On Political Leadership

Against the Current, No. 86, May/June 2000

The Editors

WE ARE PLEASED to present to our readers the following exchange on some questions pertaining to political “vanguards” and working-class power. Fred Bustillo is a federal prisoner whose copies of Against the Current have been confiscated, and is engaged in litigation to force the prison system to honor First and Fourth Amendment rights of inmates. Sam Farber is an editor of this magazine and author of Before Stalinism (Verso Press).

Readers who would like to pursue issues raised here might be interested in the Solidarity pamphlet “Socialist Organization Today” by Charlie Post and Kit Adam Wainer, and the article “Vanguard Parties” by Ernest Mandel, both available for $1.00 from Solidarity, 7012 Michigan Avenue, Detroit MI 48210.

Also highly recommended is an article by Hal Draper, “The Myth of Lenin’s `Concept of the Party;’ Or What Did They Do to What is to be Done?” This essay is most recently reprinted in the Summer 1999 issue of the British journal Historical Materialism, whose e-mail address is: hm@lse.ac.uk

ATC 86, May-June 2000