A critical and comparative analysis of organisational forms of selected Marxist parties, in theory and in practice, with special reference to the last half century

The diversity of the proletariat during the final two decades of the 20th century reached a point where traditional socialist and communist parties could not represent all sections of the working class. Moreover, the development of social movements other than the working class after the 1960s further sidelined traditional parties. The anti-capitalist movements in the 1970s and 1980s were looking for new political formations. This work is an effort to study the synthesis of the traditional vanguard socialist party and spontaneous working class movements with other social groups. The multi-tendency socialist organisation that formed in many countries after 1980 has its roots in the Marxist theories of earlier epochs. It is a mass organisation based on the direct initiatives of activists of all social movements springing from below. Its internal relations are not hierarchical but based on the horizontal relations between organs. This is an organisation belonging to both civil society and political society. This study does not suggest that the era for a vanguard Leninist party is completely over. In some dictatorial societies a centralised party is the most appropriate political method of organising workers and the poor, and fighting oppression and censorship. After the success of a political revolution such a party would face the question of coalition and cooperation with other progressive forces. Therefore in the transitional epoch of the early 21st century both traditional types of vanguard parties and multi-tendency organisations coexist. The most successful socialist multi-tendency organisation is the one in which the communists and radical socialists are able to maintain the continuity of the organisation and influence a considerable section of the working class and poor. Though the formations of multi-tendency organisations have experienced setbacks in some countries those setbacks do not undermine their achievements in Latin America. The multi-tendency socialist organisation is the only viable alternative to the present capitalist system