Several Communist and Workers' Parties from all over the world issue articles and statements on the occassion of the 150th birth anniversary of the great Bolshevik revolutionary, leader of the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution and founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Read below the articles and statements:
COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (CPRF)
Report by Chairman of the CC CPRF Gennady Zyuganov at the 10th Plenary Session of the Party Central Committee.
The lifespan of great ideas is measured in centuries and millennia. Meeting the aspirations of the common people they abide among the masses and inspire them in the struggle for building a new and just world. That is why Lenin’s ideas continue to live and triumph.
It will soon be 150 years since the birth of Vladimir Lenin. It is incumbent upon us to remember his legacy, to study it deeply, and energetically and correctly apply it under modern conditions.
To move forward, to move with the times
In the darkest pre-dawn hours of history Lenin’s genius shone brightly to illuminate mankind’s new path of development. It happened when capitalism expanded to cover the whole world. It divided continents into colonies and established a sophisticated system of exploiting people and resources. Zealous advocates of capitalism were already hailing it as the triumph of reason, proclaiming it to be the only possible path of development. But the blessings of that system were enjoyed only by a handful of capitalists. Seeking to enrich itself, it consigned the popular masses to poverty and disfranchisement, and used them as cannon fodder.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries capitalism was entering the stage of imperialism. Great powers started re-dividing the planet. They did not only kindle local conflicts. Millions of people died in the First World War, sacrificed to the Moloch of greed and lust for gain.
It was then that the world heard about Lenin. His immoral slogans – Peace to the Peoples! Bread to the Hungry! Land to the Peasants! Factories to the Workers! Power to the Soviets!—sounded like a clarion for the laborers sweating and straining in the field, in factories and mines. Leninism gave them hope for getting rid of suffering, for a decent and happy life.
Lenin’s genius was not an accident. The founder of Bolshevism was neither a lone philosopher, not a superman standing on a pedestal over the crowd. Quite the contrary, he devoted his life to serving the working people, liberating them from the shackles of oppression, ignorance, and lack of faith in their strength. As Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote,
He waxed tender toward comrades.
He was hard as nails toward enemies.
Being deeply convinced of the vast potential of the popular masses, Lenin never distanced himself from common laborers. He had close links with them, drawing inspiration for struggle and creative endeavor.
Lenin made a profound study of and developed the great theoretical legacy of Marx and Engels. At the same time he was a talented organizer, revolutionary and founder of a new type of state, the world’s first socialist state. As the outstanding Chinese revolutionary Sun Yatsen wrote, ”over the centuries of world history there were thousands of leaders and scholars with fine words on their lips, words that were never put into practice. You, Lenin, are an exception. You did not only talk and teach, but you implemented your words in reality.You created a new country. You showed us the way.”
These words have a particularly important kernel. Marxism-Leninism is not a body of dogmas and prescriptions for every life situation. To think that way is to make a mistake, to turn a genius teaching into a kind of religious cult. Lenin himself stressed that the communist doctrine is not so much a set of provisions as a method of analyzing reality. Marxism is a coherent scientific system. It combines philosophical, economic, socio-political views which serve as instruments of cognizing and transforming the world. “Applying materialist dialectics to rework entire political economy, from its foundation to history, natural science, to philosophy, to politics and the tactics of the working class – this is what interests Marx and Engels most of all, this is their most essential and newest contribution, this is their genius step forward in the history of revolutionary thought.” This is how Lenin defined the essence of Marxism. He was guided by this all his life. During the struggle with Legal Marxism , Economism and Menshevism. When creating the party of the working class, the RSDLP. When exposing the Second International revisionists. In April 1917 when he raised the question of socialist revolution in Russia.
Understanding Marxism as a guide to action is what made Lenin a great thinker and a popular leader. The result of his creative approach was Bolshevism. “We do not by any means look at Marx’s theory as something complete and untouchable, he pointed out, on the contrary, we are convinced that it only laid the cornerstones of the science which socialists must advance in all directions if they want to keep abreast of life.”
Lenin gives us an example of a thorough approach to every topic. In tackling any issue Lenin started with the study of all available sources. When writing his work The Development of Capitalism in Russia he made 583 references to various sources. The preparatory notes for Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism run to almost 800 pages.
Nadezhda Krupskaya recalled: ”When we lived in London in 1902–1903, Vladimir Ilyich (Lenin) spent half of his time in the British Museum which has a very large library.” In a 1916 letter to his mother Lenin wrote: “We currently live in Zurich. We came here to study at the local libraries.”
Lenin’s sphere of interest was not only social problems. Thus, discoveries in the field of physics prompted him to write his book Materialism and Empirio-Criticism. Lenin saw the achievements of natural sciences as the beginning of a grandiose scientific revolution. He provided a philosophical grounding for them and developed the doctrine of dialectical materialism, demolished bourgeois theories of Machism, pragmatism and set a brilliant example of creative development of Marx.
A communist must be a staunch adherent of dialectical and historical materialism. That is why the congresses of the CPRF and the plenary sessions of its Central Committee conduct a thorough analysis of modern trends, study their dynamics and the alignment of class forces. If we are to be successful and lead the masses we must exert painstaking effort. It is our immediate task to follow the dialectical method, to develop Marxism-Leninism and on that basis come up with practical conclusions. Without it we cannot ensure the victory of the working people.
Many in the left movement reject the theoretical and practical baggage of previous fighters for socialism. We hear all sorts of things from the adherents of various pseudo-socialisms. This is often the result of inability or reluctance to master our theory in all its depth. These were the people Lenin addressed back in 1920 at the Third All-Russia Congress of the Communist Youth League: “You can only become a Communist when you have enriched your memory with the knowledge of all the wealth worked out by mankind.” Today Lenin’s own ideas have become part of the intellectual treasure-trove of mankind. They occupy the key place in the political life of the modern world.
Globalism: modern form of imperialism
As we mark the 150th anniversary of Lenin’s birth we must highlight the most important elements of his great ideological legacy.
First, the teaching on imperialism. Joseph Stalin formulated it very precisely: ”Leninism is Marxism of the epoch of imperialism and the proletarian revolution”. Analysing the trends in the development of capitalism Lenin came to the conclusion that it had entered its highest and last stage. He identified the main features of imperialism:
- the emergence of monopolies which play the key role in the economy;
- the emergence of financial capital and financial oligarchy;
- priority of export of capital over export of goods;
- formation of monopoly alliances of capitalists who divide up the world;
- final territorial division of the world among the biggest powers
As Lenin stressed, the concentration of social production in the hands of monopolies does not remove capitalist contradictions. Conflicts emerge within states and on the world arena. Economic crises grow ever more profound and destructive. Contradictions between labor and capital become more acute. Monopolies exploit and ruin not only workers, but also peasants and petty bourgeoisie.
Lenin’s thesis on growing reaction under imperialism is very relevant today. Monopoly capitalism establishes its dictatorship. It suppresses the workers’ and democratic movement and eliminates rights and freedoms. Monopoly bosses seek annexations and challenge national independence. Lenin called it a pivot “from democracy to political reaction” and stressed that both in foreign and domestic politics imperialism seeks to violate democracy and to promote reaction. In that sense it is indisputable that imperialism is a negation of democracy in general.”
Equally relevant are Lenin’s words to the effect that Imperialism brings to the working class unprecedented sharpening of the class struggle, poverty, unemployment, high prices, oppression by trusts, militarism, and political reaction which rears its head in all, even the freest of countries.
Under these conditions all talk about “freedom” and “democracy” serves one purpose: to distract and dupe the popular masses. In reality, as Lenin never tired of stressing, financial capital and monopolies “everywhere bring dominance and not freedom.”
The oligarchs’ pursuit of profit and deepening contradictions under imperialism lead to devastating military conflicts and world wars. Weakened and divided by reaction, democratic strata are often unable to stop the doings of criminal warmongers. Bringing about unity calls for a core proletarian force.
Lenin’s discovery has lost none of its relevance today.The features of imperialism have not gone away, and globalization has brought all the contradictions to a head. Thus, the concentration, in the hands of the monopolies, of the means of production, sources of raw materials, transport, communications, scientific and technical discoveries and skilled workers and engineers has reached an all-time high. Five hundred corporations dominate the US economy.Half of them have assets in five or more sectors. They employ 20% of the total workforce and account for 60% of profits.
In 2020 mergers and takeovers account for 4 trillion dollars. The American oil and gas corporation Chevron took over the company Anadarco to become the world’s second largest after ExxonMobil. The merger of the American conglomerate United Technologies with the company Raytheon created a military industrial giant controlling the production of aircraft engines, helicopters, cruise missiles, air defense systems and other weaponry.
In Russia, too, merger and takeover deals account for billions of dollars. Thus, VTB bank has acquired the Magnit chain of stores. Leonid Mikhelson’s gas company NOVATEK bought Severneft-Urengoy Geotransgas, Urengoy Gas Company and a number of others.
Global imperialism boosts the role of transnational corporations. A major company today is a complicated multi-sectoral complex of production, trade, financial and investment structures. Through a network of contractors and subcontractors it is linked with a multitude of small and medium-sized enterprises which can only be called independent by a stretch. By spreading production to various countries, the mother company sprouts a host of branches. But the decision-making center in this international conglomerate is still the main headquarters.
TNTs are far more effective than other companies. They are in a position to avoid customs barriers, accumulate capital in the most profitable areas and allocate massive resources for R/D.
Capitalization of the leading TNCs exceeds the GNPs of most countries. They control over half of world industrial production, more than 60% of global trade, more than 80% of the world body of patents and licenses for new technology.
As pointed out by Lenin, the dominance of the TNCs in the world is ensured by capital export. Foreign direct investments increased 20-fold between 1982 and 2006, with 90% of them coming from the TNCs. One percent of the biggest corporations control 50% of all foreign investments.
Only a small part of the world economy functions in a free-market environment. Internal transfer prices are set by the corporations. In general, TNCs operate strictly according to plan, which guarantees success. This is what offered competitive advantages to the Soviet Union. The founder of the Japanese company THK Hirosi Teramachi wrote: ”In 1939 you Russians were smart and we Japanese were foolish. In 1949 you became smarter while we were still fools. In 1955 we got smarter and you became five-year-old kids. Our whole economic system is a carbon copy of yours. All our firms display your Stalin-era slogans.”
Contrary to what the demagogues say, globalization has not changed the nature of capitalism. Lenin’s epoch-making work Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism is prophetic. It explains the modern world even more than it explains the world vintage 1916.
The best brains of our time are coming to the conclusion that economic and political colonialism has not gone away. It is more sophisticated and tough than in the 20th century. The onslaught on the sovereignty of states continues. The national liberation movement is suppressed. Cultural diversity is supplanted by the consumer ersatz culture. As William Robinson writes, globalization supplants the nation state as the main principle of social life under capitalism.
The world economy is becoming transnational economy. Liberal ideologists would have us believe that this process is not connected with capitalism and speak about a “post-capitalist” reality. But, as the British researcher Barry Jones notes, globalization is the highest stage of the capitalist integration of the world economy. And his colleagues add that capitalist relations are both expanding and deepening to embrace the ever multiplying areas of human activity.
Let us be clear: if globalization reflects objective processes of integration of countries and peoples globalism is the modern form of imperialism which smothers the world in its embrace.
Read the full article here: cprf.ru/2020/04/lenins-ideological-legacy-and-the-struggle-of-working-people-for-socialism-in-the-21st-century/
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HUNGARIAN WORKERS' PARTY (MUNKASPART)
By Gyula Thürmer, president of the Hungarian Workers' Party
150 years ago, on April 22 1870 Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was born. We honor the memory ofthe outstanding personality of the Russian and international workers' movement, the founder of the Russian communist movement, the leader of the 1917 revolution, the prime minister of Soviet Russia. The man, who changed the 20th century.
Lenin is the enemy of capitalism
Throughout the decades of socialism everyone could read Lenin's works, his legacy was taught in the schools. There were Lenin monuments in almost every town, many streets were named after him. Generations have grown up with his ideas.
During the transition from socialism to capitalism in 1989-90, the statues were removed, the streets were renamed. Over the past 30 years, not a single book of Lenin has been published, the old editions cannot be found even in the second-hand bookstores.
In the more civilised countries of the capitalist world Marx is respected or at least tolerated as a philosopher, an economist who discovered the mechanism of capitalism. In our region, in the former socialist countries, Marx is also blacklisted.
But Lenin is particularly loathed by every capitalist. It's no accident! Lenin was the first one to fulfill the century-old dream of the working people, he defeated capital, toppled the rule of money. He fulfilled Marx's and Engels's ideas, created a functioning socialism.
Lenin is unacceptable to social democracy too. Lenin fought against capital, while the social democrats – from the mensheviks to today's socialists – haven't only come to terms with capital but they have become the executives of capitalism. Lenin advocated socialism, the rule of the working people, while social democrats believe in the purest form of capitalism. The only difference between them and other capitalist forces is that they hide their intentions behind high-sounding slogans – such as "democratic socialism" or the nowadays trendy "social Europe".
The goal of the capitalist world is to smear Lenin, to fade out his legacy, blot out his teachings. Lenin gave an intellectual weapon to the working masses, he taught them how to organise a party, how to bring the revolution to victory and rule the state of workers and peasants. This teaching threatens the very life of capital, so it pursues and uproots it.)ű
Lenin and we
Thirty years ago in Hungary it was the Workers' Party who took up Lenin's intellectual legacy. It wasn't an easy decision from both domestic and international perspectives)ű.
We had to face our own predecessors and rethink several doctrines of the socialist era. During the decades of socialism the ruling parties built monuments to Lenin, they made him a legendary, even mystical personality of the movement, but at the same time they were increasingly drifting away from the ideas of the living and fighting Lenin.
The persecution of Lenin's ideas didn't beginduring the period of the change of regime. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) already in 1956, on its famous 20th Congress made decisions that deviated from Lenin's interpretation on fundamental issues. The views of the CPSU were unfortunately adopted by the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (HSWP) too.
Since then it has been proved more than once that Lenin's views were the correct ones. It's not possible to create socialism through parliamentarism, because the capitalists would never let it happen.
Strategic cooperation with the social democrats is not possible, because by now it has been proven that they are unequivocally on the side of the capital, although they are continuously trying to delude the working masses.
Peaceful co-existence doesn't mean that we should capitulate to capital, based on projects such as "the common values of humanity", "the European security and cooperation" or "the European house". Peaceful co-existence cannot replace the goal of world revolution, the victory of socialism throughout the world.
The parties of the former socialist countries, among them the HSWP too, never formally broke up with Lenin, they made their policies accepted under Lenin's name, with his quotes. At the same time, they deemed consequent attachment adherence to Lenin's ideas dogmatism. In the intellectual life of these party and even in their political decisions increased the role of petty bourgeois, opportunistic forces, those striving in one way or another to come to an agreement with capital.
During the last decades of socialism Lenin has become a burden for those, for whom socialism was not enough and who already started to flirt with capitalism.They thought that by giving up Lenin's ideas they can get their entry ticket to capitalism. Monuments, paintings, visually everything was still the same, but the real content, the essence has vanished. The socialist state has gradually given up the fight against capital, and a power which had abandoned its ideals was easy to topple.
Communist parties resurrecting in former socialist countries have no easy job. It's not the imagined, mystified Lenin we have to return to, but the revolutinary, the thinker, the pioneer. We can't disown the socialist path, we even have to protect it from the anticommunist attacks of the capitalists. But we must be able to draw up the programme of a new socialism. This is our duty too, the mission of the Hungarian Workers' Party.
Several parties of the international workers' movement, especially the Western-European "eurocommunist" parties drifted away from Lenin and the ideas of 1917 already from the second part of the last decade. They deleted everything from their programs that Lenin said about the duties of workers' parties, the power of the working people and even about the class struggle against capital. The collapse of Eastern European socialism intensified the intellectual chaos and many parties saw the opportunity to escape in disowning Lenin.
In the last decades the former "eurocommunist" parties have formed with the support of the capital their EU-conform organisation, the European Left. Their goal is clear: with their pseudo-leftist slogans they want to win over those, who don't believe anymore either the conservaties, the liberals or the social democrats. They want to take away these voters from the communist parties who are consequently fighting against the capital, and thus precent the possibility of a socialist revolution in Europe.
Other parties hold on to Lenin, but they have forgotten the most important thing. Marxism is a living doctrine that develops in the course of history. We won't become stronger by turning Lenin's theses into dogmas. The dogmatic understanding of Marxism has contributed to the isolation of these parties in many countries.
Luckily many parties of the workers' movement hasn't only hold on to Marxist-Leninist ideas, but understood that Lenin's set of ideas is a compass in our hands, but we have to find and take the new paths ourselves. We have to stay true to the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism, but we have to be intellectually open to everything new.
Advocating Lenin's ideas wasn't easy in Hungary either. Under socialism we learnt only a simplified version of many things. And when we had to creatively implement Lenin's ideas in a new situation, we often balked or even failed.
As time was passing by, however, many have forgotten what they were once taught. The Hungarian Workers' Party did a lot to give new knowledge to its members, to encourage them to learn, but without money and enough motivation this is a very difficult task with little result.
Today's generations are brainwashed by the capitalist schools and the media. They rewrite and falsify history. Luckily Fortunately even despite that, there are young people who are interested in the ideas of socialism and the Hungarian Workers' Party. Their sympathies for socialism have primarily an emotional basis. We have to form their feelings towards ideological commitment. Among other things by cleverly educate them about Lenin's ideas.
Thirty years ago the Hungarian Workers' Party decided to rethink the hundred-year-old history of the Hungarian and international workers' movement in the spirit of Marxism-Leninism. We are trying to clear it from unnecessary layers, free it from mystification. We decided to learn from the experiences of our past.
We decided to be more open to new thoughts, just like Lenin, who was also open to them in his time. We will build on reality instead of illusions, just like Lenin did.
We decided to protect Marxist-Leninst ideas in the international workers' movement too. We don't give up the fight against the capital. We believe in the power of the international cooperation of the working masses. We believe and know that the future must be socialism.
Are we Marxists?
Lenin's life's work is grand, it extends from the struggle against capitalism, seizing power by the proletariat to the organization of the socialist state. Don't let Lenin's books gather dust on the shelves of party headquarters! Let's read, learn, understand and implement Lenin!
We should highlight the most important elements of Lenin's rich heritage on which we can build even today. For a start, let's define ourselves! If we don't know who we are, we won't know which direction to go.
Lenin stepped on the the political scene in the late 19th and early 20th century. In an era when significant changes happened in the world. The 19th-century capitalism, in which Marx had lived, was already a part of the past. The world was ruled by monopolies, we stepped in the era of imperialism.
Lenin had to face the question: can Marxism, a product of 19th century Western European thinking be implemented in the 20th century? Can it be implemented in the underdeveloped Russia and in general in the Eastern European region?
Lenin's answer: yes, Marxism can be implemented, because it's fundamentals are valid regardless of time and space. Lenin's historic achievement is that he protected Marxism and proved its validity in the 20th century.
Marxists are those who think that the origin of the world is material. As the world is not determined by gods and other external factors, it can be changed.
Marxists are those who acknowledge that in capitalism the worker produces surplus value and the capitalist expropriates it, so in other words, the capitalist becomes richer by what he takes from the worker.
Marxists are those who acknowledge the existence of social classes and the struggle between them, who acknowledge that the working class can realise its fundemantal interests only by defeating the capitalists and creating socialism.
Today we also face a very similar question. Can we be Marxists in the 21st century, in the era of information technology and transnational corporations? This question must be answered by us.
Our answer is: yes! The era of information transforms the world, but doesn't change the essence of capitalism. As the essence of capitalism is not changed, the essence of the workers' movement is not changed either – this is the struggle against captalism, the rule of money. Lenin defended Marxism in the 20th century. In the 21st century it's our grand and common duty.
Does Marxism change?
Lenin raises another question too, whether Marxism can be changed in the context of time. Lenin's answer is yes! Marxism is not a dogma, not a collection of eternal rules but a new way of thinking. New questions need new answers, but in accordance with the fundamentals of Marxism. Lenin is the one who makes changes in Marx's teaching on a number of issues. He realises that in the 20th century capitalism overruns national frameworks, monopolies take the place of traditional enterprises, the new stage of capitalism, imperialism is established. He points out that in this situation the differences between the development of certain capitalist countries can be significant. As capitalism develops disproportionately, the conditions of the socialist revolution can appear faster in some countries than in others.
Marx and Engels believed that socialism will triumph in developed countries and at the same time. Lenin prvoes that socialism will triumph right where capitalism is the weakest. We don't have to and shouldn't wait for the situation to develop in other countries. Where the conditions of the socialist revolutions are given, the revolution must be accomplished.
Lenin's thesis, that the chain of capitalism will break at its weakest link, meant a fundamental turn. This made it possible for the Russian workers' movement to choose its own direction, to carry out a socialist revolution and to build socialism in a single country
In which direction is today's capitalism developing? At what point, in which country does the crisis of capitalism – that we have every reason to talk about – turn into a revolutionary situation? These are the questions of today to which we have to find an answer.
The workers' movement is more organised in the developed Western countries than on the Eastern part of Europe. The disadvantage of the Western workers' movement is thaton the one hand, it has no life experience of socialism, no benchmark. On the other hand, in these countries the capital has more experience in manipulating the working people, and more money to prevent the socialist revolution providing a higher standard of living.
In recent years a new tool appeared in ther arsenal. They are using migration to split the working class of the leading capitalist countries, to undermine its anti-capitalist fight.
The Eastern part of Europe is poorer than the West and it will stay like this for a while. The Western capital is exploiting the region. The countries of the region are mostly members of the NATO and the EU. Is a socialist revolution even possible under these circumstances?
Class struggle against capital is still on a low levelin the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. But the situation is changing. Today the capitalist order is not threatened anywhere in the region, but the system can change dramatically if a war erupts, the EU collapses or another migrant wave starts.
The peoples of the region lived under socialism, they know how it was. More and more people are realizing that capitalism has changed their lives, but it has also destroyed a lot of things: security, predictability, and social solidarity. Moreover, capitalism - and this is true not only for former socialist countries-destroys common human values.
It's not an accident that it is in these countries that capitalist forces are making the biggest efforts to manipulate the masses. They are protecting the stability of the economies by the state capitalist methods and prevent the capitalist crisis from generating uncontrollable social conflicts.All this is combined with the ideological tools of nationalism, religion, and anti-communism.
This is also where the attack of liberalism is the strongest. They promise "European values", the "European minimum wage", by warning of fascism try to incite fear, diverge the attention of the working masses from the fight against capital.
We don't know when capitalism will waver in our region. But we know that it can waver. We know that we must prepare ourselves, our party and the working people for the possibility of a change.
The road to power
The socialist revolution is not on the agenda anywhere today. But the situation can quickly change. What should be done until then, how can we fight under the conditinos of the bourgeois democracy?
Today's electoral systems make the impression that there's a democratic competition between parties and the winner is the one who can convince the people more. Lenin says something else: "so-called modern democracy ... is nothing but the freedom to preach whatever is to the advantage of the bourgeoisie, to preach".
The purpose of the institutions of bourgeois democravy, the electoral system and the media is not to help the opponents of capital to reach power. Their purpose is to prevent the anti-capitalist forces to reach the power and at the same time to keep the competition of the pro-capitalist forces in a framework which ensures the stability of the capitalist system.
This means that the fight against the capital cannot only be focused on the electoral fight, even if it's successful. The Hungarian Workers' Party has never been a parliamentary party, but we had representatives in many county, city and district councils in the 1990s. We have lost these positions. Not only because the Hungarian capitalism has stabilised itself and the structure of the Hungarian society has changed. But also because we had no experiences in the bourgeois democracy. Many of our deputies didn't represent the theoretical policies of the Workers' Party, the feelings and interests of the working people who had elected them, but joined the fights of the bourgeois parties. In many places they falsely took the side of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP). And at the same time they forgot the struggle on the streets, the ideological fight and the fight for the youth.
We knew Lenin's warning: "limiting the class struggle to the parliamentary struggle... is actually desertion to the side of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat". We knew it but didn't take it seriously or couldn't implement it.
The bourgeois democracy means dictatorship, the rule of the capitalist class over the working masses. This dictatorship has been prevailing in Hungary for thirty years. It's not one or the other capitalist government that took away press freedom from us, it's capitalism. It's not one or the other group that prevents us from getting into the parliament, because neither of them is interested in our entrance.
When today the liberal forces are protesting against "dictatorship", they don't fight for the working people to own the power. They want to gain more influence and more money from the other groups of the capitalist class. Replacing a capitalist government with another one doesn't bring democracy to the working masses, but places one or another capitalist groups in power.
The media is an important tool, but the masses should realise the necessity of change. The road goes from the struggles at the workplace through the trade unions to the communist parties. In Hungary, where only 9-10 percent of the employees are unionized, where there are no major strikes and demonstrations, there's plenty to do.
In compliance with Lenin's teachings, the Workers' Party attends the elections. The party doesn't get into the parliament but the people get to know its policies. As Lenin writes: "The party of the revolutionary proletariat must take part in bourgeois parliaments in order to enlighten the masses; this can be done during elections and in the struggle between parties in parliament." This is what we do.
The parliamentary struggle, getting into the parliament is not a goal, only a tool for us. One of the tools in our fight against the capital. We run in the elections, we have representatives in some of the local councils, but at the same time we are present in the fight on the streets with our stands. We are engaged in the ideological battle with our party weekly (A Szabadság) and our online tools. We have to build the party knowing that the situation can quickly change and something that's a distant programme at the moment, can turn into our militant duty.
We have experience in this field too, pretty much. In 1990 the taxi drivers blockaded Budapest because the gasoline prices were raised. The young Hungarian capitalism waivered, but didn't fail. Partially because we weren't able to join this mass movement either. We didn't have the relevant experiences. In order to support social actions, we have to know them from the inside. And what's not less important: we must distinguish between genuine social dissatisfaction and actions provoked by the bourgeois parties. We have to support the first, and debunk the second.
What socialism is really like?
The temptation is always great to draw up in detail the picture of the socialism that's ideal for us. We have to learn from Lenin in this matter too. There's an approriate moment whenwe can and have to do things. Of course, Lenin drafted what socialism means long before 1917, how is it different from capitalism and how capitalism can be toppled.
His work, The State and Revolution - which explains the duties of the socialist state - was written only in the summer of 1917, shortly before the victory of the October Revolution. It was the moment when it was necessary and it was the moment when he was able to see the actual duties. Many things we know from Lenin about socialism, Lenin wrote after the revolution and not before it, by analysing and generalising the experiences of the party and the working masses.
We have many experiences about socialism now. We already know how the socialist system were established after 1945, how it functioned and how it was overthrown. Among the many experiences the most well-known are the ones of the Soviet Union. The experiences of other socialist countries gain less attention – even though there was Yugoslavia, there was the GDR, there was the Hungarian People's Republic, they were similar in many ways, but not the same.
Lenin never said that socialism should be the same everywhere. He drafted only the fundamental characteristics of socialism. This is our duty today too, completed by the experiences Lenin couldn't have.
The power must be in the hands of the working class, the toiling classes. Where it's notthe case there's no socialism. Capital in order to maintain its power can limit itself and give many social benefits to the masses. Sweden had a better social system than many former socialist countries but it was not socialism. In today's Hungary liberals are attacking the conservative government by claiming that it leads the country into "socialism" by providing the social benefits. But it's not the case!
Lenin's explanation is clear: "the proletariat cannot overthrow the bourgeoisie without first winning political power, without attaining political supremacy, without transforming the state into the "proletariat organized as the ruling class". After the victory of the socialist revolution the working class exercises its power through the worker-peasant state, the dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin considers it fundamental. He underlines that anyone who doesn't extend the acknowledgement of the class struggle to the acknowledgement of the dictatorship of the proletariat, is simply not a Marxist.
The ownership must be in the hands of the society. This is when we can speak about socialism. This comes from the fact that we are Marxists. As Marxists, we believe what Marx and Engels said: "communists bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question, no matter what its degree of development at the time ".
Lenin believes that socialism can finally defeat capitalism only when its labour can ensure greater productivity. Lenin says: "We will achieve the victory of communist labour". This is one of the most important points which we often forget.
Socialism can reach results in distribution relatively easy. At the beginning of the socialist revolution it's enough to take away from the capitalists and give it to the people. But after that, the factories which are owned by the society, should reach (achieve) greater productivity. The more efficient organisation of labour is a historic task which wasn't successful everywhere.
The so-called New Economic Policy (NEP) was an important element in Lenin's teachings. According to Lenin, the NEP means that the communist party – as the owner of state power and retaining the right to decide the main issues of the economy – allows the functioning and prosperity of capitalist private ownership and the implementation of elements of the market rules.
«It was called a New Economic Policy because it turned things back. We are now retreating, going back, as it were; but we are doing so in order, after first retreating, to take a running start and make a bigger leap forward» – Lenin writes after the introduction of the NEP.
Looking back, it's not the NEP itself that's interesting, but the fact that later the NEP becomes the starting point of the reform measures of the European socialist countries. Of course the capitalist world praised these reform measures, because every step that got us farther away from socialism, was in the interest of capital. We also know that often in socialist countries – including Hungary – it was the liberal intellectuals and the leadership's pragmatic part that stood behind the reforms. This is all true. But from the future's point of view it's useful to examine every experiment which was aimed at defeating capitalism in the field of the labour's productivity.
If we speak about socialism, we can't ignore the experiences of those countries where socialism has survived after 1990 too. True, in China, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba and Korea the fight for the socialist revolution was connected to the fight for national independence and that gave them such power that Eastern European systems didn't have. We have to see this, but there's more.
We have to see that these countries made steps to revive their economies based on their own situation in order to defeat capitalism in the economic sphere. We also have to see that these countries created their own political systems, but didn't question the leading role of the party. We have to see that these countries are functioning.
Together with Lenin, we say: "One of the necessary conditions for preparing the proletariat for its victory is a long, stubborn and ruthless struggle against opportunism, reformism, social-chauvinism, and similar bourgeois influences and trends, which are inevitable, since the proletariat is operating in a capitalist environment." We are holding on to our Marxist principles, so we view the world on this basis.
But also together with Lenin, we think that the world can only be judged based on facts, our policies must be built on facts. We should be open to new things, we have to give new answers to new questions. Marxism is our compass, the hundred-year-old experience of the communist movement is our common treasure-house we have to use and we also have to contribute to it according to our capabilities.
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF UKRAINE
Astract of the theses on the 150th anniversary of V.I. Lenin adopted by the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
Lenin in the fate of Ukraine
Lenin constantly studied the socio-economic and political situation in Ukraine and drew conclusions important for the liberation struggle of the working people. He maintained close ties with many public figures in the region.
Lenin at the end of the XIX century in the fundamental work "The Development of Capitalism in Russia" paid great attention to Ukraine. He made a scientific analysis of a complex national problem and the national liberation struggle in Ukraine. In the pre-October period, he resolutely defended the right of the Ukrainian people to self-determination, up to the creation of an independent state, to the free development of the native language and national culture.
The Great October Socialist Revolution is a turning point in the fate of the Ukrainian people, who for the first time became the master of their country, the real subject of the historical process. Workers' State - The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ensured the simultaneous solution of the tasks of socio-economic development and national revival, the creation of highly developed industry and mechanized agriculture, the flourishing of education, science and culture. The Ukrainian SSR was one of the top ten most developed countries in the world.
The inclusion of the Ukrainian SSR in the UN founding member states was convincing evidence of the recognition by the international community of its real statehood.
On the basis of Leninist ideological and organizational principles, the Communist Party of Ukraine was created in July 1918 as an integral part of the single All-Russian (All-Union) Communist Party. The Communist Party of Ukraine has come a long and glorious path.
Ukraine within existing borders - Lenin's legacy
Immediately after the February Revolution, some of the states that were part of the Russian Empire turned to the Provisional Government with a request to secede from Russia, in particular Poland, Finland, and Ukraine. The interim government refused to all.
The Leninist party of the Bolsheviks was the only political force in Russia that supported the Ukrainian national movement after the February Revolution. Without Lenin, it could have died out already in the summer of 1917. Without Lenin and the Bolsheviks, there would be no Ukrainian statehood, which was fully implemented in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It was in the Soviet Union that Ukraine united all Ukrainian lands.
Without Lenin and the Bolshevik Party there would have been no Ukrainian state. It was on Lenin’s proposal that the party’s program laid the right of nations to self-determination, which, after the events of 1991, was the basis of Ukraine’s independence.
Lenin was the initiator of the industrialization of Soviet Ukraine. A powerful industry is also a Leninist legacy. Lenin attached greater importance to the development of modern large-scale industry: mechanical engineering, energy, the chemical industry, and other industries.
After the Leninist ideas of building a state were rejected, Ukraine found itself in the margins of civilization.
The relevance of the ideas of Leninism to the Communist Party of Ukraine, the present and future people of Ukraine
The historical achievements of the Soviet people are achieved through the fulfillment of the wills of V.I. Lenin, the creative development of his teachings. But in the second half of the 1980s, the class enemy managed to seriously damage the cause of socialism and the party itself. This allowed the anti-communist forces to destroy the Soviet Union by criminal means, liquidate Soviet power, plunder social wealth, launch a campaign to destroy the achievements of Soviet civilization, and restore capitalism.
The restoration of capitalism in Ukraine over the past 29 years has become:
- the elimination of the socialist basis — the destruction of public ownership of production methods, the collapse of collective farms and state farms, the social arrangement of villages on a collectivist basis;
- profound changes in the social-class structure of society, first of all, the emergence of a class of exploiters - capitalists and landlords, who have seized dominant positions in the economy, government structures, and the media;
- the destruction of the domestic economy, social sphere and the most advanced social protection system in the world;
- ecological catastrophe;
- the property and social stratification of society, the growing antagonistic contradiction between wage labor and capital, class opposition;
- degradation and extinction of the people;
- the dominance of bourgeois-nationalist ideology, the tendency towards fascization of the ruling regime, the bloating of anti-communist psychosis, Russophobia, violation of the rights of Russian-speaking citizens, falsification of the history of Ukraine, loss of its territorial integrity, cruel brother the disastrous war in the Donbass, the external governance of the country and its transformation into a colony of the USA and the EU.
In the context of the illegal ban of the Communist Party of Ukraine, despite the anti-communist psychosis, the Communists did not stop the struggle for upholding the rights of workers, for returning Ukraine to the socialist path of development. The flag of the Communist Party banned in 1991 was picked up by the Communist Party of Ukraine, created in June 1993 and registered in October 1993. As a result of the persistent struggle, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine as an act of historical justice recognized the unconstitutionality of the decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Council prohibiting the activities of the Communist Party.
A reflection of the systemic crisis of capitalism, the failure of liberal concepts, and the historical doom of a unipolar model of world development are evidence of the global financial and economic crisis of recent years, which hit the economy and well-being of working people in Ukraine.
Under these conditions, the world bourgeoisie seeks salvation by fanning the hysteria of anti-communism, and above all, by trying to discredit the genius of mankind V.I. Lenin.
The development of events in the world gives more and more evidence that, despite the temporary setbacks of the revolutionary movement, the content of the modern era is the transition from capitalism to socialism, only socialism can overcome the contradictions organically inherent in the capitalist world - exploitation of man by man, the wasteful nature of the capitalist production and consumption.
Today, in the conditions of capitalism restored in the country, in an atmosphere of brutal reaction and persecution of the Communists, as a result of the adopted law on decommunization, the strategic goals of the Communist Party of Ukraine continue to be:
- assertion of the power of the working people;
- building socialism - a society of social justice, in which the means of production are socialized, and man is the main goal and factor of social development, bearing in mind the prospect of building communism as “an association in which the free development of everyone is a condition for the free development of all”;
- preservation of statehood, territorial integrity and creative potential of the political society of Ukraine;
- the revival, in the light of new conditions, of the Union of fraternal peoples of the criminally destroyed Soviet Union.
Lenin’s doctrine is immortal, because it was not created to require personal ambition. It lined up in a system that gives the correct vector of movement into the future. Today this is confirmed by China, Vietnam, Cuba, Laos and other states, at the helm of which are the Communists. It was these countries that were able to increase the pace of production even today, in the context of the global economic crisis. The fact that it was precisely the refusal to follow the Leninist course that threw Ukraine into the margins of civilization and the overthrow of the working man into the position of a beggar and an outcast is becoming ever more evident.
Lenin’s time has not passed. It is just beginning its refreshing run across countries and continents, it aims at struggle, makes it work and win. The ideas, deeds and personal qualities of Vladimir Ilyich remain at the center of a sharp ideological and political struggle.
The reactionary forces organize sabotage against monuments to Lenin and provocations regarding the historical and cultural heritage associated with his name, the activities of the Communist Party, the falsification of the socialist period of the development of the USSR and Soviet Ukraine, and the persecution of communists for dissent. Despite the terror and the persecution, the Communist Party of Ukraine continues the political struggle on the basis of its Anti-Crisis Program “From War to Peace”.
The Communist Party of Ukraine - the party of the people, the party of Lenin is convinced: the best monument to the founder of Bolshevism is thoughtful study, creative development and active propaganda of the Leninist legacy, its implementation.
The Communist Party of Ukraine will further develop cooperation with fraternal communist and workers parties, progressive anti-imperialist movements around the world, and advocates closer coordination and unity of action of communists and other left forces in the international arena.
The Communist Party of Ukraine is one of the units of the international communist and working-class movement, it bears the banner of internationalism, has fought, is fighting and will fight for the implementation of its program goals: "For the power of the working people, socialism, the Union of fraternal peoples."
Since the time of Marx, Engels and Lenin, the motto of our party has remained:
“Workers of all countries, unite!”
as a condition for the victory of the working people in the future socialist revolution.
Communist Party of Ukraine
Central Committee.
* * *
COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (CPI)
By General Secretary D. Raja:
Comrade V.I. Lenin was a great theoretician and ideologue after Karl Marx. He was a great strategist and tactician. He led the socialist revolution in 1917 which is celebrated as the great October Socialist revolution. This led to the foundation of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) the first working class state and nation in the world. Despite the fall of the first communist government and disintegration of the Soviet Union, the legacy of great Lenin continues to be a source of inspiration not only for the people of Russia but also for the people of the world over.
It was Lenin after Marx who developed the theory of Marxism- philosophy (Dialectical and Historical Materialism), political economy and scientific socialism. Lenin analysed the capitalist development at its new stage. Lenin’s work “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism” exposed the parasitic and moribund character of capitalism and also indicated the transition from capitalism to socialism. At the beginning and during the Great Depression, Lenin’s analysis of imperialism showed the way forward towards an alternative in establishing a working class state and building socialism free from all forms of exploitations and discriminations.
Lenin was also a founder of a working class party of new type. It was Bolshevik party, later on it became the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU). Lenin’s “What is to be Done” has become a guide for building such a party.
Lenin being one of the finest and greatest communist leaders of the world played an important role in strengthening the international solidarity. He played a significant role in establishing the Third Communist International.
The pandemic of Covid-19 has led to lockdown in many countries across the world including our country India. This has restricted the celebrations of Lenin’s birth anniversary expressing great jubilance in public. However, as communists in the given situation we should address the problems of the poor, migrant workers and discriminated sections of our people. Communists must show their commitment and determined work identifying with the suffering masses.
While paying our tributes to the illustrious son of the working class, we the Indian communists should rededicate ourselves for the cause of socialism by applying the theory to the local and concrete conditions of our country. The lockdown should not be a hurdle in reaching out to the suffering masses and forcing the state governments and the union government to act appropriately. The people must get their due rights to lead a dignified life in the given, unimaginable, difficult situation.
Governments should understand that they are dealing with the citizens- the creators of the wealth of the nation and they are not in power to treat citizens as their subjects living under their mercy.
I appeal to all party cadres at all levels to rise to the occasion and take up the challenges in order to help people who are in need.
Let us pay our respectful tributes to comrade Lenin.
I convey the revolutionary greetings to all of you and to the people on behalf of the party leadership.
Comradely yours
S/d
RAJA, General Secretary.
* * *
COMMUNIST PARTY, USA (CPUSA)
The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) joins Communists, socialists, and anti-imperialists of all countries in celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin, whose work became and remains the foundation for Communist parties and workers movements from the Soviet Socialist Revolution (1917) to today.
Lenin’s theory of a revolutionary vanguard party of the working class, first advanced in What is to be Done(1904), called for the creation of parties that would organize and educate the working class and coordinate its struggle or socialism. This represented a sharp break with opportunist tendencies in the socialist movement in Russia, with worldwide implications.
Lenin, during WWI, in State andRevolution (1916) contended that a socialist revolution, to successfully achieve the transition from capitalism to socialism,must establish a new state, a workers state, with its own institutions representing the working class, one which the working class would identify with and defend.
Lenin applied these principles and led hisparty, the Bolshevik party, to advance the first successful socialist revolution in history (1917) and the first successful revolutionary workers state in history (Soviet Russia, later the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics).
Lenin then developed his theory of imperialism, which saw imperialism as capitalism’s final stage, leading to new and much more destructive wars and much higher levels of exploitation and oppression in thecolonial regions of the world
Lenin called upon socialists towork to develop anti-imperialist struggles and establish socialist parties outside of the industrialized capitalist countries (Asia, Africa, and Latin America).
These principles were advanced in the formation of a new International of Socialist Parties,the Communist International or Comintern (1919) which would advance in theory and subsequently implement in practice the United Front in the struggles against fascism and for socialism and national liberation.
Lenin realized that the revolutionary tactics which had triumphed in the Soviet Revolution could not be applied mechanically through the world even in the revolutionary upsurge which followed WWI. He understood that working within existing trade unions, forming political coalitions, was necessary if revolutionary forces were not to be isolated and defeated. He expressed these important views in Leftwing Communism: An Infantile Disorder
Like Marx before him, Lenin opposed both leftwing sectarianism and rightwing opportunism in the socialist movement. In the midst of the present global crisis and the specific struggle in the U.S. against the ultra-right Trump administration, the CPUSA re-affirms this stand.
These contributions came to be called Marxism-Leninism and live today in the world’s Communist parties, socialist countries and anti-imperialist movements. The CPUSA celebrates the 150 anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin as both a celebration of a glorious past and a guide to a future that our party, our fraternal parties, the workingclass, and oppressed peoples of the world will help to build.
The Workers Party of Ireland marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the great revolutionary and theorist of scientific socialism, who was born on 22 April 1870 in Simbirsk, Russia. This is an event which is being celebrated across the world. Lenin’s works remain milestones for the development of Marxism and revolutionary struggle.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels laid out the theoretical grounds which established the role of the working class in world history. Lenin translated the theory of socialism into practice. Lenin and his Bolshevik Party led the working class to power and in so doing founded the first workers’ state. The new socialist state created unprecedented economic, social and political achievements for the working class.
Lenin’s life and work were dedicated to the service of the working class. The object of the October Revolution was to abolish all forms of exploitation and oppression and to construct a new society based on socialist ideas.
Lenin’s ideas, brought to fruition in the October Revolution, transformed the world. The October Revolution constituted a decisive break with the old world order, abolished private ownership of the means of production and laid the basis for the political, social and economic liberation of humankind. These ideas inspired the workers and oppressed of the world and offered real prospects for change, investing the workers’ movement with a revolutionary consciousness and objective, and educating, organising and mobilising the mass of the working people in the task of building a new society.
Today, as we face into a new capitalist crisis and the escalation of imperialist competition which poses ever new dangers to world peace the ideas of Lenin and the principles of Leninism remain as vital as ever.
The social, political, and economic problems that plague the majority of our people are rooted in the system of private ownership, the concentration of private capital in few hands, the corporate accumulation of wealth and the relentless and ruthless pursuit of profit at all costs: capitalism.
A working class, united and conscious of its power as a class, is necessary for change, for the revolutionary transformation of society, for the abolition of capitalism and for the construction of a socialist society in which power is firmly in the hands of the workers and where the wealth of society is used for the benefit of the many, not the profit of the few.
At a time when a new rise in nationalism seeks to corrupt and distort the labour movement and attempts to divide workers on ethnic, national or religious grounds, presenting a challenge to working class unity and progressive political change, we should remember Lenin’s cautionary remarks that “Marxism cannot be reconciled with nationalism, be it even of the “most just”, “purest”, most refined and civilised brand.
Whereas socialism emphasises the conflict between social classes, a conflict which crosses national boundaries, nationalism, in contrast, dangerously promotes nation above class as the principal focus of individual and group allegiance.
He also alerts us to the continuing threat of opportunism and reformism to the struggle for socialism, a trend which weakens and corrupts the class struggle, working class unity and Marxist-Leninist ideology.
As internationalists, together with our comrades in the international communist and workers’ parties, we proudly celebrate this anniversary, we acknowledge and defend the great contribution of Lenin’s ideas and works to the international movement and we commit ourselves to the achievement of workers’ power and the building of a socialist society.
22nd April 2020.
* * *
WORKERS PARTY OF IRELAND
The Workers Party of Ireland marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the great revolutionary and theorist of scientific socialism, who was born on 22 April 1870 in Simbirsk, Russia. This is an event which is being celebrated across the world. Lenin’s works remain milestones for the development of Marxism and revolutionary struggle.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels laid out the theoretical grounds which established the role of the working class in world history. Lenin translated the theory of socialism into practice. Lenin and his Bolshevik Party led the working class to power and in so doing founded the first workers’ state. The new socialist state created unprecedented economic, social and political achievements for the working class.
Lenin’s life and work were dedicated to the service of the working class. The object of the October Revolution was to abolish all forms of exploitation and oppression and to construct a new society based on socialist ideas.
Lenin’s ideas, brought to fruition in the October Revolution, transformed the world. The October Revolution constituted a decisive break with the old world order, abolished private ownership of the means of production and laid the basis for the political, social and economic liberation of humankind. These ideas inspired the workers and oppressed of the world and offered real prospects for change, investing the workers’ movement with a revolutionary consciousness and objective, and educating, organising and mobilising the mass of the working people in the task of building a new society.
Today, as we face into a new capitalist crisis and the escalation of imperialist competition which poses ever new dangers to world peace the ideas of Lenin and the principles of Leninism remain as vital as ever.
The social, political, and economic problems that plague the majority of our people are rooted in the system of private ownership, the concentration of private capital in few hands, the corporate accumulation of wealth and the relentless and ruthless pursuit of profit at all costs: capitalism.
A working class, united and conscious of its power as a class, is necessary for change, for the revolutionary transformation of society, for the abolition of capitalism and for the construction of a socialist society in which power is firmly in the hands of the workers and where the wealth of society is used for the benefit of the many, not the profit of the few.
At a time when a new rise in nationalism seeks to corrupt and distort the labour movement and attempts to divide workers on ethnic, national or religious grounds, presenting a challenge to working class unity and progressive political change, we should remember Lenin’s cautionary remarks that “Marxism cannot be reconciled with nationalism, be it even of the “most just”, “purest”, most refined and civilised brand.
Whereas socialism emphasises the conflict between social classes, a conflict which crosses national boundaries, nationalism, in contrast, dangerously promotes nation above class as the principal focus of individual and group allegiance.
He also alerts us to the continuing threat of opportunism and reformism to the struggle for socialism, a trend which weakens and corrupts the class struggle, working class unity and Marxist-Leninist ideology.
As internationalists, together with our comrades in the international communist and workers’ parties, we proudly celebrate this anniversary, we acknowledge and defend the great contribution of Lenin’s ideas and works to the international movement and we commit ourselves to the achievement of workers’ power and the building of a socialist society.
22nd April 2020.
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PARTY OF LABOUR, AUSTRIA (PdA)
On 22 April 1870 Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born, who was to become world famous under the name Lenin. His work and activities are stillhighly significant for the contemporaryworld communist movement.
With the name Lenin we associate important and momentous events in the history of mankind, especially the Great Socialist October Revolution of 1917 -its theoretical and practical preparation and its beginning at the right time under the slogan "peace, work, bread" are due to Lenin's strategic thinking and his sharp analysis of the concrete conditions. He earned invaluable merits in the foundation of the first socialist state of the world and the USSR, as well as in the formation of the world communist movement through the creation of the Third, the Communist International. Lenin played a central role in all these great achievements of the revolutionary workers' movement. It can rightly be said that Lenin, as a historical personality, was the greatest revolutionary of the 20th century, although he did not experience even a quarter of it.
However, Lenin was by no means only one of the most important representatives of the political practice of proletarian class struggle, revolution and socialist construction, but also, along with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the most important theoretician of the Marxist world view, which is why he is quite rightly in line with them. It was precisely Lenin who decisively defended the findings of the two founders of scientific socialism against revisionism and opportunism. We owe to Lenin, among other things, the guidelines for the formation of the party of a new type, for democratic centralism and the Bolshevisation of communist parties, which overcame degenerate social-democratism. Lenin also made important theoretical contributions to the national question and internationalism, the alliance policy of the working class, the strategy and tactics of the revolutionary movement, the shaping of the rule of the organized proletariat, but also to philosophical questions. Last but not least, Lenin's theory of imperialism offers a precise analysis of monopoly capitalism and explains its historical classification as the highest and final stage of capitalism. Against this background, we rightly speak of Marxism-Leninism, which only in its entirety is the tool for recognizing the world, for leading the class struggle, for the communist movement and for the socialist revolution. Without the teachings of Lenin there is no serious communist party and no socialism. This is the legacy we must take up and for this legacy we want to be grateful.
On the occasion of Lenin's 150th birthday, we want to pay tribute to his theoretical and practical achievements. The most important tribute, however, is the active defence, application and development of Marxism-Leninism, the upright and sincere continuation of his revolutionary struggle for socialism and classless society - communism. Through our struggles Lenin lives on, through the ultimate liberation of humanity from capitalist exploitation and oppression, Lenin will live forever in the memories and hearts of the peoples.
A cheer for Lenin, the leader and teacher of the communists of all countries!
Long live Marxism-Leninism!
Long live the world communist movement!
Today is the 150th birthday anniversary of great revolutionary, leader and teacher of the worlds proletariat, Comrade Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov born 22 April 1870)
Leninism is the legacy of Marx and Engles. Guided by their teachings comrade Lenin led the great October socialist revolution to curb out exploitation of the forces of production and for the progress and prosperity of mankind.
In view of Marxist philosophy comrade Lenin’s unparalleled brilliance made it possible and practicable what was unthinkable before. He defined and explained imperialism, coined the idea of proletarian party, elaborated national question and created road map for communists to resolve it, under-marked the agrarian question , highlighting that without the participation of peasants socialist revolution will not be possible especially in the countries where majority of population consist of peasantry.
He emphasized on struggle for socialist revolution, not only in countries having advanced means and forces of production but also in the countries with week loops in capitalist imperialist system. He said, “where ever the chains of exploitation and slavery can be broken, should be broken, so that drainage of capital from underdeveloped poor countries can be plugged and proletariat of these imperialist countries should rise for revolution”.
Considering the trends of opportunism in international communist movement, comrade Lenin abstained himself from the second international and organized third international to clarify the strategy of struggle without reformism. For true revolutionaries to liberate the world from waged and national slavery.
As today terrible exploitative system of Financial Capital has overwhelmed the entire humanity. This system is destroying nature, has plunged the global community into wars, as a result millions of people are compelled to leave their homeland and facing miseries in far away places of asylum. Humanity is left to suffer from diseases epidemics with nefarious objectives to capture global markets. Pandemic of Corona virus has exposed the capitalist system. Working class is facing joblessness and famine, even the middle class is facing the same fate. Horrible bombs are being piled up but nothing is there to save lives, health system has also become a source of making money instead of saving lives.
Under these circumstances, teaching of comrade Lenin is beacon light for communists to act. It is imperative to create a new world after pandemic of Corona virus. Workers of the world will have to unite and topple the ruling classes of their respective countries and abolish the profit based system.
For us Leninism is not a faith but the opponents’ such censure provokes the Leninist to leave his ideology. They ask us to abandon the idea of revolution through monolithic Leninist party , teaching us to try reforms in capitalist system through parties like Aam Admi Party in India. Their loud slogans of democratic socialism are barren tricks to distract us from the task of revolution. We are aware of these conspiracies and can handle them.
The capitalist system of course is a system of waging slavery and its foundation is rooted in corruption. In the name of democracy it is actually a system of feudal and capitalist dictatorship.
In countries like Pakistan even the status quo parties have to make compromises with establishment and imperialist forces to come into power after electoral process. Survival of their governments depend upon submission to the instructions of these forces. Disobedience can cause them removal from power through Martial Law or otherwise, the leadership of the party will face humiliation, imprisonment even death by hanging. Under these circumstances revolutionary communists are left with no other choice except socialist revolution and this is the lesson of teaching of Leninism.
We do not forget comrade Lenin.
Red salute to comrade Lenin on his 150th birthday.
Politburo Communist Party of Pakistan.
* * *
COMMUNIST PARTY OF PAKISTAN (CPP)
Today is the 150th birthday anniversary of great revolutionary, leader and teacher of the worlds proletariat, Comrade Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov born 22 April 1870)
Leninism is the legacy of Marx and Engles. Guided by their teachings comrade Lenin led the great October socialist revolution to curb out exploitation of the forces of production and for the progress and prosperity of mankind.
In view of Marxist philosophy comrade Lenin’s unparalleled brilliance made it possible and practicable what was unthinkable before. He defined and explained imperialism, coined the idea of proletarian party, elaborated national question and created road map for communists to resolve it, under-marked the agrarian question , highlighting that without the participation of peasants socialist revolution will not be possible especially in the countries where majority of population consist of peasantry.
He emphasized on struggle for socialist revolution, not only in countries having advanced means and forces of production but also in the countries with week loops in capitalist imperialist system. He said, “where ever the chains of exploitation and slavery can be broken, should be broken, so that drainage of capital from underdeveloped poor countries can be plugged and proletariat of these imperialist countries should rise for revolution”.
Considering the trends of opportunism in international communist movement, comrade Lenin abstained himself from the second international and organized third international to clarify the strategy of struggle without reformism. For true revolutionaries to liberate the world from waged and national slavery.
As today terrible exploitative system of Financial Capital has overwhelmed the entire humanity. This system is destroying nature, has plunged the global community into wars, as a result millions of people are compelled to leave their homeland and facing miseries in far away places of asylum. Humanity is left to suffer from diseases epidemics with nefarious objectives to capture global markets. Pandemic of Corona virus has exposed the capitalist system. Working class is facing joblessness and famine, even the middle class is facing the same fate. Horrible bombs are being piled up but nothing is there to save lives, health system has also become a source of making money instead of saving lives.
Under these circumstances, teaching of comrade Lenin is beacon light for communists to act. It is imperative to create a new world after pandemic of Corona virus. Workers of the world will have to unite and topple the ruling classes of their respective countries and abolish the profit based system.
For us Leninism is not a faith but the opponents’ such censure provokes the Leninist to leave his ideology. They ask us to abandon the idea of revolution through monolithic Leninist party , teaching us to try reforms in capitalist system through parties like Aam Admi Party in India. Their loud slogans of democratic socialism are barren tricks to distract us from the task of revolution. We are aware of these conspiracies and can handle them.
The capitalist system of course is a system of waging slavery and its foundation is rooted in corruption. In the name of democracy it is actually a system of feudal and capitalist dictatorship.
In countries like Pakistan even the status quo parties have to make compromises with establishment and imperialist forces to come into power after electoral process. Survival of their governments depend upon submission to the instructions of these forces. Disobedience can cause them removal from power through Martial Law or otherwise, the leadership of the party will face humiliation, imprisonment even death by hanging. Under these circumstances revolutionary communists are left with no other choice except socialist revolution and this is the lesson of teaching of Leninism.
We do not forget comrade Lenin.
Red salute to comrade Lenin on his 150th birthday.
Politburo Communist Party of Pakistan.
* * *
PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY (PCP)
Today, April 22, it is 150 years since the birth of V. I. Lenin, the brilliant follower of Marx and Engels, a leading figure of the workers' and communist movement and of the contemporary World History, leader of the first victorious proletarian revolution and founder of the first socialist state - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The situation we live in the country as a result of the epidemic outbreak prevented us, and still prevents us, from materializing the programme of initiatives with which the PCP intended to mark the year of the 150th anniversary of his birth, his revolutionary legacy and the topicality of his extensive and invaluable work, but also to commemorate this day, in particular, with the relevance that the exceptional figure of Lenin, of a great intellectual, philosopher, economist and political leader of world standing demands and compels us as followers of the struggle for a society free from the exploitation of man by man.
As Álvaro Cunhal pointed out, we Portuguese communists owe much to Lenin, as should communists and workers from all over the world.
We owe not only the experience of his work in leading this pioneering event in the history of mankind, which was the October Revolution with its historic political, economic, social, cultural and civilizational achievements opening a new historical era - the transition from capitalism to socialism.
We owe what this original act meant in terms of inspiration, impetus and encouragement to the struggle of workers all over the world, which forced capitalism to recognise them and to enshrine fundamental social and political rights into law.
We owe the decisive influence of his ideas and activity to the capital revolutionary events of our time. The time of the great liberation struggles of the peoples submitted to the colonial empires.
We owe Lenin the sure compass for guiding our activity as a patriotic and internationalist Party.
We owe him the creation of a proletarian Party of a new type and the foundation of the Communist International. This Leninist party that the PCP is proud to be and whose characteristics assumed from an early age, enabled it to cross the most difficult conditions, to face great hardships, in many moments of its almost 100 years of existence.
It was inspired by Leninism that the PCP became closely linked to the working class and the popular masses, became a faithful interpreter of their feelings and aspirations and became a driving force in their fundamental struggles.
It was inspired by Leninism that the PCP asserted itself as a great national Party, the Party of the working class and of all workers, of freedom, democracy and socialism.
Lenin's contribution to the development of Marxism in the era of imperialism and his analyses of the transition from capitalism to a new phase, the monopoly phase, the phase of imperialism, on the question of the state, the phases and stages of the revolutionary process maintain a striking topicality in its essence.
The development of the crisis of capitalism confirms Lenin's fundamental theses about the laws that govern capitalism in this imperialist phase. They highlight the trend towards the finantialization of the economy, which drives capital towards speculation, to the detriment of productive investment, the law of unequal development, the tendency towards stagnation, reflected by the drop in the growth of GDP in the main capitalist countries.
Unable to overcome the insoluble contradictions, from the outset the contradiction between capital and labour and the permanent struggle around the rate of surplus value, insatiable in the greed of appropriation and accumulation of capital without limits, capitalism combines its oppressive nature with new and more complex types of labour exploitation and planetary predation that has been enhanced by the processes of capitalist globalisation and finantialization of the economy.
Processes that thrive and affirm themselves on the political level in the shadow of strategic cooperation between the most reactionary and conservative forces and social democracy and with the State assuming the role of promoter of private capital, commodifying all areas and sectors of economic and social life.
Their consequences are the worsening of exploitation, unemployment, precariousness, the increase in social injustices and inequalities, attack on social and labour rights, denial of democratic rights, and also war.
Today, a thousand and a half large multinational companies control more than 60% of the world economy and 26 multimillionaires hold a wealth equal to the poorest half of the world population - about 3.8 thousand million people.
The inhuman character of imperialism is well evident in its action in the context of the emergence of the global epidemic outbreak, maintaining and intensifying blockades and reinforcing illegal sanctions against peoples and countries.
The world has changed a lot in the last century and a half, but the exploitative nature of capitalism has not changed becoming increasingly rentier, parasitic and decadent.
Capitalism is not the "end of history". The revolutionary overcoming of its insoluble contradictions is a requirement of social development.
In permanent confrontation with the needs, interests, aspirations of the workers and peoples, the overcoming of capitalism has increasing acuity, through different paths and stages, as a goal of the struggle of workers and peoples, as a perspective and condition of a future inseparable from a full human liberation and fulfilment.
Socialism remains with its full potential of materialisation on the horizon of the struggle of workers and peoples.
It remains because capitalism has no solutions to the problems of the contemporary world.
The topicality of socialism and its need as a solution to the problems of the peoples requires taking into account a wide variety of solutions, stages and phases of the revolutionary struggle.
There are neither “models” of revolutions, nor "models" of socialism, as the PCP always advocated and Lenin stressed.
In the conditions of Portugal, the socialist society that the PCP points out to our people, goes through the stage that we characterised as an Advanced Democracy, itself an integral part of the struggle for socialism.
It is with the strong conviction that socialism remains a real possibility and an alternative to capitalism and the most solid perspective of Humanity's evolution that we celebrate Lenin's life and work on this day and continue our struggle.
On this date, 150 years after the birth of Lenin, we once again reaffirm PCP's commitment to the communist project. A project that the PCP will do its utmost to continue to honour, fulfilling its national and international responsibilities of the great strength of freedom, democracy, social progress, socialism.
Yes, we were, are and will be communists, following in Lenin's footsteps!
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF BRAZIL (PCdoB)
The 22nd of April 2020 marks the 150th year since the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Ulianov, leader of the Russian Revolution, known for his famed nom de guerre Lenin. More than any other personality in History, Lenin incarnated the Marxist concept of “revolutionary praxis”, systematizing and developing the theory to guide and organize a determined and consequential political action, which deeply transformed the world we live in.
Lenin was the great architect and builder of the revolution that offered Humanity its first socialist experience in the early 20th century, generating impacts that reverberate to this day.
Beyond structuring a world system in alternative to capitalism, the Soviet state —erected under his guidance and leadership— gave significant contributions to human civilization. Among those, we can highlight the expansion and promotion of social rights (such as the women’s rights and those of social and national minorities), the epic defeat of Nazi-Fascism in World War I, and the active promotion of decolonization processes that have reconfigured the international system.
The global repercussion of the Russian Revolution led by Lenin encouraged the creation of Communist Parties in all regions throughout the planet. In our homeland, it inspired the foundation of the Communist Party of Brazil on the 25th of March 1922, constituting the longest-living political party still active in the country. PCdoB is proud of its formation’s Leninist matrix and seeks to situate its development within the framework of the vast theoretical and political legacy left by this prodigious revolutionary leader.
The foundations of this vast legacy are based, precisely, on rescuing the essential and deeply dialectical nature of Marx’s thought. Lenin opposed those who tried to turn the Marxist theory into a closed system of dogmatic truths. He stressed that it was actually a guide for the study and comprehension of concrete social reality, to be enriched and updated based on this reality’s own development.
And he sought, continuously and consistently, to extract the consequences of this theoretical development in order to guide the actions for the transformation of social reality. In addition to promoting an important systematization of Marx’s thought, that endeavor enabled him to update and develop Marx’s very theory, facing the crisis that affected the Marxist/socialist movement in the early 20th century due to the transformations operating in the capitalist system by then.
By systematizing Marx’s theory of the state, Lenin reaffirmed the identification of the class character inscribed in the institution of political power, and the need for the working people to conquer this political power and reset it (based on the broadest social democracy possible) to make way for the systemic transition to socialism. But the great Russian revolutionary leader also noted that consciousness regarding this need would not emerge “spontaneously” among the workers, who tended to organize and mobilize around corporative demands for partial reversion of the intensity of the exploitation of their labor. For Lenin, only the workers’ constant and active engagement in the political struggle could awaken a broader consciousness of this society’s problems and needs. Therefore, according to him, it was essential that the workers were organized in political parties in order to act and exert influence over the course of political struggle in each country, broadening their consciousness’ horizons and accumulating forces in the process. The concrete forms of this party organization would depend on the conditions of action and struggle in each country.
Hence, Lenin has enriched and developed the theoretical understanding, originated in Marx, that political action is the key to social emancipation. In his view, this required the adoption of policies of very wide and flexible alliances by revolutionary parties, in accordance to the identification of the main contradiction in each stage of the political process, and seeking to unite the highest possible number of forces to isolate and defeat the main enemy at that stage (considering the Russian Revolution’s conditions, it was particularly important to establish alliances with forces that were representative of the peasantry, which was broadly majoritarian in the country). Therefore, he offered a theoretical key that was crucial for situating and orientating the strategic dispute for the political hegemony in society, according to the concrete historical conditions of each social-economic formation.
Another salient and fundamental theoretical contribution made by Lenin to the Marxist theory was the identification and systematization of the transition from capitalism, by the end of the 19th century, to a phase of broad predominance of monopoly in the central capitalist powers, which was a consequence of the “law of concentration and centralization of production” already noted by Marx.
According to Lenin, it was precisely that transition that sustained those powers’ brutal colonial expansion in Asia, Africa and Latin America in that period. Therefore, his systematization became known as the “theory of imperialism”. In his view, the political economy of capitalism in the new monopolist phase was dominated by the force of finance capital, which sought to guarantee access to economic territories for exclusive or privileged exploitation world-wide, through open colonization or political subordination.
But Lenin did not just systematize the distinctive characteristics of the new monopolist phase of capitalism. From this theoretical systematization, he extracted the strategic and tactic consequences for the revolutionary forces’ political action. He concluded that, under new conditions, movements for national emancipation in the colonies and in the dependent countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America would become a crucial vector in the revolutionary struggle around the world. Hence, he argued that the socialist parties should incorporate in their programs the promotion of the “peoples’ right to self-determination”, a proposition met with strong resistance from various sectors in the European left at that time.
Lenin noted, moreover, that the advent of the monopolist phase of capitalism created a dynamic of “uneven development” in the international system. The accumulation of capital in the countries where finance capital was most concentrated and developed was ever more based on the extraction of income from the productive activities realized in other countries and regions. This growingly “rentier” and “parasitic” nature of accumulation led to the decomposition of economic dynamism in the system’s core and to the continuous emergence of more dynamic, competing economic poles in other countries and regions. These new poles, for their part, began to question the structures of hegemonic domination by the power that was in economic decline. Therefore, according to Lenin, tensions between these powers were inevitable in the “age of imperialism” and the international system would become growingly unhinged and turbulent, prone to conflicts and wars. It would be up to the revolutionary parties to politically exploit the tensions and contradictions between the central capitalist powers in order to advance their own agendas of national and social emancipation, while developing a strong internationalist mobilization against the imperialist war and for peace.
Lenin’s bold development of the Marxist theory —and his firm and consistent disposition to extract political consequences from this theoretical development— was the base of the Russian Revolution’s triumph and of the push that the revolution gave to the forces of social transformation throughout the world since then. His contributions to the Marxist thought are, indeed, vast, and include works of great depth and diverse topics, such as The Development of Capitalism in Russia; What is to be done?; Materialism and Empirio-criticism; Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism; The State and Revolution; Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder, among many others. These works qualified generations of communists, socialists, nationalists, democrats and revolutionaries in Brazil and throughout the world.
PCdoB is an inheritor of the theoretical and political legacy left by this genius of revolutionary praxis, whose propositions continue to offer keys that are crucial for facing the challenges of the 21st century. But we know that the greatest tribute we can pay Lenin in the 150th anniversary of his birth is to follow his example and develop the Marxist theory in an open, creative and non-dogmatic way, in order to understand the world’s transformations throughout the last century —from the new productive patterns of capitalism to the very collapse of the Soviet Union and the effulgent emergence of the People’s Republic of China— and to unveil the paths to promote a New National Development Plan for Brazil and build a socialism that has the face of the Brazilian people.
Lenin lives, long live Lenin!
22 April 2020,
National Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB).