Which slogan is current and correct ; “Workers of the World and Oppressed Peoples, Unite!” or “Workers of the World, Unite!”?
The use of each slogan may be
seen as an innocent difference by almost everyone. I agree on that count if and
when it is used by individuals, but when it is used by a party or
organizations who call themselves communist, it is far from being innocent.
The difference stems from the difference between the second internationalists (Mensheviks)
and third internationalists (Bolsheviks). It is the difference
between Leninism and all other revisionist factions even those under the mask
of Leninists.
It is the manifestation of
Trotskyite perspective against Leninist perspective on various
fundamental questions, from socialist
revolution to the stand on anti-imperialist wars.
Trots believe in world socialist revolution at one leap, Leninists believe socialist revolutions in each individual countries through long struggle. Trotskyites do not believe in anti-imperialist wars, they see it as a “question of past”. Leninists believe that anti-imperialist struggles and wars are a part of socialist struggle which give momentum to socialist struggles worldwide through striking blows to imperialist countries. Lenin is very clear on the subject that does not leave any room for misunderstanding for an honest reader.
The difference between Leninists
and Trotskyite perspective crystalized during the 2nd international.
That’s why it is not a coincidence that the chauvinists of imperialists, colonialists
countries cling on the old pre-imperialist era slogan. Is this choice of
using old slogan a new development? Not
at all. It goes back to the time when the official proceedings of the Second
Congress were published under the title Workers of the World and Oppressed Peoples,
Unite!, and to the issuance of Communist International the
slogan of “‘Proletarians of all countries and oppressed peoples, unite!’” for
the peoples of the East.
Slogan was reflecting
Comintern’s formal commitment to anti‑colonial and anti‑imperialist
struggles, explicitly linking the working class of the industrialised
West with the liberation movements of the colonial, semi-colonial countries.
Trotskyites of all shades called
the slogan as an “invention” by Lenin.
The amendment, however, was not a product of a chance thought. Beginning with
the split with the Mensheviks in 1903, and during all the years of organization
at home and exile abroad, Lenin had fought against all sorts of deviations from
support for national self-determination; both for oppressed “nations” and
“nation-states”.
Lenin argued that united front
was essential to combat imperialism, linking socialist revolution directly
with the national liberation of subjugated nations. Unlinking the socialist revolutions with the
anti-imperialist struggles, calling every war as “inter-imperialist war”
in order not to support the anti-imperialist wars have been the intention and
tactics of chauvinists and revisionists to conceal the subjugating
and plundering motive of the
imperialists and hide the class struggle of the workers and oppressed
peoples.
Historically, the original slogan
of the communist movement, ‘Workers of the world unite’, the rallying cry and
final phrase from the Communist Manifesto, written by Marx and Engels in 1848 put
forward at a time when the nascent communist movement was geographically
limited to Europe and North America, and focused almost exclusively on the
industrial working class.
Lenin’s study of global political
economy, and particularly of the dynamics of monopoly capitalism and the
emergence of modern imperialism, led him to an acute understanding of the global
applicability of Marxist thought. Lenin stated
in his work “imperialism” that capitalism having “grown into a world system
of colonial oppression and of the financial strangulation of the
overwhelming majority of the people of the world by a handful of ‘advanced’
countries”, the capitalist class of the metropolis had become an enemy not just
to the working class in the advanced capitalist countries but to the broad
masses of the oppressed in all countries. “Imperialism is leading to
annexation, to increased national oppression, and, consequently, also to
increasing resistance.” Hence at the second congress of the Communist
International (Comintern) in 1920, ‘Workers of the world unite’ was updated to
‘Workers and oppressed peoples of all countries, unite’ to reflect the
imperialist era.
Lenin, in his speech delivered at
a meeting of the activists of the Moscow organization of the RCP (B) stated; “We now stand, not only as
representatives of the proletarians of all countries but as representatives
of the oppressed peoples as well. A journal of the Communist International
recently appeared under the title of Narody Vostoka. It carries the following slogan
issued by the Communist International for the peoples of the East: “Workers
of all countries and all oppressed peoples, unite !” “When did the
Executive Committee give orders for slogans to be modified?” one of the
comrades asked. Indeed, I do not remember that it ever did. Of course, the
modification is wrong from the standpoint of the Communist Manifesto, but
then the Communist Manifesto was written under entirely different
conditions. From the point of view of present-day politics, however, the
change is correct.”
Lenin’s modification of the
original "Workers of the world, unite!" slogan to encompass the
colonial and oppressed populations, recognizing them as key allies in
the fight against global capital.
Lenin recognized that hundreds of
millions of oppressed people in the East (e.g., China, India) were rapidly
being drawn into the revolutionary struggle against imperialism. He underlined
the need of workers in the imperialist countries to see their own
self-interest in allying with the peoples of oppressed nations. He noted
that the exploiters of those countries were the same exploiters of workers
in oppressor nations. Seeing the need to end that shared exploitation,
he called for changing the slogan “Workers of the world unite” to “Workers
and oppressed peoples of the world unite.”
The call was designed to unite
the international proletariat with anti-colonial movements. It is utilized
by socialist movements to call for unity against capitalist inequality.
Stalin summed this up by
noting that Lenin's change solidified the unity of the proletarian and
national liberation movements into a single anti-imperialist front.
Ho Chi Minh in his essay “The Path Which Led Me To Leninism” had described
his years in Paris in the early 1920s, participating in the debates between the
Leninists and the social chauvinists stated;
“If you do not condemn
colonialism, if you do not side with the colonial people, what kind of
revolution are you waging?” … At first, patriotism, not yet communism, led
me to have confidence in Lenin, in the Third International. Step by step, along
the struggle, by studying Marxism-Leninism parallel with participation in
practical activities, I gradually came upon the fact that only socialism and
communism can liberate the oppressed nations and the working people
throughout the world from slavery.”
The Chinese communists have
played a crucial role in developing Lenin’s ideas of anti-imperialism and
applying them in practice. The overthrow of imperialist domination and the
construction of socialism in China, Korea and Vietnam represented a profound
shift of the revolutionary centre of gravity in the world. The radical
governments emerging in the Sahel today, in the era of multi-polar world order
represent continuation and deepening of this process.
It is not a coincidence
that most - if not all- of the use of old slogan is seen in imperialist
and ex-colonial capitalist countries by the chauvinists of those countries with
pseudo “revolutionary communist” parties.
This catchy name “Revolutionary Communist” used by the chauvinists (mostly of the US and
West) is mushrooming in so many
countries. It is like the NED (National Endowment for Democracy), a civil
branch of CIA, working in “communist”
mask. That is why, it is not a coincidence that they are against
multipolar world order and proponents of unipolar world order.
As a conclusion, the preference
of the slogan by the parties and organizations to be used is not coincidental but ideologically driven. Leninists
use the modified , "present day slogan" “Workers of the World and Oppressed Peoples,
Unite!”, Trotskyites, all other revisionists and chauvinists would
prefer to use the old slogan “Workers of the World, Unite!”. Like in most
questions they either live in the era of Marx and Engels era (era of bourgeois democratic revolution) for their theoretical assessments , or they consciously
ignore the imperialist era and Lenin’s assessments for the new era.
Erdogan A
April 24, 2026
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