The problem of self-emancipation: Subjectivity, organization and the weight of history

This dissertation explores the concept of self-emancipation-the view that the fundamental problems facing working people (in the broadest sense of the term) cannot be solved by anyone on their behalf, and that they have the potential to transform society and themselves.; Specifically, this work examines the following questions: How to account for the fact that so many working people do not believe that self-emancipation is possible or even desirable? How to facilitate the process of self-emancipation? What is the role of activists in this process? What existing forms of organization facilitate this process, and how are activists to engage with these organizations?; I begin with a review of some of the most influential contributions to the question of subjectivity, including the work of Walter Benjamin, Georg Lukacs, Antonio Gramsci, and Karl Marx, among others. I also explore some of the most innovative representatives of "creative Soviet Marxism"---a body of theory that was suppressed in the USSR, and that has not been exhaustively studied in the West. I offer a reading of Valentin Voloshinov (who wrote the first Marxist analysis of language in 1929), Lev Vygotsky (a pivotal figure in the field of developmental psychology), and Evald Ilyenkov (whose concept of "the ideal" shook the world of Soviet philosophy in 1962).; In Part 2, I analyze some of the most influential approaches to facilitating the process of self-emancipation from the period of classical Marxism. I offer a new reading of the famous debates between V.I. Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg on the problem of organization, as well as a new reading of Luxemburg's conception of spontaneity, in light of Benjamin's conception of the collective unconscious.; In Part 3, I synthesize my conclusions and offer the concept of political de/re-skilling in order to grasp the problem of subjectivity/organization more effectively. I use this concept to analyze the current state of the Canadian labour movement, focusing on the history, rise and fall and significance of Flying Squads.