Montreal Marxist Winter School 2024 in defence of Lenin

Marxist Theory · 2026-05-13

Core Argument¶

The central thesis of this article is that Lenin's theoretical and organisational legacy remains indispensable for revolutionaries in the current epoch of capitalist crisis. The piece argues that the sustained campaign of vilification against Lenin — by bourgeois historians, liberals, reformists, and anarchists — is not merely historical slander but a political attack on the revolutionary potential that Lenin and the Bolshevik Party represent. The article claims that the task of the present conjuncture is to build a communist leadership for the working class modelled on the Bolshevik example, and that educational work — the "struggle for political clarity" — is the necessary precondition for that project.

Theoretical Grounding¶

The analysis is grounded in the Leninist conception of the revolutionary party as the organised vanguard of the working class, drawing on the tradition of What Is To Be Done? and the practical experience of the Bolsheviks between 1903 and 1917. The article operates within the classical Marxist tradition that treats the party not as an electoral apparatus or a pressure group, but as a weapon for the conquest of state power. It positions itself against the dominant currents of the official labour movement — social democracy, Stalinism, and reformism — which have, in different ways, abandoned the revolutionary core of Lenin's method.

The piece also reflects the broader tradition of the International Marxist Tendency (now the Revolutionary Communist International) in its insistence on the primacy of theoretical clarity and systematic education as the foundation of revolutionary organisation. This is a deliberate counterposition to the empiricism and pragmatism that characterises both mainstream left reformism and the more adventurist currents of the extra-parliamentary left.

Conjunctural Relevance¶

The article connects Lenin's legacy to the present moment through a single, decisive claim: capitalism is "sinking into the worst crisis in its history." While the piece does not elaborate on the specific mechanisms of this crisis — it is a promotional text, not a theoretical exposition — the context is clearly the overlapping crises of the post-2008 period: stagnant growth, rising inequality, the breakdown of global supply chains, inflationary pressures, and the intensification of inter-imperialist rivalry, particularly between the United States and China. The war in Ukraine, the energy crisis in Europe, and the deepening fiscal crises of states across the Global South all form the backdrop against which the article asserts the urgency of building revolutionary leadership.

The reference to "over 460 people" attending the 2023 edition and the target of 700 for 2024 is itself a conjunctural claim: it signals that there is a growing audience for revolutionary Marxist education, even in the relatively stable political environment of Quebec and Canada. This is presented as evidence that the crisis is creating the subjective conditions for a turn toward revolutionary politics.

Where the Argument Continues¶

This article is a promotional announcement, so its theoretical argument is necessarily compressed. The argument continues in several directions:

The broader corpus of In Defence of Marxism contains extensive treatments of Lenin's theory of the party, particularly in response to contemporary criticisms from the ultra-left and from reformist currents. Articles on the "party question" and the "transitional programme" are the natural next reading.
The Fightback/La Riposte section's own educational materials and previous Winter School recordings would develop the specific historical analysis of Lenin's method — his approach to the national question, his writings on imperialism, and his tactical flexibility in 1917.
The RCI's theoretical journal, In Defence of Marxism, has published detailed analyses of the current crisis of capitalism that would substantiate the article's claim about the "worst crisis in its history," including work on the tendency of the rate of profit to fall and the dynamics of fictitious capital.

Connections¶

This article should be read alongside:

Lenin's What Is To Be Done? and Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder, the two texts that most directly inform the organisational perspective being promoted.
Alan Woods' Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution, which provides the historical narrative that underpins the IMT/RCI's understanding of the Bolshevik experience.
The RCI's recent documents on the war in Ukraine and the crisis of global capitalism, which would give concrete content to the article's claim about the severity of the current conjuncture.
For a critical engagement with the Leninist tradition from within Marxism, Lars Lih's Lenin Rediscovered offers a contrasting interpretation of the relationship between Lenin and Kautsky, though from a position the RCI would reject.

Key Quotes¶

"Perhaps no name in history has been so vilified as that of the great revolutionary and leader of the Russian Revolution."
"Underlying the slanders and lies is a campaign to discredit Lenin, the Russian Revolution, Communism and the revolutionary hope they represent."
"At a time when capitalism is sinking into the worst crisis in its history, Lenin's ideas remain fundamental to any revolutionary who wants to fight against this rotten system."
"Like the Bolshevik leader, who put theory and ideas at the heart of the revolutionary work, the International Marxist Tendency and its Canadian section La Riposte socialiste/Fightback are making education and the struggle for political clarity a top priority."
"Our task in this epoch of capitalist crisis is to build a Communist leadership for the working class like Lenin did with the Bolshevik party."