We publish this translation to French of the statement by the ICL on Lenin.
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
Comrade Lenine, flagship of the international proletariat and great master of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, sheds light on the path of the Unity of the International Communist Movement
"We are those who form the army of the Grand Stratege of the proletariat, the army of the comrade Lenin. There is no greater honor than belonging to this army. "
(Stalin)
As the pages of history show, on January 21, 1924, the comrade Lenin, the great leader of the working class and the oppressed peoples of the whole world, the second cornerstone of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, has become immortal, we leaving an inheritance in incalculable value. The teachings of comrade Lenin, who transformed the “world of tomorrow”, whose foundations were laid by Marx and Engels, from an abstract possibility into a concrete reality, are still topical after a century of great upheavals in the world. To position yourself properly in the class struggle, you must assume this "news" and orient yourself in its direction.
LENIN
E
, Master of communism broke the ice and opened the way facing international reaction and revisionism
Identify the contradictions correctly in the history of the class struggle, grasp the moments of rupture in history and be ready at these moments of rupture, such was the main task of the comrade Lenin throughout his struggle until its immortality. After the death of Marx and Engels, the opportunism of the second international took over the management of the international proletariat for a long period which, in the words of Stalin, was "a period during which the parties of the second international n 'could not continue to lead the theoretical struggle to release the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the world of the influence of these opportunists and class collaborators of Social Democrats ”. In addition to the theoretical struggle for the release of the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples, he developed, with the Foundation of the Communist International, a form of organization and struggle adapted to the dynamics of the class struggle in the new phase of capitalism.
The comrade Lenin made the Communist and the Communist International of War International against the Bourgeoisie by releasing the Communist Party and the Movement of the Communist International of the Hopals of Legal Forms: "
Instead of a revolutionary policy, a stupid philistinism, a petty politiciller, parliamentary diplomacy and parliamentary combinations. Obviously, to save appearances, we adopted "revolutionary" resolutions and watchwords, but it was to bury them in the drawers. (…) It was important to revise all the activity of the 2nd International, its working method, to expel its Philistine Spirit, the tightness, the political, the spirit of denial, the social-chauvinism, the social-pacifism. It was important to check the entire arsenal of the 2nd International, to reject everything that was rusty and dilapidated, to forge new weapons. Without this preliminary work, it was useless to go to war against capitalism. Without this, the proletariat was likely to be insufficiently armed or even simply disarmed in front of the new revolutionary battles. It was to Leninism that the honor of proceeding with the general verification and the general cleaning of the Augias stables of the II International stables. "
(“Principles of Leninism”, Stalin)
Comrade Lenin, with his genius, understood what was the heart of the contradiction and seized that the fight against the bourgeoisie could not be sufficiently effective and fruitful without unloading the international proletariat of his burden, without fighting opportunism and revisionism , without showing the masses the true character of these visions both from a theoretical and practical point of view, without isolation of these ideas as much as possible. By establishing the necessary and dialectical link between the “internal struggle” and the “external struggle”, the comrade Lenin led a double struggle.
The comrade Lenin left us, to us Communists, the extremely important lesson in the inseparability of the fight against revisionism and the opportunism of the fight against imperialism and all the forms of domination of the reaction. The fight against imperialism involves a purification of revisionism and opportunism.
Bring the teachings of Lenine high within the deepest contradictions of the imperialist system
The imperialist system, which the comrade Lenin analyzed in detail at the beginning of the 20th century, survived until today, but his contradictions are joining and he has entered a spiral of insoluble antagonistic contradictions. Although the dissolution of the USSR and the process of integration of China into the capitalist system have been there and that the contradictions have not exploded for a certain time, the law of unequal development of capitalism continues to progress and Inter-imperialist rivalry develops to the stage of “disintegration” through regional wars. This shows the crisis in which the system is found and that the “solutions” proposed in the past no longer work in the current phase. The imperialists who have long maintained the crisis by transferring the weight of the system to the semi-colonies and by looting their resources are now in a dead end.
One of the hot spots of the problems inherent in the imperialist system, which have developed according to the definition of Lenin's imperialism, is that the inter-imperialist struggle, which has manifested itself in various forms in recent years, is currently carried out through regional wars. When Lenin lists the contradictions of imperialism, he quotes inter-imperialist contradiction as one of the three most important contradictions.
“The second contradiction is that which exists between the different financial groups and imperialist powers in their struggle for the sources of raw materials, for the territories of others. Imperialism is the export of capital to the sources of raw materials, the frenzied struggle for the monopolized possession of these sources, the struggle for the district of the world already shared, the struggle that the new groups lead with particular relentlessness Financiers and powers in search of "a place in the sun" against the old groups and powers, who cling to what they have monopolized. This frenzied struggle between the different groups of capitalists is remarkable that it implies, as an inevitable element, the imperialist wars, the wars for the conquest of the territories of others. This circumstance, in turn, is remarkable that it leads to the reciprocal weakening of the imperialists, to the weakening of the position of capitalism in general, to the rapprochement of the time of the proletarian revolution, to the practical need of this revolution. ”
. (Stalin, principles of Leninism).
Russia and China, the former socialist countries which have given a stay of the imperialist system thanks to their new markets, have become one of the main players in the inter-imperialist rivalry, in competition with the hegemonic power of the United States. This means that the scope and nature of the contradictions have increased with the growing involvement of new and powerful actors in the struggle for the redistribution of territories. The major confrontation linked to the invasion of Ukraine by Russian imperialism took place in this context. We can expect this trend to deepen and extend. As long as there is no direct confrontation between the imperialists, the regions where the sharing wars will take place will be the semi-colonies and the colonies. The semi-colonies and the oppressed peoples of the world will continue to pay the price of these wars until the imperialists declare a direct war.
The division of the world between a handful of imperialist nations and a majority of oppressed countries - masterfully analyzed by Lenin - has therefore been further accentuated. The third contradiction is exacerbated by imperialist flight and looting, and the semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries are raised in powerful wars of national liberation and popular wars which shake the imperialist system.
In addition to the process in which imperialism involves inter-imperialist contradictions, and the imperialist countries in contradiction, the oppressed peoples and nations; All parts of the leading system, in particular imperialist states, become more centralized, militarists and belligerents than before, which opens the way to all the fascist currents which bring the company to a corresponding ideological configuration. This occurs both with the so-called extreme right and under the veil of social democratic or liberal parties. Communists and the oppressed peoples of the world, faced with the reality of a system which becomes more reactionary and aggressive every day, need a Leninist party to direct the struggle of the proletariat for political power, as pointed out in the Comrade Lenin, in order to organize strong resistance against this reaction. Only such a party, now a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, can lead an irreconcilable fight against the bourgeoisie.
The great heritage of Lenin, the Leninist conception of the party: the staff of the proletariat
"The revolution is not a gala dinner, it is not as if we were writing an essay, painted a painting or embroidered a flower. It cannot be accomplished with so much refinement, ease and elegance, with so much sweetness, calm, respect, modesty and deference. A revolution is an insurrection, the act of violence by which a class reverses the power of another class. " (Mao Zedong)
The way in which the communists define the existing contradictions and position themselves in the face of developments is crucial. During the hundred years that have passed since the death of the comrade Lenin, the imperialists transformed their structures ruling into even larger war machines. Their armies, fonts, secret services, etc. have incomparable capacities to those of the past. On the other hand, a considerable part of those who say they are "communists" or "revolutionaries" ignore this reality (even if it seems theoretically accepted) and are far from positioning itself in agreement with it. Following an ideological and practical line of reconciliation which encloses the working class and the oppressed masses in the dominant system, they amortize the anger of the masses and act like dams. While the imperialists and the dominant exploitation structures have increasingly violent devices and institutions, it is necessary, as a disciples of the comrade Lenin, to lead a strong ideological struggle against the fact that those who Say “revolutionaries” and “communists” are increasingly moving away from the reality that the revolution and the revolutionary struggle will be based on arms and violence. Taking inspiration from the relentless struggle of comrade Lenin against the opportunism of the II International to fight against these points of view is one of the important tasks to do justice to the comrade Lenin in this year of the centenary of his immortality.
Comrade Lenin defined the new type of communist party as "the organization of war of the proletariat". This definition was necessary because of the imperialist system and the mutual position of the classes. The process that led to the October Revolution and the civil war that broke out with the October Revolution are the concrete reasons why the comrade Lenin qualified the Communist Party as a war organization of the proletariat ". It is necessary that the Communist Party, which will lead the emancipation of the proletariat and the oppressed masses, has this characteristic, while the counter-revolution is moving up to the bottom of the apparatus by violence and commits all these terrible massacres Against the working class and the oppressed peoples. A revolutionary war needs a combat party to lead it. Only fools and incorrigible revisionists who rely on the bourgeoisie can see things differently.
“Some ridicule us by calling us supporters of“ omnipotence of war ”. Yes, we are supporters of the omnipotence of the revolutionary war; It's good, it's not bad, it's Marxist. The weapons of the Russian Communist Party have created socialism. We will create a Democratic Republic. The experience of the class struggle at the time of imperialism teaches us that it is only with the power of the rifle that the working class and the laborious masses can overcome the armed bourgeoisie and the landowners; In this sense, we can say that it is only with weapons that the whole world can be transformed. "
(Mao Zedong)
During its founding conference, the LCI defined the construction and reconstruction of communist parties as an important task in the struggle for the world proletarian revolution. The conception of the Communist Party developed by comrade Mao Zedong conforms to the conception of the Communist Party exposed by the comrade Lenin, and also enriched by Stalin, and is the realization of the Leninist conception of the party in the ideology of Marxism-Leninism- Maoism. In the period of imperialism and proletarian revolutions in which we find ourselves, the Communist Party capable of opposing the growing aggression of the imperialist reaction and of leading the proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the world to the Liberation must have the quality of a “proletarial war organization”.
An essential heritage of Lenin is the question of political power as a fundamental question of any revolution. Lenin has shown that "the proletarian revolution is impossible without the violent destruction of the bourgeois state apparatus and its replacement by a new device" and that "without power, everything is only illusion". Under the personal direction of Lenin, the first socialist state in the world, the dictatorship of the proletariat, was established, which materialized the proletarian path towards power and its maintenance.
After the death of Lenin, it was its continuator Stalin who brilliantly defined Leninism, developed it and made it the basis of the entire international communist movement. Based on the shoulders of the Grand Lenin, President Mao was able to bring the world proletarian revolution to higher levels and develop the ideology of the proletariat. Leninism which is today Marxism-Leninism-Maoism must be adopted, defended and applied to the current situation.
As LCI, we will continue to carry out the tasks raised by the Grand Lenin and make good use of the inheritance that the comrade Lenin left us.
The comrade Lenin, the grand master of the international proletariat and the Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, directs and guides our struggle for the world proletarian revolution, today as yesterday!
Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
Long live the international proletariat!
International Communist League, January 2024