Is every mistake or reactionary form of Marxism "substitutionalist"?

Question

Substitutionism is a term in Marxist theory which refers to the relationship between the revolutionary party and the working class, where the former's activity substitutes the latter's. It is seen as an inverse to classical Marxism, where the "emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself".

There seems to be a few terms in Marxist Communism which are often taken to prove a mistake, if demonstrated, analogous to I suppose fallacious reasoning. Such as revisionism

Within the Marxist movement, the word revisionism is used to refer to various ideas, principles and theories that are based on a significant revision of fundamental Marxist premises. The term is most often used by those Marxists who believe that such revisions are unwarranted and represent a "watering down" or abandonment of Marxism. As such, revisionism often carries pejorative connotations and the term has been used by many different factions

Or reformism:

1. ( Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a doctrine or movement advocating reform, esp political or religious reform, rather than abolition

Or voluntarism:

In political philosophy, voluntarism is the view that understands political authority to be will-based. This view, which was propounded by theorists like Hobbes, Rousseau, and many members of the German idealist tradition, understands political authority as emanating from a will.

Are these all types of substitutionism, from different groups, communist, proletarian, or otherwise? i.e. is it the only thing that can prevent communism? How does the idea that there is no progressive ruling class fit within the answer to that?

Answer 1

One problem in this question is that it appears to take a judgemental position on a historical phenomena: the ideological content of Marxist bodies in history. Putting that aside, let us consider all Marxist bodies as failures due to the continued presence of the commodity relationship and wage slavery.

Some failed Marxist bodies were not substitutionalist.

The second international Social Democrats who had a Fabian reformist approach were not substitutionalist in that their action didn’t replace working class self-activity. Correspondingly reformist official CPs have existed without a substitutionalist theory by retreating into “Eurocommunism,” or “the Accord Process” in Australia of class compromise and selling the class out. On the other hand these groups didn’t seek the abolition of capital on a human time scale.

The Italian workerists, and the Bordigists, and the council communists and the KAPD weren’t substitutionalist, but sought to organise an active fraction in a kind of non-vanguard method. Apart from the KAPD and Italians they didn’t do well. And the Workerists were dependent on the culture and space produced by the substitutionalist and later reformist PCI.

So the answer is no. The term “substitutionalist” does bear weight in relation to theories and practices of radical social change.