Almost five years ago now, Lenin was placed on trial:
L E N I N O N T R I A L:
Condemned by History, Who Dares Defend Him?
Presented by ‘NO GODS, NO MASTERS’, the Melbourne Anarchist and Autonomist Conference.
WHEN:
Sunday April 29th, [2001], 6 – 9pm.
WHERE:
Public Lecture Theatre, Old Arts Building, University of Melbourne. (400 seats, advance tickets available.)
ENTRY:
$5.00 (free to conference goers).
ENQUIRIES:
Rob Dolchek:
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PROCEEDINGS WILL BE VIDEOTAPED BY SKA-TV, AND BROADCAST AT A LATER DATE.
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The CHARGES:
* Counter-revolution * Tyranny * Treason * Terror *
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V.I. Lenin: Revolutionary Genius or Social Frankenstein?
The collapse of the Soviet Union has read the verdict of history on Lenin’s megalomaniac adventurism, but the Red Left has yet to learn the lessons. Old slogans reappear in new catchphrases, and old tactics are repainted as the urgent and necessary goals of the moment. Anarchists are putting Lenin on trial, and challenge the Red Left to defend him. Four charges will be heard:
1) That Lenin was a counter-revolutionary, who attacked the revolutionary movement to build his own power.
Prosecutor: Leigh Kendall
Offences: The suppression and massacre of the Kronstadt garrison.2) That Lenin was a terrorist, who enslaved the people with all the instruments of military and civil repression.
Prosecutor: Rob Dolchek
Offences: The supression of the Maknovschyna, and the wars against
autonomous revolutionary collectives throughout Russia.3) That Lenin was a tyrant, who enslaved the people under state capitalism, deceitfully proclaiming it to be the dawn of Marx’s utopia.
Prosecutor: Owen Gager
Offences: Lenin’s butchery of Marxist theory of the state and
socialist economy.
4) That Lenin was a traitor, who continually undermined his own party and betrayed his own revolutionary colleagues.
Prosecutor: Leigh Riley
Offences: Lenin’s subversion of Party democracy, manipulation of the
Party program, and selective and opportunistic betrayal of his rivals and of dissidents generally.——
PROCEDURE:
Each charge will be heard in turn, with a prosecution and a defence each speaking for 12 minutes.
All speakers will then be allowed a short response.
Questions and contributions will be taken from the floor.
The assembly will vote on Lenin’s guilt.
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CHALLENGE:
We invite the Red Left to nominate speakers for the defence. Contact Rob Dolchek on
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TICKETS:
Door tickets will be available, but we advise that pre-purchasing will secure a seat, and a chance to join in the fun. For more details, ring Rob or purchase tickets directly from:
BARRICADE BOOKS / INFOSHOP
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FURTHER ARRANGEMENTS:
Will be notified as planning proceeds.
To be realistic, demand the impossible
As it turned out, only one person was daring enough to defend Lenin: Lev Lafeyette. (In fact, you can still find Lev’s defence — titled ‘Defending Lenin’s application of Marx’s theory of the state and socialist economics’ — here.) I was disappointed by the Red Left’s reaction, but not altogether surprised: they have enough difficulty defending their bankrupt ideology as it is without having to do so in front of a hostile audience. Still, it would have been fun I reckon. And it wasn’t like nobody had the time; a number of authoritarian leftists attended the conference at one point or another, including some more ‘senior’ party members.
Or maybe they just felt like Chicken That Night?
Finally, in other, related news:
News Highlights from October 23-October 30, 2000
Vladimir Lenin is on the run—wanted in Estonia for tax fraud.
The inclusion of Lenin’s name on a police wanted list on October 24 raised eyebrows in Estonia. The fugitive, however, isn’t the famed Communist revolutionary, but a namesake 34-year-old.
Estonia’s Lenin, an ethnic-Russian Estonian citizen, even shares the same middle initial as the founder of the Soviet Union, “I,” according to Estonian police spokesman Hannes Kont.
The living Vladimir I. Lenin is accused of participating in a scam with nine other suspects to set up a phony oil firm to fraudulently claim some 800,000 dollars in tax rebates from the government.
Many Estonians do advocate putting the better-known Lenin on trial posthumously for setting up the Soviet secret police system blamed for the murder and deportation of millions of people last century.
Police spokesman Kont said he couldn’t say if Lenin, the Communist revolutionary, might qualify for prosecution under Estonia’s tough crimes against humanity laws used to convict several living ex-Soviet secret police.
