not have the time and resources to sit in the British Library for decades writing Capital), but also shows that Lenin’s goal was not an elitist seizure of power by middle-class intellectuals, but for working-class intellectuals to develop and ultimately make middle-class intellectuals obsolete within the revolutionary party.

Freeman also demonstrates the continuity of Lenin’s political thought. While Lenin did argue for a number of different organisational schemas for the party, these did not represent breaks in his politics, but rather a continuity in his argument that as material circumstances change, and as the class consciousness of layers of the proletariat develops, the party must both respond to these changes and, most importantly, that is only by adapting the party’s organisational structure that it is able to intervene in the class struggle to further develop the class consciousness of the most advanced laters of the proletariat.

Whilst this text is interesting in its own right in uncovering the history of class struggle in the Russian Empire, it’s major significance undoubtedly is in its political lessons: firstly, that it is possible for a small group of committed and serious revolutionary Marxists to grow to encompass the vast majority of the working class, and bring about the overthrow of capitalism and the self-emancipation of the working class; and secondly, in order to do this it is absolutely necessary for revolutionary Marxists to build a revolutionary Marxist party to actively intervene in the class struggle.

An incredibly inspiring read.

[Jehiel L · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's very good for the history of how the revolutionary intelligentsia related to advanced workers and the broader workers' movement. Sandra's introduction stands out as an excellent summation. However, Lih and Shandro have convincingly challenged the idea that the difference between Kautsky and Lenin was philosophical, that it was about 'determinism' vs 'interventionism' in general.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant and in-depth history of the Russian workers movement from 1861 to 1907. Being a Thesis, it is not the most easy going reading. Freeman anticipates much of the later 'leninology' work done by Lih and others. Shows how trends like narodnism, economism and menshevism emerge from a material basis in the movement.