NATURE OF THE MODERN EPOCH. GROWTH OF THE SOCIALIST SYSTEM
Despite the assurances of the advocates of capitalism that “classes are disappearing”, that a process of “social harmonisation" is taking place in capitalist society, a gigantic struggle is raging in the capitalist world between labour and capital, and the revolutionary working-class movement has reached vast proportions.
Scale of the Strike Struggle
Epic social changes, the growth of production and the deep-going transformations brought about by science and technology have affected the position, numerical strength and composition of the working class in the capitalist countries and influenced the conditions and aims of its struggle. First and foremost, there has been an immense numerical increase. In the mid-19th century there were 9,000,000 workers. Today the number of factory, office and other workers in the capitalist world has risen to 350 million, of whom about 200 million are in the developed capitalist countries.
The structure of the working class has also changed. There has been, particularly in recent years, a considerable increase in the number of managerial, technical and office personnel engaged in material production. True, these people are sooner semi-proletarians, but their position and role in production are drawing ever closer to the position and role of workers engaged in direct productive work.
In the leadership of the working-class struggle, the Communist Parties are playing an increasingly more important role. Millions of men and women workers belong to trade unions, and youth, women’s and other democratic organisations; the World Federation of Trade Unions 90alone has nearly 140 million members. This makes it obvious that the working class is growing not only numerically but also organisationally.
As a result of the general crisis of capitalism, the strengthening of the socialist forces in the world and, in particular, of the revolutionising impact of the world socialist system and the enlargement of the social basis for the revolutionary movement in the capitalist countries themselves, the present situation in those countries has now become more favourable for the struggle of the working class. Moreover, the working-class movement has accumulated vast experience in combating capitalism and its stooges in the ranks of the working class. It has become more mature ideologically and has grown more organised and militant. The Communist Parties enjoy increasing prestige among the working people, and the power of the trade unions is growing. Led by its organisations, the working class is resolutely opposing coercion on the part of the bourgeoisie, and displaying courage, staunchness, ever greater discipline and unity of action in the revolutionary struggle.
The working class is using strikes, demonstrations, rallies, conferences, parliamentary debates, the press, the radio and diverse other means to achieve its ends.
The fact that in the past decade the number of strikers has doubled to reach the annual figure of 55–57 millions shows that the strike movement, an old and tested means of struggle against the capitalists, is growing in scale and that its organisation is improving.
Today strikes are not only bigger but also more flexible and varied. Besides general strikes, workers stage warning strikes; strikes in which mounting pressure is brought to bear by bringing in other contingents of workers; strikes at key enterprises of the various industries; strikes varying in time (every other day, every few hours of the day, and so on); strikes that hop from one enterprise to another, and so forth. These tactics enable the workers to avoid considerable material losses and, at the same time, enormously pressure employers and secure the satisfaction of their demands. The trend towards greater unity of action is becoming ever more clear-cut in the strike movement.91
Thus, the huge scale, the high level of organisation and the flexibility of the strike struggle are a vital feature of the contemporary working-class movement.
Combining Economic and Political Forms of Struggle
A central feature of the contemporary working-class movement is that it combines economic and political forms of struggle. More and more frequently the demands of the workers go beyond the framework of economic terms to include political elements. The number of strikers involved in political strikes has risen from about 44 per cent in 1958 to 64 per cent in 1962.
Today even the struggle for purely economic demands usually brings the working class round to the realisation that a political struggle is necessary. In many countries the bourgeois state, it will be remembered, is a big proprietor serving the interests of the monopolies and itself directly exploiting a large section of the working class—the section employed at state-run enterprises. The working people come up against the bourgeois state in social insurance, taxation, trade union activities and other spheres. They see for themselves that wherever it can this state protects the interests of the monopolies. During strikes, demonstrations or rallies there are clashes with the police and, in some cases, with the troops of the bourgeois state. A result of the development of stale-monopoly capitalism is that now; class contradictions manifest themselves as contradictions between the working people and the united forces of the monopolies and the state, thus spurring on the class struggle and enlarging the circle of problems around which the struggle is raging.
Formerly strikers demanded primarily an eight-hour working day, the recognition of the most elementary rights of the trade union organisations, the introduction of social insurance, the granting of suffrage to all citizens, and so forth. Today in addition to these demands, the working class seeks the realisation of demands that hit capitalism much more painfully. It wants broader political rights and democratic liberties for all people, the cessation of the arms race and the consolidation of peace and social progress. It crusades for the nationalisation of key branches of the economy and for the democratisation of the management of these branches. The working class and its revolutionary vanguard, the Marxist parties, aim their main blow at the capitalist monopolies, which are the mainstay of reaction and aggression and bear the responsibility for the arms race and the difficult position of the working people.
The struggle for economic demands thus intertwines more and more closely with the struggle for fundamental social and political changes, for the uprooting of the capitalist way of life.
Enlargement of the Social Basis
Another important feature of the contemporary revolutionary movement of the working class is that its social basis is expanding with the trend towards setting up a united front of progressive forces against the capitalist monopolies.
The monopolies ruthlessly exploit not only workers but also the bulk of the peasants, artisans, small shopkeepers, and the lower and middle echelons of office workers and working intellectuals. For a long time capitalist propagandists had been spreading the legend that the small peasant economy was stable. But now the monopolies have captured this field as well. In the U.S.A., for instance, the number of farms dropped by 2,030,000 in the period 1935–54 and by another 1,078,000 or by 23 per cent in the period 1954–59. In other words, every fourth farmer has been ruined. The situation is the same in the other capitalist countries. The peasants are leaving the villages en masse and joining the army of urban paupers. As for the surviving small farms, they are run at the cost of incredible privation, undernourishment and back-breaking labour.
Monopoly oppression is forcing the peasants to unite for the struggle for land and civil rights. In recent years there has been audible unrest among the peasants in France, Italy, Greece, the Federal Republic of Germany and other countries. In their actions they make wide use of proletarian means of struggle (strikes, marches, demonstrations, and so on), of the experience of foremost contingents of the working class. The workers give the peasants all-out support and, frequently, workers’ and peasants’ organisations act shoulder to shoulder and help each other. Along with the peasants, the workers demand basic agrarian reforms and the realisation of the slogan: “Land to those who till it!”
The monopolies are ruining small urban proprietors, destroying handicrafts industries, and absorbing or gaining control of small and medium industrial enterprises. In almost every capitalist country the lower and middle echelons of office workers, teachers, doctors, scientists, writers and artists are being stirred to action by the policies pursued by the monopolies and the bourgeois administration, which is closely linked up with them.
The overthrow of monopoly rule is thus wanted not only by the proletariat but also by the peasants and a considerable section of the intelligentsia as well as the petty and middle urban bourgeoisie. This is considerably enlarging the social basis of the working-class movement and making it possible to unite all progressive forces into a single mighty anti-monopoly front. The working class is called upon to head this front as its vanguard, to mobilise all the anti-imperialist forces for action against the monopolies. It teaches all working and exploited people to take revolutionary action by setting them an example of “mass revolutionary action combining political and economic demands”. [93•*
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Indissoluble Bond Between Democratic and Socialist Tasks
The founders of scientific communism conclusively showed the narrowness and tentative nature of bourgeois democracy.
They proved that, in fact, bourgeois democracy is a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, a dictatorship of the rich minority over the majority of the working people. Moreover, they demonstrated that the working class cannot remain indifferent to democracy, which is, at the same time, “a weapon in the hands of the proletariat”. [93•** Democracy, even if it is curtailed and bourgeois, provides the working class with the possibility of extending its revolutionary struggle. Take the bourgeois parliament, for example. Unquestionably it serves the bourgeoisie, but, at the same time, the working class is using it more and more frequently in its struggle against the reactionary policies of the imperialists.
Under anti-democratic conditions—reign of terror, repressive laws, regime of personal power, and so on—it is incomparably easier for the monopolies to exploit the people, combat the revolutionary actions of the masses and implement their reactionary policies. Today there is a mounting reactionary political trend on the part of capitalism to abolish democratic liberties, to move from parliamentarianism to an undisguised terrorist dictatorship of the monopolies. In West Germany, for example, the Communist Party was outlawed in 1956. On the other hand, all sorts of nco-nazi, revenge-seeking organisations are flourishing. The number of these organisations has increased from 86 in 1961 to 123 in 1964. In 1963 alone there were 10,000 court actions against progressive organisations in the Federal Republic of Germany. In the U.S.A., not only the Communist Party but all other progressive organisations have virtually been banned, and a whole series of anti-labour laws has been passed. Yet, with the connivance and, frequently, the patronage of the authorities reactionary organisations like the Ku Klux Klan operate freely.
Political reaction and the absence of democracy not only hinder the revolutionary movement but also infringe upon the human dignity of the working people, upon elementary liberties and rights. For that reason the working class, together with other sections of the people, is resolutely struggling for democracy. It is stirring the masses to rise against the attempts of the monopolies to abolish democratic freedoms and against the revival of any variety of fascism. The combining of the struggle of the working class for socialism with the general democratic movement for peace, national independence and democracy is an important feature of the present-day working-class movement.
The democratic demands of the working class of the capitalist countries include: general democratisation of economic and public life, of all administrative, political and cultural institutions; nationalisation of major branches of the economy and the democratisation of the management of these branches; a higher living standard for the 95working people; defence of the interests of the peasants and of the petty and middle bourgeoisie against the arbitrary rule of the monopolies; national independence; peace and the utilisation of the economy and of science and technology for peaceful purposes, in the interests of the people.
This programme does not abolish private ownership or exploitation, it does not call for the overthrow of capitalism as a whole and does not signify a reformist growth of capitalism into socialism. Many of its points are important not only in themselves but as milestones of the workingclass struggle, as footholds for the onward movement of the working class towards its principal objective—-socialism. The struggle for democracy undermines the influence of the forces of reaction, particularly of the monopolies, and thereby clears the road for the socialist revolution In the course of this struggle the working class becomes more organised, acquires experience and rallies the majority of the people round itself, thus forming the political army of the socialist revolution. Thus, far from retarding the socialist revolution, the general democratic struggle against monopoly rule brings it nearer and, therefore, the struggle for democracy is a component of the struggle for socialism.
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Closing the Split Is a Major Task of the Working-Class Movement
The contemporary working-class movement is gaining momenum, but at the same time one cannot tail to see that in the struggle against capitalism the workers of various countries meet with failures as well, that the reactionary forces get the better of the class struggle now in one sphere now in another. The formidable difficulties which the working class has to face in the capitalist countries are one of the reasons for these setbacks. The bourgeoisie, the adversary of the working class, is rich and well organised and, in addition, possesses a powerful state apparatus—an apparatus of coercion and ideological indoctrination. But the principal reason is that there is a split in the working-class movement caused by opportunists. The bourgeoisie, naturally, does its utmost to preserve and widen this split in order to weaken the working class and paralyse its revolutionary activity. In these circumstances it is extremely important to close the split and achieve the unity of the working class, the unity of all anti-imperialist forces in the general struggle against capitalist rule. The Communist Parties of Great Britain, France, Italy and other capitalist countries regard this as the cardinal task of the day. In pressing for unity, the Communists are motivated not by narrow Party interests, as the leaders of the Social–Democrats would like people to believe, but by the interests of the working class itself, of the working people, including those who belong to the Social-Democratic and other parties and organisations. These are common interests of the struggle against monopoly domination, for democratic reforms, peace, social progress and socialism.
The struggle for the unity of the working-class movement, for the creation of a united anti-imperialist front is a fundamental component of the struggle against imperialism.
Notes
[93•**] Marx/Engels, Werke, lid. 16, S. 76. Diet/ Verlag Berlin, 1962.
[93•*] Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 19, p. 223.
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