Saturday, January 29, 2011

Revolution and the Army (Lenin, Trotsky, and Lukasc)

James sent me this: ""His grip on power was further challenged Saturday as the military that he had deployed to take back control of the streets showed few signs of suppressing the unrest, and in several cases the army took the side of the protesters in the capital and the northern port city of Alexandria. In the most striking instance, members of the army joined with a crowd of thousands of protesters in a pitched battle against Egyptian security police officers defending the Interior Ministry on Saturday afternoon."


Lenin: 'Not a single great revolution has ever taken place, or ever will take place, without the "disorganisation" of the army'

Trotsky: 'There is no doubt that the fate of every revolution at a certain point is decided by a break in the disposition of the army. Against a numerous, disciplined, well-armed and ably led military force, unarmed or almost unarmed masses of the people cannot possibly gain a victory'.

Lukács: "The instant this [class] consciousness arises and goes beyond what is immediately given we find in a concentrated form the basic issue of the class struggle: the problem of force. For this is the point where the 'eternal laws' of capitalist economics fail and become dialectical and are thus compelled to yield up decisions regarding the fate of history to the conscious actions of men."