Extract from the Programme of the MLPD - the Marxist Leninist Party of Germany
1. At the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU in February 1956, a new bourgeoisie seized political power in the Soviet Union. It openly propagated modern revisionism and restored capitalism step by step. This state-monopoly capitalism of a new type was the basis for the formation of Soviet social-imperialism. The Soviet Union had served as model and mainstay for the struggle of the proletarians and oppressed peoples of the world for almost forty years. In contrast, Soviet social-imperialism, along with the USA, became a hotbed of worldwide reaction, exploitation and imperialist warmongering.
2. The gradual restoration of capitalism entailed the abrogation of socialist principles. The striving for maximum profit replaced the constantly improving satisfaction of the material and cultural needs of the entire society. The new bourgeoisie had the power of disposal over the most important means of production, banks, trade organizations and means of transport. It claimed a share of profit in accordance with its position in the bureaucracy.
3. With the aid of its lackeys in the other com munist parties, the revisionist leadership of the CPSU forced the GDR and most countries of the former socialist camp into taking the capitalist road and, by transforming the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) into a capitalist institution, led them into neocolonial dependency on the Soviet Union.
4. To deceive the masses of the people, the new bourgeoisie in the former GDR called its system of rule a "workers' and peasants' state." The revisionist SED presented itself as the Marxist-Leninist party of the working class and imposed a pseudo-Marxist-Leninist ideology on the masses of the people, combined with some social improvements. The honest commitment of many people was abused for the big lie of "real socialism." Simultaneously, any beginnings of a democratic or even Marxist-Leninist opposition were mercilessly prosecuted by the State Security Service. A climate of fear of spying and denunciation was created.
5. All over the world, the bourgeois mass media celebrated the economic and political collapse of the former Soviet Union and its neocolonial structure of rule in 1991 as the "end of socialism" and the beginning of a "new world order." In reality, the world observed the decline of one part of the imperialist world system which, until then, was characterized by the rivalry of two superpowers, United States and USSR. The ossified bureaucratic-capitalist relations of production and the concentration of a big part of Soviet economic potential on nuclear buildup led to growing tailism of its economy. Gorbachev's "perestroika" policy aimed at overcoming the Soviet Union's economic trailing behind by making the two capitalist systems gradually converge and interpenetrate. The result was the economic and political collapse.It was an expression of the bankruptcy of modern revisionism and intensifies the general crisis of capitalism.
6. The restoration of capitalism arose from the seizure of power by a degenerated petty-bourgeois bureaucracy which, in a long process, had established itself in the midst of the socialist leadership of the economy, the state and the party. Its material basis lay in the still existing contradictions between capitalist and socialist countries, between manual and mental labor, and between town and country, in the remnants of commodity production, the existence of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois family relations, continuance of bourgeois right and, last but not least, in the effects of bourgeois ideology. The petty-bourgeois bureaucracy strives for personal privileges, promotes nepotism and careerism, oppresses honest criticism from the party and the masses, abuses its authority for egoistic motives and distinguishes itself by empty and submissive phrasemongering sounding like Marxism-Leninism.
7. The MLPD appreciates the great efforts of socialist construction in the Soviet Union and the GDR. The merits of the Soviet people in smashing Hitlerite fascism are immortal. After Lenin's early death, Stalin resolutely continued to lead the Soviet Union on the socialist road, against the bitter resistance of internal and external enemies.But in doing so, the necessary ideological struggle against the petty-bourgeois mode of thinking was neglected; the mobilization of the masses against the degenerated petty-bourgeois representatives of bureaucracy was abandoned. These were the two main errors of Stalin. To ensure unencumbered control related mainly to the party's Central Committee, an independent Central Control Commission was set up under Lenin's leadership in 1923. It was an expression of underestimating the danger of capitalist restoration when, under Stalin in 1933, the Central Control Commission lost its independent character.
2. The gradual restoration of capitalism entailed the abrogation of socialist principles. The striving for maximum profit replaced the constantly improving satisfaction of the material and cultural needs of the entire society. The new bourgeoisie had the power of disposal over the most important means of production, banks, trade organizations and means of transport. It claimed a share of profit in accordance with its position in the bureaucracy.
3. With the aid of its lackeys in the other com munist parties, the revisionist leadership of the CPSU forced the GDR and most countries of the former socialist camp into taking the capitalist road and, by transforming the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) into a capitalist institution, led them into neocolonial dependency on the Soviet Union.
4. To deceive the masses of the people, the new bourgeoisie in the former GDR called its system of rule a "workers' and peasants' state." The revisionist SED presented itself as the Marxist-Leninist party of the working class and imposed a pseudo-Marxist-Leninist ideology on the masses of the people, combined with some social improvements. The honest commitment of many people was abused for the big lie of "real socialism." Simultaneously, any beginnings of a democratic or even Marxist-Leninist opposition were mercilessly prosecuted by the State Security Service. A climate of fear of spying and denunciation was created.
5. All over the world, the bourgeois mass media celebrated the economic and political collapse of the former Soviet Union and its neocolonial structure of rule in 1991 as the "end of socialism" and the beginning of a "new world order." In reality, the world observed the decline of one part of the imperialist world system which, until then, was characterized by the rivalry of two superpowers, United States and USSR. The ossified bureaucratic-capitalist relations of production and the concentration of a big part of Soviet economic potential on nuclear buildup led to growing tailism of its economy. Gorbachev's "perestroika" policy aimed at overcoming the Soviet Union's economic trailing behind by making the two capitalist systems gradually converge and interpenetrate. The result was the economic and political collapse.It was an expression of the bankruptcy of modern revisionism and intensifies the general crisis of capitalism.
6. The restoration of capitalism arose from the seizure of power by a degenerated petty-bourgeois bureaucracy which, in a long process, had established itself in the midst of the socialist leadership of the economy, the state and the party. Its material basis lay in the still existing contradictions between capitalist and socialist countries, between manual and mental labor, and between town and country, in the remnants of commodity production, the existence of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois family relations, continuance of bourgeois right and, last but not least, in the effects of bourgeois ideology. The petty-bourgeois bureaucracy strives for personal privileges, promotes nepotism and careerism, oppresses honest criticism from the party and the masses, abuses its authority for egoistic motives and distinguishes itself by empty and submissive phrasemongering sounding like Marxism-Leninism.
7. The MLPD appreciates the great efforts of socialist construction in the Soviet Union and the GDR. The merits of the Soviet people in smashing Hitlerite fascism are immortal. After Lenin's early death, Stalin resolutely continued to lead the Soviet Union on the socialist road, against the bitter resistance of internal and external enemies.But in doing so, the necessary ideological struggle against the petty-bourgeois mode of thinking was neglected; the mobilization of the masses against the degenerated petty-bourgeois representatives of bureaucracy was abandoned. These were the two main errors of Stalin. To ensure unencumbered control related mainly to the party's Central Committee, an independent Central Control Commission was set up under Lenin's leadership in 1923. It was an expression of underestimating the danger of capitalist restoration when, under Stalin in 1933, the Central Control Commission lost its independent character.
Instead, the struggle against bureaucratic mismanagement and sabotage was waged one-sidedly with administrative means and by means of the state security which was bureaucratized itself. The bureaucratic-centralist methods of party leadership, the leadership of the economy and the state were not touched. Due to false accusations, even numerous innocent people were executed or sentenced to imprisonment.
8. In the GDR, petty-bourgeois bureaucratism had developed early at the top of the SED. Mistrust in the masses and bureaucratic-centralist methods of leadership increasingly replaced patient persuasive work and democratic centralism.
On June 17, 1953, in more than 270 places all over the GDR, hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike against the rise of the planned production target, bureaucratically ordered from the top. The SED leadership was neither willing nor able to draw real lessons from the just mass criticisms. Instead, the imperialist attempts at abusing this mass movement for anti-socialist goals were used as an occasion to smash it with military means. Thus, the hopeful beginnings of socialist construction were suffocated.
9. The insufficient consolidation of the socialist consciousness of the masses of the working people and the party members, their inadequate revolutionary vigilance and the poorly developed democratic control over the responsible leading persons allowed the entire bureaucracy in the party, state and economy to degenerate into a petty-bourgeois bureaucracy which led the SED onto a revisionist course, and thus became a new type of bourgeoisie.
10. After 1956, the Communist Party of China headed by Mao Zedong took the lead in the struggle against the seizure of power by the modern revisionists. In 1966, Mao Zedong developed the idea of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution as the highest form of class struggle under socialism. Mao Zedong recognized the decisive barrier against the restoration of capitalism in the ideological and political mobilization of the masses, of millions of workers, peasants, revolutionary intellectuals and the young generation. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution represents the essential method of struggle against the danger of a revisionist seizure of power, rapidly developing the socialist consciousness of the masses and thus strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat.
9. The insufficient consolidation of the socialist consciousness of the masses of the working people and the party members, their inadequate revolutionary vigilance and the poorly developed democratic control over the responsible leading persons allowed the entire bureaucracy in the party, state and economy to degenerate into a petty-bourgeois bureaucracy which led the SED onto a revisionist course, and thus became a new type of bourgeoisie.
10. After 1956, the Communist Party of China headed by Mao Zedong took the lead in the struggle against the seizure of power by the modern revisionists. In 1966, Mao Zedong developed the idea of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution as the highest form of class struggle under socialism. Mao Zedong recognized the decisive barrier against the restoration of capitalism in the ideological and political mobilization of the masses, of millions of workers, peasants, revolutionary intellectuals and the young generation. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution represents the essential method of struggle against the danger of a revisionist seizure of power, rapidly developing the socialist consciousness of the masses and thus strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The revisionists' seizure of power under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping in the People's Republic of China after Mao Zedong's death in 1976 revised the results of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It introduced the restoration of capitalism in China, too, and led to the formation of Chinese social-imperialism.
11. The international Marxist-Leninist and working-class movement must draw conclusions from the restoration of capitalism, which took place in all former socialist countries without exception. The class struggle between the socialist and the capitalist road determines the development of contradictions also in socialist society over a very long historical period. This struggle is mainly waged as a struggle over the mode of thinking.
11. The international Marxist-Leninist and working-class movement must draw conclusions from the restoration of capitalism, which took place in all former socialist countries without exception. The class struggle between the socialist and the capitalist road determines the development of contradictions also in socialist society over a very long historical period. This struggle is mainly waged as a struggle over the mode of thinking.
. On the contrary, socialism is undermined, eroded and eventually destroyed. Socialism can win only with the proletarian, socialist mode of thinking prevailing. For that, the control of the mode of thinking of the responsible bureaucracy on all levels and the development and consolidation of the proletarian mode of thinking of the masses are decisive.
12. With the failure of the old, aggressive anticommunism, the ruling forces use a new form of bourgeois propaganda, modern anticommunism. This appeared at the moment when it was vital to draw conclusions from the negative experience of capitalist restoration.
12. With the failure of the old, aggressive anticommunism, the ruling forces use a new form of bourgeois propaganda, modern anticommunism. This appeared at the moment when it was vital to draw conclusions from the negative experience of capitalist restoration.
Modern anticommunism hypocritically adjusts itself to the spirit of the age, adopts a "critical" standpoint towards capitalist society, and denigrates socialism at the same time. Constantly new dubious and untenable horror stories on the former socialist Soviet Union and Mao Zedong's China are intended to systematically build up anticommunist reservations among the masses against the socialist alternative. Thus, actual errors and assaults which occurred during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution are utilized to falsify its essence and to disparage its objective. This propaganda is demagogically summarized under the bourgeois propaganda terms "Stalinism" and "Maoism."
Usually, "purified" petty-bourgeois former Leftists or ex-members of the ruling classes in the vanquished bureaucratic-capitalist countries are the leading exponents of modern anticommunism, trying to justify their own betrayal. As star witnesses for the alleged failure of socialism, they and their parties are systematically fostered by monopoly capital up to their elevation as wielders of governmental power.
The struggle against modern anticommunism is the core of the Marxist-Leninists' struggle over the mode of thinking of the masses. The teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong and their vivid application to the concrete situation of progressing social reality form the essential foundation for the emergence of a new upsurge of the struggle for socialism.
13. It is not the end of socialism. Rather, the idea of socialism lives among the masses of the peoples all over the world and it will gain new appeal since the general crisis of capitalism teaches each day anew the necessity of socialist society. Socialism is the concentration of the most progressive ideas and achievements of mankind. It is not a preconceived scheme and most definitely not egalitarianism, but emerges from the multifaceted life and struggle of the masses. It is the next social step forward, in which the revolutionary progress of the productive forces is used for the benefit of society as a whole.
13. It is not the end of socialism. Rather, the idea of socialism lives among the masses of the peoples all over the world and it will gain new appeal since the general crisis of capitalism teaches each day anew the necessity of socialist society. Socialism is the concentration of the most progressive ideas and achievements of mankind. It is not a preconceived scheme and most definitely not egalitarianism, but emerges from the multifaceted life and struggle of the masses. It is the next social step forward, in which the revolutionary progress of the productive forces is used for the benefit of society as a whole.
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