Clara Zetkin: Fascism

In Fascism, the proletariat is confronted by an extraordinarily dangerous enemy. Fascism is the concentrated expression of the general offensive undertaken by the world bourgeoisie against the proletariat. Its overthrow is therefore an absolute necessity, nay, it is even a question of the every-day existence and of the bread and butter of every ordinary worker. On these grounds the whole of the proletariat must concentrate on the fight against Fascism. It will be much easier for us to defeat Fascism if we clearly and distinctly study its nature. Hitherto there have been extremely vague ideas upon this subject not only among the large masses of the workers, but even among the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat and the Communists. Hitherto Fascism has been put on a level with the White Terror of Horthy in Hungary. Although the methods of both are similar, in essence they are different. The Horthy Terror was established after the victorious, although shortlived, revolution of the proletariat had been suppressed, and was the expression of vengeance of the bourgeoisie. The ringleaders of the White Terror were a quite small clique of former officers. Fascism, on the contrary, viewed objectively, is not the revenge of the bourgeoisie in retaliation for proletarian aggression against the bourgeoisie, but it is a punishment of the proletariat for failing to carry on the revolution begun in Russia. The Fascist leaders are not a small and exclusive caste; they extend deeply into wide elements of the population.

Truth and Lies about Stalin

Interview of  professor of Medieval English literature at Montclair State University, Grover Furr, on the occasion of the 140th birth anniversary of Joseph Stalin

 Sixty-five years after his death, the name of Joseph Stalin remains at the epicenter of anti-communism. The bourgeois historiography, as well as bourgeois political forces, continue the vilification of Stalin, calling him a “dictator”, a “bloodthirsty tyrant” who supposedly “killed tens of millions of people”. According to your view, why anti-communists still focus their attacks on Stalin and what are the major sources of their claims?

G.FURR: Defenders of capitalism need to depict communism as something horrible! So, in addition to hiding the horrors of capitalism- imperialism, they require a “boogeyman” to focus on as the epitome of the “evil” of communism. Stalin was the leader of the USSR and the world communist movement during the period of its greatest triumphs, and therefore of its greatest threat to capitalism. So Stalin would be a natural target in any case. 

But there are at least two other factors. The first is Leon Trotsky, who lied about Stalin in virtually everything he wrote from 1928 until his murder in 1940. Trotsky’s post-1929 writings were the first major source of lies and slander against Stalin and the USSR. The second is Nikita Khrushchev. His “Secret Speech” of February 25, 1956 to the XX Party Congress was a devastating blow to the world communist movement. And it was an invaluable gift to the anticommunists of the world! 

After the XXII Party Congress in October, 1961, when Khrushchev and his people attacked Stalin even more viciously, with even more lies, Khrushchev and the CPSU sponsored hundreds of books and articles attacking and lying about Stalin. Khrushchev also sponsored hundreds of books and articles attacking and lying about Lavrentii Beria, whose murder Khrushchev organized on June 26, 1953. Beria is not as significant a figure in Soviet history as is Stalin. But Khrushchev and his men slandered Beria at least as viciously, if not more viciously, as they did Stalin. And those who had been closest to Stalin – Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich – supported Khrushchev in this unprincipled attack upon and murder of Beria.

Antonio Gramsci: Unions and the dictatorship

The international class struggle has culminated in the victory of the workers and peasants of two international proletariats. In Russia and in Hungary the workers and peasants have established the proletarian dictatorship and in Russia as much as in Hungary the dictatorship had to sustain a bitter battle not only against the bourgeois class, but also against the unions: the conflict between the dictatorship and the unions was thus one of the causes of the fall of the Hungarian soviet, since the unions, though they never openly attempted to overthrow the dictatorship, operated always as “splitting” organisms of the revolution and incessantly planted discontent and cowardice amongst the workers and the red soldiers. Even a rapid examination, of the reasons and the conditions of this conflict cannot fail to be useful in the revolutionary education of the masses, the which, if they must be convinced that the union is perhaps the most important proletarian organism of the communist revolution, because on it must be founded the socialization of industry, because it must create the conditions in which private enterprise disappears and cannot be reborn, must also be convinced of the necessity of creating, before the revolution, the psychological and objective conditions under which will be impossible every conflict and every division of power between the various organisms in which the struggle of the proletarian class against capitalism is embodied.

The road we want to follow

Presentation of CPG(m-l)  in the International Meeting that took place in Athens  on  4 and 5 of November.

Main event:

100 years from October of 1917. The Socialist revolution inspires, teaches and leads.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. It has been a hundred years since the first successful attempt of the common people, of the proletarians to come to power; a hundred years since the first successful attempt of the exploited and suppressed working class and the masses of the poor people’s strata. This was the first step to build a different society, without the exploitation of man by man, to build a socialist society, followed by a communist one.

This is the 100th anniversary since those who produce the wealth of our society stormed into the heavens, upon whose labor the bourgeoisie and all kinds of exploitative classes built their own domination. And it was the former who changed the course of history once and for all! Nothing remained the same as before, in a global level. Organized as they were through the new forms of power that emerged from the flames of class struggle and the war, through the Soviet power, and under the guidance of the Bolshevik Party, Lenin and Stalin’s Party, they practically proved the relentless power hidden within the millions of oppressed workers and people. They proved that the proletariat can seize the power and keep it for its own sake. In spite of the dominant propaganda which considered that the “dirty poor”, the “uneducated”, the “half-wit” working class is unable of such a feat, let aside to govern. They considered that the struggle for a just society without exploitation and oppression, for a society ruled by the people was, more or less, a utopia. They told us that this world can never change, that whatever was, will remain for eternity. They told us that it is in the nature of man to live under injustice, inequality and oppression, war and poverty, that it is natural for the few and powerful to govern over those who produce society’s wealth.

Not all revolutionary situations give birth to revolutions.

Presentation of CPG(m-l)  in the International Meeting that took place in Athens  on  4 and 5 of November.

Topic of Discussion:

October revolution: Imperialist war – weakest chain link – social alliances -vanguard of the working class – socialist construction. Questions and answers about the October revolution that shook the world

Not all revolutionary situations give birth to revolutions. Neither the rising of the common people nor the crisis of the elite will cause the overthrowing. The objective changes must meet on with the subjective, and the revolutionary class must have the ability to take on action, to guide and to be as powerful as it needs to be to crush the old government, that, as Lenin said, “not even in times of crisis will not fall unless overthrown”.

The 1st Imperialist World War combined the three contradictions (capital-labor, contradictions between imperialists and imperialism-peoples) and accelerated the struggle of the Russian proletariat. In 1917, while Russia was in a general crisis that the provisional government of Kerensky was unable to manage, the workers drive away the management of the enterprises and demand that power passes to the soviets. The peasants are disappointed by the SR party and do not apply the farming program. They defy the landlords, trespass their land, attack their villas and rise against them. The Bolsheviks guide the sailors and the soldiers refuse to fight in the front and driving the reactionary officers away, electing new ones in their place. The objective situation thus creates pre-revolutionary conditions. The correct party line and the determination of the Bolsheviks and the continuous confidence of the masses in them creates the subjective conditions. The power of the soviets of workers, peasants and soldiers is born from the will for a better life and stems from the Aurora guns and the weapons of the Red Guard, which invades the winter palace. The revolution is a reality, the ice has been broken, the road is open, the way has been shown.

Imperialism is the eve of the socialist revolution

Joint announcement of TKP/ML and CPG(m-l) for the 100 years of the October Revolution and the ICOR internet discussion

After almost three decades after the 89-91 collapse of the eastern regimes, things seem clearer for whomever wants to interpret the world and bear the responsibilities. The ideological cloak of “globalization”, “the end of history”, and “class struggle” that were weaved in the imperialist think tanks is now frayed. The capitalist storm and the imperialist barbarity and atrocity fell upon billions of toiling popular masses and so revealed its true face.

The structural, whole and incurable systemic crisis has ignited a new round of assault against the proletariat and the peoples that can be compared only with the period of “first accumulation”.

Without an organized working class there is no revolutionary struggle!

Contribution to ICOR’s internet Seminar discussion for the 100 years of the October Revolution. By N. Papavasileiou, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (m-l).

The historical new in class struggle for over 150 years now is the entry of a new class, the working class. With this in mind, Karl Marx saw the necessity and the probability for humanity to pass from its prehistory – the exploratory class societies – to its history, socialism and communism. So Marx formed his theory starting at the Manifesto and going through to Das Kapital. The Russian Revolution and the victorious October had at their base the existence and and the struggle of the working class. October is epic because it confirmed Marx, confirmed the capability of the world damned to win in their struggle for a society without exploitation and oppression. October saw also the further development of Marxism with Lenin’s works and the victorious revolution. It confirmed the relation action – theory – action. Lenin and the Bolsheviks gave the answers needed for the October to be victorious. Since 1902 (“What is to be done”), through the years of imperialist war and the bankruptcy of the Second International (“Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism”), and up to the days before the revolution (“State and Revolution”).

About the Restoration of Capitalism in the USSR

Contribution to ICOR’s internet Seminar discussion for the 100 years of the October Revolution. By G. Andreatos, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (m-l).

The October Revolution constituted the highest winning point of class struggle in Russia, with a huge international meaning for the development of the working, revolutionary and communist movement in all of earth. The victorious socialist revolution and construction of socialism constituted worldly events that had a great impact in the political and social processes in the whole planet and gave new momentum in the working class and the people in their confrontation with their oppressors.On the other hand, the restoration of capitalism in the USSR that was signaled by the 20th conference of the CPSU in 1956 and was completed through the collapses in the period of ’89-91 constituted a big setback and finally a serious defeat for the working, revolutionary and communist movement, the consequences of which, are faced, until today by the working class, the people and all who insist on the revolutionary, communist road.

The search for the causes of the capitalism restoration in the USSR, China and the other ex-socialist countries is an important duty for all the revolutionary and communist forces that insist on the road of the October, on the road of socialism, the road of the liberation of the earth’s damned from the chains of capitalism-imperialism. And it is an important duty for these forces, since, today, they are the ones that lift the weight of the questions, the doubts, the attacks, by friends and enemies, regarding the transformation of the proletariat authority and the socialist construction in their opposite. The answers, first of all are owed to the working class and the people, in order to arm themselves ideologically and politically against the capital and the imperialists, in the formation of their resistances and their fronts of struggle. That’s why the answers which we will give do not solely concern the “yesterday”, but mainly the “today” and “tomorrow” of the working, revolutionary and communist movement.

Revolution in Education: Our Experience (2)

by Chen Shui-lian, teacher in the department of automation at Tsinghua University

Published in Peking Review, 14(36), 3 September 1971

I am a teacher of mathematics. When the first group of worker-peasant-soldier students was enrolled in June last year, I was quite enthusiastic when I began teaching. However, I began to have misgivings when six of my ten lectures fell short of the requirements. I felt that I could do nothing about it and waited for the leadership to solve the problem.

It was then that the Party committee and the workers’ and P.L.A. men’s Mao Tsetung Thought propaganda team called a meeting of all the teachers in the university and pointed out that although there were many contradictions in teaching and learning, the first thing to be stressed was remoulding the teachers’ world outlook. Otherwise, nothing could be achieved. The meeting helped me see the way out. With my own ideological problem in mind, I studied Chairman Mao’s a teaching “In the problem of transforming education it is the teachers who are the main problem” and his other teachings on serving the workers, peasants and soldiers.

Revolution in Education: Our Experience (1)

by Kuei Yu-peng, student of the department of mechanical engineering, Tsinghua University

Published in Peking Review, 14(34), 20 August 1971

All students in our class are workers who have worked at least ten years in different plants. Since we have come to the university, what should be our attitude towards the tasks of “studying in the university, managing the university and using Mao Tsetung Thought to transform the university”? It took us some time to know the correct answer. When we first entered the university, as I recall, we were really quite enthusiastic! But as soon as we take up our study, many contradictions arose and our earlier enthusiasm began to cool down.

The main shaft’s gear box is a key part of machine tools. This is the part where bourgeois technical “authorities” used to create obstacles for us. This time we made up our minds to master this key part in our class of machine tool designing. But no sooner had our teacher touched on it than problems cropped up. When she mentioned common multiplier φ in explaining the speed diagram of gear box in a machine tool, we didn’t know what she was talking about. We passed on to her our opinion several times, but there wasn’t much improvement. Then, we became impatient. Some said: “We can’t even ‘study’ well, what’s the use of talking about ’managing’ and ’transforming’ the university!” They also found some “grounds” to support their argument: Since there was the leadership, we didn’t have to bother about “management”. Since we all came from the factories and were unfamiliar with things in the university, it was difficult for us to “manage“ the university. Besides, heavy load of study left us no time for dealing with matters of “management”.