V.I.Lenin- Socialism and Religion / The attitude of the Worker's Party to Religion

Socialism and Religion.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Novaya Zhizn, No. 28, December 3, 1905.

Source: Marxists Internet Archives.

Present-day society is wholly based on the exploitation of the vast masses of the working class by a tiny minority of the population, the class of the landowners and that of the capitalists. It is a slave society, since the “free” workers, who all their life work for the capitalists, are “entitled” only to such means of subsistence as are essential for the maintenance of slaves who produce profit, for the safeguarding and perpetuation of capitalist slavery.

The economic oppression of the workers inevitably calls forth and engenders every kind of political oppression and social humiliation, the coarsening and darkening of the spiritual and moral life of the masses. The workers may secure a greater or lesser degree of political liberty to fight for their economic emancipation, but no amount of liberty will rid them of poverty, unemployment, and oppression until the power of capital is overthrown. Religion is one of the forms of spiritual oppression which everywhere weighs down heavily upon the masses of the people, over burdened by their perpetual work for others, by want and isolation. Impotence of the exploited classes in their struggle against the exploiters just as inevitably gives rise to the belief in a better life after death as impotence of the savage in his battle with nature gives rise to belief in gods, devils, miracles, and the like. Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live by the labour of others are taught by religion to practise charity while on earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in heaven. Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze,   in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man.

Cuba: 1,000 delegates to participate in Communist Party's 7th Congress on April 16-19

Source: Granma.

The 7th Congress of PCC will be held on April 16-19 with about 1,000 delegates and will focus on the continuity of the economic reforms to update Cuba's socialist model approved at the 6th Congress in 2011.

Guaranteeing greater representation of all Communist Party members around the country and ensuring that participants increasingly reflect the areas from which they come, were key considerations during the election of delegates to the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, to be held April 16-19. 

According to an announcement made at the Party Central Committee Department of Cadre Organization and Policy, 1,000 delegates – similar to the number of participants in the 6th Congress - representing all territories will attend the organization’s most important event.

Che Guevara: “I came to communism because of Stalin”

By Nikos Mottas.

Originally published in atexnos.gr.

Translated from Greek.

Ernesto Che Guevara is undoubtedly a historical figure of the 20^th century's communist movement who attracts the interest of people from a vast range of political ideologies. The years followed his cowardly assassination in Bolivia, Che became a revolutionary symbol for a variety of marxist-oriented, leftist and progressive parties and organisations- from Trotskyists to militant leninists and from Social Democrats to anarcho-libertarians. A significant number of those who admire the argentine revolutionary identify themselves as “anti-stalinists”, hate and curse Stalin while they often refer to the so-called “crimes” of Stalin's era. What is a contradiction and an irony of history is the following: Che Guevara himself was an admirer of Joseph Stalin.

Robert Conquest's lies about Socialism, Stalin and the USSR - A presentation by Mario Sousa (VIDEO)

         

Source: ProletarianTV.

This presentation by Mario Sousa - less than an hour in duration - will change your view of history. "Most sane and educated people accept that there were serious human rights abuses in the Soviet Union, during the Stalin period." he says. The evidence is 'everywhere' - everyone says so, and there's no smoke without fire, after all. But what is the evidence? And where does it come from?

Stop Lecturing Cuba and Lift the Blockade

Stop Lecturing Cuba and Lift the Blockade

By Marjorie Cohn.

Republished from mrzine.monthlyreview.org.

Surrounding President Barack Obama's historic visit to Cuba on March 20, there is speculation about whether he can pressure Cuba to improve its human rights.  But a comparison of Cuba's human rights record with that of the United States shows that the US should be taking lessons from Cuba.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights contains two different categories of human rights: civil and political rights on the one hand; and economic, social and cultural rights on the other.

Mario Sousa- Lies concerning the history of the Soviet Union

From Hitler to Hearst, from Conquest to Solzhenitsyn.

The history of the millions of people who were allegedly incarcerated and died in the labour camps of the Soviet Union and as a result of starvation during Stalin’s time.

In this world we live in, who can avoid hearing the terrible stories of suspected death and murders in the gulag labour camps of the Soviet Union?  Who can avoid the stories of the millions who starved to death and the millions of oppositionists executed in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s time?  In the capitalist world these stories are repeated over and over again in books, newspapers, on the radio and television, and in films, and the mythical numbers of millions of victims of socialism have increased by leaps and bounds in the last 50 years.

But where in fact do these stories, and these figures, come from?  Who is behind all this?