U.S.A., what’s next?
The
sharpening of the class struggles
By Daniel
Paquet dpaquet1871@gmail.com
La Nouvelle Vie Réelle: lnvr.blogspot.com
« Those
who have the slightest acquaintance with the actual state of our movement
cannot but see that the wide spread of Marxism was accompanied by a certain
lowering of the theoretical level. Quite
a number of people with very little, and even a total lack of theoretical
training joined the movement because of its practical significance and its
practical successes. (…) Without a revolutionary theory there can be
no revolutionary movement. This thought cannot be insisted upon too strongly at
a time when the fashionable preaching of opportunism goes hand in hand with an
infatuation for the narrowest forms of practical activity. Yet, for Russian Social-Democrats (i.e.
communists) the importance of theory is enhanced by there more circumstances,
which are often forgotten: firstly, by
the fact that our Party is only in process of formation, its features are only
just becoming outlined, and it is yet far from having, settled accounts with
other trends of revolutionary thought, which threaten to divert the movement
from the correct path. (…) Secondly, the
Social-Democratic movement (communist) is in its very essence an international
movement. This means not only that we must
combat national chauvinism, but also that a movement that is starting in a
young country can be successful only if is implement the experience of other
countries. And in order to implement
that his experience, it is not enough merely to be acquainted with it, or
simply to transcribe the latest resolutions.
What it requires is the ability to treat this experience critically and
to test it independently. (…) Let us
quote what Engels said in 1874 concerning the significance of theory in the
Social-Democratic movement: ‘it will be the duty of the leaders to gain an ever
clearer insight into all theoretical questions, to free themselves more and more
from the influence of traditional phrases inherited from the old world outlook,
and constantly to keep in mind that Socialism, since it has become a science,
demands that it be pursued as a science, i.e., that it be studied. The task will be to spread with increased
zeal among the masses of the workers the ever more clarified understanding thus
acquired, to knit together ever more firmly the organization both of the party
and of the trade unions.”[1]
“From this
moment in society’s historical development, not a single social phenomenon or
change can be comprehended out of the context of classes, and the
interrelations and struggle between them.
The class approach is therefore the fundamental methodological principle
fo any social study in historical materialism, and an essential condition or
probing into any social event. (…) Lenin
gave the classical definition of classes.
‘Classes,’ he wrote, ‘are large groups of people differing form each
other by the place they occupy in a historically determined system of social production, by their relation (in most cases
fixed and formulated in law) to the means of production, by their role in the
social organization of labour, ad,
consequently, by the dimensions of the share of social wealth of which they
dispose and the mode of acquiring it.
Classes are groups of people one of which can appropriate the labour of
another owing to the different places they occupy in a definite system of social
economy.’ (V.I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 29, p. 421). (…) Marxism was the first theory to reveal the interconnection between the development of
production and society’s class structure.
This interconnection consists, above all, in the fact that a definite
level of development of labour productivity is essential before there is a real
opportunity for a man to exploit man. For, indeed, when man produces only the
minimum of products required to maintain his physical existence and
reproduction, any systematic appropriation of someone else’s labour is out of
the question. (…) By arbitrarily interpreting the concept ‘middle class, bourgeois sociologists are trying to prove that
capitalists and proletarians disappear in modern capitalist society, and that
both these classes turn into one
‘middle class’ which becomes the decisive force of modern society. Accordingly, they claim, capitalist society
is changing into a society of the ‘middle class’ with no class struggle and no
dictatorship of the proletariat.”[2]
“We must
also note that Engels is most definite in calling universal suffrage an
instrument of bourgeois rule. Universal
suffrage, he says obviously summing up the long experience of German
Social-Democracy, is the ‘gauge of the maturity of the working class. It cannot and never will be anything more in
the present day state.’ (…) All the
social-chauvinists and opportunists of Western Europe, expect just this ‘more’
from universal suffrage. They themselves
share and instill into the minds of the people the false notion that universal
suffrage ‘in the modern state’ is
really capable of ascertaining the will o the majority of the toilers and of
securing its realization. Engels (added up that) the state will inevitably
fall. The society that will organize
production on the basis of a free and equal association of the producers will
put the whole machinery of state where it will then belong: into the Museum of Antiquities, by the side
of the spinning wheel and the bronze axe.’”[3]
On the
other hand, already in 1903, “the Second Congress of the Russian
Social-Democratic Labour Party welcomes the growing revolutionary initiative
among the student youth and calls upon all organizations of the Party to give
them every possible assistance in their efforts to organize. It recommends that all student groups and study
circles should, firstly, make it the prime object of their activities to imbue
their members with an integral and
consistent socialist world outlook and give them a thorough acquaintance with Marxism,
on the one hand, and with Russian Narodism and West-European opportunism, on
the other, these being the principal currents among the conflicting advanced
trends of today; secondly, that they should beware of those false friends of the
youth who divert them from a thorough revolutionary training through recourse
to empty revolutionary or idealistic phrase-mongering and philistine complaints
about the harm and uselessness of sharp polemics between the revolutionary and
the opposition movements, for as a matter of fact these false friends are only
spreading an unprincipled and unserious attitude towards revolutionary work;
thirdly, that they should endeavour, when undertaking practical activities, to
establish prior contact with the
Social-Democratic organizations, so as to have the benefit of their advice and, as far as
possible, to avoid serious mistakes at the very outset of their work.”[4]
It is
essential to recall that “the theory of worshipping spontaneity is decidedly
opposed to the revolutionary character of the working class movement; it is opposed to the movement taking the line of struggle
against the foundations of capitalism; it is in favour of the movement
proceeding exclusively along the line of
‘realisable demands, of demands ‘acceptable’ to capitalism; it is wholly in
favour of the ‘line of least resistance.’
The theory of spontaneity is the ideology of trade unionism.”[5]
The last
word of this paper is to underscore the historical role played by comrade Fidel
Castro. “A courageous revolutionary and
anti-imperialist fighter, comrade Castro ably led the Cuban people in the
building of socialism in Cuba, wisely leading as the bellicose U.S.A. military
attacked, otherwise provoked and imposed great hardship on the Cuban people
through years of sanctions, not yet entirely lifted. Comrade Fidel also survived scores of
assassination attempts by the CIA as is well documented. (…) Our sorrow at comrade Fidel’s passing will be
turned into ever greater efforts to follow his example of courage in pursuing
the goal of equitable societies in a safer, rational world community – the goal
of world communism.”[6]
In French: La
Nouvelle Vie Réelle www.lnvr.blogspot.com
In English:
Communist News www.dpaquet1871.blogspot.com
[1] Lenin, V.
I., What is to be done, Foreign
Languages Press, Peking, 1973, pages 21-22, 24
[2] Sheptulin,
A. P., Marxist-Leninist Philosophy,
Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1978, pages 359, 361, 366-367, 376-378
[3] Lenin,
V.I., The State and Revolution,
Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1970/Reprinted by Red Stars Publishers,
U.S.A., 2014, page 10-11
[4] Lenin, V.
I., Collected Works, vol. 6, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1977, page 469
[5] Stalin, J.
V., The foundations of Leninism,
Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1975, page21
[6] Executive
Committee, Comrade Fidel was truly an
internationalist, NorthStar Compass, International Council for Friendship
and Solidarity with Soviet People, Toronto, November 2016
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