So after we finished State and Rev last night in our theory discussion group, during the Q&A, two of our comrades asked a really good question about what Lenin means when he talks about “smashing the state” and what that looks like.

They asked how we avoid ending up with another bourgeois state. Fantastic questions, so let’s talk about it! When referring to smashing the state, it’s best to define what that means and then give historical examples. When talking smash the state, we speak of it in 3 steps:

1. Seize the state apparatus from the bourgeoisie.
2. Suppress the reactionary elements that will try to undermine and overthrow the revolution.
3. Replace the current bureaucratic institutions with workers who can fulfill those functions themselves.

This last step, step 3, is the most important. What makes a state a state in the modern context is both the monopoly it claims on violence (transferred to the workers automatically once the state is seized) and its bureaucratic institutions.

This top down structure of institutions ensures the existence of class, and with class comes the need of enforcement of the class interests.

To get around this, we plan to build a world where the workers undo this bureaucracy through direct democracy and the right to recall,

as Lenin directly states in chapter 6 of State and Revolution. This undermines the old bourgeois institution by making it so that the people themselves democratically decide what roles need to be filled and who needs to fill them. Under this setup, the old bureaucracies become

irrelevant as the workers become more self-sufficient in these new roles. It’s not an overnight process, but something the workers learn how to do.

An example of this would be during the October Revolution. There wasn’t as much fighting during that time (though still certainly

fighting). There was a seizure of those industries and institutions which would be fundamental to an eventual withering away of the state. Under Bolshevik control, they chose from among themselves who would oversee the running of the rails, the mailing system, etc.