"The
whole problem–both theoretical and practical–is to find the correct
methods of directing the inevitable (to a certain degree and for a certain
time) development of capitalism into the channels of state capitalism; to
determine what conditions to hedge it round with, how to ensure the
transformation of state capitalism into Socialism in the not distant
future. . .
"We all now
agree that concessions are necessary; . . .The concessionaire is a
capitalist. He conducts his business on capitalist lines, for profit. He
is willing to enter into an agreement with the proletarian government in
order to obtain extra profits, over and above ordinary profits; or in
order to obtain raw materials which he cannot otherwise obtain, or can
obtain only with great difficulty. Soviet power gains by the development
of the productive forces, by securing an increased quantity of goods
immediately, or within a very short period. . . For concessions are also a
form of struggle. They are the continuation of the class struggle in
another form, and under no circumstances are they the substitution of
class peace for class war." (Pages 544, 545, and 546)
Private Capitalism
"Those who achieve best results in this sphere, even by means of
private capitalism, even without the cooperatives, without directly
transforming this capitalism into state capitalism, will do more for the
cause of all-Russian socialist construction than those who will ‘ponder
over’ the purity of Communism, draw up regulations, rules and
instructions for state capitalism and cooperatives, but do nothing
practical to stimulate trade.
"Private capital
in the role of helper of Socialism–does that not seem paradoxical?
"It is not
paradoxical in the least; it is an irrefutable economic fact." (Page
555)
"The Proletarian
regime is in no danger as long as the proletariat firmly holds power in
its hands." (Page 567)
(These quotations are
taken from V. I. Lenin Selected Works, Vol. 2–Part 2. Foreign
Languages Publishing House, Moscow 1952)
Lenin died
in 1924, but his NEP continued until 1929, and Russia made substantial
economic progress. Stalin reversed the policy in 1929–with dire and deadly
consequences.
It has been well said,
"Those who will not learn the lessons of the past are condemned to
repeat them."
DISGUISED MARXISM
The May 16, 1997 Free China Journal,
published by the Republic of China in Taiwan, contains the article
attributed to the "Australian International Affairs analyst, Gary
Klintworth," in which he presents a "Marxist" prediction of
the future of Communist China. He writes:
"Within the PRC, a new class of educated middle-income,
technology-oriented elites is slowly but surely transforming the remnants
of Chinese Communism. From the perspective of Taipei and Hong Kong,
mainland China’s development path amounts to ‘capitalism with Chinese
characteristics,’ i.e. a society that is increasingly difficult to
distinguish from Taiwan and Hong Kong.
"Like the new
rich in Taiwan, the mainland’s growing band of urbane and articulate
middle class citizens will soon start demanding more political power and a
more robust national People’s Congress. . .
"In a sense, it
is mainland China’s communist way of life that is at risk after July 1,
not Hong Kong’s."
Like most
"Marxist" arguments, this one is reductive. It appears logical,
but it selects the influence of economic forces on the political future of
China and ignores others such as Communist doctrines and the personal
qualities of present and future leaders.
The argument is very
similar to that presented by Karl Marx in his famous, or infamous,
"Manifesto of the Communist Party." He claimed that capitalism was
creating a class of workers who would inevitably destroy it:
"But
not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to
itself, it has also called into existence the men who are to wield these
weapons–the modern working class–the proletarians. . .
"What the
Bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers. Its
fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable."
(Pages 51 and 60)
(P.S. I am
not stating or inferring that the author is a "Marxist." My
contention is that his thesis is in harmony with Marxism.)
MARXIST POLICIES IN
AMERICA
A tiger is a cat; a lion is a cat; and that
cuddly bundle of purring fur, which we gave Billy for his birthday, is a
cat.
Words are tricky
things; they can be used to inform or deceive. For example, the Ku Klux Klan
claims to be Christian, and Jesse Jackson claims to be Christian. It would
nevertheless be outrageously false to classify Jesse as a fellow ideologue
of the Klansmen.
Considerable care need
to be taken when using the words Marxism and Communism. Communism and
Marxism are not synonymous. Communism is a species of Marxism–the
Marxist-Leninist species. There are many other species of Marxism. I repeat
what I have often affirmed. "All Communists are Marxists, but all
Marxists are not Communists."
Unconscious Marxists
There are unconscious Marxists, many of whom would be outraged by the
statement that they are Marxists. Nevertheless, they are devotees of one of
the basic doctrines of Marx.
Karl Marx and Frederick
Engels wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party in 1848. It has proved to
be one of the most influential documents in human history. In his preface to
the English edition of 1888, Engels gives Marx the credit for the basic
doctrine enshrined in it. He writes:
"The
Manifesto being our joint production, I consider myself bound to state
that the fundamental proposition, which forms its nucleus, belongs to
Marx. That proposition is: that in every historical epoch, the prevailing
mode of economic production and exchange, and the social organization necessarily
following from it, form the basis upon which is built up, and from which
alone can be explained, the political and intellectual history of that
epoch." (Manifest of the Communist Party. Progress publishers, Moscow
1973, page 20)
This may be
summarized as "Economics determines politics."
The present policy of
"engagement" towards Communist China is based upon this Marxist
Doctrine. Those who advocate this policy believe that the capitalistic
programs will inevitably lead to democratic political institutions. They are
unconscious or conscious Marxists.
Forces Influencing Politics
It must be acknowledged that economics influences politics. But there
are other forces which also influence politics, and as the poet, Tennyson,
said: "A lie, which is half a truth, is ever the blackest of
lies."
Influential forces
include the gun, nationalism, religion, feminism, environmentalism and the
character of the ruler. Current events provide overwhelming evidence of the
political power of these forces.
The Gun
The maxim, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun,"
prevails in China today. A million Chinese citizens gathered in Tiananmen
Square in 1989 demanding freedom and democracy. The guns of the Chinese Red
Army decimated and dispersed them, and the Communists continue to rule.
Nationalism and Tribalism
Nationalist wars have caused, and are causing, immense bloodshed and
suffering in many areas of the world such as Sri Lanka, Rwanda, the former
Yugoslavia, and Chechnya.
Religion
Religious faith exercises immense political power in countries such as
Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Algeria, and Northern Ireland.
Feminism and Environmentalism
In the USA the political power of the feminists and environmentalists is
obvious.
Individual Characters of Leaders
Would the history of the world have been different if such men as Lenin,
Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Churchill and Roosevelt had not appeared on the world
stage? Character counts.
Deceiving by Facts and Logic
Marxist doctrines are often seductive and convincing. Their logic may be
impeccable. Their weakness is that they use selected facts and ignore others
that are vitally important. They may by, and often are, factual, logical,
and false.
The record is clear.
Policies based upon the doctrines of Marxism have failed to produce
prosperity, security and happiness. It is foolish to bet the future of
freedom upon discredited Marxism.
STOPPING THE AIDS
EPIDEMIC–BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
On June 1, 1985, I published an article,
captioned "The AIDS Epidemic," in the Crusade Newsletter. In this
article, I advocated:
1. Search for a vaccine which will
confer immunity against AIDS. (It is noteworthy that, after the thousands
of deaths from AIDS during the past 12 years, President Clinton is now
advocating this.)
2. Search for a medication which will be effective
in treating the AIDS disease itself.
3. Prevention of conduct which promotes the spread
of AIDS.
I stressed
the role promiscuity has played and continues to play, in spreading AIDS as
follows:
"AIDS originate in association with homosexual promiscuity; it is
spreading to the heterosexual population by bisexual promiscuity; and it
will spread throughout the heterosexual community by heterosexual
promiscuity.
"Promiscuity is
the primary vehicle for the dissemination of AIDS, and it should be curbed
in every way possible. Education and religion have their role to play in
this battle, but they should be assisted by appropriate legislation which
makes promiscuity illegal because of the threat it poses to the health and
life of all. . .
"All
institutions that promote promiscuity, such as bathhouses and singles
bars, should be closed immediately. Conduct likely to spread AIDS should
be a crime." (Newsletter, June 1, 1985)
As a reward
for these sensible suggestions, I received vilification such as that in this
letter:
"Dear Dr. Schwarz,
"I just read a copy of your latest issue on AIDS and the threat it
poses to American society.
"Rarely, I
assure you, have I suffered the misfortune to read such astonishing
moronic drivel! Your organization represents all that is indecent in this
society: ignorance, intolerance, racism, arrogance, hatred, ad nauseam.
"People such as
yourself, because you are ashamed of your humanity, would just love to
tell the rest of us what to read, when, where, and how we can have sex,
what to study in school, who to vote for and generally how we must live.
Your wretched little minds cannot accept the fact that we are simply
animal forms, descended from lower forms, that inhabit one small planet
among probably billions in one obscure galaxy among billions of galaxies.
"Your paranoia
of communism is anachronistic and merely a curiosity. No serious student
of world affairs believes that communism is a unified, monolithic force
poised to strike at the western democracies’ throats. If anything, it’s
more fragmented today than ever before.
"Facts and
rational thinking, of course, are alien to puerile intellects such as
yours. No doubt you will continue to publish material based on human fear,
shame and hatred. What a pity. May I at least suggest that you print on a
more fitting material, perhaps toilet tissue?"
William Spinner
(Newsletter, June 15, 1985)
Points of Light
"Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly
small," wrote the poet Longfellow, and after immeasurable suffering and
death from AIDS during the past 12 years, articles advocating effective
measures to combat the spread of AIDS are now appearing in prestigious
magazines and books. Consider these examples:
Captioned, "The AIDS Exception,"
an article in the June, 1997 edition of The Atlantic Monthly,
authored by Chandler Burr states:
"It’s
time to stop granting ‘Civil Rights’ to HIV–and to confront AIDS
with more of the traditional tools of public health." (Page 57)
A letter in the June edition of Commentary
Magazine states:
"My
youngest son died of AIDS one year ago at the age of twenty-six. No child
was more loved or better cared for, by parents and siblings, until the
terrible end." (Page 21)
"Without
mandatory testing there is no way to track the virus, much less stop it.
Clusters go undetected for years. Many of my son’s friends still are in
an untested state of denial, although some have already had lovers who
died of AIDS. The gay’s political clout in San Francisco is matched only
by their immaturity, to which the Left has cynically catered." (Page
22)
The book, Sexual Ecology, is
authored by the practicing homosexual, Gabriel Rotello, who states:
"I
am a gay man. I live in New York City, ground zero of the epidemic, one of
the urban environments most devastated by AIDS. I arrived here almost a
full decade before the epidemic began, and was an enthusiastic participant
in the gay sexual culture I will shortly describe. . .
"I watched with
horror as a plague descended, and much of my world sickened and died. It
is almost impossible to over-state what happened when a group of people
stigmatized for the way they make love finally emerged from the shadows,
proclaimed that gay is good, and then were struck down by a disease spread
through the very behavior that was the focus of their stigma. . . (Page 2)
"Despite the
fact that by now virtually everyone knows how AIDS is spread and how to
avoid it, it is continuing to saturate the gay male population at the same
levels it always has." (Page 3)
Typical Reaction
The enemies of health and life fight viciously to preserve their callous
and cruel program which has condemned so many to suffering and death. Burr
describes this in his article in the Atlantic Monthly. He reports
that a liberal Congressman from New York, Gary Ackerman, introduced a bill
with 220 co-sponsors, to permit mother to be informed that they were
infected with HIV if they had given birth to an infected baby:
"Virtually every gay and AIDS group, including Gay Men’s Health
Crisis, the AIDS Action Council, and the National Association of People
with AIDS, along with the ACLU and prominent public-health experts at
leading universities, opposed the bill, largely on the grounds that
unbinding tests would do nothing to help prevent HIV transmission in such
an anonymous surveillance study, potentially scaring pregnant women away
from seeking proper prenatal car. . . Mayersohn, a pro-choice feminist
old-line liberal, who in 1989 had been named Legislator of the year by the
New York State chapter of the Nation Organization for Women, was labeled a
‘fascist’ by individuals associated with the AIDS lobby." (Page
65)
If the
tuberculosis germ had been given the same "civil rights" as HIV,
there would be a raging epidemic of tuberculosis. Fortunately, those who are
at risk of having contracted tuberculosis, are routinely tested, whether
they like it or not, and treated. The health authorities are informed and
contacts are also tested.
Failure to treat the
HIV virus, and those who may be infected with it, in a comparable manner,
degrades reason and compassion and causes immense suffering and death.
COMMUNISM AND MORALITY
The Militant is a weekly newspaper,
published by the Trotskyist Communists. The May 26, 1997 edition contains
the following advertisement:
"Defend abortion rights! The move by capitalist politicians to ban a
type of late-term abortion is aimed at gouging the gains won by the women’s
movement. The ‘Militant’ provides coverage of defense of abortion
clinics from rightist attacks and points to these mobilizations in the
streets as the way to defend women’s rights."
The
Communists support the right of abortionists to perforate the skulls of
viable, living babies and to suck the brain out in order to collapse it
prior to the head’s removal from the birth canal.
Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot
and Hitler could not be more cruel.
What should we expect
from an unfettered Communist regime?
THE LIVELY COMMUNIST
CORPSE - USA
(The National Chairman of the Communist Party,
USA, Gus Hall, reveals that, like the Bourbon Kings of France, he "has
learned nothing and has forgotten nothing." The collapse of the Soviet
Union and the end of the Cold War have not changed his faith in Marxist
dogma in the slightest degree. Despite this, the Communist Party, under his
direction, is growing rapidly in numbers and influence.)
The most basic fact of life: the class struggle
By Gus Hall
"The class struggle is the most basic fact of life in our capitalist
society. It determines who we are. It molds our personality, our character.
"It is a major
factor in how we think, how we approach all questions in life. It is basic
in our politics, in our ideology, in our culture. It is basic in real life,
the real world we live in.
"The class
struggle is the most fundamental, defining feature of our capitalist system.
There can be no capitalism without the two main, opposing classes–the
working class and the capitalist class. There can be no capitalism without
the every day class struggle between them. A study of the class struggle is
a study of capitalism." . . .
"For example,
today out of a working day of eight hours and nine minutes, the average
worker works two hours and nine minutes for himself and 5 hours and 51
minutes for the boss. That’s corporate profits. . .
"The working class
is the ONLY consistently revolutionary force because it is the only force
that is directly and consistently exploited. This is not a choice or
decision of the class. It is the objective reality of the class struggle. .
.
"Another of Marx’s
fundamental ideas is that it is precisely through the pursuit of its own
class interest, organizing itself for itself, that the liberation of all
humanity would be achieved.
Our Working Class Science
"Just as there are laws of nature and natural science, so there are
laws of social development and the social science of Marxism-Leninism, which
includes the law of class struggle and the law of profits. . .
"Our ideology is a
system of thought. It gives us a unique way of looking at everything in
life. And the role of the working class and the class struggle is the very
foundation stone of our Marxist-Leninist, working class ideology." (People’s
Weekly World, April 5, 1997, page 5)
Editor’s Note
The famous, or infamous, "Manifesto of the Communist Party,"
written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in 1848, begins with the
statement:
"The history of all hitherto
existing society is the history of class struggle."
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