"Professional revolutionaries? Isn't that elitist?"
The idea of professional revolutionaries came from Lenin, in his short book called What Is To Be Done? written in 1903.
When Lenin wrote this, he was arguing that under a Tsarist autocracy, broad, open, and democratic organization was impossible; the police would infiltrate and smash any revolutionary socialist organization. So what was needed was a secret organization, with revolutionary organizers whose income came from the organization (since getting a job and agitating would cause them to be arrested). And for a number of years, the Bolsheviks were an organization made up of mostly intellectuals, or workers who quit and became paid organizers for the party.
But during the 1905 revolution in Russia, open organization became possible. And Lenin said "OPEN THE GATES TO THE PARTY!" And today in the U.S., we live in a country where political parties are more or less free (for now) to organize as they please. So why do revolutionary socialists insist on the importance of building an organization of "professional revolutionaries"?
In Russia in 1903, the term "professional revolutionaries" had to mean a secret organization with paid organizers. Today it means that people who join a revolutionary socialist organization have to agree with its politics, and be part of the organization's activities.
The term today simply means that revolution is not your hobby that you go into your backyard and tinker with every month or so. It means that where ever you go, you are a revolutionary socialists, with a certain set of politics, a certain set of ideas, and that you're going to do something about them. It means that you take the ideas of revolutionary socialism seriously; instead of talking in a cofffehouse about Marx's ideas, you are also organizing around those ideas.
"Professional" is the exact opposite of "amatuer". If you don't have an organization of "professional revolutionaries", then you can have an organization of unprofessional revolutionaries, or an organization of amatuer revolutionaries.
If you are serious about revolution, about socialism, then you should join an organization of "professional revolutionaries" - the International Socialist Organization.
Back
Next