Ernest Mandel Quotes

• Revolution is not a goal in itself.

  Ernest Mandel

  Goal, Revolution

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  45 Copy quote

• Socialist democracy is not a luxury but an absolute, essential necessity for overthrowing capitalism and building socialism.

  Ernest Mandel

  Luxury, Democracy, Essentials

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  9 Copy quote

• Marxism is always open, always critical, always self-critical.

  Ernest Mandel

  Self, Marxism, Critical

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Thinking, Rocks, Foundation

  9 Copy quote

• You cannot make a socialist revolution without really trying.

  Ernest Mandel

  Trying, Revolution, Socialist

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  Past, New Experiences, Facts

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Class, Organization, Problem

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  7 Copy quote

• Socialist democracy is not, a luxury and its need is not limited to the most advanced industrial countries.

  Ernest Mandel

  Country, Luxury, Democracy

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  7 Copy quote

• Factions are a sign of illness in a party.

  Ernest Mandel

  Party, Illness, Factions

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  13 Copy quote

• Periodically, the workers do revolt against bourgeois society, not by a hundred, five hundred, or a thousand, but by the millions.

  Ernest Mandel

  Hundred, Thousand, Workers

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Class, Organization, Conscious

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Years, Important, World

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  4 Copy quote

• 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 Economy, Way, Impossible

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Order, Class, Organization

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  7 Copy quote

• And you cannot have a socialist revolution commandeered from the top, ordered around by some omniscient leader or group of leaders

  Ernest Mandel

  Leader, Groups, Revolution

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Class, Organization, Chapel

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Real, Struggle, Views

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Real, Class, Historical

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Self, Organization, People

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  7 Copy quote

• You can have relatively high levels of class consciousness with a lower level of class militancy than one would have expected.

  Ernest Mandel

  Class, Levels, Consciousness

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  7 Copy quote

• There is a process of social and of political differentiation going on in the real working class all the time.

  Ernest Mandel

  Real, Class, Political

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  7 Copy quote

• Revolution is an instrument, like a party is an instrument.

  Ernest Mandel

  Party, Revolution, Instruments

  7 Copy quote

• Mistakes in themselves are unavoidable.

  Ernest Mandel

  Mistake

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  4 Copy quote

• I do not believe in self-proclaimed parties.

  Ernest Mandel

  Party, Believe, Self

  Ernest Mandel (1994). “Revolutionary Marxism and social reality in the 20th century: collected essays”, Humanities Press Intl

  4 Copy quote

• For Marx, 'pure' economic theory, that is economic theory which abstracts from a specific social structure, is impossible.

  Ernest Mandel

  Impossible, Economic, Social

  4 Copy quote

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