What about the International Revolution?
Organization for the Construction of a Communist Workers’ Party of Germany
Criticism of Stefan Engel’s “Dawn of the International Socialist Revolution” and the MLPD’s Positions
Introduction
Five years ago, Stefan Engel’s book “Dawn of the Inter- national Socialist Revolution” was published for which he was responsible as leader of a collective of authors. In this book, the new positions of the arxist-Leninist Party of Ger- many (MLPD) concerning the international class struggle were
explained and were sup- posed to be an updating and expansion of Lenin’s theory of imperialism and
his messages views on the construction of the Communist Party. According to Engel, “a new phase in the development of imperialism was ushered in.” In his opinion, the special characteristics of this “new phase” are the “mainly inter- national character” of the “capitalist mode of production” and this “is subject to the diktat of the solely ruling international fi- nance capital, which is made up approximately of the 500 biggest international supermonopolies and rests on the power of the strongest imperialist countries..” (Stefan Engel, Dawn of the International Socialist Revolution, p. 9.) [All quotes are from the English version of Engel’s book – translator’s note]
According to Stefan Engel, another feature of this phase is that “The economic role of the nation-states increasingly is being taken over by the cartel of the solely ruling international finance capital, the leading imperialist states and the international organizations dominated by them.”
(Ibid, pp. 9-10.)
He concludes: “The internationalization of the productive forces must inevitably result in the internationalization of the class struggle and spur it on. Unmistakable signs that this process already is in full swing can be observed everywhere in the world…” (Ibid, p. 12)
All this is very bare and has not been demonstrated, especially in the economic part. We are not provided with facts for the rather odd idea of a “cartel of the solely ruling international finance capital.” Instead, Engel confuses his readers by juggling with terms such as “supermonopolies.” But this word does not make any sense. “Monopoly” means that a market is dominated by a few capitalist groups. So what would a “supermonopoly” be? To do more than dominate a market is impossible. By creating such a word, Engel apparently means that there is something quite new that Lenin did not already know, something that towers over a monopoly. However, what could that be? Apart from using this odd term, Engel does not explain it. Should the creation of such a word have the effect of intimidating the readers and impressing them with the creator’s “greatness”? I read this book 5 years ago and prepared a criticism of it. However, I thought that the arguments in the book were rather poor, but at that time I refrained from the tedious chore of writing a detailed criticism as I would have had to spend a lot of time doing it. I hoped that such a superficial and obviously wrong way of looking at things would quickly be seen through and within a short time it would be dead and buried. That hope was an illusion. The MLPD had the book translated into several languages and circulated it worldwide, claiming it to be a enlargement and expansion of Marxism-Leninism. Thus, this party influenced people in many countries and contributed to further ideological confusion. Therefore, I decided to go through the book to compare its statements with reality and Marxism- Leninism.
DM, September 2016
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