See also
Community Oriented Policing and
Marks and Masks of Socialism
Skip down to
1917
“'In our state,
naturally, there can be no place for freedom of speech, press, and so on
for the foes of socialism,' wrote Andrei Vishinsky in The Law of the
Soviet State. The test in a totalitarian state was not whether the
publication was treasonable or seditious, but whether it tended to advance
official ideology." (Encyclopedia Britannica,
Vol. 5, page 164)
"In his pamphlet entitled 'A great Beginning' Lenin....
wrote that a characteristic feature of our building socialism are different social
relations. What are the social relations in capitalist countries? ... . This
different type of social relations, the power of the Soviets, creates conditions
for the masses' work... and it is only within that social bond that the creative force of
the masses is born..." Nadezhda
Krupskaya, On Labour-Oriented Education and Instruction,
page 75. See
Soviet
Education in the 1930s compared to U.S. Education in 2001
Communism:
"a term used to denote systems of social organization
based upon common property, or an equal distribution of income and wealth.....
"Marx did not find
the basis for the communist movement in religious or ethical assumptions but in
the new social sciences. Living in the century of confident faith in science and
of a rapid industrial revolution, he claimed as a disciple of Georg Hegel an
infallible certainty for his analyses of the historical forces at work in
society. He regarded the changing economic structure as the foundation of social
life." (Br 6-205)
The system of Soviet control:
"Organization of communist parties was everywhere hierarchical, there being an
organization for the state as a as a whole, several intermediate bodies at
provincial and county levels, and primary organizations at the bottom. Each
level sent representatives to the next higher level. No direct election of
representatives to the supreme congress was provided....
"An
All-Union Congress with its Central Committee and auditing commission
was placed at the top of the Soviet party hierarchy. ....
"The Central Committee carried the major burden of party work in its
meetings, required at intervals of not more than six months. It named members of
its three agencies designed to sit in perpetual session.
-
The first, the
Politburo
[executive committee and chief
policy making body of the Communist party], directed the work of
the Central Committee and in fact initiated party policy.
-
The second, the
Secretariat, appointed the men to
execute policy at lower levels
and conducted the paper work of the party.
-
The third, the
Commission of Party Control, verified fulfillment of party
decisions and instituted disciplinary proceedings again violators....
"At the bottom, membership was grouped in primary party organizations, sometimes
known as "cells," stemming from the instruments designed prior to the Revolution
to infiltrate and undermine the tsar's government. These cells were organized in
factories, villages, collective farms, educational institutions, and units of
the armed forces." (Br 6-214-215)
"Important changes were made in the
composition of the Council of Ministers in October 1965, as well as in the
party's Politburo and Secretariat in April.... The Congress decided that the
party's Presidium [Presidium of the Supreme Soviet?]
(name introduced by Stalin in 1952) should revert to being styled Politburo, and
'first secretary' to 'secretary general.'"
(Br 22-530)
the supreme soviet: "Under
the 1936 constitution, the all-Union Congress of Soviets was replaced by the
Supreme Soviet, a nominally new body which exercises exclusively the legislative
power of the USSR."
(Br 22-532)
The council of Ministers: "This
council is defined by the constitution as "the highest executive and
administrate organ of the state power of the USSR.' It is accountable to the
Supreme Soviet or, in the intervals between sessions of the Supreme Soviet, to
the Presidium.. ... The Council of Ministers is appointed by the Supreme
Soviet...." (Br 22-532)
Local Government: "In
the Soviet Union, local government is carried out through an extensive network
of soviets.... Considerable importance is attached to these soviets, not only as
local organs of administration and government, but also because they involve
wide participation by the population in the work of the party and the government
at all elves and provide training in administration.....
"Each soviet
elects its own chairman, deputy chairman, and secretary, who together form the
executive which is responsible both the to the local soviet which elected them
and also to the executive of the next superior local soviet.
"The power of
the local soviets are to direct the work of the organs of administration
subordinate to them, to ensure the maintenance e of public order, the observance
of the laws, and the protection of the rights of the citizens, to direct local
economic and cultural affairs, ha to draw up local budgets."
(Br 22-533)
Soviet Constitution:
"On Dec. 5, 1936, the All-Union
Congress of Soviets adopted a new constitution... considerably broader in scope,
and containing chapters dealing with such matters as social structure, the
courts and the procurator's office, the fundamental rights and duties of
citizens and the electoral system. This 1936 constitution, it was claimed, gave
the country a democratic form of government, although it was snot democracy as
understood in the United Kingdom and the United States. In 1962 the Supreme
Soviet appointed a committee to draft a new constitution which would 'raise
socialist democracy to a still higher level."
(Br 22-532)
Supporting Organizations: "The
youth of the Soviet Union has been influenced by the party through three youth
organizations specializing in your people of three age groups.... the All-Union
Leninist Communist League of Youth, known as Komsomols [ages 14-26], the
Pioneers [10-15], and the Little Octobrists.... Members of the Pioneers were to
be organized in brigades, attached to the local Komsomol cells. One member of
this cell was to be the brigade leader.
"The
organization for the very young children, called the Little Octobrists, was
re-created in 1957 to provide politically directed recreation of children prior
to entry into the Pioneers. In 1967 it had 15,000,000 members."
(Br 6-215)
Soviets (councils):
"a policy-making and administrative agency established at various levels of
government in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics under the direction of the
Communist Party.
Soviets were
organized in the 1905 by Marxist-stimulated intellectual in Russian cities as
strike committees to coordinate worker opposition to tsarist policies.
Suppressed after the 1905 revolution, soviets of workers and soldiers were
reestablished by leftwing political leaders to influence governmental policy on
the tsar's abdication in March 1917. Lenin demanded that they assume power when
he returned from exile in April 1917.
A national
federation of soviets was created in June 1917, but moderate leftist held
control until November. After seizure of power, Lenin turned to a congress of
deputies of local soviets to provide a semblance of popular purport for
Bolshevik leadership. By the spring of 1918, he had control, and thereafter the
various soviets became unchallenged instruments of Bolshevik policy.
Structurally,
soviets were large assemblies elected at village, city, county, province,
republic, and all-union levels. From 1917 to 1936, the franchise was denied
employers of labor for profit, private merchants, rentiers, priests, and monks.
The 1936
constitution opened the franchise to all on a secret ballot, but in practice the
one-candidate election was continued, permitting citizens only to accept or
reject candidates n0minated by professional groups under Communist Party
direction. Soviets chose executive committees, called councils of ministers, at
republic and all-union levels, to supervise administrative departments.
Local soviets
operated public housing, local transportation and industry, schools, and health
facilities. They approved economic plans
and budgets. No critical debate or adverse votes occurred
because deputies wee largely Communist Party members bound to resolve disputes
privately." (Br 20-1031-2)
Rights: "Civil rights as
defined in the USSR Constitution of 1936 provided the primary example of the
soviet approach. Guarantees of freedom of speech, press, and assembly were
limited to such exercise as might strengthen Socialism. Judicial practice
indicated that speech evoking hostility to Soviet authority on grounds of
disagreement with eh elements of social order declared by the constitution as
fundamental to Socialism-- such as state ownership of the productive resources,
collectivization of agriculture, the one-party political system, and equality of
races-- was punished as a crime against the state if intent to disrupt the
system was found. (Br 20-1034)
Rights:
"The freedom if speech, of the press, of assembly, of street processions and
demonstrations, formally guaranteed by the constitution), has never been
interpreted as allowing any criticism of the party or of its leaders. The party
wields its powers through its Central Committee and through the Politburo and
its Secratariat." (Br 22-533)
Revolution “for the
people”: "The Soviet represented
primarily the working class of the capital but could in a wider sense speak for
the industrial workers of all Russia; and, as its ranks were swollen by the
arrival of socialists released from prison or returned from exile, it became a
sort of parliament of Russian socialism, from the Socialist-Revolutionaries to
the Bolsheviks." (Br. 19. 814)
"Lenin... wanted power, and
he now saw a way to win it. In a bourgeois republic, with a parliamentary system
of government, his prospects would not be good. ... The soviets on the other
hand, were a very different forum. Their members were not trained politicians,
but the masses from the factories and from the armed forces. Through the
soviets, for the first time, the masses were being brought into political life--
the raw material to be molded by an audacious leader. In the soviets, votes were
taken not according to fixed party allegiances but according to the
momentary passions of the workers and soldiers. ... The greater the
authority given t o the soviets, the better his chances of seizing power. Hence
his slogan 'all power to the soviets.'"
(Br. 19. 815)
"In the
soviets the Bolsheviks were at first a small minority. But once Lenin had
converted his party to his views, the Bolsheviks in the soviets adopted
unrestrainedly demagogic slogans. They stood, they said, for peace at once, land
reform a once, workers' control of the factories at once, self-determination for
the Non-Russian peoples at once...."
(Br.
19. 815)
"The first crisis of the Provisional
Government came at the end of 'April 1917, on the war issue... Milyukov ...
stated that Russia remained faithful to wartime agreements and intended to
pursue the war to victory. .... The leaders of the soviet organized mass
demonstrations against war...
"The result was that
Milyukov and the minister of war... resigned on May 15 and a new coalition was
formed including the Socialist-Revolutionary leader V. M. Chernov.... The
April-May events were important not only because the right wing of the
Provisional Government was forced out of power, but because they showed that the
government was being forced in effect into a position or responsibility to the
soviet." (Br.
19. 815-816)
Soviet: a local council with
certain powers of local administration... part of a hierarchy of soviets
culminating in the Supreme Soviet
"Participatory Democracy"
The World Social Forum - Charter
of Principles:
"The
World Social Forum is a world process.... It upholds respect for Human Rights,
the practices of real democracy, participatory
democracy, peaceful relations, in equality and
solidarity...."
Anti-Social Studies:
[The revolutionary aims of the
National Council for Social Studies (NCSS)]. "The leaders of this
26,000-member organization of teachers of history, sociology, geography,
political science, psychology, and economics ... were sure the [9-11] attacks
would provide the excuse Americans wanted to indulge their reflexive racism
and 'revenge-oriented ideology'.... At the organization's national conference
in November, keynote speaker James Loewen... warned against patriotic displays
like the singing of 'God Bless America.' 'The Swedes,' he noted, 'the Kenyans
don't think God blesses America over all other countries.' ....
"Responding to a teacher who said her students had been wanting to know
more about American history since the attacks, he said, 'We need to de-exceptionalize
the United States.... These are the folks responsible for passing
on 'the content knowledge, intellectual skills, and civic values necessary
for fulfilling the duties of citizenship in a participatory
democracy.'...
[See
Reinventing the World]
"Until recent years, however, the education establishment did encourage
the nation's kids to think of themselves as niche Americans -- Asian
Americans, African Americans, and so on. Now, this familiar multiculturalism
has begun to give way to something known as 'global studies,' a sprawling
discipline that encompasses world history, current events, world religions,
geography, ecology, and world economics....
"So
if the NCSS has its way, young Americans will graduate from high school
with a few hazy ideas about equality and freedom of speech, but almost no
knowledge of their country's past. They'll be more likely to get teary-eyed
at 'We Are the World' than 'The Star-Spangled Banner.'"
See
The International Agenda.
Even more tragic, the global church movement seems to be heading in the
same direction
Incomplete
Art: Exemplified by statue called
“Worker and Woman Collective Farmer” which shows strong man and women framers
raising the hammer and sickle high in triumph.
Totalitarian Democracy: goes back to
the period of the French Revolution and the ideas of economic democracy which
emerged as a phase of the revolutionary movement. Although revolutionists were
mainly preoccupied with the problem of legal equality, a minority wing claimed
that economic equality was also a basic right of man. The Revolution would be
meaningless unless joined by a transformation of existing economic order. This
tradition found its most effective expression in the works of Karl Marx. To him,
economic inequality made democracy impossible. To establish democracy, the
proletariat must overthrow the bourgeois state and lay the foundations of a
truly classless society. “This is the great unfinished business of the
democratic revolution. Economic equality is the essence of democracy.
Lenin saw minorities as the true agents of revolutionary action. His
totalitarian democracy, exemplified by the Soviet constitution of 1936. It
negates traditional western democracy and makes Communist goals and ideology the
standard for political approval.
A
selective elite was kept under close supervision and discipline by the smaller
elite at the top—guaranteeing the success of the revolution by putting total
authority in the hands of a small groups of its most ardent and able supporters.
Education: Bolshevik education policy
meant abolition of illiteracy, the establishment of institutes to train
teachers, and disassociation of education from the church. The character of
education was drastically changed. Initially, all forms of discipline, homework,
and examination were forbidden. Pupils took part in soviets which were
responsible for running the school. Teachers were told to eradicate all traces
of the old philosophies and instilling Communist ideas of education. (Encyclopaedia Britannica,
pp.
538)
Education was
permeated by soviet ideology and harnessed to the goals of the Communist party.
“Our schools must give our youth the foundations of knowledge, of ability to
work out themselves the Communist outlook. It must make educated people of
them,” said Lenin.(Encyclopaedia Britannica,
pp. 22, 538)
Censorship: “In our state, naturally,
there can be no place for freedom of speech, press, and so on for the foes of
socialism,” wrote Andrei Vishinsky in The Law of the Soviet State. The
test in a totalitarian state was not whether the publication was treasonable or
seditious, but whether it tended to advance official ideology. (Encyclopaedia Britannica,
pp. 5,
164)
See also
Facilitating
permanent social change and
Using
Dissatisfaction (a crisis) for social transformation