THE WRECKING OF THE REVOLUTION- THE FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVE OF THE EUROCOMMUNISTS

NDBEKO PECANI

Albania Today 1981 No 2

The Euro-communists, following in the footsteps of their forerunners, are bent on wrecking the revolution by directing their attacks against Marxism-Leninism, the scientific theoretical basis of the revolutionary strategy and the spiritual weapon of the proletariat and all working masses, the weapon which makes them conscious of the necessity of revolutionary action in order to liberate themselves from oppression and exploitation. Under the pretext of the so-called essential changes which, they claim, have taken place in the world today, and of the alleged "entirely new circumstances and conditions, in the problem of the revolution, just as in every other problem, they are all out to concoct and spread new "theories", which are nothing other than variants of the "theories" of the old renegades from the working class decked out in "modern" style. The views of Proudhon, Lassalle, Bakunin, Bernstein, Kautsky, Trotsky and all the renegades from the theory of scientific socialism are their ideological source. Indeed, they may go even farther back, to Cavour and Machiavelli, to whom, as the Italian revisionists themselves admit, their party is very much indebted. "Machiavelli is of great value for us", said Berlinguer in his interview to the "Washington Post" on 26 July 1980. 

Having betrayed and abandoned Marxism-Leninism, and proceeding from openly counter-revolutionary positions, the Euro-communists try to negate the existence of the objective bases of the revolution the factors which make the revolution an historical necessity, and from these same positions try to bemuse the masses with the idea that the revolution should be discarded, since, according to them, the capitalist society has clanged, has lost the features it had at the time of Marx and Lenin, has been transformed into the "consumer society", the "developed industrial society", and, consequently, is able to solve its internal contradictions through reforms, etc. But no matter how much these mouthpieces of the bourgeoisie, these advocates of the existing order may try, they will never succeed in covering up the real state of things in the developed capitalist countries, as those of Western Europe.

Marxism-Leninism tells us that, as shown in some periods, capitalism experiences a certain rise, develops in a relatively peaceful manner in some countries, as was, for instance, the period immediately after the Second World War, when in the war-ravaged West ­European countries there was a certain development of production, a softening of labour conflicts, etc. This period, however, was short-lived and transitory, since, by their very nature, capitalist relations invariably lead to a ;;lump of production. to crises, to the exacerbation of all contradictions which are unavoidable and can be resolved only through the revolution. 

The reality of all the capitalist countries today proves the validity of the theses of Marx and Lenin on the decay of the capitalist world, proves that it is heading towards its collapse, although it will not collapse by itself, spontaneously or through reforms, or through the technical-scientific revolution and the development of the productive forces, but only through the socialist revolution. The attempts of the Euro-communists to distort this reality, to present the situation in the West-European countries so different from that of the times of Marx. Engels. Lenin and Stalin. that their teachings have allegedly "become absolute and valueless", their efforts to present the revolution as unsuitable and unnecessary for their countries, cannot cover up the rottenness of capitalism, cannot halt the process which leads to the revolution. 

Revolution, as an historical necessity which stems from the objective factors of the development of society, has its origin in the capitalist system itself .. The deep causes of the revolutions are the contradictions inherent in the capitalist system itself, especially the conflict between the old relations of production and the new productive forces. This conflict, as history has shown, can be solved only through the revolution. No matter how much developed the productive forces, the old capitalist relations cannot disappear by themselves, as they are defended and protected, by the bourgeoisie and reaction which depend on them as means to ensure their domination over and exploitation of the working class and alt working masses, their constant enrichment, their privileges, their life of leisure, etc. The bourgeoisie and reaction never accept of their own will the liquidation of the old relations and their replacement with the new, socialist relations, which is conditioned by the level of development of the productive forces. On the contrary, in order to preserve the existing capitalist relations, to perpetuate their economic, political and ideological domination, they stop before nothing, not even before the use of savage fascist terror, when they see that his domination is threatened. 

The Euro-communists' theses on the new roads of transition to socialism "through reform" in a peaceful way, as a result of the development of the productive forces, of the technical ­scientific revolution, are nothing other than variants of the old theory of the productive forces, concocted by Kautsky. The technical-scientific revolution not only does not resolve the conflict between the old relations of production and the new productive forces, but, on the contrary, in the conditions of capitalism it only makes this conflict even more acute. Through mechanization and automation of work processes, increased rates of fundamental capital accumulation. the technical-scientific revolution in the capitalist and revisionist countries has only resulted in increased numbers of unemployed, fiercer contradictions between labour and capital, between the new productive forces and the old relations of production. 

The contradictions in capitalism are expressed through tbe constantly growing instability of the economy of the capitalist, bourgeois and revisionist countries. The ever more frequent crises, the deepening of their severe consequences, such as the falling level oi production and the rising level of unemployment, the prolonged phase of depression characterize this economy. Today, the economic crisis in the capitalist, bourgeois or revisionist, countries is combined with the financial, valutary and energy crisis, as well as with the political and ideological crisis. All this adds conviction to Marx's conclusion that under capitalism scientific and technical invention unavoidably lead to the exacerbation of antagonism between productive forces and relations of production, and that this antagonism can be resolved only through revolution which the proletariat has been charged by history to carry out by drawing its allies into this road. 

The Euro communists distort the present-day reality and obscure the perspective of the revolution in an attempt to blur the issue over the question of the motive forces of the revolution, the forces interested in and capable of organizing, initiating and bringing about its triumph and in a special manner, in an attempt to deny the decisive and hegemonic role of the proletariat in the revolution. In this connection, they have concocted and spread the view that allegedly all the classes and sections of the capitalist society have merged together, that today's proletariat is not the same as the proletariat of the times of Marx and Lenin, which "now belongs to the historical past", that classes and sections of society have changed, that they are no longer what they used to be, that the "consumer society", the developed industrial society" has leveled out class differences and, as George Marchais declared. at the present stage --we can no longer speak of a French proletariat, but of the French working class". The Euro communist revisionists may continue to negate the existence of the proletariat today, but the facts show the opposite. The polarization of the capitalist society continues in the same way as Marx and Engels had predicted. The bourgeoisie is enriched through the numerical increase of the proletariat, the intensification of the various forms of exploitation of the work of the proletariat. Thus, if in the beginning of the 20th century the proletariat of the developed capitalist countries was 30 million strong, today it ·has reached the 230 million mark. Likewise, the number of proletarians in the countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa has increased, too. Although "the consumer society" has brought about an increase in the amount of social product, the socio-economic situation of the proletariat has remained much the same. Divested of the means of production, the proletariat possesses nothing apart from the labour it can sell Through their sweat the proletarians increase the wealth of the capitalists. but the latter throw them out into the street, when their work does not prove as profitable as they want it to be. This is what happened in the past, this is what happens today. Otherwise, there would be no reason for millions of proletarians in the capitalist and revisionist countries to come out in demonstrations and go on strike to oppose oppression and exploitation, the relations existing in the distribution of the fruit of their labour. 

The fact that there is movement everywhere, that the class struggle of the proletariat and the people's masses against oppression and exploitation is seething, growing stronger everywhere, proves true the conclusion of the PLA that the revolution is on the order of the day, has become a task demanding solution. The proletariat is everywhere, as always, at the head of these movements. And as Lenin has said, and practice corroborated, the hegemony of the proletariat is imperative also in the conditions of present-day imperialism, and this not only in order to carry out the socialist revolution, but even the democratic revolution, because the proletariat, more than any other class, is interested in the complete triumph of the revolution, in carrying it through to the end. A significant example of the application of the Leninist theory on the indivisible leading role of the working class in the revolution and socialist construction is the experience of Albania. This experience shows that when the proletariat, under the leadership of its Marxist-Leninist party, goes to revolution armed with the theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, when it acts upon the teachings of this theory, it is sure to achieve the triumph o! the revolution, to overthrow the oppressive and exploitative classes and to establish its own dictatorship. On the other hand, with the "theories" the revisionists preach, it can never and will never achieve the victory it aspires to, on the contrary, it will remain always oppressed by the bourgeoisie and reaction .

History has proved to the hilt the thesis of Marxism-Leninism that the processes of social development are conditioned by the interaction of objective and subjective factors, that the transformation of objective possibilities into social reality depends on the operation of the subjective factor. Without this factor, even when objective conditions exist, the revolution can not triumph. Therefore, in the preparation of the subjective factors, as Lenin has written in his early works, the revolutionary party of the working class, its leadership, education and mobilization of the revolutionary masses plays a decisive role which Is achieved both tr.rough working out a correct political line, responding to the concrete conditions and the revolutionary aspirations and demands of tbe masses, and through extensive and intensive work, revolutionary actions carried out with political maturity .... for the revolution as a means of overthrowing the enslaving order. Hence, without the leadership of a party which follows and applies a revolutionary strategy and tactic, the proletariat cannot become conscious of its mission, organize itself and rally round itself its natural allies, prepare itself for the revolution, carry it out and triumph. This is proved by the past, this is proved by the current situation of the world revolutionary process. 

During the Second World War certain conditions were created in Europe which allowed the transformation of the anti-fascist war into a deep-going popular revolution. However, these revolutionary conditions and situations were not properly made use of by all the parties of those countries. Even then, vacillations, opportunist stands, and pseudo-revolutionary attitudes were apparent among the parties representing the Euro-communist trend today. Thus, the French and Italian Communist Parties did not profit from the favorable situations created during the war in the interests of the proletariat. These parties did not try to transform the resistance, the anti-fascist war, into a revolutionary war of the entire people. They did not aim at seizing the state power from the hands of the bourgeoisie, indeed, they did not even contemplate this possibility, and they skipped round the question of the seizure of power by the proletariat. The opposite happened in those countries the parties of which maintained genuinely revolutionary stands. They connected the tasks of the anti-fascist ·War, the tasks of the struggle for freedom, independence and democracy, with the struggle for socialism. They worked out and implemented a revolutionary policy, which led to the Establishment of people's democracy. In Albania, too, the correct Marxist-Leninist line and leadership of the Party, through the Anti-fascist National Liberation War led to the extension and deepening of this war and its transformation into a means to ensure not onl,y the national liberation, but also the establishment of the people's state power which, under the leadership of the Party, carried out the functions or the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The attitudes and actions of the communist parties of Western Europe during the Second World War show that even then they had departed from the idea of the revolution and socialism, that they only deepened this tendency further aft.er the war. This, amongst other things, explains their failure to assess from Marxist-Leninist positions the revolutionary situation existing at that time in Western Europe, their failure to arouse the masses and set them in motion against bourgeois domination. This happened in the time of the war, this happened again in the first years after the war, and even later, tor example, in 1968 in France, when tbe French Communist Party came out in the role of the extinguisher of the fire of the revolution, preventing the working class from joining forces with the student youth and assuming the leadership of their movements. And this it did because it had renounced the revolution and the objective of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is, how they are acting today, too. 

Let us now analyse the situation in Italy which is the typical country of decaying capitalism from the base to the superstructure. Cabinet crises, political scandals, murders, operations of fascist bands, unemployment, poverty -all these elements have created a grave and intolerable situation for the Italian working c!ass and working masses. in these circumstances, when the interests of the masses and of the revolution demand that this great discontent of the proletariat and the entire population be channeled in the direction of the struggle against the reactionary bourgeoisie, against its preparation for a fascist takeover, the revisionist party of Berlinguer is deliberately acting to preserve the existing order, ·thus becoming a real tool for the sabotaging of the revolution. The situation is the same in Spain. The revisionist party of Lbarruri-Carrillo has come out in the role of tile strikebreaker in order to suppress ,the great revolutionary ardor, to prevent the strikes, demonstrations and clashes which occur everyday between the proletariat and the other working masses of the people, on the one hand, and the classes which oppress and exploit them, on the other.

The situation in the world shows a powerful rise of the revolutionary tide, the combination of anti-fascist, national democratic and anti-imperialist tasks with socialist tasks. 'These problems have already become burning issues in all the capitalist and revisionist countries, the countries -of Western Europe included. However, against this upsurge of the proletariat and the other working masses, all the forces of ,reaction, with American imperialism and Soviet so­cial-imperialism at the head, followed by Chinese social-imperialism and the other imperialists and reactionaries have risen and mobilized themselves. The tools of the big bourgeoisie and imperialism -the modern revisionists, amongst whom the Euro-communists, have mobilized themselves against this ups,urge of the proletariat and the other working masses. In these conditions, Comrade Enver Hoxca points ,out, «the struggle against imperialism, in general, and its tools in every country is one of the fundamental questions of the strategy of every communist. party, and one of the decisive conditions for the triumph of any revolution whether people's democratic, anti-imperialist or socialist.»1 

In the program of the revolutionary struggle of the working class and the other working masses, under the leadership of genuine Marxist-Leninist parties, against the bourgeoisie and reaction, tasks for the solution of the national problem are also included. And this because the bourgeois and revisionist governments, through their political, military and economic alliances With the superpowers -the USA and the Soviet Union, have placed themselves completely under the dependence of the superpowers. And whereas the revisionists of all stamps deliberately encourage this dependence, this-loss of national independence, the Euro communists, on their part, do the same even more openly admitting that «the interests of their countries demand their participation in NATO and the European Common Market». As a result of the open-door policy followed by the bourgeois., countries dependent on the USA, the doors have been flung wide open to the penetration of American capital into these countries. The American monopolies have invested 60 billion dollars in Western Europe with the result that many key sectors of the economy of the West-European countries are ·Under the complete dependence of American ,capital. The decadent and degenerate American culture and way of life have made deep inroads into these countries. It is becoming clearer t-0 tlıe working class and the working masses that without fighting against American dictate they cannot achieve real national independence, cannot go to socialism. But the Euro-communists have renounced this straggler. This stand of theirs is an evident expression of the political and ideological degeneration of the Euro­-communist parties, a convincing proof of their betrayal not only to the revolution but also to their own nations. 

'The preaching of the Euro-communists about "democratic socialism" are a demagogic attempt to mislead the masses. With this they want to preserve the existing bourgeois order·, thus opposing themselves to the experience of the October Revolution and the other revolutions which have brought to power the working class, combating genuine socialism, built on tile base on the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. 

The attacks of the Euro-communists on the October Socialist Revolution, its experience, are nothing other than a repetition of the attacks made after the triumph of this revolution and tbe establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia by Kautsky and the other renegades from Marxism, whom Lenin has exposed and defeated. 

İmmediately after they emerged on the scene, the modern revisionists produced from the arsenal of te parties of the Second International the theses on the peaceful road of tı-transition from capitalism to socialism, and propagated them far and wide. The Soviet revisionists were amongst the first to attack in an organized manner the Marxist Leninist thesis on the necessity of the revolution through violence.This line suited the aims of all the revisionist parties and was adopted by them. The revisionist parties of Western Europe, too, which were ripe for this line, not only adopted the revisionist ideas and practices of the clique of Khrushchev and Brezhnev but even carried the point so far as to totally expose lhe authors of ınese ideas and practices. 

The development of society has shown that the overthrow of old orders and the establishment of new orders, has not been carried out quietly and easily, but through fierce clashes, through armed uprisings and struggle. The revolution through violence is a general law for the transition from capitalism to socialism, because the socialist revolution is a radical overthrow which affects the fundamental interests of all the exploiting classes, destroys the old economic relations, liquidates all the privileges of the exploiting classes, expropriates them and creates socialist property, creates a new society which liquidates the exploitation of man by man. All this explains why the exploiting classes, the bourgeoisie and reaction never leave the ground of their own will, but only through revolutionary violence which, as Marx has said, is the nurse of the old society pregnant with the new society. "The revolution", said Engels "is an act through which part of the population imposes its own will on the remainder through the rifle, bayonet and gun."2 

No matter how hard the Euro-communists and the other revisionists may try, they cannot cover up the fact that, when the bourgeoisie sees that its interests are at stake, it resorts to savage terror against the movement of the masses, establishes fascist dictatorships and abolishes any freedom or democratic right. The events ,in Indonesia, Chile and other countries have revealed the falsity and danger of the thesis of the peaceful road of transition to socialism, which the modern revisionists have made their own. Never in history has the working class overthrown the rule of the bourgeoisie and taken power in a peaceful way. On the contrary, historical experience shows that everywhere the proletariat has come to power it has succeeded in doing so only through the violent revolution. 

Carrillo goes so far as to consider the 9 per cent of votes his party gained in election and the few seats it secured in the parliament an «historic victory which will change the face of Spain». However. history shows that Carrillo, Berllnguer and Marchais will suc­ceed in changing the face of Spain, Italy and France by securing some parliamentary seats or cabinet posts no more than Togliatti did through winning some seats in the bourgeois cabinets of Italy arter 1:he Second World War, or Thorez did after the elections of 10th November 1946. when the communists and socialists jointly were in the majority in the F'rench National Assembly and were even given some posts in the government. As early as then Thorez had great p!ans for establishing socialism in France in roads «different from those followed thirty years ago by the Russian communists ... 'These roads, which Thorez mentioned, were not those of the revolution, but those of reforms and of gaining the majority in the parliament, as his successors are preaching today. 

The bourgeoisie and its minions have a lot to say about democracy, and as evidence of it, amongst other things, they mention the parliament, saying that 'the laws it passes express «the will of the people... But, in fact, the bourgeoisie admits to the government organs and the parliament only those people who do not affect its rule as a class, who do not intend to change ·the state power, the state machine, those who are ,ready not only to defend but also to improve this machine further to suppress its class opponents. Lenin said that bourgeois democracy is «false. hypocritical, a paradise for the rich, a trap and deception for -the exploited, for the poor.»3 The bourgeoisie justifies as lawful every action of the Parliament which leaves its power intact, but when it sees that this organ ,poses the slightest danger to its class domination, it brings its huge military and state apparatus immediately into play. By means of this machine, whenever its interests demand it, the bourgeoisie turns constitutions into dead letters, declares elections invalid, bans the genuine communist parties, throws itself furiously against any movement of the working class and other working masses posing the slightest threat to its political, economic and social rule. From this it is clear that the bourgeois state is a weapon in the hands of the capitalists for the suppression of their opponents, the working class. From the experience of the Commune of Paris Marx and Engels came to the conclusion that "the working class cannot seize the state machine and use it for its own purposes as it is ... İn order to guarantee its triumph over the bourgeoisie it must necessarily «destroy the entire old machine of oppression, which has been used against it.4" And for the proletariat to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie and to establish its own state power, they say, these is only the revolution through violence. 'This is why Lenin stressed that «The need to educate the masses systematically with this idea, the idea of the revolution through violence, is the base of the entire doctrine of Marx and Engels.",5 

This idea retains its validity to this day, because more than before in the bourgeois and revisionist countries, militarism and bureaucracy have assumed unprecedented development, fascist reaction, violence and terror are rampant and supported by revisionist propaganda, they do everything possible to perpetuate the bourgeois order, to sabotage the efforts of the proletariat and the masses to rise in revolution and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The line and program of the Euro-­communists are the same as those of social-democracy. They have come out openly in the role of new candidates for the management of capitalists' affairs. As counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs of the revolution, the Euro­-communists are against the revolutionary actions, against the unity of the working cl:ass with the other progressive forces in the struggle for the overthrow oi capitalism. Instead of this unity the Italian revisionists advocate the "historic compromise".-, the French revisionists call for the "historic bloc of the left". In this manner, Berlinguer and Marchais offer the bourgeoisie their services to rescue it from the crisis, to save the Italian and French bourgeoisie from collapse. 

The enemies of the revolution, amongst whom the Euro-communists, too, go to any length in order to preserve the rule of capitalism. However, no matter how much the bourgeoisie, imperialism and their spawn - modern revisionism, try to halt the revolution. it cannot be stopped. The tide of the revolution, which rises higher with every passing day, will sweep away any barricade the enemies may set up against il. will reduce to dust and ashes all the efforts of the bourgeoisie and its servants - the Khrushchevite, Titoite, Maoist, Euro-communist and other modern revisionists, and will wipe out of the face of the earth the capitalist, bourgeois and revisionist order. «Present-day capitalist society,» says Comrade Enver Hoxha, .. both bourgeois and revisionist, is pregnant with revolution and the revolution has always been and always will be- guided only by the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. All the different ideas which seek to revise our great theory will end up in the rubbish bin of history. just as they have always done. They will be smashed. together with capitalism, imperialism and social­-imperialism, by the great power of -the world proletariat which leads the revolution and is inspired by the immortal doctrine of Marxism-Leninism ... 6

1 Enver Hoxha, «Euro-communism Is Anti-Communism"', pp. 162-163, Alb. ed. 

2 K. Marx, F. Engels, Selected Works, vol. l. Tirana 1958, p. 607, Alb. ed. 

3 V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 28,

4 K. Marx. F. Engels, Selected Works, vol. I, Tirana 19.'i7, p. 541. Alb. ed. 

5 V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 25, p. 47.1, Alb. ed. 

6 Enver Hoxha, «Euroc-ommımism Is Anti-communism,., p. 241, Alb. ed.