The proletariat is the only class whose historical existence depends on a political party

Evidence

On occasion, James came quite close to acknowledging this paradox: “The party is the knowing of the proletariat as being. Without the party the proletariat knows nothing. We are here at the climax of a development characteristic of class society. The proletariat is the only historical class to which the party, the political party, is essential… the bourgeoisie has never found a political party necessary to its existence. The characteristic form of bourgeois political power is the perfection of the state, and for long periods the bourgeoisie has been content and flourished even without control of the state power. The bourgeoisie has no need for a special organization of knowing. Bourgeois society is capitalist production, and by its position as agent of capital, the bourgeoisie automatically is in possession of capitalist knowing, science, art, religion, and the essence of bourgeois politics which is the maintenance of capitalist production.” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2452

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: James’s paradox — that the party is the proletariat’s only avenue to knowing itself, while the bourgeoisie ‘automatically’ possesses knowing — is dense, invertible, and sits with you. Top-tier material.
• XREF: Echoes the chapter’s earlier question of whether Marxism is theory ‘for’ or ‘of’ the proletariat, and resonates with Gramsci’s organic vs. traditional intellectuals.
• SEED: Angle: the bourgeois ‘automatic possession of knowing’ as a theory of why ruling-class ideology reproduces without a vanguard institution — a piece on why capital needs no party but labor does.