BRAZIL
Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR)
On October 25 (November 7) 1917, the world experienced the greatest
political and economic event in its history: the Second Congress of
Soviets of Russia, consisting of 650 delegates, overthrew the bourgeois
system, established the socialist system in the country and proclaimed
the socialist revolution of the workers and peasants, the great
Socialist Russian Revolution.
The next day, October 26, V.I. Ulyanov, Lenin, the leader of the
revolution, introduced in the Congress the Decree on Peace, withdrawing
the country from the imperialist war and denouncing it as the greatest
crime against humanity, thus fulfilling the first and most deeply felt
demand of the proletarian masses.
In the following days, the Second Congress approved the replacement of
private ownership of land by the ownership of the whole people and
handed over 125 million hectares to the peasants. The Revolutionary
Government continued to take measures to advance and consolidate the
socialist state. Transport, the merchant fleet, foreign trade, the
factories and banks of the powerful capitalists, as well as the
production and distribution of their products, passed into the hands of
the workers and peasants, of the Soviet state.
The Bolshevik Revolution rapidly made the headlines in the world
bourgeois press and awakened the exploited masses in dozens of
countries. At the same time the capitalist exploiters, seeing their
economic and financial interests directly affected, organized a
military intervention against Russia trying to overthrow the workers’
government.
In a few years the revolutionary wave that arose in old and backward
Russia became a tsunami. The gains of the workers, women, youth and the
entire Russian people were the signal that the revolution was a reality
and that it was possible to maintain it by means of the broadest
international solidarity and the support of the Russian proletarian
masses. This solidarity had a special character, since it could only be
voiced by those who had experienced and suffered the same conditions of
exploitation, hunger and misery that the Russian people had
experienced: the proletarians and working people of other countries.
Proletarian internationalism, taking the struggle for the revolution in
one’s own country as a way to prevent the advance of bourgeois reaction
and the encirclement of the newly formed Soviet State and to support
the consolidation of the world proletarian revolution, is the
fundamental basis of this solidarity
In December 1922, five years after the revolution, the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR) was founded. Ukraine, Byelorussia and
Transcaucasia took the first step and united with the Russian Socialist
Federation, expanding the borders of the new Soviet State. Later, over
11 nations made the same decision and unified into the Soviet Union.
Defence, industrial, agricultural, intellectual and cultural
production, the ranks of the Party and the conditions to most
effectively support the revolts and popular uprisings worldwide
increased significantly. Likewise, proletarian ideology strengthened
throughout the world, socialism ceased to be a dream and became a
reality. The viability of the socialist system, its ability to resolve
in the shortest time the promises of centuries that were never
fulfilled by the masters in power, such as the right of the peasants to
the land, the end to the dual exploitation of women, the right of
nations etc., showed the masses that another world is possible.
These extraordinary historical events revealed the strength of popular
unity against the exploiters and reaffirmed Lenin’s words that “the
only way to win the war between slave owners for the redivision of the
world is by making the war of the slaves of all nations against the
slave owners of all nations.”
The solidarity of Socialism with humanity
But, despite the resounding defeat in all fields where it resolved to fight, the enemy was not dead.
Soviet power, supported by its materialist ideology and dialectical
conception of the world, was clear about this situation and constantly
prepared for new confrontations. The USSR, led by Stalin after the
death of Lenin, knew that this confrontation would be of global
proportions, since the international bourgeoisie was not prepared to
lose control of the economy and wealth in more than half of Europe and
almost 2 /5 of Asia, that is, in 1/6th of the surface of the Earth.
In 1939, 22 years after the Bolshevik revolution, World War II broke
out, provoked by German Nazism, that is, the most terrorist form of the
bourgeois dictatorship. The Nazi plan, initially supported by the
principal capitalist powers, was to destroy the Soviet socialist
republic in obvious economic, political and social growth and a real
beacon for the masses exploited by the bourgeoisie of the other
countries.
World capitalism was in a deep crisis, unemployment affected the
majority of the workers and the misery of the masses and hunger grew
enormously. However, the USSR had full employment, comprehensive
literacy, unrestricted access to health care, sports and recreation, to
the universities, secondary school courses and vocational training. All
this was free, without taking a penny more from the wallets of the
workers. No one could conceal the superiority of socialism compared to
capitalism.
Despite being very young, the Soviet regime had a big experience in the
art of war, because from its birth it survived by fighting the ferocity
of the capitalist enemies, which acted against the state through acts
of sabotage, massacres of villages, assassinations, civil wars, etc.,
besides having defeated the foreign intervention of 28 countries.
With the war declared by Nazi Germany, the USSR was forced to overcome
its defensive weaknesses and accelerate the development of its military
capability. In the four years of the conflict, there was no greater
proof of the heroism, dedication, revolutionary discipline and love for
humanity than that practiced by the Soviet peoples and their powerful
Red Army. The Soviet Union not only freed its people from the Nazi
invasion, but it was decisive for the liberation of all humanity from
Hitler’s terrorism.
The affects of the war were devastating for the peoples of the Soviet
Union and for the country, since besides the severe blows suffered to
much of its industry and agriculture, it caused 25 million deaths.
However, the Nazi beast was defeated and the immediate consequence of
this crushing defeat was the people’s democratic revolution and the
establishment of the revolutionary governments in various countries of
Eastern Europe, expanding the control of the peoples over their own
destiny and diminishing still further the control of the great economic
and financial monopolies and imperialist puppet governments over vast
expanses of the Earth.
This revolutionary offensive against the “slave owners of all nations”
during the Second World War not only reinforced the tactics of the
communists against the predatory wars of imperialism, but also
converted world Bolshevism into a theory, a program and tactics of the
international proletariat and its political organizations, for, as
Dimitrov said, “actions speak louder than words.”
Internationalism and revolution
Thus, the internationalism of the Soviet State expanded the revolution
and socialism throughout the world. In August 1945, north Korea joined
with the Bolsheviks; on October 1, 1949, the largest country in the
world freed itself from the bonds of slavery, the reactionary
government of Chiang Kai-shek and the new colonialism of the United
States and proclaimed the People’s Republic of China, under the
leadership of the Communist Party of China. It was the strong support
of the Bolshevik Party, the Soviet State and the Red Army which,
besides arms and combatants, placed its scientists and technicians at
its disposal to support the revolution. The revolutionary and socialist
world thus came to constitute more than one third of the surface of the
planet.
To stop the offensive of the proletarian revolution and make up for the
huge losses caused by changes in the economies of the liberated
countries, imperialism intensified its policy of exploitation of the
workers, particularly in the less developed countries, which provoked
more movements for liberation. On January 1, 1959, Cuba, a small
Caribbean island 90 miles from the principal representative of world
capitalism, dealt a mortal blow to the U.S. by making the revolution.
In 1975, the U.S. suffered the biggest defeat in its whole history. The
Communist Party of Vietnam, after years of resistance and revolutionary
guerrilla warfare, defeated the most powerful capitalist army in the
world and founded the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
“Not only the general European, but the world proletarian revolution is
maturing before the eyes of all, and it has been assisted, accelerated
and supported by the victory of the proletariat in Russia. All this is
not enough for the complete victory of Socialism, you say? Of course it
is not enough. One country alone cannot do more. But this one country,
thanks to the Soviet power, has done so much that even if the Soviet
power in Russia were to be crushed by world imperialism tomorrow, as a
result, let us say, of an agreement between German and Anglo-French
imperialism – even granted that very worst possibility – it would still
be found that Bolshevik tactics have brought enormous benefit to
Socialism and have assisted the growth of the invincible world
revolution.”
These prophetic words of Lenin in his pamphlet “The Proletarian
Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky,” written in 1918, showed the
degree of the significance of the betrayal of internationalism and the
socialist revolution by Khrushchev and its terrible consequences for
the world working class. On the other hand, it showed the greatness of
the internationalism practiced by the Soviet working class and how far
it was able to advance the struggle of the entire working class in the
world for the liberation of humanity and for socialism.
Indeed, today as before, the bourgeoisie is acting as a single class,
combining and adopting common measures not only in the world economy
but also in politics, as the aggression of the imperialist countries
against Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine, Kosovo, Mali, Libya, Syria,
Ukraine, etc. clearly reveal.
Therefore, in the same way that the capitalists around the world unite
and are always having their meetings and organizing their alliances
against the working people, the workers need to unite on an
international level.
The Third International, as an international political organization of
the workers, was a fundamental weapon for the unity of the communists
on a world scale, mainly because it counted on the political,
ideological and material growth of socialism in the Soviet Union.
During the period of its existence, from 1919 to 1943, it allowed the
workers and revolutionaries from around the world to carry out an
offensive against capital and the exploitation it imposed on the
masses. It was a period of development and the foundation of the
communist parties, of the Popular Fronts, of the guerrilla
organizations and revolutionary armies aiming at the popular and
socialist revolution in various countries.
Hence the importance of the International Conference of
Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO) and its activity
today, in the sense of returning to that level of organization of the
revolutionary communists worldwide, with the objective of overthrowing
the reactionary governments and establishing revolutionary governments
and socialism in these countries, regions and finally throughout the
world.
Long Live Proletarian Internationalism!
Long Live Socialism
Revolutionary Communist Party – Brazil
April 2014
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