This is an English translation of the Draft Programme of the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist Leninist Maoist) which was published by the Union of Communists of Iran (Sarbedaran) in November 1999. The final version of the programme, which was approved in 2001, is slightly different than the present draft. We are trying to make the final version available in English as soon as possible. This draft Programme is also available in Spanish.
Union of
Communists of Iran (Sarbedaran) was
the founding organisation of CPIMLM. Originally the name of this organisation
was Union of Communists of Iran. The addition of “sarbedaran” to the name of
UCI was decided in the fourth congress of UCI in 1983. Sarbedaran is the name
of the revolutionary armed struggle which was organised by the UCI in 1981
against the Islamic Republic of Iran. This armed revolutionary struggle was
defeated and many comrades laid their lives for the cause of proletarian
revolution in Iran. The whole struggle is summed up in a book called “Parandeh
now Parvaz”.
We live in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. The majority of the world's population, who carry the burden of exploitation and oppression, want real and thoroughgoing changes in their lives. This world is plagued by class divisions and inequalities, it is held on its head through the force of arms of the exploiting classes, and to turn it right side up is on the agenda of history. Twice in the twentieth century the proletariat has made revolution and taken significant steps towards building a completely new world. Our class fought, won, started the construction of socialist society and for decades marched on this unknown path full of twists and turns. The socialist revolutions in the Soviet Union and China marked a rupture in the course of history and forever changed the direction of human society.
Until then the course of history consisted of an exploiting minority who controlled the wealth and productive resources of society, as well as the labour of the masses, suppressing the people through political power and armed force and preserving the existing order. The course of history was such that whenever there was a revolution, a different minority seized power and took control of the economy for its own interests. But with socialist revolution, for the first time, it was not the capitalists and feudal lords who seized power, but a class that represented the producers of society's wealth. For the first time, the majority of the masses became the rulers of their own destiny. In the eyes of the exploiters this revolution was like a long, dark, dreadful night of which they still speak with hatred and horror.
From within and without, tooth and nail, the bourgeoisie fought to overthrow the socialist states, and they succeeded first in the middle of the 1950s in the Soviet Union and then in 1976 in China. These two defeats of the proletariat showed that international capitalism still held significant material and ideological strength.
Now the exploiters point to the collapse, in the early 1990s, of the imperialist Soviet Union and the further exposure of its reactionary and oppressive nature in order to kill all hope in a different and liberating future. But what is the reality? The reality is that the rule of the proletariat was overthrown in the Soviet Union decades ago and power fell into the hands of a new bourgeois class. And, at the time, communists the world over, led by Mao Tsetung, announced this important fact. The collapse of the Soviet Union was in fact the collapse of a capitalist country and the result of the deep crisis of the imperialist system. This collapse of the Soviet Union was evidence of the bankruptcy of the economic and political structures of state monopoly capitalism in that country. The collapse of the Soviet Union was simply an indication that the capitalist Soviet Union was defeated in its rivalry with the capitalist West, nothing more.
Today, there is no socialist country in the world. This is a bitter truth, but this should be viewed in its historical framework. In the course of history no rising revolutionary class could knock out the reactionary classes in one blow. For example, it took the bourgeoisie a few hundred years before it could effectively replace feudalism with capitalism. This will be even truer in the transition from the bourgeois era, to the era of world communism, as the goal of the proletariat, unlike the bourgeoisie, is not to replace one class society with another, but to abolish all class divisions. Proletarian revolution is qualitatively different from revolutions of the old type and is a complex and protracted process. The goal of this revolution is to lift the heavy burden of tens of thousands of years of class society from the back of humanity. Because of its nature, such a revolution cannot advance continuously and without setbacks. But today, despite defeats, we are not back at the point of departure. The great achievements and precious experiences accumulated through 150 years of class struggle and, in particular, the establishment of socialism, concentrated in the science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, constitutes the invincible weapon of our international class for advancing future proletarian revolutions.
Armed with this revolutionary knowledge and relying on these experiences and achievements, the international proletariat has started a new round of conscious and organised efforts to seize political power. These efforts can be seen in particular in the development of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organisations in various countries. Some of these forces have succeeded in initiating revolutionary war to seize political power and have established red power in parts of their countries; some are in the process of preparing for such wars. In the international arena these forces have formed the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. The task of this international communist organisation is to help form new Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organisations and strengthen the existing ones. The goal of this organisation is to form a new communist international consisting of revolutionary communists the world over.
Today, more determined than ever, the working class in Iran and its revolutionary vanguard party must shoulder its historic responsibility, the seizure of political power through force of arms. The formation of the communist party and the introduction of its programme are a decisive opening in this process. This Programme relies on the experience of socialist revolutions in the twentieth century and on the experience of the proletariat's class battles, as well as the revolutionary struggle of the people around the world, including in Iran. This Programme is in the pursuit of a communist world, whose characteristics were first charted by Marx and Engels in The Communist Manifesto. This Programme is the battle-cry of our class against the reactionary system ruling Iran and the whole imperialist capitalist system. This Programme is a weapon in the hands of all those who are in search of a correct ideological-political line for the advance of the world-historic struggle of the working class and for achieving victory. This Programme is a war plan and a call to action that invites the new generation of proletarian fighters to shoulder the responsibility of carrying through the proletarian revolution in Iran and to help advance the world revolution.
The proletarian revolution and the development of Marxism have gone through a previously unknown road full of twists and turns. Marxism has developed under the leadership of teachers such as Marx, Lenin and Mao Tsetung; in the midst of the encounters with the ruling, exploiting classes; through the struggle against revisionism (bourgeois trends inside the working class movement); and amidst great mass upheavals.
Marxism
The Experience of
the Paris Commune
150 years ago, with the workers resistance and struggle in Europe as a backdrop, Marxism was born. The emergence of the working class was the objective basis for the advent of Marxism. Marx and his comrade-in-arms, Engels, applied a dialectical materialist outlook and methodology to the study of human history and brought about a revolution in the history of human thinking. Up to that point, all views on the foundations of human society were upside down. A truthful understanding of these foundations was presented, for the first time, by Marx and Engels.
Marx explained that people, in the process of the production and reproduction of their material needs, enter into social and, most importantly, production relations. Through history these relations have taken different forms depending on the level of development of the productive forces, i.e. the means of production and the productive knowledge of humankind in each historic period. Human society in its initial stage was organised in a primitive form of collective production and a division of labour that was not oppressive in nature. There was no place for private ownership of the means of production. At a particular historic turning point and as a result of increased production and the accumulation of surplus, a section of society became the owners of the means of production and appropriators of that surplus, assuming a privileged position in relation to the other sections of society. Thus, human society became a class society. Classes are distinct groups of people, who, more than anything else, are characterised by their relation to the ownership of the means of production, by whether or not they own land, factories, raw materials, etc. Other factors distinguishing classes from each other are: the role each group plays in the process of social production or, in other words, their position in the division of labour and, finally, their share of the wealth produced. The relations of production in class society are relations between classes. Marx showed that the superstructure of society, i.e. the political, ideological and cultural institutions, is built on this base, reflecting and protecting these class relations. The political and cultural superstructure is controlled by the class that economically dominates each society. Marx and Engels explained that the emergence of all forms of oppression and exploitation, including the oppression of women, is related to the emergence of class division in human society.
Marx said that in every epoch, with the development of human productive ability and the development of the means of production, the relations of production become old and reactionary and turn into a barrier to the development of the forces of production. So these relations must be changed and replaced with new ones. He proved that this change could only materialise after the violent overthrow of the old political superstructure and its replacement with the political power and culture of the new class. The class that represents the advanced forces of production will, through revolution, become the ruling class and, by relying on this power, establish new relations of production. This is class dictatorship. Marx and Engels revealed the truth that class society came into being at a particular stage in the history of the development of human society and will be abolished at another stage. By scientifically analysing capitalism, they proved this system to be the last form of human society where class divisions and social antagonism exist. The proletariat, by overthrowing capitalism and fundamentally transforming society, will abolish all forms of exploitation and oppression and all class distinctions.
In his historic work, Das Kapital, Marx laid bare the secrets of exploitation and the accumulation of capital. Capitalism is not only based on expansive commodity production, but its particularity is that it has turned labour power (a person's ability to work) into a commodity. It appears that the worker and the capitalist enter into an equal exchange with each other, but with a penetrating analysis Marx showed that even though the capitalist buys the labour power of the worker, the latter, in the process of production, creates a value far higher than that of his labour power. This surplus value is appropriated by the capitalist and constitutes the source of his profit. This is the essence of the exploitation of the worker by the capitalist. The capitalist uses this surplus value to start a new round of exploitation and accumulation. In short, the production of value, and surplus value in particular, is the motive force of capitalist accumulation.
Marx and Engels noted that capitalism for the first time socialised the forces of production. That with the unprecedented development of the productive forces, for the first time in human history, it has become possible to provide (sufficiently and increasingly) not only for the material needs of all members of society, but also for the unhindered development of their physical and mental capabilities. But this remains in the realm of possibility so long as the ownership of the means of production and the appropriation of the wealth produced remains private. The contradiction between socialised production and private ownership is the antagonistic contradiction that is the steaming source of social revolutions for the destruction of capitalism and its replacement by communism.
The responsibility for this social revolution rests on the shoulders of the working class. Capitalism, by creating the working class (or proletariat), has in fact created its own grave-diggers. The working class is the first class in history that will organise production on the basis of the abolition of all kinds of exploitation of one section of society by another. For this reason, the working class is also the last class in the history of humanity. With the abolition of class society, the working class will also disappear. This is the historic difference between the proletariat and other classes. The working class is the harbinger of the liberation of humankind.
Marx emphasised that even though the workers must struggle ceaselessly to prevent themselves from being crushed under the wheels of capitalism, their struggle must not be limited to demands for better work conditions and higher wages under the existing system. The workers, he said, must recognise the higher interests of their class and fight to overthrow capitalism and establish a communist society. Marx and Engels specifically exposed the bourgeois trends within the working class movement, which limit the goal of working class struggle to higher wages and welfare demands and invite the working class to adopt peaceful means. In The Communist Manifesto, they thus defined the revolutionary strategy of the working class: the seizure of political power through violence to establish their own state, which is nothing but the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is the path of communist revolution, a revolution that is, according to Marx in the Class Struggle in France, “the most radical rupture with traditional property relations; no wonder that its development involves the most radical rupture with traditional ideas…. Communism is the declaration of continuation of revolution, a declaration that the dictatorship of proletariat is the necessary transition to the abolition of all class distinctions in general, abolition of all class relations on which they stand, to the abolition of all social relations to which they correspond and transformation of all ideas that are risen from these social relations". [Quote translated from Farsi text to English – translator.]
Marx and Engels emphasised that, even though the bourgeoisie has divided the world into nations, the proletariat, contrary to other classes in contemporary society, must have an internationalist point of view, because capitalism is a world system and the proletariat is also a single international class whose interests lie in the establishment of a communist world. On the basis of this view, Marx and Engels led the formation of an international organisation of the proletariat of different countries, the First International.
Marx and Engels paid considerable attention to the question of armed struggle and the laws of violent revolution in the process of society's transition from one historic stage to another. Engels, in particular, analysed modern weaponry and strategies of modern warfare and drew lessons for the armed uprising of the working class against the rule of capital.
The revolutionary experience of the proletariat in the Paris Commune enriched and deepened the understanding of Marx and Engels. On 18 March 1871, the proletariat and revolutionary masses of Paris rose up in arms against the reactionary rule of the bourgeoisie. The Paris Commune declared its birth. This first attempt by the proletariat to overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish its dictatorship is of world-historic importance. Armed workers smashed the armed forces of the bourgeoisie. They disbanded the bourgeois parliamentarian system and replaced it with the organs of people's power, which had both judicial and executive powers. The Commune tried to replace the permanent army with the mass arming of the people. Equal wages were instituted for the workers and government officials. The economic and moral power of the church was attacked. But the life of the Commune was short, and after a two and a half months it was drowned in blood by the army of the bourgeoisie. In summing up the Paris Commune, Marx and Engels declared that "the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery and wield it for its own purpose, but it must smash it and create its own revolutionary dictatorship." [Quote translated from Farsi text into English – translator.] They noted that the Commune did not take maximum advantage of its victory. It fell short of suppressing counter-revolution and did not confiscate the big financial institutions, such as Banc de France. Moreover, the Commune did not unite with the peasant masses and thus could not mobilise their support. Even though the Commune lasted only 72 days, its achievements in the establishment and defence of the dictatorship of the proletariat are eternal.
Leninism
The October
Revolution
The second attempt of the proletariat to seize political power took place in 1917 in Russia. The October Revolution overthrew the state of the bourgeoisie and landlords. The establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat heralded a new era in the history of the working class movement internationally. Under the leadership of its communist vanguard, i.e. the Bolshevik Party, the proletariat mobilised the masses in a red army and through an armed mass insurrection smashed the permanent army of the Tsarist state and then waged a great three-year civil war against the armed forces of counter-revolution and the armies of 14 invading imperialist countries. Vladimir Illitch Lenin developed Marxism to a new higher stage, in the process of leading the proletarian revolutionary movement in Russia and struggling against revisionism within Russia, as well as within the international communist movement. Among the many contributions of Lenin is his analysis of the development of capitalism to its final and highest stage, imperialism. Lenin showed that capitalism in its imperialist stage, whilst keeping its basic characteristics, has particular dynamics in relation to its initial stage. The process of exploitation and accumulation has become increasingly international. He said that imperialism is characterised by the development and dominance of monopoly capital, as opposed to small units of capital. Another characteristic of imperialism is the formation of finance capital through the integration of industrial and bank capital. Thus, enormous centralised units of capital are formed, which not only control all economic sectors of a given country, but can bring the economy of all countries and regions of the world under its influence. An important characteristic of imperialism is the export of capital. Lenin analysed that with the advent of imperialism, commodity export is no longer the most fundamental international economic activity of capital, but is replaced with the export of capital to other countries in the form of direct investments, credits and other forms. Imperialism has expanded the development of capitalism in the colonies and semi-colonies and has integrated and subordinated pre-capitalist modes of production.
Even though with the development of capitalism to imperialism capital has become increasingly internationalised and different regions of the world are integrated into a world process of capitalist accumulation, capital has kept its national characteristic. In the era of imperialism, rivalry amongst capitals is intensified and takes concentrated form in conflicts between imperialist states. This rivalry in the imperialist era has repeatedly taken the form of war.
Without an analysis of imperialism it was impossible to draw up the strategy and tactics for proletarian revolution. On the basis of this analysis, Lenin formulated important strategic orientations for revolution in different countries. He emphasised that the world is divided into a handful of imperialist countries and many oppressed countries, and this is a basic characteristic of imperialism. He pointed out that socialist revolution in the imperialist countries is not possible without supporting the liberation struggles in countries oppressed by imperialism. Such support is a proletarian internationalist task. Lenin showed that under imperialism the basis for proletarian revolution has expanded. This is indeed the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. Even in backward countries under the domination of imperialism with widespread pre-capitalist relations, revolutionary struggle under the leadership of the proletariat not only can achieve independence from imperialism and uproot pre-capitalist relations, but also can make the transition to socialism. These revolutions, along with the socialist revolutions in the capitalist countries, constitute the two trends of the world proletarian revolution.
Moreover, Lenin pointed to a significant change that occurred with the advent of imperialism in the composition of the working class in the advanced capitalist countries. He exposed the fact that the bourgeoisie has been able to buy off a small section of the working class in the imperialist countries, using the super-profits gained through international exploitation and plunder, and turn them into a labour aristocracy. This privileged section is at best a defender of reformist politics. On the other hand, the lower sections of the working class in the imperialist countries are the social base for the proletarian revolution and proletarian internationalism.
The labour aristocracy was the material base for the revisionism in the majority of the social democratic parties forming the Second International. When the First World War broke out in 1914, these parties sided with the imperialist bourgeoisie of their own country and raised the slogan of "Defence of the fatherland". Instead of promoting internationalist unity and camaraderie among the workers and oppressed masses of the countries involved in the war, they spread the seeds of division and enmity among the ranks of the international working class. At the same time, these parties denied the real nature of the state, as the means of suppression of one class over another, and negated the need for the violent overthrow of the bourgeois state and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. During the First World War, revolutionary situations manifested themselves in many capitalist countries, but the domination of revisionism in the parties of the Second International led to the frustration of revolution in these countries. Unlike these parties, the Bolshevik Party in Russia took up the policy of revolutionary national defeatism and raised the slogan of turning the imperialist war into a civil war, leading the Russian revolution to victory. Lenin waged hard struggle to expose and isolate the revisionists of the Second International, headed by Karl Kautsky. This struggle played a decisive role in the formation of the Third Communist International.
In the furnace of class struggle, Lenin developed the Marxist understanding of the decisive tool in the proletarian revolution, the vanguard party. He developed a correct understanding of the relation between communist consciousness and the spontaneous movement, and the relation between the leading vanguard and the masses. The development of this correct understanding would have been impossible without the struggle against the bourgeois liberal trend within the Russian workers movement, which Lenin called "economism". Economism was opposed to the planned political struggle of the working class for the seizure of power and strove to reduce the movement to a struggle for the betterment of the workers livelihood. The economists denied the need for revolutionary theory and opposed the need for a vanguard party, its revolutionary character and its leading role in making proletarian revolution. Lenin showed that the consciousness resulting from the spontaneous struggle of the workers is not communist consciousness. He emphasised that the working class cannot, and should not, merely or basically concentrate its attempts on economic struggle, but should rise up in an all-round struggle against the capitalist system and fight against all forms of oppression suffered by the workers and all other classes and strata of people. It should pay attention to all aspects of society and learn how to identify its class interests in every important social question and every world event. It is only in this way that the workers can understand the nature of the ruling system and the exploiting classes and gain the ability to unite and lead the oppressed masses under the banner of proletarian revolution. Lenin emphasised that the formation of the revolutionary consciousness of the working class and the advance of the class struggle by our class is impossible in the absence of a vanguard communist party. This party must represent the views and interests of the proletariat and take communist views into the struggle of the masses in order to raise the level of their spontaneous struggle to a conscious revolutionary movement. Lenin laid out the organisational principles of such a party. The vanguard party should recruit revolutionaries not only from amongst the ranks of the proletariat but from all strata; they must be united on the basis of the communist viewpoint and a common strategy and political programme and must dedicate their lives to the goal of the liberation of the proletariat. The party must have a strong disciplined organisation and a hidden backbone with the ability to withstand the suppression of class enemies and assure the continuity of the revolutionary struggle. Only when the proletariat has its own revolutionary headquarters can it navigate through the twists and turns of class struggle, engage the masses broadly in the revolutionary struggle to smash the state and seize political power. Without such a party, as the headquarters of the Russian working class, the October Revolution would not have succeeded.
The October Revolution of 1917 shook the world. The conscious workers and peasants in the newly founded Soviet Union flooded the political stage. Women came forward on a great scale and achieved unprecedented political, social and economic rights; they were extensively engaged in politics and production. The oppressed nations, who for centuries were chained in Tsarist Russia, famous for being a prison house of nations, acquired the right to self-determination. A multinational state based on the equality of nations, nationalities and languages was formed. The property of the exploiting classes was confiscated and public ownership by the state was established. The first plan for the socialist economy was charted and put into practice. The wheel of production now turned to provide for the needs of society. Lenin immediately declared the formation of the Third International (Comintern) and established the central headquarters of the world proletarian revolution with the participation of the representatives of the revolutionary communist parties from different countries. The Soviet State established relations with and assisted revolutionary and liberation movements all over the world on the basis of an internationalist viewpoint and politics.
After Lenin's death, an important ideological and political struggle was waged by Stalin against the Trotskyites and others who claimed that the low level of the productive forces in the Soviet Union, the vast peasant population and the international isolation of the country made it impossible to advance socialist construction. Tens of millions of workers and poor peasants in practice uprooted the old capitalist system and took great strides towards collectivisation and the creation of a new economic system free of exploitation. These victories greatly expanded the influence of Marxism-Leninism and raised the prestige of the Soviet Union on a world scale. However, despite these victories, the great socialist developments at the end of the 1920s and in the 1930s were marked by serious weaknesses and shortcomings. Many of these weaknesses were due to the lack of historic experience, as well as the encirclement and destructive imperialist invasion of the Soviet Union. But some serious political mistakes added to the problems. The summation and learning from these mistakes fell on the shoulders of the Chinese Communists, led by Mao Tsetung.
Maoism
The Chinese
Revolution
The victorious proletarian revolution in China took place three decades after the October Revolution in Russia. Years before this victory, the salvoes of October had brought Marxism-Leninism to the Chinese revolution. At the same time, the Communist International, under the leadership of Lenin, had drawn the outline of the strategy for proletarian revolution in the colonial and semi-colonial countries. But making revolution in a semi-feudal country, dominated by imperialism, had its own contradictions. By creatively applying Marxism-Leninism to the particular conditions of the country, Mao Tsetung, leader of the Communist Party of China, successfully developed the theory and strategy of proletarian revolution in China. Mao noted that, despite the widespread existence of pre-capitalist relations, there is no need for a bourgeois democratic revolution, leading to the rule of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of capitalism. The liberation of the masses of people depends on the victory of a new-democratic revolution under the leadership of proletariat. This revolution would end the domination of imperialism, revolutionise the social system, uproot pre-capitalist economic and social relations and in this way open the way for socialism. Mao showed that proletarian revolution in these types of countries is a single two-stage process. The first stage is characterised by struggle to overthrow imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism. Upon accomplishing this stage, the revolution will immediately move to the socialist stage. In the proletarian revolution, particularly during the first stage, the formation of a broad united front of all classes and strata who can be united against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism is necessary. The backbone of this front consists of the unity of the workers and peasants (mainly the poor and landless peasants). The people's united front and all revolutionary struggle must be led by the proletariat and its party.
In the process of leading the revolutionary war in China, Mao Tsetung developed the teachings and military strategy of the proletarian revolution in an all-sided and qualitative way. He summed up a daily truth of class society in a forceful and unforgettable sentence: "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun".
On the basis of the victorious practice of the Chinese revolution, he drew up the general lines of the strategy for revolution in the countries dominated by imperialism. This strategy is called protracted people's war. Based on this strategy, the proletariat of these countries can initiate the revolutionary war from one area and develop it by relying on the masses, with the aim of the nation-wide seizure of power. Mao noted that the objective conditions for adopting the strategy of protracted people's war is that a revolutionary situation generally exists in these kinds of countries. This situation is the result of imperialist domination, poverty and intense suppression, which keeps broad sections of the population constantly in a state of revolt. Moreover, the ruling classes of such countries are usually mired in divisions and serious internal conflicts and lack a strong social base. The existence of pre-capitalist relations, backward productive forces and the state's difficulties in implementing control over remote rural areas create favourable conditions to start, continue and expand the revolutionary war. The people's army under the leadership of the communist party can turn from a small weak force to a broad and strong one by taking up a correct strategy and tactics. It can start from limited guerrilla warfare in rural areas and gradually expand its activities, and it can build the rural areas into a source of economic, political and military support, establish embryonic forms of new political power in these areas and carry out agrarian revolution to smash the old relations of production. Over a protracted period and by expanding the areas under its control, the people's army will surround the cities from the countryside and at the same time prepare the conditions for launching insurrections in the cities to enable the total destruction of the reactionary state. The basic principles of people's war have universal validity for the communist revolutionaries in all the countries of the world. These principles are: in war people are decisive not weapons; revolutionary war is a war of the masses; and the enemy fights their way and we fight our way. Mao also emphasised that the communist party must lead the gun and under no circumstances should we allow the gun to rule the party. These theories are the result of Mao Tsetung leading revolutionary war for decades and of his dialectical summation of thousands of battles.
In the process of organising the proletarian revolution, Mao developed the Marxist understanding of the vanguard party of the working class, in different aspects. One of the most important of these developments was the concept of two-line struggle within the communist party. Mao opposed the prevalent idea that considered the unity of the party to be "homogeneous". He emphasised that disagreement and struggle between correct and incorrect ideas continually occur within the party, and that it cannot be otherwise. This struggle, at times, will leap to the level of struggle between a Marxist line and a revisionist line. This contradiction and struggle is the reflection of the contradictions between classes and between the new and old in society. Whenever the non-proletarian class views take the upper hand in the party, the nature of the proletarian party will change. Mao emphasised that the party must develop through the two-line struggle between correct and incorrect line, and become more and more revolutionary; without this struggle against incorrect ideas, the life of the party as the vanguard of the proletariat will definitely come to an end.
The victory of the Chinese revolution in October 1949 struck an important blow against the imperialist system and opened new horizons for the people of the world. A population of several hundred million rose under the leadership of the communists and, by overthrowing the semi-colonial, semi-feudal system, got rid of exploitation and, in a matter of few years, uprooted all the ills of the old society, such as unemployment, poverty, prostitution and drug addiction, which had weighed on the back of society for centuries. The wage slaves and serfs became the masters of society. The agrarian revolution liberated millions of peasants from the yoke of feudalism. The old patriarchal and male chauvinist relations were brought under attack and new laws based on the equality of men and women in different spheres were passed. A new anti-superstition culture started to bloom. The co-operative and collective movement started to take hold in the countryside. With their inexhaustible force, the masses flattened mountains, tamed rivers and paved the way for socialist construction
Continuation of the Revolution Under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
The coming to power of the revisionists, led by Khrushchev, and the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union was the first defeat of the proletariat. The cancer of revisionism had taken root in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for some years; the death of Stalin in 1953 and the seizure of power by Khrushchev & Co was in fact a coup de grace. This was a shocking event for the international communist movement. The revisionists disbanded the dictatorship of the proletariat internally, put profit in command and rapidly restored capitalism in the Soviet Union. Internationally, under the guise of preserving "world peace" and under the pretext of the "imperialists have acquired the A-bomb and so armed revolution cannot be waged against them anymore", they called on the proletariat and the masses of the world to wage "peaceful" struggle against imperialism and reaction instead.
This was a grave event for the international communist movement. At the forefront of the world's communist revolutionaries, Mao Tsetung set out to expose the nature of the new Soviet rulers and the reality of capitalist restoration there. This was a complex and great struggle in the communist movement. But Mao's greatest contribution to the international working class movement was his analysis of, and provision of, theoretical and practical solutions to the new questions posed for socialist construction and the prevention of capitalist restoration.
In the 1950s, along with the seizure of power by revisionists in the Soviet Union, Mao was facing similar forces who were raising their head inside the Communist Party of China (CPC). Intense struggle was waged inside the CPC over the direction of society and the path of economic, political and cultural development. Revolutionary communists in China found in their quarters bourgeois democrats, who wanted to stop the process of socialist development. These forces were against the revolutionary transformation of the production relations and the strengthening and expanding of socialist and collective forms of ownership, calling them "excesses". These capitalist-roaders also moved to weaken the rule of the proletariat in the fields of politics, culture and education, and promoted the views, values and models of the exploiting classes. These two events provoked Mao Tsetung to study and deeply sum up the nature of socialist society and the experience of socialist construction in the Soviet Union. Mao was faced with such questions as how the bourgeoisie grows from the soil of socialist society and how and by relying on what contradictions and elements is it reproduced? Why do ex-communist leaders stop mid-way and become the new bourgeoisie? Why was there no significant resistance to the Khruschevite revisionists? How can the disintegration of socialist society and the corruption of the revolutionary party and state be prevented?
In the face of vengeful and revisionist attacks by Khrushchev, Mao defended Stalin's contributions. But in order to analyse the problems of socialist society and provide answers, he had to sum up serious mistakes in the outlook and practice of Stalin and draw a demarcation line. From the establishment of socialist state ownership in industry and agriculture, Stalin had incorrectly summed up that "in the Soviet Union antagonistic classes no longer exist" and that Soviet society was "free of class antagonisms". Thus, Stalin saw the threat to the proletarian state as coming only from imperialist conspiracies and invasion or from elements of the old bourgeoisie. However, the danger of restoration comes mainly from the new bourgeoisie that develops within the framework of socialist society itself and finds niches in the communist party and state structures. For this reason, Stalin failed to see the necessity to wage continuous revolution under socialism by mobilising the proletarian masses from below, and he did not grasp the need to continually carry out revolutionary transformation in the political and ideological superstructure of society and, most importantly, in the communist party and state structure. Mao Tsetung considered Stalin's mistakes to be the result of the limited experience of the proletariat in socialist construction, as well as his materialist mechanical thinking. These mistakes resulted in weakening the proletariat's struggle against the new bourgeoisie in the Soviet Union and provided favourable ground for revisionism to strengthen and spread.
On the basis of analysing the nature of socialist society and the experiences of socialist construction in the Soviet Union and China, Mao shed light on, and systematised, the following strategic points: after the overthrow of the old ruling classes and the seizure of political power by the proletariat, after the transformation of the ownership of the means of production from private ownership of the bourgeois class to collective ownership of the proletarian state and the transformation of small capitals and private holdings to social ownership by the state or groups of collectives, important inequalities still remain among different strata in society, which are reflected in the form of class contradictions and class struggle. Mao noted that socialism is a contradictory phenomenon, which contains both the remnants of capitalism and the seeds of communism. Socialist society is a great leap forward, in which labour power is no longer bought and sold and is not under the domination of alien and antagonistic class forces; it does not serve the production and reproduction of the conditions of exploitation of the workers. But in this society important inequalities still exist. The most important of these contradictions are those between mental and manual labour, city and countryside, and men and women, along with aspects of bourgeois economic relations, such as differences in wages, and commodity exchange. All these inequalities that remain from the past are called "bourgeois right". They are the material soil for the development of a new bourgeoisie within the socialist society and within the framework of socialist ownership. Mao emphasised that socialism is not the end of the road and that classes and class struggle will exist throughout socialism. With the establishment of the political power of the working class, the balance of forces between the classes and the conditions of class struggle change. The proletariat, by relying on its own power, can restrict the ground for social antagonisms; socialism, because of its contradictory nature, thus faces two roads: development and advance, with the goal of establishing communism in the world, or turning back towards capitalism.
Mao Tsetung, for the first time in the history of the working class movement, succeeded in developing a scientific and all-round thinking on the socialist political economy. Whilst learning from the positive aspects of socialist construction in the Soviet Union, he broke with many incorrect views prevailing among the Soviet communists. In particular, Mao refuted the Soviet concept that equated socialism with the establishment of public ownership and the achievement of a certain level of development of the productive forces. Instead, Mao emphasised that forms of state ownership can turn into a guise for bourgeois relations; the yardstick as to whether or not an economy is socialist is whether it advances towards restricting the differences and inequalities or instead towards increasing them.
In his illuminating analysis of class struggle under socialism, Mao Tsetung explained where the nucleus of the new bourgeoisie (and not the remnants of the overthrown class or small producers) build their political centre. He said: "You're making socialist revolution yet don't know where the bourgeoisie is. It is right inside the communist party, those in power taking the capitalist road." Those sections of the leaders of the party and state who had discarded the strategy, politics and goals of proletarian revolution and the establishment of communism and who wanted to rule the country on the basis of reinforcing the differences and restoring capitalism form the central nucleus of the new bourgeoisie. These are the revisionists. The coming to power of the revisionists in a socialist country means the coming to power of a new bourgeoisie. Mao emphasised the need for the leadership of the communist party throughout the period of socialism, but said this takes a dual form, because within the party is where the new bourgeoisie sets its niche. For this reason, during socialism the party is the decisive arena of the class struggle. Mao emphasised the decisive role of the superstructure (the class consciousness of the masses, the revolutionary nature of the party, culture and education) in preserving the proletarian state and deepening the socialist nature of the economic base of society.
Mao developed the Marxist understanding of the transitional and contradictory nature of socialist society and the class relations within it and emphasised that advancing socialist construction and preventing capitalist restoration is only possible on the basis of consciously developing the class struggle and continuing the revolution. He applied this understanding and method to socialist China and led the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) against the new bourgeoisie within the proletarian party and state. In the1960s, the revisionists had succeeded in having a strong foothold in the communist party, the state, the management of some factories, as well as some rural collectives, education institutions and art and cultural forums. The application of bourgeois politics in these fields where the revisionists had power had resulted in the intensification of social contradictions. The application of despotic rules in the factories had given rise to workers opposition to the managers. The capitalist-roaders strove to keep women in a secondary and subordinate position, in both politics and production, and blocked the path to their all-round and complete emancipation. The conservative outlook and rigid and bureaucratic discipline in the education institutions were stifling and oppressing the youth. Mao Tsetung, relying on the opposition and rebellion of the masses, called on them to "bombard the headquarters" of the bourgeoisie in the party and the socialist state. He declared that the "Cultural Revolution was a new form and method for arousing the broad masses to expose our dark aspects thoroughly, clearly and from below". During the Cultural Revolution, under the leadership of the revolutionary centre of the communist party, millions rose up and further revolutionised the socialist society. This revolution gave rise to deep changes in the spheres of the economy, social relations and thinking. Broad masses of workers and other revolutionaries deepened their class-consciousness during this great struggle, raised the level of their grasp of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and became more capable of exercising political power. During the Cultural Revolution new revolutionary committees were formed. These committees were present from the basic local levels to the highest government organs. They consisted of various combinations of different strata of the masses, with different experiences and varying age groups, from manual and intellectual labourers, workers and managers, party and non-party people. It became established policy for the workers to take part in management and for the managers and experts, as well as party and state officials, to participate in production. The workers' experience and initiative was utilised towards technical innovation and promoting production with unprecedented success. People's communes, which represented advanced forms of socialist ownership and relations in the countryside, were strengthened and expanded. Study, discussion and theoretical and philosophical struggle were taken broadly among the masses of workers and peasants and combined with practice in production. Intellectuals and cadres were sent to the countryside and mixed with the masses. Science and art were no longer the monopoly of a handful of elite, as the basic masses now entered these fields. In order to provide for the health and medical needs of those in the countryside, the policy of training doctors and nurses from among the people was carried out and "barefoot doctors" were encouraged and further developed. Militia units were expanded with the aim of arming the masses. A women's liberation movement was launched against die-hard traditions and old male-chauvinist ideologies. And, in general, important struggles were waged to limit social differences.
The Cultural Revolution was the first mass struggle in the history of socialism that consciously aimed at overthrowing the new bourgeoisie risen from within the structures of the proletarian state. For 10 years the Cultural Revolution foiled the bourgeoisie's attempts to seize power and restore capitalism in China. The Cultural Revolution was the form and method of such struggle, and before meeting defeat, it achieved unprecedented new developments in the field of economic relations, as well as in the political and ideological superstructure of society, opening new doors for the advance towards communism. The Cultural Revolution was part of the revolutionary upsurge of the 1960s, which swept three continents, as well as the US and the West European countries. It in turn deeply influenced the revolutionary upsurge on a world level. In contrast to the asphyxiating "socialism" of the revisionist Soviet Union, the GPCR presented the proletariat and people of the world with a lively, inspiring picture of socialism.
In the beginning of the 1970s, Mao Tsetung and his comrades, amongst whom were outstanding leaders such as Chiang Ching and Chang Chun-chiao, were preparing for a new battle against the capitalist-roaders inside the party and the state in China. Due to the ebb of the world-wide revolutionary upsurge of the 1960s, on the one hand, and the military threats and pressures of Soviet social-imperialism against China on the other, the revisionist forces, led by Deng Xiao-ping, had once again gained ground and strength. The balance of forces, internationally and inside China, was turning in favour of the bourgeois trend and against the proletarian state. The revisionists took advantage of the death of Mao in 1976 to carry out their counter-revolutionary coup d'etat. Internally, they started to destroy the achievements of the GPCR and to restore capitalism under the slogan "to get rich is glorious". Internationally, they put forward the reactionary "Three Worlds" theory and strategy, calling on the proletariat and the people to conciliate with reactionary states and the Western imperialists. The defeat of the proletariat and the rise to power of the capitalist-roaders in China has in no way reduced the historic importance of the Cultural Revolution. The torch lit by Mao to illuminate the road to the future is still alight. His development of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist understanding of the dictatorship of proletariat and socialist construction is the starting point for the working class internationally to advance proletarian revolution in the future.
In the process of leading the great revolutions that each shook the world, Mao developed Marxism-Leninism to a third and qualitatively higher stage, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM). MLM is not the sum total of the thinking, views and politics of the greatest leaders of the proletariat, Marx, Lenin and Mao, but it is the advance and development of communist theory since Marx. It is the concentration of the theoretical and practical struggles of the working class during the last 150 years. In the course of the class struggle to change the world and in the process of knowing the world and nature, MLM plays the role of telescope and microscope. It gives both broader vision and preciseness to our class. This ideology is invincible because it is true. The theoretical synthesis and understanding of history and the implementation of correct policies on the basis of this science and ideology in revolutionary practice is the secret of the historical and path-breaking victory of the international proletariat. Today, by relying on this, we can open our path and once again establish socialist countries and advance the world proletarian revolution more deeply and broadly.
The goal and perspective of the proletariat is to establish world communism. Under communism there is no place for classes, commodity production, money, relations of oppression and exploitation and the ideology and politics corresponding to these relations. Under communism concepts such as poverty, war and unemployment have no place. There are no nations, borders or religions, and all forms of sexual, national and religious oppression will have disappeared. People are not divided between those who only manage or engage in intellectual work and those who only do manual labour. Under communism classes are done away with and there is no sign of class, gender or national inequalities, and the existence of a state apparatus as a means of dictatorship of one class over another is superfluous. Under communism there is no state, nor are there any parties that act as political representatives of different classes. With the abolition of classes and class inequalities, concepts such as dictatorship and democracy and inequality and equality will have lost their meaning and disappear. The division of labour and racial and gender differences in communist society are not a cause for any privileges of one over another or the domination of one section of society and the oppression and deprivation of the other section. Under communism one serves society according to one's ability and receives from society according to one's needs. During the process of voluntary and conscious co-operation, people engage in the production and reproduction of everybody's needs. The principle of "from each according to their ability and to each according to their needs" means that the aim of people working is not their individual survival. Productive capability and abundance under communism will have reached a level where the material possibility of realising the principle of "to each according to their needs" is realisable; social consciousness will have developed to such a level and communist understanding become so generalised that the principle of "from each according to their ability" will be realised voluntarily. There will be no need for coercion and nobody will contemplate cheating. Such concepts will have faded away, along with classes and class antagonisms and the class state; they will be consigned to the museum of history. The driving force and the advancing mechanism of communist society will be the contradiction between new and old, correct and incorrect. But this will not involve antagonistic class contradiction and struggle.
The communist world will be built through proletarian revolutions. The working class in all countries must organise these revolutions and move in this direction by overthrowing the exploiting classes. But the proletarian revolution cannot, in a single blow, achieve victory throughout the world. The unevenness of world capitalism and the ebbs and flows of revolution in various countries makes this impossible. So between capitalist society and communist society there is a long period of transition and revolutionary transformation, called socialism. Socialism is the political rule of the working class, and is called the dictatorship of the proletariat. Socialism is a society in transition and constant change. What defines the direction of the developments and advances of socialist society is the compass of communism: are the social and class differences to be restricted or not? Is there continued struggle to destroy the old ideology, thinking and beliefs that justify class society, or are these ideas reproduced in different forms? It is this yardstick that defines whether the policies and measures in socialist society represent an advance towards communism or signal a return to capitalism. The existence of a revolutionary proletarian state, throughout the transition period, is necessary to guarantee the maintenance and advancement of socialist society in the direction of world communism.
The Proletarian
State: Democracy and Dictatorship
The proletariat, under the leadership of its vanguard party and through violent mass revolution, smashes the state apparatus of the ruling classes. The proletariat, by relying on the institutions and organisations that have successfully led the process of revolution to victory (that is, the communist party, red army, united front and national and local mass organisations), builds the structure for nation-wide political power.
Contrary to the bourgeoisie, which claims its state represents the "popular will" and talks about "democracy for all", the proletariat clearly declares that the proletarian state, like the bourgeois state for that matter, has two aspects, dictatorship and democracy. Bourgeois democracy is bourgeois dictatorship over the proletariat and the other toiling masses. This is true for both the so-called "third world" countries, whose regimes openly, harshly and constantly suppress the masses, and the Western parliamentarian democracies. The state of the proletariat is the reverse: it is democracy for the working class and the masses of people and dictatorship over the bourgeoisie and the enemies of the people. The masses of people, who have been deprived of the right to rule politically, to control the politics, economy and culture of society, and who were suppressed by the bourgeois state, will become the real masters of society. The toilers will gain freedom and their basic rights. These rights include: the right to rule the economy, the right to exercise power in all areas of the superstructure, and the right to control and suppress all antagonistic forces that are set to restore capitalism.
Bourgeois hypocrites try to present the state as a "neutral" apparatus "mediating between social classes". But all states, both proletarian and bourgeois, have a particular economic-class nature. The bourgeois state dictatorship, whatever form it takes (military, religious or Western-style democracy), is representative of a minority that dominates the economic foundations of the society and serves its own interests. Under this state, those who produce take the lowest share of the wealth produced, and those who take no part in production appropriate and accumulate that wealth. Politics, ideology, law and coercion preserve this situation. On the other hand, the dictatorship of the proletariat shatters the system of private ownership, establishes the system of public ownership and creates conditions where each takes from the socially produced wealth according to his/her work. The dictatorship of the proletariat creates the conditions for the step-by-step elimination of all class and social distinctions and all institutions and ideas glorifying and strengthening these differences. The dictatorship of the proletariat struggles for the advance of world revolution and the establishment of a communist world. The politics, ideology, laws and coercion of the dictatorship of the proletariat serve these aims.
The proletarian state has its own army, administration, judiciary and laws. The army in socialist society is qualitatively different from the bourgeois army, in that its military ranks are not characterised by class differences and blind obedience. This army participates in production along with the masses. The revolutionary army is complemented by people's militias, who represent the armed masses. As the production relations are revolutionised and the productive forces developed, it becomes possible to spend less time producing the material needs of life and the masses will have more time to participate in the administrative and other non-productive duties, including the militias. The administration of the proletarian state is fundamentally different from the bloated bureaucratic apparatus of the bourgeoisie and, because of the widespread participation of the masses in managing different aspects of society, is much smaller. In bourgeois society, the laws are there to protect class differences and are against the proletariat and the masses; in socialist society, the purpose of the laws is to eliminate the class distinctions and all social inequalities and they are against the exploiting classes.
The State and the
Party
Under the proletarian state, the communist party has a leading role, which is official and institutionalised. One of the bourgeoisie's usual slanders is that "the state of communists is a single-party state and thus people are deprived from taking part in the political power. But capitalist states are multi-party. Rulers change and give the opportunity of ruling to all.” This is sheer hypocrisy. It is not true that in capitalist societies all classes are given the opportunity to rule. Rather, different ruling parties consist of different strata of the bourgeoisie, and in each period one or a coalition of them form the government. The demagogic game of the bourgeoisie that allows the people to choose one of its parties every now and then does not change anything. Always a core of leaders of the bourgeoisie – and only the bourgeoisie – lead the state. These leaders are either representatives of the official ruling parties or non-party politicians and strategists who lead the military and intelligence institutions.
Under the proletarian state, the part of the working class that is organised in the communist party plays the leading role. The proletariat, contrary to the bourgeoisie, declares this fact openly and explains the objective conditions of its inevitability, i.e. because of the differences and gap in class society and the world, the ranks of the working class continually divide into advanced and non-advanced – conscious and non-conscious. As a result, a minority of the class gains class consciousness before others and scientifically understands the proletariat's mission of eliminating capitalist exploitation and oppression and establishing classless communist society. This advanced section gets organised in the party and acts as the headquarters of the working class.
But the leading role of the party in the proletarian state does not mean the pacification or alienation of the workers and other toiling masses from exercising political power. Quite the contrary, the communist party continuously leads the masses to participate in consciously guiding the political, economic and cultural affairs of the society, and it strengthens and consolidates the organs of people's power at all levels, including in such forms as the soviets, assemblies, mass organisations, local powers, etc. Moreover, in socialist society, the communist party is not only a party in power but is also the vanguard of the revolutionary struggle against those aspects of power that have become a hindrance to the elimination of differences and contradictions remaining from the past. The communist party itself undergoes revolutionary transformation and reconstruction in the process of continuous revolution. Therefore, participation of the masses in politics and in the running of the society, under the proletarian state, is in sharp contrast to what goes on in bourgeois parliamentarian democracies. Under socialism, participation of the masses is not passive and superficial. The aim of bourgeois propaganda against the role of the party under socialism is to deprive the working class of the necessary means of acquiring class-consciousness, seizing political power and advancing towards communism.
The State and Ideology
In all states hitherto formed in history, the ideology of a particular class has been dominant. This is a very important truth that the bourgeois hypocrites hide. Not only religious states, such as the Islamic Republic or the Vatican State in the Middle Ages, but all secular bourgeois states have an ideology. The foundation of the ideology of the bourgeois states, irrespective of the forms they take, is to enforce and sanctify private ownership and all relations corresponding to it. Bourgeois ideology considers the capitalist system to be eternal and believes in the permanence of exploitation-based society. All values, traditions, customs and works of literature and art that sanctify and strengthen exploitative private ownership and reinforce it are part of the ideological superstructure of bourgeois states. The bourgeois state employs all its means to promote such a society, such a system of ownership, and uses these values to suppress communist ideas. Humiliating the masses, racist and woman-hating idiocy, greed and selfishness, national bigotry and other reactionary ideas make up the ideology of the bourgeois state. The bourgeoisie constantly promotes these ideas, both directly and indirectly, through the education system and mass media.
The ideology of the proletarian state is communism, and this is openly proclaimed. This ideology is in total contrast to bourgeois ideology. It is based on the understanding that time is over for a society based on capitalist private ownership; it has become deadly, rotten and reactionary and should be replaced by communist society. All values, traditions and works of literature and art that contain this basic understanding are part of the ideological superstructure of the proletarian state, which puts all possible efforts into promoting and propagating communism.
Communist ideology, contrary to bourgeois ideology, which belongs to the past and carries the heavy corpse of thousands of years of class society, is an ideology inspired by the future. The communist worldview and methodology, like other class views, is partisan, but contrary to them, it declares this truth and this is a source of its strength. Communist ideology is a scientific worldview that constantly synthesises and absorbs all human experience; it is invariably self-critical and discards whatever is old or proven to be wrong.
In socialist society, the communist party continually takes communist ideology to the masses with the aim of arming them with this ideology, so that they can consciously rebel against whatever is reactionary, to sharpen the spirit of criticism among them, and to arouse among them the desire for innovation and the constant transformation of the world and themselves. The goal of communist education in socialist society is that the toiling masses can distinguish between the socialist road and the capitalist road and rise against politics and forces taking the capitalist road. This concept of teaching communist ideology is fundamentally different from the concept presented by the revisionists of the ex-Soviet Union and today's China. They have turned communist ideology into a handful of pseudo-religious dry and useless principles or a subject confined within university walls; they have robbed it of life and its rebellious and progressive spirit. The goal of revisionist states is to draw a socialist mask over the rotten capitalist system in their countries. Therefore, they need to keep the shell of communist ideology and fill it will conservatism and blind obedience, in short with bourgeois content. Instead of taking the ideological claims of the state at their face value, the contents of their ideology should be measured by the socio-economic realities of the society they rule.
The State and Religion
Religion is a teaching of obedience, blind obedience. Marxism is a teaching of rebellion, conscious rebellion. Only when the masses are armed with Marxism can they consciously wage great struggles to thoroughly change their own conditions and the world.
The state of the dictatorship of the proletariat is an atheist one, i.e. a godless state. But the freedom for individual members of society to believe in god and have a religion exists. The proletarian state promotes the truth that god or any other super-natural being does not exist, and the realities of life should be regarded as they are and changed in the interests of humankind. The main reason for opposing religion is basically because it sanctifies and strengthens oppressive social relations and moral values. This struggle will be waged actively and creatively and by relying on the mass line, along with education. All the members of religious institutions, like other members of society, should work on the basis of "from each according to his/her ability, to each according to his/her work". The scope of their work will be mainly limited by raising the consciousness of the masses as to the reactionary and hypocritical nature of religious ideology.
In the proletarian state, religious upside-down illusions and enslavement, which serve to pacify and mollify the people and create false dreams, will be combated. Instead, penetrating the unknown and scientific creativity, through scientific and artistic activities, will be promoted. The possibility of technical innovations and the creation of works of art, on an unprecedented scale, will be made available to the toiling masses.
The State and Culture
The field of culture, and in particular art and literature, is an important part of the political superstructure of society. Because of its immense influence on people's minds, either in the direction of supporting the ruling system and its values or in questioning and rebelling against them, art is very important. That is why the bourgeoisie controls this field in different ways. In the oppressed countries, this is accompanied by repression against revolutionary and pro-people artists and open censorship; in imperialist capitalist societies, those works of art and literature that are not in the service of the existing system are suppressed in more covert and sophisticated ways and their popularisation is hindered.
In socialist society the proletariat will control the cultural arena. This control mainly means supporting the development of a new culture. Those works of art and literature that directly or indirectly, through different art forms, criticise class society and expose old ideas and traditions and portray a future free of all social differences will be promoted and encouraged. The production of works of art that help deepen understanding of the truth in relation to different aspects of life and the universe will be supported. The transition from socialist society and reaching communism is impossible without the development of such a culture.
In the area of forms of art, variety and innovation will be encouraged. Even though the content and social effect of an art work is its main aspect, giving room to artistic creativity will lead to the emergence of a variety of art forms and will ensure progress and vitality in the field of art.
After seizing political power, all the works of art and literature previously suppressed, because of their opposition to the old system, will be made widely available to the masses of people. At the same time, progressive art from around the world will also be widely promoted. Works of art and literature will be available to the masses of people in a way previously unknown and they will have access to the means of creating such works of art.
The reactionary states are always afraid of close links between artists and the masses. The bourgeoisie always tries to buy off the artists, by giving them an elite position and putting them in an ivory tower isolated from the masses. In socialist society artists are encouraged to go amongst the masses, link with them and create their work in close relation with the toiling masses and by learning from them. Works of art created in this way will help the masses of workers and peasants break with age-old class-based traditions and ideas and build a new society.
In socialist society the production of works of art that reflect discontent with, and opposition to, the proletarian state will not be prevented. Their existence will be taken advantage of to inspire the field of artistic criticism and to stimulate Marxist debate over the creation of new artwork. This is the reflection of the socialist state's united front policy with non-proletarian strata, including intellectuals, in the field of literature and art.
In the policies of the proletarian state there will even be a place for publishing and displaying internal or foreign reactionary art, along with criticism, so that the masses of people will be in a better position to compare them and thus raise their class consciousness.
The State and Propaganda
In bourgeois society, the ruling classes monopolise the mass media and other means of propaganda with the aim of filling the heads of the masses with upside-down pictures and lies about history and current events in society and the world. Developments in science, which resulted in fast and unprecedented advances in information networks, have also served this purpose. The bourgeoisie hypes about how the Internet is an instrument of “democratising” the world, but although the people can put the Internet to some use, it is in fact the ruling classes that use it even more in order to control the masses, both politically and ideologically.
The goal and content of the propaganda in socialist society is opposite to that of bourgeois society. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the first time in the history of class society, the masses in their millions will be introduced to the most important questions of the world, history and existence in a truthful way. The mass media, and other means of agitation and propaganda, will arm the people with a dialectical materialist understanding of society, nature, history and the world, so that they will face reality as it is. The past experience of real socialist societies shows that the basic masses of people have been a thousand times more aware of the realities of the world, society and history than people in bourgeois democracies and have had a level of political understanding unimaginable in capitalist countries.
Under socialism the libraries, the means of printing and the mass media, which were previously concentrated in the hands of a bourgeois elite, or in the oppressed countries were concentrated in the centres of state power, will be made available to the broadest masses in the villages, factories and schools, so that they can directly express and propagate their opinions. In order to help spread communist literature and works internationally, the proletarian state