265

p In their attempts to hold up mankind’s progress the reactionaries are directing their assault mainly at the Communist parties with all the means at their disposal, from the poison of slander to repressions and aggression against countries ruled by Communist parties. Thereby they acknowledge the growing role of the Communist parties as the leaders of the revolutionary movement.

Communists remember well Lenin’s statement that "the strength of a revolution, its energy, its victory and its triumph intensify the resistance of the bourgeoisie. The more victorious we are the more the capitalist exploiters learn to unite and the more determined their onslaught."  [265•* 

266 This conclusion is also a law of the class struggle at the present age.

p More and more often today the ruling class openly unites with fascist elements and forces, which use methods of bloody terror, cruel repression and unrestrained demagogy. Eloquent proof of this is the behaviour of the Chilean bourgeoisie during the development of the revolution in this country. Communist parties are concerned to note the growth of the Right-wing, and sometimes even neofascist threat in certain states.

p The bourgeoisie is doing its utmost to preserve its ideological influence on the working class. In this connection Lenin stressed that when the "bourgeoisie’s ideological influence on the workers declines, is undermined or weakened, the bourgeoisie everywhere and always resorts to the most outrageous lies and slander".  [266•*  The correctness of his words is confirmed by the fact that after the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution slander of the first socialist country has increasingly occupied pride of place in the bourgeoisie’s ideological arsenal. The consistent and principled struggle of the Communist parties against bourgeois ideology and policy for the dissemination of Marxist-Leninist ideas, which is promoted by the peaceloving policy of the USSR and other socialist countries is leading to the collapse of the ideological influence of the bourgeoisie and, consequently, its control of the masses.

p Imperialist ideologists and politicians see a direct connection between the preservation of peace, detente, and peaceful coexistence, on the one hand, and the dissemination of Marxist-Leninist ideas, the strengthening of socialism, and the growth of the Communist parties and the international communist movement, on the other. This is why reactionary, aggressive forces are trying to subvert both detente and peaceful coexistence, and the prestige of the international communist movement and of each Communist party. Bourgeois ideologists are aware of the importance and role of the CPSU in the struggle to preserve peace and detente and in the rallying and strengthening of all peace-loving progressive and revolutionary forces.

267

p The real socialism that exists in the USSR is exercising a growing influence on the working people of the capitalist world and the course of world development. This is why the imperialist bourgeoisie is seeking to strike a blow, first and foremost, at the CPSU, to undermine its prestige in the world, in the international communist movement, and its influence among the Soviet people. The main weapon for this is anti-communism, the spearhead of which is antiSovietism. The imperialist bourgeoisie is seeking to achieve its aim by falsifying the true role of the CPSU in the life of Soviet society and then implanting this distorted view in the minds of the broad mass of the population, giving it a firm picture of the CPSU and other Communist parties as organisations that are alien and hostile to the interests of the majority of people.

p Anti-communism and anti-Sovietism are the ideological and political basis of the forces of war, aggression, reaction and fascism. They support a policy of militarism and confrontation with the socialist countries and, first and foremost, the Soviet Union. Under the flag of anticommunism repressions are being carried out not only against Communists, but also against all those who are struggling for democratic rights, who are protesting against exploitation and national oppression, against the rule of monopoly capital, and for social progress. Anti-communism is opposed to the national interests of all countries. Therefore there can be no successful struggle for peace, social progress, the vital interests of the working people, and the national interests of the country, without a consistent and principled struggle against anti-communism and antiSovietism. The main aim in this struggle is to expose the anti-scientific allegations and lies of bourgeois propaganda about the foreign and domestic policy of the CPSU, about the Communist parties, and to spread the truth about existing socialism.

p Outworn anti-communist propaganda is being bolstered by “new” methods, while the battered theories are being supplemented with “new” arguments trimmed in scientific terminology. Efforts are made to reinforce them with “historical” facts and examples. While in the heyday of the cold war, communism and the Communist parties were portrayed as the handiwork of the devil and an early doom 268 was forecast for the socialist countries, today this sort of propaganda is abortive. Bourgeois propaganda can no longer deny communism’s achievements and the role played by the Communist parties in facilitating these achievements, but it seeks to persuade the masses that a prohibitive and unacceptable price has been and is being paid by the people for them. At the same time, recognising the strength of communism, anti-communist propaganda endeavours to use this recognition to intimidate the philistine.

p In pseudo-scientific language the stream of anti-communist literature spreads unscientific notions about the nature and role of the Communist parties in the socialist countries, distorts the aims and work of the Communist parties in the capitalist countries and misrepresents the relationships in the world communist movement, in particular the relations between the CPSU and other Communist parties.

p Moreover, in anti-communist writings it is alleged that the governing Communist parties are "parties of the elite”, in which rank-and-file members are required to carry out decisions automatically. The hackneyed thesis that all Communist parties are subordinated to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has been supplemented with the new thesis that these parties are "fighting for independence”. The anti-communist interpretation of “Eurocommunism” is given as confirmation of this “struggle”. The attacks of the counter-revolutionary and anti-socialist elements against the existing order in the socialist countries are depicted as the initiation of change in the nature of socialism and the governing Communist parties.

p In some capitalist countries reactionary elements continue to allege that the Communist parties are “spy” organisations acting in the interests of a foreign power, and that Communists are "foreign agents”. Although the number of people believing these propaganda fabrications of the cold war period is rapidly diminishing, the ability of bourgeois propaganda to concoct and spread myths about communism and the Communist parties should not be underrated.

p The bourgeoisie commissions “experts” on communism to revive old anti-communist theories and to give the anticommunist postulates an aura of plausibility. These are the people who give the battered theses of anti-communist propaganda a pseudo-scientific dressing in order to sow 269 distrust of the Communists among those who are trying to analyse the reasons for socialism’s achievements, the character of the communist movement and the essence of the Communist parties. For instance, they endeavour to add a "new touch" and thereby make more convincing their charge that the CPSU and other governing Communist parties are an “elite” on the allegation that when the Communist Party was formed at the turn of the century Lenin himself had given it the character of an “elite” body.  [269•*  They assert that a Communist Party degenerates as soon as it becomes the ruling party.

p Over the last decade the Leftist elements among students and intellectuals, to say nothing of the Trotskyists, have intensified their attacks on the CPSU and other MarxistLeninist parties.  [269•**  These elements call themselves revolutionaries and claim they belong to the communist movement.  [269•***  They justify their attacks with the pretext that they are fighting for the revolution, hastening determined revolutionary action, seeking the immediate overthrow of the bourgeois governments by armed force and endeavouring to start a guerrilla war and even a world “revolutionary” war against imperialism.

p The Communist parties that denounce these “ultrarevolutionary” and, in effect, adventurist guidelines are accused of no less than having lost their revolutionary character, of having renounced the revolution and the revolutionary struggle for the abolition of imperialism, of sliding into reformism, of bourgeois degeneration.

p Marcuse, the Cohn-Bendits and other "New Left" theoreticians and leaders have attempted to give a “scientific” foundation for their fabrication that the Communist parties have lost their revolutionary features. They portrayed the inevitable temporary failures in individual sectors of the world revolutionary movement and the temporary setbacks 270 of individual contingents of that movement as the result of “degeneration” and the inability of the Communist parties to lead the revolutionary struggle in the age of the scientific and technological revolution. Accusing the Communist parties of degeneration and alleging that they have withdrawn from the revolutionary scene, these theoreticians claimed that "new revolutionary forces" had appeared on the scene and taken the place of the “old” revolutionary forces, i.e., of the working class. Their argument is that the structure of society in the industrialised capitalist countries has undergone a change, that the students arid some strata of the intelligentsia have grown more active and that there is growing discontent among broad sections of the working people and the petty bourgeoisie.

p Larry Seigle, editor of the journal Internationa/ Socialist Review, has given a summary of the results of that movement, writing that the "New Lefts" had advanced three main tenets: 1) Leninism and parties of the Leninist type are unacceptable under developed capitalism, with the result that it is necessary to evolve new forms of organisation for the conduct of the revolutionary struggle; 2) the workers have become conservative or entirely shed their political consciousness and that it is necessary to look for other elements of social changes; 3) Marxism is a Victorian theory and has therefore grown obsolete. This, Seigle wrote, means that revolutionaries must go beyond the principles and provisions of Marxism and evolve new economic, political and sociological theories that would fit in better with present-day conditions.  [270•* 

p All these “new” doctrines reject the scientific character of Marxism-Leninism, the revolutionary role of the working class and the Leninist teaching on the proletarian party and its role in the revolutionary struggle of the working people.

p One of the principal objectives of these attacks of the “Lefts” on the CPSU and other Communist parties is to undermine their prestige, remove them from the leadership of the revolutionary struggle, use the mounting popular movement against the monopolies for their own ends and 271 take over the leadership if not of the whole then of at least part of the international communist movement.

p It is noteworthy that in their attacks on the communist movement the Right and the “Left” are unanimous in rejecting the need for Communist parties under present-day conditions, distorting the essence of the revolutionary Leninist Party and its features, attempting to prove that the Leninist teaching on the party is unacceptable today and that it is necessary to set up a “new” independent organisation that would champion “national” interests and have “national” features.

p Views of this sort influence individuals in some Communist parties. These individuals contend that to be successful a Communist Party and the working-class movement have to be “independent”. The true worth of these "independent positions" of the opportunist elements in the Communist parties and the inevitable sliding of these elements from nationalism into anti-Sovietism was exposed at the 24th Congress of the CPSU.

p "It is precisely the nationalistic tendencies, especially those which assume the form of anti-Sovietism,” L. I. Brezhnev said at the Congress, "that bourgeois ideologists and bourgeois propaganda have placed most reliance on in their fight against socialism and the communist movement. They have been trying to induce the opportunist elements in the Communist parties to make something of an ideological deal. They appear to be telling them: just give us proof that you are anti-Soviet, and we shall be prepared to proclaim that you are the true ’Marxists’, and that you are taking completely ’independent attitudes’. The course of events has shown, incidentally, that such men also take the way of struggle against the Communist parties in their own countries.”  [271•*  At the Congress it was accentuated that the "struggle against anti-communism and anti-Sovietism, and also against Right- and ‘Left’-wing revisionism, and nationalism continues to be an important and pressing task".  [271•**  Life, revolutionary practice, has fully confirmed the accuracy of the assessments and conclusions of the 24th CPSU Congress. It has also confirmed the urgent need to promote the Leninist approach 272 in defining the character and specifics of the proletarian revolutionary party today.

p The consolidation of the international communist movement’s unity is due to the fact that the Communist parties have specified their attitude to urgent, crucial issues. They are defining in more precise terms their role in the revolutionary movement and in the leadership of the class struggle in their countries, analysing their former policies and charting a new policy in keeping with the changed situation.

p In this process various views are sometimes stated on the role of the Communist Party at the different stages of the class struggle, on the principles underlying its organisation and on the principles and character of its policy. For instance, contrary to the Leninist teaching, it is proposed, that local party organisations should enjoy complete and absolute autonomy and be, in effect, released from party discipline, that democratic centralism should be abandoned, and so on.

p The enemies of the communist movement spread various revisionist ideas about the present-day essence and character of the proletarian revolutionary party, and all sorts of suggestions for “specifying” the Leninist teaching on the party or on its “development” and “adaptation” to presentday conditions. This is tantamount to rejecting or revising that teaching.

p It goes without saying that like any other living organism, the party develops and changes. The changing situation poses it with new tasks and brings to the fore various spheres of its work and forms of struggle. The conditions actually obtaining for the revolutionary struggle in a given country influence the party’s work, strategy tactics and organisational structure. It would be a dangerous mistake to represent this specific as a common regularity and try to impose it on the other Communist parties. Such attempts are sometimes the cause of disagreement between individual parties.

p In order to reconcile such disagreements it is of the utmost importance to apply and develop the methodological principles of the Marxist-Leninist teaching on the party creatively, to apply these principles under specific conditions. By methodological principles we mean the fundamental tenets 273 that determine the character and specifics of a Marxist Party in a given country and at a given phase of the class struggle. By applying these principles a party is able to gear its work correctly to the needs of social development, harmoniously combine the basic features that are immutable throughout an entire epoch and represent the laws governing the formation, development and work of a revolutionary MarxistLeninist Party embodying national features and specifics of the given period of history.

The fundamental propositions of Lenin’s teaching on the party, of his approach to defining the role and place of the Communist Party in the revolutionary movement, of its character, of the guidelines and principles of its work and its relations with the people and with mass organisations of the working people are of unfading methodological importance to this day. Serious harm is inflicted on the revolutionary movement where these principles are buried in oblivion or disregarded. Moreover, historical experience shows that the inability to find the correct way for applying general principles to the conditions obtaining in a given country and disregard or underestimation of that country’s specifics likewise adversely affect the work of a Communist Party and the development of the revolutionary movement.