First Published: 1983.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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A historic Internationalist Rally of Marxist-Leninist Parties was held in London on June 4, 1983, to commemorate the Centenary of the death of the great leader and teacher of the international proletariat, Karl Marx. The Internationalist Rally, which was organised and hosted by the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), was an outstanding success, a joyous and militant revolutionary manifestation attended by around 500 people, with the participation of fraternal Marxist-Leninist Parties from around the world. The Internationalist Rally, characterised by profound revolutionary enthusiasm, and the spirit of proletarian internationalism, was a fitting tribute in honour of the immortal figure of Marx, whose teachings guide the British and world’s proletariat in its struggle for the revolution and socialism.
The following is the edited text of the main address, which was given by the representative of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) at the Rally.
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Dear Comrades,
The Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) and the entire Party are overjoyed to welcome the representatives of the fraternal Marxist-Leninist Parties from many countries who are participating in this historic Internationalist Rally to Commemorate the Centenary of the Death of Karl Marx. It is a great honour for our Party to be hosting and organising this Internationalist Rally here in London, where Marx conducted much of his revolutionary work and activity.
Whereas London has always been one of the main centres where the enemies of Marx have gathered to denigrate Marxism and to distort it, here today representatives of genuine parties of the proletariat are gathered to hold high the bright red banner of MarxismLeninism with full conviction in the immortal ideas of Marx. The Internationalist Rally is a real expression of the vitality and invincibility of Marxism. It is a concrete expression of the fact that Marxism has not been destroyed nor is it in crisis, as the enemies of Marx suggest, but that it is being resolutely defended and applied by the Marxist Leninist parties throughout the world to organise and lead the proletariat and peoples in the revolutionary struggle for their emancipation.
Marx and Engels issued the revolutionary call “Workers of all countries, unite!” which has remained ever since the watchword of the international proletariat and proletarian internationalism. This Internationalist Rally is an expression of this call, a concrete manifestation of the unity of the international proletariat and of the unity of the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement.
The Rally is being held to commemorate with honour the centenary of the death of Karl Marx, the great revolutionary thinker and man of revolutionary action, the founder of scientific socialism and the great leader and teacher of the international proletariat.
Karl Marx opened up a new epoch for mankind, an epoch at the centre of which is the proletariat. Marx revealed the world historic role of the proletariat as the most revolutionary class in the history of mankind, the gravedigger of capitalism and the builder of socialism. Marxism shows that the working class has the historic mission to overthrow and destroy the capitalist system, and with this to end exploitation of man by man and the whole historical epoch of class society.
Karl Marx was a revolutionary fighter for the cause of the proletariat and all the oppressed people. Both through his theoretical works and through his activity as a practical revolutionary organiser, he fought to make the working class conscious of its mission and to bring the class forward, to organise it to take up this mission. And today, 100 years after the death of Karl Marx, it is the teachings of Marx which arouse confidence and optimism about the future of the proletariat and peoples and progressive mankind. Far from being outdated and obsolete, Marxism alone shows the way out of the present all-sided crisis of capitalism, shows the way forward for the working class to avert the great catastrophes with which imperialism is threatening mankind, and to rid the world of capitalist and imperialist exploitation and oppression. Marxism teaches the inevitability and necessity of the proletarian revolution.
The enemies of Marxism-Leninism and the proletariat try to represent Marxism as a kind of “faith”, as a set of sectarian ideas, views and schemes amongst the many put forward to try to explain the world. There is nothing sectarian about Marxism, nothing of superstition or “faith”! It is an integral scientific theory and ideology derived from the analysis of the laws governing the development of society, a doctrine which has been tested and proven in the heat of the class struggle. It is the only doctrine which provides solutions to the great problems facing society.
Karl Marx was one of the most outstanding men of genius and one of the greatest thinkers in the history of mankind. He summed up in a critical way and raised to a new and higher level the achievements already made in the 19th century in the field of philosophy and natural and social science and summed up the whole experience of the struggle of the proletariat and the working masses against exploitation and oppression. Through this work of genius, Karl Marx effected a revolutionary turning point in philosophical, economic and political thought and opened up new paths for the development of human society.
Karl Marx was the creator of the new scientific world outlook, the dialectical materialist philosophy, supplying the proletariat and its party with the scientific world outlook, the scientific theory and method to study the world so as to be able to transform it. Marx, and his close collaborator and friend, Frederick Engels, defended philosophical materialism, enriched it with dialectics and applied dialectical materialism to the study of the laws governing social life and development. The historical materialist doctrine of Marx put on a truly scientific footing the laws of human social development, showing how class society emerged, how class struggle is the motive force of social development, and how capitalism, the highest stage of class society, will be overthrown by the proletariat, which will establish its dictatorship in the transition to socialism and the classless society of communism.
As Marx wrote,“... And now as to myself, no credit is due to me for discovering the existence of classes in modern society, nor yet the struggle between them. Long before me bourgeois historians had described the historical development of this struggle of the classes and bourgeois economists the economic anatomy of the classes. What I did that was new was to prove: 1) that the EXISTENCE OF CLASSES is only bound up with PARTICULAR, HISTORIC PHASES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCTION; 2) that the class struggle necessarily leads to the DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT; 3) that this dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the ABOLITION OF ALL CLASSES, and to a CLASSLESS SOCIETY”.
Karl Marx was the creator of scientific political economy. In his epoch-making work, “Capital”, Marx achieved his aim, “to lay bare the economic law of motion of modern society”. He discovered the secret of capitalist exploitation and capitalist accumulation, laying bare the special law which governs the development of capitalist society: the law of surplus value, the production and appropriation of surplus value by capital. He showed how the accumulation of wealth by the bourgeoisie proceeds side-by-side with the growing impoverishment, exploitation and ruin of the proletariat and working people. Through the detailed and scientific analysis of capitalist society which Marx made together with Engels, he proved that the socioeconomic system of capitalism is interwoven with antagonistic contradictions, inherent and insoluble, which make capitalist society historically transient; contradictions which inevitably drive capitalist society to its collapse, giving rise to the creation of a new society without exploitation and oppression, the socialist society.
Marx founded modern, scientific socialism on the basis of his discoveries of historical materialism and the law of surplus value. He put socialism on a scientific footing, transforming socialism from a utopia into a science and, with this, opened up new prospects for the proletarian struggle for emancipation. He scientifically showed the brilliant socialist and communist future and showed how the class struggle between the proletariat and bourgeoisie would inevitably lead to its attainment. He revealed the historic mission of the proletariat to overthrow capitalism, smash up its repressive state apparatus through revolutionary violence and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. Marx elaborated the tasks of the proletariat in the revolution in relation to the state apparatus and the overthrown bourgeoisie and he outlined the path for the construction of socialism.
Not only was Marx a thinker of genius, he was also a great revolutionary who fought all his life at the head of the workers’ movement and as a practical revolutionary organiser. Marx fought in the class battles of the time, paid continuous attention to elaborating the revolutionary tactics for waging the ideological, political and economic struggles of the proletariat, and fought to organise the political party of the proletariat. Karl Marx saw the strength of the working class in its organisation and in its international unity. Therefore, together with Frederick Engels, he founded the “Communist League” and later the “International Working Men’s Association”, the historic First International, the organisation of the solidarity and unity of the revolutionary proletariat of countries of Europe and North America. Through this organisation, Marx hammered out a uniform tactic for the proletarian struggle in the various countries, and, as Lenin writes “laid the foundation of the proletarian, international struggle for Socialism”.
Marx’s contributions to the development of the British working class movement and the analysis of the problems facing it were invaluable. He was an inspirer and leader of, and an active participant in, all the revolutionary movements of the working class. Thus, for example, he supported with all his strength the first attempt by the proletariat to seize political power: the Paris Commune of 1871. The life and work of Karl Marx are the embodiment of theory dynamically linked with practice, the acquisition of knowledge to change the world, a life and work which have become and will remain an example and inspiration for the proletarians and communists of every country.
Marxism has stood the test of time, for, whilst various theories have come and gone since the time of Marx, Marxism remains the only philosophical-political doctrine capable of giving correct answers to the great problems set by the present epoch. It is the only complete, harmonious and scientific doctrine which provides an objective reflection and complete explanation of reality, and which thus serves the most advanced class, the class which is developing and in whose hands lies the future of the entire progressive mankind, the proletariat. Those who accuse Marxism of being “one-sided”, “distortive” and “class biased” and say that they stand for “unbiased objectivity” are precisely those who wish to hide, distort and deny objective reality in defence of the interests of a decaying and dying class, the bourgeoisie.
Ever since it was brought into the world, Marxism has been denigrated, attacked and distorted. But today, 100 years after the brain of Marx ceased to think, Marxism remains as invincible as ever. The attempts to “disprove” Marxism, to distort and attack it, have failed. And they will always fail because Marxism is a science, it expresses historical truth. It is the indestructible scientific doctrine of the proletariat for the gaining of its emancipation.
The bourgeois ideologues point to the degeneration and betrayal which occurred in the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin, to the grave situation which exists in China, Yugoslavia, Poland, etc., as “proof” that Marxism does not work, that Marxism has failed. But the tragic events in these countries show only the failure of those who depart from Marxism; they show only that any deviation from Marxism-Leninism leads inevitably to the betrayal of the cause of the proletariat and the cause of socialism and revolution. The bourgeoisie and revisionists portray the Soviet Union, China and Yugoslavia, etc., as being examples of “Marxism in power”. But anyone who makes the effort to compare Marxism with the reality in these countries can only come to the conclusion that there is nothing Marxist about these countries; a Marxist-Leninist analysis leads only to the conclusion that what is necessary and inevitable in these countries is a new proletarian revolution, the overthrow of the revisionist bourgeoisie in power and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Marxism is the revolutionary ideology and theory of the proletariat in its struggle for its emancipation and the emancipation of all those exploited and oppressed by capital. Marxism is not a dogma or an assemblage of phrases, nor is it an illuminist or abstract theory divorced from practice. Marxism is the theory of the working class which not only teaches it to know and understand the world but also how to transform it. Marxism is the guide to radically transform society and free it from all exploitation and oppression, it is a theory ’which has as its foundation the practice of life and the class struggle. It is precisely this which gives Marxism its dynamic, living and creative character, which makes Marxism ever young, fresh and immortal. Thus, the ideas of Marx were developed and enriched further by Engels; under the conditions when capitalism had developed into monopoly capitalism, into imperialism, they were defended, enriched and raised to a still higher level by Lenin. As Stalin writes, “Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution” and the scientific correctness and vitality of Marxism-Leninism was proclaimed by the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917, as it was later in the people’s revolution in Albania and in various other countries. Following the death of Lenin it was Stalin, the leader of the Bolshevik Party after Lenin, who defended and further enriched Marxism, who led the construction of socialism in the Soviet Union and defended the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat against internal and external enemies.
The dynamic, living and creative character of Marxism is concretely manifested in all its vitality in socialist Albania today. The victory of the ideas and teaching of Marx is clearly demonstrated in real life in Albania. Under the leadership of the Party of Labour of Albania with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, the Albanian working class and people are proving that a country, even a small country which was once backward, can construct and consolidate socialism as long as it remains loyal to the teachings of Marxism-Leninism. And through the resolute and ceaseless struggle the PLA and Comrade Enver Hoxha have waged to defend and apply the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, through the resolute class struggle they have waged against imperialism, the bourgeoisie and reaction and against all variants of modern revisionism, they have not only defended but greatly enriched Marxism-Leninism both in theory and practice. The profound works of Comrade Enver Hoxha – such as “Imperialism and the Revolution”, “Reflections on China”, “The Khrushchevites”, “With Stalin”, “The Titoites”, “Eurocommunism is AntiCommunism”, “The Anglo-American Threat to Albania” and so on – have been invaluable contributions to the International Marxist-Leninist Communist Movement, have defended and further enriched the Marxist-Leninist teachings.
It is the Marxist-Leninist classics, the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, which give the proletariat and its parties the indispensable weapon, the guarantee for securing the victory of the struggle for emancipation. Marxism-Leninism is the compass which guides the struggles of the working class to victory, which directly serves to enlighten and organise the working class and show it the correct path in the struggle. No serious headway can be made towards revolution and socialism, towards the emancipation of the proletariat and the oppressed masses, unless the purity of Marxism-Leninism is defended, unless these fundamental principles are mastered and applied to the concrete conditions of today. And it is the genuine Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries in each country who have defended and are defending the purity of Marxism Leninism, implementing it in the concrete conditions of their countries and developing it in the practice of the revolutionary class struggle which they are waging against the class enemies.
Marxism was born and was developed as a revolutionary ideology of the working class in struggle against the numerous open and covert enemies who have tried to divert the working-class movement from the revolutionary road of overthrowing the old capitalist order and constructing the new system of socialism. This great and central struggle between the proletarian ideology and the bourgeois and revisionist ideology has continued ever since the creation of Marxism. Today, as always in the past, the bourgeoisie launches ferocious attacks on Marxism-Leninism in its attempts to defeat and discredit it, to deprive the proletariat of its revolutionary Marxist-Leninist consciousness, ideology and world outlook and prevent it from taking up its historic mission.
The bourgeoisie and imperialists have two main means of struggle in their attempts to achieve this. In the first place, they launch their frenzied and open anticommunism, their open abuse, denigration and vilification of Karl Marx and Marxism-Leninism. These attacks in reality testify to the weakness and bankruptcy of the ideology of the bourgeoisie, revealing its inability to oppose Marxism directly, to counter it with any logic or scientific argument.
In the second place, special emphasis and reliance is placed on modern revisionism and opportunism to attack the proletarian ideology and theory, precisely because of the inability of the bourgeoisie to oppose it directly. The revisionists pose as Marxists in order to distort and revise its teachings, to strip it of its revolutionary content, to make it ineffective for the proletariat and harmless to the bourgeoisie. The modern revisionists and opportunists each proclaim their particular brand of anti-communism and anti-Marxism to be “genuine Marxism”, to be “human Marxism”, “developed Marxism”, “national styles of Marxism”, “modern-day versions” of Marxism, and so on, in order to discredit and bury Marxism, while paying lip service to it.
The revisionists in Britain too have their British “version” of Marxism which, like all the other currents of modern revisionism and opportunism, denies and betrays every fundamental teaching of this immortal doctrine. The revisionists preach to the proletariat that the crisis is not a fellow-traveller of capitalism but merely the result of the policy of this or that government or individual; they preach to the proletariat that there exists a so-called “alternative policy” which can make capitalism work and can reform away its ills, crises and acute dangers with which it threatens the people; they preach to the proletariat that capitalism can be reformed into socialism through the parliament, calling upon the working class to wage its struggles within the confines of the capitalist system and with the aim of preserving it and not of bringing about its destruction.
The revisionist and opportunist renegades and traitors speculate with the new conditions and transformations in the world and the concrete conditions which exist in each particular country to proclaim Marxism outdated and inapplicable. For the same purpose, they deny the creative development and enrichment of Marxism by Lenin and Stalin; they use the name of Lenin to attack Stalin, and the name of Marx to attack Lenin, in order in both cases to attack the fundamental revolutionary principles of Marx, of Marxism-Leninism.
Lenin said, “It has always been the case in history that after the death of revolutionary leaders who were popular amongst the oppressed classes, these leaders’ enemies have attempted to appropriate their names so as to deceive the oppressed classes”. The revisionists and opportunists swear by the name of Marx; they hold meetings to commemorate his death; they call themselves, their states and parties “Marxist”, and so on. But they cannot conceal their betrayal of the cause of the working class, socialism and the revolution, their deviation from Marxism-Leninism and betrayal of the principles of proletarian internationalism.
The history of the communist movement in Britain and on a world-wide scale shows that the revisionist ideologues have not been successful in their attempts to defeat and undermine Marxism-Leninism. Marxism has emerged victorious in the struggle against the trends hostile to it; Marxism has grown ever stronger, has been further developed and enriched in the course of the struggle against its opponents and distorters. This was the case from the time when Marxism was born in the struggle against the petty-bourgeois, bourgeois and utopian socialists of Marx’s day. It was the case during the time of the great struggle waged by Lenin against the opportunist currents in the Second International (the forefathers of present-day social democracy and the Labour Party). It was the case in the struggle waged by Stalin and the Marxist-Leninists against the Trotskyites, Bukharinites and others. And it is the case in the stern and resolute struggle which has been waged, and is being waged, by the genuine Marxist-Leninists against modern revisionism, against Khrushchevite revisionism, Chinese and Titoite revisionism, Browderism, Eurocommunism and so on.
The victory of Marxism-Leninism in all the struggles in which it has been tried and tested since the time of Marx shows the strength of this ideology of the proletariat testifies to its vitality and scientific character and shows that it defends the interests of the proletariat to whom the future belongs. At the same time, it shows the necessity for there to be no dropping of vigilance, for there to be no let-up in the struggle to defend the purity of Marxism Leninism, to unmask all its distorters and falsifiers and persist in and intensify the struggle against modern revisionism and opportunism of all shades.
Comrades,
The present-day international and national situation fully confirms the scientific truth of Marxism. Karl Marx proved that crisis was a fellow-traveller of the capitalist economic system. Marx proved scientifically that capitalism would be unable to overcome its crisis, that on the contrary with its development this crisis would further deepen. Furthermore, Lenin, with his Marxist analysis of imperialism, proved that capitalism had reached its highest and final stage of development; he proved that far from the contradictions of capitalism being eliminated under imperialism they are all aggravated to the extreme.
A century and more after the path-finding work of Marx, and half a century and more since Lenin’s immortal analysis, the truth and validity of these scientific analyses are being vividly confirmed in present-day capitalist society in Britain and throughout the world. Capitalism has been unable to rid itself of crisis. Despite the euphoria with which the bourgeoisie applauded the so-called “Keynesian solution”, despite the further development of state intervention in the economy, the growth of the public sector and so on, capitalism finds itself in the depths of a profound and acute all-sided crisis to which none of the bourgeois parties and policies can provide any solution. In Britain, mass unemployment stands around five million, and its peaks have been increasing ever since the Second World War. Chronic under capacity is a feature of all industries except the armaments industry and a few others. The overproduction crisis, far from being solved through state intervention, has been further aggravated throughout industry. The danger of imperialist war and of fascism is once again threatening mankind with catastrophic consequences. The hard-won rights of the workers and people are being viciously attacked. The capitalist system cannot provide work for five million people and condemns them to unemployment; it cannot guarantee the welfare of the people; it keeps women enslaved, practises the most vicious racist discrimination and attack against the national minority and immigrant workers and people; it cannot guarantee peace, democracy and independence. As Marx predicted, the polarisation of society is greatly intensifying, with the rich getting richer and the mass of the people getting poorer.
Under these conditions Marxism gives the working class a future, a means to rescue society from the chronic crisis, to avert the danger of war and fascism and to achieve the emancipation of all who are oppressed and exploited by monopoly capital. Marx’s teachings on the necessity of the revolution and of the overthrow of the rule of the bourgeoisie and the capitalist order, on the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and on the replacement of the capitalist social system with socialism, are more real, more relevant than ever.
The bourgeoisie is, as Marx analysed, a superfluous class: it does not contribute anything to progressive mankind. It has only its narrow self interest: to preserve its superprofits and its decaying system of exploitation and oppression. It has nothing to offer the working class and people except more exploitation, oppression, and greater threats to their lives and liberties. It restricts the democratic rights of the people in its efforts to shift the burden of the crisis onto their shoulders and protect its obsolete order. It is militarising the economy, increasing its preparations for war and is preparing to plunge the world into a new imperialist world war in order to safeguard its markets, spheres of influence and its superprofits and to expand. It is an oppressor of other nations and it sells out the national rights and sovereignty of the people for the sake of its own class interests.
None of the political parties of the bourgeoisie has any solution to this impasse which society has now reached. Whether it be Labour, Conservative, Liberal, SDP or any other bourgeois party, every “solution” they advance actually becomes a factor in further aggravating the problems and crisis of the capitalist system. The “alternative policies” of the social democrats and revisionists are a fraud. They create reformist illusions that the crisis of capitalism can be eliminated within the framework of capitalism, that the capitalist system can overcome its ills and can be reformed. Their “alternative policies” are designed to maintain the credibility of the capitalist system and the political parties of the bourgeoisie in the eyes of the people, to divert the people from the revolutionary path, the revolutionary struggle to transform the present order from capitalism to socialism, the only way that the crisis and the ills of capitalism can be eliminated.
The objective situation shows that the fate of the people and the fate of mankind cannot be left to the bourgeoisie, their political parties and representatives. They have no solutions to the grave problems facing the people and there is nothing progressive or humanitarian about them. They accuse the Marxist-Leninists and the broad mass of people fighting for their rights and freedom of being “enemies” of the peoples and nation, presenting themselves as the saviours of the nation and those who have the best interests of the people at heart. But nothing could be further from the truth. It is the bourgeoisie and their agents who are reactionary, who stand in the way of and are a fetter on the progress of the society and who are bringing disaster to the people. It is they who are fighting to preserve their obsolete order of oppression and exploitation, who are directing their fire against all progressive forces in struggle for their just rights and against the existing capitalist and imperialist order. It is they who are prepared to plunge the world into a new devastating imperialist war. It is they who send their aggressive forces all over the globe to slaughter people and commit aggression in order to defend their colonial and neo-colonial possessions. It is they who are the enemies of the people and the traitors to the nation, who sell out the sovereignty of the country to the US imperialists in pursuit of their own imperialist ambitions. It is they who have committed and continue to commit every kind of crime to secure their maximum superprofits and to preserve their system of capitalist exploitation and imperialist robbery.
As Marx wrote: “And here it becomes evident, that the bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose its conditions of existence upon society as an over-riding law. It is unfit to rule because it is incompetent to assure an existence to its slave within his slavery... Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, its existence is no longer compatible with society.” Far from being outdated and irrelevant to the conditions of Britain, Marxism provides the solution to the present situation in which society finds itself.
Marxism-Leninism scientifically determines the main social force which can lead the exploited and oppressed in this revolutionary transformation of society: the proletariat, the class which is the most numerous, progressive and revolutionary, the class which by the very workings of capitalism itself is brought forward in increased numbers, becomes more united, organised and disciplined.
Marx taught that the proletariat is at the centre of our epoch, and world historical development since the time of Marx has not altered the truth of this great teaching in any way. Today, as in the past, the revisionists and opportunists distort and deny this fact, distort and deny Lenin’s conclusion that, “The main thing in the doctrine of Marx is that it brings out the historic role of the proletariat as the builder of socialist society.” They strive to negate the historic mission of the proletariat and its leading role in the revolutionary process, and try to prevent the working class becoming conscious of this mission. On the one hand they preach that the most to which the proletariat should aspire is the gaining of some reforms within the capitalist order; on the other hand, they preach that other classes, social forces and parties of the bourgeois society can or should lead the struggle for social change. Thus, the Labour Party, a capitalist party, is presented as the saviour and defender of the interests and cause of the working class. The workers are called upon to look to and put their faith in bourgeois politicians and the bourgeois parliament, in parliamentarism, to defend their rights and bring about “progressive social change”. The broad masses of people are called upon to put their faith in the two superpowers and the other warmongering imperialist and social-imperialist powers and governments to “defend peace” and avert the danger of war and fascism. The labour aristocracy and the class collaborationist labour traitors are presented as the defenders of the rights of the workers and so on. At the same time, the bourgeois and revisionist ideologues concoct their theories that the working class has lost its revolutionary potential and capacity, that it is no longer a revolutionary class, has become “bourgeoisified” and has been integrated into the capitalist society, and so on.
The present day reality in all countries proves that, as in the past, there is no other class or social force which can replace the proletariat as the leader of all the exploited and oppressed to realise the radical transformation of society and to lead the broad masses of people in the struggle against imperialism and for democracy, freedom and national independence. It proves Marx’s thesis on the necessity for the proletariat to build its revolutionary political party to lead it in revolution and in the construction of socialism; a party which sets its objective tasks on the basis of the programme of Marxism and which solves the concrete problems of the revolution on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist theory and according to Marxist strategy and tactics.
This question is of central importance. It is the British working class, and the workers of all countries, who have the solution to the crisis of the capitalist system, who are the gravediggers of capitalism and the builders of socialism. The mission of the British working class is not to line up behind the bourgeoisie and fight for the ambitions and interests of the latter. It is not to preserve the capitalist order and reduce its struggles simply to the gaining of reforms. The mission of the proletariat is to lead all the exploited and oppressed to destroy the old social order and usher in the new world of socialism. The task before our Party, the Marxist-Leninist vanguard of the proletariat, is to arouse, mobilise and organise the working class to play its role at the head of the revolutionary process, to stand and fight with dignity, pride and determination as the class which is the future leader of society, which has the solution to avert the danger of war and fascism, rescue society from the crisis of capitalism, emancipate all the exploited and oppressed, and end the exploitation of man by man.
The working class must wage its day-to-day struggles; if it does not, the workers will be, in the words of Marx, “degraded to one level of broken wretches, past salvation”. But these everyday struggles must not be exaggerated; they must be waged with an objective, with the final aim of the movement in mind, with the perspective and task of preparing for the victory of the proletarian revolution. As Marx elaborated in the Communist Manifesto and other works: the fight for the attainment of the immediate and democratic aims are subordinated to and coordinated with the ultimate aim of the movement, the socialist revolution and communism.
This socialist system is not a utopia or dream, as the bourgeoisie tries to suggest. This social system was realised, and its great superiority over capitalist society was demonstrated, in the Soviet Union during the time of Lenin and Stalin; it was realised in a number of countries after the Second World War; and with magnificent success it is being realised in socialist Albania today. No amount of lies, distortions and slanders can hide this truth. Today, in socialist Albania, the working class and people are free and independent; there is no crisis, unemployment, price rises, inflation or overproduction crisis; there are no exploiting classes, and the material and cultural well-being of the people is constantly increasing; the economy is flourishing and constantly expanding; complete equality exists for all nationalities; women have gained their emancipation; the youth have a bright future and prospects; there are no foreign troops or bases on Albanian soil; it does not participate in any aggressive military pacts and it has no troops committing aggression in other countries. The prospects, the happiness, future and security of the country and the people are secure and constantly advancing.
The victories scored in socialist Albania are a reality which inspire new hopes and prospects for the workers and oppressed peoples throughout the world. These victories stand in complete contrast to the debacle of the pseudo-socialist systems of the Soviet Union, China, Poland, Yugoslavia, etc. -all of which are presented by the bourgeoisie and revisionists alike as being “genuine”, “developed” and “humane” socialist systems in order to try to fool the people and alienate them from scientific socialism.
There is nothing Marxist, socialist or progressive about the pseudo-socialist systems which exist in these countries. With perfidy and treachery, the Khrushchevite revisionists overthrew the socialist order built under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, restored capitalism in the Soviet Union, enslaved the proletariat and the nationalities of the country and embarked on the course of social imperialism. Today, the Soviet Union is a monstrous superpower which, together with the United States, is the greatest enemy of the world’s people, socialism and national liberation. Similarly, the Chinese revisionists, who never established genuine socialism in their country, enslave the proletariat and people of China and have turned China into an oppressive and aggressive social-imperialist power. In Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and so on, socialism does not exist, the revolution and the cause of the proletariat have been betrayed, capitalism has been restored and it is a new revisionist-bourgeoisie which is in power, a vicious exploiter and oppressor of the working class and peoples.
The temporary failures and reversals of the revolution in various countries, the betrayal of socialism in the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin, the betrayal of the revolution in China, in Yugoslavia, etc., do not show the impossibility of building socialism, as the bourgeois ideologues suggest; they do not show that “human nature” will always undermine socialism. They show what Marx himself pointed out, that the history of the revolution and socialism is not a triumphant march in a straight line that the revolution encounters colossal difficulties, obstacles, turns and zig-zags; but that its forward march is an inevitability which emerges from the objective development of society. The victory of socialism is not just a desire of the communists; it is an inevitable historical process which no force can prevent. Neither is it a far, far distant prospect and dream. As Lenin analysed, and as the facts of life have shown, the present epoch of imperialism has greatly aggravated all the contradictions of capitalism; the objective development of capitalism has made it more than ripe for the revolutionary transformation to socialism. The present epoch is the epoch of imperialism and the proletarian revolution.
The present-day international and national situation fully confirms the ideas and analysis of Marx and of Lenin on the development of capitalism and imperialism: the contradictions of the world capitalist-revisionist system are all greatly sharpening. The contradiction between labour and capital, the class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, is sharpening in all the capitalist-revisionist countries. The contradictions between imperialism and social-imperialism on the one hand, and the oppressed peoples and nations dominated and oppressed by imperialism on the other, is also greatly sharpening. So, too, are the inter-imperialist, inter-monopoly contradictions, including those between the blocs headed by the two superpowers, as well as the struggle for markets and spheres of influence within these blocs.
Within this tense and complicated international situation, with the deepening of the crisis and with the sharpening of the contradictions of the world imperialist system, two contradictory processes are unfolding. On the one hand, the danger of a catastrophic imperialist war and the acute dangers to the lives, freedom and independence of the peoples are greatly increasing; on the other hand, there is the weakening of imperialism and the creation of increasingly favourable conditions for the development and triumph of the proletarian revolution.
Marx always considered the revolution in different countries to be closely connected with one another; that the interests of the proletariat and people of one country are inseparable from the interests of the proletariat and people of the entire world. And his ideas on this fundamental question retain their full validity today. In the conditions of capitalist development, especially in its highest stage of imperialism, the revolutionary process assumes a unified and universal character. In the present epoch of imperialism and proletarian revolution, the socialist revolutions, the democratic revolutions, the anti-imperialist revolutions, the national liberation movements and the anti-imperialist, democratic movements for peace, independence and progress – all these revolutionary movements and struggles are component parts of a single revolutionary process, the world proletarian revolution. And the proletariat, the most revolutionary class of society, led by its Marxist-Leninist parties, stands at the head of this world revolutionary process and leads it to complete victory.
The proletarian revolution, as Marx taught, is not only aimed at eliminating exploitation of man by man but also stands against every kind of national and social oppression. In this respect, Marx stressed that the national liberation movements were the natural allies of the proletariat; that it was the establishment of socialism which would correctly and completely solve the national problem; that no nation which oppresses another nation can itself be free.
These teachings of Marx on the national question and the liberation movements, and their development and enrichment by Lenin and Stalin under the conditions of imperialism, remain as valid today as ever. The masses of people face not only the exploitation and oppression of their own bourgeoisie; they are also faced with the aggression and plunder by · imperialism and social imperialism, headed by the two superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union, the two biggest and most dangerous enemies of the world. These two superpowers, along with the other imperialist and social-imperialist powers, are committing untold crimes against the peoples and nations, violating the freedom, sovereignty and independence of the peoples, committing barbarous acts of aggression, annexation and interference, subjugating other nations to their colonial and neo-colonial rule and are preparing for a new world war. The quest for world hegemony by the two superpowers, the imperialist policy of aggression, enslavement and expansion, the system of colonialism and neo-colonialism, far from eliminating the national question, have made it an ever more acute problem for the people, a problem which exists not only in the developing countries, but in the developed countries as well.
Thus, it is the duty of all the progressive and revolutionary forces to stand firm against and to fight imperialism resolutely in whatever form it expresses itself; it is their duty to support the national liberation struggles of the oppressed people as a component part of the world revolutionary process against imperialism and for the freedom, independence and liberation of all the peoples.
Comrades,
The revolution is the necessity of our time to avert the danger of imperialist war and the danger of fascism and to end the imperialist system of exploitation and oppression. The question of the revolution is not just an aspiration or a distant prospect; it is a question being taken up for solution by the Marxist-Leninist parties in their respective countries. It is the ideas and teachings of Marx – of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin – which are the indispensable guide to change the world, the indispensable weapon in the hands of the proletariat and its party to realise its historic mission.
Being a Marxist today means, as always in the past, being a proletarian revolutionary. It means to defend the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin and to struggle ceaselessly against modern revisionism and opportunism of all shades; it means to defend Marxism-Leninism in its purity, to master this theory and apply it to transform the world. It means to build and strengthen the Marxist Leninist party as the political party of the proletariat, the general staff of the working class to guide and lead it in the revolutionary struggle. It means to defend the cause of revolution, socialism and communism throughout the world, to wage relentless class struggle against imperialism and the bourgeoisie and to see this struggle through to the end. It means to organise for proletarian revolution in one’s country and to work for its victory on a world-wide scale. It means to resolutely support the genuine Marxist-Leninist parties and the struggles of the working class and people of each and every country for their national and social emancipation. Any other kind of Marxism is a fraud and a sham.
One hundred years after the death of Karl Marx, the name and ideas of Marx are still engraved in the hearts and minds of the revolutionaries and progressive people throughout the world. Marx’s doctrine is very much alive and full of vitality and is being applied by increasing numbers of proletarians throughout the world, guided by their Marxist-Leninist parties, to realise the proletarian revolution as a practical task.
In Britain, the deepening of the crisis, the further awakening of the workers and broad masses of people to the realities of the capitalist system and the acute dangers it is bringing to mankind, is resulting in more and more people looking for real solutions. It is Marxism which provides this solution. The Party is taking up the task of integrating Marxism-Leninism with the practice of the revolution, integrating it with the working-class movement, and making it a reality and a material force amongst the workers and broad masses of people. The factors for a new catastrophic world war and the possibilities of revolution are both increasing daily. The proletariat and its allies, led by its Marxist-Leninist vanguard, must prepare themselves for the decisive battles which are coming.
Comrades,
Marx and Engels wrote in the “Communist Manifesto”: “The communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.” This clarion call is not just the prospect of our time, it is the necessity of our time, a necessity which our Party, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Marxist-Leninist parties and revolutionary forces throughout the world, has taken up for solution.
Let us pledge ourselves to work even more energetically towards this goal; let us salute socialist Albania, the Party of Labour of Albania and Comrade Enver Hoxha; let us salute the genuine Marxist-Leninist parties throughout the world. The ideas of Marx are immortal and they will guide mankind to a brilliant future, the future of socialism and communism.
HAIL THE CENTENARY OF THE DEATH OF KARL MARX!
LONG LIVE THE UNITY OF THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST-LENINIST COMMUNIST MOVEMENT!
GLORY TO MARXISM-LENINISM!
LONG LIVE PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM!
WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!