COMRADE TOGLIATTI'S NEW IDEAS
Comrade Togliatti and some other comrades of the Communist Party of Italy make their appraisal of the international situation their fundamental point of departure in posing questions.
Proceeding from their appraisal, they have formed their new ideas, of which
they are very proud, concerning international as well as domestic issues.
1. "It is necessary, in the world struggle for peace and peaceful coexistence, to fight for a policy of international economic co-operation, which will make it possible to overcome those contradictions at present preventing a more rapid economic development which will be translated into social progress."[1]
2. "In Europe, in particular, it is necessary to develop an integral initiative in order to lay the foundation for European economic co-operation even among states with diverse social structures, which will make it possible, within the framework of the economic and political organs of the United Nations, to step up trade, eliminate or lower customs barriers, and make joint interventions to promote the progress of the underdeveloped are as."[1]
3. "One should demand . . . the unfolding of systematic action to overcome the division of Europe and the world into blocs while breaking down the political and military obstacles which preserve this division,"[1] and "the rebuilding of a single world market."[1]
4. In the conditions of modern military technique, "war becomes something qualitatively different from what it was in the past. In the face of this change in the nature of war, our very doctrine requires fresh deliberations ."[2]
5. "Fighting for peace and peaceful coexistence, we wish to create a new
world, whose primary characteristic will be that it is a world without war."[1]
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6. "The colonial regime has almost completely crumbled."[1] ". . . there are no longer any spheres of influence preserved for imperialism in the world."[2]
7. "In fact, there exists in the capitalist world today an urge towards structural reforms and to reforms of a socialist nature, which is related to economic progress and the new expansion of productive forces."[1]
8. ". . . the very term 'dictatorship of the proletariat' can assume a content different from what it had in the hard years of the Civil War and of socialist construction for the first time, in a country encircled by capitalist."[3]
9. In order "to realize profound changes in the present economic and political structure" in the capitalist countries, "a function of prime importance can fall . . . on parliamentary institutions".[4]
10. In capitalist Italy "the accession of all the people to the direction of the state"[1] is possible. In Italy, the democratic forces "can oppose the class nature and class objectives of the state, while fully accepting and defending the constitutional compact".[3]
11. "Nationalization", "planning" and "state intervention" in economic life can be turned into "instruments of struggle against the power of big capital in order to hit, restrict and break up the rule of the big monopoly groups".[1]
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12. The bourgeois ruling groups can now accept "the concepts of planning
and programming the economy, considered at one time a socialist prerogative",
and "this can be a sign of the ripening of the objective conditions for a
transition from capitalism to socialism".[1]
To sum up, the new ideas advanced by Comrade Togliatti and others present us with a picture of the contemporary world as they envisage it in their minds. Despite the fact that in their Theses and articles they employ some Marxist-Leninist phraseology as a camouflage and use many specious and ambiguous formulations as a smokescreen, they cannot cover up the essence of these ideas. That is, they attempt to substitute class collaboration for class struggle, "structural reform" for proletarian revolution, and "joint intervention" for the national liberation movement.
These new ideas put forward by Togliatti and the other comrades imply that antagonistic social contradictions are vanishing and conflicting social forces are merging into a single whole throughout the world. For instance, such conflicting forces as the socialist system and the capitalist system, the socialist camp and the imperialist camp, rival imperialist countries, imperialist countries and the oppressed nations, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat and working people in each capitalist country, and the various monopoly capitalist groups in each imperialist country, are all merging or will merge into a single whole.
It is difficult for us to see any difference between these new ideas put forward by Togliatti and other comrades and the series of absurd anti-Marxist-Leninist views in the Tito clique's Programme which earned it notoriety.
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Undoubtedly, these new ideas-advanced by Togliatti and other comrades constitute
a most serious challenge to the theory of Marxism-Leninism and an attempt
to overthrow it completely. It reminds us of the title Engels gave to the
book he wrote in his polemic against Dühring, Herr Eugen Dühring's
Revolution in Science. Can it be that Comrade Togliatti now intends
to follow in Du"hring's footsteps and start another "revolution"--in the
theory of Marxism-Leninism?
A PRESCRIPTION FOR CHANGING THE WORLD IN WHICH
THE PRESCRIBER HIMSELF SCARCELY BELIEVES
How can "those contradictions at present preventing a more rapid economic development which will be translated into social progress"[1] be overcome? In other words, how can the antagonistic social forces, international and domestic, be merged into a single whole? The answer of Togliatti and other comrades is:
For the socialist countries, and for the Soviet Union in the first place, to challenge the bourgeois ruling classes to a peaceful competition for the establishment of an economic and social order capable of satisfying all the aspirations of men and peoples towards freedom, well-being, independence and the full development of and respect for the human personality, and towards peaceful co-operation of-all states.[1]
Does this mean that it is possible, merely through peaceful competition between the socialist and the capitalist countries, and without a people's revolution, to establish the same "economic and social order" in capitalist countries as in the socialist countries? If so, does it not mean that capitalism need no longer be capitalism, that imperialism need no longer be imperialism, and that the capitalists may cease their life-and-death scramble for profits or superprofits at home and abroad, but instead may enter into "peaceful co-operation" with all people and all nations in order to satisfy all the aspirations of men?
This is the prescription Comrade Togliatti has invented for changing the world. But this panacea has not proved effective even in the actual movement in Italy. How can Marxist-Leninists lightly believe in it?
It is common knowledge--and Marxist-Leninists particularly should remember--that soon after the October Revolution Lenin advanced the policy of peaceful coexistence between the socialist and capitalist countries and favoured economic competition between the two. During the greater part of the forty years and more since its founding, the socialist Soviet Union has in the main been in a state of peaceful coexistence with the capitalist countries. We consider the policy of peaceful coexistence, as pursued by Lenin and Stalin, to be entirely correct and necessary. It indicates that the socialist countries neither desire nor need to use force to settle international disputes. The superiority of the socialist system as demonstrated in the socialist countries is a source of great inspiration to the oppressed people and nations. After the October Revolution Lenin reiterated that the socialist construction of the Soviet Union would set an example for the rest of the world. He said that the communist system can be created by the victorious proletariat and that "this task is of world significance".[1] In 1921 when the Civil War had more or less come to an end and the Soviet state was making the transition to peaceful construction, Lenin set socialist economic construction as the main task for the Soviet state. He said: "At present it is by our economic policy that we are exerting our main influence on the international revolution."[1] Lenin's view was correct. Precisely as he foresaw, the forces of socialism have exerted increasing influence on the international situation. But Lenin never said that the building of a Soviet state could take the place of the struggles of the people of all countries to liberate themselves. Historical events during the forty years and more of the Soviet Union's existence also show that a revolution or a transformation of the social system in any country is a matter for the people of that country, and that the policy of peaceful coexistence and peaceful competition followed by socialist countries cannot possibly result in a change of the social system in any other country. What grounds have Togliatti and other comrades for believing that the pursuit of the policy of peaceful coexistence and peaceful competition by the socialist countries can change the face of the social system in every other country and establish an "economic and social order" capable of satisfying all the aspirations of men?
True, Comrade Togliatti and the others are by no means so whole-hearted in believing their own prescription. That is why they go on to say in the Theses, "However, the ruling groups of the imperialist countries do not want to renounce their domination over the whole world."
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But Comrade Togliatti and the others do not base themselves on the laws of social development to find out why the ruling groups of the imperialist countries "do not want to renounce their domination over the whole world". They simply maintain that this is so because the ruling groups of the imperialist countries have a wrong conception or "understanding" of the world situation, and also that "the uncertainty of the international situation"[1] arises precisely from this wrong conception and "understanding".
From a Marxist-Leninist point of view, how can one reduce the attempt of
imperialism to preserve its domination, the uncertainty of the international
situation etc. to a mere question of understanding on the part of the ruling
groups of the imperialist countries, and not regard them as conforming to
the operation of the laws of development of capitalist imperialism? How can
one assume that once the ruling groups of the imperialist countries acquire
a "correct understanding" and once their rulers become "sensible", the social
systems of different countries will be radically changed without class struggle
and revolutions by the peoples of these countries?
TWO FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT VIEWS ON
CONTRADICTIONS IN THE WORLD
In analysing the present-day international situation Marxist-Leninists must
grasp the sum and substance of the political and economic data on various
countries and comprehend the following major contradictions: the contradiction
between the socialist camp and the imperialist
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camp, the contradiction among imperialist countries, the contradiction between
the imperialist countries and the oppressed nations, the contradiction between
the bourgeoisie and the proletariat and other working people in each capitalist
country, the contradiction among different monopolist groups in each capitalist
country, the contradiction between the monopoly capitalists and the small
and medium capitalists in each capitalist country, etc. Obviously, only by
comprehending these contradictions, by analysing them and their changes at
different times and by locating the focus of the specific contradictions
at a given time, can the political parties of the working class correctly
appraise the international and domestic situation and provide a reliable
theoretical basis for their policies. Unfortunately, these are the very
contradictions that Togliatti and other comrades have failed to face seriously
in their Theses, and consequently their whole programme has inevitably departed
from the orbit of Marxism-Leninism.
Of course, Togliatti and the other comrades do mention many contradictions in their Theses, but strangely enough Comrade Togliatti, who styles himself a Marxist-Leninist, has evaded precisely the above major contradictions.
The following contradictions in the international situation are listed in the Theses in the part concerning the European Common Market:
. . . the increased economic rivalry among the big capitalist countries is accompanied by an accentuated trend not only towards international agreements among the big monopolies, but also towards the creation of organic commercial and economic alliances among groups of states. The extension of markets, which has been the outcome of one of these alliances (European Common Market) in Western Europe, has stimulated the economic development of certain countries (Italy the German Federal Republic). Economic integration accomplished under the leadership of the big monopoly groups and linked to the Atlantic policy of rearmament and war has created new contradictions both on an international scale and in individual countries between the progress of some highly industrialized regions and the permanent and even relatively increasing backwardness and decline of others; between the rate of growth of production in industry and that in agriculture, which is everywhere experiencing a period of grave difficulties and crises; between fairly broad zones of well-being with a high level of consumption and the broadest zones of low wages, underconsumption and poverty; between the enormous mass of wealth which is destroyed not only in rearmament but in unproductive expenditures and unbridled luxury, and the impossibility of solving problems vital to the masses and to progress (housing, education, social security, etc.).
Here a long list of so-called contradictions, or "new contradictions", is given. Yet no mention is made of contradictions between classes, of the contradiction between the imperialists and their lackeys on the one hand and the peoples of the world on the other, etc. Togliatti and other comrades describe the contradictions "on an international scale and in individual countries" as contradictions between the industrially developed and industrially underdeveloped areas and between areas of well-being and areas of poverty.
They admit the existence of economic rivalry between the capitalist countries, of big monopoly capitalist groups and of groups of states, but the conclusion they draw is that the contradictions are non-class or supra-class contradictions. They hold that the contradictions among the imperialist countries can be harmonized or even eliminated by "international agreements among the big monopolies" and "the creation of organic commercial and economic alliances among groups of states". In fact this view plagiarizes the "theory of ultra-imperialism" held by the old-line revisionists and is, as Lenin put it, "ultra-nonsense".
It is well known that in the imperialist epoch Lenin put forward the important
thesis that "uneven economic and political development is an absolute law
of capitalism".[1] The uneven development of the capitalist countries in
the imperialist epoch takes the form of leaps, with those previously trailing
behind leaping ahead, and those previously ahead falling behind. This inexorable
law of the uneven development of capitalism still holds after World War II.
The U.S. imperialists and the revisionists and opportunists have all along
proclaimed that the development of U.S. capitalism transcends this inexorable
law, but the rate of economic growth in Japan, West Germany, Italy, France
and certain other capitalist countries has for many years since the War surpassed
that in the United States. The weight of the United States in the world
capitalist economy has declined. U.S. industrial production accounted for
53.4 per cent of that of the whole capitalist world in 1948, and fell to
44.1 per cent in 1960 and to 43 per cent in 1961.
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Although the rate of economic growth of U.S. capitalism lags behind that of a number of other capitalist countries, the United States has not altogether lost its monopolistic position in the capitalist world. Hence, on the one hand, the United States is trying hard to maintain and expand its-monopolistic and dominant position in that world, and on the other, the other imperialist and capitalist countries are striving to shake off this U.S. imperialist control. This is an outstanding and increasingly acute real contradiction in the politico-economic system of the capitalist world. Besides this contradiction between U.S. imperialism and the other imperialist countries, there are contradictions among other imperialist countries and among other capitalist countries. The contradictions among the imperialist powers are bound to give rise to, and in fact have given rise to, an intensified struggle for markets, outlets for investments, and sources of raw materials. Here lies an interwoven pattern of struggles between the old colonialism and the new and between the victorious and the vanquished imperialist nations. The case of the Congo, the recent quarrel over the European Common Market and the quarrel arising from the recent U.S. restrictions on imports from Japan are striking instances of such struggles.
Although according to the Theses for the Tenth Congress of the C.P.I. "the absolute economic supremacy of U.S. capitalism is beginning to disappear by one of those processes of uneven development and leaps peculiar to capitalism and imperialisms", Togliatti and the other comrades have failed to perceive from this new phenomenon the fact that the contradictions in the capitalist world are growing in breadth and in depth, and they have also failed to perceive that this new phenomenon will bring about a new situation with sharp life-and-death struggles among the imperialist powers, and sharp struggles among the various monopoly groups in each imperialist country and between the proletariat and working people and the monopoly capitalists in each capitalist country. In particular, the imperialist-controlled world market has substantially contracted in area as a result of the victory of the socialist revolution in a series of countries; moreover, the emergence of many countries possessing national independence in Asia, Africa and Latin America has shaken the-imperialist economic monopoly in those areas. In these circumstances, the sharp struggles raging in the capitalist world have become not weaker, but fiercer, than in the past.
There now exist two essentially different world economic systems, the socialist system and the capitalist system, and two mutually antagonistic world camps, the socialist camp and the imperialist camp. In the course of events the strength of socialism has surpassed that of imperialism. Undoubtedly, the strength of the socialist countries, combined with that of the revolutionary people of all countries, of the national liberation movement and of the peace movement, greatly surpasses the strength of the imperialists and their lackeys. In other words, in the world balance of forces as a whole, the superiority belongs to socialism and the revolutionary people, and not to imperialism; it belongs to the forces defending world peace, and not to the imperialist forces of war. As we Chinese Communists put it, "The East wind prevails over the West wind." It is utterly wrong not to take into account this tremendous change in the world balance of forces after World War II. However, this change has not done away with the various inherent contradictions in the capitalist world, has not altered the jungle law of survival in capitalist society, and does not preclude the possibility of the imperialist countries splitting into blocs and engaging in all kinds of conflicts in the pursuit of their own interests.
How can it be said that the distinction between the two social systems of capitalism and socialism will automatically vanish as a result of the change in the world balance of forces?
How can it be said that the various inherent contradictions of the capitalist world will automatically disappear as a result of this change in the world balance of forces?
How can it be said that the ruling forces in the capitalist countries will voluntarily quit the stage of history as a result of this change in the world balance of forces?
Yet, those very views are to be found in the programme of Togliatti and other
comrades.
THE FOCUS OF CONTRADICTIONS IN THE WORLD
AFTER WORLD WAR II
Togliatti and other comrades live physically in the capitalist world, but their minds are in cloud-cuckoo-land.
As Communists in the capitalist world, they should base themselves on the Marxist-Leninist class analysis and, proceeding from the world situation as a whole analyse the contradiction between the socialist and imperialist camps and lay stress on analysing the contradictions among the imperialist powers, between the imperialist powers and the oppressed nations, and between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat and other working people in each imperialist country, in order to chart the right course for the proletariat of their own country and all the oppressed people and nations. But, to our regret, Togliatti and the others have failed to do so. They merely indulge in irrelevant inanities about contradictions while actually covering them up and trying to lead the Italian proletariat and all the oppressed people and nations astray.
Like Tito, Comrade Togliatti describes the contradiction between the imperialist and socialist camps as the "existence and contraposition of two great military blocs",[1] and holds that by "changing this situation" a new world "without war", a world of "peaceful co-operation",[1] can be realized and that the contradiction between the two major social systems of the world will disappear.
These ideas of Comrade Togliatti's are a bit too naive. Day after day he may go on hoping that the rulers of the imperialist countries will become "sensible", but the imperialists will never comply with his wishes by voluntarily disarming themselves or changing their social system. In essence, his ideas can only mean that the socialist countries should abandon or abolish their defences and that there should be a so-called liberalization, i.e., "peaceful evolution" or "spontaneous evolution", of the socialist system towards capitalism, which the imperialists have always hoped for.
The contradiction between the imperialist and socialist camps is a contradiction between the two social systems, a basic world contradiction, which is undoubtedly acute. How can a Marxist-Leninist regard it as a contradiction between two military blocs rather than between two social systems?
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Nor should a Marxist-Leninist view the contradictions in the world simply and exclusively as contradictions between the imperialist and socialist camps.
It must be pointed out that by the nature of their society the socialist countries need not, cannot, should not and must not engage in expansion abroad. They have their own internal markets, and China and the Soviet Union, in particular, have most extensive internal markets At the same time, the socialist countries engage in international trade in accordance with the principle of equality and mutual benefit, but there is no need for them to scramble for markets and spheres of influence with the imperialist countries, and they have absolutely no need for conflicts, and especially armed conflicts, with the imperialist countries on this ground.
However, things are quite different with the imperialist countries.
So long as the capitalist-imperialist system exists, the laws of capitalist imperialism continue to operate. Imperialists always oppress and exploit their own people at home, and always perpetrate-aggression against other nations and countries and oppress and exploit them. They always regard colonies, semi-colonies and spheres of influence as sources of wealth for themselves. The "civilized" wolves of imperialism have always regarded Asia, Africa and Latin America as rich meat to contend for and devour. Using various means they have never ceased to suppress the struggles and uprisings of the people in the colonies and in their spheres of influence. Whatever policies the capitalist-imperialists pursue, whether old colonialist policies or new colonialist policies, contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations is inevitable. This contradiction is irreconcilable and extremely acute, and it cannot be covered up.
Furthermore, the imperialist powers are constantly struggling with each other in the scramble for markets, sources of raw materials, spheres of influence and profits from war contracts. At times this struggle may grow somewhat less acute, and may result in certain compromises or even in the formation of "alliances of groups of states", but such relaxations of tension, compromises or alliances always breed more acute, more intense and more widespread contradictions and struggles among the imperialists.
Stepping into the shoes of the German, Italian and Japanese fascists, the U.S. imperialists have been carrying out a policy of expansion in all parts of the world ever since World War II. Under the cover of their opposition to the Soviet Union, they have embarked on a course of aggression, annexation and domination vis-a-vis the former colonies and spheres of influence of Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Italy. Again under the cover of their opposition to the Soviet Union, they have taken advantage of post-war conditions to place a string of capitalist countries--Britain, France, West Germany, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Canada, Australia and others--under the direct control of U.S. monopoly capital. This control is political and economic as well as military.
In other words, U.S. imperialism is trying to build a huge empire in the capitalist world, such as has never been known before. This huge empire which U.S. imperialism is seeking to build would involve the direct enslavement not only of such vanquished nations as West Germany, Italy and Japan, and of their former colonies and spheres of influence, but also of its own wartime allies, Britain, France, Belgium, etc. and their existing and former colonies and spheres of influence.
That is to say, in its quest for this unprecedentedly large empire, U.S. imperialism concentrates its efforts primarily on the seizure of the immense intermediate zone between the United States and the socialist countries. At the same time, it is using every means to conduct subversion, sabotage and aggression against the socialist countries.
Here we may recall the well-known interview by Comrade Mao Tse-tung in August 1946 in which he exposed the anti-Soviet smokescreen the U.S. imperialists were then putting up and in which he gave the following concise analysis of the world situation:
The United States and the Soviet Union are separated by a vast zone which includes many capitalist, colonial and semi-colonial countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. Before the U.S. reactionaries have subjugated these countries, an attack on the Soviet Union is out of the question. In the Pacific the United States now controls areas larger than all the former British spheres of influence there put together; it controls Japan, that part of China under Kuomintang rule, half of Korea, and the South Pacific. It has long controlled Central and South America. It seeks also to control the whole of the British Empire and Western Europe. Using various pretexts, the United States is making large-scale military arrangements and setting up military bases in many countries. The U.S. reactionaries say that the military bases they have set up and are preparing to set up all over the world are aimed against the Soviet Union. True, these military bases are directed against the Soviet Union. At present, however, it is not the Soviet Union but the countries in which these military bases are located that are the first to suffer U.S. aggression. I believe it won't be long before these countries come to realize who is really oppressing them, the Soviet Union or the United States. The day will come when the U.S. reactionaries find themselves opposed by the people of the whole world.Of course, I do not mean to say that the U.S. reactionaries have no intention of attacking the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is a defender of world peace and a powerful factor preventing the domination of the world by the U.S. reactionaries. Because of the existence of the Soviet Union, it is absolutely impossible for the reactionaries in the United States and the world to realize their ambitions. That is why the U.S. reactionaries rabidly hate the Soviet Union and actually dream of destroying this socialist state. But the fact that the U.S. reactionaries are now trumpeting so loudly about a U.S.-Soviet war and creating a foul atmosphere, so soon after the end of World War II, compels us to take a look at their real aims. It turns out that under the cover of anti-Soviet slogans they are frantically attacking the workers and democratic circles in the United States and turning all the countries which are the targets of U.S. external expansion into U.S. dependencies. I think the American people and the peoples of all countries menaced by U.S. aggression should unite and struggle against the attacks of the U.S. reactionaries and their running dogs in these countries. Only by victory in this struggle can a third world war be avoided; otherwise it is unavoidable.[1]
Thus, sixteen years ago, Comrade Mao Tse-tung most lucidly exposed the attempts of the U.S. imperialists to set up a huge world empire and showed how to defeat the insane plan of the U.S. imperialists to enslave the world and how to strive to avert a third world war.
In this passage Comrade Mao Tse-tung explains that there is a vast intermediate zone between the U.S. imperialists and the socialist countries. This intermediate zone includes the entire capitalist world, the United States excepted. The U.S. imperialists' clamour about a war against the socialist camp shows that while they are in fact preparing an aggressive war against the socialist countries and dreaming of destroying them, this clamour also serves as a smokescreen to conceal their immediate aim of aggression against and enslavement of the intermediate zone.
This policy of aggression and enslavement on the part of the U.S. imperialists
with their lust for world hegemony runs up first against the resistance of
the oppressed nations and people in the intermediate zone, and particularly
those of Asia, Africa and Latin America. This reactionary policy has in fact
ignited revolutions by the oppressed nations and people in Asia, Africa and
Latin America and has fanned the flames of revolution which have now been
burning in these areas for more than a decade. The flames of revolution in
Asia, Africa and Latin America are further damaging the foundations of
imperialist rule; they are spreading, and will certainly go on spreading
to even wider areas.
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Meanwhile, the U.S. imperialist policy of world hegemony inevitably intensifies the fight between the imperialist powers and between the new and old colonialists over colonies and spheres of influence; it also intensifies the struggles between U.S. imperialism with its policy of control and the other imperialist powers which are resisting this control. These struggles affect the vital interests of imperialism, and the imperialist contestants give each other no quarter, for each side is striving to strangle the other.
The policy of the U.S. imperialists and their partners towards the oppressed nations and people of Asia, Africa and Latin America who are struggling for their own liberation is an extremely reactionary policy of suppression and deception. The socialist countries, acting from a strong sense of duty, naturally pursue a policy of sympathy and support for the national and democratic revolutionary struggles in these areas. These two policies are fundamentally different. The contradiction between them inevitably manifests itself in these areas. The policy of the modern revisionists towards these areas in fact serves the ends of the imperialist policy. Consequently, the contradiction between the policy of the Marxist-Leninists and that of the modern revisionists inevitably manifests itself in these areas, too.
The population of these areas in Asia, Africa and Latin America constitutes more than two-thirds of the total population of the capitalist world. The ever-mounting tide of revolution in these areas and the fight over them between the imperialist powers and between the new and old colonialists clearly show that these areas are the focus of all the contradictions of the capitalist world; it may also be said that they are the focus of world contradictions. These areas are the weakest link in the imperialist chain and the storm-centre of world revolution.
The experience of the last sixteen years has completely confirmed the correctness
of Comrade Mao Tse-tung's thesis on the location of the focus of world
contradictions after World War II.
HAS THE FOCUS OF WORLD CONTRADICTIONS
CHANGED?
Tremendous changes have taken place in the world during the past sixteen
years. The main ones are:
1. With the founding of a series of socialist states in Europe and Asia and with the victory of the people's revolution in China, these countries together with the Soviet Union formed the socialist camp, which comprises twelve countries, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Viet Nam, the German Democratic Republic, China, Korea, Mongolia, Poland, Rumania, U.S.S.R. and Czechoslovakia, and has an aggregate population of one thousand million. This has fundamentally changed the world balance of forces.
2. The strength of the Soviet Union and the whole socialist world has greatly increased and its influence has greatly expanded.
3. In Asia, Africa and Latin America, the national liberation movement and the people's revolutionary movement have destroyed and are destroying the positions of U.S. imperialism and its partners over wide areas with the force of a thunderbolt. The heroic Cuban people have won great victories in their revolution after overthrowing the reactionary rule of the running dogs of U.S. imperialism, and have taken the road of socialism.
4. There have been new activity and new developments in the struggle for democratic rights and socialism on the part of the working class and the working people in the European and American capitalist countries.
5. The uneven development of the capitalist countries has become more pronounced. There have been certain new developments in the capitalist forces of France, which are beginning to be bold enough to stand up to the United States. The contradiction between Britain and the United States has been further aggravated. Nurtured by the United States, the nations defeated in World War II, namely, West Germany, Italy and Japan, have risen to their feet again and are striving, in varying degrees, to shake off U.S. domination. Militarism is resurgent in West Germany and Japan, which are again becoming hotbeds of war. Before World War II, Germany and Japan were the chief rivals of U.S. imperialism. Today West Germany is again colliding with U.S. imperialism as its chief rival in the world capitalist market. The competition between Japan and the United States is also becoming increasingly acute.
6. While the capitalist countries develop more and more unevenly in relation to each other in the economic and political spheres, the competition among the monopoly capitalist groups in each capitalist country sharpens, too.
All these changes show that the people in various countries can defeat the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys and win freedom and emancipation for themselves, if they awaken and unite.
These changes also show that the greater the strength of the socialist countries, the firmer the unity of the socialist camp, the broader the liberation movement of the oppressed nations, and the more vigorous the struggle of the proletariat and the oppressed people in the capitalist countries, then the greater the possibility of manacling the imperialists in such a way that they will not dare to defy the universal will of the people, and the greater the possibility of preventing a new world war and preserving world peace.
Moreover, these changes show that the contradictions between U.S. imperialism and other imperialist countries are growing deeper and sharper and that new conflicts are developing between them.
The victory of the Chinese people's revolution, the victories in construction in all the socialist countries, the victory of the national democratic revolution in many countries and the victory of the Cuban people's revolution have dealt most telling blows to the U.S. imperialists' wild plans for enslaving the world. In order to carry through their policy of aggression the U.S. imperialists, in addition to conducting anti-Soviet propaganda, have been particularly active in recent years in their propaganda against China. Their purpose in this propaganda is of course to perpetuate their forcible occupation of our territory of Taiwan and to carry on all sorts of criminal subversive activities menacing our country. At the same time, it is obvious that the U.S. imperialists are using this propaganda for another important practical purpose, namely, the control and enslavement of Japan, southern Korea and the whole of Southeast Asia. The "Japan-U.S. Mutual Co-operation and Security Treaty", SEATO, etc., are U.S. instruments for controlling and enslaving a host of countries in this area.
For years, the U.S. imperialists have given both overt and covert support to the Indian reactionaries and the Nehru government. What is their real objective? They are trying by underhand means to turn India, which was formerly a colonial possession of the British Empire and is still a member of the British Commonwealth, into a U.S. sphere of influence, and to turn the "brightest jewel" in the British Imperial Crown into a jewel in the Yankee Dollar Imperial Crown. To attain this object, the U.S. imperialists must first create a pretext, or put up a smokescreen, to fool the people of India and of the whole world; hence their campaign against China and against the so-called Chinese aggression, though they themselves do not believe there is any such thing as "Chinese aggression". The U.S. imperialists see a golden opportunity for controlling India in the Nehru government's current military operations against China. After Nehru provoked the Sino-Indian boundary conflict, the U.S. imperialists swaggeringly entered India on the pretext of opposing China and are extending their influence there in the military, political and economic fields.
These massive U.S. imperialist inroads represent an important step taken by the U.S. reactionaries in their neo-colonialist plans for India; they are an important development in the present overt and covert struggle among the imperialist countries to seize markets and spheres of influence and redivide the world. This U.S. imperialist action is bound to hasten a new awakening of the Indian people, and at the same time to intensify the contradiction between British and U.S. imperialism in India.
With the loss of the old colonies, the extension of the national revolutionary movement and the shrinking of the world capitalist market, the scramble among the imperialist countries is not only continuing in many parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Australasia, but is also manifesting itself in Western Europe, the classical home of capitalism. Never in history has the tussle among the imperialist countries been so extensive in peace-time, reaching every corner of Western Europe, and never before has it taken the form of a fierce scramble for industrially developed areas like Western Europe. The European Common Market consisting of the six countries of West Germany, France, Italy and Benelux, the European Free Trade Association of seven countries headed by Britain, and the Atlantic Community energetically planned by the United States represent the increasingly fierce scramble of the imperialist powers for Western European markets. What Togliatti and other comrades call "the development of Italian commerce in all directions"[1] in fact demonstrates the reaching out of the Italian monopoly capitalists for markets.
Outside Western Europe, the recent open quarrel over the U.S. restriction on Japanese cotton exports shows that the struggle for markets between the United States and Japan is becoming more overt.
Comrade Togliatti and other comrades say: "The colonial regime has almost
completely crumbled,"[2] and "there are no longer any spheres of influence
preserved
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for imperialism in the world."[1] Others say, "There are only fifty million people on earth still groaning under colonial rule," and only vestiges of the colonial system remain. In their view, the struggle against imperialism is no longer the arduous task of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Such a view has no factual basis at all. Most countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are still victims of imperialist aggression and oppression, of old and new colonialist enslavement. Although a number of countries have won their independence in recent years, their economies are still under the control of foreign monopoly capital. In some counties, the old colonialists have been driven out, but even more powerful and dangerous colonialists of a new type have forced their way in, gravely threatening the existence of many nations in these areas. The peoples in these areas are still a long way from completing their struggle against imperialism. Even for a country like ours which has accomplished its national democratic revolution and, moreover, has won victory in its socialist revolution, the task of combating the aggression of the U.S. imperialists still remains. Our sacred territory of Taiwan is still forcibly occupied by the U.S. imperialists; even now many imperialist countries refuse to recognize the existence of the great People's Republic of China, and China is still unjustifiably deprived of its rightful position in the United Nations. To struggle against imperialism, against new and old colonialism, remains the cardinal and most urgent task of the oppressed nations and people in the vast regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
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The changes occurring in the world in the past sixteen years have proved
again and again that the focus of post-war world contradictions is the
contradiction between the U.S. imperialist policy of enslavement and the
people of all countries and between the U.S. imperialist policy of world-wide
expansion and the other imperialist powers. This contradiction manifests
itself particularly in the contradiction between the U.S. imperialists and
their lackeys on the one hand and the oppressed nations and people of Asia,
Africa and Latin America on the other, and in the contradiction between the
old and new colonialists in their struggles for these areas.
WORKERS AND OPPRESSED NATIONS
OF THE WORLD, UNITE!
Asia, Africa and Latin America have long been plundered and oppressed by the colonialists of Europe and the United States. They have fed and grown fat on the enormous wealth seized from these vast areas. They have turned the blood and sweat of the people there into "manure" for "capitalist culture and civilization"[1], while condemning them to extreme poverty and economic and cultural backwardness. However, once a certain limit is reached, a change in the opposite direction is inevitable. Long enslavement by these alien colonialist and imperialist oppressors has necessarily bred hatred in the people of these areas, aroused them from their slumbers and compelled them to wage unremitting struggles, and even to launch armed resistance and armed uprisings, for their personal and national survival. There are vast numbers of people who refuse to be slaves in these areas and they include not only the workers, peasants, handicraftsmen, the petty bourgeoisie and the intellectuals, but also the patriotic national bourgeoisie and even some patriotic princes and aristocrats.
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The people's resistance to colonialism and imperialism in Asia, Africa and Latin America has been continually and ruthlessly suppressed and has suffered many defeats. But after each defeat the people have risen to fight again. Comrade Mao Tse-tung has given a concise explanation of imperialist aggression against China and how it engendered opposition to itself. In 1949, when the great revolution of the Chinese people achieved basic victory, he wrote in "Cast Away Illusions, Prepare for Struggle":
All these wars of aggression, together with political, economic and cultural aggression and oppression, have caused the Chinese to hate imperialism, made them stop and think, "What is all this about"' and compelled them to bring their revolutionary spirit into full play and become united through struggle e. They fought, failed, fought again, failed again and fought again and accumulated 109 years of experience, accumulated the experience of hundreds of struggles, great and small, military and political, economic and cultural, with bloodshed and without bloodshed--and only then won today's basic victory.[1]
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The experience of the Chinese people's struggle has a practical significance for the people's liberation struggles of many countries and regions in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Great October Revolution linked the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat with the liberation movement of the oppressed nations and opened up a new path for the latter. The success of the Chinese people's revolution has furnished the oppressed nations with a great example of victory.
Following on the October Revolution in Russia and the revolution in China, the people's revolutionary struggles in the vast areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America have reached unparalleled proportions. Experience has shown over and over again that although these struggles may suffer setbacks, the imperialists and their lackeys will never be able to withstand this tide.
Today, the imperialist countries of Europe and America are besieged by the people's liberation struggle of Asia, Africa and Latin America. This struggle renders most vital support to the struggle of the working class in Western Europe and North America.
Marx, Engels and Lenin always regarded the peasant struggle in the capitalist countries and the struggle of the people in the colonies and dependent countries as the two great and immediate allies of the proletarian revolution in the capitalist countries.
As is well known, Marx expressed the following hope in 1856: "The whole thing
in Germany will depend on the possibility of backing the proletarian revolution
by some second edition of the Peasants' War."[1] The heroes
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of the Second International evaded this direct instruction bequeathed by Marx, and Lenin bitterly denounced them, saying that "the statement Marx made in one of his letters--I think it was in 1856--expressing the hope of a union in Germany of a peasant war, which might create a revolutionary situation, with the working-class movement--even this plain statement they avoid and prowl around it like a cat around a bowl of hot porridge".[1] When discussing the importance of the peasants as an ally in the emancipation of the proletariat, Lenin-said:
Only in the consolidation of the alliance of workers and peasants lies the general liberation of all humanity from such things as the recent imperialist carnage, from those savage contradictions we now see in the capitalist world, . . .[2]
And Stalin said:
. . . indifference towards so important a question as the peasant question on the eve of the proletarian revolution is the reverse side of the repudiation of the dictatorship of the proletariat, it is an unmistakable sign of downright betrayal of Marxism.[3]
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We also know the celebrated saying of Marx and Engels: "No nation can be free if it oppresses other nations." In 1870 Marx made the following surmise in the light of the then existing situation:
After occupying myself with the Irish question for many years I have come to the conclusion that the decisive blow against the English ruling classes . . . cannot be delivered in England but only in Ireland.[1]
In 1853 during the Taiping Revolution in China, Marx wrote in his famous essay "Revolution in China and in Europe":
. . . It may safely be augured that the Chinese revolution will throw the spark into the overloaded mine of the present industrial system and cause the explosion of the long-prepared general crisis, which, spreading abroad, will be closely followed by political revolutions on the Continent.[2]
Lenin developed Marx's and Engels' view, stressing the great significance
of the unity between the proletariat in the capitalist countries and the
oppressed nations for the victory of the proletarian revolution. He affirmed
the correctness of the slogan "Workers and oppressed nations of the world,
unite!"[3] for our epoch. He pointed out:
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The revolutionary movement in the advanced countries would actually be a sheer fraud if, in their struggle against capital, the workers of Europe and America were not closely and completely united with the hundreds upon hundreds of millions of "colonial" slaves who are oppressed by capital.[1]
Stalin developed the theory of Marx, Engels and Lenin on the national question and Lenin's thesis that the national question is part of the general problem of the world socialist revolution. In his The Foundations of Leninism Stalin pointed out that Leninism
. . . Broke down the wall between whites and blacks, between Europeans and Asiatics, between the "civilised" and "uncivilised" slaves of imperialism, and thus linked the national question with the question of the colonies. The national question was thereby transformed from a particular and internal state problem into a general and international problem, into a world problem of emancipating the oppressed peoples in the dependent countries and colonies from the yoke of imperialism.[2]
In discussing the world significance of the October Revolution in his article "The October Revolution and the National Question", Stalin said that the October Revolution "erected a bridge between the socialist West and the enslaved East, having created a new front of revolutions against world imperialism, extending from the proletarians of the West, through the Russian Revolution, to the oppressed peoples of the East".[3]
Thus, Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin very clearly pointed out the two basic
conditions for the emancipation and victory of the proletariat of Europe
and America. As far as the external condition is concerned they maintained
that the development of the struggle for national liberation would deal the
ruling classes of the metropolitan capitalist countries a decisive blow.
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As is well known, Comrade Mao Tse-tung has devoted considerable time and energy to the exposition of the theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin on the two great allies of the proletariat in its struggle for emancipation. He concretely and successfully solved the peasant question and the question of national liberation in the practice of the Chinese revolution under his leadership, and thus ensured victory for the great Chinese revolution.
Every struggle of the oppressed nations for survival won the warm sympathy and praise of Marx, Engels and Lenin. Although Marx, Engels and Lenin did not live to see the fiery national liberation struggles and people's revolutionary struggles now raging in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America or their successive victories, yet the validity of the laws they discovered from the experience of the national liberation struggles of their own times has been increasingly confirmed by life itself. The tremendous changes in Asia, Africa and Latin America following World War II have in no way outmoded this Marxist-Leninist theory of the relationship between the national liberation movement and the proletarian revolutionary movement, as some people suggest; on the contrary, they more than ever testify to its great vitality. Indeed, the revolutionary struggles of the people of Asia, Africa and Latin America have further enriched this theory.
A fundamental task is thus set before the international communist movement in the contemporary world, namely, to support the revolutionary struggles of the oppressed nations and people of Asia, Africa and Latin America, because these struggles are decisive for the cause of the international proletariat as a whole. In a sense, the revolutionary cause of the international proletariat as a whole hinges on the outcome of the people's struggles in these regions, which are inhabited by the overwhelming majority of the world's population, as well as on the acquisition of support from these revolutionary struggles.
The revolutionary struggles in Asia, Africa and Latin America cannot be suppressed. They are bound to burst forth. Unless the proletarian parties in these regions lead these struggles, they will become divorced from the people and fail to win their confidence. The proletariat has very many allies in the anti-imperialist struggle in these regions. Therefore, in order to lead the struggle step by step to victory and to guarantee victory in each struggle, the proletariat and its vanguard in the countries of these regions must march in the van, hold high the banner of anti-imperialism and national independence, and be skilful in organizing their allies in a broad anti-imperialist and anti-feudal united front, exposing every deception practised by the imperialists, the reactionaries and the modern revisionists, and leading the struggle in the correct direction. Unless all these things are done, victory in the revolutionary struggle will be impossible, and even if victory is won, its consolidation will be impossible and the fruits of victory may fall into the hands of the reactionaries, with the country and the nation once again coming under imperialist enslavement. Experience, past and present, abounds in instances of how the people have been betrayed in the revolutionary struggle, the defeat of the Chinese revolution of 1927 being a significant example.
The proletariat of the capitalist countries in Europe and America, too, must stand in the forefront of those supporting the revolutionary struggles of the oppressed nations and people of Asia, Africa and Latin America. In fact, such support simultaneously helps the cause of the emancipation of the proletariat in Europe and America. Without support from the revolutionary struggles of the oppressed nations and people of Asia Africa and Latin America, it will be impossible for the proletariat and the people in capitalist Europe and America to free themselves from the calamities of capitalist oppression and of the menace of imperialist war. Therefore, the proletarian parties of the metropolitan imperialist countries are duty bound to heed the voice of the revolutionary people in these regions, study their experience, respect their revolutionary feelings and support their revolutionary struggles. They have no right whatsoever to flaunt their seniority before these people, to put on lordly airs, to carp and cavil, like Comrade Thorez of France who so arrogantly and disdainfully speaks of them as being "young and inexperienced".[1] Much less have they the right to take a social-chauvinist attitude, slandering, cursing, intimidating and obstructing the fighting revolutionary people in these regions. It should be understood that according to the teachings of Marxism-Leninism, without a correct stand, line and policy on the national liberation movement and the people's revolutionary movement in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, it will be impossible for the workers' parties in the metropolitan imperialist countries to have a correct stand, line and policy on the struggle waged by the working class and the broad masses of the people in their own countries.
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The national liberation movement and the people's revolutionary movement in Asia, Africa and Latin America give great support to the socialist countries; they constitute an extremely important force safeguarding the socialist countries from imperialist invasion. Beyond any doubt, the socialist countries should give warm sympathy and active support to these movements and they absolutely must not adopt a perfunctory or a selfishly national attitude, or an attitude of great-power chauvinism, much less hamper, obstruct, mislead or sabotage these movements. Those countries in which socialism has been victorious must make it their sacred internationalist duty to support the national liberation struggles and the people's revolutionary struggles in other countries. Some people take the view that such support is but a one-sided "burden" on the socialist countries. This view is very wrong and runs counter to Marxism-Leninism. It must be understood that such support is a two-way, mutual affair; the socialist countries support the people's revolutionary struggles in other countries, and these struggles in turn serve to support and defend the socialist countries. In this connection, Stalin put it very aptly,
The characteristic feature of the assistance given by the victorious country is not only that it hastens the victory of the proletarians of other countries, but also that, by facilitating this victory, it ensures the final victory of socialism in the first victorious country.[1]
Some persons hold that peaceful economic competition between the socialist and capitalist countries is now the chief and most practical way to oppose imperialism. They assert that the national liberation struggles, the people's revolutionary struggles, the exposure of imperialism, etc. are nothing but "the cheapest methods of struggle" and "practices of medicinemen and quacks". Like opulent and lordly philanthropists, they tell the people in Asia, Africa and Latin America not to display "sham courage", not to kindle "sparks", or hanker after "dying beautifully", or "lack faith in the possibility of triumphing over the capitalist system in peaceful economic competition", but to await the day when the socialist countries have completely beaten capitalism in the level of their productive forces, for then the people in these areas will have everything, and imperialism will automatically tumble. Strangely enough, these persons fear the people's revolutionary struggle in these areas like the plague. Their attitude has absolutely nothing in common with that of Marxist-Leninists; it runs completely counter to the interests of all the oppressed people and nations, to the interests of the proletariat and other working people of their own countries, and to the interests of the socialist countries.
In short, the present situation is an excellent one for the people of the
world. It is most favourable for the oppressed nations and people in Asia,
Africa and Latin America, for the proletariat and working people of the
capitalist countries, for the socialist countries and for the cause of world
peace; it is unfavourable only for the imperialists and the reactionaries
in all countries and for the forces of aggression and war. In such a situation,
the attitude towards the revolutionary struggles of the oppressed nations
and people of Asia, Africa and Latin America becomes an important criterion
for distinguishing between revolution and non-revolution, between
internationalism and social chauvinism, and between Marxism-Leninism and
modern revisionism. It is also an important criterion for distinguishing
between those who genuinely work for world peace and those who encourage
the forces of aggression and war.
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SOME BRIEF CONCLUSIONS
Here we shall recapitulate our theses on the international situation.
First, U.S. imperialism is the common enemy of the people of the world, the international gendarme suppressing the just struggle of the people of various countries and the chief bulwark of modern colonialism. Since World War II, the U.S. imperialists have been making frenzied efforts to seize the vast intermediate zone between the United States and the socialist countries; they are not only enslaving the vanquished powers and their former colonies and spheres of influence but are also getting their wartime allies under their control, and grabbing their existing and former colonies and spheres of influence by every means. But the U.S. imperialists are besieged by the people of the world, and their unbridled ambition has led to their increasing isolation among the imperialist countries; actually their power is being constantly curtailed and the united front of the peoples of the world against the imperialists headed by the United States is steadily broadening. The American people and the oppressed people and nations of the world will be able to defeat the U.S. imperialists by struggle. The prospects are not so bright for the imperialists headed by the United States and for the reactionaries in all countries, whereas the strength of the people of the world is in the ascendant.
Second, the struggles among the imperialist powers for markets and spheres of influence in Asia, Africa and Latin America and in Western Europe are bringing about new divisions and alignments. Contradictions and clashes among the imperialist powers are objectives facts, which are determined by the nature of the imperialist system. In terms of the actual interests of the imperialist powers, these contradictions and clashes are more pressing, more direct, more immediate than their contradictions with the socialist countries. Failure to see this point is tantamount to denying the sharpening of the contradictions which arises from the uneven development of capitalism in the era of imperialism, makes it impossible to understand the specific policies of imperialism and thus makes it impossible for Communists to work out a correct line and policy for fighting imperialism.
Third, the socialist camp is the most powerful bulwark of world peace and of the cause of justice. Further consolidation and strengthening of this bulwark will make the imperialists more wary of attacking it. For the imperialists know that any attack on this bulwark will constitute a grave risk for themselves, a risk which will involve not only their draining the cup of bitterness but their very existence.
Fourth, some persons regard the contradictions in the contemporary world simply as contradictions between the socialist and imperialist camps, and fail to see or actually cover up the contradictions between the old and new colonialist imperialists and their lackeys on the one hand and the oppressed nations and people of Asia, Africa and Latin America on the other; they fail to see or actually cover up the contradictions among the imperialist countries; they fail to see or actually cover up the focus of the contradictions in the contemporary world. We cannot agree with this view.
Fifth, while admitting the existence of contradiction between the socialist and imperialist camps, some persons hold that this contradiction can actually disappear and that the socialist and capitalist systems can merge and become one, if what they call "the existence and contraposition of two great military blocs"[1] can be eliminated, or if the socialist countries "propose a challenge of peaceful competition with the capitalist ruling classes".[2] We cannot agree with this view.
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Sixth, the development of state-monopoly capitalism in the imperialist countries shows that, so far from weakening its ruling position at home and its competitive position abroad, the monopoly capitalist class is striving to strengthen them. At the same time, the imperialists are frantically reinforcing their war machines not only for the purpose of plundering other nations and ousting foreign competitors but also for the purpose of intensifying their oppression of the people at home. So-called bourgeois democracy in the imperialist countries has more nakedly revealed itself as the tyranny of a handful of oligarchs over their wage slaves and the broad masses of the people. What is it if not pure subjectivist delirium to say that state-monopoly capitalism in these countries is gradually passing into socialism and that their working people can come into and are actually coming into the direction of the state, and hence to maintain that "in fact, there exists in the capitalist world today an urge towards structural reforms and towards reforms of a socialist nature"?[1]
History is on the side of the peoples of the world and not on the side of
the imperialists headed by the United States and the reactionaries in all
countries. In their desperation the imperialists are trying to find a way
out. They most absurdly pin their hopes on what they call a "clash between
China and the Soviet Union". The imperialists and their apologists have long
voiced this idea. The ludicrous attacks and slanders recently hurled at the
Chinese Communist Party by the modern revisionists and their followers have
encouraged them in this idea. They are overjoyed and are assiduously playing
the dirty game of sowing dissension. However, these reactionary daydreamers
are making far too low an estimate of the great strength of the friendship
between the peoples of China and the Soviet Union and of the great strength
of a unity based on proletarian internationalism, and far too high an estimate
of the role the modern revisionists and their followers can play. Sooner
or later, the hard facts of history will completely demolish their illusions
and the reactionary daydreamers will inevitably come to grief.
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The mistake of Comrade Togliatti and other comrades in their Theses, reports and concluding speech lies in their fundamental departure from the Marxist-Leninist scientific analysis, from the class analysis, of the international situation.
As Lenin said, ridiculing the Narodniks: "The whole of their philosophy amounts
to whining that struggle and exploitation exist but that they 'might' not
exist if . . . if there were no exploiters." He went on to say, "And they
are content to spend their whole lives just repeating these 'ifs' and 'ans'."[1]
Surely a Marxist-Leninist cannot behave like a Narodnik!
And yet, the point of departure and positions of Togliatti and other comrades in their Theses and reports rest on exactly these "ifs" and "ans". Hence, their original ideas are inevitably a bundle of extremely confused notions.
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