The Communist Party is a historical necessity

Marxism-Leninism expressly affirms the need for the communist party as the organizer and leader of the revolutionary struggle of the working class for socialism; historical experience, the great battles waged by the proletariat confirms the validity of this thesis.

The struggle of the working class for emancipation began a long time ago. Since the 19th century, the trade union struggle of the workers in Europe went beyond economic demands and acquired political characteristics and a political course; it developed to putting forward the struggle for power and the understanding that it was the protagonist and leader of the social revolution.

These events were the result of a process that put forward the struggle for the immediate objectives, for the reduction of the working day, for stability and wage improvements, against the exploitation and oppression of the employers, for labor rights and social reforms. At the same time, Marxism emerged and unified with the workers’ movement. There were intense battles in which the ideological and political elements of the union organization were developed, of the unity of the workers from lower levels to the national level and further on to an international level, to the integration and practice of internationalism. There was the ideological and political confrontation, the unrelenting debate between the positions of scientific socialism and the anarchist theses and proposals, between Marxism and the opportunist positions. The development of the labor movement itself, its struggles and perspectives, contributed to the establishment of the principles of scientific socialism, of Marxism.

The revolutions that triumphed in the 20th century were possible due to the existence of an independent political party of the proletariat, a party equipped and guided by Marxism-Leninism. Such a party had the ability to develop a program and draw up proposals, lines of action and slogans that genuinely represent the immediate and strategic interests of the working class, that had the willingness and wisdom to face the changing conditions in which the revolutionary process unfolds. Such a party is closely linked to the working masses and the whole of the laboring masses, it is a party with iron discipline, with a single leadership and a single will to action, which has a central, capable and decisive leadership, a battle-hardened and courageous party that knows how to face the class enemy in all circumstances.

The October Revolution was the first and greatest experience of the workers; it was able to develop and win victory under complex and harsh conditions, precisely due to the existence of the Bolshevik Party, to the theoretical and practical work of Lenin and Stalin, to the heroic struggle of millions of workers, peasant and soldiers. Counting on the guidance of the Party it was able to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat and begin and develop at significant levels the building of a new world, socialism.

The Albanian Revolution was possible due to the existence of the Communist Party, which placed itself at the head of the aspirations for freedom and democracy of the working class and people; it led the struggle against the Nazi and Italian occupiers and the reactionary classes; it led the struggle to victory and guided it along the road of the construction of socialism.

The other revolutions that took place in the 20th century were also an expression of the existence and struggle of workers and people guided by the communist party.

Various revolutionary processes that took place could not achieve victory, due fundamentally to the weaknesses of the communist party.

The struggle for national liberation that developed in a large number of colonial and dependent countries that achieved victory could not lead to full independence much less to socialism, because the party of the working class did not exist or was small and weak and did not have the ability to lead those processes.

The revolutionary party of the working class adheres to and is guided by the revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism.

The communist party is the independent political party of the working class; it represents its immediate and strategic interests, it is its conscious vanguard; since its final purposes are the abolition of all forms of social inequality, the elimination of social classes and the State, the communist party fights for the emancipation of all humanity.

The political party of the working class takes up the doctrine of the working class, Marxism-Leninism, as its ideology and politics, as its philosophical conception, as its economic and social program.

Marxism-Leninism arose as a consequence of dialectical materialist philosophy, political economy and historical materialism, of the scientific analysis of the nature of capitalism and its laws of development, of the determination of the historic mission of the working class and the theoretical abstraction of the struggle and organization of that class.

Its creators were immersed in the organization and struggle of the workers, in the ranks of the International Workers Association, they were trade union fighters and leaders, and organizers of the communist party. They developed the science of the revolution; this science has been and is being proven in social practice, in the struggle of the working class of each country and on an international scale, in the victory of the October Revolution and of the other socialist and national liberation revolutions. It is the revolutionary thought, the most advanced political doctrine developed by humanity throughout its extensive historical journey; its revolutionary principles have universal validity, they are relevant in all countries; of course, their application takes into account the concrete situation. Marxism-Leninism is a living, developing doctrine; each of the victorious revolutions contributed to its development; the various fights of the working class and the work of the communists in all countries are a contribution to that advance.

Marxism-Leninism is not a dogma, it is a guide to action; it is a philosophy to interpret the world and fundamentally to transform it.

The communist and workers’ parties arose under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, in open struggle for its validity and development, in opposition to the opportunist and conciliatory positions that always threatened them. They are struggling for their orientation, they strive to apply it with initiative and boldness in the concrete situations of their countries, in the social and political dynamic, in the changing circumstances that take place at the national and international level, to defend this scientific ideology; they will persist in their principles of Marxism-Leninism, in the social and political struggle to carry the revolution through to the end.

The central objective of the party is the seizure of power by the working class

The policy, programmatic proposals, platforms and slogans are inscribed in this direction. The struggle for power is waged every day, in the concrete terrain of the society, in the heat of the class struggle.

The class struggle develops independently of the will of individuals, of the political parties. It is expressed in the confrontation between the workers and employers, between the laboring classes and the bourgeoisie, between the peoples and imperialism. Under certain conditions the class struggle becomes acute, of great magnitude; it involves the working class, the other laboring people and the peoples on the one hand, and the upper classes on the other, and it could lead to a political crisis. At other times this confrontation is of less intensity, it is carried out in isolated and scattered social struggles. At certain times it even seems that things are calm, that there is social peace. In any case, the class struggle does not disappear; it has different connotations, forms and levels.

Essentially the class struggle exists as the economic struggle, political struggle and ideological struggle. These are manifestations that do not occur in a compartmentalized way, they cannot be separated artificially from one another.

The economic struggle. The leading role of the party of the proletariat expresses itself in a specific way leading the organization and fights of the working class, the peoples and the youth in the struggle for their immediate economic interests, using them as a lever to get to the real causes of the situation of the working masses, to identify their immediate enemies as well as the holders of power, to educate them politically and to point out the road to power.

The political struggle. The communists are intentionally involved in the struggle for power that develops daily within society. They take sides for the cause of the working people, the poor, the exploited and oppressed; they confront the established institutions, against the anti-worker laws, in opposition to authoritarianism and repression, against the abuses of the judges, the police and armed forces. Together with the rejection of the policies of the capitalists, they put forward programmatic proposals, proclamations, paths and slogans that allow them to promote the policy of the working class, to position it among the laboring people, among the peoples and youth, but also among the whole of society.

Essentially this is the revolutionary policy of the party of the proletariat; it is expressed every day, in all circumstances and places. Obviously, in capitalist society, at certain moments, the political struggle for power, the confrontation to settle positions among different sectors of the ruling classes, intensifies. In general, these moments are resolved through elections under representative democracy. As a consequence of the sharpening of the contradictions between the exploited and exploiters, between the oppressed and oppressors, among the various groups of the ruling classes, political crises take place. These events involve the whole of society, all social classes and sectors of classes. Objectively, no one stands outside of them.

In all these events the Marxist-Leninist parties have been participating with their own positions, from the interests of the working class and peoples, from the positions of the oppressed peoples and nations.

The communist parties are clear about the need to politically educate the laboring masses, to show the class character of the government in office, to point out the historical mission of the working class, its responsibility to lead the struggle of all the workers and peoples, the perspective of the revolution and socialism, the necessity and possibility of the seizure of popular power.

These responsibilities are taken up by the parties of the working class with determination and boldness.

The ideological struggle. In capitalist society, there are objective reasons for the ideological struggle, which develops independently of the will of individuals; it expresses the confrontation of the interests of the antagonistic social classes, the working class and the bourgeoisie. It is waged between the objectives of the capitalists to preserve, protect, defend and increase their perks and privileges, and the proposals of the workers to defend their interests, for the winning of their rights, for the determination to change the established order, to overthrow the employers and to establish themselves as the ruling classes.

The capitalist class, like the ruling classes of the past, ascended to power and work daily to maintain and perpetuate itself in power. The power of the bourgeoisie is based on force, on the role of the police and the armed forces; it defends itself with reactionary coercion and violence. However, in order to maintain and develop its power, the class of capitalists essentially works for the legitimization of its domination.

The bourgeoisie justified its rise to power, its use of violence and terror by raising the banners of “freedom, equality and fraternity,” proclaiming the freedom of the serfs, the emancipation of the slaves. It drew up legislation that proclaims equality before the law, the law of universal suffrage, the alternation in office in the exercise of government, the existence and relevance of parliament, of representative democracy. In the stage of imperialism it declares itself the guardian of peace, freedom and democracy, and proclaims its willingness to intervene in any country where these principles are violated. According to these assumptions and all the advances that are evident in relation to time and events, the world is reaching the highest levels of development, of democracy and peace thanks to individual freedom, competition and free trade. The workers are part of this society, they take part in this democracy, they must be the leading forces of the incessant development and beneficiaries of that which corresponds to them, the wages to subsist and reproduce themselves.

With the advent of capitalism the industrial working class arose, the proletariat that creates the wealth, the transformation of the resources of nature into commodities, into material goods that make possible life and its unceasing development. The wealth produced by the workers is expropriated by the owners of private property of the means of production, by the capitalist class, turning them into wage slaves.

This situation places the main classes of capitalist society at opposite poles: the working class and the bourgeoisie.

The bourgeoisie, when it overthrew feudalism, established a new, revolutionary world; it gave a great impetus to science, technique and technology, it constantly revolutionized the instruments of production creating great amounts and also a great concentration of wealth. This new world was built on the foundations of the exploitation of the wage labor of thousands of millions of human beings, on social and political oppression, on the plunder of the natural resources of all countries. It was corrupt from its beginnings with the reasons for its aging and disappearance. That new world is now an old world, decaying and rotten.

By establishing itself on the basis of the exploitation and oppression of millions of human beings, it became a colossus with feet of clay, weak and vulnerable. As it grew it transformed the former serfs into “free” workers, it multiplied them numerically and expanded them throughout the earth, it placed them in direct relation to the advances of science and technology, it made them social subjects who were acquiring consciousness of their role in order to become gravediggers of the world of capital, the forgers of a new world, the workers’ society, socialism.

The bourgeoisie and the proletariat are opposites in capitalist society. They are in constant struggle to have the dominant role. For the time being, the capitalists are in power but the workers are struggling to overthrow them, to bring them down and become the new ruling class. This struggle will continue until finally the proletariat will definitively win out and create the material and psychological conditions for the elimination of social classes, including its own disappearance as a class, for the arrival of communism.

The ideological struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie exists in all circumstances; it is present in the various periods of the class struggle. It is expressed in the struggle of the revolutionary new against the reactionary and obsolete old; between the revolutionary traditions and the new proposals of the bourgeoisie, post-modernism and the theses that deny historical materialism, the existence of social classes, the role of the social classes; between “individual freedom,” selfishness and egoism against collective interests and solidarity; between bourgeois democracy that justifies the oppression of the working masses and the repression of trade unionists and revolutionaries; and proletarian democracy, the right to speak, decide and carry out the great achievements to benefit the great majority, direct democracy, the democracy of the masses; between representative democracy and revolutionary democracy that will take up the great achievements of socialism.

The communist party is the consistent standard bearer of the great ideals of the proletariat. It participates decisively in this ideological struggle, unfurling the principles of the revolution and socialism, popular power and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The struggle for power. Of all the forms of the class struggle, the political struggle is the main one, it is the one that leads to the seizure of power, which allows all the achievements that the workers and peoples need and want to be concretized for their benefit.

The communist party makes the political struggle primary, it develops the economic struggle on a daily basis, it engages in the ideological struggle, it directs its main activities to the struggle for the seizure of power, it works to incorporate in that direction the workers and peasants, the progressive intellectuals, the oppressed peoples and nations. It works incessantly to build the popular front, the revolutionary united front, to isolate the class enemy, the big bourgeoisie and imperialism, to accumulate powerful revolutionary forces that will lead to the final battles to overthrow the power of the national and foreign capitalists, to establish power popular. It raises the banners of emancipation: the red banner of the workers, of the revolution and socialism, the banners of the national liberation of the dependent countries.

In opposition to the bourgeois dictatorship we communists fight for the dictatorship of the proletariat

From its dawn, society divided into classes established the State as an expression of the institutions, as an instrument for the exercise of power, to subordinate and exploit the laboring classes and social sectors.

The capitalist State does not escape these conceptions; it is the instrument of the capitalist class and imperialism for the exercise of their economic power, for safeguarding, preserving and developing their interests. It is organized for the subordination of the working class and the other laboring classes; it becomes the guarantee for the perpetuation of their domination. The bourgeois State, regardless of its form, regardless of the level of social and political gains achieved by the workers and peoples, despite formal declarations, constitutional dogmas and laws in force, is an expression of the rule of the employers, the dictatorship of the capitalist class that proclaims freedom and democracy for the powerful, and institutionalizes exploitation, subordination and oppression for the workers.

Representative democracy, military dictatorship, fascism, authoritarian governments or reformist regimes are forms of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, expressions of the supremacy of the privileges for a few and exploitation, poverty and oppression for the vast majority.

The working class and its party cannot not take over the bourgeois State and carry out their class aims with their content and purposes. They must destroy the state machinery established by the exploiters and, on its foundations, raise up the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, Popular Power, the Workers’ State that will take various forms, according to the concrete historical circumstances.

The dictatorship of the proletariat will always be the expression of the broadest democracy for the workers, and dictatorship over the capitalists and other reactionaries.

Historical experience shows various forms of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and in the future the workers and peoples will undoubtedly find the most effective forms to exercise the power of the proletariat and the other laboring classes over the former exploiters, over the forms of capital inside the country and to defend themselves from the threats of reaction and counterrevolution at the national and international level.

The motive forces of the revolution.

The revolutionary party of the proletariat can and must fulfill its historic mission of organizing and making the revolution to the degree that it permanently forges and nourishes its links with the working masses, the peoples and youth; in so far as it takes up, in actuality, the organization and leadership of the working class and works for the leadership of the latter among the whole laboring classes and youth.

The linking of the party with the masses seeks to ensure that the programmatic proposals, policies and revolutionary slogans are understood and accepted by the advanced sectors of the working class, the other laboring classes, the youth and women. The great majority of the masses will be convinced of the need and correctness of the revolution with the achievements of socialism, an issue that can only be carried out from power.

The working class, the other sectors of the laboring classes, the women and youth can and should be involved in revolutionary work, in their advanced sectors, through the promotion of the theses and program of the party, of the party’s ability to persuade them of the necessity, justice and viability of the revolution. They will affirm themselves in these ideas through social practice, in mobilizations and strikes, in land seizures and uprisings.

Other sectors of the masses will join in the course of the struggle; they will join their contingent, convinced of the correctness and strength of the revolutionary forces. And a good part of the masses will be won by the achievements of the revolution.

This means that the party of the proletariat must persist in its work of winning the masses for the revolutionary struggle, it must pay attention to the advanced sectors of the working class, the peoples, youth and women.

The whole of the working class must deserve the attention of the propaganda and agitation of the communist party, but it is clear that the work should focus on the sectors that work in the strategic areas of the economy, in the large industrial complexes, among the public workers. The Party must analyze, under the concrete conditions, to which sectors of the working class it should devote the main part of its attention and activity.

It is indispensible that, for the work of the party to organize the working class and win it for the revolution and socialism, it must take account of the need to involve itself directly in the trade union and class struggle, to politically educate the working class and above all to develop its organization, the building of cells in enterprises with outstanding workers in the trade union and political struggle. To the degree that the party is organized within the factories and enterprises, in the mines and the means of transport, it will guarantee the objective that the working class will take up its role as the leading class of the revolution and the dominant class in society.

In the great majority of countries dependent on imperialist domination, especially those where forms of pre-capitalist modes of production persist, where the development of the productive forces is slow, deformed by the international division of labor imposed by the monopolies and the imperialist countries, the peasantry, and within it a good part of the poor and middle peasants, are open to being incorporated into the revolutionary process. Therefore they deserve the attention of the party of the proletariat; together with them the worker-peasant alliance must be forged as the fundamental base of the revolutionary united front.

Among the public workers in many countries, the teachers are joining the struggle for their rights and thus confronting the bourgeois government, the capitalist class. They form part of the decisive sectors of the masses; they must be led by the revolutionary positions, by the party of the working class and projected to the struggle for power, for the revolution and socialism.

Half of the population, of the members of the laboring classes are women, they suffer multiplied oppression and capitalist explosion, they are victims of the backward and reactionary ideas nurtured by feudalism; they are taking up the struggle for their rights and social liberation in different ways. The party of the proletariat must actively integrate itself with these aspirations, mobilizations and struggles; to work for the organization of working women, for their political education, for incorporating them into the organization and the revolutionary struggle for socialism.

The youth from the laboring classes, those sectors that take part as wage laborers in the enterprises, the strata of youth of the peasantry constitute a dynamic social sector that can more quickly embrace the ideals of the revolution and socialism. The party of the proletariat must take up the responsibility of winning over the organization and leading the struggle of the secondary school and university student youth; these sectors have played and play an important role in society, their ability to mobilize can be integrated into the revolutionary process; a good part of them are leaders of the intermittent struggles and among their ranks are bold and decisive outstanding fighters who can and should be organized as members of the communist party. The party of the proletariat should strive to nourish its ranks with young workers and peasants, with young fighters from the student sectors.

In the dependent countries a patriotic and anti-imperialist movement is developing which involves the workers, the youth, radicalized sectors of the petty-bourgeoisie, democratic sectors of the bourgeoisie, the oppressed peoples and nations. The bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie are working to lead this movement under nationalist proposals; the party of the proletariat should contest this with revolutionary proposals and actions. Only the communist party can lead this process to social and national liberation.

The party of the proletariat must concentrate its forces to win the masses, to assert itself and grow, but it is necessary to go a little further, to specify who among those actors can advance faster, who with their own actions can and should create social and political reference points and at specific moments can play a determining role in the course of the revolution. To find them and work in a sustained manner to get them to know the party’s policy, to contribute to their social and union organization, to build the Party and its forces among their most outstanding members; this will allow us to accumulate revolutionary forces, to build the revolutionary movement of the masses.

The vanguard role of the communist party

The Party must recognize itself as the vanguard; it must be so in fact. This is not a simple matter, much less an attribute that can be decreed. The Party is the vanguard because it represents, in theory and in practice, the genuine interests of the working class and that is the social class able to lead the other laboring classes in their struggle for their emancipation from capitalism. The role of vanguard is won because it is historically correct analysis and has a revolutionary Political Line, but above all because it devotes its thought and activity to the revolutionary struggle, to the persevering work of organizing the workers, of uniting them, educating them politically and leading them in the small and large battles for their immediate demands and for their liberation. Under these circumstances the party is the leader, and that is a collective attribute of the organization.

The Party must disseminate its proposals: what it is and what it proposes for today and tomorrow, for the new society. If the advanced sectors of the working masses and the youth know the policy of the party, if they are persuaded of its correctness, timeliness and viability, they will understand it, make it their own and decide to fight for its implementation and convert it into deeds in a great force for the work of the party among the whole of the masses. If we work to spread the revolutionary strategy, the necessity and probability of seizing power, the role of revolutionary violence for that end, socialism, its nature and its achievements, the workers, peoples and youth will transform themselves into leaders in the struggle for change, for the revolution, for people’s power and socialism. The strategy and tactics of the party, in fact, become a point of reference for the masses; they show the party’s vanguard role, the leadership of its policies.

To fulfill these proposals the Party must constantly perfect its work of propaganda, being clear that its principal activity in this terrain is the direct action of its members among the masses. Additionally, the social forces, the trade unions and other mass organizations that the communists lead must carry out their own propaganda activity, directed to the masses of their specific sectors, but also to all of society. The most efficient and effective manner of propagating the revolutionary ideas and proposals is the very action of the party and its forces, the importance that these can have for society is the actions of struggle in which the proletarian revolutionaries are involved; therefore it is necessary, indispensable to show its face, to make clear the leading role of the party.

The revolutionaries, comrades and members must win the confidence of the masses, must take up with responsibility the leadership of the struggle in its various levels and circumstances. The struggle itself emphasizes the “special” people, those who have the basic conditions to take up the role of “leaders.” The communists and other revolutionaries must fully assume that their role is shown in their ability to bring together, unite, organize and lead the masses in their daily struggles. This activity is the test for the great revolutionary battles that will develop and in which each member must fulfill his/her role.

The personal leadership of communist leaders among the masses and their struggles does not come by decree, by the fact that they are communist militants or from the social forces involved in the revolution. No, that leadership must be won! In order to achieve this, it is necessary to want to do so and actually do it. Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries are able to see beyond the immediate circumstances; they see the causes, contradictions and perspectives. These analyses let them explain, persuade and convince the masses of the correctness of their proposals; they enable them to point out the way and the paths, to identify the goals of the struggle and how to provide the forces for combat. They make it possible for the various social sectors in which the communists are active to accept the party’s policy, to have confidence in the work, ability and courage of each one of its members and to fight for the party’s policy under its leadership.

In this way we communists will earn the honorable title of people’s leaders, which means mainly the assumption of new responsibilities that must be fulfilled in an upward spiral, towards new and higher tasks.

The leaders of the trade unions and associations, of the peasantry, of the youth and women, of the peoples must affirm themselves in their social environment; they must continually develop their ideological and political convictions and their cultural level. If they gain experience and prestige as leaders of their social sector they have a better possibility of projecting themselves within the political activity, to revolutionary action. Beginning as local leaders they must project themselves to general and national struggles, from their position as social leaders they must advance to the level of revolutionary leaders. In this field the Marxist-Leninist parties have significant experiences that need to be generalized.

In defense of Marxism-Leninism, in confrontation with reaction and opportunism

The party of the working class actively participates in the struggle of ideas that develops every day and in the most varied circumstances.

The bourgeoisie through its ideologues seeks to legitimize its rule before society as a whole, using the most varied means: religions, schools, academia, the bourgeois institutions, coercion and deception, the media.

The development of the productive forces, of the instruments of production, the advances in science and technology, the innovations and inventions that are created as a consequence of the accumulation and appropriation of the wealth created by the workers are used by reaction to extol capitalism, to claim that it is the highest form of historical development, beneficial to all humanity, for the progress of the countries.

They explore new ideas and proposals, new meta-narratives, the revision and interpretation of history to establish a “new” philosophical thought that allows the capitalists to appear as the standard-bearers of the new philosophical currents, of post-modernism that is seen as the synthesis of historical social development.

They even use the labor gains and rights, the democratic openings won by the workers in order to preach that it is possible to advance with the permission of the bourgeoisie, due to the democratic nature of capitalism.

Simultaneously they orchestrate a vast campaign of lies and distortions against the revolution and socialism, they demonize the communist party. They take advantage of the debacle of modern revisionism, of the dissolution of the former USSR to proclaim the failure and burial of socialism, to declare the end of ideologies and of the class struggle. They denounce the revolution and socialism as useless sacrifices paid for by the workers and peoples that gain them nothing, that lead back to capitalism.

Their poisonous darts are mainly directed at the existence and role of the communist party, at the role of the working class which, supposedly, without the revolution, has achieved huge benefits that can grow as capitalism develops.

Social-Democracy became a battering ram to attack the revolution and socialism, to attack the USSR and the socialist camp, to show itself to the working masses as the alternative to the revolution. “Democratic socialism” is only a face of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, of capitalism.

So far in the new millennium, particularly in Latin America, so-called “21st century socialism,” basing itself on the long struggle of the workers, peoples and youth against neoliberal policies, has been presented as the alternative to scientific socialism, to the historical experience of the revolutionary processes that the working class and peoples led in the 20th century.

The various forms of opportunism join in the chorus of these distortions by the capitalist class: They align themselves with their attacks against Marxism-Leninism, they declare it obsolete. They preach the need to find and elaborate new proposals for the emancipation of the workers; they accuse the communist party of taking advantage of the trade union struggles and revolutionary combats. They demonize democratic centralism as a form of authoritarianism, that kills the initiatives of the proletarian revolutionaries.

In this work the various representatives of modern revisionism, the Khrushchevites, stand out. They betrayed communism under the pretext of changing times, of superseding Marxism-Leninism, they betrayed and condemned the dictatorship of the proletariat. Specifically, they directed their diatribes against Stalin and transformed themselves into reformist parties, into tools of capitalism and imperialism for class conciliation, for the ideological and political disarming of the working class, for the destruction of the communist parties that once played a consistent revolutionary role. They became the ones who destroyed the socialist states. Some of these parties, preserving their opportunist essence, are developing a pseudo-revolutionary verbiage in order to continue with the deception, to appear as “modern” communists.

Since their expulsion and condemnation by the Bolsheviks, Trotskyism and its followers have always been a spearhead of reaction and the bosses to line up with their attacks on the Bolshevik revolution, joining the chorus of the capitalists who denounced it as the dictatorship of the party, as a manifestation of bureaucracy, as an expression of Stalinism which they blamed for all the evils that existed and now exist.

A series of groups of petty-bourgeois revolutionaries and progressive intellectuals participate in the diatribes against communism, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the role of Stalin. Starting from their idealistic conceptions they condemn the great feats of the working class, the revolution, the dictatorship of the proletariat, which they call Stalinism.

The communist party does not reject the theoretical and political debate with the bourgeoisie and reaction, with the various manifestations of opportunism. It resolutely takes up the defense of Marxism-Leninism, the historical experience of the revolutions of the 20th century, the role of the communist party, and the validity of the dictatorship of the proletariat. It always puts forward the study of the revolutionary processes, of their successes and victories, as well as the reasons that allowed for the triumph of the policies of imperialism and reaction, and the destruction of the former USSR and other revolutions.

Although the main form of the defense of Marxism-Leninism is the commitment and concrete practice of following its teachings and, under its guidance reopening the road to the revolution and socialism, the proletarian revolutionaries must participate in the theoretical debate that arises. It is not enough to refer to the teachings of the classics; one must intervene actively in the discussion, in the concrete conditions in which it arises, one must also respond to the new challenges in the field of revolutionary theory.

The ideological struggle galvanizes the proletarian party

The party is built in the great laboratory of the class struggle, in the midst of the theoretical and political combat between the working class and the bourgeoisie, between the peoples and imperialism.

Starting from the revolutionary proletarian conceptions and practices that the communists take up, the Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations have been affirmed and developed.

In spite of this, or rather, due to this circumstance, the class struggle is also waged within the party, in the field of ideas, of the revolutionary conceptions and practice of its members.

In the midst of its revolutionary activity errors and mistakes are made, there are difficulties and obstacles to be overcome. The impact of the ideology of imperialism and the bourgeoisie, of the theses of opportunism and revisionism must also be faced.

To ensure the correction of errors and to overcome the difficulties, to resolve the problems that arise among the communists, one must make use of the tool of criticism and self-criticism. In order to reaffirm their ideological and political unity, to isolate and defeat the incorrect ideas and positions, the party and its members are champions of the ideological struggle.

The ideological struggle is the expression of the class struggle within the party; it is a confrontation that must be carried out to the end, to the affirmation of proletarian conceptions. Ideological and political unity is reached and must be pursued under all circumstances, with the unmasking and elimination of the incorrect ideas, of the infiltration of the theses of reaction and opportunism. Conciliation in the field of ideological struggle leads to weakening the class nature of the party, to sowing illusions about reformism, to deviation from the objectives of communism.

Proletarian internationalism corresponds to the class nature of the communist party

The working class is a single class, in all countries it takes part in a leading way in the process of production; a good part of it is integrated into the big industrial complexes; another sector, dispersed in small and medium enterprises endowed with the latest technology; it is in direct relation with innovations and new inventions, with science and technology; it is the creator of the wealth that is accumulated and concentrated in the big monopolies, in the imperialist countries and bourgeois groups in all regions of the Earth.

Capitalist society, the monopolies and imperialist countries are the expropriators of the surplus value created by thousands of millions of workers of all countries; they impose regulations, laws, oppression and exploitation, the repressive systems throughout the globe. Despite the division of the capitalist class into large monopoly groups, into various imperialist countries, into various economic groups in each country, they all make use of the wealth created by the workers; they act as a single front against the working class and peoples.

The working class is an international class; it confronts the capitalist class on a global scale. From the very beginning of its condition as a class for itself, from the early days of the trade union organization it had the understanding and consciousness of the character of capitalist exploitation, of the need to forge the unity of the workers, to build the international organization of the proletariat.

The workers’ movement and its struggle set the stage for the emergence and strengthening of the communist parties that join in as internationalist fighters for socialism.

The communist party has always been a shock brigade of the international revolution of the proletariat, in its long history it has carried out great and heroic feats of the communists fighting for the revolution and socialism, regardless of the country of its birth.

The Marxist-Leninist Party takes up proletarian internationalism as a conception, as the understanding of the international character of the proletarian revolution, as the decision to fight capitalism and imperialism and to overthrow them in order to build socialism on the road to communism, as the united march of the workers and peoples, the communists and revolutionaries in all countries and on an international scale. It educates its members and the working class in the spirit and practice of proletarian internationalism.

The Marxist-Leninist parties of our time grouped in the CIPOML reaffirm their internationalist identity, their position as detachments of the international socialist revolution. The origin, life and struggle of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations are witness to the theory and practice of proletarian internationalism.

The communist newspaper

The policy of the party of the proletariat, its general and specific expressions must be known by the working class, by the other laboring classes, the women and youth, and must be spread throughout society.

Party activity cannot be developed except through the propaganda of revolutionary ideas. It will not be possible to achieve socialism if the Marxist-Leninist conceptions and proposals are not spread among the working class and the masses.

The propagandist work must be directed towards winning the broad masses of the workers for the revolution and socialism and, secondly, it must denounce and condemn bourgeois society, imperialist domination, capitalist corruption and decadence and, of course, it must unmask the reformist positions of social-democracy, opportunism and revisionism.

The validity of the tactical guidelines, the correctness of the revolutionary proposal, of popular power and socialism, the forms of organization and the ways to advance to the seizure of power; the revolutionary nature of the party and its forces, their ability and consistency, their audacity and determination; the role and democratic character of the revolutionary leaders and chiefs, their ability to lead the popular struggles, and their skill in carrying out the mandates of the masses must be the motives and contents of revolutionary propaganda.

The activity of revolutionary propaganda should be directed, first of all, towards the working class, towards the popular sectors that form the social base of the party, secondly towards the most impoverished social sectors of society, and, thirdly, towards the progressive intelligentsia of the middle strata of the population.

The social base of the revolution, essentially, the working class, the laborers and peasants, the poor neighborhood residents and small business owners, teachers, secondary and university student youths, the democratic and patriotic men and women able to align themselves with revolutionary positions, must constantly be exposed to Marxist-Leninist ideas.

The working class, the other laboring classes, the women and youth are victims of the reactionary offensive; they are susceptible to ideological and political manipulation by reaction and opportunism. The propaganda of the party must take these elements into account and seek and find the ways and means to reach them and affirm the conception of change, the understanding of the problems and their leading role in the organization and popular struggle.

The majority of the population are victims of the exploitation and oppression of the capitalists, they suffer the ravages of poverty; their situation is exacerbated daily by the lack of employment and the high cost of living. These are the explosive social sectors, susceptible to desperate actions; they are manipulated in the elections by the populist trends that promise them the whole world, salvation, but they are struck by these unfulfilled promises. These poor people, the shirtless ones, must be exposed to the party propaganda in order to win them to the struggle for the change that they want, but that they believe will come from a Messiah.

One part of the intelligentsia of the middle strata of the population, of the petty bourgeoisie, the professionals, teachers and students have progressive and democratic conceptions; they have not been absorbed by the system as their “organic intellectuals.” They are capable of understanding and adhering to revolutionary proposals; they generally are part of the reformist, social-democratic formations, but there is a radical group. The nature of the activity of these social sectors makes them opinion makers. The propaganda of the party must also be directed towards these sectors. Its contents must show its theoretical validity, it must provide arguments that show its correctness, its validity and timeliness. We should not forget to give them an opportunity not only to read our positions but also to express them, as leaders in making revolutionary propaganda.

The experiences in the field of propaganda and, above all, the need to advance by leaps and bounds should help to increase their quality and magnitude in order to reach millions of human beings, the whole of society, the social base of the party, the dispossessed and the progressive intelligentsia; they should give rise to the many-sided use of the written press, the leaflet, wall propaganda, the internet and computers, radio and television, but they also should use the openings that can be gained from the commercial media through interviews, debates, statements, bulletins, calls, etc.

The fundamental instrument of the propaganda of the Marxist-Leninist party must be the central newspaper, the organ of the Central Committee. Leninism stresses the extraordinary role of the party newspaper. From “Iskra” to “Pravda” it was a bulwark of the revolutionary action of the masses, it played the role of propagandist and agitator for the struggle of the working class and peasantry, of the trade union organizer and the party; it was the vehicle that gave the call for the assault on power.

Certainly the media has developed hand in hand with the development of the productive forces, the innovations of science and technology, in recent times above all with the role played by the internet and social networks. However, without renouncing the use of these various forms, the party must insist on the newspaper, on its regular publication, on its capacity as a vehicle for the political unification of the party, for the organization of the masses, for the class combats of the workers.

Revolutionary violence is the midwife of History

The liberation of the slaves was the result of their rebellion, of great revolts and revolutions that broke the chains and gave rise to a new stage of development of human society, to the autocracy of the feudal lords, to absolutism, and the serfdom of millions of peasants who as “free men” were yoked to bondage. Obscurantism was eliminated by the revolution of the artisans and peasants who were taken advantage of by the bourgeoisie in order to ascend to political power and establish the capitalist system. The repeated attempts by the feudal aristocracy and reaction to restore their privileges also made use of violence, but they were defeated again and again by the revolutionary violence wielded by the bourgeoisie, counting on the workers and peasants as their troops. The bourgeoisie in power uses violence to preserve its interests, to increase and perpetuate them. Imperialism affirms its economic and political domination with wars of aggression, with the establishment of puppet regimes, with occupation troops.

The first victorious proletarian revolution, the Paris Commune, established the first workers’ government, the first form of the dictatorship of the proletariat accompanied by the armed insurrection of the workers; it defended itself through revolutionary violence until it succumbed to the superiority of the capitalists. The Great October Revolution was born from the armed insurrection of October 25, 1917, it survived the counterrevolutionary offensive and defeated it after a bloody civil war, relying on the Red Army, with the workers and peasants armed and fighting for their destiny. The Albanian revolution, the Chinese revolution, the war of liberation of Vietnam and all the revolutions that seized power and once formed the great socialist camp were a consequence, the result of revolutionary war, of guerrilla warfare and insurrections.

In the area of social and political forces that struggle against capitalism, for change and for socialism, various conceptions and practices on the use of revolutionary violence are present. We Marxist-Leninists must clarify and differentiate proletarian conceptions from the ideas and voluntarist practices, from the guerrilla foco, from the vanguardist views, from the individual heroes, from the liberators of the masses, from the anarchists of the ideas of the radical petty bourgeoisie. The communists demarcate their positions regarding the conceptions and practices of individual terrorism; we condemn the reactionary and fascist terrorism.

The liberation of the workers, their true independence can only come with the organization and victory of the organized violence of the masses led by the party of the proletariat. The Marxist-Leninist communists are supporters of revolutionary violence, they strive to organize it in the concrete historical conditions.

To conceive of revolutionary violence as the form of struggle that leads to power presupposes for the proletarian party the use of all other forms of struggle: economic contention, battles of trade unions and associations, the democratic mobilizations of the people, the enterprise strike and general strike, popular uprisings, street fighting, marches, protests, the seizure of roads and lands, the participation in elections under representative democracy.

The party of the proletariat fights for the revolution under all circumstances, openly and making use of bourgeois legality, under semi-legality, under illegal circumstances and in clandestinity.

The proletarian party’s expertise is developed to the degree that it can make use of all forms of struggle, to use them to accumulate forces, to contribute to the organization of the workers and youth, to educate them politically, always keeping in mind power and victory. It uses all forms of struggle, combines them appropriately according to the strategic objectives; the use of the revolutionary violence of the masses enables the working class and its party to organize the revolution, the seizure of power, and then the exercise of leadership and the realization of the great task of building socialism.

Democratic centralism is the pillar of the party of the working class

The communist party is a system of organizations, Lenin pointed out from the first days of building a revolutionary party of the working class.

This statement refers to the need for an organized party, endowed with iron discipline and a centralized leadership. It is an organization of militants that carries out revolutionary activity together with the masses under the guidance of a single political orientation, that displays initiative without losing its course.

Democratic centralism combines democracy and centralism, freedom and discipline, creative initiative and planned and controlled activity.

Between democracy and centralism, the latter is primary, that which defines and characterizes the party of the proletariat.  In the Communist Party there is a holistic relation between democracy and centralism. The various political circumstances in which the activity of the party develops influence the relation between centralism and democracy. Thus, in situations in which repression intensifies, the preeminence of centralism is imperative; however under circumstances in which democratic liberties have a greater expression, a greater expression of democracy within the party is possible and necessary.

As a centralized organization, the Marxist-Leninist party does not allow for parallel leaderships, nor does it recognize factions of any kind. As a democratic organization it establishes equality of rights and duties for all its members, elections at all levels, the right of recall, constant information and consultation with the rank-and-file by the higher bodies, the right to criticize and make suggestions to those bodies and the individual leaders, using the relevant channels.

The validity of revolutionary democracy in the life of the party is expressed in the broadest but organized political discussion of important problems, in the participation of all bodies and members in the formulation of the Political Line, of the Declaration of Principles, of the Program and Statute of the Party; in the enthusiastic and creative activity in order to boldly apply and develop the orientations emanating from the leading bodies, in the permanent and correct exercise of criticism and self-criticism, in the practice of collective leadership and personal responsibility.

For these norms to be really effective, work must be done to create an atmosphere of equality and camaraderie between leaders and rank-and-file. The most important thing to achieve this is the attitude of respect that the leaders must have for the members.

Centralism arises from the need to elaborate, synthesize and convert the opinions and initiatives of the rank-and-file into a single orientation, to adopt practical measures that make viable the unrestricted implementation and application of agreements and resolutions taken, to unite and distribute the forces of the Party according to the needs of the struggle and to ensure a single will of action of all the members.

The Khrushchevite revisionists, all sorts of left and right opportunists, and of course the ideologues of reaction and the bourgeoisie denounce democratic centralism as a form of rigidity, of the authoritarianism of the omnipotent central committee, as a manifestation of what they call Stalinism. A large number of petty-bourgeois revolutionary groups and individuals condemn it as anti-democratic and demand freedom of political opinion and action.

Historical experience shows the correctness and validity of democratic centralism to build and forge the Marxist-Leninist party. Only a party guided by Marxism-Leninism and galvanized by democratic centralism was able in the past to organize and lead the October Revolution and the other proletarian revolutions of the 20th century, to build socialism. Only such a party can continue the grandiose task of leading the working class and people to bring down capitalism and establish the new world, the society of the workers, socialism.

The Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations that close ranks in the CIPOML are consistent champions of the validity of democratic centralism.

The building of the revolutionary party of the proletariat

The organization of the revolution demands a powerful communist party, a large and capable party composed of thousands and thousands of proletarian revolutionaries, men and women who adhere to and fight for the cause of communism.

The need for ideological and political unity, for a single will of action, for an iron discipline, arises in conditions indispensable for the activity of the revolutionary party of the proletariat, but at the same time they are expressions of the serious and unrestricted practice of proletarian democracy.

The conception that the party is not just the sum of individuals, but a system of bodies, is a particular characteristic of the party of the proletarians.

The ideological, political and organizational relationship of the party with the masses is another pillar of the building of the party, it is affirmed in the materialist conception that the masses are the makers of history, that social being determines consciousness, of the theory of knowledge and the negation of spontaneity.

The dialectical relation of theory to practice. The conviction that without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary practice, the role of the party in the elaboration and discussion of theory, the need to equip the working class and the masses with revolutionary theory are an indispensable component in the life and building of the party.

The validity of criticism and self-criticism in order to resolve problems, correct errors and overcome difficulties within the party; the correct use of the ideological struggle to defeat positions and practices within the party that are alien to proletarian ideology and politics, ensure the class character of the party.

These fundamental principles have guided the communists throughout several decades, in various countries and conditions, and they have shown themselves to be correct and revolutionary; they have allowed several parties to fulfill their historical role of leading the revolution, seizing power and beginning the building of socialism.

The Marxist-Leninists affirm adherence to these principles which are the basis of the party of a “new type”; they strive to apply them in the building of the party of the proletariat.

The parties that are part of the CIPOML are still small organizations, with problems in their functioning, insufficiently linked to the masses. These are parties and organizations that grow slowly, lagging behind the needs of the revolution, behind the possibilities; they exist and fight in a small number of countries. The organizational development is insufficient in regard to the political work carried out by the party.

In the current conditions of the revolutionary process, the question of how to advance in the growth of the party is put forward as a very important problem.

For a party great in quality and quantity

The role of organizer of the revolution can only be fulfilled victoriously by a large and skilled communist party, rooted in the ranks of the working class, in the factory enterprises, in the peasant communes, in the mines and poor neighborhoods, among women and youth.

The party cell constitutes the main nucleus that links the party with the class; the cell in the enterprise characterizes the ideological, political and organizational ideological nature of the communist party.

The cell is the basic organization of the party. It is the nucleus of communists who live among the working masses, who are in constant relation with their experiences and problems, who can capture and process their desires and aspirations, their needs, their degree of conscience and their state of mind. It is the group of revolutionary propagandists who bring the ideas of communism to the masses, who agitate them, convince them and predispose them to the revolutionary struggle. It is the group of revolutionary propagandists who bring the ideas of communism to the masses, who agitate them, convince them and prepare them for the revolutionary struggle. It is the general staff that can organize the struggle of the masses and lead it to victory, which educates the people politically, which strengthens their social and revolutionary organization. It is the school of communist training, the crucible in which the temper of the members is forged, where the revolutionary fraternity, proletarian solidarity develops. It is the center of the party builders, of those who organize the recruitment and training of new communists. The cell represents the party, its program and its proposals, the daily politics and the strategic objectives; it is the expression of the vanguard role of the struggle for revolution and socialism.

The selection, formation of nuclei and training of popular fighters in the various organizations of the masses should be understood as steps for the organization of groups of candidates for members of the party.

Clearly, not all the rank-and-file members of these organizational nuclei will become members of the communist party. That high honor and responsibility will be taken up by the most consistent and selfless people, the popular fighters who advance in understanding the fundamental doctrines of Marxism-Leninism and make them their own in the struggle of the masses, in the revolutionary combat. This does not in any manner mean that those people who are members of trade union and popular organizations, without being party members, are not revolutionaries. On the contrary, they are an integral part of the revolutionary forces, organizers and leaders of the struggle of the masses. The communists must strengthen links of ideological, political and organizational unity with them: they must respect their opinions and particular characteristics, forge together with them the various detachments of the proletarian revolution.

It is among those social fighters, the most consistent and honorable of them, those who show the firmest commitment to their own interests, those who advance to look beyond their environment, who seek out ways out, where we will find the new members of the communist party. Among those leaders of the masses, paying attention to the youngest and most determined, the bold ones, those who show wisdom and initiative, those who aspire to change, are the seed, the present and future of the revolution and socialism.

It is not to be expected that these potential communists will be clear about the situation, the cause of the problems, much less the solution. They should not be required to fully understand Marxism-Leninism, the revolutionary political line of the party and its policies and proposals as a condition for entry into the party. All this they will know and learn within the party, in the process of their assimilation and training as communists.

The building of the party demands a leading nucleus

To resolve the problem of party leadership, principally of its Central Committee, is the indispensable condition for the growth of the party, for its consolidation and development.

It is a task and a responsibility that demands tenacity and perseverance and that develops in a more or less complex process.

The fundamentals for the consolidation of this leading nucleus are:

– in the knowledge and assimilation of revolutionary theory, of Marxism-Leninism; in the ability of that same nucleus to know and interpret, in the light of principles and from the interests of the working class, the complex and changing situation in which society and the country are immersed, in which the international struggle of the working class unfolds.

– in its ability to elaborate politically for the working class, for society as a whole

– in the willingness to integrate itself into the organization and struggle of the working class, in the political struggle unfolding in society

– in its decisiveness in taking on the tasks of leading the party, to involve itself directly in the relations of the leadership with the rank-and-file

– in the consistent practice of criticism and self-criticism, of ideological struggle

– in the willingness to confront and resolve the problems of the life of the party, to listen to the concerns of the members and to give them revolutionary and timely answers

– the leaders of the party must be fearless, bold, timely, they must show the way by example, with revolutionary simplicity and passion.

The forging of a Central Committee that recognizes and takes up its responsibilities and tasks will be expressed daily, it will have its ups and downs, but it will guarantee the building of the party and the leadership of the revolutionary struggle of the working class for socialism.

The building of the party has to do with the promotion of the party, its politics and its cadres among the masses

It is necessary to work tirelessly to spread the revolutionary politics of the party, its current and strategic proposals, what the communists propose in order to face and resolve the crisis in favor of the workers and peoples, what they propose for today and tomorrow. It is essential to promote the name of the Party, its symbols, its slogans; the communists must be present directly, out loud among the masses, among the people’s fighters; in short, the promotion of the party, its policies and its cadres among the proletariat and the other working classes, the youth and women,  is necessary, essential,.

It is not possible to claim that the workers and peasants, the teachers and youth, the social fighters, those people, men and women, who aspire to a better tomorrow and who want to do something for this, could recognize the Party as the way, as the means for the struggle for liberation, if they do not know it, if they do not know its proposals and its capacity for struggle.

How to make the Party known among the masses?

The policy of the party should be spread among the masses by all means; it is necessary to publicly show the name of the party; the cadres and militants of the party must win the recognition of the masses and other social fighters, they must do so in theory and in practice, showing clarity and soundness in the proposals, firmness and courage in the leadership of the union organizations, loyalty and consistency towards the interests of the workers.

The dissemination of the central newspaper of the party, the propaganda of the cell, the flyer, the pamphlet, the wall newspaper, the conversation with the masses, are activities that must deserve the regular attention by the organizations of the rank-and-file and the leadership.

Proceeding in this way, a favorable environment will be created for the process of the building of the party; it will work to make the Party a reference point for the masses and the people’s fighters.

The training of new and numerous party cadres

The communist parties must have a significant number of cadres, of popular leaders who have a well-earned leadership among the masses, who are cherished and respected.

This is a reality recognized by ourselves and others. But it is also true that the present requirements of the mass movement and, above all, the prospects and needs of its development demand multiplying the number of revolutionary cadres.

The new cadres will not be produced spontaneously; they will be the result of the existence of many members, men and women communists who have the qualities and willingness to assume the leadership of the masses in the process of the revolution.

The training of cadres demands persistent work of the leadership of the party but it also demands the willingness of each member to take up a new stage.

The study of revolutionary theory, the cultural formation, cultivation of skills and abilities and social practice are indispensable to forge the leaders of the masses; the membership, the life of the party, the practice of proletarian democracy, of criticism and self-criticism, of ideological struggle, as well as the integration and participation in union organization and struggle, in the social and political combats of the working masses contribute to affirming and strengthening the revolutionary consciousness of the cadres, to projecting them as political leaders of the masses.

24th Plenary of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (CIPOML)

Mexico, November of 2018

ICMLPO’s latest materials on the international situation drew attention to the falling rate of growth in the capitalist world economy, to the fluctuating and uneven development in terms of relations between sectors and countries, and to the factors that stimulate its instability. Production growing faster than capitalist global markets, although still not at a level to trigger a new crisis, has caused a sharp fall in the cumulative production, bringing the global rate of industrial production down to 3.3% in 2014. This rate had almost halved to 1.7% in 2015. In 2016, despite many interventions, which did not really solve the problems but worsened them and postponed their consequences until subsequent years, global industrial production had grown only by 1.9%, thanks mainly due to the increases in the last quarter. Most current data show that the increased rate of growth observed towards the end of last year was continuing in the first half of this year in an uneven and inconsistent manner.^[1]

The growth rate for the capitalist global market and volume of trade also fell in previous years, displaying uneven, inconsistent development that dropped below the growth rate of global industrial production. In 2014, global volume of trade had grown at a rate (2.7%) below that of industrial production, the following year it was slightly lower at 2.1%. In 2016, despite the increase in the last quarter, growth of global volume of trade was again below that of industrial production and fell to 1.4%. In the first two quarters of 2017, the growth rate for the global volume of trade was below that of the last quarter in 2016 and it continues to decrease.^[2]

Although there has not yet emerged a crisis of overproduction in agriculture, famine and poverty persist, while a high volume of food produce is destroyed and stockpiles of some agricultural products are increasing. Not accounting for the impact of seasonal and other natural factors, agricultural production is also going through a period of fluctuation. Market growth not matching production – a main characteristic of capitalist development and the basis of crisis – or more precisely, the faster rate of growth in production compared to the market, led to increases in stockpiles in many sectors and fluctuations in commodity prices (most apparent example is the oil prices). This happened despite efforts of monopolies to prevent price drops.

As before, uneven development between countries and subsequent changes in balances of power among capitalist countries persisted last year. This is especially evident in the growth of industrial production.

In the US, the largest global economy, industrial production in 2014 grew in line with global industrial production (3.1%) but started to fall behind towards the end of the year, falling down to 0.7 and 1.2% respectively in 2015 and 2016. Despite the fall in aggregate growth, US industrial production recovered towards the end of 2016 and continued to grow in the first half of 2017.

Achieving 8.3% in 2014, the growth rate of Chinese industrial production fell to 6-7% despite state intervention and incentives, and growth for the first half of 2017 continued to be within this range. Despite the relative fall, China exhibits a higher and more consistent rate of growth compared to the old developed capitalist countries, and continues to be one of the fastest growing global economies.^[3] For instance, in 2016 China surpassed the US in terms of industrial production (this does not change the fact that US is still the largest global economy but it gives an idea as to the course of development).

In Japan, the third largest global economy, the growth rate was 1.9% in 2014, but shrunk by 1.3% and 0.4% in the following years. The stark reality for Japan is that the recovery of industrial production of mid-2009 could not be sustained, and after 2010 growth was replaced by decline and stagnation in industrial production which failed to reach the pre-2008 levels and was still at a level below that of 2010.

Germany, the fourth largest economy in the world, with the second highest global export surplus, after China, managed a small rate of growth in recent years. With the added affect of growth in Germany, growth in the Eurozone in 2014 was 0.8%, followed by successive rates 2.1% and 1.5% in the following years. Growth in Germany continues to rise this year but is extremely uneven and inconsistent in the rest of the Eurozone.

Brazil and India are other examples of unequal and uneven development. Brazil, once deemed an exemplary country with rapid growth and development, has seen its industry shrink, becoming a country dependent mainly on the production and sales of raw materials. India’s rate of growth increased mainly due to the flow of foreign capital into its economy. Despite a fall in its rate of growth in 2016, it was one of the countries with the best rates of industrial and economic growth. Rate of industrial growth in India continued to fall in the first half of 2017. Turkey is among the countries, along with Vietnam, where industrial growth rate have been above the global average since 2010.

Just like Brazil, Mexico, one of the big economies in South America, also saw its rate of industrial growth fall in 2016, and negative growth continued in the first half of 2017. In contrast to economies in Europe, Asia and Africa, industrial production in Latin American countries started to fall in late 2014, coming down to levels below that of 2010 in a year. Industrial production continued to shrink in 2016, growth levels remaining lower than that of 2010 in March and April 2017. In contrast, Asia is currently the fastest growing area in the world and its place in the global economy is strengthening day by day.

Overproduction and the fall in the global rate of growth led to a fall in oil prices as well as in prices of other raw materials. The fall in oil prices upset the economies of countries dependent on gas and oil production and sales, such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, as well as Russia and Iran. Venezuela entered a many-sided crisis, with the added impact of destructive actions of US imperialism; Saudi Arabia had to take austerity measures; and Russia had negative growth.^[4]

In order to sustain its economic growth and meet its targets, China keeps borrowing. The ratio of Chinese debt to GDP was 148% in 2007 and it went up to 237% in the first quarter of 2016. This figure stands at 304% at present, a very large increase in one year, and is getting closer to the levels of the US and the Eurozone, which are stronger in terms of their financial makeup, economic foundations and resources.[5] Increased indebtedness is not unique to China; bubbles akin to those in the pre-2008 crisis are also increasing in many other countries; financial balances which were profoundly upset by the 2008 crisis are hovering at levels below those of pre-2008. Increasing debts and their ratios to GDPs continue to rise in recent years.

The measures taken by the financial oligarchy to sustain economic growth and expand markets, or at least to prevent them from shrinking, by increasing government spending, stimulating consumption through facilitating more borrowing and credit usage lead to the upset of financial balances, while measures to achieve financial stability cause shrinking of markets and falling rates of growth, intensifying existing problems and amplifying others. The interventions by monopoly capitalism, competently utilising the state apparatus as well as financial institutions, do not eradicate the laws of capitalist economy or fundamentally change their course and direction; capitalism cannot avoid local and global crises and stagnation of varied severity.

Some claim that a deep financial crisis is looming by the end of the year or in next year, but the rulers of the capitalist world claim that the global economy will continue to grow at higher levels in 2018 and beyond. However, there are indications that the inconsistent and uneven growth observed at the end of 2016 and the first half of this year will not be sustained for long. The changing power relations between countries, especially major imperialist countries, and the sharpening struggle for a bigger share of the world, etc. only deepens these inconsistencies and fluctuations. The economic growth process in capitalist society is also a process where elements of a new crisis build up in all sectors.

2 – Inter-imperialist contradictions are sharpening

Despite the continued weakening of its hegemony, the US is still way ahead of its nearest rivals in all fields; it is still the largest global economic, political and military force. US monopoly in many high-technology sectors continues although it is weakening. Moreover, despite the big differences between the US and its closest imperialist rivals in economic power and military might, a united economic, military-political consensus against the US has not yet emerged. However, the uneven and inconsistent development continues as well as the struggle among major imperialist countries to weaken rivals and to get the biggest share in the exploitation of the working class and peoples and in the plunder of all natural resources, using all manoeuvres and interventions available. The main regions where these struggles and tensions intensified in recent years were the Middle-East, Far East and Ukraine.

Because of the developments in Ukraine, NATO and US armed forces have moved increasingly closer to the Russian borders, the number of military exercises were on the rise, with heightening dogfights between opposing air and naval forces. After the Middle-East, Far East Asia remains the area where greatest tensions are felt, displays of military might and exercises are witnessed and the threat of military conflict is routine. Tensions are on the rise in the Korean peninsula. US confrontations targeting North Korea are increasing in line with its struggle to widen its sphere of influence against Russia and China. The struggle between China and the US and its allies to broaden their sphere of influence and access to the region is intensifying. The Chinese-Indian and Indian-Pakistani borders are other Asian regions where, beyond military exercises, confrontations are routine and armaments are boosted.

The change in the balance of power due to uneven development, which is not a new concept, and the weakening of US hegemony among the imperialist forces, is increasing and making more prominent the struggle and contradictions among the imperialist countries united under the NATO umbrella led by the US, as well as Japan. The contradictions among them are sharpening and different tendencies are beginning to emerge and crystallize. Nevertheless, these developments have not yet led to a level of full rupture or confrontation, and the US is trying hard to prevent this. Faced with US hegemony and imposition, Germany, in addition to France, follows more open and clear policies in line with its own interests and preferences. Steps are being taken, despite assurances given, to create a military force of the EU as an alternative to NATO, with the capacity for international interventions. On the other hand, the UK, with historically closer economic, military, political and cultural ties with the US, its Trojan horse and closest ally within the EU, is exiting from the EU.

The US is pressurising all NATO countries, especially Germany, to increase their military spending. The biggest share of such an outlay will go to the US and its monopolies. Moreover, the resources mobilised by Germany and other countries for economic expansion will be restricted to a certain extent and will be used by US arms monopolies. The US is trying to sabotage Germany’s attempts to expand and strengthen itself economically.

The major imperialist countries that impose the removal of all barriers on the free movement of capital and goods, through the support and coordination of the World Bank and the IMF, have split into two camps. While China and Germany, along with Japan, which has so far been attentive to be harmonious with the US and made this a fundamental element of its foreign policy, are against measures that restrict the free movement of capital and goods, the US and the UK are clearly defending protectionist measures. The US cannot make Japan toe the line as it did in the 1990s.

While transatlantic negotiations with the EU have stalled, free trade negotiations, more precisely negotiations to reduce the level of economic restrictions to a minimum, between the US and the Asian countries have been cancelled. With an increasing trade deficit with Germany, the US on the one hand is resorting to more protectionist measures, and on the other, is demanding greater access to EU and German markets. The US is pushing for measures similar to those it forced on Japan in the 1990s.

With the Trump administration, the US is following a more aggressive, inconsistent and crude political line. This makes relations and conflicts between the US and its allies, and within its administrative circles, more complicated and tense. It seems that with Trump, the contradictions between US capital circles and its administrative apparatus and the US allies will increase and become more prominent on the question of global tactics and priorities. Since his election, opposing groups have kept Trump’s removal on the agenda, people from his inner circles have been subjected to investigations, and the number of removals and resignations is increasing.

China, on the other hand, having the largest surplus of exports and being the fastest growing of major imperialist countries, is trying to close the technological gap with its rivals by renewing the technological basis of its economy, and to expand its sphere of influence by increasing its commodity and capital exports. It is also increasing its presence in advanced capitalist countries, doing everything in its power to take control of energy sources, transport routes, raw materials and capital investment fields in those countries with limited capital accumulation, where profit margins are high but the cost of land and labour is cheap. As well as penetrating the US and other advanced capitalist countries and their spheres of influence, China is gaining access to areas under the influence of Russia and other countries, and is getting ready for bigger and more decisive struggles. While developing and modernising its military forces and capacity for war, China follows an economic expansion policy like that of Germany, avoiding military interventions as much as possible, but not hesitating to show its military might when necessary. Renewing the technological framework of its arms industry, China is rapidly increasing investment in its military.

In addition to protectionist measures, the US also increased and strengthened its embargoes and sanctions last year against many countries such as Iran, Russia and North Korea, which did not surrender to its impositions and refused to be bound by its implied restrictions, with excuses like supporting terror, nuclear armament, breaches of international treaties, threatening global peace and security, etc. it. Germany and the EU, which did not openly protest and even colluded with these sanctions and embargoes in the past, have begun to change their position. Frictions and contradictions between the US and its old allies can no longer be hidden and are expressed openly. US sanctions and embargoes aim to prevent developing economic relations not only with these countries but also between them and third parties; they are especially aimed to prevent China and Germany – with insufficient energy resources – from resolving this issue outside of the influence and control of the US, as well as to prevent developing economic relations and possible alliances through this. Germany does not hold back from developing alternative approaches as seen in these cases as well as in Syria and Qatar.

With its valuable deposits of strategically important uranium and cobalt, other rich natural resources, cheap land and labour, the importance of Africa is increasing along with Latin America. Its fast growing population makes Africa an attractive market for capitalist monopolies and a scene for intense competition and fight among all imperialist countries, especially the US, China and France, taking various forms, including military coups, electoral misconducts, “ethnic cleansing”, “religious wars, massacres, military-economic embargos, blackmail and environmental destruction, etc. The fact that this headlong fight of imperialists and their collaborators for hegemony in Africa is waged in all forms (military, economic, social and cultural), makes the popular fight against imperialist plunder and violence inevitable. Therefore, it will not be surprising to see the outbreak of new popular uprisings in different parts of Africa against imperialism and its collaborators.

An unavoidable consequence of intensified imperialist struggles for bigger shares is the increased spending on arms and war. Increased worldwide tensions and contradictions lead to increased military expenditure. Imperialist countries arm themselves and their allies in order to get the biggest share of the global resources, to intimidate and crush their rivals. For the first time since 2011, worldwide ‘investment in arms’ compared to the previous year has risen by 0.4% to $1.68 trillion in 2016. More interestingly, the rise was 1.7% in the US, 5.4% in China and 5.99% in Russia, reaching 611, 215 and 69.2 billion dollars respectively. The restrictions on armament placed on Germany and Japan after WWII are gradually being lifted, and in the case of Japan, military investment is accelerating, with the support of the US, as part of the plan to encircle China (and its allies).

The arms industry is the monopoly of certain countries and is a major source of profit. Countries leading in arms exports are the US, Russia, China, France and Germany. The share of these countries in arms exports is 74% of the global total, with the US alone accounting for 33%.

3 – The importance of energy sources and routes, and the intensifying struggle for a bigger share in the Middle-East

As modern industry advances, the need for energy in production and in all aspects of social life increases. In capitalist society, where production is for profit and for the market, production and transfer of energy itself becomes a sector where great profit can be made, due to its rapidly growing place in the economy and capitalist investment. For this reason, the control of energy sources and their transport routes becomes more important.

Despite developments in harnessing nuclear, solar and wind energy, oil and natural gas (including shale gas) continue to be one of the most important sources of energy. None of these other sources can yet replace oil and gas as oil replaced coal. Furthermore, oil by-products are an important source of raw materials for industry. Hence, control of oil and natural gas resources, their transport routes and their transformation into usable energy are very important for all countries and the ruling classes, especially for the imperialist countries and monopolies. Most of the oil and gas fields are in the US, Venezuela, Norway, Russia, as well as the Middle East and North Africa. Also, this area is of great importance due to its accumulated capital from high oil income, widening markets and geo-political position. Therefore, just like other areas with rich oil and gas fields, the Middle East continues to be a region where imperialist countries and international financial capital intensify their struggle for access and hegemony. Control of energy sources and routes is important not only for high profits in this sector or for meeting and securing energy needs, etc., but also in cornering the rivals, restricting their expansion and keeping them under control.

In 2015 Russia had to increase its military presence and had direct military intervention in Syria, its most important ally in the Middle East, due to the increased risk of the regime in that country weakening and collapsing. With this intervention, Russia demonstrated once again that it would not abandon Syria and the Middle East to the imperialist countries led by the US, like it abandoned Libya, and would not hesitate to fight tooth and nail for it. The Russian intervention had an impact on power relations not only in Syria but in the whole of the Middle East, leading to a realignment of forces and a new hand of cards being dealt. Russia has intensified attempts to increase its influence in the region, using the contradictions within regional reactionary cliques and their conflicts with other imperialist countries. While intensifying efforts to benefit from the infighting between cliques in Libya to find a foothold and widen its opportunities for intervention, Russia is also working to improve relations with Iran, as well as Turkey (following the heightened tensions after the downing of its plane), Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, countries which the US has long depended on.

With its increased need for raw materials and energy, China signed new treaties, primarily with Russia and Iran to meet and secure its need for energy. It gives great importance to expanding its influence in all areas rich in oil and gas. For instance, China has invested approximately $56 billion dollars and is investing more in Pakistan under the project ‘the China Pakistan Economic Corridor’ (CPEC). China is developing a port in Gawadar in the province of Baluchistan to connect south west Pakistan with Xinjiang in western China. Through this connection with central and southern Asia, China wants to increase its profile both in terms of trade and political influence. CPEC comprises a network of 3200 km of highways in addition to railways which will eventually link Gawadar and Karachi with Western China. At present China only has a port in Shanghai in the east of the country; the majority of the country is landlocked and this area is the biggest importer of oil. It is also understood that prior to committing this investment, China obtained guarantees not only from Pakistan’s government but also its military top brass regarding the security situation, and we are witnessing the law and order situation gradually getting better in Pakistan. This also indicates that when it is useful to the bourgeoisie, then they can quickly and easily control the situation for their own profits and benefits.

Following Russia, the imperialist powers, and especially the US, moved to increase opportunities and avenues to intervene in the Middle East, to counter Russia’s interventions and attempts, and to prevent the shift in the balance of power. The US set up new military bases in Syria, increased its military presence in the region, deploying more troops in Iraq as well as Syria. Military interventions of the US and its allies in the region continue to increase. The US and Russia are careful to avoid direct confrontation in the region, but through proxy wars, using local forces they support and cooperate with, they are sharing every inch of Syria between them and broadening their influence in the region. Syria has become a stage where imperialist powers, primarily Russia and the US, square up to each other and try new weapons systems.

While imperialist powers are trying to widen their influence and reach in the region through direct interventions and the use of contradictions between regional reactionary ruling classes or cliques, these reactionary classes and cliques are trying to achieve their own reactionary goals in the region by relying on one or the other of these major imperialist powers and acting in accordance with their strategic and tactical preferences and plans. Turkey, under the leadership of Erdoğan and the AKP government, is one of these countries. On the one hand it is trying to obtain spheres of influence in the region through the rhetoric of Neo-Ottomanism, and on the other it is following reactionary and aggressive policies in an effort to prevent a solution to the Kurdish issue on the basis of equal rights and the right to self-determination, dragging the country into the quagmire of the fights for the re-division of the region. Hence, Turkey has become an element of instability in terms of the plans and moves of the imperialist countries fighting for control in the Middle East, and therefore it is a candidate to become one of the focal points where these dogfights will intensify. The attempted coup of 15 July, and the counter-coup that followed, took place with these developments in the background and created consequences that had an impact on subsequent developments.

Furthermore, in the process of writing this document, a new development occurred when Israel and Saudi Arabia attempted to open a new front in Lebanon under the umbrella of the US. It seems that France among the European imperialists is trying to gain a special position in this preparatory work. The short-term goal of this possible new front is to weaken the influence of Iran in the region and to safeguard Israel’s economic interests, especially in the eastern Mediterranean. For the US, the aim is to create the conditions for the Russian gains in Syria to become relative. It is obvious that the heavy burden of this possible front will tried to be shouldered by the peoples of Lebanon and Palestine.

The intensifying struggle for re-division, the deepening fragmentation and contradictions of the ruling classes and their political representatives are inflicting major suffering and devastation on the oppressed and exploited masses, as well as weakening regional reactionary forces and their social bases, and deepening the fault lines that will benefit progressive and democratic forces in the region. This deepening of fragmentation and contradictions will increase the opportunity of struggle of the oppressed and exploited classes, and also of the oppressed nations for self-determination, as well as the struggle for equal religious rights. The current weakness of progressive and democratic forces does not neuter this reality.

4 – The situation of the working class and peoples

In the last year, the struggle has intensified between international finance capital groups themselves and between major imperialist states for the re-division of the world, and the burden of this struggle was placed on the workers and peoples. While exploitation and oppression, and insecurity about the future among the oppressed and exploited masses has intensified, the profits of the monopolies has increased. Political reaction and fascist and semi-fascist currents as part of this were on the rise, and democratic rights and freedoms have been curbed. One of the largest mass migrations in human history is continuing, and millions face death, famine and poverty because of wars. Factors that push humanity and nature to destruction are continuing to develop.

The year since our last conference has also been a process where the factors and contradictions that weaken the imperialist-capitalist system and drag it towards its inevitable end have been aggravated; the false illusions spread by the financial oligarchy and the neoliberal propaganda and demagogy were exposed and weakened; and new pursuits, discontent and the tendency to struggle and organise among the exploited and oppressed classes and popular strata were developed.

Unemployment has risen globally to over 200 million people in 2016; the youth make up 71 million of this figure. According to the ILO, global unemployment is at 5.8%, and it rises to 13% among the youth. Youth unemployment in many countries has risen to above 20%; it is even higher in some countries and continues to rise. While real wages have fallen in many countries, they have fallen behind the increase in productivity levels in others. The ratio of waged labour to overall population in middle and high income countries is rising, but the ratio of wages to GDP has been falling for the past 40 years.

The number of people living below the poverty line, without access to most basic health, nourishment and educational provisions, continues to rise. The gap between the propertied and the propertyless has widened. According to the 2016 ‘Global Rich List’ published by Bank Credit Suisse, 10% of the richest people on earth own 90% of the global wealth, while 0.7% of the world’s population owns 45.6%.

Apart from the underdeveloped and dependent countries where reactionary, anti-democratic regimes continue to rule, in countries that are seen as shining examples of bourgeois democracy such as France and the UK, democratic rights and freedoms have been curbed further. Many countries passed legislations that curb the right to gather, demonstrate, march and strike. Police and military institutions have been given more power. Immunity of individuals and personal property, the right to communicate have been trampled upon. The UK has become one of the countries that increase the powers of the police and restrict the right to strike. Terrorist actions of reactionary groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaida – openly aiming to commit massacres – have increased and spread to developed capitalist countries.

As seen in the example of France, parliament was left toothless under the state-of-emergency and labour laws were changed, making jobs more precarious. In all countries – advanced or otherwise – intensity of labour has risen while working conditions have become harsher.

The more rapid capitalist development in the undeveloped and dependent countries has led women to join the ranks of waged labour in growing numbers, and the social conditions for full equal rights and their emancipation have developed even in these countries, but attacks aiming to curb the rights gained by women and the multi-faceted oppression and exploitation of women has also risen. Women’s legal and de-facto rights have regressed in almost all countries. Violence against women continues to rise globally. Those affected most by reactionary wars, economic crisis and stagnation have been women and children. In all countries, including the most advanced ones, short-term, temporary, precarious work under worse conditions have become widespread among women.

The mouthpieces of the financial oligarchy, especially the neo-liberals, ran a campaign claiming that the removal of barriers to the free movement of capital and goods, minimising government interventions, and leaving everything to the markets, etc. would lead to the end of all wars, universal harmony and a period of welfare and freedom. Neoliberal measures and policies were advocated for and blessed, not only by liberal and conservative bourgeois parties and currents but also by social democrats, democratic socialists and some sections of the disintegrating revisionist parties and currents. The dominance of neoliberal rhetoric, programmes and policies led to the blurring of non-essential differences between liberal, conservative, and social democratic bourgeois parties. In the eyes of the masses, most of these parties ceased to be alternatives to each other. In the last year, the factors that pushed neoliberalism, the parties and currents that advocate it, and the political superstructures that contain them to an impasse, and gradually to a crisis, have continued to develop.

However, contrary to what was indicated and promised, we have seen a process of increasing wars, restriction of freedoms, worsening working and living conditions for the oppressed and exploited classes. As this period continues, the oppressed and exploited masses start to see the results of neoliberal rhetoric and actions through their own experiences, breaking free from its influences, and searching for new alternatives. This tendency has led to recent developments in different directions.

One main development was in countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Greece among others, where the currents which opposed, at different levels and in different ways, the neoliberal policies and their consequences, which claimed to be left wing, populist, progressive and socialist without targeting the rule of the financial oligarchy and capitalism, were strengthened and became the alternative to traditional bourgeois parties, and even formed governments in some countries. Despite marked differences between them, in all the countries where they formed a government, these currents chose to not take steps to meet the immediate demands of the population or to mobilise the masses in a struggle to achieve their own demands; instead, as in Ecuador and Greece, they became the enforcers of these neoliberal policies and attacks. Or else, as seen in Venezuela, they failed to dissolve the regional basis of the hegemony of the imperialist and financial oligarchy or the economic basis that safeguarded that hegemony, and they led to failure and disappointment among the masses as they failed to take steps to meet the immediate needs of people in a way which would have weakened the oligarchy. In all cases, imperialism and oligarchies use the situation to cement their hegemony and to organise reactionary forces and fascism.

There have emerged tendencies and factions that oppose neoliberal policies and programmes within the ranks of conservative, liberal and social democratic parties. They led to changes in leadership, as witnessed within the Labour Party in the UK, and accelerated the dissolution and weakening of the Socialist Party in France. Especially in Europe, social democracy and the liberal left current in general have been in crisis. The practice of this current has caused broad working masses to be indifferent to the projects they propose against increasing poverty and insecurity.

While in many countries, traditional bourgeois parties have moved towards more reactionary programmes and lost the support of the masses, the neo-Nazi and chauvinist nationalist tendencies and currents which display characteristics of fascism and are anti-refugee and Islamophobic, have been strengthened and have increased their influence among the masses. These parties have come to power in Poland and Hungary, or have become opposition parties challenging traditional bourgeois parties in countries like France, Austria and Holland. A representative of the most reactionary and aggressive circles within US imperialism, initially, underestimated and despised, the erratic Trump has become the President. In France, the financial oligarchy that runs the country had to come up with a last-minute alternative to traditional parties. Despite campaigns, the levels of participation in elections have dropped in those countries that are seen as the cradle of liberalism, bourgeois parliamentarism and democracy.

While global struggles among imperialist powers for the re-division of the world have sharpened, exploitation and oppression increased, the yoke on oppressed nations tightened, the discontent and tendency to struggle has also developed. In many countries, these tendencies have become united mass movements. Demonstrations and strikes lasting for months were held by oppressed and exploited classes and strata in France against the planned changes in labour laws, led by the working class and the youth. The government, having passed the new labour law despite the rejection of the working class and the youth, has not only increased the existing anger but strengthened the tendency among the youth to radicalise.

General strikes by millions of workers against planned changes in labour laws were held in India, with demands for better living and working conditions. A general strike in Belgium, strikes in some sectors in the UK, and miners’ strikes in South Africa and Chile were significant workers’ struggles. In countries such as Greece and France, under pressure from the monopolies, mass farmer’s struggles developed. Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Morocco and Brazil saw mass struggles against the removal of gained rights and against attempts to form more reactionary regimes. In many countries, especially in the Dominican Republic, mass struggles developed against corruption and aggression by states. In Poland, Italy, Tunisia, Turkey and many other countries, attacks aimed at restricting gained rights were stopped by mass resistance and the struggle of women. The international character of the women’s movement has also advanced.

Nevertheless, these are struggles that could not overcome the limits of the spontaneous movement. The labour movement lacks leadership with a strategic and tactical understanding or a programme which aims at the full and final emancipation of the working class, and which is not confused by the complicated conditions of class struggle. It has also low levels of consciousness and organisation. Exceptions aside, neither has it reached a level to counter the national and global attacks or rein in the raving attacks of the financial oligarchy. Despite differing levels in different countries, unionisation is at a low level. Despite the increased tendency and attempts among workers to unionise in many countries, unionised workers globally account for a minority of the workforce, and the existing unions are mostly dominated by collaborationist and reactionary currents.

Despite all these weaknesses of the labour and mass movements, there exist the conditions and opportunities for revolutionary work among the exploited and oppressed masses, and especially the working class, and for organising and mobilising the masses against the ruling monopolist bourgeoisie and all forms of reaction. However, the reactionary ruling class (or alliance of classes) and all mechanisms of hegemony are not indifferent to these developments. They also mobilise all agents and tools to influence the thrust and pursuits that develop among the masses, in accordance with their changing preferences and interests.

They are waging a demagogic campaign among the masses to organise reactionary forces and fascism, using the consequences of waves of migration, increasing terror attacks, economic crisis and stagnation, moving production to areas of cheap labour and land by monopolies in search of maximum profit, etc., which are all caused by the actions of imperialist states and their allies. We have to see that, under the present circumstances when the effects of the defeat of socialism is continuing and the international workers’ movement and its parties are still weak, this reactionary tendency which is founded on racism and nationalism – which portrays itself as the so-called solution, based on racism and nationalism, on social inequality and contradictions is advancing and influencing an ever wider sections of the workers and the working masses.

These attempts by reformist, conciliatory currents, as well as the bourgeoisie, especially its ruling section, the monopolist bourgeoisie, and reaction, can only be rendered toothless through continuous revolutionary work, built on a scientific programme and around correct strategic and tactical understanding, which will help the masses learn through their own experiences. One of the vital components of this work is the struggle for immediate demands of the masses and the creation of platforms and the broadest alliances around these demands. Only through such work can the rising discontent and resentment be advanced towards the obliteration of the hegemony of imperialism and its foundations, which is dragging humanity and nature towards deep anguish and destruction, to building a classless, society that is free from exploitation and oppression. This task can only be carried out by revolutionary parties of the working class, equipped with the theory of scientific socialism and engaged in appropriate practice and struggle.

November 2017

^[1] 1.2% in the last quarter of 2016, 0.6% and 1.2% in the first two quarters of 2017 respectively.

^[2] The global volume of trade: 1.8% in the last quarter of 2016 and 1.4% and 0.4% in the first two quarters of 2017 respectively.

^[3] Reaching 15-20% pre-crisis but falling with the crisis to 5.4% at the end of 2008, Chinese industrial growth has risen with the recovery of global trade. Despite the fact that industrial growth reached almost 20% at the end of 2009, China could not sustain this level growth.

^[4] Shrinking between 0.6 and 5.5% in 2015 and 3.4% smaller compared to 2014, Russian industrial production grew inconsistently and at a very low level in 2016. This growth continues above the expected level in 2017.

^[5] This ratio is 248 for the US and 270% for the Eurozone.

I. Capitalism and the Working Class

1. Since society has split into classes, the whole of history has been the history of class struggles. At present, a new world and a new society can only be established through the victory of the struggle of the working class against bourgeoisie. With its action, the working class will emancipate not only itself but also all oppressed people and humanity as a whole. Class struggle is the only way to change the world and have a free and classless society. As revolutionary parties and organisations of the working class of different countries united under ICMLPO, we rely on this fundamental truth and work towards achieving this goal.

2. In spreading to the remotest corners of the earth and becoming a world system, capitalism creates the conditions that force workers to unite regardless of nationality, ethnicity, culture, gender or religion overcoming all national borders. The working conditions and struggles of all workers become more connected, and it is on these objective bases that proletarian internationalism emerges and develops. The struggle for freedom of the working class advances, becoming an international movement with a common objective. This ultimate objective, which is determined directly by the character and developmental direction of the capitalist system and which becomes an obligatory phase of social development, is the building of communist society where classes and all forms of oppression is eradicated. Parties and organisations, members of our conference organised in different countries are the components of the working class of the world and of the struggle for freedom, and they all have the same ultimate goal.

3. Capitalist society has risen on grand scale production of commodities for profit, through expanded reproduction. Having developed in Western Europe in the early 16th century, capitalist production has grown from simple cooperation to manufacture and from basic machinery to sophisticated complex machinery during the Industrial Revolution. The development of this type of production evolved in the process when productive forces, production and circulation of commodities reached a level which inevitably led to the disintegration of feudal society and of small scale production, and when the labourer became separated from the means of production. While growing proportion of the means of production and total social production has concentrated as capital in the hands of an ever smaller section of society (capital and land owners), proletarian or semi-proletarian masses selling their labour power – continuously or intermittently – to get the most basic necessities have grown in numbers, creating more wealth and capital for the upper classes with their labour.

4. Private ownership of the means of production by capitalists and big landowners is the basis for the workforce becoming commodities, workers becoming wage slaves and for the exploitation of the surplus value. Hence, dissolution of minority ownership of the means of production and returning them to social ownership is a prerequisite for the emancipation of workers. Throughout its development process, by socializing production and labour, capitalism prepares the material basis for this condition and creates the social force that will defeat it. Establishing social ownership of the means of production will make production relations befitting the social nature of productive forces.

5. With the advent of Industrial Revolution, the industrial middle class of manufacturers was replaced by modern industrial bourgeoisie which had become dominant, and subordinated commercial capital to industrial capital. Steam replaced manual labour and tools were replaced by ever complex machinery. As technology advanced, the character of production changed, becoming less of an activity of human power requiring specialist skills, and workers have become part of the machinery. Industrial Revolution created modern industrial workers, who were getting rid of the remnants of relations of the previous social system, and who had nothing but their chains to lose. It also developed capitalist relations in agriculture, hastening the process of disintegration of the peasantry and expanding the working class. The division of society into two main classes, bourgeoisie and the working class, replaced all other antagonisms and divisions that preceded it.

6. Bourgeoisie has spread the circulation of commodities to the remotest corners of the earth in a bid to reach new markets and raw materials. In creating the capitalist world market, it dragged all countries in to the circle of capitalist development and exploitation. With economic superiority and the use of most barbaric and destructive methods it defeated all resistance and dissolved pre-capitalist traditional social structures. It colonised the continents of Asia, Africa and America one by one. Alongside advanced countries, the trade network spreading to all countries under the protection of colonialism and subsequent huge profits have become one of the pillars of capital accumulation and bourgeois-capitalist development.

7. The advent of mechanised production and technical advances reinforces the superiority of mass over small scale production and capitalist over pre-capitalist modes of production. While commodity production and conditions of capitalist production reproduce a certain number of small businesses, they generally fall back and large scale businesses become common place. While pre-capitalist modes of production and their remnants disappear, capitalist production relations develop and increasingly penetrate all fields of social life and restructure it accordingly. Bourgeoisie, using all forms of force, becomes dominant in the superstructure as well as the economic structure. This dominance finds its simplest political expression in the concentration of state power in the hands of the bourgeoisie and in its capitalist reorganisation as a tool of oppression and domination over the working class and other working sections and strata of society.

8. As capitalist development process evolves, capital’s grip on peasants, craftsmen, artisans and other small business owners gets tighter. Large scale businesses force the medium sized enterprises as well as the small ones with the potential or character to be part of their reproduction into becoming their auxiliary units under conditions they dictate. Only a segment of small businesses, and especially peasants, prolong their existence in conditions of extreme hard work and self imposed austerity. Some cannot even survive this and go bankrupt. Insecurity spreads and deepens among intermediary classes and strata. All this widen the opportunities for the working class to benefit from contradictions among proprietors and win over other working classes and strata.

9. Technical advance on the one hand leads to increasing labour productivity, production of the same amount of goods with less workers, relatively less dependency on workforce by the capitalists; and on the other hand it paves the way to increased opportunity for using woman and child labour and an increase in the proportion of society that depends on selling their labour-power to meet basic daily needs. Despite fluctuations, the need for workforce lags behind demand. This leads to the enlargement of the army of unemployed, those with insecure futures, who are pushed into the quagmire of poverty, moral bankruptcy and ignorance, who make up the reserve workforce for capitalists. On the other hand, labour’s dependency on capital is increased as well as the opportunity for the capitalist class to elevate the rate of exploitation.

10. Ownership of the means of production by a small minority and production being made for profit and in intensifying competitive conditions result in the production process developing in an unplanned and anarchic manner disturbing the balance among different parts of the economy, and production and markets being out of sync. Capitalist development process takes on a disrupted and imbalanced growth pattern because of economic crises and recessions caused by overproduction. Crises, surfacing in varying forms and lengths of time depending on conditions, are unavoidable in capitalist development and are the pinnacle, or the exploding expression, of the contradiction between social production and capitalist appropriation. Periods of crises and recessions drag small and medium-sized businesses into destruction, while pushing some big businesses to bankruptcy or to being swallowed up by others, leading to a more speedy process of concentration and centralisation of capital, increasing unemployment, and a relative or sometimes absolute deterioration of living and working conditions of the working class and other labourers.

11. Technical development by the bourgeoisie for maximum profit, and the progress of the productive forces, despite the disruptions caused by cyclical crises, led to huge increases in labour productivity and production. Nevertheless, the fruits of this progress can only be enjoyed by a handful of capital and big land owners. As labour productivity increases so does its exploitation. Despite better means of meeting all material and nonmaterial needs of society, capitalism constantly reproduces unemployment, poverty, ignorance, moral corruption and degeneration. Insecurity spreads and deepens among a great majority of the population. Wars, periods of crisis and recession worsen the living and working conditions of workers. The chasm between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, between the haves and have nots deepen; discontent and anger among workers and other working classes and strata increase; the tendency to unite and struggle against oppression and exploitation, against the exploiting classes develops.

12. Giving rise to the material preconditions for socialism through socialising production and labour, capitalism advances the working class, the social force that will demolish it. As workers are concentrated in big enterprises, their opportunities to unite against the bourgeoisie and organise as an independent social force as well as their capacity and skills also advance. Having experienced competition among themselves and an enmity towards machinery, workers’ uncoordinated struggles that start in isolation in individual workplaces then lead to a united and independent workers’ movement. This movement has advanced through experiences gained from the Lyon insurrections in 1831-34, the Chartist movement in England and the 1848 revolutions in continental Europe, the 1871 Paris Commune where the working class, albeit for a short period, toppled the bourgeoisie and established its own rule, and from the struggles of the American working class, the creators of May Day and the International Working Women’s Day.

II. Monopolies and Imperialism

1. In the last third of the 19th century, advances in technology and the spread of perfected machinery led to changes in production: a great expansion in the production of machinery, raw materials and energy, pushing light industry aback; new inventions such as electricity and combustion engines; use of new energy sources such as petroleum; development of thermal and hydroelectric plants, etc. Communication, both sea and especially land (railways) transport and mechanisation in farming also developed. While the size of businesses and the number of big businesses increased, there developed relations between sectors and businesses leading to full integration and overcoming of national borders. Under sharpening conditions of competition big businesses, that needed to use the latest technology and advanced through swallowing up smaller ones, started to take over the economy like a net. Corporations that united most connected businesses and sectors and controlled huge amounts of capital have become widespread. This was also a period when bank capital concentrated and centralised in the hands of a small number of banks leading to giant banks that play a big role in the economy. The advance in the concentration and centralisation of capital and production led to amalgamation of industrial and bank capital in the second half of the 19th century to create finance capital and give way to the rise of monopolies. At the start of the 20th century capitalism had reached a new stage, the stage of imperialism where monopolies and financial oligarchy have become dominant.

2. Monopolistic capitalism is a new high where some fundamental properties and tendencies develop and turn into their antithesis, where the conditions for the transition to a new social system are created, and where all contradictions are sharper, causing new divisions and antagonisms. Monopolies, which are themselves results of concentration and centralisation of capital and production, expand this process to a worldwide scale. Social inequality is increased by socialisation of labour on the one hand and the concentration of the wealth in the hands of a select few on the other. While the exploitation of the working masses and the feeling of insecurity intensifies, so does the suffocating pressure of the monopolies on small manufacturers and non-monopolist bourgeois strata. The antagonism between the social character of production and private capitalist nature of appropriation as well as the antagonism between the working class and the bourgeoisie, which is itself a class reflection of the former, will deepen on a world scale. Imperialism is the final and the death stage of capitalism where it enters a process of general crisis.

3. Capitalist monopoly, a result and the antonym of free competition, does not do away with competition completely. Monopoly exists with and above competition. This phenomenon deepens the fundamental property of unbalanced capitalist development, intensifying competition and the contradictions and divisions in the ranks of the bourgeoisie, introducing new elements. Monopolies limit the free development of productive forces and links technical progress directly to maximising profit and the progress of the competition between monopolies. This limiting affect of monopolies, despite leading to a recession in the developed countries, does not remove the potential for technology and capitalism to developed faster for a short period of time than before in some countries and sometimes in the whole of the capitalist world.

4. In the imperialist stage, export of capital enhances export of goods and becomes the main component of economic relations between countries. Internationalisation of capital and production unifies the economies of all countries as links in the chain of capitalist world economy and advances this process. Overcoming all divisions and restrictions of capitalist-imperialist system, international organisation of economy on the basis of equality and mutual benefit of societies increasingly becomes a necessity for the advancement of productive forces. Nevertheless, the hegemony of finance capital makes this impossible and capitalist-imperialist system reproduces and reinforces the contradictions that prevent this. It is only through the victory of proletarian world revolution that economy can be organised internationally to free itself from the restrictions of the capitalist imperialist system and develop freely.

5. The period of formation and supremacy of monopolies and finance capital has also been a period when capitalism had spread to even the remotest parts and when the division of the world had completed. This marked the end for the bourgeoisie of a period of expansion to untouched ‘free’ areas, depriving them of the opportunity to unload the increased tensions and burdens brought on by capitalist development into new areas. A new era started, an era of intensified oppression and exploitation of the working class and the oppressed peoples, with sharpening contradictions of capitalism leading to developments in leaps and bitter conflicts. While competition and efforts to divide world resources by main capitalist groups and countries intensified, capitalism turned into a world system where big imperialist countries enslaved a big majority of the world population, prevented free and independent development, and countries are divided into two as the oppressor and the oppressed or the exploiter and the exploited.

6. Unequal and leapfrog development change the balance of power between imperialist countries and international financial groups. Struggles for the re-division of the world and the wars resulting from these struggles become inevitable. Inter-imperialist contradictions become one of the main contradictions that weaken the capitalist system, deepen general depressions, disable or kill millions of people, destroy nature, productive forces and means of livelihood, deepen and spread moral collapse and corruption, divisions and contradictions that will hasten its end.

7. Increased export of capital hastens capitalist development in developing and underdeveloped countries. While imperialist exploitation and oppression intensify, new powers of struggle against imperialism and its local foundations arise. Class differentiations deepen in rural countries where the working class is really weak or non-existent, and working class and its movement develop and semi-proletarian masses widen. Financial preconditions of socialism develop in these countries too. These countries stop being a rearguard for imperialism and become areas of struggles against all reaction and capitalism, and primarily imperialism and its local foundations. The contradictions between imperialism and the exploited and oppressed peoples and nations become one of the fundamental contradictions of capitalist-imperialist system along with the labour-capital and inter-imperialist contradictions.

8. The main stakeholders and managers of monopolies and state authorities become nested and completely merge; state power concentrates in the hands of the financial oligarchy. As the effective use of the state to serve the benefits of the monopolies becomes more and more important, preconditions for this are created and monopolist state capitalism develops. The capitalist state is strengthened by the creation of new institutions, primarily the military-bureaucratic instruments. An ever increasing proportion of the total social production is spent on militarisation and wars as well as developing the state – a parasitic tumour on society – and primarily military-bureaucratic instruments.

9. Imperialism concentrates financial capital in a few imperialist countries, widening the strata of rentiers completely disconnected from production but getting a growing proportion of profits. This is accompanied by the ever increasing transfer of production, especially of the labour intensive sectors, to countries with high profit margins where capital is limited but labour power, land and resources are cheap. Imperialist countries with the most powerful and developed financial capital become countries that exploit majority populations on earth, get further disconnected from production and where rentier strata and sectors serving them become larger.

10. Imperialism is the systematic restriction or even complete removal of perceived roles and responsibilities of symbolic institutions, democratic rights and freedoms; the highest spread of reaction, enslaving of other nations and peoples, trampling upon the rights to self-determination and national sovereignty, and tendency to annexation. Fascism is the intense expression of these tendencies of financial capital; it surfaces as the most reactionary, chauvinistic, aggressive and barbaric trend and form of state.

11. Financial capital forms alliances with all types of reactionary forces – primarily medieval reactionarism – making them obey its own rules, becoming the main pillar that supports them. Despite the level of advances in technology and science, bourgeoisie cannot develop a scientific worldview; it tries to hold on and spread – with new truths – the most reactionary dogmas and religious and philosophical-ideological trends from the dustbin of history. Superficiality and poverty of ideas in all areas of philosophy, culture and art become commonplace, trying to dim the advancement of the constantly resisting art and culture of the workers and peoples.

12. As well as monopolies preventing the means of production developing freely, the devastation in all areas of public life will grow, caused by imperialist wars and crises that are more frequent, longer and with more severe consequences. The indifferent use of technology by monopolies in pursuit of maximum profit extends this devastation to the environment. Bourgeoisie obstructs the development of productive forces and social progress. Ending the ownership of a minority and socialising the means of production and replacement of capitalist modes of production by socialist modes become a historical necessity and a condition for free development of the means of production.

III. Imperialism, Oppressed Nations and the Proletarian Revolution

1. In chase of maximum profit monopolies intensify the exploitation of the working classes and communities and systematically plunder the underground and other resources of other countries. Capital’s effort to stop the tendency of falling rate of profit due to its rising organic composition and its desire for maximum profit fuels the tendency of monopolies to intensify the exploitation of the workers and peoples. Level of concentration and centralisation of capital and production, the concentration of the means of production and political power in the hands of financial oligarchy, effective use of state power in all areas to benefit capital and advancing monopolistic state capitalism, all this widens the opportunities for monopolies to intensify oppression and exploitation. All this and increasing oppression and exploitation by finance capital become new factors that intensify the labour-capital contradiction; that develop tendencies of unrest, anger and struggle among the working class and societies against finance capital and its dictatorship; that forces them to unite their struggle at the workplace, in the sector, the country and the world. While monopolist capitalist character of the state comes to light, the varied mass struggles of the oppressed and exploited classes turn into a political struggle against capital and the governments.

2. High monopolistic profits enable finance capital to buy out administrators of working class organisations such as trade unions, cooperatives and political parties of the masses; and develop labour aristocracy and bureaucracy to create a stratum within the working class that is bourgeois in life style, social interactions, mental state, etc. This stratum becomes the social foundation of bourgeoisie and financial oligarchy within the working class as well as the main source of all collaboration and opportunism. In an attempt to oppress and push aback the advancing movement of the working class, monopolistic bourgeoisie effectively uses the labour aristocracy, bureaucracy and tottering intermediary forces, as well as its continuously strengthened bourgeois government. A continuous struggle against and the isolation of these strata, renewed and modernised by bourgeoisie depending on the progress of the working class, becomes a condition for the victory of the working class.

3. New heights reached in the export of capital leads to big businesses in developing countries rising on exploited cheap labour and concentration of a working class in these businesses. Despite their primacy as a modern developing class, the struggle of the workers in these countries moves towards an independent movement in conditions of fierce oppression and exploitation; benefitting from the experiences and getting the support of workers of the advanced capitalist countries. With the development of the working class and its independent movement in these countries, working class movement and struggle for freedom stops being limited to advanced capitalist countries and becomes a worldwide movement. While deepening the contradictions within the ranks of bourgeoisie, capitalism develops the foundations that unite workers of the advanced and developing countries as members of one army that gives an international character to their struggles for freedom.

4. The revolutionary struggle of the oppressed peoples and nations unites in the same front with the revolutionary movement of the working class and becomes a component of the worldwide workers’ revolutionary movement. Capitalism ripens the conditions and financial basis for these struggles to develop under the leadership of the working class and turn into peoples’ revolutions for an uninterrupted transition to socialism. Revolution of the workers of the world is no longer limited to developed capitalist countries, and depending on the deepening of the unequal and leapfrog development, there comes a period when this revolution becomes a process that starts and develops with the weakest chain(s) of the capitalist-imperialist system breaking. The working class seizes political power and organises as the ruling class in the weakest chain (or chains) and the building of a classless society – a significant turn in terms of historical development – and the period of working class social revolution starts.

5. The working class will, by taking the means of production into public ownership, lay the foundations of a communist society where classes and all forms of exploitation is eradicated. Anarchic and unbalanced production under capitalism aiming profit and serving markets is replaced by a social production based on a constantly developing technical basis, and is planned according to all material and nonmaterial needs of society and each of its members. As it demolishes classes and oppressive and exploitative relationships in all forms, the social revolution of the working class will also free other oppressed and exploited classes. The working class can only fulfil its historical revolutionary role under the command of its party equipped with the theory of scientific socialism.

6. The precondition for this revolution is for the working class to seize power and organise as the ruling class, wage an uninterrupted struggle against all new and old forms and elements of capitalism and crush any attempts to re-establish it. Irrespective of the conditions, for the working class to seize power and organize as the ruling class, the state apparatus has to be destroyed through revolutionary violence. There is a transitional period between capitalist and communist society that can be called the first phase of communism; a period when elements of both co-exist in struggle with each other and when the working class is organised as the ruling class, i.e. the dictatorship of the proletariat. This rule, differing from all previous class hegemony, is democracy for the great majority of the population but a dictatorship on the exploiting classes who are a small minority. Productive forces, having set themselves free from limiting effects of capitalist (and prior) production relations and developing freely, will prepare the conditions for transition from the first phase of “from each according to his ability, to each according to their labour” to the final phase of “from each according to his ability, to each according to their need”.

7. The advance of workers’ revolution winning victories in the weakest links of imperialism leads to the start and development of socialist construction under conditions of capitalist imperialist encirclement, to growing international support for the domestic bases of bourgeoisie and capitalism and their attempts to restore the old order. A final and absolute victory of the working class can only be achieved by worldwide demolition of the capitalist system and by replacing the capitalist-imperialist encirclement with a socialist one. For this reason the social revolution of the working class and the construction of a communist society is a complex process, a continuum of national and international ups and downs, attacks and retreats, victories and defeats.

8. Countries are not equal or same in terms of levels of capitalist development, their place in the capitalist world order, relations and balances between classes, social conditions of class struggles, etc. All this leads to the workers and class parties from all over the world with the same ultimate objective to have varying short term goals; leading to differences in the level of progress of social revolution and the process of capitalism and bourgeois dictatorship being demolished, the working class seizing power and organising as the ruling class and socialism being built.

IV. On Working Class Rule, Socialism and the Imperialist Encirclement

1. As capitalism developed its contradictions deepened and the workers’ movement advanced, which lead to a division among the intellectuals and fed the tendency among some of their sections to criticise capitalism on the basis of a scientific analysis and unite with the workers’ movement. It is as a result of the maturing of this tendency that Marxist theory, as the ideology of the working class and a guide to its struggle for emancipation, and the scientific socialist current that has risen on this theory. Thus, the struggle for emancipation of the working class has obtained a scientific programme and a strategic and tactical understanding.

2. From the second half of the 19th century while the working class grew rapidly in numbers and concentrated in big factories, Marxism was spreading fast among workers and intellectuals; and the process of scientific socialism uniting with the workers’ movement even more and the working class organising in capitalist countries, especially in Germany, as independent parties was advancing. While workers’ struggles and mass organisations such as trade unions advanced, revolutionary workers’ parties, equipped with the theory of scientific socialism, gathered support of even greater number of workers and became mass parties. In terms of its level of consciousness and organisation as well as its capacity and ability for struggle the workers’ movement in leading capitalist countries became an independent movement threatening the hegemony of the bourgeoisie. This was a period when the international movement and organisation of the working class also advanced. First and the Second Internationals were established as a centre that – supported by the growing parties of the working class – united the revolutionary movement of the working class against the world bourgeoisie.

3. While material preconditions for socialism were maturing and the workers’ movement was advancing towards a level that would threaten the bourgeois hegemony, the bourgeoisie used everything in its power to intensify its oppression on the working class and other working strata and tried to strengthen its footing in the workers’ movement. When the contradictions of capitalism were sharpening and various factors were accumulating, which would immerse the world into a war for the re-division of the world, opportunist tendencies developed within the parties of the Second International. This was characterised by conformity with bourgeois pressure and orientation towards class collaboration, twisting the principle of using bourgeois parliaments and legal possibilities during long years of peace for their legalism and parliamentarism.

4. The First World War which was initiated by imperialists for the re-division of the world led to the destruction of the productive forces, the death, misery and mutilation of millions of people. This brought about revolutionary situations in many countries and the imperialist capitalist system was breached in Russia with the October Revolution of 1917. The working class of Russia consisting of various nationalities seized power and organised as the ruling class; the process of liquidation of capitalism and construction of socialism started. While the capitalist imperialist system shrunk and weakened in terms of the market, investment and natural resources, the liberation struggles of the world working class and the oppressed peoples gained a strong international base such as the USSR. The commencement of socialist construction and its advancement in the USSR added a new contradiction, the contradiction between the capitalist and the socialist systems, to the existing antagonisms of imperialism which transformed capitalism into a system on a death bed.

5. The October Revolution which started a new age of revolutions, an age of proletarian revolutions in practice was now a new factor in feeding the tendency among the workers and the oppressed peoples, who had been dragged by the imperialist war into a total chaos and destruction, to organise and struggle. Whilst the Second International was heading towards a disgraceful end because of its social-chauvinist and social-imperialist line and conciliatory stance towards the bourgeoisie, working classes’ initiatives to organise as an independent party were gaining strength. As a result the Third International was born as an international organisation of the working class, which joined together the revolutionary workers’ parties and organisations in both the advanced and underdeveloped countries.

6. The October socialist revolution broke the upward march of capitalism and imperialism and led to the birth of a new world: the society of workers, socialism; this was a new era in the history of mankind, the era of imperialism and proletarian revolutions. This period contains fundamental contradictions that are constantly sharpened, interacting with one another and whose exacerbation will lead to new revolutionary processes that break out where the weakest links of the imperialist domination are manifested. The fundamental contradictions of the era are expressed in the struggle between, on the one side, labour, the working class and socialism and, on the other, capital, the bourgeoisie and capitalism, in the struggle of the oppressed peoples and nations against the imperialist countries, and in the struggle among international monopolies and imperialist countries themselves.

7. The October Revolution was followed by the workers’ movements in Germany, Austria and Hungary and the revolutionary uprisings and liberation struggles of the oppressed peoples and nations in countries such as China, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. With the support of social democracy, labour aristocracy and the bureaucracy, bourgeoisie and the reactionary forces suppressed the revolutionary uprisings of the working class everywhere, except for Russia. With the onset of the 1929 crisis and with sharpening contradictions the imperialist capitalist system entered a new period of confrontations and harsh struggles following a short breadth of relative stability.

8. The Soviet Union which was previously destroyed by the imperialist war was then faced with more destruction because of the civil war and was now under a capitalist-imperialist encirclement. Despite the attacks of imperialism and reactionary forces and the domestic resistance by bourgeois-capitalist remnants that continued to exist during the transition period, the country had shown an unprecedented rapid progress in every field. During the 1930s when fascism was getting stronger in Italy, Japan and Germany and fascist dictatorships were established in many countries, when the capitalist world was experiencing crises one after another and was heading towards a new war of re-division, the USSR had become an advanced industrial-agricultural country where the means of production were in public ownership, where the economic foundations of socialism were formed and the working and living conditions of workers, peasants, and the intellectuals advanced. At a time of deepening crisis and increasing attacks of capital and fascism, there was an increasing tendency among workers and the oppressed peoples to fight, we also witnessed the development of popular anti-fascist struggles in many countries such as France and Spain as well as national liberation movements in colonies, semi-colonies and dependent countries such as China.

9. Although some fascist dictatorships survived in Spain and Portugal, the Second World War resulted in the defeat of the fascist camp, , the breaches of the imperialist-capitalist system in new fronts, and the formation of people’s democracies. The people’s revolutions led by the working class and the uninterrupted orientation towards the construction of socialism in Eastern Europe and the Balkans were followed by the revolutions in China and Vietnam and popular uprisings and national liberation movements in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Having shaken by the rising revolutionary struggles of the working class and peoples and been breached in new fronts the imperialist capitalist system entered the second stage of its general crisis. The revolutionary parties of the working class in many countries, mainly France, Italy, Greece and Indonesia, receiving the support of wide sectors of working people, had become mass workers’ parties and an alternative to political power. In the face of the movements of the oppressed peoples and nations which went on to rise in the 1960s and 70s, the old colonial system entered a process of disintegration and collapsed.

10. The great mobilisation of the workers’ and the oppressed peoples’ movement led imperialism and world reactionary forces to join forces against them. The US got the upper hand in its relations with other imperialist countries and, following the Second World War, became the unique hegemonic power of the imperialist capitalist system. This enabled imperialism to launch and command a unified attack, even though temporarily, on socialism, the revolutionary movement of the working class and peoples. Finance capital began to renew its damaged relations with labour aristocracy and bureaucracy as well as the hesitant middle class forces, trying to win them over and manipulate effectively, but at the same time developing new tactics, including giving temporary concessions in order to neutralise the working class and peoples. Whilst “welfare state” practices were widening, new colonialist methods and forms had been developed.

11. Revolutionary movement of the world working class was unable to repel the attacks of imperialism or the attacks carried out from inside by those wavering, conciliatory elements functioning as a prop for the bourgeoisie within the workers’ movement and the socialist camp. The 20th Congress of the CPSU marked a turning point when the counter revolutionary line which ideologically took the form of modern revisionism became dominant in the party and within the revolutionary movement of the working class. This line had interrupted socialist construction, had opened the way to capitalist restoration, and had replaced the struggle against imperialism, bourgeoisie, and the opportunist and revisionist currents of all kinds with collaboration. Whilst capitalism was being restored in socialist countries, with the exception of Albania, with the propaganda of renewal of socialism, transition to communism, etc. and with deformed socialist forms, revolutionary workers’ movement entered in a period of defeat and decline. Modern revisionism used the advances, the great respect and trust gained by old socialist countries, including the USSR, one of the most advanced and powerful lands, in draining the revolutionary content of scientific socialism and drag the workers’ and the oppressed peoples’ struggles down to the minimum level of resistance in every field. Revolutionary mass parties of the working class turned into syndicalist, reformist-parliamentarist parties, and the revolutionary workers movement was faced with a process of total liquidation. This development had an effect on the oppressed nations and their movements as well as the workers’ movement. Conciliatory bourgeois and petit-bourgeois currents began to have greater influence in these movements.

12. With the supremacy of modern revisionism planned production that safeguarded stable and harmonious development on the basis of the needs of society was gradually replaced by production for profit and for the market. Capitalist economy and capitalist society began to show its characteristics in the form of economic stagnation and crisis, unequal development, open and disguised unemployment, accumulation of money and luxurious consumption in the hands of a small minority, parasitic and totally distant from production, accompanied by increasing poverty, rising military spending and interventions etc. These problems reached such magnitudes towards the end of the 1980s that this special and temporary form of capitalism could not be sustained and inevitably left the ground for the typical form which was meant to be. In the beginning of the 1990s, the USSR and its bloc entered the process of disintegration; socialism and all its deformed remnants were eradicated and typical capitalist forms have been restored; socialism was collapsed in Albania, too.

13. All these developments were claimed to be the proof of the bankruptcy of communism and the end of the struggle for revolution and socialism as well as the supremacy of capitalism and market economy. This was also the beginning of the gravest and the most effective anti-communist campaign in history. The conditions were now suitable for the spread of liberal, neo-liberal, conservative, social democrat, neo-fascist currents or those that were based on the reactionarism and prejudice parallel with the level of the Middle Ages. While all forms of revisionist currents weakened, some of them disintegrated and their remnants turned into reformist right or left social democratic forces, the others tried to survive by renewing their platforms, leading the way to “new” currents in pursuit of producing solutions and alternatives within the imperialist-capitalist system. They claimed that the scientific socialist theory has become outdated, that it could never explain social processes, and that it had to be surpassed. Adorned with new excuses, we have seen the revival of theories claiming that scientific and technological revolution caused fundamental changes in the relations of production, that the contradiction between labour and capital disappeared, and that the historical revolutionary role of the changing working class came to an end. In line with all this it was also argued that the material basis for working class parties and organisations were no longer there, that the function of workers organisations such as trade unions changed, that they became obsolete and would be replaced by new social organisations. Along with post-modern theories these theses are still being spread with new excuses and in readapted forms in various names such as “radical democracy”, “21st century socialism”, “market socialism”, “anarchism”, “eco-anarchism”, etc.

14. Despite the process of defeat and decline suffered by the working class and peoples’ movement following the disintegration of the USSR and the revisionist bloc and parties, their struggle went on uninterruptedly, although from a lower position. We have also seen the rise of the fight against all forms of revisionist, opportunist, social democrat bourgeois currents. In this fight, with their resolute and uncompromising stance, Albanian communists and the PLA led by Enver Hoxha played an important role in the formation of new parties and the development of a struggle in some old parties. New revolutionary parties and organisations of the working class emerged in the struggle against imperialism, bourgeoisie and all kinds of opportunist and revisionist currents such as Titoism, Trotskyism, Euro-communism, Maoism, and especially modern revisionism. These party and organisations continued their struggle and consolidated their unity with greater participation in the 1990s and later years when the anti-communist campaign was most effective because of the harsh but temporary defeat suffered by socialism and the revolutionary workers’ movement.

15. Those parties that continued with their struggle on the basis of the working class and their Marxist-Leninist lines came up with the Quito Proclamation in 1994, following a series of preparatory meetings in various continents. International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations (ICMLPO) came to being in this process, and it is the international organisation of the revolutionary workers’ movement of the present day. ICMLPO considers itself to be the inheritor and the body which carries out the revolutionary principles and implementations of the revolutionary periods of the First and the Second Internationals, of the Third International (Comintern) and the revolutionary period of the Cominform.

V. On Sharpening Contradictions and the Rising Prospects for Struggle

1. Despite the heaviest blow the emancipation movement of the working class suffered in its history, the foundations of the revolutionary movement of the world working class and oppressed peoples continued to develop rather than weaken, just like the antagonistic contradictions that drag capitalist imperialist system to its death. Capitalist relations of production have become dominant in underdeveloped and dependent countries which have the characteristics of peasant society and where there is still a strong presence of feudal remnants. We have seen the process of disintegration of peasantry and the growth of proletarian and semi-proletarian masses, as well as the development of the material preconditions for socialism. The working class and semi-proletarian masses grew hugely in numbers on a world scale, so much which could not be compared with the level in the 1950s, let alone that at the time of the October Revolution. In the conditions of antagonism and struggle between the capitalist and the socialist systems as well as capitalist competition, the scientific and technological revolution, the emergence of new sectors such as atomic fission, the discovery and use of nuclear energy, computing and programming, the renewal of the technical basis of production, transportation and distribution, wide use of electronics, etc. led to new developments that increased the productivity of labour. This also widened the opportunity for production, especially the labour-intense sections, to be shifted into countries where work force, land and resources are cheaper. Where it is stronger historically, the disintegration of small businesses and of self employment as well as the development of waged labour became faster. Intensified centralisation and internationalisation of capital and production on a world scale moved forward the process of socialisation of production and the deepening of social inequality and contradictions. The contradiction between the social character of production and the capitalist character of ownership became more prominent. The growth of the army of the unemployed, intensification of exploitation, the growth of labour dependency on capital, the advance of the process of appropriation, the growth of the gap between the haves and the have-nots are all the inevitable results of scientific and technological advances under capitalist conditions. Every advance in this field sharpens the contradictions of capitalism but it also improves the material preconditions for socialism and brings capitalism and imperialism to their inevitable end.

2. The defeat and the resulting many-sided decline in the working class and the oppressed peoples’ movement brought about greater aggression by imperialism and the world reactionary forces. Accompanied by the globalisation demagogy and presented as “neoliberal” measures, bourgeois capitalist circles intensified their attacks. The aim was to eradicate the remaining crumbs of rights and gains achieved by the working class, press down their struggle to the lowest levels, lift all national and international barriers that limit the hegemony and exploitation by capital, especially its monopolist sections, to ensure maximum profit. All the burdens resulting from the economic crisis and recessions, increasing competition and the preparations for the re-division of the world and settling accounts are being loaded onto the working class and peoples.

3. While in all countries, including those presented as the exemplary capitalist welfare states, the profit of monopolies increase, the living and working conditions of the oppressed and exploited masses deteriorate. Despite rising levels of labour productivity, real wages are going down, work day is extended, work intensity increased, retirement age rising and casual work and subcontracting spreading in many countries. One of the most important outcomes of this process is the weakening of the unity and the organisation of the working class at every level. This made it easier for the social gains of the working people being taken down to the lowest levels in education, pension, health, unemployment insurance, etc. with privatisation spreading rapidly giving capital really high profits. While the process of disintegration and appropriation of intermediary strata is getting faster, poverty is spreading and the army of the unemployed is getting bigger. Democratic rights and freedoms are being restricted with the pretext of fight against terrorism, and reactionary forces and militarism are favoured. Bourgeoisie is carrying out these attacks without abandoning social democracy which has become a reactionary class collaborationism no different from other bourgeois currents, and by using chauvinist, nationalist, religious, conservative, fascist and neo-fascist currents and organisations, and with all medieval reactionary forces in its service.

4. Among the oppressed and exploited masses the feelings of insecurity, anger and discontent is growing as well as the tendency to struggle. Although this has not yet reached a level to repel the attacks and has all the weaknesses of a spontaneous movement, the working class and peoples are resisting and fighting against them. In the 1990s and later years when the attacks had intensified, the struggles of the working class and peoples advanced from being local strikes to general strikes and acts of resistance, mass demonstrations in general, and as far as popular uprisings in underdeveloped and dependent countries. The struggles of French workers in 1995 had marked a turning point.

5. Contrary to the claims of those extensions of bourgeois-capitalist circles in the workers’ movement, the collapse of the old colonial system did not lead to the withdrawal of imperialism and colonialism from the scene of history or the eradication or softening of the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed peoples. This division and contradiction continued to deepen, gaining new characteristics during and after the process of disintegration of the old colonial system. Big imperialist countries, especially the US, intensified their attacks using new forms and methods of colonisation, but also without completely giving up the old ones. This process proved once again that without the collapse of the entire imperialist-capitalist system, imperialism and colonialism cannot be ended, nor could the oppressed people achieve full emancipation.

6. Big imperialist countries have developed a stronger yoke on some other developed countries as well as underdeveloped and semi-developed ones, turning them into a sort of economic and financial colonies. Through bilateral and multilateral military, commercial and financial agreements as well as international organisations under the control of imperialist states such as IMF, World Bank, WTO, OECD, EU, NAFTA, OAS, APEC, NATO, etc. these countries hold greater control in the economic, political, military and cultural lives of the member states, restricting their independence and national sovereignty. These institutions were a result of the globalisation of the capitalist world economy, and big imperialist countries use them as an instrument to coordinate their attacks, to get other countries and peoples under their grip and to widen their sphere of influence.

7. With the disintegration of the bloc led by the USSR, in terms of the inter-imperialist relations and contradictions, the restrictions caused by the division and rivalry between the two blocs, each one led by a superpower, have disappeared. The balance of power which shaped all economic, political and military international organisations such as UN, IMF, WB and NATO has shifted. New imperialist countries have emerged such as China and Russia from the ruins of the USSR. Inter-imperialist power relations have changed, the main imperialist powers repositioned themselves and a new struggle for redivision has begun. In order to protect and widen their spheres of influence imperialist powers incited reactionary civil wars using national, ethnic, religious differences as well as conducting direct military interventions. Peoples in the Balkans, Caucasus, Africa and the Middle East had been drawn into the whirlpool of reactionary wars. Direct military interventions by big imperialist powers, especially the USA have become widespread as was seen in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somali, Iraq, Libya, Mali, etc. The number of people died in these interventions and the wars incited by imperialists have reached millions, and genocides had taken place in Africa.

8. The advances in science and technology and in the means of production have widened the possibilities to meet and secure the needs of people by conquering nature and using its resources on the basis of the knowledge of and the respect for the laws of natural development. However, the unconcerned use of advanced means of production by capital, in the hands of monopolies and for maximum profit, has led to the destruction of nature, skewed ecological balance and reached such levels that threaten humanity and all living things and require an immediate solution. Especially the natural resources of dependent and semi-colonial countries are being plundered in such a way that lead to big environmental catastrophes. Imperialist capitalist system, in this regard too, drags humanity to a total catastrophe.

9. While the material bases of a world proletarian revolution are developing and ripening even more, with its divisions and contradictions deepening, the imperialist capitalist system is elevating the conditions that bring the inevitability of the reactionary imperialist wars as well as the revolutionary struggles and uprisings of the working class and peoples. This system is going from crisis to crisis and the factors of a revolutionary eruption are accumulating in many countries. This system is heading towards a new period of wars, fundamental changes and revolutions. No matter what methods imperialism and reactionary forces use and how fiercely they attack, no matter how heavy the temporary defeats and failures are the collapse of imperialist capitalist system and the victory of the world proletarian revolution is inevitable.

10. As is seen clearly in the 1848 revolutions in Western Europe, the Paris Commune and the October Revolution, not only victories but also defeats can be educational for the working class and peoples, paving the steps for greater and more advanced victories. The Paris Commune followed the 1831-34 workers struggles in France, the Chartist movement in England and the 1848 revolutions, and the October Revolution was the product of all that experience. The victories and defeats of the 20th century will form the foundations of new and more advanced mobilisations and struggles and educate the working class on the way.

November 2016