39. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat | Hal Draper

What is it with all these billionaire and why do they keep going to space? Your stalwart hosts have decided its long passed time we put a stop to these antics! How you ask. By putting an end to the dictatorial reign of capitalism that enforces the conditions necessary for the existence of your Bransons and your Bezoses and by implementing a new class based regime in its place, one that will set the conditions necessary for socialism. That’s right, this week Jack and Dan discuss the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat. They discover that in actual fact it wasn’t all that important a term to Marx and Engels who use it only under specific conditions and in certain debates. Far from representing the authoritarian core of Marx’s thought and his ultimate culpability in the horrors of the soviet union, the term, when put in proper context, represents his commitment to democracy and his horror at the dictatorial aspirations of some of his revolutionary peers. In the end the lads find that in reality it’s a term that needn’t feature prominently in socialist political discourse; unless of cause you find yourself in frequent debate with Blanquists! Reading: Hal draper, The ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ in Marx and Engels (1987)