There is no Country that today can be called Socialist

WHERE WE STAND: There is no Country that today can be called Socialist

Today, it is unfortunate but true, that there is no country where the working class and the peasantry are in state power. Marxist-Leninists call this type of state, the dictatorship of the proletariat, and where appropriate the dictatorship of the working class and the peasantry.

Just recently, any lingering illusions that the People's Republic China (PRC) is a socialist state, were removed in a blaze of publicity. The ruling party, the "Communist Party of China" (CPC) held its 16th party Congress, presided over by the outgoing leader Jiang Zemin, and the new leader, Hu Jintao.

In his speech marking his step down, Jiang Zemin announced that the Party's first objective was to build a xiaokang (reasonably well-off) society over the next 20 years. This was "socialism with Chinese characteristics", because the CPC must "always represent the development trend of China's advanced productive forces, and the fundamental interested of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people".

This formula does not even speak of the dictatorship of the proletariat. But then since the term "xiaokang" dates back some 2500 years to the ancient "Book of Songs" - perhaps such a modern term would be inconsistent. Not that we despise the past.

But consider that the "cornerstone" of the New ruling doctrine of the so called "Three Represents", is: "the encouragement of entrepreneurship and protection of private property". Why then, is this supposedly the sound of Socialism? And why is this needed, 50 years after Mao Ze Dong initiated the New Democratic State of the PRC? Jiang helpfully explained that the "builders of socialism" are now to be understood as being: "private business people (who) are now the same as workers an peasants". In fact according to Jiang, "Capital" is just another form of "labour".

We are glad of Jiang's honesty and bluntness. It is up to those who remain convinced that the PRC was socialist under the rule of Mao but disagree with those who say that the current state is socialist- to tell us: "How does Jiang's formulation really differ from that of Mao?"

As for those who remain convinced that the PRC is still - even today - a socialist state, we are dumb-struck. We can only speculate that the psychological illusions of there actually being a socialist state in existence, somehow enables these people to sweeten the bitterness of the task ahead. That task, is to build new communist parties in all countries, free of any revisionist trends. That includes the exposure of the revisionism of the so-called "New Democratic State" inaugurated by Mao Ze Dong.

See Guardian Weekly: Gittings J November 21-21, 2002; p.6.

Alliance January 2003 Issue 1