Lenin, the proletarian revolutionary, once praised Rosa Luxemburg (hereinafter referred to as "Luxembourg") for "always being an eagle". Luxemburg's life, though short, left behind a valuable intellectual wealth. In the course of his long-term engagement in the practice of political parties, Luxemburg developed an understanding of the organization of proletarian parties.
A dual path of theoretical and practical exploration
The activities of the proletarian parties in Russia and Germany profoundly influenced Luxembourg's perception of party building. At the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903, great differences arose within the Party on the principles of party building, and the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was formally divided. Lenin proposed in "Two Steps Further, Two Steps Back" that Russia should implement a new principle of party organization. Luxemburg, who was always concerned about the development of the proletarian party in Russia, after seeing the principle of party building put forward by Lenin, wrote the article "The Question of the Organization of Social-Democracy in Russia" to discuss the views on the principle of party building. Luxemburg criticized Lenin's organizational principles and pointed out that "self-centralism" was the correct principle of party building. At the same time, there were also major differences within the German Social Democratic Party, mainly in the fact that the guiding ideology of Marxism within the German Social Democratic Party was impacted by Bernstein and others, and opportunistic ideas prevailed within the party. As a result, The activities of the political parties that Luxemburg has personally experienced have strengthened her belief in constantly thinking about the idea of party organization building.
Luxembourg's thesis on the idea of party organization building is not simply at the theoretical level, but is also formed in the accumulated practical experience of political parties. From the beginning of secondary school, Luxemburg actively participated in the activities of socialist groups and participated in the propaganda work within the party. Especially after the establishment of the Social Democratic Party in the Kingdom of Poland, Luxemburg became one of the main leaders of the party. As the theoretical leader of the Party, he served as the editor-in-chief and important contributor of the Party's organ newspaper, the Workers' Cause. After graduating from university, Luxemburg joined the German Social Democratic Party. At a time when revisionist ideas emerged within the party, she stood at the forefront of the criticism of Bernsteinism. After the outbreak of the First World War, the German Social Democratic Party betrayed socialism and proletarian internationalism. Luxembourg decided to establish a leftist organization. In December 1918, Luxemburg participated in the founding congress of the Party as one of the founders and leaders of the German Communist Party. The rich experience of political party activities has laid a practical foundation for the formation of the ideology of party organization construction in Luxembourg.
Attach importance to the formulation of organizational principles
In 1904, in response to Lenin's principle of centralist organization within the Party, Luxemburg wrote an article entitled "The Question of the Organization of Social-Democracy in Russia". In this article, Luxemburg stresses the need for proletarian parties to attach importance to organisational building, in particular to the formulation of organisational principles.
In his debate with Lenin on the principle of party organization, Luxemburg developed the organizational principle of "self-centralism". Fundamentally, there is no fundamental disagreement between Luxembourg and Lenin in principle about the organization of the party under construction. The main disagreements between the two men focused on the extent and content of the concentration. Luxembourg advocated the implementation of centralism within the Party while achieving democracy for the majority, that is, the centralization of the opinions of the majority in the process of party decision-making. At the same time, Luxembourg has paid more attention to the close ties between the party and the masses of the people. The activities of the proletarian party require the revolutionary struggle to unite with the masses of the people and to fully mobilize the organic links between the party and the masses of the people. Democracy creates various political forms (autonomy, suffrage, etc.) that can serve as a springboard and a support point for the proletariat in transforming capitalist society. The proletariat is aware of its class interests and its historical mission in democracy, in the struggle for democracy, in the exercise of democratic rights. At the same time, only by practicing extensive democracy within the Party can we effectively prevent and control bureaucracy and corruption within the Party.
Correctly handling the relationship between the central and grass-roots units is another important element of Luxembourg's organizational construction. In his article "The Question of the Organization of Social-Democracy in Russia", Luxemburg profoundly analyzed the principle of party organization put forward by Lenin. Luxemburg believed that Lenin's direction of strengthening centralism within the Party was correct, but it was biased in understanding the relationship between the central and grass-roots organizations. Luxemburg believes that in the process of building a proletarian party, the central authorities should give the grass-roots organizations relatively flexible action power to ensure the smooth development of the proletarian revolution. "If the tactics of Social-Democracy are formulated not by the Central Committee, but by the whole Party, or, more precisely, by the movement as a whole, then it is clear that the Party organizations at all levels need freedom of action in order to individually promote the full use of all the means offered by the situation at that time to intensify the struggle and to exert the initiative of the revolution." Luxembourg argues that giving local Party organizations corresponding freedom of action is not a renunciation of centralism, nor does it mean that it is completely decentralised. In Luxemburg's view, the freedom of action of grass-roots organizations can enhance the vitality of proletarian revolutionary activity and thus the effectiveness of the proletarian revolution.
Luxembourg also recognizes the importance of parliamentary groups for party building. Since its founding, the German Social Democratic Party has been actively involved in the german parliament, and the German Social Democratic Party has established an independent parliamentary group in the Reichstag. When Discussing the issue of organizational construction, Luxembourg also has a clear view on the issue of the parliamentary caucus.
On the one hand, as the political representative of the proletarian party, the open actions and statements of the congressional caucus represent the party's political position and interest demands. At the same time, the words and deeds of the parliamentary caucus in parliamentary activities will in turn further influence the party's policy direction. According to Luxembourg, "the parliamentary group engaged in parliamentary activities determines the fate and tasks of the party ideologically and tactically". In "questions of party principle or important tactics, the social-democratic caucus has neither the need nor the reason to regard the results of their discussions as private matters". For the discussion of the parliamentary group is not only the task of parliamentary activity itself, but also represents the development demands of the entire proletarian party.
On the other hand, the parliamentary caucus is also the spokesman for the interests of the masses. Luxembourg recognizes the people's character of the Reichstag of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Therefore, she stressed very much that the congressional caucus should maintain close ties with the masses of the people, and this move was even more to prevent the emergence of opportunist ideas within the caucus. Luxemburg believes that only by giving full play to the superiority of the parliamentary caucus can the parliamentary caucus be turned into "the spokesman and voice of the national masses". It is enough to see from Luxemburg's positioning of the Reichstag that the proletarian struggle in Germany also requires the support and cooperation of the Reichstag caucus.
Ensure the correctness of organizational principles
On the issue of party organization building, Luxembourg pays more attention to the guidance of the organizational spirit. In the course of the building of the proletarian party, the establishment of any form of organization cannot be flawless, provided that the correctness of the principles of organization is ensured.
First, "self-centralism" enriches democratic centralism. The idea of "self-centralism" put forward by Luxemburg not only advocates strengthening intra-party centralism, but also pays attention to the importance of majority democracy. Luxemburg's ability to take precautions in understanding the relationship between democracy and centralism is inseparable from her long-term living in the social environment of Western Europe. The outstanding contribution of the idea of "self-centralism" is that she recognized the importance of correctly handling the relationship between democracy and centralism before Lenin.
Since its founding, the Communist Party of China has adhered to the organizational principle of practicing democratic centralism. The relationship between democracy and centralism should be mutually reinforcing and mutually reinforcing, centralized on the basis of democracy and democratic under the guidance of centralization. The practice of democratic centralism can not only guarantee inner-party democracy, enhance supervision within the party, and enhance the party's ability to purify itself, but at the same time, it can unify the thinking within the party, concentrate forces on doing great things, and highlight the superiority of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In the course of building political parties, the Communist Party of China has constantly explored scientific methods for implementing democratic centralism. From the institutional level to standardize the implementation of democratic centralism, the formulation and promulgation of the "Regulations on Requesting Instructions and Reports on Major Matters of the Communist Party of China" is an important measure to implement democratic centralism. Stipulating this issue within the Party in the form of regulations is not only necessary for solemnizing political, organizational, and work discipline within the Party, but is also an important measure to ensure the smooth flow of government decrees and safeguard the authority of the Party Central Committee.
Second, the principle of organizational construction within the Party is to take the people as the center. The concept of mass history is one of the core ideas of Marxist theory. Marx and Engels once spoke highly of the role of the masses, pointing out that "historical activity is the activity of the masses, and with the deepening of historical activity, it will inevitably be the expansion of the ranks of the masses." Deeply influenced by Marxist theory, Luxemburg attaches great importance to the strength of the masses of the people. In discussing the organizational principles of political parties, Luxembourg has always stressed the importance of the masses.
As a social force on which the Communist Party of China has long relied, the masses of the people have participated in and made indelible contributions to all stages of China's revolution, construction and reform. For example, during the War of Resistance Against Japan, when Mao Zedong was thinking about the method of leadership, he regarded the combination of leadership with the masses as one of the important methods of leadership. "In all the practical work of our Party, all correct leaders must come from the masses and go to the masses."
Third, in the building of inner-party organizations, it is necessary to establish Marxist ideals and convictions. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, new changes in world economic politics prompted Marxists to begin to rethink the applicability of Marxist theory to reality. During his university years, Luxemburg was deeply influenced by Marxism, and through the study of philosophy and political economy theory, he constantly pondered the new changes in capitalism and the applicability of Marxist theory, and insisted on taking Marxist thought as the guiding ideology of the proletarian party.
To examine Luxembourg's idea of organizational construction from the perspective of development, we should not only see the predictability of theory, but also recognize the limitations of thought from the perspective of social and historical background. In terms of the idea of organizational construction, the limitations expressed by Luxembourg are mainly in the fact that they ignore the differences in the national conditions of Russia and Western Europe, the historical limitations of the masses and the operability of party practice. It can be said that Luxemburg has been on the road to communism all her life and has sacrificed her precious life, and she has practiced her lofty faith in Marxism with her personal actions.
As far as today's political parties are concerned, in order to always maintain their vigor and vitality, the most important thing is to always pay attention to their own organizational construction and always regard the organizational construction of political parties themselves as a long-term work task. A political party, a political party with ideals and convictions, must proceed from its own nature and convictions and perfect all aspects of political party building with the times in order to maintain its vitality and strong combat effectiveness and win victory in the actual struggle.
(This paper is the phased result of the 2019 Research Fund Key Project of the School of Marxism of Chinese University" "Rosa Luxemburg's Crisis Theory and Methodological Significance")
Source: China Social Science Network - China Social Science Daily Author: Yang Pingping
(Author Affilications:School of Marxism, Chinese Min University)
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