it would be better to leapfrog straight to a victorious leninist party, but where is the historical analysis in that? the whole point of a marxist approach is to reckon with the actual balance of social forces in a society, including the real development of class experiences, made in this case by a class regenerating after at least half a century of bitter defeats experienced by their parents and grandparents

a rigorous analysis requires a confrontation with the actual trajectory of class consciousness in core societies; such an analysis would surely show that the masses in most european states are not now ready for a leninist approach, though that day may come after a renewed parliamentary wave is destroyed by bourgeois forces in ever more blatant, illiberal fashion

perhaps we would wish ourselves a different political situation, but we risk idealism by dreaming too much of a society and conjuncture other than the one we are presented with by history