FAQ: What is Socialism?

Required Reading: The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx & Frederick Engels.

What is socialism? Below is an introductory but hard-hitting article. But, to start with, here is a soundbite answer for a Marxist-Leninist definition of socialism: A society where the working class holds commands state power and the working class and masses of the people owns the principal means of production--the mines, the mills and the factories--and planned production is carried on for use and not for capitalist profit.


(V.I. Lenin)
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels mentioned that communist society had two phases. Socialism, which Karl Marx referred to as "the first phase of communist society" is a transitional stage to highly developed communism, "a higher phase of communist society," where there is a classless social system and full social equality of all members of society. (Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, 1875)

Maurice Cornforth writes in Historical Materialism that: "Socialism means the establishment of new relations of production, a new economic basis for society, namely, the social ownership of the principal means of production." (Maurice Cornforth, Historical Materialism, 1972, Second Printing, International Publishers)

John Eaton, author of the Marxist book Political Economy, notes that:the "two basic ingredients of socialism as a mode of production" are "(economic) planning and public ownership of the means of production." (John Eaton, Political Economy, 1966, International Publishers)

Eaton says that "the basis of a socialist economy is publically owned means of production, which are used according to a social plan to meet the needs of the community....Socialist production is governed by a plan, consciously conceived and co-ordinated to meet the needs of the community...

"Socialism as an economic system can best be defined by noting the respects in which socialism as a mode of production is the 'opposite' of capitalism. Socialism is planned production for use on the basis of public ownership of the means of production. Capitalism is commodity production for private profit on the basis of private ownership of the means of production.

"The essential respects in which capitalism is the 'opposite' of socialism can be contrasted as follows:

"The regulating principle of capitalism is 'the market' (commodity exchange). The regulating principle of socialism is the 'social plan.'

"The motivating force of capitalism is profit. The motivating force of socialism is the satisfaction of needs.

"The property basis of capitalism is the private ownership of capital. The property basis of socialism is the public ownership of the means of production.

"The political basis of capitalism is the dominance of the wealthy--viz. the owners of capital. The political basis of socialism is the rule of the working people, with their mass organizations playing a major role in government and administration." (John Eaton, Political Economy, 1985, International Publishers)

Maurice Cornforth says that "in capitalist society, the means of production--the land, factories, mills, mines, transport--belong to the capitalists, and production is carried on for capitalist profit. But the essence of socialism is that the means of production become social property, and that, on the basis of social ownership, production is carried on for the benefit of the whole of society.

"With socialism, production is no longer undertaken for profit, but for the sake of producing what people need. The primary consideration is to raise the standards of the people. Production is not carried on for profit but to satisfy the material and cultural requirements of society. And this is ensured because the means of production, all the means of creating wealth, are taken out of the control of a capitalist minority, whose concern is it's own profit, and come under the control of the working people themselves." (Maurice Cornforth, Historical Materialism, 1972, Second Printing, International Publishers)

But "the socialist mode of production cannot develop gradually and within the framework of capitalist society but first requires the winning of political power--that is, State power--by the working class and the masses of the people."(John Eaton, Political Economy, 1985, International Publishers)

Socialism requires the dictatorship of the proletariat. What is the dictatorship of the proletariat? It is, as Otto Kuusinen said, "(state and political ) power in the hands of working people, led by the working class and having as its aim the building of socialism." (Otto Kuusinen, Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)

Afanasyev wrote that "all previous types of state were tools of the exploiting classes used for the subjection of the working people and designed to reinforce the system of exploitation and to perpetuate the division of society into oppressors and oppressed. The dictatorship of the proletariat, however, is the rule of the working class which...destroys capitalism and builds a new society, a society without exploitation." (Afanasyev, Marxist Philosophy, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)

Indeed, "the dictatorship of the proletariat is the crux of Marxism." (Afanasyev, Marxist Philosophy, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)

Socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat expands democracy for working people. On the other hand, a dictatorship is exercised over the capitalists, exploiters and reactionaries so they may not bring a return of their filth and the system of capitalism. V.I. Lenin said "simultaneously with an immense expansion of democracy, which for the first time becomes democracy for the poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the money-bags, the dictatorship of the proletariat imposes a series of restrictions on the freedom of the oppressors, the exploiters, the capitalists. We must suppress them in order to free humanity from wage slavery." (Lenin, State and Revolution, 1917)

A Forum to Save the St. Paul Ford Plant!!

Brothers and Sisters, we invite you to attend a forum about the St. Paul Ford Plant sponsored by the Climate Crisis Coalition of the Twin Cities (3CTC).

3CTC ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM ON PROPOSALS TO SAVE THE ST. PAUL FORD PLANT

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 7:00 PM

MAYDAY BOOKS

301 CEDAR AVENUE SOUTH (corner of Washington Ave. & Cedar)

WEST BANK, MINNEAPOLIS

We are proud that a member of the Gus Hall Action Club will be one of the speakers at this forum. Gus Hall said "people have to see us, to hear us, to talk to us and to struggle with us--as Communists, as a Communist club." (Gus Hall, For Peace, Jobs, Equality) V.I. Lenin pointed out, in What Is To Be Done?, that Communist consciousness must be brought to the working class. More than ever it must be asserted that "Marxism-Leninism has not grown old and never will"! (Ponomarev, Marxism-Leninism: A Flourishing Science, 1979, International Publishers)

We in the Gus Hall Action Club have also advanced a solution to the crisis of the looming threat of the St. Paul Ford Plant's closure. The Ford Plant should be taken over by the government and run by and on behalf of the workers and the community! And anybody who says that we shouldn’t be raising such an advanced demand as nationalization and public ownership the Ford Plant should read these words by Gus Hall: "It is necessary to project the idea of transferring the industries and banks from private to public ownership through the process of nationalization. The crisis has placed the need for nationalization on the order of the day." (Gus Hall, Basics, 1980, International Publishers)


SPEAKERS AT THE 3CTC ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM ON PROPOSALS TO SAVE THE ST. PAUL FORD PLANT

Michael Wood—Gus Hall Action Club

Alan Maki—Organizer, Director of Organizing,Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Christine Frank—Volunteer Coordinator, Climate Crisis Coalition of the Twin Cities

David Riehle—Local Chairman, United Transportation Union 650

Forum sponsored by the Climate Crisis of the Twin Cities. Free and open to the public. For more information, e-mail: christinefrank@visi.com or call: 612-879-8937

Gus Hall and the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934

Check out our updated article: Red Heroes of the 1934 Minneapolist Teamsters Strike: Gus Hall & the CPUSA

Trotsky is NOT a Communist Hero

Gus Hall made no bones about it: "Trotskyites, followers of Leon Trotsky, habitually employ splitting tactics in people's movements and promote anti-Communism in pseudo-radical guise!" (Fighting Racism, 1984)

Brothers and Sisters,

The influence of bourgeois propaganda, the lack of availability of authentic Marxist-Leninist books and the influence of revisionism in the Communist movement (see previous posts for a definition of revisionism) has produced a situation where some folks mistakenly believe that Trotsky was a Communist hero. It ain't so. "(Trotsky's) policies," William Z. Foster, former leader of the Communist Party USA, said "would have been fatal to the Russian Revolution and would have brought about the restoration of capitalism in Russia." William Z. Foster explains, in History of the Three Internationals, that:

"Trotsky, whose whole history stamped him as an unstable petty-bourgeois radical and who did not join up with the Bolsheviks until 1917, was a confirmed factionalist and opportunist. Even after he joined the party he continued his opposition to Lenin on many points. When Lenin was in his final illness, during the autumn of 1923, Trotsky made a bid to capture the leadership of the Communist Party. He gathered together the several small opposition groups than in the party and issued an oppositional program, the 'Declaration of the Forty-Six.' The substance of this was to accuse the party leadership of gross bureaucracy, to instigate the youth against the party, to pronounce the N.E.P. a complete retreat, to demand freedom to build factional groupings, to condemn the party for the defeat of the German and Hungarian revolutions, to blame the many economic difficulties upon party mismanagement, and to pronounce the Russian Revolution itself in a state of 'Thermidorian degeneration.'

"It devolved upon Stalin to lead the party fight against this disruptive opposition, and he was to prove brilliantly capable of the task...Stalin, a profound Marxist and a relentless fighter, ideologically shattered the Trotsky case, and at the 13th conference of the party in January 1924, the opposition was condemned overwhelmingly as a 'petty-bourgeois deviation from Marxism.' During this fight Stalin produced his great book, The Foundations of Leninism, which played a big part in the controversy.



(William Z. Foster: Stalin was 'one of the greatest fighters ever produced by the world's working class')

"The defeated Trotsky, tongue-in-cheek, pledged himself to abide by the party decision, a pledge which, however, he immediately began to violate.

"Shortly afterward, the party...was confronted with the basic problem of defining its perspective. Stalin, in early 1925, met this tremendous theoretical task magnificently. He declared, and the Central Committee backed him up, that Soviet Russia possessed all the requirements for the building of socialism. Lenin had previously indicated the possibility, if need be, of building socialism in one country, Russia. Stalin's formulation was a bold departure from commonly held Marxist opinion, which was that in order to make the construction of socialism possible it would be necessary for the workers simultaneously to gain political power in several countries.

"Stalin's basic statement immediately drew fire from the adventurer Trotsky, who came forth with what he called the theory of 'permanent revolution.' Trotsky categorically denied the possibility of constructing socialism in Russia alone. He proposed, instead, an intensification of revolutionary struggle at home against the peasantry (all categories) and war abroad against the bourgeois governments. The fate of the Russian Revolution was at stake in this historic discussion. Stalin succeeded in making the party understand that Trotsky's line would have meant the overthrow of the Soviet government and the end of the Revolution. As a result, at the 14th party conference, April 1925, Trotsky's policy was defeated and Stalin's overwhelmingly endorsed. Again Trotsky agreed to abide by the party decision, but did not." (William Z. Foster, History of the Three Internationals, 1955)

William Z. Foster points out that Trotsky and his friend Zinoviev and their handful of supporters, held "a street demonstration against the party on November 7," 1927.



(William Z. Foster, former leader of the Communist Party USA)

In another book, History of the Communist Party of the United States, Foster says that:

"For several years prior to the sixth Comintern congress Trotskyism, which Lenin had long fought, had become a malignant pest in the Soviet Union. Leon Trotsky, always an opportunist and adventurer, made a reckless grab for the leadership of the Communist Party after the death of Lenin in 1924. The substance of his 'ultra-revolutionary' program was the provocation of civil war against the peasantry as a whole and the unfolding of aggressive foreign policy that could have only resulted in bringing about a war between the capitalist powers and the Soviet Union. His policies to force such an artificial revolution would have been fatal to the Russian Revolution and would have brought about the restoration of capitalism in Russia.

"The Soviet people wanted none of Trotsky's destructive program...At the time of the sixth congress of the Comintern, Trotsky was in exile, as a criminal against the Revolution." (William Z. Foster, History of the Communist Party of the United States, 1952)

And Trotsky became anti-Soviet to the core. "Trotsky, who had been expelled from the Soviet Union in 1929, organized abroad the 'Fourth International' in 1933, which was composed of skeleton groups in many countries. Among its other counter-revolutionary activities, it openly advocated the violent overthrow of the Russian Communist Party leadership and of the Soviet government." (William Z. Foster, History of the Three Internationals, 1955)

We warmly encourage people to read Olgin's Trotskyism: Counter-Revolution in Disguise.

http://marxists.org/archive/olgin/1935/trotskyism/index.htm

Enjoy the 1939 book authorized by the Central Committee of the CPSU: History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks).

Picketline During the RNC to Save the St. Paul Ford Plant and Union Jobs Through Public Ownership of the Plant!

People Before Profits! Save the St. Paul, Minnesota Ford Plant through Public Ownership of the Plant! Stop Union Busting!

Picketline During the RNC to Save the Ford Plant and Union Jobs Through Public Ownership of the Plant!

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008, 3:00-6:00 pm, Ford's Twin Cities Assembly Plant, Ford Parkway and Cretin Ave., St. Paul, Minnesota



The scourge of plant closings across the U.S. has created a crisis for the working class. Here in Minnesota, as in the rest of the nation, Ford CEOs don't make decisions based upon anything other than maximum profits. Ford wants to weaken and bust unions. Job security for auto workers is not a consideration. Ford announced that it would be closing the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant in 2008 and coerced many members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union to accept buy-out packages. Ford's profits jumped as workers were laid off and the union was kicked in the teeth. Now, Ford has announced that the plant will remain open a few more years. The threat of plant closure and the unemployment of more than a thousand workers still looms.

Enough is enough. The time has come to nationalize the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and guarantee union power and job security by operating it under public ownership. Ford is not entitled to any compensation. The working class has subsidized Ford's manufacturing at the St. Paul Ford Plant for years. We say: "What the tax-payers finance, taxpayers should own!" The St. Paul Ford Plant should be taken over by the government and run by and on behalf of the workers and the community.

Gus Hall, former leader of the Communist Party USA, said at a 1979 People Before Profits rally at Cobo Hall in Detroit, MI., that "workers...have an absolute right--even a duty--to tell the profit mongers: ’This is our city. These are our plants. Here is where we make a living and raise our children. And come h*ll or high water here is where we’re gonna stay. One way or another, these plants will not close.’...

"There is nothing wrong or illegal in the government taking over these plants because there is one sacred and inalienable right that supersedes all others. And that is the right of the people to make a living--to be able to eat, pay rent, raise and educate their children." (Gus Hall, The Working Class Answer to the Deepening Crisis, 1979)

Marxism-Leninism and Art, Culture and Class Struggle

Brothers and Sisters,

I warmly point out that one Marxist recently objected to Bertholt Brecht's statement that "art is a hammer with which to shape reality." This Marxist called Brecht's comment "almost obscene" and said "oh when will we learn to appreciate and engage something so gentle and so moving and so profound as our creative selves." It is interesting to note that "revisionists attack the Marxist-Leninist principle of partisanship in art." And they have in the past "opposed the guidance of art by the Communist Party." (Afanasyev, Marxist Philosophy, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)

What is the Marxist-Leninist view of the "diverse kinds of art: poetry and fiction, theatre, music, the cinema, architecture, painting sculpture"? "In a class society art bears a class character, it is partisan. There is no ’pure art, ’ no ’art for art’s sake, ’ nor can there be any. The accessibility, the great power of conviction and emotional influence of art make it an important weapon of the class struggle. That is why classes exploit art as a vehicle of their political, moral and other ideas...

"Contemporary bourgeois art, for example, serves the reactionary imperialist forces. It seeks to divert the working people from struggle against the exploiters...Bourgeois art is employed to glorify the capitalist order of things..." (Afanasyev, Marxist Philosophy, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)

Whereas "a qualitatively new, socialist art has arisen on the basis of the revolutionary struggle of the working class and its advance to communism. Socialist art assimilates the best from progressive art of the past and constitutes a higher stage in the development of art corresponding to the new conditions. Socialist realism is the creative method of this art." Socialist realism's basic principles are "kinship with the people (and) partisanship and bold pioneering in the artistic portrayal of life." And "the organic ties of socialist art with the people, their life and work are unprecendented...Socialist realism is conspicous by its profound socialist content." (Afanasyev, Marxist Philosophy, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)



’Art (is)...an an important weapon of the class struggle.’

Gus Hall, the former leader of the Communist Party USA, would agree with the statement that "each class creates an art that corresponds to its class interests and aesthetic requirements." (Afanasyev, Marxist Philosophy, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)

"Culture," Gus Hall wrote in Power of Ideology, "is used by the ruling class as a potent weapon." And "culture, both bourgeois and working class, influences people on an unconscious level. It influences from the inside of developments. No one says 'this is bourgeois culture' or 'this is working class culture.' There are no tags on the outside. Nevertheless, there is a very clear, distinct difference between the two." (Gus Hall, Power of Ideology, 1989, New Outlook Publishers)

Hall continues: "Some have indicated that we should not try to use our ideology to influence cultural developments. But this is an integral part of the ideological struggle--to influence thought patterns...

"The ideological struggle in the field of culture is very sharp. It takes place on the stage, the screen, in music, art and poetry. It pervades fiction and non-fiction, especially history.

"Culture is also influenced by aesthetics, concepts of beauty, color and form. But the more basic influence is the struggle between the two ideologies (capitalist and working class). Yes, we take sides in this struggle, as we do in other areas." (Gus Hall, Power of Ideology, 1989, New Outlook Publishers)

WAR, IMPERIALISM AND THE FIGHT BACK: dedicated to those who will join the mass protests against the Republican National Convention (RNC)

This is dedicated, in a comradely spirit, to all those who will join the protest sponsored by the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War on Sept 1, 2008. The Gus Hall Action Club has endorsed the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War's call for demonstrations during the Republican National Convention (RNC). The Gus Hall Action Club, waving a red Soviet flag and a flag with our club's logo, will be at the mass anti-war rally and march on Sept. 1, 2008 @ 11:00 a.m. at the State Capital in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Gus Hall Action Club, our Communist club in central Minnesota, links the fight against state-monopoly capitalism (the essence of which is direct union of the power of the capitalist monopolies with the enormous power of the state) with the fight against imperialist war. We are Marxist-Leninists and Marxism-Leninism is "a science in the finest sense of the word." (Ponomarev, Marxism-Leninism: A Flourishing Science, 1979, International Publishers) We are also working-class anti-war activists and we participate in many demonstrations in the Twin Cities, Minnesota against imperialist war. We say: U.S. Out of Iraq and Afghanistan NOW! No War Against Iran! For Mass Struggle Against Imperialism! and Slash the Arms Budget! Gus Hall, the former Marxist-Leninist leader of the Communist Party USA, said "there is only one way to get the country out of the economic mess it is in: the way the Communist Party has repeatedly called for--to slash the arms budget!" (Gus Hall, Basics, 1980, International Publishers)

We in the Gus Hall Action Club are unique in the anti-war movement in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, because we openly and boldly promote Marxist-Leninist ideology and encourage folks to read books by Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, V.I. Lenin and American Communists like Gus Hall. We believe that "without Marxism-Leninism, it is impossible to understand and accurately assess imperialism, the origin, inner content, and development prospects of state-monopoly capitalism and its many-sided general crisis, or to draw conclusions from this for the revolutionary class struggle." (Ponomarev, Marxism-Leninism: A Flourishing Science, 1979, International Publishers)

We in the Gus Hall Action Club also stand out because of our emphasis on the working class. Marx and Engels said, in the Communist Manifesto, that "of all the classes that stand face to face today with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class" and we believe that the working class possesses the power to end war forever. For us in the Gus Hall Action Club, the word "working class" is not a mere decoration in our rhetoric. The working class is our basis. We reject any "warmed up version of the old story that the working class has become fat, complacent, submissive and totally corrupt" or that it is "a partner of monopoly capital in its imperialist exploitation." (Gus Hall, Working Class USA, International Publishers, 1987)

The book Marxism-Leninism: A Flourishing Science is right that "it is only the Marxist-Leninist approach to war and peace that ensures a correct policy." And "there are no more principled and determined adversaries of war than the Communists. War brings riches to a handful of monopolists, and hardship, privation and grief to the working people." (Ponomarev, Marxism-Leninism: A Flourishing Science, 1979, International Publishers)

The system of state-monopoly capitalism and imperialism breeds wars for maximum corporate profit. In 1916, V.I. Lenin made an exhaustive scientific analysis of imperialism in his classic work Imperialism--the Highest Stage of Capitalism, as well as in a number of other works. Lenin showed that imperialism is a special stage--the highest and last--in the development of capitalism. "Imperialism," V.I. Lenin taught, "is capitalism at that stage of development in which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital has established itself; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun; in which the division of all territories of the globe among the great capitalist powers has been completed." (Lenin, Imperialism--the Highest Stage of Capitalism, 1916)

William Z. Foster, a great union activist and former leader of the Communist Party USA, summed up Lenin when he said: "Imperialism sharpens and intensifies all the contradictions of the capitalist system and precipates the present era of world wars and socialist revolutions." (William Z. Foster, Twilight of World Capitalism, 1949, International Publishers)


(V.I. Lenin)
In order to achieve maximum corporate profits in the modern era, imperialism commences an era of struggle and war for the redivision of an already divided world. The "imperialists are playing with fire." (Otto Kuusinen, main author, Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow) As long as imperialism exists, the danger and reality of war will remain.

William Z. Foster explains that imperialism is against the interests of the working class of the United States:

"Wall Street's imperialist expansionism is directly antagonistic to the basic interests of the overwhelming majority of the American people, as well as to those of other peoples. The gigantic expenditures for the armaments program that imperialism produces have sent the cost of living soaring. It sabotages, too, all efforts to establish better government insurance against unemployment, sickness and old age. It is also undermining democracy in this country and is provoking the most serious danger of fascism...What true interest can our nation have in such a program of oppression, profit-grabbing and butchery?" (William Z. Foster, Twilight of World Capitalism, 1949, International Publishers)

Gus Hall, former leader of the Communist Party USA until his death in 2000, said that: "There is only one way to get the country out of the economic mess it is in: the way the Communist Party has repeatedly called for--to slash the arms budget! Slashing the arms budget, dismantling the foreign bases, ending the tax loopholes of the monopolies, controlling their transfer of dollars abroad--that's the only way." (Gus Hall, Basics, 1980, International Publishers)

The people of Iraq and the world have a right to be free from U.S. imperialism. Otto Kuusinen says that "Marxism has been from the very outset an irreconcilable enemy of national oppression in any form and has consistently fought for national equality, for the complete freedom and self-determination of the nations. The formula elaborated by Marx and Engels, 'a people that oppresses other peoples cannot itself be free,' Lenin termed as the 'fundamental principle of internationalism.' And proletarian internationalism is an inalienable part of Marxism." (Otto Kuusinen, main author, Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)

Otto Kuusinen, friend of Lenin, major figure in the Communist International and one of the founders of the Finnish Communist Party said that the working class possessed "weapons of struggle" against war and war preparation:

"A special responsibility falls on the working class and its revolutionary parties now that the war danger created by imperialism has greatly increased...

"Modern war is mainly a war of machines, of armaments, but these are made by the hands of workers; workers also form the cores of the mass imperialist armies... The working class is in a position to force the capitalist ruling classes to reckon with its will. But for this to happen its will must be clearly expressed in the form of mass anti-war actions, constant pressure on the bourgeois parties, parliaments and the press, and the exposure of the underhand plotting and intrigues of the imperialist government.

"It should not be forgotten that the working class also has so potent a weapon of struggle against war and preparation for war as strikes, refusal to fill war orders and transport war cargoes intended for aggressive purposes." (Otto Kuusinen, main author, Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)

Mass struggle is the answer. "The war hawks always dominate U.S. government policy when the people are silent," Gus Hall stressed, but "mass actions can influence government policy...(and) drive the warmongers out of public office forever." (Gus Hall, Basics, 1980, International Publishers)

"We Communists point out that wars are inevitable during capitalism. This means that capitalism inexorably breeds imperialism and war, but it does not mean that every international tension must develop armed hostilities...The democratic forces of our country and the world are strong enough to bridle the warmongers, that is, the big capitalist imperialists, if they will but awaken and assert their irresistible peace will. They can not only delay war, they can abolish it altogether. One thing is clear--war will always come unless the ways are found by the people to check the war-making expansionism of American imperialism." (William Z. Foster, Twilight of World Capitalism, 1949, International Publishers)


(William Z. Foster, former leader of the Communist Party USA)
But only socialism will end war forever. "The danger of war," William Z. Foster said, "can be finally eliminated, however, only when monopoly capital is decisively defeated by the people, especially big capital here in the United States. This country, precisely because it is the chief center of monopoly capitalism, is at the same time a fortress of world reaction and warmongering." (William Z. Foster, "Twilight of World Capitalism," 1949, International Publishers)

The book Marxism-Leninism: A Flourishing Science correctly says that "it is enough to glance at the...bourgeois parliaments and governments to fully appreciate the fact that their links with the (capitalist) monopolies have grown stronger and more organic." (Ponomarev, Marxism-Leninism: A Flourishing Science, 1979, International Publishers) But Lenin said: "our aim is to create a socialist system of society, which by eliminating the divisions of mankind into classes, by eliminating all exploitation of man by man and nation by nation, will inevitably eliminate the very possibility of war." (Lenin, War and Revolution, 1917)

"Only with the establishment of socialism," William Z. Foster wrote, "can the war-fascist danger be abolished outright. The great industries, the banks, the basic natural resources, and the political control of society must all be taken out of the hands of the capitalists and placed in the hands of the people, with the working class playing the leading political role." (William Z. Foster, Twilight of World Capitalism, 1949, International Publishers)

There is a historical necessity for the dictatorship of the proletariat. Otto Kuusinen points out that "the founders of Marxism-Leninism teach that the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat is the only force capable of effecting such a transformation. What is the dictatorship of the proletariat? It is power in the hands of the working people, led by the working class and having as its aim the building of socialism." (Otto Kuusinen, main author, Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)

And "the dictatorship of the proletariat is the crux of Marxism." (Afanasyev, Marxist Philosophy, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)

William Z. Foster continues: "This, and only this, will cut out reaction at the root. There is no other way to avoid the rising danger of devastating war, economic chaos, and the malignant cancer of fascism--all precipitate by American imperialism...

"American socialism would do much more than merely put a stop to the reaction and danger of monopoly capital. It would open up a whole new period of peace, democracy and prosperity for our people. The tremendous productive apparatus of our country, instead of depending upon wars and a war economy to keep it in operation, would find, under conditions of production for use, a boundless outlet for its commodities among our peoples and the famished nations of the world. Instead of being the property of a small minority of capitalists and utilized primarily for their enrichment, which constitutes a monstrous anomaly, the industries would be owned by the people and operated for their benefit. Under socialist conditions, the United States would embark upon the development of the greatest prosperity and well-being its people have ever known." (William Z. Foster, Twilight of World Capitalism, 1949, International Publishers)

More than ever it must be asserted that "Marxism-Leninism has not grown old and never will"! (Ponomarev, Marxism-Leninism: A Flourishing Science, 1979, International Publishers)