Mistakes in themselves are unavoidable. Ernest Mandel More Quotes by Ernest Mandel More Quotes From Ernest Mandel Revolution is not a goal in itself. Ernest Mandel revolutiongoal Socialist democracy is not a luxury but an absolute, essential necessity for overthrowing capitalism and building socialism. Ernest Mandel luxurydemocracyessentials Precisely because Marx was convinced that the cause of the proletariat was of decisive importance for the whole future of mankind, he wanted to create for that cause not a flimsy platform of rhetorical invective or wishful thinking, but the rock-like foundation of scientific truth. Ernest Mandel foundationrocksthinking Factions are a sign of illness in a party. Ernest Mandel illnessfactionsparty You cannot make a socialist revolution without really trying. Ernest Mandel socialistrevolutiontrying The more workers you have in your organization, the better you are implanted in the working class, the more likely you are to come up with the concrete problems of the class. Ernest Mandel organizationproblemclass Socialist democracy is not, a luxury and its need is not limited to the most advanced industrial countries. Ernest Mandel luxurydemocracycountry Marxism is always open, always critical, always self-critical. Ernest Mandel marxismcriticalself For us, Marxism is always open because there are always new experiences, there are always new facts, including facts about the past, which have to be incorporated in the corpus of scientific socialism. Ernest Mandel new-experiencesfactspast The only conclusion you can draw from the real historical movement is that by and large, in day-to-day life, what Lenin called trade union consciousness dominates the working class. I would call it elementary class consciousness of the working class. Ernest Mandel historicalrealclass There are no conditions in which we subordinate the interests of the class as a whole to the interests of any sect, any chapel, any separate organization. Ernest Mandel chapelorganizationclass There has been hardly a single year since 1917, and in a certain sense since 1905, without a revolution somewhere in the world in which the workers participated in a rather important way. Ernest Mandel importantworldyears Workers do not strike every day, they cannot do that the way they function in the capitalist economy. The way they have to live by selling their labor power makes that impossible. Ernest Mandel capitalist-economyimpossibleway Only if you bring together the experience of the concrete struggles conducted by the real masses in the three sectors of the world (which are also called the three sectors of world revolution), then you have an overall, correct view of world reality. Ernest Mandel realstruggleviews Only under conditions of revolutionary crises do you have the highest level of self-organization; this is the Soviet type of organization, which is to say, workers' councils, people's councils, call them what you want, popular committees. Ernest Mandel organizationselfpeople On the contrary, history generally confirms that the more conscious and the better you are organized in vanguard organizations, the more constructively you operate in the mass organizations of the working class. Ernest Mandel organizationconsciousclass You need a vanguard organization in order to overcome the dangerous potential brought about by the uneven development of class militancy and class consciousness. Ernest Mandel organizationclassorder And you cannot have a socialist revolution commandeered from the top, ordered around by some omniscient leader or group of leaders Ernest Mandel groupsrevolutionleader I do not believe in self-proclaimed parties. Ernest Mandel partyselfbelieve Periodically, the workers do revolt against bourgeois society, not by a hundred, five hundred, or a thousand, but by the millions. Ernest Mandel workershundredthousand
