Economic Independence

THE THEORY OF SCIENTIFIC COMMUNISM

The winning of political independence, liberation from political dependence upon imperialism, comprises the content of the first, initial stage of the national liberation revolution. This stage, which has been completed in some of the developing countries, witnesses the transfer of state power from the foreign imperialist bourgeoisie and the local feudal or clan and tribal ruling clique to the patriotic forces of the nation. The attainment of political independence and the formation of national states in Asia, Africa and Latin America are one of the crowning results of the disintegration of the imperialist colonial system.

But it is not the only objective of the national liberation revolution, for without economic independence it is impossible to consolidate the gains achieved by the revolution and put an end once and for all to dependence upon foreign monopolies. The ideologists of imperialism, Lenin wrote, usually talk “of national liberation .. . leaving out economic liberation. Yet in reality it is the latter that is the chief thing”. [124•*

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New Stage of the Revolution

The imperialists made every effort to perpetuate their rule in the colonial and dependent countries, and to tie these countries permanently to their own economic and political system they crushed every attempt of the oppressed people to develop a national economy, particularly, in the industrial field.

Imperialism has retarded the development of tens of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, whose economic level is, with rare exceptions, extremely low. These countries, which have more than two-thirds of the population of the non-socialist world, account for only 20 per cent of the manufactured goods, about 3 per cent of the machines and equipment and 5 per cent of the metal produced in the capitalist world, while a considerable number of the industrial enterprises in them belong to foreign imperialists.

The peoples of these countries can utilise the enormous natural resources in their own interests and work for themselves only by freeing their economy from foreign monopoly domination. The only way to achieve this is to develop their own national economy. By remaining economically dependent upon imperialism the newly liberated countries cannot promote their own social and economic progress. Moreover, economic dependence constantly threatens their political independence.

The achievement of economic independence is thus the content of the new, second stage of the national liberation revolution.

One of the most radical ways of winning liberation from economic dependence is nationalisation, i.e., the transfer of factories, transport, means of communication, banks, trade and communal enterprises, and schools and other educational institutions to state ownership. Nationalisation gives rise to a state sector in the economy.

The United Arab Republic, Algeria, Burma, Mali, Guinea and other liberated countries have made great progress in nationalisation, which embraces primarily the property of foreign monopolies and of the pro-imperialist section of the local bourgeoisie. Nationalisation and the accompanying setting up of a state sector in the economy have enabled the liberated countries independently to resolve some economic problems, influence economic development and embark upon economic planning. This has effectively hit colonial exploitation and substantially curbed the possibility of foreign capital decisively influencing economic development.

Insofar as conditions frequently do not permit one developing state or another immediately to nationalise all or most of the property of the foreign monopolies, nationalisation is accompanied by temporary control of this property, and the state restricts monopoly exploitation of the people and the country’s natural wealth. In many cases mixed enterprises, owned jointly by the state and private, including foreign, capitalists, are set up.

The social content of the state sector is not the same in the different countries, for it depends on the balance of class forces and on what social forces are at the helm of 126state. The state sector can serve as the foundation for economic development and a major factor for abolishing dependence upon foreign monopolies only when state power is in the hands of patriotic, democratic forces, when nationalisation is pursued in the interests of the nation.

Economic independence can only be achieved by building up a highly developed economy, through industrialisation.

Industrialisation ensures the reorganisation of all branches of the economy, including agriculture, on the foundation of modern technology and thus raises labour productivity to a high level. It serves as a means of strengthening a country’s defence capacity and as the basis of its scientific, technical and cultural progress. For the developing countries, industrialisation is the key to surmounting backwardness, relinquishing their unenviable role of agrarian and raw material reservoirs of the imperialist states, acquiring genuine independence and raising their people’s standard of living.

Many of these countries have already taken the first steps along the road of industrialisation. By utilising their domestic resources and aid from other, particularly socialist, countries, they are building power-generating capacities and modern industries, concentrating on branches that are of special significance to them and helping them achieve economic independence.

Thorough-going agrarian reforms in favour of the people are an important element of the programme for achieving economic independence in the newly liberated countries. In most of these countries the best land belonged and, in many cases, still belongs to foreign monopolies and local feudal lords and the tribal nobility. Monopoly domination and feudal and pre-feudal relations seriously impede economic development because the lop-sided, mono-plant agriculture is unable to keep industry and the population supplied with raw materials and food.

As a result, the objective of agrarian reforms in the newly liberated countries is to put an end to feudal and pre-feudal relations in agriculture in order to abolish pre-feudal, feudal and foreign ownership of land, and give the peasants the possibility and the assistance to work this land.

Experience shows that there are various ways of carrying out agrarian reforms. In Burma, the United Arab Republic and some other countries the object of the agrarian reforms is sharply to restrict the size of the land that may be owned and to transfer the land confiscated from the big landowners and foreign capitalists to the peasants. The most radical reform is to set up agricultural co-operatives, a movement that has begun in some of the new countries.

In many of the liberated countries the agrarian problem is still far from having been resolved and therefore remains an important task of the national liberation revolution.

Economic development is inconceivable without the broad democratisation of social and political life, without drawing the masses into construction and raising their level of education and culture.

The social and economic objectives of the national liberation revolution are achieved in sharp struggle between social forces. While political independence, which comprised the content of the first stage of the revolution, was achieved through the concerted efforts of all the nation’s patriotic forces in struggle against foreign imperialism, economic independence, which is the content of the second stage of the revolution, is attained not only in struggle against imperialism but also in struggle between different classes and social strata within the country. Essentially, this is a struggle for the ways and means of achieving economic liberation, the ways and means of further promoting social development.

Notes

[124•*] Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 244.