Marxist-Leninist Theory | "Rules of the Communist League" (Dec. 1847) BY MARX & ENGELS @marxist-leninisttheory8023 | Uploaded February 2017 | Updated October 2024, 10 hours ago.
"Rules of the Communist League" (Dec. 1847) BY MARX & ENGELS
Written: December 1847;
Source: MECW Volume 6, p. 633;
First published: Berlin, 1853;
hiaw.org/defcon6/works/1847/communist-league/rules.html
__________________________________
The Rules of the Communist League were most likely created by Marx & Engels in collaboration with other leaders of the League.
An earlier Draft was created by Engels together with other members.
The Communist League was an organization based on scientific socialism which aimed at overthrowing the Capitalist system in a revolution carried out by the Proletariat and replacing it with a classless Communist society.
The League spread propaganda, gave speeches, provided theoretical education and resources in order to achieve it's aims. It worked in secrecy, underground with most members using pseudonyms. The League practiced strict organizational discipline and was based on principles of Democracy & Centralism which Lenin would later develop into his theory of Democratic Centralism.
The Communist League can be considered the first Communist Party of a modern type though it lacked ties to the working masses and didn't have as much influence on workers as later Parties which based themselves on the example of the Communist League such as the Bolshevik Party.
Despite it's relatively small influence as an organizer the League's main document "The Manifesto of the Communist League" or simply "The Communist Manifesto" is one of the most influential and well known political documents to-date.
"Rules of the Communist League" (Dec. 1847) BY MARX & ENGELS
Written: December 1847;
Source: MECW Volume 6, p. 633;
First published: Berlin, 1853;
hiaw.org/defcon6/works/1847/communist-league/rules.html
__________________________________
The Rules of the Communist League were most likely created by Marx & Engels in collaboration with other leaders of the League.
An earlier Draft was created by Engels together with other members.
The Communist League was an organization based on scientific socialism which aimed at overthrowing the Capitalist system in a revolution carried out by the Proletariat and replacing it with a classless Communist society.
The League spread propaganda, gave speeches, provided theoretical education and resources in order to achieve it's aims. It worked in secrecy, underground with most members using pseudonyms. The League practiced strict organizational discipline and was based on principles of Democracy & Centralism which Lenin would later develop into his theory of Democratic Centralism.
The Communist League can be considered the first Communist Party of a modern type though it lacked ties to the working masses and didn't have as much influence on workers as later Parties which based themselves on the example of the Communist League such as the Bolshevik Party.
Despite it's relatively small influence as an organizer the League's main document "The Manifesto of the Communist League" or simply "The Communist Manifesto" is one of the most influential and well known political documents to-date.
![The Bakuninists At Work by Engels (1873) [Audiobook]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Tw_Mjd1bmX8/hqdefault.jpg "The Bakuninists At Work by Engels (1873) [Audiobook]
The Bakuninists At Work by Engels (1873) [Audiobook]
Written: in September-October 1873;
First published: in Der Volksstaat, Oct. 31, Nov. 2 & 5, 1873;
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1873/bakunin/index.htm
Engels pamphlet about the role of the Bakuninist anarchists in the Spanish bourgeois-revolution in 1872-73. The anarchists split from the International Workers Association, and succeeded in getting a majority in the workers movement in Spain.
The main criticism that Engels gives is the following:
1. The Bakuninists didnt want to be involved in politics because they saw it as reformism. They opposed participating in elections or government politics. They also opposed all revolutions which were not anarcho-communist.
2. As a result, when the revolutionary situation in Spain began, they didnt have any program. They prevented the International Workers Association from being involved as an organization. However, they said that as individuals anybody can do what ever they want.
3. Therefore the Bakuninists got involved in the revolution as individuals without any party, organization or program. They allied themselves to the republican bourgeois (Intransigents).
4. The Bakuninists and Intransigents advocated de-centralization and federalism. The revolutionary towns split from each other and were easily crushed by the government one by one. The Bakuninist program of boycotting politics also prevented the main working class center (Barcelona) from joining the revolution, instead a general strike was declared in Barcelona and nothing else happened.
Engels concluded that centralism is better then de-centralism, instead of boycotting politics the workers must take an active part and fight for rights. The revolution would have been successful if the workers had prepared beforehand and been united, but the Bakuninists had advocated boycotting politics and de-centralism for years and couldnt correct their line fast enough. The Bakuninists began abandoning their anarchist principles during the revolution but it was sporadic and not a well planned correction of their line. The extremism of the Bakuninists and Intransigents contributed to the loss of the Republican side in the Spanish revolution, and to the victory of the monarchists.")
![Political Indifferentism by MARX (1873) [audiobook]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/U3xASXBiYyI/hqdefault.jpg "Political Indifferentism by MARX (1873) [audiobook]
Political Indifferentism by MARX (1873) [audiobook]
http://hiaw.org/defcon6/works/1873/01/indifferentism.html
A short and humorous critique of Proudhonists and Bakuninists by Karl Marx.")
![Better Fewer, But Better By LENIN (1923) [full audio]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WLGk6Mpa0AI/hqdefault.jpg "Better Fewer, But Better By LENIN (1923) [full audio]
Lenins article about improving the newly created state apparatus and the Rabkrin (the Workers and Peasants Inspection) which was a body selected from Soviet workers and peasants to investigate government offices and enterprises to improve their efficiency and combat corruption.
Lenin stressed that the new soviet state was still extremely amateurishly organized, relying on badly educated peasants, people grown up under feudalism and unreliable bourgeois and petite-bourgeois intellectuals. Lenin recommended Stalin as the head of the new Rabkrin.
Better Fewer, But Better By LENIN (1923) [full audio]
Written: March 2, 1923
First Published: Pravda (No. 49), March 4, 1923
http://marxism.halkcephesi.net/Lenin/BF23.html")
