Marxism-Leninism is a scientific method and guide for understanding and transforming the world
The publication of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels and the Special Works of Lenin is a cause for celebration in my country's ideological and cultural circles. In the 1980s and 1990s, the international communist movement experienced serious setbacks, and the spread of Marxism-Leninism in the world suffered unprecedented pressure. Under such international circumstances, the Communist Party of China initiated and completed such a large-scale editing and publishing project of Marxist-Leninist works, making substantial efforts for the spread and development of Marxism-Leninism and for promoting the revival of the international communist movement, which had fallen into a low ebb.
In his opening speech at the First National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China in 1954, Mao Zedong solemnly pointed out to the Chinese people and the whole world: "The theoretical basis guiding our thinking is Marxism-Leninism." This not only points out the relationship between Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought as the guiding ideology of the Communist Party of China, but also clarifies the relationship between Marxism-Leninism and the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics as the guiding ideology of contemporary China's socialist construction. Clarifying this relationship is undoubtedly crucial for us to scientifically understand Marxism-Leninism, both in the era of the New Democratic Revolution War in our country and in the contemporary socialist revolution and construction period. Obviously, if we do not know and understand the theoretical basis of the guiding ideology of the Party and the country, we can neither scientifically understand the guiding ideology of the Party and the country, nor can we scientifically apply and develop them.
The works of Marx and Lenin are very rich. In order to learn the standpoint, viewpoint and method of Marxism-Leninism, which articles and works should we read first? The editing and publishing of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels and the Special Collection of Lenin's Works have added a text for the Chinese people and their theoretical workers to study and research Marxism-Leninism in depth, and are another achievement of the Chinese people's study and research of Marxism-Leninism. Combining the history and experience of our predecessors in studying Marxism-Leninism, constantly studying and understanding Marxism-Leninism, and answering and solving new problems that constantly arise in practice are a topic that Chinese Marxists continue to explore.
1. Be a revolutionary and builder like Marx and Lenin
“Marx was first and foremost a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to take part in one way or another in the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions it had established, in the emancipation of the modern proletariat, whom he made the first to become conscious of its own position and needs, of the conditions of its emancipation. Struggle was his life element. Few men have waged it with such passion, perseverance and success… It is for this reason that Marx is the most hated and most slandered man of our time.
Governments of all countries, whether autocratic or republican, expelled him; bourgeois, whether conservative or ultra-democratic, competed to slander and curse him. He paid no attention to all this, brushing it away lightly like a spider's thread, and only responded when it was absolutely necessary. Now he has passed away, and millions of revolutionary comrades throughout Europe and America, from the Siberian mines to California, all respect, love and mourn him, and I can boldly say: he may have had many enemies, but he may not have had a personal enemy. "Engels' speech at Marx's tomb can be said to be not only a comment on Marx, but also on the cause pursued by Lenin and other proletarian revolutionary fighters throughout their lives, as well as all their activities and thoughts. To learn and master Marxism-Leninism, one must be like them; and only by being like Marx and Lenin can one learn Marxism-Leninism.
In the more than 100 years since the birth of Marxism-Leninism, Marxism-Leninism has been repeatedly thought about and debated by people from many countries and different social camps, and has been repeatedly declared obsolete or dead by a large number of fashionable thinkers from inside and outside the Marxist camp. However, every time Marxism-Leninism is declared obsolete and dead, it is like a declaration that they are still thriving and struggling tenaciously. Doesn't this repeated attack and negation of Marxism-Leninism from the anti-Marxist and non-Marxist camps strongly demonstrate its unstoppable vitality? Doesn't it more clearly reflect its huge influence across time and space and its extremely profound practical significance? Marxism-Leninism has been repeatedly debated, which clearly shows that some people need it and some people are afraid of it. The two major classes and two major camps that coexist and oppose in this world - the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, socialism and capitalism, can be marked and distinguished by the attitude towards Marxism-Leninism.
After the dramatic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the "outdated" and "bankrupt" theories of Marxism-Leninism were popular in the Western intellectual circles. However, only a dozen years later, the financial crisis broke out in the United States in 2008, which in turn caused the global economic crisis. The Western intellectual circles had to pay attention to the works of Marxist classics, especially Marx's "Capital", and had to admit that Marx's theory and scientific foresight had practical enlightenment and guiding significance for analyzing the current crisis. People now dramatically hear that the Western world, which has repeatedly issued the theory of Marxism being outdated, has begun to popularize the "revival theory" of Marxism. Why has Marxism been revived in the West? The reason is that Marxism is a scientific world outlook and methodology, with great cognitive and practical (transformation) functions, and is a doctrine of revolution and construction. The eternal theme of Marxism-Leninism on "human liberation", which is often discussed, also makes its revival a historical necessity. When we study these two collections, we cannot ignore the series of historical events with far-reaching influence that have occurred since the birth of Marxism-Leninism, and we cannot ignore the new changes and new progress in the process of world history. At present, we especially need to improve our level and ability to apply Marxism-Leninism by studying these two collections of works that embody the essence of Marxism-Leninism, and to deeply observe and scientifically analyze the ongoing Western financial and economic crisis and the new direction of the world.
When studying Marxism-Leninism, where should we start to understand it? Marx said: "The theoretical principles of the Communists are in no way based on ideas or principles invented or discovered by this or that world reformer." Engels publicly stated that Marxism has not prepared for the Communists "any ready-made solutions that can be used once and for all. Our views on the characteristics of the future non-capitalist society, which are different from the present society, are definite conclusions drawn from historical facts and the process of development. They have no theoretical or practical value unless they are explained in conjunction with these facts and processes." Marxism, the theoretical essence of the proletarian revolution and construction, is by no means the result of Marx and Engels sitting in a room and thinking hard, but a record and summary of their active revolutionary activities, and is the "theoretical expression of the proletarian movement" they are engaged in; the task of this theory is to deeply examine the historical conditions of the historical mission of the modern proletariat - the cause of liberating mankind and the world - and the nature of this cause itself, "so that the oppressed class today, who has the mission to complete this cause, can recognize the conditions and nature of its actions." The same is true of Leninism.
"Marx's theory directly serves to educate and organize the advanced class of modern society, points out the tasks of this class, and proves that the present system must be replaced by a new system due to economic development. Therefore, it is not surprising that this theory has to go through battles every step of its life." Things gained through battles can only be understood and applied in battles. We should understand and grasp how Marx and Lenin think about and solve problems from the social activities they engaged in. If we interpret them as pure or academic thoughts and texts separated from their social activities, we will only be further away from Marxism-Leninism.
In the history of learning Marxism-Leninism, Chinese people often hear a viewpoint that blames someone for not being well prepared in theory and doing something wrong. This viewpoint is unscientific. Because it cannot withstand such questioning, that is, what is the so-called "theoretical preparation", how to prepare, and to what extent is it considered sufficient preparation? Are there any cases in the history of revolutionary struggle where the theory is "well prepared"? Since the problem of insufficient theoretical preparation has been raised, can the person who puts forward this viewpoint prepare the theory needed in the future? Obviously, it is not feasible and violates common sense in life and history. Mao Zedong criticized this situation: "The correct and unshakable struggle strategy of the Communist Party is by no means something that can be produced by a few people sitting in a house. It can only be produced in the process of mass struggle, that is, it can only be produced in actual experience." Such an understanding scientifically answers the question of where the revolutionary theory of Marxism comes from and explains how the theory of Marxism is "prepared". Theory is born from practice, and the significance of theory lies in answering the questions raised by practice. The close combination of theory and practice is the source of life and the driving force for the development of Marxism. Therefore, the founders of Marxism have repeatedly stated that the theoretical principles of the Communists "are the general expression of the real relationship of the existing class struggle, the historical movement before our eyes"; "the practical application of these principles, as stated in the Manifesto, must be transferred to the historical conditions of the time at all times and in all places." Do not treat it with "doctrinaire and dogmatism, thinking that as long as you memorize it, it will be enough to meet all needs." Marxism is not a dogma, but a guide to action. The tasks of revolution and construction of socialism and communism in China and the world have not been completed. On the contrary, there is still a long way to go. There is no doubt that if we cannot "participate in the cause of overthrowing capitalist society and the state institutions established by it, and participate in the liberation of the modern proletariat" like Marx and Lenin throughout their lives, but separate from the proletarian revolutionary struggle to replace capitalism, separate from the concrete practice of socialist revolution and construction with the broad masses of the people as the main body, and study and research Marxism-Leninism behind closed doors, then Marxism-Leninism will become a lifeless antique. Not only that, it may also go to the opposite of them.
2. Scientific tools of cognition
In order to get rid of countless exploitation and oppression, and to get rid of all kinds of suffering, mankind has gone through thousands of years of hardship and has never stopped pursuing the "ideal country" and "great world". Even all the research done by modern bourgeois economists and great utopian socialist critics is just groping in the dark, and has never discovered or found an effective way to the ideal society. Before the emergence of Marxism, the best treatment for the proletariat was to be regarded by bourgeois scholars and utopian socialist critics as a sympathetic and most suffering class, and a poor group of people who were given alms or needed assistance by some social philanthropists. Even tenacious cooperative reformers like the British Owenites built new social experimental areas such as the Reason Society, the Harmony Hall, and the Rochetail Pioneer Cooperative to change the poor conditions of workers caused by what they considered to be an unreasonable production system. However, they did not find a way out for the proletariat to quickly get rid of the predicament at the end of the day. The reason is that they neither fully explained the nature of wage slavery under the capitalist system, nor fully discovered the laws of capitalist development, nor fully found the social forces that could become the creators of the new society.
Marxism has achieved a thorough revolution in the field of human thought. They inherited and developed materialism, extended its understanding of nature to the understanding of human society, and carried materialism through to the end. The historical materialism they discovered and founded is the greatest achievement of scientific thought, which replaced the chaotic and arbitrary theories that dominated the historical and political views in the past with an extremely complete and rigorous scientific theory. Historical materialism reveals and explains the simple fact that has always been obscured by complicated ideologies, that is, people must first eat, drink, live and wear clothes, and then they can engage in politics, science, art, religion, etc.; therefore, the production of direct material means of subsistence in each historical stage constitutes the foundation of the society of that stage, and people's state facilities, legal views, art and even religious concepts develop from this foundation and must be explained by this foundation. Marx and Engels used the method of thought of historical materialism to study the entire history of mankind and its social life, discovered the surplus value hidden in commodity production, revealed the secret of capital exploiting labor, and thus discovered the laws of motion of the modern capitalist mode of production and the bourgeois society it produced, and explained that since the disintegration of primitive public ownership of land, "all history is the history of class struggles, that is, the history of struggles between exploited and exploiting classes, between ruled and ruling classes at all stages of social development; and that this struggle has now reached a stage where the exploited and oppressed class (the proletariat) can no longer free itself from the class that exploits and oppresses it (the bourgeoisie) unless it also frees society as a whole from exploitation, oppression and class struggle forever." In 1644, the first year after the failure of the Paris Commune, in the face of the powerful capitalist world where capital defeated labor, Marx reprinted the first volume of Capital, publicly declaring that Capital was a ruthless criticism of capital on behalf of a class, "it can only represent such a class, whose historical mission is to overthrow the capitalist mode of production and ultimately eliminate classes. This class is the proletariat." Starting from the standpoint of the proletariat, Marx and Engels saw a development trend that no force could stop from a fact hidden in capitalist social life, that is, "the proletariat is not only a suffering class, but it is its lowly economic status that pushes it forward unstoppably and forces it to fight for its own ultimate liberation. The fighting proletariat can help itself. The political movement of the working class will inevitably make the workers realize that they have no other way out except socialism. On the other hand, socialism will only become a force when it becomes the goal of the political struggle of the working class. "Therefore, when a group of social dreamers, even some geniuses, stood outside the mass movement of the workers and thought that as long as they convinced the ruling figures and the ruling class that the modern social system was unreasonable, it would be easy to establish a truly humane system of peace, harmony, freedom, democracy, fairness, justice and welfare in the world, when they fantasized that socialism could be realized without struggle, it was Marx and Engels who pointed out to the working class that the working class itself and its demands were the basis of the modern economic system. The modern economic system, while creating the bourgeoisie, inevitably also created and organized the proletariat; what can save mankind from the current disaster is not the well-intentioned attempts and philanthropic acts of individual noble people, but the class struggle carried out by the organized proletariat; socialism is not the fabrication of dreamers, but the driving force, goal and inevitable result of the development of productive forces in modern society; all recorded history so far is a history of the continuous alternation of some social classes ruling and defeating other social classes, and this situation will continue before the foundation of class struggle and class rule, that is, private ownership and its chaotic social production, is eliminated; the interests of the proletariat require the elimination of private ownership, so the class struggle consciously carried out by organized workers should be aimed at private ownership. The elimination of private ownership and private ideas is the essential difference between the communist movement and other social movements emphasized in the Communist Manifesto.
Historical materialism and the theory of surplus value are two epoch-making historical contributions made by Marx and Engels to mankind. The Marxist philosophical materialist worldview has freed the proletariat from the spiritual slavery of the bourgeoisie, while the Marxist economic theory has clarified the proletariat's position in the entire capitalist system, thereby "teaching the working class self-knowledge and self-consciousness, and replacing fantasy with science." Marxism-Leninism is the theoretical basis of all guiding ideologies of the Chinese people and the Communist Party of China. The complete materialist philosophical worldview composed of dialectical materialism and historical materialism is the theoretical basis of Marxism-Leninism. Learning this theoretical basis is crucial and indispensable to mastering Marxism-Leninism. In the 1960s, Mao Zedong made the following comment on an academic document compiled by the Central Propaganda Department: "Without paying attention to philosophy, our work cannot be successful." - It is the first time in the history of Marxist thought that paying attention to philosophy and improving the ability of philosophical thinking and analysis are combined with the success or failure of the Communist Party's cause. Mao Zedong made such a judgment and announced it to the whole party. It was by no means an exaggeration, but a summary of experience and lessons from the historical practice of the international communist movement and the Chinese revolution.
The Second International Socialist Movement, which developed in the 1880s, reached its climax in the 1890s and went bankrupt in the early 20th century. This historical result began with the tampering and betrayal of the Marxist philosophical materialist worldview by the theorists of the Second International, led by the German Social Democratic Party. After Engels' death, bourgeois thinkers launched a widespread attack on Marxist philosophy.
At that time, bourgeois professors represented by Barthes and Simmel openly opposed the materialist conception of history, belittling and distorting the Marxist view of historical materialism on a series of issues, such as the relationship between social existence and social consciousness, the law of society, the role of the masses and individuals in history, the nature and interaction of various forms of social consciousness (art, religion), and the relative independence of ideological development. This kind of open enemy of Marxism was supported by the revisionists of the Second International.
They accepted the idealist worldview, vulgar evolutionism and the way of "criticizing" historical materialism of these enemies. Revisionism tied itself to the chariot of idealism and attempted to "reconcile" any idealist doctrine with Marxism. A group of theorists of the Second International, represented by Bernstein, called for a return to Kant, claiming that Marxism should be reconciled with Kantianism and "social Darwinism", and demanded that Marxism be combined with neo-Kantianism and Machism.
Lenin engaged in a fierce debate with the theorists of the Second International, ruthlessly exposing and criticizing them: "In philosophy, revisionism follows the 'science' of bourgeois professors." The philosophical front was one of the battlefields where the Bolsheviks led by Lenin fought fiercely against the opportunism of the Second International. It was in this struggle to criticize bourgeois idealist philosophy and defend Marxist materialist philosophy that Lenin wrote philosophical works such as "Marxism and Revisionism" and "Materialism and Empirio-Criticism", clearing the pollution of bourgeois idealist philosophy and defending the theoretical foundation of the Russian Marxist team. On the contrary, "within the Second International, the revisionists' attacks on Marxist theory often encountered no significant resistance. The revolutionary Marxists - Lafargue, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Mehring and others - underestimated the danger of revisionist thought, especially Bernstein's struggle against Marxist materialism. Lafargue believed that Bernstein's "criticism" of Marxism was the result of "excessive intellectual fatigue." Wilhelm Liebknecht said that Bernsteinism was a process of intellectual development and could be ignored. According to Mehring, revisionism was by no means the result of the social and historical conditions for the development of the workers' movement. "Except for revisionist sentiments, there has never been revisionism in Germany." With such a philosophical vision and ideological level, how could the revolutionary Marxists within the Second International not be defeated in the flood of revisionist thought? The bankruptcy of the Second International is a typical example of what Mao Zedong said: "Without paying attention to philosophy, our work cannot be victorious." The historical practice and historical experience of Lenin's sharp struggle with the revisionism of the Second International on the philosophical battlefield are what we Chinese Marxists should repeatedly think about and learn from when studying Marxism-Leninism.
The Chinese Communists, represented by Mao Zedong, have learned and inherited the fighting style and ideological heritage of Leninism in defending the theoretical foundation of Marxism, and have always regarded the inculcation and popularization of the Marxist worldview within the Communist Party of China as an important aspect of party building that cannot be neglected. As early as the early days of the revolutionary war in the early 1930s, Mao Zedong wrote the article "Oppose Book Worship" to prevent dogmatism from infringing on the construction of revolutionary bases. He pointed out that "idealism must be washed away and all opportunist and blind activism mistakes must be prevented in order to complete the task of winning the masses to defeat the enemy. We must strive to conduct actual investigations in order to wash away idealism" and shouted the slogan "No investigation, no right to speak". When the Anti-Japanese War was about to break out, Mao Zedong carefully wrote "On Practice" and "On Contradiction", laying the foundation for philosophical theory for the ideological transformation of the whole party and the formulation of new strategies and policies.
Attaching importance to the study of Marxist methods is a common feature of Lenin and Mao Zedong. Lenin emphasized: "Marxists have undoubtedly only borrowed valuable methods from Marx's theory. Without this method, social relations cannot be explained." In the years of hard struggle when Mao Zedong led the Chinese Communist Party's revolution and construction, he paid special attention to the innovation and construction of the Chinese Communist Party's ideological methods and working methods. He personally formulated and discussed and passed the first and only "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Working Methods" in the history of the Communist Party of China; he wrote a series of methodological works on politics, economy, military, society, etc., such as "On Correcting the Wrong Thoughts in the Party", "How to Analyze the Rural Class", "Caring about the Life of the Masses, Paying Attention to Working Methods", "Strategic Issues of China's Revolutionary War", "On Several Issues of Leadership Methods", "Working Methods of Party Committees", "Sixty Articles on Working Methods", etc. Mao Zedong knew that methods were not a small issue, especially in philosophy, because methods are the soul of any philosophical system and have a decisive significance in every serious system. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong put the promotion of the whole party and the people of the country to study Marxist philosophy on a more important position in socialist construction and development. In 1955, when the socialist revolution and construction were in full swing, Mao Zedong clearly raised the issue of establishing a common language among the whole party and the people of the whole country at the National Conference of the Communist Party of China, and pointed out clearly: "I advise comrades to study philosophy.
There are quite a few people who have no interest in philosophy and are not used to studying philosophy. They can first read pamphlets and short articles to arouse their interest, then read books of 70,000 to 80,000 words, and then read books of several hundred thousand words. Marxism has several branches of learning: Marxist philosophy, Marxist economics, and Marxist socialism—the theory of class struggle, but the foundation is Marxist philosophy. If we do not learn this thoroughly, we will not have a common language or a common method, and we will argue a lot but still not be able to make it clear. With the thought of dialectical materialism, we can save a lot of trouble and make fewer mistakes. Mao Zedong called on the whole party to "form such a strong theoretical team, with millions of people who read the theoretical basis of Marxism, namely dialectical materialism and historical materialism, and oppose all kinds of idealism and mechanical materialism. We now have many cadres doing theoretical work, but we have not yet formed a theoretical team, especially a strong theoretical team. Without this team, it will not work for the cause of our whole party, for our country's socialist industrialization, socialist transformation, modernization of national defense, and research on atomic energy, and we will not be able to solve the problems. "Philosophy is the cornerstone of the formation and development of national thought and a direct reflection of a nation's theoretical thinking ability. The history of human thought shows that philosophy is the food and driving force for people to transform from spiritual passivity to activeness. A nation without advanced philosophy is a nation without a future. On the basis of mastering and applying the Marxist dialectical materialism and historical materialism, Lenin continued to open up the field of scientific application of them, created Leninism, created the victory of the great October Revolution, and opened up a new era of human historical development. China's history of falling into a semi-colony is also the history of the decline of the Chinese nation's philosophical thought and ability. China was originally a nation that did not lack philosophy and had proud brilliance and glory. But by the 20th century, At the beginning of the century, it was already "difficult to support the Tang Dynasty alone" and "old people shed many tears in front of the drums and horns". The country's poverty and weakness and the nation's danger forced the Chinese intellectual community to shout "Down with the Confucius Shop" and dig their own "ancestral graves" in anger! At that time, Chinese philosophy, represented by respecting Confucius and reading scriptures and advocating old rituals, was no longer a match for Western capitalism. Not only could it not lead the nation forward, but it also "formed a cultural reactionary alliance" with imperialism and opposed new ideas and new culture. World history has repeatedly shown that in the era of imperialist expansion and hegemony, the rise and fall of philosophy and the rise and fall of the nation are closely related. The experience of Leninism in Soviet Russia is also the history of the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. The tragic reality of countries such as Yugoslavia is a footnote to the history of honor and disgrace of philosophy.
The history of the development and theory of Marxism reveals such a phenomenon of thought. In terms of the construction and innovation of theoretical thought, "it is impossible for a writer without dialectics and a philosopher's mind to write good economic works. Marx was able to write Capital and Lenin was able to write Imperialism because they were philosophers at the same time, had the mind of philosophers, and had the weapon of dialectics." Only the innovation of methods is the sign of the emergence and development of a philosophical thought or philosophical system. The complete philosophical materialist world outlook of Marxism is a great tool of cognition. Marx gave this great tool of cognition to mankind, especially to the working class, and pointed out to them how to get rid of the spiritual slavery that all oppressed classes have suffered so much so far. Marxism-Leninism is a great tool of cognition for mankind, and it is the ideological telescope and microscope used by the proletariat to observe and transform the world.
III. On the Uniting of the Workers and Oppressed Nations of the World
Anyone who has carefully read the Communist Manifesto will never forget the last sentence of the Manifesto: "Workers of the world, unite!" This was the call that Marx, Engels and their comrades in the Communist League issued to the world in 1848 on the eve of the Paris Revolution, the first revolution in which the proletariat participated with its own demands. Sixteen years later, the International Workingmen's Association, the First International, led by Marx, was established in London, England, and he personally drafted the Inaugural Manifesto of the International Workingmen's Association. The last sentence of this declaration is still the call that he first issued in the Communist Manifesto: "Workers of the world, unite!" Since then, starting with Marx and Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Deng Xiaoping, all proletarian revolutionaries who firmly believe in Marxism have solemnly printed the slogan "Workers of the world, unite!" on the first page of their works when they published their works. This long-standing move has become a tradition of Marxist revolutionaries, a mark of publicly declaring their identity and beliefs. This slogan is one of the essences of Marxism, and it clearly shows the essence of Marxism and its uncompromising revolutionary character.
The proletariat must completely change its social status of being exploited, oppressed and enslaved by capital. In the face of powerful capital, they have no choice but to unite and fight against capital together. The proletariat's recognition of this is entirely due to Marx, Engels and Marxism.
Entering the 20th century, European free capitalism developed into monopoly capitalism, further resorting to force to dominate the world. Lenin used the telescope and microscope of Marxism to re-examine and deeply analyze the world and various nations that were greatly divided by the hegemony of monopoly capitalism. He discovered that the imbalance of economic and political development among countries in the world has become the universal status quo of capitalism and the absolute law of development. He confirmed that the world has entered the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution, broke through the many barriers set by the revisionism of the Second International on Marxism, and put forward the proposition that "socialism may first win in a few or even a single capitalist country." We will not discuss here the various significances of the October Revolution in dividing the entire era of human history. In terms of studying Marxism-Leninism, one of the most important and successful experiences is that Lenin, while adhering to Marx's slogan and program of "Proletarians of the world, unite," further enriched and developed it into "Proletarians of the world and oppressed nations, unite!" This great programmatic slogan is one of the most important and distinctive features of Leninism, and is also one of the most important and distinctive features of the era of proletarian socialist revolution opened by the October Revolution.
The Chinese people and the Chinese Communists have always felt particularly close to the slogan "Workers and oppressed nations of the world, unite!" It was this call and mobilization issued by Lenin to the East that brought the glory of the October Revolution to the Chinese nation, which had been humiliated by the imperialist powers, and enlightened the Chinese people with ideas, giving them dignity and courage to re-plan the future of the nation. The Communist Party of China is the direct product of this great slogan issued by Lenin that shocked the contemporary world.
From "Proletarians of the world, unite!" to "Proletarians of the world, unite! Proletarians of the world and oppressed nations, unite!" the two slogans represent different revolutionary eras, showing that the scope and power of the revolution have expanded and the content and theme of the revolution have deepened.
In 1848, when Marx and Engels issued the call "Proletarians of the world, unite!", the European bourgeois revolution was about to enter its later stages. Marx and Engels issued this call through the Communist League, with the aim of uniting and organizing the scattered proletariat in European countries on the one hand; on the other hand, the more important intention was to liberate the organized proletariat from the bourgeois revolutionary movement that had long been led and influenced by the bourgeoisie, and to make it independent, so that it could unite with the bourgeoisie that was still capable of revolution as an independent political force not attached to the bourgeoisie, and jointly carry the anti-feudal bourgeois revolution to the end. Only in this way can the proletariat enjoy the fruits of the victory of the bourgeois revolution for which they have fought bloody battles, and on the day of the success of this revolution, immediately develop the bourgeois revolution into the socialist revolution of the proletariat without stopping, thereby completing and realizing its own complete liberation. Obviously, this was a very arduous task in the era when the proletarian revolution had just started and was still confused with the bourgeois revolutionary movement. The slogan "Workers of the world, unite!" directly reflects the European scope of the proletarian revolutionary movement in the 19th century and the strategic tactics formulated by Marx and Engels for this purpose. On the one hand, Marx and Engels actively participated in the revolutionary movement on the European continent. On the other hand, they had to devote more energy to the research, formulation and creation of the proletarian revolutionary ideological system and theoretical program, and to inspire, educate and organize the young proletariat. On the other hand, it was urgently needed by the young proletariat and its revolutionary movement at that time. The research and writing of "Das Kapital" profoundly shows that history has determined that the task that they can accomplish in their limited lives is to lay the foundation of both ideological theory and organizational structure for the subsequent proletarian revolutionary movement.
Compared with the 19th century, the era in which Lenin lived saw earth-shaking changes in both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. By the beginning of the century, European free capitalism had developed into monopoly capitalism, completely losing its early anti-feudal revolutionary nature and becoming a vicious imperialism. After decades of tempering by the First and Second Internationals, the European proletarian movement had formed organized revolutionary parties in various countries. The maturity and flexibility of its ideological program and the tight and powerful organizational structure were first reflected in the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party led by Lenin. Soon after the success of the February bourgeois revolution in Russia in 1917, Lenin immediately led the Bolsheviks to take the lead in "taking off the 'used to' and 'lovely' dirty shirt" ideologically, and was determined to change the name of the party from the Social Democratic Party to the Communist Party, start anew, and completely break with the international democracy of the Second World War. At the same time, they seized the opportunity of the mutual killing and mutual damage of imperialism in the First World War, transformed the international war into a domestic revolution, and successfully transitioned the February bourgeois revolution to the October socialist revolution of the proletariat. Lenin adhered to and applied the Marxist thought and method of continuous revolution, established the Communist International, formed the broadest revolutionary united front, and worked tirelessly to open up battlefields for proletarian revolution all over the world, expand the results of the October Revolution, and organize the revolution to colonial and semi-colonial countries. By developing the October Revolution, he defended and expanded the direct result of the October Revolution - the Soviet proletarian dictatorship. Lenin deserves to be called a revolutionary master who can maximize the development of the revolution and expand the results of the revolution.
Through the October Revolution, Lenin led Soviet Russia and the Communist International to issue a call and mobilization to the world on the basis of adhering to the slogan "Workers of the world, unite!", which greatly inspired and mobilized the courage and strength of the oppressed nations and peoples of the world to fight for their own liberation. This slogan, which is deeply marked by the times, eloquently and brilliantly embodies the strategic and tactical tactics of the proletarian revolution, which is the culmination of Leninism. The wisdom of this programmatic slogan lies in its firm grasp of the most important and basic economic facts and economic characteristics of the era of monopoly capitalism and imperialism: "The happiness of the exploiters of a few special nations is built on the enslavement of hundreds of millions of working people in Asia, all colonies and small countries"; "The world is now divided into two parts, one is a large number of oppressed nations, and the other is a small number of oppressor nations with huge wealth and strong military strength." It is this basic fact and the comparison of class forces it reflects that determine the strategies and tactics that the proletarian revolutions of various countries in the future should adopt, which are completely different from those of previous eras, and formulate specific and feasible revolutionary policies based on this specific fact. Under the leadership and inspiration of Lenin, the Communist International and the Communist Parties of various countries quickly adjusted their policies and guidelines for supporting the bourgeois democratic movement in backward countries. First, in terms of concept and name, they changed the "bourgeois democratic" movement to a national revolutionary movement. This redefinition of the bourgeois national revolutionary movement in backward countries, especially in colonies and semi-colonies, has extremely important practical and theoretical significance.
The slogan "Proletarians and oppressed nations of the world, unite!" is one of the essences of Leninism, and contains the extremely important development of Leninism to the Marxist theory of proletarian revolution, especially the theory of peasant issues. First of all, in practice, it directly influenced, launched and set off a magnificent world national liberation movement, which is itself a particularly important contribution to the proletarian revolutionary movement and the liberation of human society. Lenin clearly saw that "the main population of backward countries is peasants" and the main body and essence of the national liberation movement should be the peasant movement led by the working class. Therefore, Lenin attached great importance to the exploitation and oppression of peasants, excavated and promoted the revolutionary potential and infinite power of peasants that had been neglected and suppressed for a long time, and regarded peasants as solid allies of the working class revolution. In this way, the peasant movement that had long been dependent on the bourgeoisie was accepted into the proletarian revolutionary movement, solving the problem that the proletariat could lead the bourgeois revolutionary movement with peasants as the main body. From then on, such bourgeois national democratic revolutionary movements "no longer belong to the category of the old world bourgeois democratic revolution, but to a new category; they are no longer part of the old bourgeois and capitalist world revolution, but part of the new world revolution, that is, part of the proletarian socialist world revolution. Such revolutionary colonies and semi-colonies can no longer be regarded as allies of the world capitalist counter-revolutionary front, but have changed into allies of the world socialist revolutionary front." The great slogan "Proletarians and oppressed nations of the world, unite!" directly reflects that the exploited and oppressed peasants have become an equal revolutionary subject and an extremely important and huge revolutionary force in the proletarian revolutionary movement, thus forming a solid worker-peasant alliance in socialist revolution and construction. It is precisely because Lenin sincerely regarded the peasants as an extremely important and huge revolutionary force of the proletariat and relied on them that he finally solved the "correct method of approaching the peasants" not only in theory but also in practice, which Engels himself "only felt" before, and Marx, Engels and the entire First and Second Internationals "had not found". History shows that the close combination of the proletarian revolutionary movement and the national liberation movement under the leadership and influence of Leninism and their mutual support have opened up an infinitely broad battlefield for attacking and weakening imperialism. On the one hand, such a national liberation movement was a huge force that supported the socialist Soviet Union to survive the imperialist encirclement and suppression in the first half of the 20th century. On the other hand, it provided the socialist Soviet Union with an incomparable strategic space for survival and development. Lenin proposed a new theory on the theory of the peasant problem:
"If the victorious revolutionary proletariat carries out systematic propaganda among the backward nations and the Soviet governments help them with all the means at their disposal, then it would be wrong to say that the backward nations are inevitable for the capitalist stage of development. In all colonies and backward countries we should not only form a cadre of troops capable of independent struggle, that is, party organizations, and not only should we immediately propagate and organize peasant Soviets and adapt these Soviets to pre-capitalist conditions, but the Communist International should also point out and explain theoretically that with the help of the proletariat of advanced countries, backward countries can pass to the Soviet system without going through the capitalist stage of development, and then, after a certain stage of development, to communism." This new doctrine greatly advanced the Marxist theory of socialism.
There is no doubt that Leninism not only solved the problem of the relationship between the proletarian revolution and the bourgeois revolution in theory but also in practice, realized the connection and transition between the bourgeois revolution and the proletarian socialist revolution, and gave the colonial and semi-colonial people a powerful ideological weapon to realize their own liberation. Especially in Russia and China, it realized Engels's idea that the more peasants we can win over while they are still peasants, the faster and easier it will be to realize social transformation. It was through the Leninist stage that Marxism and Leninist theories on the peasant problem were carried forward in China, a land with a vast peasant population. They were developed into a mature system by Mao Zedong in the practice of China's revolution and construction, and are being spread and applied in the vast Third World.
Leninism's call and thought of "Unite the proletarians and oppressed nations of the world" still has very important practical significance in the contemporary world of the 21st century. Because the world economic situation and political structure reflected and supported by this great slogan - "the whole world has been divided into two parts, one is a large number of oppressed nations, and the other is a small number of oppressed nations with huge wealth and strong military strength" - have not changed fundamentally, then there is no doubt that adhering to and implementing this programmatic slogan and its strategic tactics is the unshirkable task of all contemporary true Marxist parties and Marxists.
IV. On Socialism: The Abolition of Classes and Exploitation
What are the purposes of "Workers of the world, unite!" and "Workers of the world and oppressed nations, unite!"? To eliminate capitalism and establish socialism. In the 1840s when scientific socialism emerged, communism was Marx's socialism.
So what is socialism? This was once a very clear question, but in modern times, it has become unclear because the Soviet Union's collapse has plunged the international communist movement into a low ebb. What we are engaged in is the scientific socialism guided by Marxism-Leninism, not some other socialism influenced by some other ideology. If we firmly remember the simplest and most understandable views on what socialism is from the classical Marxist writers, we can identify all kinds of counterfeit socialism.
- In 1846, Engels wrote to the Brussels Communist Correspondence Committee: "What exactly is communism? ... I define the aims of the communists as follows: (1) To realize the interests of the proletariat as opposed to the interests of the bourgeoisie; (2) To achieve this by abolishing private property and replacing it with public ownership of property; (3) To recognize no other means of achieving these aims except by violent democratic revolution." - In 1848, Marx and Engels said in The Communist Manifesto: "The characteristic of communism is not the abolition of property in general, but the abolition of bourgeois property." "The Communists can sum up their theory in one sentence: the abolition of private property." - In 1850, Marx wrote in the summary of the work from 1848 to 1850. In 1875, when criticizing the Russian populists, Engels pointed out: "The changes that modern socialism strives to achieve, in short, are the victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie and the establishment of a new social organization by eliminating all class differences." - 1880 In 1894, Engels said in his book The Development of Socialism: Utopian and Scientific: "Socialism is no longer regarded as an accidental discovery of a genius, but as the inevitable product of the struggle between two historically produced classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Its task is no longer to conceive a social system that is as perfect as possible, but to study the historical and economic process that inevitably produces these two classes and their mutual struggle; and to find means to resolve conflicts in the economic conditions thus created." - In 1894, Engels said in his article "The Peasant Question in France and Germany": "Socialism is specifically opposed to the exploitation of wage labor." - In 1894, Lenin said in his criticism of the liberal populists: "It must be known that protests and struggles against the exploitation of workers, struggles aimed at the complete elimination of such exploitation, are called socialism." - In 1905, Lenin said in his article "Pet-Bourgeois Socialism and Proletarian Socialism": "The socialist struggle is the struggle of workers against the entire bourgeoisie." - In 1916 In 1915, Lenin emphasized in his article "On the Slogan of "Disarmament": "Whoever expects to achieve socialism without social revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a socialist." - In 1919, Lenin said in "Economy and Politics in the Era of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat": "Socialism means the abolition of classes." We do not need to explain the above statement too much, even the workers and peasants with low cultural level can understand it easily. Because they understand and learn socialism from their own lives, as Mao Zedong revealed, "There are many Communist Party members in China who make a living from books and engage in social science research. Haven't they become counter-revolutionaries one after another? ... Those illiterate workers can often master Marxism very well." Contemporary Chinese are familiar with a passage from Deng Xiaoping: "The essence of socialism is to liberate the productive forces, develop the productive forces, eliminate exploitation, eliminate polarization, and ultimately achieve common prosperity." We say that Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, and Deng Xiaoping Theory are of the same origin, so what is this "one origin"? Where is it? We believe that it is the "elimination of exploitation" mentioned by Deng Xiaoping. In the popular textbooks explaining Deng Xiaoping Theory, people can find at a glance that the Chinese ideological circles often only talk about the three sentences of "liberating productivity, developing productivity" and "common prosperity", believing that these are the most important and essential things in Deng Xiaoping's view of the essence of socialism, while the two sentences of "eliminating exploitation and eliminating polarization" are not explained and avoided. This understanding is extremely wrong and extremely harmful. People who have this understanding need to learn some basic knowledge about socialism.
This erroneous understanding has severed Deng Xiaoping's view on the essence of socialism, obliterated the distinct party principles of Deng Xiaoping's view on the essence of socialism, namely, class nature and revolutionary nature, obscured the social orientation and revolutionary edge of Deng Xiaoping's view on the essence of socialism, and turned Marxist scientific socialism into vulgar sociology that can be accepted and played with by non-Marxists or anti-Marxists. Why? The reason is not complicated. Doesn't the bourgeoisie liberate and develop productivity? Any idea or view on what socialism is, if it does not regard "eliminating exploitation" as the most essential thing, is wrong in nature, just as former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Matlock pointedly said in his Personal Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union when analyzing the revisionist program of the CPSU: "If the Soviet leaders are willing to abandon this concept (the theory of class struggle - author's note), then it does not matter whether they continue to call their guiding ideology "Marxism". This is a different kind of "Marxism" practiced in a different society. This different society is a society that we can all recognize." ⑨ Obviously, any discussion on Deng Xiaoping's view on the essence of socialism, which intentionally or unintentionally avoids the core of "eliminating exploitation", that is, eliminating exploitation caused by private ownership, is to obliterate the essential difference between Marxist proletarian socialism and bourgeois socialism, and is a blasphemy against Deng Xiaoping's view on the essence of socialism.
"Liberating the productive forces and developing the productive forces" is the material basis for "eliminating exploitation, eliminating polarization, and ultimately achieving common prosperity", while "eliminating exploitation and eliminating polarization" is the ownership basis for "liberating the productive forces and developing the productive forces" and "ultimately achieving common prosperity", and "ultimately achieving common prosperity" is the common goal and result of the development of productive forces and public ownership. The more profound content of Deng Xiaoping's view on the essence of socialism is that since the "essence of socialism" is "eliminating exploitation", the premise is naturally that exploitation caused by private ownership still exists to a certain extent and within a certain scope in the process of establishing and building socialism. Therefore, the investigation of socialist practice will inevitably produce a series of very important issues and their ideological logic, such as what is exploitation? Who is exploiting whom? How to "eliminate exploitation" and by whom and what to "eliminate exploitation" and so on. Marxism tells us that exploitation is a problem of production mode and production relations. It occurs between classes, so the exploitation relationship is also a class relationship problem.
The contemporary world is a world dominated by the capitalist mode of production and production relations. It is nothing else but private capital exploiting labor, and the bourgeoisie exploiting the working class and other working people. How is exploitation realized? It is mainly through commodity exchange, that is, through commodity economy. That is to say, there is exploitation in commodity economy based on private ownership, because private surplus value is contained in commodities and is realized through commodity economy, through the sale of labor and other commodity exchanges. "Polarization" is the inevitable result of exploitation. "Polarization" is class differentiation, and its manifestation and result is the contradiction and game between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Eliminating exploitation and eliminating classes are the same thing, two inseparable aspects of the same problem. It is based on this that Lenin said that "socialism is the elimination of classes", but "it is impossible to eliminate classes all at once". Because the existence of classes is related to a certain historical stage of production development, the elimination of exploitation, that is, the elimination of classes, is a historical process. Therefore, socialism must implement a set of scientific and lasting policies and strategies to "eliminate exploitation" or eliminate capitalism. This is why Deng Xiaoping said "ultimately achieve common prosperity." "Ultimately" is a concept of time and space. What it expresses is to tell people that "achieving common prosperity" is a historical process and is the final result of the development of socialist society.
Undoubtedly, in the historical process of achieving "common prosperity", the elimination of exploitation will inevitably lead to class contradictions and contests, that is, the struggle of the proletariat to completely eliminate the bourgeoisie. The four basic principles proposed by Deng Xiaoping are the most powerful weapons for the proletariat to "eliminate exploitation" and completely eliminate the bourgeoisie. Because "socialism is the transition from a society with the dictatorship of the proletariat to a stateless society". In early 1992, when the international communist movement had just suffered a huge setback, Deng Xiaoping resolutely pointed out that the essence of socialism is "eliminating exploitation", which is to adhere to the Marxist theory of class struggle and proletarian dictatorship, and to raise the socialist revolutionary banner of Marxist class struggle and people's democratic dictatorship (dictatorship of the proletariat). At the same time, it also warns us that the leadership group of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union led to the demise of the party and the country because it abandoned this basic principle of scientific socialism.
Undoubtedly, the essence and purpose of Marxist scientific socialism "is to clarify the world historical role of the proletariat as the creator of socialist society", is the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, is "the proletariat must take political action, must implement the dictatorship of the proletariat as a transition to abolishing classes and abolishing the state together with classes", and therefore the proletariat can only liberate itself in the end by liberating all mankind. Therefore, "without class struggle, socialism is empty talk or childish fantasy", "as long as class struggle still exists within a certain scope, we cannot abandon the Marxist viewpoint and method of class and class analysis. This viewpoint and method has always been a key for us to observe the complex political phenomenon of the struggle between socialism and various hostile forces." Therefore, Marxist scientific socialism is a comprehensive socialism, which includes the construction of the economy, politics, culture, society, ecology, national defense and other fields, including the correct handling of contradictions among the people, contradictions between the enemy and ourselves and class contradictions, including scientific development, reform and opening up, including socialist revolution, construction and reform.
V. On the Party as the Leader and Organizer of the Class
In the works of Marx and Lenin, there are rich records of their historical practice and theoretical thoughts on party building, including summaries of successful experiences and analyses of lessons from failure. When we study their glorious history and theoretical thoughts of establishing the working class party with great efforts, we must also face the tortuous historical results in the international communist movement. The history of the development of Marxism-Leninism is a history of proletarian parties that have both successful development and tragic failures, and a historical textbook of the experience and lessons of proletarian party building. Obviously, to learn the theoretical thoughts and basic experience of Marxist-Leninism on party building, we must combine it with the tortuous struggles of proletarian parties in various countries.
Since the 1840s, when the international communist movement started from scratch, Marx and Engels, through arduous propaganda and mobilization, first began to establish working class political party organizations in some European countries, and organized and launched the proletarian revolutionary movement. At that time, Marx and Engels organized the scattered workers who were fighting against individual capitalists, "merged many local struggles of the same nature into a national struggle, into a class struggle", and "organized the proletariat into a class, and then into a political party." By establishing a workers' party, they instilled the following two most basic ideas in the European working class: First, "The Communist Party never neglects to educate the workers to be as aware as possible of the hostile opposition between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, so that the German workers can immediately use the social and political conditions that inevitably arise from the rule of the bourgeoisie as a weapon against the bourgeoisie, so that after overthrowing the reactionary class in Germany, they can immediately begin the struggle against the bourgeoisie itself." Second, "Recognize your own class interests, take the position of your own independent party as soon as possible, and never leave the path of the proletarian party to maintain an independent organization because of the temptation of the democratic petty bourgeoisie's sweet words. Their battle slogan should be: 'Continuous revolution', 'until the proletariat seizes state power'." It was precisely because of the establishment of such a revolutionary or thorough reform consciousness that the European working class continued to revolutionize and developed the Paris Commune struggle to seize bourgeois power. Afterwards, they strongly supported the establishment of the German Social Democratic Party and guided the German Social Democratic Party to unyieldingly carry out "illegal" semi-open and secret struggles under the high pressure of Bismarck's "Anti-Socialist Law", and achieved great development. After Marx's death, Engels took on the heavy responsibility of guiding the world proletarian revolutionary movement. He promptly initiated and established the Second International with the German Social Democratic Party as its core. He broke the "Anti-Socialist Law" in Germany, enabling the German Social Democratic Party to obtain the right and conditions for open activities.
Compared with later revolutionaries, organizers and theorists such as Lenin and Mao Zedong who were able to fully control their own proletarian parties, Marx and Engels showed deep historical and contemporary limitations in the practice of party building. Because Marx was wanted and persecuted by reactionary governments in European countries, he could not find a place to stay not only in his own country, Germany, but also in some other countries, and was forced to go into exile in Britain. This public revolutionary identity made it difficult for him to guide the actual struggle and development of proletarian parties in various countries in a very specific way. He mainly influenced and guided the activities of the workers' party in a certain country from afar and from the outside. Social existence determines social consciousness. The party history of the international communist movement shows that the theoretical ideas, policies, strategies and basic experiences that have a significant guiding role in party building were systematized and matured through the development of Lenin and Mao Zedong.
Lenin led the Russian Bolsheviks to victory in the October Revolution, and Mao Zedong led the Communist Party of China to victory in the Chinese Revolution. These are also successful manifestations of Marxism-Leninism on the ideology and methods of building proletarian parties, and are an inexhaustible ideological treasure trove for building proletarian parties.
What do political parties do? Political parties are the product and tool of class development since the establishment of capitalist society in modern times. Political activities for the purpose of seizing and leading political power are the most basic tasks of all political parties. Anyone who does not understand this and does not firmly grasp this point does not understand what political parties do, nor does he understand how to determine and implement the purpose, tasks and methods of party building, and there is no talk of building the advanced nature of the Communist Party, building its ability to seize power and building its ability to govern.
Lenin's important development and contribution to the construction of Marxist political parties was first reflected in the organizational construction, and he established the principle of democratic centralism. This was the product of Lenin's fierce struggle with the Mensheviks of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, who were deeply influenced by the "legal" struggle of the Second International. In fact, Marx saw very early that "revolutionary activities can only exert their full strength under centralized conditions... the implementation of the strictest centralization is the task of a truly revolutionary party." Lenin inherited this basic idea of Marx, creatively proposed and implemented the organizational principle of democratic centralism, and thus flexibly combined "illegal" struggle with "legal" struggle under the complex situation of the bourgeoisie suppressing the revolution, and achieved the development and victory of the proletarian revolutionary party. However, the Second International and the Mensheviks of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party still implemented the liberal party building concepts and systems from the bourgeois parties. In the "legal" parliamentary party struggles in the so-called separation of powers system of bourgeois countries, they were transformed beyond recognition by the so-called "legality" and parliamentary democracy, lost the character of the working class party, and degenerated into an opportunist party that deceived the workers. Lenin not only established and developed the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party Bolshevik with democratic centralism, but also extended this principle to the leadership and construction of the Russian Communist Party over the proletarian dictatorship after the October Revolution. He clearly emphasized that the leading position of the Russian Communist Party in the state power must be upheld, "all political and economic work of the state power is led by the Communist Party, the conscious vanguard of the working class", and other political parties must accept and support the leadership of the Russian Communist Party, and it is absolutely not allowed to establish a bourgeois parliamentary multi-party system. In response to the attacks of the bourgeoisie and the Second International at home and abroad on the "dictatorship" and "one-party dictatorship" of the Russian Communist Party, Lenin responded tit-for-tat, if you think that upholding the leadership of the Communist Party is "one-party dictatorship", then "we say: Yes, it is a one-party dictatorship! We insist on a one-party dictatorship, and we will never leave this base". The organizational principle of democratic centralism is one of the basic principles and basic experiences of the construction of the proletarian party guided by Marxism-Leninism.
Lenin's second important contribution to the construction of Marxist political parties was to change the name of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party to the Russian Communist Party. This move by Lenin was a major event in the history of the international communist movement and Marxist political parties in the early 20th century, and had a huge impact on the establishment and development of communist parties in various countries. The impact and significance of this event are as Lenin explained at the time: First, "the name 'Social Democratic Party' is scientifically incorrect... After the workers established their own country, they realized that the concept of democracy (bourgeois democracy) was outdated in the development of our revolution; we established a type of democracy that had never existed anywhere in Western Europe"; "The actual situation accurately shows that the Soviet regime is a new type of state, a form of proletarian dictatorship, and that we have set different tasks for democracy"; second, the goal that a true proletarian party "aims to achieve is to establish a communist society... Therefore, the name Communist Party is the only scientifically correct one"; third, during the First World War, "the old official socialist parties in the advanced European countries had not gotten rid of the miasma of social chauvinism and social patriotism that completely bankrupted European official socialism in this war. Therefore, until now, almost all official socialist parties are real obstacles and stumbling blocks to the workers' socialist revolutionary movement." The new name of the Russian Communist Party cleared the way for the establishment of the long-awaited Communist International and promoted the great development of the international communist movement in the following period.
Author: Cheng Enfu Li Wei Published: 2011-03-22
Lenin's third important contribution to the construction of Marxist parties was to rely on the peasants as an extremely important and huge revolutionary force of the proletariat, solving the "correct method of approaching the peasants" that Marx, Engels and the entire First and Second Internationals "had not found", thereby expanding the party organization and the revolutionary team it led, and greatly expanding the depth and breadth of the construction of the proletarian party. Lenin's fourth important contribution to the construction of Marxist parties was to oppose and abandon the "spontaneity theory" in ideological construction, and advocate and promote the scientific "inculcation theory". Lenin deeply explored and discussed the view that Marxism, that is, scientific socialism, cannot be spontaneously generated in the working class. Practice has proved that "the working class can only form the consciousness of trade unionism" and its economism by its own strength; the consciousness of scientific socialism of the working class "can only be inculcated from the outside." Therefore, "the question can only be this: either the bourgeois ideology or the socialist ideology, there is nothing in between"; because "in a society divided by class contradictions, there can be no non-class or super-class ideology at any time. Therefore, any contempt for and any separation from the socialist ideology means the strengthening of the bourgeois ideology"; and "the spontaneous development of the workers' movement has led to the movement being dominated by the bourgeois ideology". The Marxist-Leninist standpoint, viewpoint, method and excellent human thoughts, morals and style need to be consciously, deliberately and long-term promoted and cultivated before they can be widely accepted and formed. This is because since the emergence of class society, the oppression and enslavement of the working people by the ruling exploiting class for thousands of years have made the ideology and morality of the exploiting class penetrate into all areas of social life and form a powerful habitual force. To change this situation, only through long-term and unremitting education. Therefore, it is necessary to organize and regularly carry out systematic Marxist ideological and moral education for all party members and the masses from all walks of life.
Lenin's development and contribution to Marxism and party building were achieved in the struggle against the opportunism of the Second International, and were born and developed in the struggle against all revisionism and opportunism. The Communist Party of China was established on the historical platform established by the October Revolution and Leninism, accepting and absorbing the revolutionary experience and party-building theory of the most advanced and successful Russian Communist Party in the world. In order to establish a powerful proletarian party guided by Marxism-Leninism in China, a country that was once extremely decadent, semi-colonial and semi-feudal, with hundreds of millions of poor and ignorant peasants, a large number of petty bourgeoisie and a small number of modern industrial proletariat, the Chinese Communists represented by Mao Zedong consciously raised and solved the following question: "How should we build our party today? How can we build a 'national, mass-based, ideologically, politically and organizationally completely consolidated Bolshevik Communist Party'?" "How should we build such a party now?" Thus, Mao Zedong developed the Marxist-Leninist party building and its theoretical doctrines into a systematic and complete scientific system. Why do we say this? What is the basis? The basis is that Mao Zedong discovered and clarified a fundamental principle for building the proletarian party.
The history of the emergence and development of science shows that a scientific system can only be established and have independent human value in the history of science when it contains a number of basic principles of nature or society in its theoretical form. Principles are not artificially created, but are natural or social laws that cannot be violated that are discovered by people in long-term production practice and scientific research.
What is the basic principle of proletarian party building discovered by Mao Zedong? In 1945, he summarized the rectification movement in the political report of the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China and summarized a basic experience of the Communist Party of China's 24-year party building: "Mastering ideological education is the central link in uniting the whole party to carry out great political struggles. If this task is not solved, all the political tasks of the party cannot be completed." This principle reveals that the proletarian party, the Communist Party, is first and foremost an organ specializing in political and ideological work. Political and ideological work is the primary work and task of the Communist Party organizations and leaders at all levels. The history of the party shows that the leadership and prestige of the Communist Party, and thus the power of the Communist Party, first and foremost, is through the long-term and in-depth political and ideological education of the masses, influencing them, uniting and winning them under the banner of Marxism and the Communist Party. The leadership of the Communist Party is first and foremost embodied in "proletarian ideological leadership." "Ideological leadership" can only be achieved through the education of the party's political ideology. Mao Zedong regarded ideological education and political work as the "central link" and the "lifeline", which shows how important they are! If the Communist Party downplays or forgets such work as the "central link" and "lifeline", what will it mean? It means that the Communist Party or the first-level party organization has given up and lost its influence on the masses it relies on, that is, it has given up leading the masses fundamentally, which is tantamount to a suicidal act. Once the party's political and ideological education is neglected or destroyed, the result is that the masses and cadres will scatter like wild horses, and the corresponding system will collapse. The system is important, but the ideology will guide the formulation and implementation of the system.
Deng Xiaoping pointed out in his report on the revision of the Party Constitution at the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China: "The Party is the highest form of class organization. Pointing out this point is particularly important today when the Party has taken a leading position in state work." Undoubtedly, the Party "is the leader and organizer of the class." If we do not consciously think about and engage in Party building and its political and ideological work from the perspective of the proletariat opposing all kinds of non-proletarians, especially from the perspective of opposing feudalism and the bourgeoisie, then we cannot even enter the "door" of Party building. Only by clarifying and solving the objects and problems of Party building and its political and ideological work can other Party construction be targeted, Party organizations can become schools for educating and transforming people, and Party political and ideological work can become a powerful tool for achieving various Party tasks. Ideological and theoretical education is the foundation of Party building. It is a fundamental experience summed up by the Communist Party of China in studying Marxism-Leninism, and it has been proven by the practice of both positive and negative historical experiences and lessons of our Party and the entire international communist movement. In response to the political turmoil in 1989, Deng Xiaoping pointed out incisively, "This incident has indeed exposed our mistakes enough. We did make mistakes! And the mistakes were not small!" Where is the main problem? That is, our "education and ideological and political work are too poor", "lack of consistency, no action, and even little talk", "the biggest mistake in the past ten years is education. Here I am mainly talking about ideological and political education, not just for schools and young students, but for the people in general". It is precisely because of "poor education and ideological and political work" that corruption has spread and serious political turmoil has been aroused. For this reason, Deng Xiaoping loudly called on the whole party, "This party should be arrested, otherwise it will not work"! The collapse of the Communist Party in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union can be scientifically explained by their abandonment of this basic principle of proletarian party construction.
In short, we should see that the editing and publishing of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels and the Special Works of Lenin are a reflection of the Chinese nation and the Chinese Communists' diligent study, accurate inheritance and scientific development of Marxism-Leninism. In order to promote the development of Marxism-Leninism and its Sinicization theory, we must first study Marxism-Leninism itself and understand the relationship between Marxism-Leninism and Sinicized Marxism-Leninism. On the important issue of how to study Marxism-Leninism in the international communist movement, Deng Xiaoping made such a summary conclusion from the long-term practice of the Chinese Communists, which should be a guide for all comrades who adhere to Marxism. He said: "Marxist ideological and theoretical work cannot be separated from real politics. The politics I am talking about here is the overall situation of class struggle at home and abroad, and the fundamental interests of the Chinese people and the people of the world in the real struggle. It is inconceivable that one can become a Marxist thinker and theorist without the overall situation of politics, without studying the overall situation of politics, and without evaluating the actual development of the revolutionary struggle." We must continue to promote the continuous progress and harmony of China and the world under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and its Sinicization theory.
(Author's unit: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) (Editor deleted the note)
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