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Labor's Champion |
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Special Supplement Commemorating |
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Labor's Champion |
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Special Supplement Commemorating |
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October, 1986
Today, despite its socialist mask, the Soviet Union is a capitalist country, ruled by a class of wealthy exploiters. The working c1ass is downtrodden and exploited just as workers in this country are. But this was not always the case. For nearly four decades the working class ruled the Soviet Union. During those years the Soviet workers were marching at the forefront of history, acting as a vanguard detachment of the world-wide working Class in its struggle to end exploitation and misery. The principles which guided this revolution were correct and remain a true guide for socialist revolution around the world.
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When Russian workers stormed the Winter Palace in October, 1917 and overthrew the capitalist government, they brought about the greatest turning point in the history of the world. The October Revolution created the first developed socialist state and signaled the beginning or the end of world capitalism. For thousands of years the world had been ruled by wealthy exploiting classes. Previous revolutions had overthrown slave owners and brought to power feudal lords, and had overthrown feudal lords and brought to power capitalists. These revolutions had succeeded only in replacing one exploiting class with another. Then in Russia in 1917, the working class, an exploited class, came to power and the world would never be the same.
The Impact of the Revolution
The triumph of the Russian working class thundered around the world awakening the workers and calling on them to rise in revolution. It gave birth to the Third Communist International, unifying the forces of the proletarian revolution around the world. It inspired the revolutionary movements in many countries, including the U.S. The momentous events in that far away country were recounted with great excitement in workers' meetings and on strike lines. During the great strike wave that followed World War I, the workers in Seattle carried out a general strike, temporarily seized control of the city and organized a soviet, or workers' council, modeled after the soviets of the Russian Revolution. As a culmination of this period the U.S. workers organized a new, revolutionary, communist party, which joined the Communist International.
The October Revolution Validated the Principles of Marxism-Leninism
The October Revolution represented not only the triumph of the working class over the capitalist class but also "the triumph of Marxism over reformism, the triumph of Leninism over social-democratism" (J.V. Stalin). The revolution confirmed in practice the theory that had been developed by Marx, Engels and Lenin. The theory of Marxism-Leninism has since served as the trusted guide of proletarian revolutionaries the world over.
A Marxist-Leninist Party. The Bolshevik Party in Russia was wholly different from the social-democratic parties of the Second International, which were built on the basis of liberalism, reformism and parliamentarianism. Lenin struggled to build a party of a "new type," a vanguard party. The Bolshevik Party was a compact, highly disciplined organization of dedicated, class-conscious and selfless fighters for the working class. The organizational principle of democratic-centralism allowed the party to create a powerful and highly conscious internal unity and act with a single revolutionary will. Under the repressive conditions of the Czarist autocracy, the Bolsheviks built a revolutionary political party "bold enough to lead the proletarians in the struggle for power, sufficiently experienced to find its bearings amidst the complex conditions of a revolutionary situation, and sufficiently flexible to steer clear of all submerged rocks in the path to its goal." (J.V. Stalin). To insure the revolutionary and monolithic unity of the party, the Bolsheviks purged their ranks of all opportunists, reformists and revisionists. This made it possible for them to unite the working class and its allies for the determined struggle needed to overthrow the bourgeoisie.
The Struggle Against Opportunism. The victory of the working class in the October Revolution was made possible by the unrelenting struggle of the Bolshevik Party against the petty bourgeois parties. At every turn the Bolsheviks exposed and worked to isolate the political parties which advocated compromise between the laboring masses and the reactionary government.
Only by winning the masses away from the influence of these parties could the Bolsheviks win the undivided leadership of the workers' movement, and prepare the masses to actually seize power. The Bolsheviks created an independent working class movement, which fought for its own class interests under its own banners.
The Worker-Peasant Alliance. Lenin advocated a revolutionary alliance of the workers and all the peasants to overthrow the Czarist dictatorship and accomplish the aims of the bourgeois-democratic revolution. After the defeat of the autocracy, he put into effect his plan for an alliance between the workers and the poor peasants in the struggle for socialism and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The proletariat through its party led the alliance in both phases of the revolution. This alliance was very successful; the poor peasants remained at he side of the working class in October 1917, taking up arms in the proletarian socialist revolution.
Mass Armed Insurrection. The Bolsheviks broke with the reformist and pacifist orientation of the social-democratic parties and prepared the masses to take power through armed struggle. The October Revolution was a mass, armed insurrection and the new workers' state was defended by revolutionary violence during three years of bitter civil war. The October Revolution confirmed the thesis that any genuine revolutionary change can only be accomplished by means of armed force. It further confirmed that the proletarian revolution, which is the most profound revolutionary change in the history of class society, cannot be accomplished by merely adapting the existing capitalist state to the needs of the working class, but by smashing the bureaucratic military machine of the capitalist state to its foundations.
The Dictatorship of the Working Class. The cardinal idea of the October Revolution and the touchstone of revolutionary Marxism is the dictatorship of the proletariat. Once the working class seized power in Russia it established its own class dictatorship. "Socialism can be implemented only through the dictatorship of the proletariat," wrote Lenin, "which combines violence against the bourgeoisie, i.e., the minority of the population, with the full development of democracy, i.e., the genuinely equal and genuinely universal participation of the entire mass of the population in all state affairs and in the complex problems of abolishing capitalism."
The dictatorship of the proletariat in the Soviet Union was immediately attacked by world capital and its agents, not only with guns, in the civil war, but also ideologically. "The Bolsheviks have suppressed freedom," cried the capitalists, and their cries were echoed by the social-democrats and all the other opportunists and reformists who had tied their fortunes to the survival of capitalism. Lenin replied that the proletarian state "suppresses the 'freedom' of the exploiters and their accomplices, it deprives them of the 'freedom' to exploit, 'freedom' to batten on starvation, 'freedom' to fight for the restoration of the rule of capital, 'freedom' to compact with the foreign bourgeoisie against the workers and peasants of their own country."
Only by suppressing the capitalists and their agents can the working class defend its rule, prevent the restoration of capitalist exploitation, and build a society in which the masses of working people can control their own destiny.
The Ideas of the October Revolution Are Immortal
Ever since 1917, the ideas of the October Revolution have been the center of a fierce ideological struggle. "Around this torch," said Joseph Stalin, "two fronts have formed: the front of the enemies of the proletarian dictatorship who are trying to discredit this torch, to upset and extinguish it, and the front of the friends of the dictatorship of the proletariat, who are striving to hold the torch aloft and to fan its flame." For nearly seven decades the capitalists and their apologists have been slandering the October Revolution, trying to turn the working class away from its banner and close their eyes to its powerful lessons. In order to divert the workers from the path of revolution they have promoted anti-communism of every form, from the most rabid right wing varieties, to the more insidious reformist and revisionist (fake Marxist) varieties.
The social-democratic and revisionist ideologies are particularly dangerous because they are disguised as being working class ideologies. They are, nevertheless, completely opposed to the proletarian revolution and are the fiercest enemies of the ideas of the October Revolution and Marxism-Leninism.
The revisionists, including those who rule the Soviet Union today, still call themselves communists, but they have torn the revolutionary heart out of Marxism- Leninism. They all preach the bankrupt theories that were defeated by the October Revolution, promoting a "peaceful transition to socialism", a "mass workers' party" that tails behind the bourgeois liberals, "structural reforms" of the capitalist state and a "pluralist" society after the working class assumes power.
The Restoration of Capitalism in the Soviet Union
After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, revisionists in the Soviet Party seized power, dismantled socialism and restored the system of capitalist exploitation in a disguised form. Today the Soviet economy is geared around the same basic principle as the U.S. economy: the drive for maximum profits by a handful of rich exploiters. A new capitalist class has emerged which controls the means of production and lives off of the labor of the workers.
In Lenin and Stalin's time, the Soviet Union's foreign policy was based on genuine proletarian internationalism, supporting the revolutionary struggles of the workers and oppressed peoples throughout the world. Today the Soviet Union has been converted into an imperialist superpower which tramples on the rights of the oppressed nations and contends with the U.S. imperialists for world domination.
The restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union was not the "inevitable product" of the principles of Marxism-Leninism, but was brought about when these principles were abandoned. The tragedy of the restoration of capitalism in the birthplace of socialism drives home the fact that we are still near the beginning of what will be a long life-and-death struggle between the capitalists and the workers, between capitalism and communism. In this struggle there will be victories and there will be reverses, but in the end the triumph of the working class is inevitable.
Hold High the Banner of Red October!
The capitalists the world over, including the revisionists who currently rule the Soviet Union, have tried desperately to extinguish the torch of the October Revolution but without success. The flames of this torch still burn in socialist Albania, which has remained steadfastly faithful to the revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism. Its flames burn in the hearts of proletarian revolutionaries the world over, and are manifested concretely in the genuine Marxist-Leninist parties that exist today in dozens of countries. These are the true heirs of the October Revolution, and the vanguard of the working class movement that will turn the promise of this revolution into a reality throughout the world.
The basic principles that guided the Russian communists to victory in the October Revolution are as vital, alive and valid today as in 1917. The working class of the United States must join with the world proletariat in holding high and carrying forward the red banner of the October Revolution.
A working class socialist revolution is as necessary in this country today as it was in Russia in 1917. This revolution can and must be carried out, and to do so the class-conscious workers must carefully study the experience of the great pioneers of the socialist revolution, the Bolsheviks led by Lenin and Stalin.
Many tasks lie ahead for the working class of the U.S. The central task today is to build a new genuine Marxist-Leninist party to lead the workers' struggle. The building of this party is critical for the preparation and organization of the proletarian revolution and the establishment genuine socialism in the U.S.
As revolutionary workers in the U.S. commemorate the anniversary of the October Revolution, we do not simply look at it as a great day in working class history, but as an eternal call to continue the struggle and a beacon lighting the path forward.
Before 1900, Russia was ruled by the Czar and the aristocracy, who were big landowners. The conquest of other nations had extended the Russian Empire from Poland in eastern Europe to the Kamchatka Peninsula on the Pacific Ocean The majority of Russians were peasants (similar to the old sharecroppers in the southern part of the U.S.). They were oppressed by the big landowners. Most of the peasants were forced to work the land of the landlord and in return were allowed to eke out an existence on their little plots The peasants always lived on the edge of starvation, subject to every whim of the landlord who could flog them if they disobeyed.
Capitalism developed from the midst of this semi-feudal society. Huge factories were built in the cities and towns, employing tens of thousands of workers. Mines and railroads were developed to extract Russia's minerals. This created a substantial working class. French, British and other foreign capitalists owned most industry in Russia. The Russian capitalist class gradually gained economic power. But it remained subjected to the rule of the Czar and dependent on foreign capitalists.
Conditions for the workers were very harsh. The working day was commonly 14 or more hours for men, women and children. There were no vacations, holidays, or sick pay. Wages were set at starvation levels. The factories were unsafe. The workers homes were broken-down shacks, crowded, poorly ventilated and unhealthy. The Russian workers could expect little from life but suffering, relieved only by an early death.
Naturally, the workers and the peasants rebelled against these conditions. But under the Czar's repressive state, it was difficult to organize. Political parties were banned and those who organized the workers and peasants were imprisoned or exiled. Nonetheless, a powerful revolutionary movement developed. The workers were led by the only consistently revolutionary party, the Bolshevik* group of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.
In 1905 the workers and peasants revolted against the Czarist government. Led by the Bolsheviks, they organized general strikes and mutinies in the military. They set up the first workers councils (soviets). It was a dress rehearsal for the victorious revolution in 1917. The insurrection was defeated by the Czar and a reign of terror temporarily suppressed the revolutionary activity of the people.
The Bolsheviks correctly predicted that there would soon be another revolutionary upsurge. By 1912, the Czarist repression no longer inspired fear in the people. The Lena gold miners went on strike. In one of their worst atrocities, Czarist troops opened fire on the workers. Some 250 were killed and 270 injured. The workers responded with a general strike on May 1st involving 500,000 workers. The new revolutionary upsurge had begun.
World War Brings New Hardships
In 1914, World War I began as a direct outgrowth of the world crisis of capitalism. It was an imperialist war, fought by various imperialist nations to redivide and plunder the oppressed nations and colonies. The Czar had signed secret treaties to support the British and French capitalists against Germany. Consequently, when war broke out between France and Germany, the Czar ordered the forced conscription of millions of workers and peasants. The troops were ill equipped, often without proper uniforms, ammunition, or even food. At the front, the peasant soldiers were slaughtered or died of disease, malnutrition and exposure. In the rear, the workers and peasants were further impoverished as the entire country was put on a war footing. In contrast to the plight of the masses of people, the capitalists prospered. War profiteers made fortunes by selling shoddy products to the army at hugely inflated prices.
By 1917, the imperialist slaughter had taken a tremendous toll on the masses, the economy was in ruins and a horrendous famine left hundreds of thousands to die a slow painful death of starvation. They yearned for peace. They yearned for bread.
From the beginning, the Bolsheviks opposed the war because it was not in the interest of the workers. They called on the workers and peasants to turn their weapons on the oppressors. They organized mass strikes and military revolts. The workers of Petrograd were in the front ranks of the struggle. In October 1916, they organized a huge political strike against the war and the Czarist autocracy.
February 1917: The Bourgeois Democratic Revolution
In 1917 the struggle continued to intensify: in the first two months there were 1,300 strikes. The Bolsheviks called upon the soldiers to join the workers. The workers poured into the streets demanding: "Down with the War!" "Down with the Czarist Government!" "Bread!" "Peace!"
On February 27, the armed insurrection broke out; the soldiers refused to fire on the people and went over to the side of the revolution. The Czarist ministers were arrested and the political prisoners were released from jail. As news of the successful revolt in Petrograd spread, the workers and soldiers overthrew the Czarist regime throughout the country.
The workers and peasants established the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. These were representative bodies elected directly by the workers and soldiers. These councils of laboring people were the embryo of the new workers state. In the big cities (Petrograd, Moscow, Karkov, etc.) the workers councils set up the elements of a new government: order was established as workers' militia patrolled the streets, the distribution of food was organized, etc.
The February Revolution raised the hopes of the laboring people. They believed that the overthrow of the Czar would bring about an end to their suffering. But even as the workers and peasants fought the Czarist troops, the rich capitalists were betraying the democratic revolution. Within days of the formation of the Soviets, the capitalists, with the full support of the compromising petty bourgeois parties ("Mensheviks" and "Socialist Revolutionaries") formed a Provisional Government which usurped the power of the Soviets.
Because most of the leading Bolsheviks were in prison or in exile, the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries gained a majority of delegates in the Soviets. Their compromising nature had not yet been exposed and the masses of people believed, incorrectly, that these "representatives" would honor their demands for democracy, bread, peace and land. Instead, these traitorous petty bourgeois parties followed behind the capitalists and aided them in forming the Provisional Government - a government loyal to the rich capitalists. Thus, through treachery and deception, the masses had fallen under the yoke of the Russian capitalists and the foreign imperialists. The Soviets continued to exist and a period of "dual power" began. This "dual power" had to be resolved with the decisive victory of either the capitalist exploiters or the workers and poor peasants.
The Dual Power
During the period of "dual power" the Bolsheviks fought to revolutionize the Soviets, to isolate the petty bourgeois traitors and to win the masses to their revolutionary program. They patiently explained to the masses that peace, bread and land could be secured only through pushing forward the revolution by overthrowing the provisional government and replacing it with a government of the Soviets headed by the Bolsheviks.
The Provisional Government continued to fight in the imperialist war, reinstating the death penalty for any soldiers who refused to continue to fight for the rich. It turned its arms against the peasants who seized the land for which they had fought. Famine stalked the land and the suffering of the people deepened. In July, hundreds of thousands of Petrograd workers demonstrated against the Provisional Government, demanding a transfer of power to the Soviets and an end to the war. On Kerensky's orders, reactionary troops opened fire on the workers. In an attempt to suppress the growing revolutionary sentiments of the masses, the Government outlawed and suppressed the Bolsheviks.
In a final attempt to destroy the Soviets, the Provisional government conspired with General Kornilov to set up a military dictatorship. In August, Kornilov directed his troops to attack Petrograd. The Bolsheviks organized an active armed resistance and the workers defeated Kornilov. Because the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries refused to aid in the resistance, they were discredited in the eyes of the masses while the Bolsheviks were greatly strengthened. The Soviets in the main cities, Petrograd and Moscow, endorsed the Bolsheviks.
By October, the Bolsheviks had achieved a majority in the Soviets. The soldiers and sailors in all the major military units were with the Bolsheviks. Lenin assessed that the time for the armed insurrection had arrived. The Central Committee adopted his resolution and set about preparations for the armed uprising. The time had come to overthrow the capitalist government. A "Revolutionary Military Committee" of the Petrograd Soviet (including Lenin, Stalin and Sverdlov) became the headquarters of the uprising. On the eve of the Second All Russian Congress of Soviets, the counter-revolutionaries planned to suppress the Bolsheviks, but they were too late. The plan for the uprising was already in place. All night on Oct. 24, revolutionary units of the army and armed detachments of the workers' Red Guard arrived at the Bolshevik headquarters in the Smolny Institute. They were dispatched to surround the Winter Palace where the Provisional Government was entrenched. On the 25th, Red Guards occupied the railway stations, post office, telegraph office, the Ministries and the State Bank. The cruiser Aurora, manned by Bolshevik sailors, trained its guns on the Winter Palace. On the night of October 25, the revolutionary workers, soldiers and sailors took the Winter Palace by storm and arrested the provisional government.
Actions of the Soviets Upon Taking Power
On the evening of October 25, fighting continued in Moscow, but the power in the capitol had already passed into the hands of the Petrograd Soviet. At 10:45pm the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was convened. The compromising Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary delegates walked out of the Congress, leaving the overwhelming majority, the genuine representatives of the workers, to declare that all power had passed to the Soviets - to the working class. The following night the Congress adopted decrees on peace, land and state power. The Congress called on all the belligerent countries to conclude an immediate armistice to permit negotiations for peace. It called on the peoples of all the countries "to bring to a successful conclusion the cause of peace, and at the same time the cause of emancipation of the toiling and exploited masses of the population from all forms of slavery and all forms of exploitation." (Stalin, History of the CPSU(B), p.209.)
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The decree on the land abolished landlord ownership of the land, without compensation. The lands of the landlords, the Czar's family and the church were nationalized and turned over to the toiling peasants for their free use. All the mineral resources were to become the property of all the people. Lastly, the Congress established the Council of People's Commissars, the first Soviet Government. Lenin was elected chairman of the Council.
Thus a new chapter in the history of Russia and the world was begun. The successful socialist revolution presented the Russian working class with new challenges. The victory of October had to be defended against the ruthless attacks of the former rulers and the foreign capitalists. The tremendous destruction caused by years of war had to be rebuilt. But the Russian people were capable of monumental accomplishments. By the 1930's a major transformation had taken place in their lives.
"The working class had ceased to be an exploited class bereft of means of production, as it is under capitalism. It had abolished capitalism, taken away the means of production from the capitalists and turned them into public property...
"No less profound were the changes that had taken place in the condition of the peasantry of the USSR... Now a new type of peasantry had grown up... emancipated from all exploitation." (Stalin, History of the CPSU(B), p.344.)
* The Bolshevik group formally split with the Menshevik group of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and constituted itself as an independent party in 1912. In 1919, with the founding of the Communist International, the Party's name was changed to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks).
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Lenin And Stalin
V.I. Lenin (1870-1924)
V.I. Lenin was born in the Volga region of Russia. He was the main initiator, organizer and outstanding leader of the Bolshevik group of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, which became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks).
After the successful February Revolution in 1917, Lenin laid down the tactical and organizational line for the coming socialist revolution and the establishment of the workers dictatorship. He argued that, with the overthrow of the Czarist autocracy, the capitalist democratic revolution had in the main been completed. It was now necessary to carry out the second task, the overthrow of capitalism through the socialist revolution. Only the socialist revolution could save the Russian masses from complete catastrophe, famine and a restoration of the Czar. Lenin called on the Bolsheviks to organize the workers and poor peasants for the bitter fight to overthrow tile capitalist Provisional Government. To educate the masses to this necessity, he first advanced the slogan of "No Support For the provisional Government." He argued that the situation of dual power (the Provisional Government on one side and the Soviets on the other) could not last for long. The course of events demanded that all Power be placed in the hands of one or the other. It was time to pass from a capitalist republic to a soviet republic, the governmental form for the transition to socialism. He argued that it was necessary to combat the capitalists, to take the land from the landlords and place it at the disposal of the peasants, to liberate the oppressed nations and immediately stop the war (WWI).
In April of 1917, the Bolshevik party adopted these proposals and set about winning the masses to these positions. Under Lenin's guidance, the Bolsheviks captured the majority in the Soviets and won the support of the key military units by October. The time for the insurrection was at hand. Lenin provided direct, practical leadership of the uprising. He drew up the resolutions on the armed insurrection that was adopted by the Central Committee on October 10 and 16. These set the date and time and selected the personnel of the practical center (the Revolutionary Military Committee). He gave instructions to the military units and coordinated the actual fighting.
For all these reasons, Lenin is correctly looked upon as the great inspirer and leader of the October Revolution.
Following the triumph of the October Revolution, Lenin guided the creation of the new Soviet state. Its first revolutionary actions, the strategy and tactics of the civil war, and the foundations of socialist culture and economy, all bear the mark of Lenin's leadership.
Lenin became the leader of the revolutionary proletariat around the world, initiating the Communist International and laying the political and ideological guidelines for the new communist parties.
J.V. Stalin (1871-1953)
J.V. Stalin was born in Georgia, a subjugated nation in the southern portion of the old Russian Empire. He was the son of a cobbler. He was a pupil of Lenin. He became a dedicated revolutionary who fought together with Lenin from the beginning of the Bolshevik movement. He worked tirelessly to build the Bolshevik Party, organizing the workers and leading the armed uprising in 1905, in Georgia and the rest of the Transcaucasian region.
Stalin's further development of Lenin's views on to the national question and his defense of the principle of self-determination for oppressed nations were of great importance to the success of the October Revolution. They were the theoretical foundation of the Union of Soviet Republics created after the revolution, which was based on the revolutionary unity of nations.
Through the dark days of fierce repression, Stalin ensured that the illegal activity of the Party continued to advance. In the preparations for the October Revolution, Stalin was appointed to the practical leadership body to direct the insurrection. After the seizure of power Stalin was involved in the immense tasks of implementing the policy of the revolutionary state power.
The wise leadership and immense capabilities of J.V. Stalin were demonstrated after the illness and death of Lenin in 1924. Stalin acted decisively to defeat the treacherous opportunism of the Trotskyites and Bukharin and the "Right Opposition." He led the Soviet people in the construction of socialism and the continuation of the class struggle.
Stalin guided the monumental tasks of collectivizing Soviet agriculture and socialist industrialization. He directed the heroic war against the German Nazis, in which the Red Army and the Soviet people played the decisive role in the crushing of the fascists.
Stalin's name is synonymous with the realization of socialism, with the theory and tactics of the construction of socialism.
Role of the Renegade Trotsky
The legacy of Red October resides in the work and teachings of Lenin and Stalin. The publicists and professors in the pay of imperialism deny this in order to drive workers away from the theory of Marxism-Leninism. These enemies of socialism promote Leon Trotsky as a hero, exaggerate his role in the Bolshevik Party, and distort his part in the revolution so as to replace the correct revolutionary principles of Leninism with the petty-bourgeois, counter-revolutionary theories of Trotsky.
Before 1917 Trotsky was the constant political opponent of Lenin. He attacked the political and organizational principles of Bolshevism, openly siding with the Mensheviks or advocating rotten "centrism" (a "compromise" with opportunism.) In May 1917, Trotsky claimed to renounce his past errors and joined the Bolsheviks. During the 0ctober insurrection, Trotsky carried out his duties as an official in the Petrograd Soviet under the direct guidance of the Bolshevik Central Committee. He was not on the Military Committee which directed the actual insurrection and he played no special role.
Immediately after the victory of October, Trotsky resumed his counter-revolutionary activity. He refused to carry out the instructions of the Party in the treaty negotiations with Germany. He was relieved of his posts during the civil war for similar reasons. More and more Trotsky became an open opponent of Lenin and the Bolshevik leadership, until he completely degenerated and embarked on a course of subversion and sabotage After he was exiled, he collaborated with all the forces of counter-revolution, from social-democrats to fascists, to wage a desperate struggle against the proletarian state in the Soviet Union.
Leninism is the proven theory of the socialist revolution - we must defend its principles and follow its path of uncompromising struggle against capitalism and its social props – opportunism and revisionism. Leninism is Marxism in the era of proletarian revolution.
Resolution of the Fifth Conference of the
Revolutionary Political Organization (Marxist-Leninist)
June, 1986
1. The Workers' Council (or. Soviet) is a mass revolutionary organizational form of the proletariat. It serves two functions:
A. organizing the Insurrection
B. embryonic form of the new, revolutionary proletarian power
2. The Workers' Councils are a peculiarly proletarian form in that they exclude the bourgeoisie and have as their goal the expropriation and suppression of the bourgeoisie.
3. The Workers' Councils can only be formed at a time of revolutionary crisis for the purpose of the insurrection and establishing the new state power. Under the direction of the party, the Workers' Councils organize and unify the revolutionary forces under one center.
4. The state in the form of Workers' Councils is the highest form of democracy, namely proletarian democracy. The state based on Workers' Councils is the dictatorship of the proletariat, the rule of a single class – the proletariat.
5. The Workers' Council form of organization is essential for the inevitable insurrection and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the U.S.
6. The National Liberation Councils of Albania were a special form of organization which, while resembling the Soviets in many respects, were different in that the bourgeois were permitted to participate. In the Soviet form the bourgeois were excluded. The national liberation Council form was appropriate for organizing the democratic revolution and establishing the people's power in Albania due to the special conditions of Albania (an extremely small industrial proletariat, the participation of the patriotic bourgeoisie in the anti-imperialist revolution in the context of the world-wide struggle against fascism). This form is not appropriate for organization of revolution in the Afro-American Nation, as the proletariat is highly developed together with the semi-proletariat and there is no national revolutionary bourgeoisie or it Is insignificant to the course of the revolution. Here the Workers' Councils are applicable for the mass organization of the insurrection.
7. In our agitation and propaganda we will use the term Workers' Councils, except in the historical context, when the term Soviets will be used.
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