Showing 1198 results

deteriorating mental and cultural life, and between the popular masses' growing desire for independence and their worsening political life. In order to eliminate this inequality and imbalance and achieve harmonious development in all the material, mental and cultural and political aspects of life of the working masses, one must follow the path of socialism. However, because of their class nature, the imperialists are not only unwilling to break with capitalism but also getting more and more reactionary, contrary to man's inherent desire for independence. As inequality and imbalance, as well as the reactionary nature and anti-popular character of imperialism, are now growing in capitalist society, the contradiction between the masses of the people, who desire to live and develop independently, and the capitalist class is becoming more serious, and capitalism is precipitating itself into ruin. Contemporary imperialism is in a dilemma internally and externally, and is making frantic efforts to free itself from the daily aggravating, catastrophic crisis. The US imperialists and the international reactionaries are concentrating the spearhead of their attack on the socialist countries, which are the bulwark of peace and progress, and are brazenly attempting to stamp out the struggle of the progressive people of the world who desire Chajusong. As the leader has said, the imperialists are now dancing around wielding a nuclear weapon in one hand and a purse in the other. The schemes of the imperialists are becoming ever more vicious and crafty as they try to bring the people of the socialist countries and other progressive people throughout the world to their knees by threatening and blackmailing them militarily, bribing and subordinating them economi- cally and disrupting them ideologically and culturally. 11

Whenever imperialism faces a crisis, its reactionary and aggressive nature increases and it makes desperate efforts to maintain its existence. The frenzied efforts of the imperialists are not an expression of their strength; they reveal their vulnerability. The more reactionary the imperialists become and the more frenzied are the efforts they make, the more the people will be awakened to revolutionary awareness, and the day of the collapse of imperialism will draw nearer. It is an indisputable fact that the end of contemporary imperialism is nigh, and it is historically inevitable that imperialism will perish and socialism triumph. However, imperialism will not fall of its own accord. It can be defeated only by the revolutionary struggle of the working masses led by the working class. Building up the subject of the revolution is decisive in destroying imperialism and winning victory in the revolution. In particular, it is important to strengthen the working-class party, the vanguard detachment of the revolution, and to enhance its role. If we are to strengthen the revolutionary forces we must correctly analyse and appraise the changes that have taken place in social and class composition. Since the end of the second world war social and class composition in the capitalist countries has undergone a great change. As the mechanization and automation of production has been promoted with the advance of technology in the developed capitalist countries, so the number of people who engage in physical labour has been considerably reduced, whereas the number of those who do technical and mental labour has increased rapidly and they have become the overwhelming majority of the working people. It is a law that as society progresses, so the technical and 12

cultural standard of the workers improves and the number of intellectuals increases. Certainly, it is true that the rapid growth in the number of intellectuals greatly influences the working people towards petit bourgeois ideology. Particularly in a capitalist society where systematic revolutionary education is impossible, it is unavoidable that many intellectuals are tainted with bour- geois and petit bourgeois ideas. Therefore, it is difficult to win them over to the revolution. But we cannot say that the change in social and class composition has weakened the social and class basis of the Communist and Workers' Parties or created unfavourable conditions for the socialist revolu- tion. Neither the working people engaged in technical labour nor those in mental labour are owners of the means of production. There are some differences between them and physical labourers in their technical and cultural levels and in their working conditions, but there is an essential community between them in that they are all employed and paid by capitalists. Today the number of working people—the conventional working masses plus the newly-emerged technical and mental labourers—employed by the capitalists accounts for 80 to 90 per cent of the working populations in the developed capitalist countries. This shows that the social and class basis of the Communist and Workers' Parties has, far from being weakened, actually been strengthened. The point at issue is how the Communist and Workers' Parties should conduct political work to make the broad working masses revolutionary and win them over, to suit the change in social and class composition. The working masses do not take part in the revolution spontaneously. Even the working class can work for the 13

revolution only when they have acquired class awareness. Awakening the working class and other working masses to revolutionary consciousness is all the more urgent at the moment. The working class of today cannot simply be identified with the proletariat of the past. Needless to say, the working class in socialist society is not proletarian, but even the working class in the developed capitalist countries is also different from the proletariat who, according to the classics of the previous age, had nothing to lose but their chains. Property status is not the only factor that prompts a man to take up the revolutionary cause. We should not say that a man is impelled to revolution only by hunger and poverty. An independent man's basic desire is to be the master of his own destiny, the master of the state and society. As the leader has said, there will always be resistance where Chajusong is trampled upon, and a rev- olutionary struggle where there is resistance. The intellectuals in our country before it was liberated from Japanese-imperialist rule received better treatment than the ordinary workers and were comparatively well-to-do. However, their attitude towards imperialism was revo- lutionary because they suffered national discrimination as colonial intellectuals. Even though the standard of living of the technical and mental workers in the developed capitalist countries has risen, they are ill-disposed towards the capitalist system and desire an independent life, free from the rule of capital, because they still suffer capitalist exploitation and oppression. Their desire for an independent life means that they aspire to socialism. As a matter of fact, most of the intellectuals in capitalist countries sympathized with socialism at one time. Their failure to continue to fight for socialism was due to the lack of proper 14

ideological education and leadership rather than to limi- tations to their social and class positions. The party of the working class is always the principal factor in making the working masses revolutionary and winning them over. Unless the party is strengthened ideologi- cally and organizationally and party work methods improved to accord with the actual situation, it is impossible to lead the masses to become class-conscious and organized, unite them behind the party and strengthen the revolutionary forces. Expecting success in the revolution without giving precedence to the work of building up the subject of the revolution by strengthening the party and rallying the masses behind it, would be as stupid as wishing to gather fruit without tending a tree. If it is to be strengthened, the party must, above all.else, develop itself on the principle of guaranteeing its monolithic ideology and leadership and acquire a new guiding ideology and theory that enables it to strike its roots deep among the broad masses, including the intellectuals, and lead them to revolution. The revolutionary theory is not a dogma, but a guide to action. The party must develop its revolutionary theory and improve its work method steadily to suit the changes in the situation, based on the principle of the independent position and decisive role of the popular masses. This is the way to make the broad sections of the masses revolutionary, win them over and lead the revolution to make a new upsurge. We must have a clear understanding of the true nature of modern imperialism, which is blustering and making des- perate efforts before its doom, and must hold the conviction that its downfall is inevitable. Only then can we maintain an unshakable revolutionary stand with a firm confidence in and 15

optimism about victory in the revolution. In order to assess today's revolutionary situation ac- curately and adhere to the revolutionary stand, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the superiority of socialism and its inevitable triumph. We must see historical development since the second world war as the history of victorious socialism. The defeat of fascist Germany and Japanese imperialism and the victory of the Soviet Union in the second world war meant the great victory of socialism and dealt a fatal blow to imperialism. As a result of this war, many new socialist countries emerged in Europe and Asia, and socialism has developed to become a worldwide system. Today many countries of Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa are advan- cing towards socialism. The magnetism of socialism has grown stronger than ever, and socialism has become a bea- con of hope for the progressive people throughout the world. Of course, the development of socialism has not been smooth. The birth of the new and its victory are always attended by difficulties. Socialist countries had to overcome a series of difficulties because they were beating an untrodden path. The transition from capitalism to socialism is the most deepgoing social transformation in the history of mankind. Socialism has to pave the way for its own development through an arduous and protracted struggle to sweep away all the rubbish that has been accumulated over thousands of years. In particular, because imperialism remains in the world, the struggle for the victory of socialism involves a 16

fierce and complicated struggle against the enemies at home and abroad. Originally, the socialist countries took over backward economies and technology, but they were unable to con- centrate their efforts on economic construction from the first. The working class which had taken power was faced with the urgent task of effecting a thoroughgoing social change—the abolition of the old exploiting system and the establishment of a new socialist system—and of safeguarding the revolution against a counterrevolution. For instance, the Soviet Union, the first socialist country, had to wage a difficult and complicated struggle, in capitalist encirclement, to ensure the victory of the socialist system and shortly afterwards, shoul- dered a heavy burden in the second world war. In the postwar period, too, the Soviet Union had to put great efforts into defence construction to safeguard socialism against the cold war policy of the imperialists. The people of socialist coun- tries had to build socialism and defend the revolution while countering the military threat and economic blockade of the imperialists, and, at the same time, make great efforts to support the revolutionary movement in the world and the struggle of the progressive people of the world to build a new society. Considering these factors, we can say that the successes achieved by socialist countries in economic construction are tremendous, not to mention the achievements in the political, ideological and cultural fields. In a period of a little over half a century, since the first socialist country emerged, socialist countries have made greater economic, scientific and tech- nological progress than capitalist countries have done in hundreds of years. In addition they have laid solid founda- tions for progressing even more rapidly in the future. 17

Historical experience has already proved unequivocally that socialism is superior beyond compare to capitalism and has unconquerable vitality. There is a great gulf between life under socialism, where the masses of the people equally enjoy independent and creative activities to the full as masters of the state and society, and that under capitalism, where people become the slaves of money and seek only their own pleasure. A man whose mind has been paralysed by capitalist ideology cannot see the difference. It is obvious, when socialism strikes root deeper in the future and the remnants of the old society have been eradicated and so the political and ideological unity and the creative power of the people become stronger, that the socialist system will demonstrate its advantages more clearly and that in the near future socialist countries will outstrip the developed capitalist countries by far even economically and technologically. Of course, we cannot say that so far socialist countries have brought the superiority of the socialist system fully into play. Frankly speaking, they have deviated sometimes to the- Right and sometimes to the "Left" in managing the new social system. Deviations occurred in the process of establishing the socialist system, but in particular, grave mistakes were made in finding answers to new problems as to how the revolution and construction should be promoted after the establishment of the socialist system. A series of serious deviations were also made in dealing with the mutual relations between the socialist countries which carry on the revolution and con- struction in different historic conditions. All this has tar- nished the image of socialism. 18 f t f f t C w o fr h it sc

These deviations have nothing to do with the intrinsic nature of the socialist system. They are due totally to the fact that those who administer the socialist system are not experienced and fully prepared politically and ideologically. The struggle between socialism and capitalism is the struggle between the new and the old. That the new emerges victorious and the old perishes is an immutable law of historical development. This law will never change, though the victory of the new may be attained only after experiencing twists and turns. The development of the history of mankind is the process of realizing Chajusong for the masses of the people, the subject of history. A new thing is that which contributes to realizing Chajusong for the masses in the course of historical development; an old thing is that which, on the contrary, restrains the realization of Chajusong for the masses. Capitalism was a new system compared with feudalism when it abolished the feudal caste system and realized bourgeois freedom and equality. However, it became an old one which ran counter to the development of history by trampling upon the masses' desire for independence, the desire to become fully-fledged masters of society, free from not only feudal fetters but also capitalist exploitation and oppression. Just as there can be no capitalist who does not seek profits, so there can be no capitalism that does not exploit and oppress the working masses. The path of socialism is the only way to satisfy the desire of the masses to become real masters of the state and society, free from exploitation and oppression. Capitalism, no matter how it may be beautified and embellished, cannot throw off its old form of the exploiting society. It is only in socialist society that the popular masses can hold the position of 19

complete masters in all fields of politics, the economy and culture and play their role as masters. Socialist society is the new society which conforms to the independent character of the masses and the requirements of social development. The old may disguise itself as the new and the dying may temporarily seem to be reviving. However, the old has no future because it is perishing. Revolutionaries must not be misled by passing phenomena but clearly distinguish the new from the old; they must fight for the victory of socialism to the end, convinced that the new will, without fail, emerge victorious. If we are te adhere to the revolutionary stand of the working class and follow the path of socialism to the very end, we must enhance the leadership role of the party to meet the requirements of the development of socialist society in the given period. As socialist construction makes headway in socialist countries, so the material and cultural standard of living of the working class and other working masses rises, their cultural and technical qualifications generally improve and the number of intellectuals grows considerably. As socialism approaches the higher phase of communism, the differences between physical and mental labour diminish and the whole of society becomes intellectual. This accords with the law of social progress. This, however, does not mean that the working-class character of socialist society changes. The process_of change and development-in-socialist society is a process in which class distinctions disappear gradually and the whole of society becomes working-class. In socialist society intellectuals can be regarded as the working class which engages in mental labour. As socialist society makes progress, so the working-class character of this society is not 20