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Socialist Cooperativism and Human Emancipation: Lenin’s Legacy

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Cooperatives and Socialism

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Abstract

From the very start of his life as a revolutionary, Lenin viewed cooperativism as a decisive solution for moving toward socialism. This conviction became stronger during the early years of the Bolshevik revolution, for two closely related reasons: the importance of cooperation for anthropogeny,1 and the potential of cooperativism to unite different social groups. Both reasons, which will be analyzed by this chapter, are based on two assumptions: first, the importance of the so-called “subjective factor” (awareness, culture, utopias, etc.) as a material force that motivates people, and, second, the value of socialist democracy for people’s power and building socialism.

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Notes

  1. Anthropogeny refers to the process of the evolution of the human species based on the interaction between the natural selection of prehominid species and human social transformation through labor. The first materialist theories about anthropogeny emerged in classical Greece and in Rome, and contrasted with idealist theories about divine creation. Darwin and other scientists proved the basic correctness of that initial crude materialism, and Engels contributed the decisive dialectical view of the role of labor in human evolution. However, idealists refuses to accept this irrefutable scientific proof, and, recently, Christian fundamentalist organizations in the United States have stepped up their attacks on the theory of the evolution, and anthropogeny, with their theories of creationism and intelligent design.

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  1. Iñaki Gil de San Vicente
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy, University of Havana, USA

    Camila Piñeiro Harnecker (Professor and researcher) (Professor and researcher)

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© 2013 Iñaki Gil de San Vicente

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de San Vicente, I.G. (2013). Socialist Cooperativism and Human Emancipation: Lenin’s Legacy. In: Harnecker, C.P. (eds) Cooperatives and Socialism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137277756_5

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