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Showing posts with label NOVEMBER REVOLUTION. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NOVEMBER REVOLUTION. Show all posts
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
NOVEMBER REVOLUTION AND SOCIALIST CONSCIOUSNESS - II - Sukomal Sen
THE learning that takes place in our day-to-day lives through practical struggles and developing social consciousness advances the workers' revolutionary consciousness. Revolutionary ideological development often best begins on the basis of people's resistance to injustices. It is important to acknowledge that injustices can and do occur during the transitional period despite the State's attempts to eliminate them. Clearly, it is important to distinguish between those who exploit existing problems in order to mobilise criticism against the State (counter revolutionaries) and ordinary people with legitimate grievances. The content and form of the latter can, when informed by Marxist methodology, serve as a means of learning from experience while simultaneously learning to make criticism conscious and constructive, thereby minimising destructive social unrest and engaging people in decision-making processes pertinent to those issues that affect their lives.Going through the entire process contributes to the formation of socialist consciousness not only among the advanced section of the working class, but also among many fighters from other sections of the society. The development of consciousness for a radical change of the society provided a favourable ideological background for socialist revolution which occurred in Russia in October, 1917.
Marx’s concept of proletarian dictatorship was further elaborated in the light of the events in France from 1848 to 1852. But his view of a new state under the leadership of the working class - the state of the socialist revolution, and the functions of such a state - was modified and made concrete by the example of the Paris Commune of 1871. He regarded the short-lived Paris Commune as the first form of a workers’ government, which by its practical actions and the measures it adopted had proved that the transition to socialism is bound up with a fundamentally new state system. Such a state system is no longer a state in the old sense of the word, because, after the smashing of the old state apparatus, it develops forms of popular control over the executive and the bureaucracy which correspond to the vision of the abolition of all central political power. We read in The Civil War in France, which appeared directly after the defeat of the Paris Commune, that the nineteenth century saw the development of “centralised State power, with its ubiquitous organs of standing army, police, bureaucracy, clergy and judicature” - a power whose origins went back to the Middle Ages. With the intensification of class antagonism between capital and labour the State power assumed more and more the character of the national power of capital over labour, of a public force organised for social enslavement, of an engine of class despotism. After every revolution marking a progressive phase in the class struggle, the purely repressive character of the State power stands out in bolder and bolder relief.
CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT
The Marxian historical framework undergoes development with the change of time. Marx was writing in the middle of the nineteenth century and died in 1883. Things have changed immeasurably since that time. The tendencies of transformation which we have witnessed in the recent past, with their roots going back to the first few decades of our century, are of such a character that Marx could not even dream about them. Above all, this concerns the way in which the capital system could adjust and renew itself, so as to postpone the unfolding and maturation of its antagonistic contradictions. Marx was not in a situation in which he could have assessed the various modalities and the ultimate limitations of state intervention in prolonging the lifespan of the capital system. A key figure in twentieth century economic development is John Maynard Keynes. Keynes’ fundamental aim was precisely to save the system through the injection of massive state funds for the benefit of private capitalist enterprise, so as to regulate on a permanent basis within the framework of undisturbed capital accumulation the overall reproduction process.
Now, more recently “monetarism” and “neo-liberalism” have pushed Keynes aside and indulged in the fantasy of doing away with state intervention altogether, envisaging the “rolling back the boundaries of the state” in a most absurd way. Naturally, in reality nothing could correspond to such self-serving fantasies. In fact the role of the state in the contemporary capitalist system is greater than ever before, including the time of the postwar two and a half decades of Keynesian developments in the capitalistically most advanced countries. The present crisis of world capitalism which began on September 15, 2008 confirms this aspect. This kind of development is totally new as compared to Marx’s lifetime. And the fact is that from Marx’s lifetime to our present conditions there has been a massive historical change.
The State sanctifies acquired wealth and privilege, defending them against the communist tradition of earlier societies and creating conditions in which private fortunes and inequality increase. ‘Because the state arose from the need to hold class antagonisms in check, but because it arose, at the same time, amid the conflict of these classes, it is a rule, the state of the most powerful, economically dominant class, which through the medium of the state, becomes also politically dominant, and thus acquires new means of holding down and exploiting the oppressed class.’ (Fredrick Engels, Origin of Family, Private Property and State Chapter IX)
The implication of Engel’s analysis here is that any government whatever may be its complexion, if it seeks to limit class struggle or oppose workers’ militant strike, it ultimately helps the capitalists to protect its privilege of property and its valid exploitation of the workers.
Moreover, any government depending too much on the bureaucratic state machine, whatever may be the political intention of that government ultimately serves the interests of the capitalists.
It happened earlier in bourgeois society, as Marx observed in connection with Louis Napoleon’s coup d’etat, that the bureaucratic machine asserts its independence of the class it serves. But such situations can also be explained by class interests. The bourgeoisie may give up parliamentary power and entrust the direct exercise of political authority to an automised bureaucracy, if this is necessary to maintain its own economic position as a class.
In a radical social transformation, the new mode of controlling the social metabolism must penetrate into every segment of society. It is in that sense that the concept of revolution remains valid; indeed, in the light of our historical experience, more valid than ever before. A revolution, in this sense, not only eradicates but also implants. The eradication is as much a part of this process as what we put in the place of what has been eradicated. Marx says that the meaning of “radical” is “to grasp matters at their roots.” That is the literal meaning of being radical, and it retains its validity in the social revolution in the just mentioned sense of eradicating and implanting.
This entire Marxist concept of social revolution assumes all-round relevance in the revolutionary struggle in India also. Any deviation from this concept is bound to boomerang. This is the lesson to-day after the success of Soviet Socialist revolution and its ultimate downfall in 1991.
Finally, after Soviet set-back in 1991, the world communist movement was put into an ideological bewilderment and many communist parties are still recovering from that shock. The result is the process of social democratisation of some of the parties, opposing or disliking class conflict believing in ‘enlightened capitalism’, or ‘globalisation with human face’. In fact, it means hindering the revolutionary developments and in the end serving the interests of capital, even at a time when world capitalism is tottering on its feet under the grave shock of unprecedented crisis.
Thus the lesson of November Revolution in today’s world is to unwaveringly adhere to the Marxist concept of social revolution and advance the revolutionary struggles in the respective countries and to achieve the historical goal, assimilation of socialist consciousness by the working class and by the advanced sections of the workers, which are basic and indispensable requirements.
Source: www.pd.cpim.org
People’s Democracy
Vol. XXXIV, No. 45, November 07, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
LET US UPHOLD THE BANNER OF CLASS STRUGGLE- A.K. Padmanabhan
CHERISHING THE MEMORY OF THE GREAT OCTOBER REVOLUTION:This Seventh November will once again renew a lot of discussions on the great October Revolution of 1917, led by the great revolutionary Com. V.I. Lenin. Pages of history teach us that the discussions, of various kinds, had started even before the Great Revolution itself. The question of working class of a country taking over political power was very critically approached by a section of the working class movement at that time itself.
Those who had a mechanical approach to the teachings of Marx and Engels had at that time itself argued the cause of a world wide revolution! It is reminded here only to point out that debates on various aspects of October Revolution had begun even before the success of the revolution and it is not surprising that those types of debates are still continuing! It can be surely expected that these debates will be never ending!
Without going into various theoretical aspects of the great October Revolution, let us only look into the impact that was created!
Soviet Union’s great achievements within a short period, in improving the lives of the working people had attracted attention of the toiling masses all over the period. As has been noted by many, “what could be achieved by the capitalist system in 300 years could be achieved within 30 years of revolution”. The capacity of Soviet Union was proved by the epoch making victory over fascism by the Red Army of the Socialist Soviet Union in the year 1945.
The beacon light of the revolutionary movement was literally strengthening the aspirations of all the enslaved and exploited people in various countries and its full impact was felt in later years, when Soviet Union extended various kinds of help to the newly liberated countries and also to those who were fighting for their freedom.
By the early 1960s USSR was front ranking in the rate of economic growth, income, production and consumption. Socialised production and ownership instead of privatised ownership and production created this big change. The great achievements in the fields of education, health and employment, which were also ensured as basic rights was something unknown to the world. That was the only country, at that point of time, that ensured peoples’ right to live, which was guaranteed through states intervention, instead of throwing them out to the claws of the competitive market. The advances in science, art, culture etc was ensured with people’s active involvement and participation.
The rights and the social security system ensured to the working people after the revolution created the impetus for world wide changes. This fact has been agreed upon even by many of the ardent critics of USSR and its policies!
The fact that more than 20 million people gave up their lives for the cause of defending the gains of Revolution and new pages of valour and sacrifices were added to the pages of history of humanity by ordinary men and women can never be forgotten!
It was their commitment to the cause of the Revolution – the political and ideological commitment of a whole country – that ensured the historic victory in the great Patriotic War!
These achievements and advances of the USSR and further strengthening of the Socialist System with victories in Eastern Europe, formation of the Peoples’ Republic of China added strength to the determination of the people’s movements in the enslaved countries!
The change in the correlation of forces at the world level forced the imperialist forces to come forward for peace talks and also reach certain understandings on regulating or reducing nuclear arms!
One irrefutable fact was that the world was saved from a repeat of nuclear holocausts like Hiroshima and Nagasaki as USSR could catch up with the war mongering U.S. on Nuclear arms!
But while all these were happening, at the political ideological level, many deviations were taking place. In the name of correcting the wrongs done earlier, many wrong conclusions were reached. The lead that U.S.S.R could attain up to very early 60s, led to many wrong assessments on the internal and international situation. These conclusions and assessments also led to minimising or fully giving up caution against the destabilising efforts of imperialist forces and their supporters all over the world.
Internally, strengthening democracy was an important task. That was a real necessity to strengthen the Socialist system. But in the name of democracy, the Socialist system was allowed to be decimated. All these are now part of history. The way the exploiters all over the world celebrated the fall of Soviet Union and East European Socialist Countries is well known. More than anything else, the concerted attack against the ideology of the working class - Scientific Socialism – is continuing.
The last 20 years of these concerted campaigns at the international and national level have created serious crisis among the toiling masses. The theme of these campaigns has been ‘Socialism is dead; Capitalism is the last word in history; and There Is No Alternative to capitalism’. `End of history’ – theorised by Fukuyama was taken up internationally by various forces for full throated campaign.
As the ideas about Socialism and also the ideological aspects of it, was taken to the working people on the basis of great achievements of Soviet Union, the collapse of Soviet Union created a serious crisis and anti-Socialist forces could sow seeds of confusion.
Another aspect of the fall of the Soviet Union is the increasing belligerence of U.S. imperialism and its military and political interventions, in the process of asserting a unipolar world. Several of those who had not understood the political impact of the collapse of USSR, had now started debating on the issue. Some of them have even wished - if USSR was there. There are many instances where the US was unilaterally able to impose its will on other countries. It is also heartening that there are some positive developments, challenging of the U.S. diktats and also developing trends of multipolarity.
The recent developments in the capitalist world, resulting in the biggest ever crisis in the system has brought out the real face of Capitalist System and its unsustainability. The importance of the analysis of the exploiting Capitalist System by Marx and Engels, which proclaimed the inevitability of a new Socialist System, has to be understood fully. This Seventh November reminds us the task of educating our class on the historical role that has to be played by the working class, learning from its past weaknesses and failures. We have to combat the erroneous ideologies that have been spread in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. A counter offensive by our class is the necessity of the hour! Let us prepare ourselves and organise our class to take up these challenges effectively. Let us uphold the banner of class struggle and cherish the memory of the great October Revolution!
Source: http://www.citucentre.org/
Sunday, October 31, 2010
NOVEMBER REVOLUTION & SOCIALIST CONSCIOUSNESS - Sukomal Sen
OCTOBER Socialist Revolution, which occurred in Russia on October 17, 1917 is now more known as November Revolution occurring on November 7, 1917 according to the revised Russian calendar. This first socialist revolution in Russia is obviously, a world shaking event and its significance is assuming more and more relevance in today’s world – a world passing through the tremor of an unprecedented crisis of world capitalism, grave recession and cruel imperialist offensive. The latest world crisis of capitalism completed its second anniversary on September 15 this year and its unbearable impact on the working class and the poor of any capitalist country and the dimension of worldwide struggles of the working class against the offensive is unforeseen. Thus, this catastrophic world crisis has added further practical importance to November socialist revolution.Imperialist hegemony and its destructive war machine have got sharpened recklessly today, threatening the entire world by its hegemonistic devices, either by sheer force or by shrewd diplomacy. The imperialist-designed neo-liberal economic model seeks to dominate the entire world market in ruthless pursuit of profit and consequent exploitation of the working class and the common people.
It is Russia, a backward country ruled by medieval Czardom, which in 1917 broke the “weakest link” of the capitalist chain, as Lenin explained, and it succeeded as the first country in the capitalist world to establish rule of the working class. It is the most important aspect of the Russian Socialist Revolution that it was the first revolution in the world which dared to put an end to exploitative rule of this or that section of the bourgeoisie continuing to establish their class rule.
Ultimately Soviet Socialist State came to an end in 1991 for numerous reasons, mostly grave distortions and deviation from the revolutionary theory of socialism. That is a separate study and the causes are still being investigated by the Marxists all over the world.
FORMATION OF SOCIALIST CONSCIOUSNESS
The Soviet socialist revolution vividly put the question of socialist consciousness on line agenda. But to achieve the agenda is not an easy one, rather it is a historical process. The human race is the most important treasure in the world. And yet historically, most of humanity has developed under conditions of antagonistic social classes, under social relations based on exploitation. These conditions have encouraged human qualities that are less than propitious for building and strengthening socialism: heightened individualism, hyper-consumerism, egotism, apathy, alienation, greed, and cynicism. Many bourgeois thinkers and counterrevolutionaries argue that such traits are innate, that we cannot and should not expect anything more from people. This however is a belief, not a conclusion based on science. It is similar to the belief that "ability" and "intelligence" are discrete, quantifiable, genetically based individual traits that have little to do with differences in history, culture, and environment. Yet to the contrary, there is much scientific evidence that disputes the notion that individuals have a fixed, immutable, essence. Human beings are subject to changes, including changes related to social context. Human potential is thus largely an unknown, as is the potential of the social environment to condition behavior.
The current complex and contradictory context, in particular, neo-liberal globalisation driven by imperialism in many developing countries, reflects a fierce ideological struggle between two fundamentally different worldviews: Marxist-Leninist and bourgeois. These two opposing frameworks compete to influence the consciousness of the majority, their ideas, habits, and points of view, for example about what the main problems are today and how best to resolve them, even criteria for being "happy." Powerful imperialist forces are dedicated to producing and distributing propaganda promoting selfishness, insatiable desires for material goods, etc. Many of these pressures are sophisticated: promoting ideas that on the surface appear progressive, but instead are reframed so as to be reactionary. In the phase of neo-liberal globalisation diversified social interests and class contradictions produced thereby, two phenomena that can easily encourage careerism, opportunism, a lack of solidarity, and weak commitment to building socialism. For example, many urban professionals, making good money, maintain lifestyles that isolate them from the concerns of those who are less privileged, eg, factory and rural workers, stay-at-home parents, pensioners. Just as it would be a mistake to underestimate the power of capital and its ability to expand - no matter who is in control of it, would be a grave mistake to underestimate the negative effects, including ideological, of accelerating economic development.
REVOLUTIONARY CONSCIOUSNESS
Though Soviet Union does not exist any more, the ever lasting effect of construction of socialism in Soviet Union will remain an agenda not only now, but in the distant future also.
In order for socialism to be constructed and maintained, individuals who understand the value of cooperation for universal aims, who demonstrate genuine concern for the common good (including clean air and water, sanitation, and an equitable allocation of natural resources), and solidarity with working people throughout the world are essential. At the same time, the transformation of society into a mature socialist society requires individuals with these perspectives. Revolutionary consciousness is both required and created under socialism. Marx, Engels, and later Lenin demonstrated the relationship between change in social conditions and change in people themselves, through socialist education and socialist practice, guided by scientific socialist theory. Still, it is not uncommon to hear some misguided socialists and Marxists argue that ever-expanding economic development will, by itself, result in the establishment of socialist relations of production and therefore socialism. The achievement of socialism is, from this perspective, largely a technical issue. From this viewpoint, revolutionary consciousness, if considered at all, is presumed to result once a certain level of economic development has been attained. The assumption is that if the proper political party is in power, thereby guiding the building of a socialist society, then the destructive contradictions of bourgeois society will be overcome. This perspective also typically maintains that (a) developing consciousness is secondary to expanding the forces of production, and (b) mobilising people in support of State policies is sufficient for developing socialist consciousness. This notion betrays a degeneration of revolutionary ideology among those individuals who claim themselves as socialist or Marxist.
History has demonstrated, however, that economic development can continue to evolve and expand, using highly advanced, science and technology, without either the establishment of socialist relations of production or socialist consciousness. Even as the material foundation for socialism exists in the United States in so far as capitalist development is concerned, for example, socialist ideological development is far from prevalent in that country. It is true that social life creates consciousness and not the reverse. It is also true that we cannot will social relations of production into being. The notion that socialist consciousness automatically results from advances in production, however, is mistaken. New relations of production create only the possibility, not the inevitability, of socialist consciousness.
A transition from capitalism to socialism occurs intentionally, that is, by people who understand what they are creating and why. People with particular perspectives, habits, customs, beliefs, criteria, attitudes, relationships with others, in addition to specific abilities and knowledge, are critical in order for socialism to advance. In What Is to Be Done, Lenin addressed how the working class becomes conscious as a class, for itself. Such understanding was necessary for him in order to argue and develop revolutionary strategy. Lenin argued that the widespread development of revolutionary, scientific consciousness was necessary in order to transform the existing socioeconomic system into one that functioned in the interests of the majority of the population, enabling individuals to fully realise their human potential. While attaining socialist consciousness is a long-term process, postponing systematic attention to this process until a certain level of economic development has been attained, undermines the ability of the masses to learn, to plan and manage society in all its aspects. It also fails to increase the number of individuals who identify themselves with socialist aims. Thus while developing the economy is essential to building socialism, those who treat economic growth as the sole objective of socialism via developing productive forces fail to grasp the essential role of ideology in the class struggle and its critical importance during all stages of economic development and social transformation.
SOCIALIST TRANSFORMATION
Socialist transformation implies not only a society where political power rests in the hands of working people but also the maintenance and constant strengthening of socialist gains. Securing socialist gains and continuing to realise further gains can only be a difficult, lengthy, contradictory, and often dangerous effort. History has demonstrated as such. New policies, laws, institutions, and organisations are continually subjected to the influences of new (and old) bourgeois, revisionist, and other opposing forces. This effort requires the dictatorship of the working people, meaning that social, economic, and political systems ensure the interests of the vast majority of a population with popular participation itself.
While the Communist Party aims to represent the interests of the working class and to be the primary vehicle that enables and supports the working class to fulfill its political functions, at the same time, the workers' dictatorship or in other words – proletarian statehood is not something that can be carried out by any group or the other than the working class itself. The dictatorship of the proletariat is a dynamic process effectively exercised by the working class. Indeed, a Marxist view of democracy is ensured when the vast majority of the population exercises state power of itself and for itself, assuming its role and rights in directing and managing society. Structuring broad popular participation into political, economic, cultural, and social decision-making at local, regional, and national levels of society is essential to guarantee that the State indeed functions in the interests of the majority of ordinary people. State power therefore poses the question of participation. Popular struggles around concrete issues, especially when guided by communists and their allies, also help the interests of the majority are ensured by leading to confronting abuses of power and by demanding justice. Grassroots self-organisation, promoting the interests of the working classes, where leaders are held accountable to those common aims, help raise consciousness, may result in real victories, and can help lay the groundwork for broader, long-lasting changes. The issue is also how to get ever closer to the popular masses, in order to understand their issues, their dreams, their forms of resistance, and to work with them towards common goals. By this, the ideological battle is won in practical work, not at the level of ideas.
(To be continued)
Source: www.pd.cpim.org
Vol. XXXIV, No. 44, October 31, 2010
Vol. XXXIV, No. 44, October 31, 2010
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