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August 3, 2013 - No. 30 Anniversary of the Death of Frederick Engels Fighting Anew Within Today's
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 Hardial Bains |
Today within Canada as well as internationally, we are on the eve of a profound crisis. A catastrophe is going to take place as a result of the anti-social offensive of the bourgeoisie through which it is destroying all the human, material and natural assets of the nations of the world. But if one looks at the activities of various political forces, the actions of various classes, one would think that we have entered an extremely peaceful period. One would assume a harmonious period in which everything is being arranged, everything is being settled, and that the period of conflicts, wars, revolutionary upheavals and so on has become a thing of the past.
An impression is being created in the International Communist Movement that there is no longer any question, whether of practice or theory, which requires serious attention. This impression found across Canada and in other countries of the world is being presented at a time the International Communist Movement exists in the most passive, disorganized, indifferent and disinterested form.
When Engels started his work, Germany was in ferment; a bourgeois democratic revolution was taking place there. Revolutions had already occurred in England, as well as in France and some other countries. At that particular juncture, Engels participated in the battlefront of the bourgeoisie against the overthrown feudal forces that were blocking the advance. He was actually one of the participants on the military front, as well as the political and other fields. Through the experience of the bourgeois democratic revolution, Engels independently came to some of his conclusions, just as Karl Marx also came to those conclusions. These conclusions, one could say, brought Engels close to Karl Marx and established their life-long collaboration and friendship.
Revolutionary Practice -- Beginning All Over Again
Today, the question of Engels' conclusions and how he arrived at them is not a matter of scholastic study; it is a matter of looking at the present conditions. It is a matter of looking at the problems as they exist nationally, internationally, in the communist and workers' movement and so on, and dealing with them. It is a matter of actually carrying out revolutionary practice.
In 1967, when the work of The Internationalists reached a certain stage, the slogan was given that Understanding requires the conscious participation of the individual - an act of finding out. Because of this, big changes took place; all ideas, theories, everything in the sphere of human consciousness were put in the service of carrying out this work, the work in the service of revolutionary practice. No idea was divorced from revolutionary practice, or put another way, no idea not needed for revolutionary practice was allowed to interfere with that practice.
Today in 1995, there is a need to begin all over again; just as such beginnings have been made in the past by those who put revolution as the first item on the agenda. This requires starting from a point where work has already begun in the past; it means traveling once again the space and road that has been traversed before. This is not to say that the point has remained where it was. It is to recognize that a new point has already appeared that resembles the point in the past. The tasks in front of the new starting point have a semblance of tasks from the past. But semblance does not mean the same. Similarity is quite different from sameness. The same no longer serves revolutionary practice. The necessity is to begin all over again.
Historic Initiative
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) has set for itself a program of historic initiative. This program was proclaimed January 1, 1995. The main task for the first phase of this initiative is to transform CPC(M-L) into a mass communist party. Can this task be realized by carrying on the work in the same way it was carried before? If we look at the sum total of the results of the work of the last seven months, it can be said with profound clarity that there has been no response whatsoever to the call given by CPC(M-L) for the Historic Initiative.
How is it possible that there has been no response? Is the call wrong? Is the task set not consistent with the times? Or are we dealing with those forces that refuse to move from the present stage of development? In my estimation, comrades, that is the case. There are forces who have become stuck at a certain stage of development. Unless CPC(M-L) deals with this question, it is not possible to deal with any other. Forces who become stuck at a certain stage of development are not passive forces. They are active forces who deny there is another stage, who deny there is another level of work and other tasks that have to be realized. Instead, they embellish what has been. They refer to the past to provide themselves with revolutionary credentials to try to trick the working class into supporting them.
It is not for nothing that we hear the slogan in
Ontario, and across the
country as well as internationally, that the task of the working class
in this
period is to defend the gains made in the past. Yet in the manner they
are
speaking, no gains were made by the working class in the past only
certain
arrangements with the class enemy. The working class captured political
power
in Russia in 1917 and new arrangements came into being there and
internationally. The working class was placed at the centre of
revolutionary
developments. But this is no longer the case; those arrangements have
collapsed and the working class is no longer at centre stage.
The working class early in the twentieth century, put itself at the centre of all developments. The bourgeoisie overthrew the working class on the world scale from that point it occupied at the centre. The working class has now been overthrown and there are not a few in this world who would like to hoodwink the working class into remaining in this passive position, defend the so-called gains it has made and not begin all over again at the point when it was not at the centre of all developments.
It is even proposed in Ontario that the working class had made some gains, and now with the Harris government those gains are being taken away. In other words, broad pressure is being put on the working class not to acquire revolutionary class consciousness in the present conditions and begin all over again.
This phenomenon where various forces become stuck is not
something
new. And it will not be something new in the future either, in the
sense that
this is not the first or last time forces will become stuck refusing to
begin
anew. At the time of Marx and Engels also, certain forces did not want
to
engage in the work that Marx and Engels were carrying out. At that
time,
those forces presented themselves as Marxists by picking up various
phrases
from the work of Karl Marx and based on those phrases opposed the work
of
Marx and Engels. After Marx died, while Engels was still alive and
active,
forces arose who distorted his teachings.
Finally, when capitalism reached the stage of imperialism, the Second International, except for the Russian communists and a few others, refused to develop new forms and thinking consistent with the stage of imperialism and kept on using the parliamentary and peaceful methods and organization consistent with developments under laissez-faire capitalism of the 19th century. They became a roadblock to further advance. As history has shown, the Second International from that period of refusal to begin anew under the conditions of imperialism, established treachery as its modus operandi, its way of life.
From the general period of 1912-1914 to date, the Second International and its adherents have served the bourgeoisie; they do yeoman's service in defence of the bourgeoisie and the capitalist system. In many places they constitute governments, they elect presidents, they are the leaders of the working class movement and they carry on in the same fashion as they did before, which is to promote the peaceful and parliamentary road and so on.
After the treachery of the Second International, this phenomenon of those who become stuck has expressed itself in various ways. When the Third International was formed, there were those who wanted to keep it at the level of criticizing the Second International. They did not want the Third Communist International to become the organizer of the proletarians and the oppressed masses of the colonies and throughout the world. They wished to make the Third International merely a talk shop, a debating society where various people got together and cursed the misdeeds of the Second International and so on.
Capitalism at its imperialist stage, incapable of containing the worsening contradictions, brought forth fascism and Nazism to block revolution. Unleashing fascism and Nazism was the greatest gamble the bourgeoisie to date had taken against the working class. Even many from the Second International refused to join fascism and Nazism against the working class and people. This gamble of the bourgeoisie failed. Far from containing revolution, revolution spread worldwide. The Soviet Union crushed the vanguard of this Nazi, fascist and militarist movement defeating it in battle. This opened a path for a broad development of the revolutionary movement in which the colonial peoples, the neo-colonial peoples and others, victims of fascism, Nazism and militarism saw the possibilities of liberation, and they did liberate themselves, throwing off the shackles of colonial rule.
The construction of socialism in the Soviet Union was the first great act, a testimony to the theory of Marx and Engels that the bourgeoisie will be overthrown and a new system will be built through revolutionary practice. This new development of the construction of socialism in turn brought forth those elements who did not want to move beyond the stage to which Lenin and Stalin had brought society. Under the leadership of Stalin, socialism was constructed, but it was at the initial stage, the stage of laying down the technical and material base, building the superstructure, establishing socialist relations of production and so on.
After the Second World War, imperialism saw the Soviet Union as its mortal enemy and took up Hitler's task of destroying communism. Those forces who became stuck at this stage of the initial construction of socialism, along with their agencies on the world scale, collaborated with imperialism, assisting in various ways in the destruction of the socialist system. Yet still, the struggle of the working class and peoples marched on leading to the division of the world between the two superpowers, and finally in the contemporary period, to the situation where the masses of the people rose up dissatisfied with this division, dissatisfied with the pseudo-socialist system and other systems imposed on them. By this time, the manipulation of the working class was complete. No communist movement was there to lead the broad masses of the people against imperialism and finally bury it. Far from the Marxist-Leninists leading the struggle, they became agencies to facilitate the final collapse and usher in this present period of retreat of revolution.
Settling Scores with the Bourgeois Conscience
When Marx and Engels talk about their work, they speak about beginning it in a very modest manner, specifically beginning their work by settling scores with their former philosophic conscience. The former philosophic conscience of the Germans in the 1840s was neo-Hegelianism, that is, Hegelianism in a new form with revolutionary pretensions. Settling scores with their own philosophic conscience was not a matter of personal enlightenment; they did not become solipsistic or worried about their souls or their beings. Settling scores with the old former philosophic conscience necessarily consisted of raising the banner of the working class within the conditions in which the bourgeoisie was coming to power and the capitalist system was gaining ground in Germany. In other words, along with the birth of the working class in Germany, Marx and Engels arose to provide the working class with that consciousness and that theory which would guide it in life, in its development.
Over 150 years have passed since that time, and we find that neither in Germany nor anywhere else is there a force dealing with the bourgeois philosophic conscience being spread worldwide. With agencies and resources of billions of dollars at its disposal, the bourgeoisie is involved in brainwashing the modern-day intelligentsia, trying to convince them that the former philosophic conscience was the last word in revolutionary consciousness, that there is no development in philosophy beyond Hegel.
Hegel, who died in 1831, appeared at the last stage of development of philosophy of the old era. In the 1840s, with the splitting of society into two great classes, the consciousness, epistemology and thinking of human beings also split. Never was there to be a harmonious development between these two outlooks. Frederick Engels was the greatest elaborator of one outlook known as Marxism based on two discoveries: the law of general motion of society, and the specific motion of capitalist society, the theory of surplus value.
When Engels elaborated this outlook, he did not differentiate and say that it is applicable only to this or that field. For Frederick Engels, this new outlook towards the development of which he contributed his entire life, is made from a single sheet of steel. He brought under scrutiny the developments in nature and in society. All the knowledge of that time was scrutinized and presented to the working class in its own interests. To Frederick Engels there is no field that does not concern the working class, whether it is natural or social sciences or political, social or cultural affairs. Frederick Engels was one of the greatest thinkers for whom outlook is also a target of elaboration and development. For him an outlook is not merely a device to bring forth those conclusions suitable to him.
According to his own words, Engels played second fiddle to Karl Marx. In other words, Engels did not present himself as an authority in a field in which he was not. He did not try to plagiarize the discoveries of Karl Marx and put his name on them, which he could have easily done since most of the works of Karl Marx had yet to be published at the time of his death in 1883, in particular Volumes Two and Three of Capital. It was Engels who published Marx's works, editing them with utmost care and taking on the hardest tasks for himself yet always attributing the whole to Marx.
For Frederick Engels, the thought process, the mind, the ideas and consciousness are not merely ideas, thought processes and consciousness. They are a battleground through which he settled scores with the bourgeoisie, through which he provided the working class with the kind of consciousness necessary so that it can achieve its aim of ending class society.
One hundred years later, if one looks around the world at the number of Marxists who exist, it becomes extremely clear the kind of task the working class faces. Marxism today is recognized merely as a formal word, and in that formal sense, there are many Marxists. To reduce Marxism to a mere formality is one of the significant negative contributions of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie recognizes those who are Marxists in name only, and when it suits the ruling class, it popularizes those Marxists, especially if they are able to do maximum damage, as in the case of Mikhail Gorbachev of Russia. The bourgeoisie presented him as the most creative Marxist-Leninist, the man who gave us perestroika and glasnost. This was done by putting into motion all the forces standing against Marxism, against the working class.
Under the present conditions, the world is facing an even greater and deeper crisis than it was at the time of Marx and Engels. What should be the attitude of the working class, of the Communist Party? How should it tackle these matters, which are of utmost importance to the future of the class and, because of that, to the future of peace and all humanity? Are we to start drawing ideas from the ideas of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels and present ourselves as Marxists? Or are we required to deal with the contemporary situation and its philosophic conscience by using the ideas of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels and others as a guide? Such problems confronting the communist movement are presented by history.
At this time, all sorts of claims are made throughout the world about the solution of the problems capitalism faces. These claims are made by Marxists, anti-Marxists, and non-Marxists. These claims go by the name of liberalization and privatization or by the name of state interference in the economy, change, reform and restructuring, which suggest that a bourgeois state in adopting those policies would cure the ills of the capitalist system. But none of these reforms or policies work.
Within these conditions, Marxist-Leninists have a great opportunity. This opportunity is to organize the working class. The only way the working class can be organized is if CPC(M-L) and other Marxist- Leninist forces are able to go around those forces serving the bourgeoisie and blocking the communist and workers' movement, and hit at the ruling class. CPC(M-L) has been preparing itself for such an assault. A lot of pressure has been put on us to launch offensives and assaults without preparation, without looking at the conditions, without having us make the decision about where we are going to fight.
The work of the last seven months, and generally speaking of the last 10 years has created a terrain from where we can lead the working class and broad masses of the people and start firing. Within these circumstances, CPC(M-L) has taken care to ensure that the targets of this attack are those who are obstructing the development of society. In this respect, if a small force finds where to hit and concentrates all its power and strikes, then that force can win. We are such a force. We know where to hit. We are able to muster all of our forces to do so.
In this, we have the example of Marx and Engels. They started by hitting at their former philosophic conscience. When we started our work in 1967-68, our point of attack was also that which was stopping the development of the movement at that time. We were a far smaller force; we were far less experienced, but we won. Our force today has to concentrate all its power to turn the successes achieved to date into victory. It is always the case that such a power as ours cannot defeat its enemies if it does not cleanse itself of all those elements that are stopping this force, this organization, from turning success into victory. This cleansing, this settling scores with the bourgeois conscience, has to begin and must begin. What better day to start than the centenary of the death of Frederick Engels.
Why Start with the Work of Frederick Engels?
With the death of Frederick Engels, the working class movement lost the greatest defender and elaborator of Marxism. One hundred years have passed since that time and various developments have taken place bringing forth an array of revolutionary forces. The contributions of V.I. Lenin in defence of Marxism and in organizing the Great October Revolution cannot in any way be underestimated. In the same way, the contributions of J.V. Stalin must be appreciated, as well as the endeavours of all the others. Those forces battling for communism never hesitated for an instant after the death of Frederick Engels. In fact, the struggle became acute and socialism was born in the fires of the First World War.
The question may be asked legitimately today: why start with the work of Frederick Engels and not with that of Enver Hoxha, or J.V. Stalin, V.I. Lenin and so on?
As the head of the Second International, Engels was surrounded by an enormous intrigue. It was a conspiracy to wipe out the teachings of Marxism. This betrayal broadened and became most prevalent after his death. Unless one deals with this perfidy, which became intense at the time of Frederick Engels' death and continues to the present, unless one confronts the consequences of this intrigue against Marxism, it is not possible to begin the work afresh at this time.
The essence of this intrigue is to present Marxism as a
form of liberal
ideology, an ideology minus its revolutionary class content. Today in
1995,
how many political parties in the last six years since the collapse of
the former
Soviet Union, the very same ones that for years strutted about and
pretended
to be communist, have now changed their names and are presenting
themselves
as nice liberal parties without any revolutionary class content? Even
some who
did not change their names, in similar manner, have adopted the
demeanour
of very nice, peaceful, liberal "communist" parties, again without any
revolutionary content.
In April this year, the leader of one of the communist parties of the Russian Federation issued a public statement that his party has abandoned the notion of the dictatorship of the proletariat. To promote his party as "really" democratic, he underlined that it is against all forms of dictatorship. This shameless character, coming from Moscow where the bloodstains are still fresh from the army of the new bourgeois dictatorship smashing the Congress of People's Deputies in October 1993, is preaching to the world that he is opposed to any kind of dictatorship! He presents communism to the world not as the condition for the complete emancipation of the working class, but merely as a policy objective.
Communism as the condition for the complete emancipation of the working class can be created only through the proletarian revolution and dictatorship of the proletariat. Communism as a policy objective stands against proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. He has accepted the conditions of capitalist enslavement and retrogression in Russia. He has embraced the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie as a final act, as immutable, as something that will go on forever. Within this framework, he presents a policy objective of opposing all dictatorships merely as a ruse, an act of treachery and deception against the movement of the working class for emancipation. In other words, his party has become social democratic, opportunist and bourgeois.
The Struggle Begins Anew!
Pick Up from Where Frederick
Engels
Left Off; Elaborate Marxism
Under the Present Conditions and Settle
Scores
with the Bourgeois Conscience!
If we start with the death of Frederick Engels, with the point at which Frederick Engels left the work, we have very, very significant theoretical and ideological weapons to throw at the enemies of communism. If we were to start from the work at the time of the death of Enver Hoxha or J.V. Stalin, we would be blunting our struggle; we would be taking up a struggle that is not an issue today. That particular struggle is finished. It was the struggle against modern revisionism within specific conditions. If we returned to that battle, we would say, "Hey workers, look at how well Comrade Enver Hoxha fought against modern revisionism." I am quite sure all our detractors would be very pleased that such work was being done. Every charlatan would also be pleased to find that we had occupied ourselves with the task of patting ourselves on the back for having supported such a fine leader in the past! In the same fashion, if we were to start with the cause as it was expressed at the time of the death of J.V. Stalin or Lenin, it would amount to the same thing.
To pick up from where Frederick Engels left off, we call upon everyone to elaborate Marxism under the present conditions. We demand everyone settle scores with the bourgeois conscience. We are hoisting the banner of Marxist revolution all over again. We will cast such a broad net that we will capture any friend or foe of Marxism who is trying to undermine Marxism. Our Party is correct to choose the occasion of the centenary of the death of Frederick Engels to launch this polemical struggle, targeting the forces that are blocking the path to progress.
Marxists, communists, and revolutionary forces have fought courageously since the time of Frederick Engels. But that revolution has come to an end. A new revolution is to begin, and the subjective conditions have to be created for this contemporary revolution. It demands that the struggle begin anew. It must follow diligently what Frederick Engels advised, "Every new development in the social sciences, in the natural sciences, demands the revision of, renovation of, revolutionary theory."
Many changes have taken place since the death of Frederick Engels, V.I. Lenin, J.V. Stalin and that of Enver Hoxha a decade ago. This requires renovation of our revolutionary theory. The aim of this renovation is to place the working class at the head of society. It is to accuse the bourgeoisie of dragging society down to the lowest level. It is to expose its bourgeois conscience, the different forms of ideology it has brought forth to preserve its rule, as the greatest weapon it uses to debase the culture.
The Key Thing in Bourgeois Conscience
What is the key thing in bourgeois conscience? The key thing in bourgeois conscience is the notion that all things and relations are immutable. Bourgeois conscience is not so modest declaring its regime will last forever. It claims liberal society is the last act of human beings. There is no longer any ideology, no longer any history. It even declares the end of science, when it suits itself.
With this notion of immutability as the kernel of bourgeois conscience, the ruling elite proclaim their program to shift the burden of the crisis onto the backs of the workers. They claim there is no alternative but to withdraw from modern life and push society back to medievalism where blood lines count, where families or groups of families constitute those who participate in worldly affairs. The bourgeoisie wants to have communities based on race, language, gender, religion, lifestyle etc. It rejects the modern era where people are born to society and possess rights by virtue of being human.
Bourgeois conscience issues appeals to the youth, to the coming generation that they should bear no responsibility towards anyone but themselves. Far from being masters of things and relations, it asks the younger generation to be slaves of things and relations. Every kind of infamy is committed against the young people. This is facilitated by a section of the middle strata and petty bourgeoisie for whom the bourgeoisie promises to open aspects of the economy through privatization of certain state sectors in which disintegrating class forces may find a niche for a while.
Sections of the middle strata and petty bourgeoisie have gone completely over to the side of the bourgeoisie. The ruling elite also think that the working class will become a reserve of its ambitions, with the labour aristocracy acting as its social prop. The bourgeoisie would thus be in a secure position at home to go to war to conquer the world.
The bourgeoisie as a class has a sinister plan of establishing class peace at home to win victory abroad. It is confident that those who have become stuck at different stages of the development of revolution will provide timely assistance. The labour aristocracy has grown into a yearly two billion dollar business in Canada alone. It has already done yeoman's service in the struggle against communism. The bourgeoisie considers it a reliable partner in the execution of its diabolical plan. Various state institutions are established under the program of "tripartism" whereby the labour aristocracy sits with the heads of the biggest monopolies and government leaders and plays its role in the execution of this plan.
The plan includes the isolation of the theory of Marxism from the working class movement and the confinement of workers' struggles to limits imposed by bourgeois legality. The ruling elite hope to quarantine the working class movement and all communities from the influence of the Marxist-Leninists and all other progressive and democratic forces. In this way, they want to take society backwards over 390 years to the time of James I who proclaimed the Divine Right of Kings. The bourgeoisie proclaims the divine right of monopolies to dominate their "free market economy," suffocate all with their "ideological and political pluralism," and prevent people from organizing themselves by imposing "official trade unions" and control of "human rights groups."
Within these circumstances people are disenchanted; dissatisfaction exists everywhere with both the economic and political systems yet it is the bourgeoisie that tries to exploit this dissatisfaction. One way is to lower the integrity, reputation and honour of politicians in the eyes of the masses. Within its reserves, it promotes anarchists and others who are gleeful that politics and the politicians have a place of dishonour in society presenting this as a so-called positive development. All these features are pointing to the fact that the bourgeoisie and its conscience can no longer operate within the confines of the old way; it must push the society down to the lowest level.
Contemporary Marxist-Leninist Thought
Within these circumstances, comrades, to come up with the cudgel of the polemic against bourgeois conscience in my estimation will till the soil for the advance of revolution. When one wages struggle against bourgeois conscience, then, ipso facto, one's own conscience comes in the way and this is where the work of Frederick Engels and Karl Marx has great meaning.
Not a few people in this society, who have not yet sunk into complete solipsism, believe that only they matter and that the settling of scores with the old conscience is merely a question of better understanding. This reveals how broad this fight against bourgeois conscience has become. It is first a broad fight on the question of Marxism itself, on the question of the development of Contemporary Marxist-Leninist Thought.
At any new turn in history, there arise new tasks. We are passing through a new turn and new tasks have appeared. To carry out new tasks one needs new revolutionary theory so to speak. In other words, our revolutionary theory needs to be renovated. All the enemies of Marxism use the occasion of this new turn of history to assault Marxism, to take away its revolutionary character. They justify this under the hoax that this is what is meant and required by a new turn of history. This assault on Marxism has been done and is being done precisely by various forces who call themselves Marxists. Comrades, the defence of Contemporary Marxist-Leninist Thought is the key point in settling scores with the bourgeois conscience, in waging polemics. In defending Marxism, CPC(M-L) provides all its organizing work with an unshakeable anchor around which new forces can coalesce, new forces can unite, and the vanguard of the working class can be solidified.
Not a few people from across the country these days write to us seeking to join the Party. One or two letters a week and telephone calls from various places asking to join is not a small matter. But when they come around, what will they join? Will they join those who have abandoned any pretence of anything revolutionary, anything positive, anything progressive? But once this polemic begins we will say to them, "Here, join this polemic. By joining this polemic you are already in a better position than all this muck." Through the polemic, we will get them into organizing because anybody who joins a polemic necessarily raises the banner of organizing, of revolution. This is what we learn from the work of Frederick Engels. In all his writings, Engels was an arbiter, an authority of what was most revolutionary, most scientific, most useful for the working class at that time.
Many people wrote to Engels and in his reply he set them right. He never missed an opportunity to point out where they were wrong, what they should do. From his period, we had an organization in the Second International that became the arbiter, the revolutionary authority until it betrayed the communist and working class movement. Then we had the Third International that became the arbiter and authority until it had to be disbanded. Then we had various personalities being put forward as arbiters.
Who do you think is the arbiter in 1995 if not our polemic? Those who do not want to join communism will be aloof, will be outside; they will not join the polemic, nay more, they will become the target of the polemic.
The polemic in the past has been reserved for purging the revisionist and opportunist elements from the communist movement. The target of this polemic is the bourgeoisie and all its agencies, wherever and whoever they are. The Party is opening up its recruiting office and objective criteria will develop of where one stands in life. Up to this point comrades, we have carried out dutifully the behest of Lenin and Stalin, the line of march of the Third International and revolutionary communist movement that emerged out of the Great October Revolution. But those times are gone, they are past.
CPC(M-L) has established a general line for this period. This was accomplished and announced one year ago. Now within one year, to advance to the point of the polemic in my estimation is great progress. Of course the conditions are extremely difficult, especially as the polemic begins because the key thing with a polemic is that it is understood as an attack, even when that is not the intention.
I remember writing some articles in the late 1970s and receiving a message from the United States asking why we were attacking them. Those articles were not intended to attack anybody in the United States or anywhere else but as the saying goes, "if the shoe fits." This polemic is going to fit many feet, especially in Canada where hypocrisy, smugness, self-satisfaction, treachery, lying, cheating and dishonesty are the order of the day.
Prime Minister Chrétien says that Canada is the best country in the world and that Canadians are the most fortunate people. Why would they give up this great gift of imperialism? The Canadian ruling elite can steal and lie through their teeth anywhere in the world; they can be caught committing crimes against most anyone; they can join this and that International Commission and spy against Vietnam and others; they can commit perfidy through diplomatic channels in Iran; they can do most anything and present themselves as saints and peacemakers as long as the United States is there to back them up with bombs. That is the kind of security and safety felt by the Canadian bourgeoisie and its hirelings.
A polemic, according to Lenin, shakes everything. You watch; the polemic will get a response. When you are explaining how to organize, only an organizer responds, but with a polemic, every arrogant person, of whom there are more than a few in this world, will respond, only to find out later that the net also fell on them.
Communism is the condition for the complete emancipation of the working class. This communism cannot be cowed down; it cannot be afraid of pinpricks. It must attract the best minds of our era, as it did in the past. It must present to the working class what is best in every sphere. It must open a future for human beings and not for angels. It must create a society that human beings want, not perfection, not some dream world. The society to be created is that which the working class must create for itself, a world where it no longer faces humiliation, degradation and the crimes of the oppressors. The working class must create a society in which humanity does not face wars, disease, poverty and marginalization.
Comrades, on this occasion of the centenary of the death
of Frederick
Engels, the close comrade and friend of Karl Marx, I would like to
declare to
you that this polemic has begun. We are honoured to have you here, to
present
to you this polemic that we will take to the entire working class and
broad
masses of the people on the world scale. In my estimation, it is a
historic
moment. Thank you.
(Originally published in TML Daily, August 16, 1995. Edited for publication in 2010.)
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