Morning Star Monday January 22 2018
FEATURES 13
FULL MARX W What is meant by the phrase ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’? CORE CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
HAT is the “dictatorship of the proletariat”? In essence, it means “For the many, not the few” — a phrase that has become well-known since last June’s elections. More and more people are determined to challenge a society where wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority (under 4 per cent) of the UK population. But “dictatorship” commonly refers to autocratic rule by an individual or clique. Socialists and communists have always fought against dictatorships. So why did Marx and Engels argue for a “dictatorship of the proletariat” and what did they mean by this? The phrase doesn’t appear in the Communist Manifesto, written in 1847. It was coined a few years later by the communist journalist Joseph Weydemeyer, using the example of Cromwell’s Commonwealth of the 17th century — the “English revolution” — which abolished much of what still remained of the feudal state and replaced it with the basis for agrarian (and subsequently industrial) capitalism. Marx’s study of the French revolution (1789-99) and his experience of the defeat of the European “people’s spring” of 1848 convinced him that it isn’t enough to campaign for piecemeal socialist policies which can easily be undermined or reversed within a capitalist state. And after the collapse of the Paris Commune in 1871, he argued against those who advocated a gradual transition to socialism as well as against anarchists, who wanted immediately to abolish the state altogether. He wrote: “Between capitalist and communist society lies a period of revolutionary transformation from one to the other. “There is a corresponding period of transition in the political sphere and in this period the state can only take the form of a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.” The term “dictatorship” meant something rather different in Marx’s day from what it does today. Marx adopted it as a rhetorical device to emphasise the class-biased nature of the state under capitalism and the need within socialism to transform the state to secure an irreversible shift of power in favour of working people, the majority. This would lay the basis for a communist society. Today, the state, broadly defi ned, is more complex than it was 150 years ago. Working-class struggles secured important concessions, including a National Health Service, education, pensions and welfare services, housing, water and energy supply, and transport. All were imperfect, all have been milked by capital as a source of profit,
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The MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY explains one of Marxism’s most commonly misunderstood concepts TRAGIC END: The mass execution of the Paris Communards in 1871
and all today, where not already privatised, are under sustained attack. Alongside these concessions, the core of the state, including the permanent Civil Service (with its close ties with economic elites), security services, the military, the legal system, banks and the media, still functions to maintain class rule in the interest of capital. For Marx and Engels, the political, legal and coercive apparatus of the state would disappear within communism — it would “wither away” (something that we’ll look at in another answer). But this could not happen immedi-
The Quizmaster 1
Mariner 4 was the first spacecraft to successfully photograph which planet?
2
Captain Crowther and First Officer Marjoribanks come into which Carry On film?
3
What kind of vegetable is a “daikon”?
ately after a successful revolution while the old ruling class was still in place and counter-revolution remained a real and immediate danger. In the 1872 edition of the Manifesto, Marx and Engels argued that “the working class cannot simply lay hold of ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.” The state itself would need to be transformed. The past century is littered with examples of the way that socialist administrations throughout the world have been undermined or destroyed by economic sanctions, subversion and direct military intervention.
with William Sitwell
■ Weekend answers
Venezuela is merely the latest work through ill-health or disability). example of a democratically elected So a successful socialist prosocialist government under concerted gramme will need to replace the attack by international capital (led, present “dictatorship” of a tiny ruling of course, by the United States). class by a state which serves the The television adaptation of MP interests of the vast majority of the Chris Mullin’s A Very British Coup population. presents a compelling fictional sceA major challenge which needs to nario of the likely ruling-class be the focus of debate within the left response to an elected socialist govis the form that such a state might ernment in Britain. take and how it may be achieved. The term “proletariat” also needs It will be necessary to learn from some dissecting. It’s not quite the the successes, mistakes and same as “working class.” failures of existing and The Working classes exist in former socialist sociall class societies, eties. New forms of M ar x including slavery and popular participaMemoria l Librar y feudalism. tion, including a ’s Trade Un ions, Cla Marx and Engels democratised s s and Power co gave the name proleparliamentary urse with Professo tariat to the new system based on r M a r y Davis working class that proportional o n J a nu a s t ar t s r y 30 at 7 emerged with capitalrepresentation pm. See mstar.lin ism, composed of and direct demock /MMLco ur ses workers (“wage labourracy in local comfo r details ers”) who lived by sellmunities and in the ing their labour-power to workplace, will be capitalists who own the essential to avoid the means of production, distribudangers of over-centralisation and exchange. tion, elitism, careerism and bureauThe proletariat were seen as poten- cratic control. tially revolutionary because capitalFull accountability of state power ism itself had brought them together to the people will need to be accom— in the workplace and in communipanied by free and wide-ranging ties, where they could begin to underdebate facilitated by accessible and stand their situation, and organise to diverse mass media. change it. Democratic rights and freedoms This was contrast to other workers, will become deeply entrenched in including the peasantry (still wideevery aspect of economic and politispread in Europe), as well as to small cal life free from the restrictions and shopkeepers, independent craftspeodistortions imposed by monopoly ple and other “petite bourgeoisie” capital. that they considered largely conAs a more recent, British, commuservative. nist manifesto declares: “Holding Since then there have been great state power will enable the working changes in the composition of the class and its allies to complete the working class, which includes public process of removing all economic and employees, health workers, teachers, political power from the monopoly small traders, the self-employed — capitalist class. As capitalism is diseveryone who works for a living mantled, so the construction of a new together with their families and type of society — socialism — can dependants (including those unable to proceed.”
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1. True or false: pike, luce and jackfish are names for the same creature. True 2. In which European capital city would you find the Oxo Tower (right)? London — on the South Bank 3. Belarius is a character in which Shakespeare play? Cymbeline, where he guards Cymbeline’s two sons