April 22. 2020 marked 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.
We already looked at Communist and Workers' parties statements from around the world in our post The future belongs to socialism -- Statements from around the world on the 150th anniversary of Lenin’s birth.
Here are more excerpts of statements from Portugal, Brazil, Pakistan, Iraq, Chile and Austria.
150 years since the birth of Lenin: Statement by Jerónimo de Sousa, General Secretary of the Portuguese Communist Party
Lenin's contribution to the development of Marxism in the era of imperialism and his analyses of the transition from capitalism to a new phase, the monopoly phase, the phase of imperialism, on the question of the state, the phases and stages of the revolutionary process maintain a striking topicality in its essence.
The development of the crisis of capitalism confirms Lenin's fundamental theses about the laws that govern capitalism in this imperialist phase. They highlight the trend towards the finantialization of the economy, which drives capital towards speculation, to the detriment of productive investment, the law of unequal development, the tendency towards stagnation, reflected by the drop in the growth of GDP in the main capitalist countries.
Unable to overcome the insoluble contradictions, from the outset the contradiction between capital and labour and the permanent struggle around the rate of surplus value, insatiable in the greed of appropriation and accumulation of capital without limits, capitalism combines its oppressive nature with new and more complex types of labour exploitation and planetary predation that has been enhanced by the processes of capitalist globalisation and finantialization of the economy.
Processes that thrive and affirm themselves on the political level in the shadow of strategic cooperation between the most reactionary and conservative forces and social democracy and with the State assuming the role of promoter of private capital, commodifying all areas and sectors of economic and social life.
Their consequences are the worsening of exploitation, unemployment, precariousness, the increase in social injustices and inequalities, attack on social and labour rights, denial of democratic rights, and also war.
Today, a thousand and a half large multinational companies control more than 60% of the world economy and 26 multimillionaires hold a wealth equal to the poorest half of the world population - about 3.8 thousand million people.
The inhuman character of imperialism is well evident in its action in the context of the emergence of the global epidemic outbreak, maintaining and intensifying blockades and reinforcing illegal sanctions against peoples and countries.
The world has changed a lot in the last century and a half, but the exploitative nature of capitalism has not changed becoming increasingly rentier, parasitic and decadent.
Capitalism is not the "end of history". The revolutionary overcoming of its insoluble contradictions is a requirement of social development.
In permanent confrontation with the needs, interests, aspirations of the workers and peoples, the overcoming of capitalism has increasing acuity, through different paths and stages, as a goal of the struggle of workers and peoples, as a perspective and condition of a future inseparable from a full human liberation and fulfillment.
Socialism remains with its full potential of materialisation on the horizon of the struggle of workers and peoples.
Lenin, the genius of revolutionary praxis: Statement of the Communist Party of Brazil
Another salient and fundamental theoretical contribution made by Lenin to the Marxist theory was the identification and systematization of the transition from capitalism, by the end of the 19th century, to a phase of broad predominance of monopoly in the central capitalist powers, which was a consequence of the “law of concentration and centralization of production” already noted by Marx.
According to Lenin, it was precisely that transition that sustained those powers’ brutal colonial expansion in Asia, Africa and Latin America in that period. Therefore, his systematization became known as the “theory of imperialism”. In his view, the political economy of capitalism in the new monopolist phase was dominated by the force of finance capital, which sought to guarantee access to economic territories for exclusive or privileged exploitation world-wide, through open colonization or political subordination.
But Lenin did not just systematize the distinctive characteristics of the new monopolist phase of capitalism. From this theoretical systematization, he extracted the strategic and tactic consequences for the revolutionary forces’ political action. He concluded that, under new conditions, movements for national emancipation in the colonies and in the dependent countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America would become a crucial vector in the revolutionary struggle around the world. Hence, he argued that the socialist parties should incorporate in their programs the promotion of the “peoples’ right to self-determination”, a proposition met with strong resistance from various sectors in the European left at that time.
Lenin noted, moreover, that the advent of the monopolist phase of capitalism created a dynamic of “uneven development” in the international system. The accumulation of capital in the countries where finance capital was most concentrated and developed was ever more based on the extraction of income from the productive activities realized in other countries and regions. This growingly “rentier” and “parasitic” nature of accumulation led to the decomposition of economic dynamism in the system’s core and to the continuous emergence of more dynamic, competing economic poles in other countries and regions. These new poles, for their part, began to question the structures of hegemonic domination by the power that was in economic decline. Therefore, according to Lenin, tensions between these powers were inevitable in the “age of imperialism” and the international system would become growingly unhinged and turbulent, prone to conflicts and wars. It would be up to the revolutionary parties to politically exploit the tensions and contradictions between the central capitalist powers in order to advance their own agendas of national and social emancipation, while developing a strong internationalist mobilization against the imperialist war and for peace.
Message on 150th anniversary of Comrade Lenin: Politburo Communist Party of Pakistan.
The capitalist system of course is a system of waging slavery and its foundation is rooted in corruption. In the name of democracy it is actually a system of feudal and capitalist dictatorship.
In countries like Pakistan even the status quo parties have to make compromises with establishment and imperialist forces to come into power after electoral process. Survival of their governments depend upon submission to the instructions of these forces. Disobedience can cause them removal from power through Martial Law or otherwise, the leadership of the party will face humiliation, imprisonment even death by hanging. Under these circumstances revolutionary communists are left with no other choice except socialist revolution and this is the lesson of teaching of Leninism.
We do not forget comrade Lenin.
Red salute to comrade Lenin on his 150th birthday.
On the 150th birthday of the leader of the October Revolution and founder of the First Socialist State: Iraqi Communist Party
Lenin intended his contribution to the enrichment and development of Marxist thought as a guide to the revolutionary struggle of the working class, especially in the field of building its revolutionary party and the theoretical foundations for formulating its strategy and tactics according to concrete historical circumstance. It was his party that led the working class and its allies in Russia to victory by seizing power, establishing the power of the working class and the power of the soviets to serve the interests of the exploited and oppressed. Lenin demonstrated the role of the working class, whether in the matter of receiving power or later in the process of the transition to and building of socialism.
Lenin was the theorist who further developed and defined the component parts of Marxist philosophy, the political economy of capitalism at its highest levels, and scientific communism. His works were dedicated to the spreading and developing Marxism and revolutionary theory.
His works and writings, and his dialectical materialist approach, stemming from the tangible analysis of the concrete conditions and from the calculation of the balance of power surrounding the revolutionary struggle, retain their relevance in general, and constitute a "beacon" for the ideological and political education of each new generation of revolutionaries.
Declaration for the 150th anniversary of the birth of the leader of the Russian Revolution: Communist Party of Chile
Lenin's idea to fight for the revolution according to the conditions of each country, is fully in force today when capitalism is destroying the planet and puts its economic interests and those of its corporations above the life of those threatened by pandemics.
His teachings have been a guide in the triumph of not a few revolutions in the world, the liberation of colonies and the achievement of higher levels of independence. It is also present in the advances and struggles of new societies that are moving towards socialism. Indeed, inspired by the thought of Lenin, together with the experience and direction of its leaders, the triumphant revolutions made their way in Asia, Africa and Latin America, not without setbacks but in a generally positive direction.
The triumphant revolution led by Lenin developed enough to defeat Nazism, the most dangerous and criminal offspring of capitalism and, later, to put a man in space before anyone else. A backward society with feudal features became modern despite the enormous destruction of lives and resources lost crushing the Nazi beast, which today aims to raise its head again to save capitalism from its crisis.
On the 150th birthday of Lenin: Declaration of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Austria
With the name Lenin we associate important and momentous events in the history of mankind, especially the Great Socialist October Revolution of 1917 -its theoretical and practical preparation and its beginning at the right time under the slogan "peace, work, bread" are due to Lenin's strategic thinking and his sharp analysis of the concrete conditions. He earned invaluable merits in the foundation of the first socialist state of the world and the USSR, as well as in the formation of the world communist movement through the creation of the Third, the Communist International. Lenin played a central role in all these great achievements of the revolutionary workers' movement. It can rightly be said that Lenin, as a historical personality, was the greatest revolutionary of the 20th century, although he did not experience even a quarter of it.
