“Socialist
democracy is not something which begins only in the promised land after the
foundations of socialist economy are created. It does not come as some sort of
Christmas present for the worthy people who, in the interim, have loyally
supported a handful of socialist dictators.” – Rosa Luxemburg
Leninism is, if we’re honest,
never the most popular of political concepts at the best of times. Much of the
wider left, from experience as much as anything, treats Leninist groups with at
least suspicion and often hostility. So it’s not surprising that the crisis in the
Socialist Workers Party – still ever-escalating, thanks to the leadership’s
intransigence – has produced a new round of obituaries for Leninism, seeking
once more to bury it.
