Communism is the historical destiny of mankind and human civilization Nihar Mukherjee General Secretary, SOCIALIST UNITY CENTRE OF INDIA Karl Marx passed away on 14th March, 1883, leaving behind his invaluable revolutionary teaching and the unforgettable example of his indomitable revolutionary character, insatiable quest for truth, encyclopaedic knowledge, profound wisdom and complete identification with the interest of the international proletarian movement. These remarkable personal qualities of Marx were embodiments of the moral values of the incipient world proletarian revolution whose thinker, leader and teacher he was. Naturally, the teachings of Marx throwing light on the course of this revolution have been named after him as Marxism, although this thinking throws light on much else. "Marx was before all else a revolutionist. His real mission in life was to contribute, in one way or another, to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which it had brought into being, to contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat" said Engels. "Fighting was his element. And he fought with a passion, a tenacity and a success such as few could rival." Marx was the first to discover and explain coherently the yet obscure and confused stirring for emancipation of the industrial proletariat within the capitalist social order and the impending proletarian revolution dealing the death blow to the capitalist society. Marx charted out scientifically the course of this revolution. Until Marx's scientific discovery and exposition, the proletariat’s urge for emancipation had been felt and expressed only half-heartedly, at best as in the ideas of Utopian Socialism, lacking precise scientific and historical definition and practical solution. Marxism showed the correct path of its solution — theoretically, since publication of The Communist Manifesto in 1848 ; and practically, since the 1917 Russian socialist revolution, in the socialist systems of Russia and China to Cuba and Vietnam — thus clearing historical ground, in both victories and defeats, rather more in the defeats, and for the final abolition of the world capitalist order. And though the flunkeys of capitalism gloat over the reverse now being suffered by the Marxists, will they dare deny this unparalleled advance of Marxism and the communist movement ? If Marxism is a spent ideology, why do these gentlemen so tirelessly exorcise its ghost even today, in season and out of season ? Why do they have to employ the full power of propaganda to, so laboriously persuade people, aware by themselves of the collapse of the Socialist camp, that ‘Marxism has become outdated’? It is so because the capitalist class is well aware that this temporary reverse has not diminished the theoretical and moral supremacy of Marxism nor undermined its power to rouse the working class and lead them in battle, and so it will have to nevertheless reckon with the impending proletarian revolution ultimately, as Marx had envisaged. Hence its vain effort to lull the exploited and oppressed masses with the refrain in which it does not itself believe : ‘Marxism has become obsolete’. It is the hopeless defence of a defenseless class sentenced by history ! The talk of Marxism becoming obsolete is ridiculous. It grows out of ignorance of the historical conditions of its emergence. Marxism grew in the mid-nineteenth century when knowledge accumulated during the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth, by the individual disciplines of science like Chemistry, Physics, Biology, etc. had become so immense that the separate disciplines could no longer handle them systematically. Experiments had further established that researches started in one discipline often passed into another. In short, development of scientific knowledge through research by separate scientific disciplines had reached such a higher stage when it outgrew the limits of isolated disciplines and called for a systematic coordination and generalization of this knowledge. However, making this theoretical generalization was beyond the capacity of the scientists themselves. It was the special faculty of philosophical thinking. But, as scientific research was intrinsically materialist in character, just so, philosophical thinking was then predominantly idealistic. The crisis in the realm of theoretical thinking cast its dark shadow on development of both science and philosophy. It was in reality a struggle between materialism and idealism. The problem was finally resolved by Marx, who had a profound grasp over the philosophy of antiquity as also over the then European philosophies, above all of classical German philosophy, especially of Hegel and Feurbach. A student of idealist Hegelian philosophy first, Marx subsequently accepted Feurbach’s materialism although Marx’s materialism overcame Feurbach’s inadequacies. But he took from Hegel the "rational kernel" of his philosophy — dialectics. Briefly speaking, Marx liberated dialectics, which was ‘‘turned upside down’’ with Hegel, and put it rightside up again on the basis of materialist thinking, as developed by the great scientific achievements made uptill then. The greatest revolution in man’s philosophical thought was accomplished ! Marx showed that material existence is the only form of existence, and matter exists dialectically. But dialectics is the most general law of motion of matter. Its concrete manifestation in concrete phenomena are different and are, therefore, studied by appropriate and different branches of science. Dialectical materialism, or Marxism, grew by coordinating and generalizing the truths discovered by them, as a system of thought which can explain and investigate all phenomena of nature, society and thought. That is why it is the science of all sciences. As the world of matter will never disappear but only change forms, so Marxism will not become obsolute but grow and develop ceaselessly. So, Marx studied things materialistically, in their interconnections, that is, in the manner in which they exist objectively. Besides, he studied them in movement and not as static objects — i.e., dialectically. Moreover, he observed the contradiction and unity of the opposite forces which exist in all phenomena without exception — i.e., in the forces of reproduction and extinction in all living beings and in the mutually opposite classes in class society. Such unity of opposite forces is a general law of dialectics residing in all things. It is precisely the contradiction between the opposites and their continuous intensification which propels a phenomenon forward, causes its progress. In feudal society, contradiction between the feudal and the capitalist class pushes society ahead. Man’s struggle for knowing newer and newer truths develops his intellectual faculty, but this development also always presupposes a contradiction and conflict of his correct ideas with his incorrect ideas. The change which phenomena undergo due to this internal contradiction, gradually intensifies more and more, quantitatively, and finally reaches the extreme when the old contradiction and the old phenomenon is radically and qualitatively changed. Similarly, when social conflict reaches the extreme point, revolution becomes imminent. But although the old phenomenon is negated, it is not a simple negation, but the negation of negation. Every new phenomenon, or material process, comes into being by negating its preceding one in the womb of which it grew itself ; it is negated in its turn by the new force grown within itself and which now comes to life. In every domain of material world including the world of man’s idea, everything is in constant motion and nothing is at rest. And in this flux everything, every social system and every idea is coming into being and going out of being. Birth of the new is impossible without the passing away of the old. The new only arises from the womb of the old and decaying, as nature shows abundantly. But what happens in nature as a matter of course occurs differently in society, because the ruling class wants to protect its old privileges stubbornly. And so, destruction of the old and moribund capitalist society, and the complete exposure and uprooting of all its hallowed traditions and sentiments and cultural, moral and aesthetic trappings — the complete shattering of these — is not merely destructive but a profoundly positive and revolutionary necessity for the new society to arise. The hatred and fear of Marxism in the bourgeoisie is due to the fact that no other theory has so completely exposed it and raised the proletariat's political consciousness, helping it overthrow capitalism. It could not be possible if Marxism had not possessed a profoundly scientific understanding of economic and historical process with which to explain the modern day social and political struggles. This is what distinguished Marxism from all other narrow and speculative doctrines. So, instead of condemning capitalism merely with articles, speeches and agitations or inventing a higher communist society 'speculatively', as had been done till then by Utopian Socialists and others, Marx set to meticulously studying the history of development of earlier societies, the form of their legal structures and their economic relationships, in order to understand social history and in its light to comprehend the laws of capitalist society. Marx’s consequent great contribution to human knowledge was his discovery of the fundamental laws of development of society, in other words, the basic laws of development of human history. They showed that the system of economic production of the means of subsistence and the social structure arising from it, at every historical epoch, form the material basis upon which develop the political and cultural history of that epoch. He said : ‘‘The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general.’’ This is the materialist interpretation of history. Marx showed accordingly, that the primitive clan society based on communal ownership of land was classless. It was private ownership of the socially produced wealth which divided society into antagonistic classes. After the dissolution of the primitive communistic society, the history of all hitherto existing society has been the history of class struggles. It is true for slave society, feudal society and capitalist society. But Marx discovered at the same time, as Engels explained, that ‘‘this struggle, however, has now reached a stage where the proletariat can no longer emancipate itself from the bourgeoisie, without at the same time for ever freeing the whole of society from exploitation, oppression and class struggles." This discovery that — according to the level of advancement of the production of the economic necessities of society, its political, cultural and intellectual developments do take place, in reciprocal connection, was a great step forward in finally understanding the capitalist society. Exposition of the laws of capitalist economic development, as explained and elaborated in Marx’s Capital, was not a mere economic analysis but a thorough exposure of the capitalist society as a whole. It revealed the "special law of motion governing the present day capitalist mode of production" and most importantly, solved the puzzle of ‘surplus value’ which is the key to grasping the operation of capitalist economy and the accumulation of ‘capital’. The most basic social and economic questions related with the proletariat’s emancipation, which needed the most thorough scientific and historic examination, were in this way finally settled by Marx. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels said., "The bourgeoisie ... has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together. Subjection of Nature's forces to man, machinery, ... steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalization of rivers ... — what earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of social labour?" And how much more massive and colossal productive forces can the bourgeoisie can then release today with the help of modern technology ! But today capitalism is producing inflation, unemployment and poverty, increasingly and on a globalized scale. Because, ‘‘... Modern bourgeois society ... is like the sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers ... whom he has called up by his spells." Capitalists produce for profit which leads to intense competition for market but also lowering of purchasing power of the people resulting in production of more goods than there are customers ; there is over production of commodities but slump in market and inflation in economy. Factories are shut down, workers are fired. Entire society bears the shocks. Globalization is no better than tariff wall, and the latter is as vulnerable as militarized economy or old and tattered welfare economy. The uselessness of all capitalist devices increasingly only confirms Marx : ‘‘The essential condition for the existence and for the sway of the bourgeois class, is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage labour. Wage labour rests exclusively on competition between the labourers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaced the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by their revolutionary combination (Trades’ Union) due to association ... What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.’’ This prophecy of Marx became nearly a reality in 1871, in the heroic proletarian battle of Paris Commune. Marx observed keenly that, ‘‘...the proletariat increasingly organized itself around revolutionary Socialism, around Communism... This Socialism is the declaration of the class dictatorship if the proletariat as the necessary transit point to the abolition of class distinctions generally.’’ Showing that : ... ‘‘the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat’’ Marx elaborated profoundly that ‘‘this dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society ...’’ Speaking about this classless communist society, Engels showed that ‘‘Society, which will reorganize production on the basis of a free and equal association of the producers, will put the whole machinery of state where it will then belong : into the museum of antiquities, by the side of the spinning-wheel and the bronze axe.’’ The dictatorship of proletariat which negates bourgeois rule, prepared the preconditions for the negation of its own class rule and therefore of its own class state too, forever. It thus stands apart from all preceding forms of state as the most democratic one. Marx was not only the theorist of the proletarian revolution, but also its most competent organizer. The Communist Manifesto awakened the proletariat with the revolutionary message. However, the 1850s was a reactionary time and the working class movement grew only gradually. Trade Unions, workers’ coopperatives were being built. In 1864, the celebrated International Working Men’s Association was founded by Marx and Engels for welding into one body the whole militant proletariat of Europe and America. Marx intended to channelize the different trends within the workers’ struggles, including the Prudhonites, Lassalleans, Blanquists, Bakuninists while exposing their erroneous views. He did not want the International to become a platform of mere economic struggles of the workers, but their ‘‘intellectual development’’ to result finally ‘‘from combined action and mutual discussion.’’ The International quickly grew all over Europe and America, especially in Germany, France, England, Poland, Italy, Belgium, Holland and also Russia. It led workers in many historical struggles, the Paris Commune of 1871 being one of them, in which the International played a great role. Marx’s authority was firmly established over this first ever international proletarian association, until it was dissolved in 1874. All the revolutions of the last century, led by the proletariat were organized by its own class party, the Communist Party. What is notable is, these revolutions took place in different countries at different stages of historical development, varying from industrially developed Czechoslovakia and East Germany to semi-feudal and semi-colonial China, forging alliance with different intermediate classes and strata including even the patriotic national bourgeoisie. What can be a more decisive proof that Marxism is the most scientific theory of social revolution and that if applied really scientifically, meaning creatively and concretely, it can successfully lead revolution in any country of the world ? Marx’s theory of revolution was further concretized, elaborated and enriched by Lenin in the context of the capitalist system becoming moribund, or imperialist, by the end of the nineteenth century. "Leninism was the Marxism of the era of Imperialism and Proletarian Revolution’’ as Stalin summed up. The revolutions led by the proletariat and its communist party were all creative and concrete application of Marxism-Leninism in the particular conditions of each country. In this way, Marx’s theory of world proletarian revolution assumed concrete and different historical forms. All of them grew into socialist social systems, constituting the world socialist camp. The genius of Marx as a great thinker and the unchallengeable truth of Marxism are now facts of history which none can efface. The revolutions in Europe, Asia and Latin America following Marx’s thoughts are not imaginations, after all. And the transformation and unbelievable flourishing of the most miserably backward nations on different continents into powerful, prosperous, cultured and happy socialist societies, inspite of their disappearance now, can not be kept in the dark eternally by any length of anti-communist propaganda. Because, history cannot be reversed ! The ‘‘modern slaves’’ whom socialism emancipated and whom capitalism has snared again for the time being shall break loose of all fetters finally. There is no reason for the capitalist and imperialist slave-drivers, the momentary victors, to gloat and grimace ! The very same historical laws discovered by Marx, which brought socialist societies into existence, will again bring them into being despite all capitalist efforts. But why did the communists fail to apply Marxism consistently and carry the dictatorship of the proletariat to its very logical end of establishment of the classless world communist society ? At which point did we slip and move away from the Marxist dialectical understanding of our historical task ? Communists fell behind, without realizing, in the task of continuously advancing Marxism theoretically by coordinating and generalizing the newer advance-ments of science, the newer complexities of life thrown up by decaying world capitalism, the latest bourgeois ideological trends and above all the newer problems of communist movement itself. The unprecedented achievements of post second world war communist movement made them oblivious of what Engels had said : ‘‘In particular, it will be duty of the leaders to gain an even clearer insight into all theoretical questions, and constantly to keep in mind that socialism, since it has become a science, demands that it be pursued as a science...’’ We have not come across such comprehensive theoretical develop-ments of Marxism since Lenin’s time, despite the appearance in the mean time of a plethora of questions which demand dialectical generali-zation. Obviously, therefore, the theoretical level of communists had fallen short of being adequate and fully dialectical. In other words, communists were largely influenced by mechanical process of thinking. This explains the uncritical acceptance of the Soviet communist party practiced for long by most communist parties. So, although the different communist parties leading the proletarian struggles in the socialist and imperialist and capitalist countries were, more or less despite shortcomings and weaknesses, moving along the correct Marxist-Leninist path, they were too easily confused by revisionist distortion of Marxism at the 20th Congress of the CPSU. It is the prevalence of the mechanical process of thinking instead of the dialectical one, leading to the lowering of ideological level inside the great party of Lenin and Stalin which made it vulnerable to this revisionist deviation. In 1948, the year our party was founded, Comrade Shibdas Ghosh, leader and teacher of our party and an eminent Marxist thinker said in his work ‘Self-criticism of the Communist Camp’ : ‘‘While acknowledging with just pride and reverence the very many achievements and successes and glorious sacrifices of the world communist movement, we have not failed, even for a moment, to point out the serious shortcomings in it. ... These ... are largely due to the fact that the present leadership of the world communist camp is, to a very large extent, influenced by mechanical process of thinking.’’ But as this weakness could not be fought out ideologically, it played a great part in further lowering the ideological standard. This helped revisionist ideas to grow. But, of course, communists will learn from their reverses. If revisionism could destroy Marxism and the communist movement, it could also abolish the proletariat and the class struggle in capitalism! On the contrary, the laws of history will reassert themselves and communists will conduct their world-historical struggle with higher consciousness and greater energy and vigour along the path shown by Marx. This article is in commemoration of Karl Marx on his 120th memorial day ,published in Proletarian Era the Central Party organ of S.U.C.I.
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