Towards a World Socialist Republic

The number of ”confirmed” deaths, due to the corona virus, is now over 70,000. There are a great many unconfirmed deaths, due to the corona virus, but the government prefers not to recognize them. Most of the states are now beginning a ”process of phased reopening”, as they explained it. At the same time, the number of daily cases of confirmed deaths, due to the virus, has reached an all time high. The medical professionals expect the daily death rate to possibly double as states ”reopen”, people mingle, and the virus has a better chance to spread.

As the virus runs its deadly course, the Second Great Depression also takes root. Within the last several weeks, thirty million workers have filed for benefits. That number is expected to rise dramatically as ever more small businesses file for bankruptcy. As well, various states are also close to that point, and are already in the process of laying off workers. For that matter, the federal government is in danger of going broke, although the officials are reluctant to admit this.

The working people are rapidly approaching the point of desperation. So many people are living paycheck to paycheck, and those paychecks are running out. As a result, people are being faced with the choice of paying rent or putting food on the table. The government officials have graciously decided to bless the fortunate few with paltry handouts, which merely delays the day when so many people will lose their homes.

Working people are rising up, in violation of any ”stay at home” orders, as well as any ”social distancing” orders. In the state capital of Michigan, armed protesters made this abundantly clear. As well, in the state capital of California, protesters also gathered, but without any firearms. As these citizens were not such a threat, the government officials became quite brave and arrested a great many of them.

People are protesting more than just ”social distancing”. They are convinced that the government is doing next to nothing to prevent the spread of the virus, and even less in trying to find a cure for the sickness. As well, workers want jobs. There is an increasing awareness, or at least a growing suspicion, that nothing is about to change. If the government has its way, that is precisely the way it will remain.

Under these conditions, it is only natural that thoughts of socialism should enter the minds of people. It is also only natural that the capitalists, the billionaires, technically referred to as the bourgeoisie, should respond that socialism, or Communism, has been tried, and has been proven to be a disaster. They then give the examples of Russia and China.

In fact, I have personally spoken to numerous people from Eastern Europe, those who are clearly not ”Communists”, but have lived in ”Communist countries”. These people, workers one and all, say that ”Communism is not what Lenin thought it would be”. In this, they are absolutely correct.

This calls for a little explanation. It is true that the Russian Revolution of October, 1917, gave birth to a socialist republic, in that the bourgeoisie were crushed under the working class, the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. A similar thing happened in China, after the Chinese Revolution of 1948. Since that time, in each country, the capitalists, the bourgeoisie, have managed to return to power. In Russia, or the USSR, as it was then called, this happened after the death of Stalin. In China, the capitalists returned to power after the death of Mao.

This does not mean that scientific socialism, the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin, are not valid. It does mean that after the revolution, after the billionaires are separated from their wealth and power, after they are deprived of their life of luxury, after they are no longer being waited upon hand and foot, then their rage, their fury, their hatred, will rise to heights which cannot be imagined, at least not by mere mortals. After these people are ”reduced” to the state of ”paupers”, a state of life which they never imagined, a state in which they are forced to ”work for their daily bread”, ”degraded” to the lot of common toilers, then they will make every effort, they will resort to any length, any subterfuge, they will spare no lies, in an attempt to return to power.

That is precisely the thing which happened in Russia and China. The capitalists of those countries went to the extreme length of pretending to be Communists, infiltrated the Communist Parties of each country, and managed to restore capitalism.

Strangely enough, this is not as surprising as it may sound. It was Lenin who pointed out that it is far less difficult to start a revolution in a ”petty bourgeois” country, but far more difficult to carry it through in successive stages. By contrast, it is far more difficult to start a revolution in ”developed” countries, but far easier to carry it through in successive stages.

A developed country is far more cultured, so that the bourgeois influence is far more wide spread. By contrast, most people in a petty bourgeois country, as was Russia in 1917, were illiterate peasants. Those peasants were less exposed to the bourgeois influence.

Lenin explained that in 1917 Russia, the ”overwhelming majority” of the population was ”petty bourgeois”. I found this rather surprising as it was my idea that small business owners are middle class or petty bourgeois. That is true, but Lenin pointed out that the vast majority of peasants are also ”small proprietors” and can be ”nothing else…They have not been schooled; their economic and political conditions do not bring them together, but rather tend to separate, alienating them from each other, and transforming them into millions of lone wolf small proprietors”. This is to say that all peasants, even the most poverty stricken, are small time capitalists!

At the time of the October revolution in Russia, all peasants were united in their hatred of the landlords. As the landlords were the allies of the nobility, as well as the capitalists, the bourgeoisie, the revolution was against all of these classes. This made the peasants the natural allies of the working class, the proletariat. Immediately after the revolution, the landlords were stripped of their property and the land belonged to the tiller. This is referred to as the land socialization law, so that the land the peasant was tilling belonged to him. Further, much of the equipment, such as draft animals and tractors, was distributed to the poor peasants.

This is certainly not socialism, but under the circumstances, a step forward. It was simply not reasonable to expect the peasants to embrace socialized, collective farming. They only gradually became aware of this, so that it took time and patience. In the mean time, the capitalists did their best to ”stir the pot”, to ”cause trouble”, to spread discontent.

It is partly for this reason that the capitalists were able to restore capitalism in Russia, after the death of Stalin, and to restore capitalism in China, after the death of Mao. This is no reason for despair. This does not mean that we are destined to endure capitalism until the end of time. This does mean that we have got to learn from the mistakes of previous revolutions.

The current situation is far different, at least in North America. The capitalists have succeeded in simplifying the class conflict. The family farmers, the American equivalent of the European peasant, have been all but wiped out, although a few are still in existence. The vast majority of small businesses, the petty bourgeois, are either broke or going broke. That leaves the working class, the proletariat, and the capitalists, the bourgeoisie. That narrows it right down. It also means that the revolution is far more difficult to start, but once started, will not face the resistance from the petty bourgeois, as the class of people we refer to as the petty bourgeois, has been all but wiped out.

Now comes the not so little matter of starting the revolution, which is very difficult in a developed country, although perhaps not as difficult as in previous years. As Lenin stated it, ”It is much more difficult to start a revolution in West European countries because there the revolutionary proletariat is opposed by the higher thinking that comes with culture, and the working class is in a state of cultural slavery”. He also explained that ”the culture of the advanced countries has been, and still is, the result of their being able to live at the expense of a thousand million people.” As a result of the export of capital, ”the capitalists of these countries obtain a great deal more in this way than they could obtain as profits by plundering the workers in their own countries…out of this tidy sum, at least five hundred millions can be spent as a sop to the labour leaders and the labour aristocracy, on all sorts of bribes. The whole thing boils down to nothing but bribery. …In America, Britain and France we see a far greater persistence of the opportunist leaders, of the upper crust of the working class, the labour aristocracy; they offer stronger resistance to the Communist movement… the purging of the workers parties, the revolutionary parties of the proletariat all over the world, of bourgeois influences, of the opportunists in their ranks, is very far from complete... Opportunism is our principle enemy. Opportunism in the upper ranks of the working class movement is bourgeois socialism, not proletarian socialism. It has been shown in practice that working class activists who follow the opportunist trend are better defenders of the bourgeoisie than the bourgeoisie themselves. Without their leadership of the workers, the bourgeoisie could not remain in power…This is where our principle enemy is, an enemy we must overcome.” (my italics)

I should add, for the benefit of those who are just now becoming politically active, that opportunism merely means unprincipled or dishonest. As Lenin has pointed out, there is no shortage of that scum in the working class. The capitalists are quite adept at identifying such people, those whom are generally referred to as ”trouble makers”. They are then offered a bribe of one sort or another. Those who accept are ”off to the races”, in the ”pocket of the capitalists”, referred to as ”labour lieutenants of the capitalist class”. They soon become devoted servants of the bourgeoisie, earning every dime of their pay.

Then along comes a crisis and there is weeping and wailing in the land of the class traitors. Our present crisis comes as twins, in the form of a virus and a Depression. The profits of the capitalists have been reduced dramatically and they have responded by cutting expenses. The bribes are an expense, and they have been suspended, or at least dramatically reduced. Hence the crying of the class traitors, true crocodile tears.

As I have mentioned in previous articles, now is the time for working class people to become active. Prepare for the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. Assume leadership positions in working class organizations, especially trade unions, but also sports clubs and any other organization. As well, become card carrying members of the two mainstream political parties. Run for any and all political office, on behalf of both parties. Study the Essential Works of Lenin, and prepare to form a true Communist Party, one which calls for the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat.

Without such a party, it is doubtful that the revolution can succeed. Membership in the Communist Party must be exclusive, as only such a Party can give the required leadership. By contrast, we want to have as many working people behind us as possible, from all walks of life, in as many organizations as possible, everything from trade unions to mainstream political parties.

All of this is a tall order, but we have to start some where. Feel free to draw inspiration from the words of Lenin: ”World imperialism shall fall when the revolutionary onslaught of the exploited and oppressed workers in each country, overcoming resistance from petty bourgeois elements and the influence of the small upper crust of labour aristocrats, merges with the revolutionary onslaught of hundreds of millions of people who have hitherto stood beyond the pale of history, and have been regarded merely as the object of history.”

The current situation is such that the virus has spread around the world, and is causing widespread devastation. As well, the Depression is adding to the suffering of countless people. It is clear that many of the countries which are being hit very hard are the same countries which are the most developed. It is a fact that a successful socialist revolution in all of those countries, or at least many of them, will make a huge difference. It will be a big step towards a World Socialist Republic.

Assuming that the revolution is successful in all, or at least several advanced countries, it is a mistake to assume that the capitalist stage of economic development is inevitable for under developed countries. Lenin was asked such a question, and he replied: ”If the victorious revolutionary proletariat conducts systematic propaganda among them, and the Soviet governments come to their aid with all the means at their disposal -in that event it will be mistaken to assume that the backward peoples must inevitably go through the capitalist stage of development….with the aid of the proletariat of the advanced countries, backward countries can go over to the Soviet system and, through certain stages of development, to Communism, without having to pass through the capitalist stage.”

It is clear that the revolutionary motion is raging in several countries of the world. In North America, it is being led by women, if only because so many working class leaders are men, and many of them have been bribed by the bourgeoisie. As those bribes are drying up, it may well be not so difficult to expose them and remove them from positions of authority. Not that it will be easy, as people who are in such positions generally get the idea that it is their God given right to rule.

On the other hand, as Lenin pointed out, ”The experience of all liberation movements has shown that the success of a revolution depends on how much the women take part it it.” In North America, the women are leading the revolution. Well done, ladies! Now is no time to be shy. Place no restrictions on yourself. Exercise the talents you have, whether it is in the field of entertainment, organization, music or writing, to name a few. As well, study the essential works of Lenin. There is no time like the present to learn Marxist revolutionary theory. You have distinguished yourselves in the recent past, so build upon that which you have started. Like it or not, countless people are counting on you. How is that for pressure?

Without doubt, the revolutionary motion is also taking place in other parts of the world. At the moment, the press is focused mainly on the corona virus, so it is difficult to obtain any particular facts on the subject.

We just have to do out part, in preparation for the revolution and the subsequent Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. Perhaps that will serve as an inspiration for other revolutionaries in other parts of the world. Or perhaps they are doing their part too, and it is just not being reported.

It may help to give some thought to Rosa Luxemburg, one of the martyrs to the cause. She devoted her life to the cause of scientific socialism, to the emancipation of the working class, to the emancipation of women. As she put it, ”the working class has nothing to lose but their chains”. With her memory in mind, may I suggest another slogan:

Victory or Death!