Showing posts with label Socialism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Socialism. Show all posts

Sunday, August 14, 2016

The remorse of a dissident: Alexander Zinoviev on Stalin and the dissolution of the USSR

SPECIAL TO IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM.

Alexander Zinoviev (1922-2006) was a Russian philosopher, sociologist, mathematician and writer. He is an extraordinary case of a dissident in the Soviet Union who later apologized for his anti-sovietism and anti-stalinism. In his youth, in 1939, he was arrested for allegedly involved in a plot to assassinate Joseph Stalin. As a head and professor of the Logic Department at Moscow State University, Zinoviev acquired a dissident reputation. In 1978 he left the Soviet Union - he lived in Western Europe until 1999. 

Having the opportunity to live both the socialist system in the USSR and Western Europe's capitalism, Zinoviev made a u-turn in his thoughts after the counterrevolutionary events in the Soviet Union (1989-1991). He profoundly regreted for his previous anti-soviet stance and even asked from the Russian people to forgive him for that. 

He wrote in one of his books: 

Friday, August 12, 2016

"Life was better under Communism" says the majority of Russians, Romanians and Eastern Germans

SPECIAL TO IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM.

First of all, let us say that the proper phrase is "under Socialism". During the 20th century, the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe were in the process of socialist construction. According to the Marxist-Leninist theory, "Socialism" consist the first stage (phase) of Communism. 

Having said the above, let's go to the core issue. The people who have lived both under Socialism and Capitalism give their answer to the various bourgeois and petty bourgeois unhistorical slanders. Various polls in former Socialist countries prove that the majority of people, in Russia and Eastern Europe, think that life was better before the counter-revolutions and the restoration of Capitalism. Under Socialism their major problems had been solved: Free education, free healthcare for all, social security, jobs, free vacation and holidays for everyone, etc. The restoration of Capitalism brought an unprecedented barbarity in almost every sector of public life: Social inequalities, unemployment, privatization of major public sectors from healthcare to education, etc. 

On March 2016, a survey conducted by the All-Russia Public Opinion Center (VTsIOM) showed that: 

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels- Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) Part III "Socialist and Communist Literature"

Manifesto of the Communist Party.
By Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
First Published: February 1848.
Source: Marx/Engels Selected Works, Vol. One, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1969, pp. 98-137.

III. SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST LITERATURE.

1. REACTIONARY SOCIALISM.
A. Feudal Socialism.

Owing to their historical position, it became the vocation of the aristocracies of France and England to write pamphlets against modern bourgeois society. In the French Revolution of July 1830, and in the English reform agitation, these aristocracies again succumbed to the hateful upstart. Thenceforth, a serious political struggle was altogether out of the question. A literary battle alone remained possible. But even in the domain of literature the old cries of the restoration period had become impossible.*

Monday, July 18, 2016

Communist Party, Turkey (KP): Statement of the Central Committee regarding the latest developments in the country

Source: kp.org.tr.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party has gathered on 17th of July and assessed the latest developments in the country deeply and also discussed the Party's situation and  missions. 
The Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Turkey on July 2016
1.  July 15th coup attempt has not brought ideologically conflicting centers subject to each other, but involved at least two and even more state cliques, which have identical class identities and ideologies. It is not possible that these cliques would be totally unaware of each other's plans and actions just like it is being impossible to dissociated them. However the attempt on 15th of July is not a bloody scenario totally planned by Erdoğan as some claimed so, but is a real coup attempt.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Ernesto Che Guevara- Transcript of CBS 'Face the Nation' Interview (1964)

The text below is the trascript of an interesting interview that Ernesto Che Guevara, then Minister of Industry, gave to CBS Television Network in New York. 

Source: Guevaristas.org.

FACE THE NATION" as broadcast over the CBS Television Network and the Sunday, CBS Radio Network December 13, 1964 – – 12:30 – 1:00 PM EST.
GUEST: MAJOR ERNESTO GUEVARA, Minister of Industry of Cuba.
NEWS CORRESPONDENTS: Paul Niven, CBS News, Tad Szulc, New York Times, Richard C. Hottelet, CBS News. PRODUCERS: Prentiss Childs, Ellen Wadley. DIRECTOR: Robert Vitarelli.

MR. NlVEN: Major Guevara, in your speech to the General Assembly the day before yesterday, you accused the United States of helping Cuba’s neighbors prepare new aggression against her. We, in turn, have often accused your government of abetting subversion in other Latin American countries. Do you see any way out of this situation, any way to improve relations?
MAJOR GUEVARA: I think with regards to solutions, there are solutions, and I think there is only one. we have said repeatedly to the government of the United States that we do not want anything but to forget us, that they do not consider us even for good or evil.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Aleka Papariga- The importance of the critical assessment of the socialist construction in the 20th century

The importance of the critical assessment of the socialist construction in the 20th century for the strengthening of the labor movement and for an effective counter-attack.
By Aleka Papariga*.
Source: International Communist Review, Issue 2, July 2014.
When we made public the subject of our 18th Congress, which, besides the mandatory overview of our work, included as a special subject our conclusions from socialist construction, several friends of the Party wondered whether it was advisable, under the current conditions and while the signs of the economic capitalist crisis had already become visible in the international scene, to focus on such an important issue which, in their opinion, might not have been at the top of the agenda.
It is not necessary, of course, to remind the reaction raised in the bourgeois press, the ironic and bitter comments of well-known journalists, who were annoyed by our decision to deal with this issue as they knew beforehand why we took such a decision. Their reaction is quite understandable from their point of view; they have a sharp instinct, they catch everything that can give strength and dynamic to the revolutionary movement.
From the very first moment that we realized that the infamous course of perestroika was nothing else but the beginning of the counterrevolution and the temporary defeat of the socialist system, we understood that we had to bear the brunt of giving answers to all progressive people –and to ourselves as well- who were reasonably wondering what happened. Even more so, since it was proved that we were not at all prepared for such a tragic development; we had not anticipated it and, unfortunately, we did not have the appropriate reflexes in order to react, even just before the lowering of the red flag from the Kremlin.

V.I.Lenin- Imperialism and the Split in Socialism (1916)

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin- 
Imperialism and the Split in Socialism.
Published in Sbornik Sotsial-Demokrata No. 2, December 1916. Signed: N. Lenin. Published according to the Sbornik text. 

Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1964, Moscow, Volume 23, pages 105-120 / Web source: https://www.marxists.org.

Is there any connection between imperialism and the monstrous and disgusting victory opportunism (in the form of social-chauvinism) has gained over the labour movement in Europe?

This is the fundamental question of modern socialism. And having in our Party literature fully established, first, the imperialist character of our era and of the present war [1] , and, second, the inseparable historical connection between social-chauvinism and opportunism, as well as the intrinsic similarity of their political ideology, we can and must proceed to analyse this fundamental question.

We have to begin with as precise and full a definition of imperialism as possible. Imperialism is a specific historical stage of capitalism. Its specific character is threefold: imperialism is monopoly capitalism; parasitic, or decaying capitalism; moribund capitalism. The supplanting of free competition by monopoly is the fundamental economic feature, the quintessence of imperialism. Monopoly manifests itself in five principal forms: (1) cartels, syndicates and trusts—the concentration of production has reached a degree which gives rise to these monopolistic associations of capitalists; (2) the monopolistic position of the big banks—three, four or five giant banks manipulate the whole economic life of America, France, Germany; (3) seizure of the sources of raw material by the trusts and the financial oligarchy (finance capital is monopoly industrial capital merged with bank capital); (4) the (economic) partition of the world by the international cartels has begun. There are already over one hundred such international cartels, which command   the entire world market and divide it “amicably” among themselves—until war redivides it. The export of capital, as distinct from the export of commodities under non-monopoly capitalism, is a highly characteristic phenomenon and is closely linked with the economic and territorial-political partition of the world; (5) the territorial partition of the world (colonies) is completed.

Monday, July 4, 2016

Friedrich Engels- The Principles of Communism


FRIEDRICH ENGELS: THE PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNISM


October-November 1847.
Selected Works, Volume One, p. 81-97, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1969. Web Source: Marx2Mao.

* * *

Question 1 :  What is Communism? 

Communism is the doctrine of the conditions of the liberation of the proletariat.

Question 2 :  What is the proletariat? 

The proletariat is that class in society which draws its means of livelihood wholly and solely from the sale of its labour and not from the profit from any kind of capital;[2] whose weal and woe, whose life and death, whose whole existence depends on the demand for labour, hence, on the alternations of good times and bad in business, on the vagaries of unbridled competition. The proletariat, or class of proletarians, is, in a word, the working class of the nineteenth century.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

What kind of 'Left' does Jeremy Corbyn represent?

COMMENTARY:

Let's get directly to the subject: Why so much noise about the UK's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn? First of all, Labour Party is a bourgeois party which poses no threat to the capitalist establishment. We don't speak about a revolutionary party of Marxist-Leninist principles, but about one of the two pillars (the other is, of course, the Conservative Party) of the British bourgeois political system. There is nothing revolutionary in a purely social-democratic party like the UK Labour Party. Having said that, let's go now to it's leader, Jeremy Corbyn. 

What is the kind of "Left" that Corbyn represents? Like his party, is he, or not, fully committed to the capitalist system? The answer is absolutely clear: Corbyn is a bourgeois politician, a social-democrat with some so-called "progressive" ideas. The fact that he is "more progressive" than Tony Blair or David Cameron doesn't make him a choice for the country's working class. In the history of the UK Labour Party we have seen numerous ‘left-wing’, ‘progressive’ members, scores of leaders and senior MPs who have had what they referred to as ‘socialist’ politics- even more radical than Jeremy Corbyn. However, that doesn't change the political nature of the party as a vehicle of Social Democracy. 

Monday, June 27, 2016

Nikos Mottas- Venezuela and the Opportunist Theory of “21st Century Socialism”

Venezuela and the Opportunist Theory of “21st Century Socialism”.

By Nikos Mottas.

Translated version of an article published on atexnos.gr.

Rapid developments have taken place in Venezuela during the last months. From last December's electoral victory of the right-reactionary opposition until the recent assassination of a retired Army General, we have seen a series of events which lead to the destabilization of Nicolas Maduro government. Eighteen years since the rise of Hugo Chavez in power, in 1998, the “Bolivarian Revolution” trembles dangerously, while the conservative opposition is on the counter-attack and a number of external agents (US government, OAS etc.) are variously trying to intervene in the country's internal affairs.

The crisis in Venezuela has two sides: On the one hand, the government and its people are facing a multidimensional attack from imperialist centers which aim in exacerbating the situation to such extend so that a possible (external) military intervention would be justified. The attack on Venezuela must be examined as part of the broader framework of inter-imperialist, inter-bourgeoisie contradictions and antagonisms which- fostered by the US policy- are taking place in Latin America. That comes out also as a result of the developments in Brazil (the 7th largest economy worldwide) where the inter-bourgeoisie confrontation and the scandal-mongering political orgy led to the expulsion of President Roussef.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

V.I.Lenin: "A United States of Europe, under capitalism, is either impossible or reactionary"



Vladimir Ilyich Lenin- On the Slogan for a United States of Europe.

Sotsial-Demokrat No. 44, August 23, 1915. Published according to the text in Sotsial-DemokratSource: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, [197[4]], Moscow, Volume 21, pages 339-343.

In No. 40 of Sotsial-Demokrat we reported that a conference of our-Party’s groups abroad had decided to defer the question of the “United States of Europe” slogan pending a discussion, in the press, on the economic aspect of the matter.

At our conference the debate on this question assumed a purely political character. Perhaps this was partly caused by the Central Committee’s Manifesto having formulated this slogan as a forthright political one (“the immediatepolitical slogan...”, as it says there); not only did it advance the slogan of a republican United States of Europe, but expressly emphasised that this slogan is meaningless and false “without the revolutionary overthrow of the German, Austrian and Russian monarchies”.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

What really happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989?

This month marks the 27th anniversary of the end of the "Tiananment protests" in China. The western media and historiography usually describe the 1989 events in Beijing as a "bloody massacre". But, what really happened in the Chinese capital 27 years ago? On this occassion we republish two interesting articles which debunk the dominant western point of view. 

Tiananmen Square Massacre is a Myth, 
All We' re 'Remembering' are British Lies.

By Gregory Clark.
Source: IBTimesUKJune 4, 2014.

The original story of Chinese troops on the night of 3 and 4 June, 1989 machine-gunning hundreds of innocent student protesters in Beijing's iconic Tiananmen Square has since been thoroughly discredited by the many witnesses there at the time -- among them a Spanish TVE television crew, a Reuters correspondent and protesters themselves, who say that nothing happened other than a military unit entering and asking several hundred of those remaining to leave the Square late that night.
Yet none of this has stopped the massacre from being revived constantly, and believed. All that has happened is that the location has been changed – from the Square itself to the streets leading to the Square.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Contemporary Problems of the Class Struggle and the Role of the Communist Party

Fundamental Principles of the 

Revolutionary Workers’ and Communist Movement.

By Dimitris Gontikas* / Source: International Communist Review, Issue 3, 2014.

Every Communist Party which remains fixed on its mission and resolutely focussed on its central task to prepare and organise the working class and to guide its struggle for the fulfilment of its historic mission, is obliged to guide the working class on the basis of the fundamental principle of scientific socialism: “Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement”.
It is obliged to unrelentingly and consistently defend this principled position from every form of undermining. It must defend this by struggling continuously for the continual correlation between theory and practice.
The history of the revolutionary and labour movements teaches us that neither willpower nor declarations are sufficient to safeguard and secure a revolutionary struggle-line and the existence of the party as a revolutionary vanguard.
There is a necessity not only for secure theoretical foundations but also for the continuous enrichment of theory through the study of the developments, with a heightened class criterion, the study of the strategy of the opponent, the generalization of experience, as well as the open ideological front against every revisionist attempt. Ideological struggle should reach the level of an open break with the current of revisionism and opportunism within its ranks.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Basic points of the Leninist criticism in relation to the "parliamentary road" to socialism

The theses of the KKE for the 10th annual conference "V.I.Lenin and the contemporary world" which was held on the 22nd of April 2016 in Leningrad (Source: inter.kke.gr).
  • The entire history of the political labour movement from the 19th century until today has as its basic arena of controversy the path that should be taken in order to create a classless society.
  • Two basic views emerged over time: the opportunist view about the possibility of reforming, "conquering" and utilizing the bourgeois state for socialism and the revolutionary view regarding the need to smash the bourgeois state. Lenin himself set the following demarcation line: "Only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat."

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

'Captain-Yiotis' remembered: Charilaos Florakis, 1914-2005

Nikos Mottas writes about the legendary Greek Communist leader, partisan-fighter in WW2 and Greece's Civil War, long-time (1972-1991) General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece, CHARILAOS FLORAKIS.

By Nikos Mottas.

It was the 22nd of May 2005 when the tireless communist, the militant guerrilla captain, the popular leader, comrade Charilaos Florakis passed away. At 91 years of age, he was completing a life full of struggles; a life given to the ideals of a better world, for the perspective of Socialism and Communism. His life was given to KKE, to the Party he loved and gave everything.

The life and activity of Charilaos Florakis has been core part of KKE's history, of the most glorious- but also difficult- peoples struggles in Greece during WW2 occupation, during the Civil War as well as the country's modern history. Comrade Florakis, with his firm faith in the ideas of Marxism-Leninism, was never absent from Greek working class struggles.

Charilaos Florakis' political activity began in the pre-war decade of 1930s, as a member of the Communist Party's youth wing (OKNE) and later as a student and vigorous worker at the so-called “TTT” (Posts, Telegraphs, Telephone Offices). At an early age, as a teenager, he understood the signs of the ongoing class-struggle in the Greek countryside of '30s:

Monday, May 9, 2016

9th of May: Honoring People's Antifascist Victory!

Спасибо! (Thank you) - Veterans of the Red Army.
By Nikos Mottas.

9th May 1945: The day when the Red flag with sickle and hammer was raised thriumphantly over the Reichstag in Berlin. The day when Nazi Germany surrended unconditionally to the Red Army, marking a great victory of humanity over fascism. The 9th May is, without doubt, one of the brightest dates in human history, a glorious day for the first Socialist state, for the Soviet Union and it's people.

On this day, we pay tribute to all those heroes, men and women, who gave their own lives on the battlefields. We remember all those heroes who fought against the monster of Fascism. From the bottom of our heart we express our gratitude to the fighters of the Soviet Army, to the communist and anti-fascist partisans in Europe who led the liberation struggles against the Nazis. We remember and honor all those men and women, of every age, who maintained a heroic stance against the firing squads of the fascists. 

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Fidel Castro: Absolved by History!

Two days ago, compañero Fidel Castro made a rare appearance at the closing of the VII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. A great revolutionary, an incredible human being, Fidel, deserves the full respect of every communist, of everyone who believes in the ideals of Marxism-Leninism. 

Fidel Castro: Absolved by History!*
By Nikos Mottas.

"Socialism is and will continue being the hope, the only hope, the only way for the People, the oppressed ones, the exploited ones, the looted ones. Socialism is the only choice!" - Fidel Castro Ruz.

It was 26th of July 1953 when a group of around 160 rebels, under the leadership of 26 years-old lawyer Fidel Castro, tried an armed attack on the Moncada barracks, at Santiago de Cuba. The aim was to give a first message of resistance against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. The attack was not successful. Sixty-one rebels were killed while the rest -- including Castro -- were captured and imprisoned by the regime's authorities. However, the 26th of July 1953 remained in Cuban history as the day when the trigger of the following revolution was pulled. The revolutionary 'Movement of the 26thof July' (Movimiento 26 de Julio) took it's name from that day and a few years later led the army of Fidel, Che, Raul and Camilo to the thriumph against the corrupted, pro-imperialist regime of Batista.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Fidel Castro's emotional speech at the closing of VII Congress - "The Cuban People will Win"

         

VIDEO: Parts of Fidel Castro's speech at the VII Congress of PCC 
(in Spanish)


We should tell our brothers in Latin America and the world that the Cuban people will win, asserted the historic leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, in a special address at the closing ceremony of the 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, in session for four days at Havana’s Convention Center.

Monday, April 18, 2016

Russian Communist Workers Party- "Mertens vs Martens" (On the role of the Workers Party of Belgium- PTB)

Ludo Martens (left) and Belgium's Workers
Party current leader Peter Martens.
Mertens vs Martens.
By the Analytical Group of the Ideological Commission of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Workers Party (RKRP).
In recent years, Communists of various countries have been anxiously witnessing the developments within the Workers Party of Belgium (PTB). Our close attention and interest in this party were caused by PTB’s being was one of the parties that actively contributed to the revival of the revolutionary trend of the international Communist movement after the counterrevolutionary coups of 1988-1991 in the USSR and Eastern Europe, when many of the Communist parties of Western Europe ceased to exist or moved to openly reformist positions.
Under these conditions, when bourgeois propaganda was talking about the death of Communism, the Belgian Workers Party, led by its then leader Ludo Martens, an outstanding Marxist theoretician, publicist and revolutionary organizer, initiated the International Communist Seminar in Brussels. These seminars, held since 1992, played an important role in the consolidation of Communists of various countries, in the theoretical understanding of the causes of current events as well as in developing  the strategy and tactics of Communist activity based on Marxist-Leninist theory in the new environment.

Revolution or Reform? Bernie Sanders and American Socialism

Bernie Sanders- like Jeremy Corbyn in Britain- does not consist a threat to the capitalist system. Despite using "socialist" slogans and a radical rhetoric, he is a proponent of class concilication. As a candidate of the bourgeois Democratic Party, Sanders' case is used by the bourgeoisie in order to funnel working class' radicalism back to the capitalist system. Below, we publish an interesting article depicting the historic link between American Socialism and Sanders' contemporary progressive populism (IDC).

Revolution or Reform? Bernie Sanders and American Socialism.

By Graeme A. Pente.
Source: Erstwhile.

Bernie Sanders’s campaign for the Democratic Party nomination has produced an incredible amount of publicdiscussion. As his polling numbers have risen and after his surprising successes in the early primaries, one of the biggest concerns among Democrats is his electability in a general election, should he secure the nomination. Sanders’s self-identification as a “democratic socialist” has resulted in quite a lot of hand-wringing in the party, especially among its elite and its older supporters. They dismiss Sanders’s popularity among younger voters as the naivety of an electoral bloc too young to respect the fact that “socialism” is a bad word. Despite some convenient forgetting inspired by the exigencies and excesses of the Cold War, socialism in fact has a long pedigree in the United States. Its history in this country breaks roughly into two phases: communitarian and electoral.