April 22. 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Lenin. The necessity of socialism in these terrible times has never been clearer as has the need for a real alternative to the neo-fascism of the right, the hypocritical swamp of liberalism and the decay of social democracy.
These are excerpts from Communist and Workers' parties statements from around the world including a joint statement by 89 parties and others from the United States, Hungary, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Joint statement of 89 Communist and Workers’ Parties on the 150th anniversary of the birth of V. I. Lenin
Lenin’s valuable theoretical work is still timely and serves as a beacon for the ideological-political education and action of every new generation of revolutionaries. We honour V. I. Lenin as the leader of the Great October Socialist Revolution, which about a century ago shook the world. The victorious revolution illuminated the power of the class struggle, the power of the exploited and the oppressed—when they take the case of their interests into their own hands and turn the wheel of history forward—in the direction of social liberation. The October flame led and accelerated the establishment of a number of Communist and revolutionary Workers’ parties. Lenin had an insightful strategic ability and skillfully handled alliances, abilities that he devoted to the cause of the socialist revolution.
We honour V. I. Lenin as the leader of the world’s first socialist state, which for the first time established workers’ power based on new revolutionary institutions, such as the Soviets, sought the economic functioning of society on a new basis, the basis of the satisfaction of contemporary people’s needs and the multi-faceted free development of all people, not the profitability of the few. The USSR, the first socialist state in the world, which was realised with the special contribution of V. I. Lenin, brought to the fore new unprecedented economic, social, political and cultural achievements for the working class and the wider popular strata that had a profound effect on historical progressive developments around the world. It was a support to the peoples in the struggle for socialism and peace.
We honour V. I. Lenin as the great internationalist, the leader who raised the flag of proletarian internationalism against the treacherous attitude of the Second International during the imperialist World War I, opposed bourgeois nationalism and other bourgeois views such as the cosmopolitanism of capital, and led the establishment of the Third Communist International, which made a major contribution to the international labour and communist movement and today is a basic source for drawing useful lessons from the experience it accumulated through its action. Lenin’s positions on colonialism led the Communists to understand the issue of colonies and inspired them to lead the anti-colonial struggles, both in colonial countries and colonies.
We honour V. I. Lenin as the tireless and consistent opponent of the imperialist war, the defender of peoples’ struggle for national and social liberation, social justice, peace, and socialism.
The counter-revolution and capitalist restoration cannot conceal the achievements of Socialism. The disasters and injustice we are experiencing, the acute problems and the suffering of the working class, the small and middle strata, the peasantry and the peoples overall caused by capitalist exploitation and oppression, emphasise the necessity and timeliness of socialism all over the world.
The Communist and Workers’ Parties denounce the wave of silence as well as the reactionary and anti-communist distortion that has been unleashed around the world by the political forces that serve the interests of capital against the workers and the youth. We struggle for the continuation of his work, we are committed to continue defending and propagating his legacy and we call on the workers and the people to learn from it.
The statement is signed by 89 parties.
Joint Statement on the 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin by The Communist Party of Aotearoa (NCPA) and the Communist Party of Australia (CPA)
Lenin and the Bolshevik Party developed and extended Marxism into the modern era against the revisionism and social-chauvinism of the Second International with new thought on imperialism, colonialism, the state, dialectical materialism, socialist revolution and construction.
Lenin’s contribution to Marxism and the advent of the Great October Socialist Revolution brought Marxism to the Asia-Pacific for the first time and inspired progressive forces all over the Asia-Pacific from Chinese youth to Vietnamese patriots, Australian workers and New Zealand miners to hold the red banner of socialism high in their own struggles.
Despite the tragic disappearance of the Land of Soviets nearly three decades ago, the theoretical legacy of Lenin still guides the Communist and Workers’ Parties of the Asia-Pacific region. Guided by Leninism and analysis of the specific national conditions, our Parties construct a better, socialist future for the working people of our countries, and collectively, the region as a whole and in both Australia and New Zealand.
The future belongs to socialism. On the 150th anniversary of Lenin’s birth -- Statement by Gyula Thürmer, President of the Hungarian Workers' Party
150 years ago, on April 22 1870 Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was born. We honor the memory ofthe outstanding personality of the Russian and international workers' movement, the founder of the Russian communist movement, the leader of the 1917 revolution, the prime minister of Soviet Russia. The man, who changed the 20th century.
Throughout the decades of socialism everyone could read Lenin's works, his legacy was taught in the schools. There were Lenin monuments in almost every town, many streets were named after him. Generations have grown up with his ideas.
During the transition from socialism to capitalism in 1989-90, the statues were removed, the streets were renamed. Over the past 30 years, not a single book of Lenin has been published, the old editions cannot be found even in the second-hand bookstores.
In the more civilised countries of the capitalist world Marx is respected or at least tolerated as a philosopher, an economist who discovered the mechanism of capitalism. In our region, in the former socialist countries, Marx is also blacklisted.
But Lenin is particularly loathed by every capitalist. It's no accident! Lenin was the first one to fulfill the century-old dream of the working people, he defeated capital, toppled the rule of money. He fulfilled Marx's and Engels's ideas, created a functioning socialism.
Lenin is unacceptable to social democracy too. Lenin fought against capital, while the social democrats – from the mensheviks to today's socialists – haven't only come to terms with capital but they have become the executives of capitalism. Lenin advocated socialism, the rule of the working people, while social democrats believe in the purest form of capitalism. The only difference between them and other capitalist forces is that they hide their intentions behind high-sounding slogans – such as "democratic socialism" or the nowadays trendy "social Europe".
The goal of the capitalist world is to smear Lenin, to fade out his legacy, blot out his teachings. Lenin gave an intellectual weapon to the working masses, he taught them how to organise a party, how to bring the revolution to victory and rule the state of workers and peasants. This teaching threatens the very life of capital, so it pursues and uproots it.
CPI General Secretary D. Raja Writes to the Party Cadres on the 150th Birth Anniversary of Comrade Lenin
Comrade V.I. Lenin was a great theoretician and ideologue after Karl Marx. He was a great strategist and tactician. He led the socialist revolution in 1917 which is celebrated as the great October Socialist revolution. This led to the foundation of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) the first working class state and nation in the world. Despite the fall of the first communist government and disintegration of the Soviet Union, the legacy of great Lenin continues to be a source of inspiration not only for the people of Russia but also for the people of the world over.
It was Lenin after Marx who developed the theory of Marxism- philosophy (Dialectical and Historical Materialism), political economy and scientific socialism. Lenin analysed the capitalist development at its new stage. Lenin’s work “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism” exposed the parasitic and moribund character of capitalism and also indicated the transition from capitalism to socialism. At the beginning and during the Great Depression, Lenin’s analysis of imperialism showed the way forward towards an alternative in establishing a working class state and building socialism free from all forms of exploitations and discriminations.
Statement of the CPUSA on the 150thAnniversary of Lenin’s Birth
The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) joins Communists, socialists, and anti-imperialists of all countries in celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin, whose work became and remains the foundation for Communist parties and workers movements from the Soviet Socialist Revolution (1917) to today.
Lenin’s theory of a revolutionary vanguard party of the working class, first advanced in What is to be Done(1904), called for the creation of parties that would organize and educate the working class and coordinate its struggle or socialism. This represented a sharp break with opportunist tendencies in the socialist movement in Russia, with worldwide implications.
Lenin, during WWI, in State and Revolution (1916) contended that a socialist revolution, to successfully achieve the transition from capitalism to socialism,must establish a new state, a workers state, with its own institutions representing the working class, one which the working class would identify with and defend.
Lenin applied these principles and led his party, the Bolshevik party, to advance the first successful socialist revolution in history (1917) and the first successful revolutionary workers state in history (Soviet Russia, later the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics).
Lenin then developed his theory of imperialism, which saw imperialism as capitalism’s final stage, leading to new and much more destructive wars and much higher levels of exploitation and oppression in the colonial regions of the world
Lenin called upon socialists to work to develop anti-imperialist struggles and establish socialist parties outside of the industrialized capitalist countries (Asia, Africa, and Latin America).
No comments:
Post a Comment