Vanguard Party

VANGUARD PARTY. A significant variation of Marxist thought was created when V. I. Lenin introduced the concept that revolutionary success is dependent upon a political party composed of professional revolutionaries. This party is to act as the general staff of the revolution and has been compared with the locomotive that harnesses “revolutionary steam.” Vanguardists believe that without their intervention, workers and other potential revolutionary social forces will fail to achieve their ends due to inexperience, poor organization, lack of skills, and theoretical underdevelopment.

The vanguard party is organized on a modified military model under a schema termed democratic centralism. Each of the lower bodies of the organization elects representatives to the higher bodies until a central-committee level is reached. The central committee is expected to gather information from all the party units and make final decisions. These decisions comprise the party line and all members are expected to carry out the party line whether they personally agree with it or not. Party members accept this discipline under the assumption that if they had all the information available to the leadership, they would see the wisdom of the decisions made. Rank-and-file members also understand that specific units or fronts may have to be sacrificed in order to save a larger unit or more important position. The process of changing a party line differs from one party to another and is often a point of contention. The guiding principle, however, is that the struggle to change the line must be kept within the party. When the party line shifts, all the members shift their public positions accordingly. On occasion, a complete turnabout in party line gives a poor impression to outsiders, who may judge party members to have slavish loyalty to their organization. Leninists are willing to risk this judgment because they believe uniform adherence to the party line is essential to maximize the vanguard party’s impact.

The historical experience of the vanguard party has been that the central committee usually creates an executive that so controls the party apparatus that the organization is far more authoritarian or centralized than democratic. Important posts come to be filled by appointment from above rather than election from below. Critics of the vanguard concept believe the centralizing tendency is inherent in its structure and its underlying elitist notion of revolutionary leadership. They point out that even the smallest vanguard parties usually develop authoritarianism to the point where a cult of personality surrounds the leader. Advocates of the vanguard party concede that maintaining democratic norms within the party is a constant struggle but argue that the experience of authoritarianism in the first period of socialism has made them more sensitive to the needs for democratic safeguards at all levels of party life.

Vanguard parties generally have secret and open members. Secret members are thought necessary because of government repression and volatile public opinion. Open members carry on the official work of the party and give it its public face. The mix of secret and open members depends on the historical conditions of the moment. Communication between members occurs at regularized local meetings augmented by occasional regional and national gatherings and through exposure to party publications. The party press includes a mass newspaper to communicate the party line to the general public, an internal party organ for members only, and a theoretical journal for party and nonparty intellectuals. Larger parties develop youth and arts publications and, depending on circumstances, publications aimed at specific ethnic and racial groups. Frequently there are party schools or workshops to develop the skills of members.

Party work is carried on in identifiable party units, front organizations, special interest groups, and organizations controlled by others. Party organizations are openly identified as linked to the party even though they may accept nonparty participants. A front group is deliberately created by the party as a vehicle for working with nonparty people. Fronts are not expected to become part of the formal party or to adhere to the entire party line. They generally focus on a single issue with broad appeal, such as initiatives against war, civil rights programs, or defense of political prisoners. Fronts are different from groups such as trade unions or civic groups that party members join and simply try to influence.

Recruitment of new members is a goal of all party work but it is not necessarily a high priority. Vanguardists believe that not all persons can accept the discipline of party life even though they may agree with most of the party’s positions. These and other individuals willing to work with the party on a regular basis are termed sympathizers or fellow travelers. A party may prefer that an individual remain outside the formal organization in order to minimize the risk of red-baiting. Performing artists and other persons who are dependent on the goodwill of the general public may be actively discouraged from becoming members.

The Leninist party is fundamentally different from the socialist mass party, which operates as a parliamentary group and makes no greater demands on its members than its capitalist counterparts. One form or another of vanguard organization has been adopted by the Communist Party and the various Trotskyist and Maoist organizations in the United States. They may be collectively referred to as Marxist-Leninist organizations.

Le Blanc, Paul. Lenin and the Revolutionary Party. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1990.

Murray Bookchin, Listen, Marxist! 1971 (https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray -
bookchin-listen-marxistar.pdf).