Adventurism

Adventurism is the emphasis on spontaneous action which can be undertaken by either individuals or organizations, usually political organizations such as political parties.

For example, anarchists are usually proponents of individual actions as a basis for collective actions, which means that any action that undermines the state in any capacity, however insignificant, is desirable. Acts such as tagging a wall with symbols is, in their practice, a way of raising individual consciousness for anarchism (and once enough people are convinced of anarchism, then they can start a collective anarchist revolution). It can be done by a single person at any time, without prior planning or organizing, but ultimately only results in making the city pay to send a worker to clean up the graffiti.

For Marxist-Leninists, adventurism is undesirable as it indicates a lack of discipline and a lack of understanding theory. It is also important for a communist party to be united against onslaughts from the bourgeoisie and as such members are encouraged not to deviate from the party line and act by themselves, as these acts can be unpredictable for the party. Marxist-Leninists also understand change in society comes through the class struggle and it is of the utmost importance to rally the proletariat behind a strong party that is able to answer their material needs. Adventurist acts such as the assassination of a politician, no matter how far to the right they may be, do not essentially raise class consciousness or start the premises for the revolution (as the politician will be replaced by another of their class).

Propaganda of the Deed

One Adventurist tactic is the concept of the "Propaganda of the Deed".

Propaganda of the deed is when, according to anarchists, someone rebels in such an audacious way against the system that it is supposed to inspire in everyone else, a revolution. It is an idealist notion rooted in adventurism. It is encouraged independently of consideration of the conditions or whether or not such conditions mean that there is a revolutionary situation, pure audacity and bravery and frankly self-destructiveness and martyrdom is seen as the height of heroism and it is believed that if only they could push it farther or far enough that something would finally change. But it never does, all it does is encourage individualism via disregarding collective coordination, and strategic incompetence by resulting in failure of coordinated actions and plans necessary for Revolution. In propaganda of the deed, fear (psychological reasons) is believed to be the reason people don't wage a revolution tomorrow, when actually it is the material conditions and practical logistics of achieving one.

The concept is intimately associated with the idea of an "excitative". That the oppressed masses simply need an "excitative" in the form of some deed or another targeted at the sources of their suffering, whether in form of an assassination, bombing, public disruption etc. This conception fails to understand that the masses don't need an excitative and instead need a Revolutionary organization capable of providing education and leadership. The masses already suffering under exploitation, do not need a demonstration of what evils are befalling them. They are aware. What they lack are the Revolutionary organization and education capable of guiding them to the overthrow of their oppressors. In Lenin's words, even the slaying of a hundred monarchs could not compare in value to the Revolutionary consciousness of the Proletariat compared to work of organizing them.

History

Anarchists Mikhail Bakunin and Louis Blanqui promoted adventurism and propaganda of the deed in the 19th century.

Further Reading

• Vladimir Lenin (1914). Adventurism. [MIA]