In Leninist revolutionary struggle, vanguardism involves a strategy whereby the most class-conscious and politically "advanced" sections of the proletariat (the revolutionary vanguard), organize to draw the working class towards revolutionary politics. Critics of vanguardism claim that such a group forms a intellectual elite who stand above & give dictates to the working class. Vanguardists respond that the vanguard party is a necessity to serve as bulwark against counter-revolutionary forces. The vanguard party should be formed by those from the working class and be in constant communication & organization with the broader working class. Further, they argue that a historical materialist perspective proves that left movements have only gained serious traction with a vanguard party — e.g. USSR, Maoist China, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguardism [Red Menace: The Fundamentals of Marxism: Dialectics, Historical Materialism, and Class Struggle](https://redmenace.libsyn.com/ep-20)