I'm back from England (well, sorta back, still in transit). Here Download Revolutionary theory and the communist horizon is the talk I gave at SOAS at the Taking Control event. A recorded version will be available soon. The version I'm posting is an uncorrected draft and the draft doesn't have any citations in it (which it should). On the one hand, the talk brings together some of my "What is to be Done?" and Lukacs posts. On the other, it tries, in this bringing together, to think more about political forms. Critical suggestions are welcome. Here is a paragraph:
A central idea in Lukacs's Lenin is that the leninst party presupposes the actuality of revolution. What is the actuality of revolution? At the minimum we can say that it involves change, confusion, disturbance, chaos, and the possibility wherein tendencies in one direction can suddenly move in a completely opposite direction. As Lukacs makes clear, for the Leninist party, the actuality of revolution requires discipline and preparation, not because the party can accurately predict everything that will occur, because it cannot, and not because it has an infallible theory, which it does not. Discipline and preparation are necessary in order to adapt to the circumstances. The party has to be consistent and flexible because revolution is chaotic. The actuality of revolution, then, is a condition of constitutive non-knowledge for which the party can prepare. It's a condition that demands response, if the party is to be accountable to the people, if it is to function as a communist party.
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