Dear reader,
You hold in your hands the 14th issue of the “International Communist Review” (ICR), which is devoted to the Communist Party. Where did it begin, on what principles and with what aims is the CP founded? What historical experiences, positive and negative, has the CP accumulated? What should a CP look like in today’s conditions? What are the challenges facing the CP today? The reader will find answers to these and other questions in the articles in this issue.
It should be noted here that despite the different conditions in which the CPs participating in the ICR operate, they share a common understanding that the Communist Party is rooted in the theoretical and political approaches of V.I. Lenin, the Bolshevik Party, the Great October Socialist Revolution and the Communist International.
As stated in the article of the Communist Party of Turkey, which discusses the historical development of the CP from the Communist League, whose programme was drawn up by Marx and Engels in 1848, to the present day, “The 1917 October Revolution created one of the most important historical achievements: the Communist Party”. Underlining the importance of the Leninist work, it is stated that “Lenin’s What Is to Be Done? is a work that goes beyond practical struggles; in fact, it is one of the most theory-heavy books by its author. What Is to Be Done? Presents a theory of leadership that critiques the organisational form of Social-Democracy. According to this theory, the primary goal of the working class's organized struggle is the seizure of political power”.
They also share the view that the Communist Party is the Party of the working class, fighting for the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of the socialist–communist society, guided by the world view of Marxism–Leninism and proletarian internationalism. At the same time, as the Communist Party of Greece points out in its article, “The theory of revolutionary policy is developed by studying the experience of the class struggle and turning the conclusions into the guiding thread of revolutionary action in practice. This is a crucial condition for maintaining and strengthening the revolutionary character of a CP. Of course, agnosticism and eclecticism do not characterize us, and in no way do we succumb to the revision or denial of the fundamental positions of the communist world view. Precisely for this reason, we firmly believe —and this is confirmed by all the historical experience of the international communist movement— that the way for a CP to be effectively and correctly guided from the Marxist–Leninist world view is only by developing it. While revolutionary action advances, theory cannot remain static, based on the elaborations of a century or two ago. The Marxist–Leninist world view is not a sterile reproduction of quotations from Marx–Engels–Lenin or other prominent communist leaders over time. If our world view is not translated into an everyday ability to judge and act on reality, then sooner or later the revolutionary characteristics of political action will be altered to the point where they are permanently transformed”.
The CPs participating in the ICR study their history and the history of the International Communist Movement, trying to draw lessons from it, rejecting the erroneous strategic and tactical approaches of the past and reaffirming today the independent, autonomous and irreplaceable role that the CP is called upon to play. In this direction, the article of the Communist Party of Mexico, which examines the experience of the dissolution of the CP and its reorganization, stresses, among other things, that “The class struggle, and the unshakable position of communists in that struggle, as well as the tragic lessons of the past, bring us to the vital conclusion of class independence, of the autonomy and independence of the Party; for this reason we consider that the Communist Party is not only the one that creates the subjective conditions of the revolutionary process, but that it is the subjective factor itself, and therefore has no substitute”.
The CPs participating in the ICR, studying the contemporary developments and the contradictions in the imperialist system, reject the idea that the working class should come under a false bourgeois flag of one or another imperialist bloc, on one pretext or another, and put forward the real alternative: the Socialist Revolution and the preparation of the subjective factor for it. As highlighted in the article of the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain, “Stating that we are living in the era of imperialism —apart from being an ascertainment— necessarily defines the nature of our era and the role the CP should play. Imperialism raises the contradictions of capitalism to its final limit. After it, there is only one alternative to barbarism and the possible end of humankind — the Socialist Revolution. Any approach driving the Party away from its duty to prepare the subjective conditions for revolution is an irresponsibility towards humankind in general and especially our class — if not treason. Assisting in the placement of the working class under the banners of the bourgeoisie, from one or another imperialist bloc, when the objective conditions for revolution start to be clearer than ever, means not having learned anything from History. It means joining the dark side, or it just means that the lack of courage before the titanic task is blurring the vision. The role of the Party in the clarification of this matter is one of the nodal issues of our time”.
The international communist movement today faces important challenges concerning the course of its regroupment in a revolutionary direction and the overcoming of the ideological and political crisis in its ranks. In this regard, forms such as European Communist Action and the International Communist Review play an important role. As the Party of Labour of Austria stresses in its article, “It cannot be overlooked that the international communist movement is in crisis. On the one hand, this is still a consequence of the counter-revolution in the USSR and Eastern Europe, which in some places led to pusillanimity, revisionism, leftist arbitrariness, unprincipled alliances and social democratisation. Elsewhere, however, it also led to renewal on a Marxist-Leninist basis and to the founding of new organisations. The process of differentiation within the communist and workers' parties is far from complete, as recent discussions on imperialist theory, the war in Ukraine and the assessment of Russia and China show. The Party of Labour of Austria sees itself as part of the Marxist-Leninist pole of the international communist movement, which finds expression in the European Communist Action and the International Communist Review, among others. There is no way around strengthening and expanding the Marxist-Leninist pole in order to regain clout on an international level”.
One of the most considerable contemporary challenges facing the international communist movement is the attitude towards the forces of so-called “progressivism” of a number of social-democratic parties in Latin America, which, under the banner of a false “anti-imperialism” and “sovereignty”, promote bourgeois interests and seek to subordinate the communist movement to the plans of the bourgeoisie, even using repressive measures against it, as is the case in Venezuela. As the Communist Party of Venezuela points out in its article, “The fundamental problem of the communist and workers’ parties today is synthesized in the following dilemma: to execute a political action that is limited to the struggle for timid reforms that improve conditions of sale and reproduction of the labor force of the working class in the framework of multi-class alliances, or to fulfill the role of organizing and directing the revolutionary potential of the working class to take in their hands the political power and become the leading class of society. The latter is the one that defines the reason for being and existing of a Communist Party as the organized vanguard of the working class as a social class for itself”.
The section of articles on the Communist Movement concludes with the article of the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan, which enriches our knowledge of the course of capitalist restoration in the Soviet Republics of Central Asia, as well as the tortuous course of the reconstruction of the Communist Party, which faces the anti-communist and anti-Soviet attack of the new bourgeois regimes. As emphasized in the article, “In this situation, new communist and workers' parties are needed, which must offer an alternative to the existing order and develop an effective revolutionary program of political struggle. The promotion of the idea of such a socialist alternative, focused on the maximum unity of the workers and the masses of all nationalities, is an important step along this path”.