LENIN AND THE INTERNATIONAL LABOR MOVEMENT BY D. Z. MANUILSKY

From the Communist March 1939

The main thing in Leninism is "the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat, of the conditions for winning it, of the requisites for its entrenchment." (Stalin.) The teaching on the dictatorship of the proletariat is the soul of Leninism. This teaching has been tested by the experience of millions. This teaching is now not only a revolutionary theory, it is a living reality. It is expressed in the mighty socialist state, it is materially embodied in the tremendous victories of the socialist revolution. Lenin's doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat has now been developed and enriched by Comrade Stalin on the basis of the great experience, summarized by theoretical thought, of socialist construction in the U.S.S.R. 

The theory of Marxism-Leninism is inseparable from all that has been contributed to it by Comrade Stalin, who in all his theoretical creative work teaches the international working class that Marxist-Leninist theory is not a dogma, but a guide to action.

THE PATH OF THE PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP

Lenin's genius marked out for mankind the path of the proletarian revolution which millions of workers in the capitalist countries will tread with greater confidence and courage. Along with Lenin in marking out this path was Comrade Stalin. It is along this path that, since Lenin's death, Stalin's

genius has led the working people of our country and brought them to the world-historical victory of socialism.

Lenin's tremendous service to the world labor movement lies in the fact that he restored and upheld Marx's doctrine, which had been distorted and discarded by the opportunists of the Second International; in the fact that he developed it further, transforming it into an ordered theory of the proletarian revolution in the new conditions of the class struggle.

For the workers of the capitalist countries who are still on the road to the overthrow of capitalism, the Leninist- Stalinist doctrine of  the proletarian dictatorship is of decisive significance.

Lenin was right a thousand times over in mercilessly trouncing and exposing all varieties of opportunists who, on the pretext that no clause regarding the dictatorship of the proletariat was included in the program of the majority of the WestEuropean Social-Democratic Parties, wanted to throw overboard the very idea of the proletarian dictatorship.

Lenin was right a thousand times over in incessantly castigating the opportunists and centrists who, at the moment when the socialist revolution was maturing in Europe, fought.....;under the guise of defending bourgeois democracy-against the proletarian revolution and saved capitalism from destruction.

Had the workers of the most important capitalist countries in 1918-1920 followed the path of the Soviet proletariat, had they not allowed themselves to be duped by the Kautskys, Otto Bauers and MacDonalds who persuaded the workers of their countries not to overthrow capitalism but to follow the path of bourgeois democracy towards reforms, the world would have looked different now. There would not today be a sanguinary fascist dictatorship either in Germany or in Italy, nor would we now

have the second imperialist war; we would not now be witnessing the brigandage of the fascist interventionists in Spain, the outrages of the Japanese fascist militarists in China, the enslavement of Austria and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Socialism would have been the prevalent system over the greater part of the globe.

The Kautskys, Bauers and MacDonalds sought to scare the workers with the fact that the proletarian revolution is accompanied by difficulties and privations. But can one compare these difficulties and privations with the horrible calamities which dying capitalism inflicts on mankind? What endless suffering and sacrifice were inflicted on the proletariat by the world economic crisis of 19.29 alone, not to speak of the new crisis that has begun! And what agonies of White terror is fascism today inflicting on the masses of the people in the Sudetenland, Austria, in the Spanish territory occupied by the interventionists, in Germany, Italy, Japan!

The Kautskys, Bauers, MacDonalds alleged they were defending bourgeois democracy, but by their entire ruinous policy of retreat before fascism they have prepared its downfall. In the Soviet Union, on the other hand, which followed the path of Lenin Stalin, the path of proletarian revolution,socialist democracy flourishes, embracing the entire people, a democracy such as has never yet existed in history.

THE PARTY OF A NEW TYPE

The victory of the dictatorship of the proletariat would have been impossible without the formation of a new type of working class party. A party free of opportunism, irreconcilable towards conciliators and capitulators, revolutionary in relation to the bourgeoisie. A party capable of uniting the basic masses of the working class, and rallying to the side of the proletariat its allies. A party capable of utilizing the opportunities of every situation for the organization and mobilization of the masses, and of leading the toiling people to the storming of capitalism. The formation of such a new type of party as the Bolshevik Party was not a "Russian," a "national" affair. It was the supreme achievement of the entire international labor movement.

Fashioned, reared and steeled by Lenin and Stalin-the two giants of revolutionary thought and revolutionary deed- the Bolshevik Party is a model for the entire international Communist movement. All the sections of the Communist International learn from it. It has elevated to tremendous heights the significance of the Party of the working class as the decisive instrument in the struggle for the liberation of the toilers, for the socialist revolution, in the struggle against fascism and predatory wars.

Under the direct influence of the Leninist-Stalinist teaching there have grown up parties such as the heroic Communist ·party of Spain which plays a part of prime importance in the defense of its country and its people against the invasion of the foreign interventionists. The Communist Party of France, the initiator of the People's Front in France, with growing influence over wide masses not only of workers but also of the peasantry and of the urban toilers has grown into a first-rate political force. The Communist Party of the U.S.A.; which has won new strength in the struggle against fascism, in the struggle for the development of the democratic front, is becoming transformed into an important political factor, and is drawing into its ranks, on an ever wider scale, the best elements of the American labor movement. The heroic Communist Party of China is in the front ranks of the armed struggle, giving tens of thousands of its best sons to the cause of liberating the great Chinese people from the yoke of the Japanese invaders.

Severe is the ordeal through which the Communists in the fascist countries are now passing. But let the fascist executioners not delude themselves into believing that by killing hundreds and thousands of Communists in the fascist countries, they are putting an end to Marxism-Leninism, to the Communist movement, that they are curbing the working class for long.

"The schooling of civil war," wrote Lenin, "is not wasted on the peoples." The Russian Bolsheviks underwent this severe schooling and in the fire of it they hammered out the new type of party. Hundreds of people are coming forward in the fascist countries to take the place of every tortured, murdered Communist, and in the hour of historic reckoning -there will be hundreds of thousands and millions. And the hundreds who are rising up today constitute the iron shock troop of the new type of

Party.

But this by no means implies that the Communist Parties in the capitalist countries are already Bolshevik Parties in the full sense of the term. They have yet much to learn, and, above all, to learn revolutionary theory from the great classics of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin. They need to make a deeper study, in the light of the history of the C.P.S.U., of the experience of the revolutionary struggle

of their respective countries and of the world revolutionary movement, to fashion out of this study a keen weapon for their day-to-day activities.

THE STRUGGLE WAGED BY LENIN AND STALIN AGAINST OPPORTUNISM

Lenin and Stalin always taught the Communists to establish better contacts with the masses, not to grow conceited at moments of success, not to give way to panic at moments of defeat. They taught the Bolshevik vigilance, the lack of which has inflicted no small damage on the Communist Parties. They taught them to be ever on their guard, to be on the alert for every maneuver of the enemy. In the present grim days of acute class struggle, the experience of Spain and China goes to show that the Communists must master all forms of struggle. In putting forward the task of establishing a new type of party as the chief weapon of the working class struggle for the proletarian dictatorship, for socialism, Lenin conducted a merciless, irreconcilable struggle against all opportunists. He did not wait for opportunism to become transformed into open counter-revolution.

He did not wait for the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, bourgeois nationalists, centrists, openly to desert to the camp of intervention. He did not let them develop, acquire influence over the working class, but from the very first appearance of these trends attacked them with the utmost revolutionary passion.

Stalin defended with supreme devotion the doctrine of Marx-Engels Lenin against the Trotskys and Bukharins long before· these latter degenerated into a gang of spies, diversionists and assassins. Both Lenin and Stalin were irreconcilable in clearing out of the way of the working class, all that was rotten, foul and hindering its progress. And had the active elements of the international labor movement mastered the essence of the profoundly principled struggle waged by Lenin and Stalin against opportunism, the monstrous betrayal of the parties of the Second International during the imperialist war of 1914- 1918 would. not have taken place, nor could pro-fascists of the Citrine type act today as spokesmen of the working class.

The Leninist-Stalinist teaching of the proletarian dictatorship  presupposes the unification of the basic masses of the working class under the revolutionary leadership of a new type of party. The path to the solution of this task in the contemporary labor movement of the capitalist countries lies through the establishment of the united working class front. The united working class front helps to draw into the general stream of the class struggle millions of workers disorganized by the policy of retreat before fascism pursued by the Social-Democratic capitulators. It facilitates in every way the most speedy formation of the People's Front for the struggle against the capitalist offensive, fascism and predatory wars.

It enhances the activity of the masses of workers, trains them in the spirit of irreconcilability to the class enemy, steels their revolutionary will, leads them on to the practical realization of the final aims of their movement.

The Communists fight for the united working class front because it enables the workers, at the moment of the oncoming new economic crisis, to wage a successful struggle against the capitalist attempts to reduce still further their standard of living. The Communists fight for the united working class front because its establishment will contribute to the victory of the Spanish and Chinese people over the fascist vandals, because it will help to frustrate the insidious plans of the Munich plotters who are preparing chains of still worse slavery for the peoples, because it hastens the overthrow of the bloody fascist dictatorship by the downtrodden peoples.

THE LENIN-STALIN STRATEGY FOR RALLYlNG THE ALLIES OF THE PROLETARIAT

The teaching of the proletarian dictatorship further presupposes the rallying to the side of the working class of their allies-the peasantry, the urban toilers, the oppressed nations and the enslaved colonial peoples. The opportunists of the Second International never seriously posed the question of the allies of the proletariat, because they never seriously posed the question either of the overthrow of capitalism or of the defense of so-called bourgeois democracy against the encroachments of fascism, or even of the defense of the working class against the capitalist offensive.

It is precisely today, when there is an intensification of monstrous imperialist brigandage, when the turbid waters of fascism threaten to inundate new countries, when the conditions of the working class and laboring people generally in the capitalist countties are becoming ever more terrible-it is precisely in the present specific historical situation that Lenin's great strategic plan regarding the allies of the proletariat assumes exceptionally great significance. The significance of this plan is increased by yet other factors. It must not be overlooked that the reactionary bourgeoisie systematically betrays the interests of the nation. They are ready to place their own peoples under the

heel of alien fascist domination, for the sake of preserving their own narrow class interests. Under these conditions the working class is the force that cements all the laboring sections of the people, becomes the backbone of its nation, of its liberty, dignity and independence.

The People's Front tactic outlined by the Seventh Congress of the Communist International both in its resolution and in the report of Comrade Dimitroff, is part of this great Leninist-Stalinist plan. And precisely because this tactic constitutes a danger to world reaction, it has encountered considerable diffirulties in a number of capitalist countries a furious struggle has been waged against the People's Front by fascism. 

Operating hand in glove with the latter have been the reactionary bourgeoisie of all capitalist countries, particularly of Great Britain. Strenuous aid is rendered to reaction by the capitulators in the Labor Party and the Second International. All the fascist-Trotskyite spies, provocateurs and stool-pigeons endeavor to injure the People's Front movement.

It needs to be stressed in addition that in those countries where the People's Front already exists, the Communists, in the course of realizing it, have to take account of the fact that the allies of the working class -the peasantry, and the toilers in the cities-are frequently still under the  influence of Qther parties 3llld Qrganizations, that these parties and organizations pursue a vacillating policy, that the struggle against the vacillations of such parties is no easy matter, all the more since the Socialist Party leaders contribute to these vacillations. The partners of the Communists in the People's Front frequently endeavor to switch over the policy of the People's  Front to the path of coalition with the reactionary bourgeoisie. It is absolutely clear that the so-called policy of non-intervention pursued by certain leaders of the Radical and Socialist Parties in France was not the policy of the People's Front at all, but the policy of agreement of big business in England and F'rance with German and Italian fascism against the interests not only of the Spanish but also of the French people.

The policy of the People's Front runs directly counter to this policy of reaction. It does not mean agreement with fascism, but a resolute, consistent struggle against it both on the internal and the international arena.

The People's Front policy does not mean the suppression of workers' strikes, but the defense of the elementary demands and needs of the workers.

It does not mean attempts to split the labor movement and the democratic forces, but self-sacrificing work to bring about their unification. It does not mean the reactionary, fascist like baiting of Communists, but joint struggle by all the anti-fascist forces against reaction.

The Communists must not forget that the united working class front and the anti-fascist People's Front are not a peaceful idyll of "genial neighbors" but a militant association within which it is necessary to conduct comprehensive, tenacious, patient, explanatory political work, persistently and resolutely to criticize all waverings, ruthlessly to expose every act of treachery. On no account must this be forgotten, for otherwise it will be impossible to secure and entrench the united and people's front. But to secure and entrench the united and people's front means in addition to extend it to such countries where it does not as yet exist. This, in its turn, demands of the Communists a great deal of persistent work to convince workers who are honestly mistaken,· who have been led into an impasse by the capitulatory elements of Social-Democracy, or have been confused by the blows which the Munich policy inflicted on the People's Front in France. At the same time, however, it aemands of the Communists a most ruthless struggle against those pro-fascist leaders in the labor movement who, by their malicious policy of systematically rejecting the united working class front, brought the international labor movement to such a pass that it proved \mabie to prevent the Munich plot against the peoples. Only by fighting in this way for the united workets' and people's front will the Communists be acting in the spirit of the Leninist-Stalinist teaching.

THE PROLETARIAT IN ALLIANCE WITH THE OPPRESSED NATIONS

The Leninist-Stalinist teaching of the proletarian dictatorship includes not only the problem of the alliance of the proletariat with the urban and rural toilers of one nation, but also the problem of the reserves in the shape of the oppressed nations and the enslaved colonial peoples.

The fascist obscurantists, in developing their aggressive policy, basely endeavor to exploit the national sentiments of the peoples belonging to other multi-national states. They endeavor to exploit the slogan of the self-determination of nations, for the dismemberment of those states against which their plans of aggression are directed. This method is no new one. It was used by Metternich. It was resorted to by the ringleaders of the imperialist war of 1914-18. Now times have changed. At the present time there .exists the U.S.S.R. which has shown all peoples how to solve the national question. The U.S.S.R. is realizing, before the eyes of the whole world, the Stalinist policy of great friendship, nf real national equality and fraternal alliance between the peoples. This solution of the national question is exerting a profound influence over all the .oppressed nations and peoples. In the capitalist countries of today the social factor will play a decisive role in the self-determination of peoples. Lenin taught us that all questions of home and foreign policy must be examined and decided from the viewpoint of the fundamental interests of the proletariat and of its struggle for the liberation of all laboring people.

That was how Lenin approached also the question of wars. Not to war in general, but specifically to each given war. Lenin taught that:

". . . Marxism, which does not stoop to philistinism, demands an historical analysis of each individual war, in order to determine whether that war can be considered as progressive, as serving the interests of democracy or the proletariat, and in this sense legitimate, just and so on.''

What distinguishes the present situation from the situation obtaining at the time of the world imperialist war of 1914-18?

First, capitalism is no longer a system wielding undivided power over the whole world; besides the capitalist countries, there is the U.S.S.R., the powerful land of socialism, the foremost stronghold of the internationa! proletariat, the fatherland of all laboring people, the defense of which against foreign attack is the sacred duty of the toiling people of the whole world.

Second, there exist, not only imperialist states in general, but also such imperialist states as have established a sanguinary fascist dictatorship in their countries, created a bloc of aggressors, are rallying around themselves the dark forces of reaction of the capitalist countries, and have jointly begun a new forcible redivision of the world. It is the prime duty of the toiling people of all countries to contribute the utmost to bringing about the defeat of these fascist governments.

Third, the object of the imperialist redivision now is not only the colonial and semi-colonial countries, but Europe itself as well (Austria, Czechoslovakia, etc.), in which there thus arises the possibility of national anti-fascist wars, wars for national independence, just wars.

Only the Trotskyite blackguards, who are direct agents of the Gestapo and the Italian Ovra, can assert that it is a matter of no concern to the international proletariat which country emerges victorious in such a war.

It is well known that the proletariat has no desire for imperialist wars. It is well known that the Communists wage a resolute struggle against imperialist wars, for peace. But if the fascists force war on the peoples, then it is absolutely clear that the Communists will be acting in complete harmony with Lenin's teachings, if they call on the masses to utilize this war to overthrow the bloodstained fascist regime, to extend and deepen the gap in the world imperialist system begun by the great socialist revolution in October, 1917.

THE INTERNATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PROLETARIAN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Proletarian internationalism runs through the entire teaching of Marxism- Leninism, the entire theoretical and practical work of Lenin and Stalin. Away back at the dawn of the 1905 Revolution, Lenin spoke of the international significance of overthrowing the tsarist autocracy, that "most powerful buttress not only of European, but . . . also of Asiatic reaction." He pointed out at that time that the overthrow of tsardom was the most revolutionary of all the immediate tasks facing the international proletariat. Of no less significance for the international proletariat is the task today of overthrowing the fascist dictatorships. By building socialism in the U.S.S.R. and by strengthening the socialist state to the utmost, the working class of the U.S.S.R., led by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), headed by Comrade Stalin, has solved the gigantic task of advancing the cause of the international proletarian revolution.

Thereby Comrade Stalin has raised  the cause of proletarian solidarity to heights such as had never been reached in the history of mankind. Leninist-Stalinist proletarian internationalism is the internationalism which is put into life by the land of victorious socialism. It is manifested in the powerful political support being given by the Land of the Soviets to the Spanish people in their heroic

struggle for independence. It is manifested in the effective solidarity of all the peoples of the U.S.S.R. with the great Chinese people, who are conducting a life and death struggle against the Japanese imperialist invaders.

A striking manifestation of this proletarian internationalism is provided by the heroic page of the struggle of the international brigades in Spain, of whose feats the entire world Communist movement and the entire international proletariat are proud.

All these constitute new, higher forms of proletarian internationalism.

These are no paper resolutions, in the production of which the reactionary leaders of the Second International, who disrupt united action of the international proletariat, are past masters. These are living revolutionary deeds, from which the entire international working class, all the best people in the world, are learning.

An expression of this effective proletarian internationalism is to be found in the splendid advice of Com rade Stalin to the workers of all countries, when he said: "The international proletarian ties between the working class of the U.S.S.R. and the working class of bourgeois countries must be increased and strengthened; the political assistance of the working class in the bourgeois countries for the working class of our country must be organized in the event of a military attack on our country; and also every assistance of the working class of our country for the working class in bourgeois countries must be organized; our Red Army, Red Navy, Red Air Fleet, and the Chemical and Air Defense Society must be increased and strengthened to the utmost."

The entire history of the great socialist revolution, the entire history of the struggle and victories of the Soviet people, the entire history of the C.P.S.U., constitute a record of great proletarian solidarity. It is a great school for the Communists and advanced workers of the capitalist countries, in which they learn how to wage the struggle against the class enemy, how one can and should defeat the enemy.

The History of the C.P.S.U. that is now appearing in many languages will make the great doctrine of Lenin and Stalin accessible to millions of proletarians and toiling people in the capitalist countries. This book will make the theory and practice of Marxism- Leninism the property of hundreds of thousands and millions of people; it will tell them the great truth of the tremendous battles and victories of the Party of the proletariat which was the first to plunge into battle against capitalism, the first to establish a proletarian dictatorship, the first to lead the working class, the peasantry, the huge Soviet country to socialist society.

The History of the C.P.S.U. is one of the sharpest weapons of the class struggle. It is Marxism-Leninism in action. It is the summarized experience of the Bolshevik Party, of the first new type of party in the world, which was built, taught and reared by the great Lenin, and which is now being led in the teeth of aU machinations of the enemy to further victories by our leader and teacher, Comrade

Stalin. The History of the C.P.S.U. should become a guide book, not only for active Communists, but for all advanced workers, for all honest fighters for the liberation of the proletariat, for all those who wish to act,  fight, and conquer in Leninist fashion.

" ... The strengthening of the Communist Parties is not a narrow Party concern but the concern of the entire working class.

"The unity, revolutionary solidarity and fighting preparedness of the Communist Parties constitute most valuable capital which belongs not only to us but to the whole working class." -Georgi Dimitroff, The United Front, p. 83.

D. Z. MANUILSKY