On Marxist study: What are our basic principles?

Due to a recent discussion about “dogmatism” and revisionism regarding a polemic from Mike Ely of the Kasama Project against the Marxist-Leninist Study Guide here on this site, it seems valuable to look closely at what principles we should consider fundamental to Marxism-Leninism. To that end, here is a set of quotes from the 1991 document “Reaffirm our Basic Principles and Carry the Revolution Forward” by the Communist Party of the Philippines concerning methods of study. This document guided the “Second Great Rectification Movement” launched by the CPP in 1992. This document is here followed by an excerpt from the 1999 Declaration of the International Communist Seminar defining basic Marxist-Leninist principles.

Celebrate the 130th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Stalin!

Revolutionaries in Nepal honor Stalin

This month, on December 21st, 2009, revolutionaries around the world will mark the 130th anniversary of the birth of Comrade J. V. Stalin, who along with Lenin, led the Great October Socialist Revolution to victory. After Lenin’s death, Stalin consolidated the victory of the USSR and strengthened the Soviet Party, beat back the counter-revolutionary Trotskyites and Bukharinites, paved the way for socialist construction and agricultural collectivization, and led the heroic Red Army in defeating fascism in World War II.

As Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese revolution said,

“We can be sure that his birthday will evoke warm and affectionate congratulations from the hearts of all revolutionary people throughout the world who know of the occasion. Congratulating Stalin is not a formality. Congratulating Stalin means supporting him and his cause, supporting the victory of socialism, and the way forward for mankind which he points out, it means supporting a dear friend. For the great majority of mankind today are suffering, and mankind can free itself from suffering only by the road pointed out by Stalin and with his help.” (Stalin, Friend of the Chinese People)

Here are some articles by various revolutionaries from around the world highlighting Cde. Stalin’s contributions:

• Lenin and Stalin as Mass Leaders, William Z. Foster (Communist Party of the United States)
• On Stalin, W. E. B. Du Bois (leader of the African American national movement)
• To You Beloved Comrade, Paul Robeson (African American actor/singer/activist)
• The Victory of the National Policy of Lenin and Stalin, Lavrenti Beria (Communist Party of the Soviet Union)
• Comrade Stalin, Leader of Progressive Mankind, Georgy Malenkov (Communist Party of the Soviet Union)
• The Great Theoretician of Communism, Dmitry Manuilsky (Communist Party of the Soviet Union)
• Stalin, Leader of Peoples, Man of the Masses, Dolores Ibárruri (La Passionaria) (Communist Party of Spain)
• Stalin, Friend of the Chinese People, Mao Zedong (Communist Party of China)
• On the Question of Stalin, Mao Zedong (Communist Party of China)
• With Stalin, Enver Hoxha (Party of Labor of Albania)
• Tribute to Stalin, Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian Independence Movement)
• Stalin and the Political Economy of Socialism, Vijay Singh (Revolutionary Democracy, India)
• Fifty years after the death of Joseph Stalin, Ludo Martens (Workers Party of Belgium)
• Stalin’s Legacy, James Klugmann (Communist Party of Great Britain)
• Stalin and the Chinese Revolution, Harpal Brar (Communist Party of Great Britain – Marxist-Leninist)
• Lenin and Stalin on the Relationship of Democratic and Socialist Revolutions in Colonial and Semicolonial Countries, Jose Maria Sison (founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines)
• The Record of Stalin, Armando Liwanag (Communist Party of the Philippines)

Red Shadow – The Economics Rock and Roll Band: Understanding Marx

Revolution in the Philippines and Marxist-Leninist Study

I have put together a comprensive study guide, broken up by subject, and shorter list of ten essential classics of Marxism-Leninism, all with the intention of making Marxist theory accessible, comprehensible, and practical, so that it may be used as weapon in the class struggle. In the same vein, here is an excerpt from Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought as Guide to the Philippine Revolution by Armando Liwanag, Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (1993) that also sheds some light on questions of Marxist study.

In 1959, a few young men and women, independent of the old merger party of the Communist and Socialist Parties, started forming study circles to read and study the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong that could be gotten from secret collections. They initially did so amidst the open and legal studies about the problems of national independence and democracy. The Marxist-Leninist works that they read included the Communist Manifesto, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Wages, Prices and Profit, The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Two Tactics of Social Democracy, State and Revolution, The Foundations of Leninism, the Analysis of Classes in Chinese Society and Talks at the Yenan Forum on Art and Literature.

The most avid students of Marxism-Leninism read and studied Das Kapital, The Dialectics of Nature, Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, History of the CPSU (Bolsheviks), Short Course; the first edition of the Soviet-published Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism and the Selected Works of Mao Zedong. The volumes of the selected works of the great communists began to reach the Philippines in 1962. To get hold of Marxist reading materials in the period of 1959-62 was by itself an achievement in view of the anticommunist hysteria and repressive measures since the end of World War II.

The objective of the beginners in the study of Marxism-Leninism was to seek solutions to what they perceived as the fundamental problems of the Filipino people, use Marxism-Leninism to shed light on the history and concrete circumstances of the Filipino people and find ways to resume the Philippine revolution and carry it out until victory. In the study of Marxism-Leninism, with special reference to the Philippine revolution, they sought to grasp the three components of Marxism, which are materialist philosophy, political economy and scientific socialism as laid down by Marx and Engels, developed by Lenin and Stalin and further developed by Mao Zedong.

The beginners in the study of proletarian revolutionary theory were exceedingly receptive to Mao’s teachings because of their proven correctness and success in so vast a country neighboring the Philippines and their recognized applicability to the Philippines. The most read works of Mao Zedong were On Contradiction, On Practice, the Analysis of Classes in Chinese Society, The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War, Problems of Strategy in Guerrilla War Against Japan, On Protracted People’s War and On New Democracy.

The fruits of this study, theoretically, is to be found in the analysis that the CPP developed. See the CPP History page and the CPP Documents page at philippinerevolution.net.

Celebrate the 101st anniversary of the birth of Comrade Enver Hoxha!

The following article is from the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), marking the 100th birthday of Enver Hoxha, 1 year ago:

Celebrating the 100th birthday of Enver Hoxha:
Architect of socialist Albania, anti-revisionist fighter, and one of the great Marxist-Leninist heroes of the 20th century

Born in Gjirokastër, southern Albania, on 16 October 1908, Enver Hoxha was involved in politics from a young age – at just 16, he became secretary of the Students Society of Gjirokastër, an anti-monarchist movement. A highly capable student, he won a scholarship to further his studies in France, where he spent the early 1930s. There he found an active communist movement, and started to immerse himself in communist activity and Marxist literature, reading such works as Marx’s Capital and Engels’ Anti-Dühring.

Hoxha returned to Albania in 1936, becoming a school teacher. He was dismissed from his post when, following the Italian invasion of 1939, he refused to join the Albanian Fascist Party. Driven underground, he became actively involved in the communist movement, and, at the founding conference of the Communist Party of Albania (later renamed the Albanian Party of Labour) on 8 November 1941, he was chosen as a Central Committee member.

In the remaining years of the second world war, Hoxha emerged as a most able and inspiring party member, working tirelessly all over the country. He played a crucial role in organising the armed struggle of the united front against fascism, leading the Army of National Liberation. He was also the main inspirer of the new forms of underground popular power that were emerging – the National Councils of Liberation. In March 1943, Hoxha was named First Secretary of the Communist Party.

After the partisans forced the withdrawal of German troops in November 1944, Enver Hoxha became head of government of Albania. In March 1946, the Constituent Assembly proclaimed the birth of the People’s Republic of Albania, and nominated Hoxha as its prime minister.

Fidel Castro on the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China

The following “Reflection” by Fidel Castro, “History Cannot Be Ignored”, is from Granma International:

Che Guevara with Mao Zedong

The 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China was commemorated this past October 1.

On that historic day in 1949, Mao Zedong, as leader of the Communist Party of China, presided over the first parade of the People’s Army and the people of China in Tiananmen Square. The victorious soldiers bore the arms seized in combat from invaders, oligarchies and traitors to their homeland.

Ten Essential Classics of Marxism-Leninism

This is a suplement to my more extensive Marxist-Leninist study guide. Whereas that study guide is broken down by subject, highlighting some of the key texts of scientific socialism within those subjects, this supplement is simply a collection of what I believe are 10 essential works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao.

1. Wage-Labor and Capital by Karl Marx
2. Socialism: Utopian & Scientific by Frederick Engels
3. What Is To Be Done? by V. I. Lenin
4. Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by V. I. Lenin
5. The State and Revolution by V. I. Lenin
6. The Foundations of Leninism by J.V. Stalin
7. Dialectical and Historical Materialism by J. V. Stalin
8. Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR by J. V. Stalin
9. On Practice by Mao Zedong
10. On Contradiction by Mao Zedong

Celebrate the 90th Anniversary of China’s May 4th Movement

Today marks the 90th Anniversary of China’s May Fourth Movement, the movement of anti-feudal and anti-imperialist revolutionary students and youth out of which the Communist Party of China was born. In honor of this day, I am posting here two article by Mao Zedong from May 4th, 1939, “The May 4th Movement” and “The Orientation of the Youth Movement“, commemorating the twentieth anniversary of May 4th.

THE MAY 4TH MOVEMENT

[Comrade Mao Tse-tung wrote this article for newspapers in Yenan to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the May 4th Movement.]

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The May 4th Movement twenty years ago marked a new stage in China’s bourgeois-democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism. The cultural reform movement which grew out of the May 4th Movement was only one of the manifestations of this revolution. With the growth and development of new social forces in that period, a powerful camp made its appearance in the bourgeois-democratic revolution, a camp consisting of the working class, the student masses and the new national bourgeoisie. Around the time of the May 4th Movement, hundreds of thousands of students courageously took their place in the van. In these respects the May 4th Movement went a step beyond the Revolution of 1911.

50th Anniversary of the Liberation of Tibet

The following is from the British Marxist-Leninist journal, Lalkar:

Celebrate the anniversary of Tibet’s liberation!

March 2009 sees the fiftieth anniversary of the triumph of the socialist revolution in China’s Tibet province.  The decisive rout of the serf-owners revolt in March 1959 drew a line under centuries of feudal backwardness and decades of imperialist manipulation, most notably by Britain.  By giving their support to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and their battle to unify all the peoples of China under the common banner of socialism, the Tibetan masses broke with a whole epoch of subservience to slavery and serfdom.

Norman Bethune: “Wounds”

The following article, “Wounds”, is by the Canadian communist and medical doctor, Norman Bethune, who died in China serving the revolution. It is a scathing critique of imperialist war.

The kerosene lamp overhead makes a steady buzzing sound like an incandescent hive of bees. Mud walls. Mud floor. Mud bed. White paper windows. Smell of blood and chloroform. Cold. Three o’clock in the morning, December 1, North China, near Lin Chu, with the 8th Route Army. Men with wounds. Wounds like little dried pools, caked with blackbrown earth; wounds with torn edges frilled with black gangrene; neat wounds, concealing beneath the abscess in their depths, burrowing into and around the great firm muscles like a dammed-back river, running around and between the muscles like a hot stream; wounds, expanding outward, decaying orchids or crushed carnations, terrible flowers of flesh; wounds from which the dark blood is spewed out in clots, mixed with the ominous gas bubbles, floating on the fresh flood of the still-continuing secondary haemorrhage.