January 20, 2024
Today, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the death of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (January 21, 1924), we, the Communist and Workers’ parties participating in the ECA, turn to the grandiose figure of this brilliant thinker and revolutionary.
His contribution to the cause of the working class and the other popular strata, the struggle for the abolition of exploitation and the construction of the socialist–communist society is enormous.
It is not surprising that Lenin is constantly the target of bourgeois propaganda.
Analyzing the state of the social structure at the beginning of the 21st century and understanding the acuteness of the current political moment:
– We emphasize the greatness of the human feat of V. I. Lenin as the leader of the victorious Great October Socialist Revolution, which marked a new stage in the history of mankind, overthrowing the exploitative society in Russia and inspiring the masses of people in many countries of the world to revolutionary struggle; as the creator of the world’s first state of the dictatorship of proletariat, in the service of the needs of the many, the exploited and oppressed, of workers’ power, of the socialization of the means of production, of central planning, which led to unprecedented achievements in the socio-economic life within a historically record time frame. Therefore, the superiority of socialism over capitalism was demonstrated by safeguarding the right to work, providing safe and dignified life to the workers, achieving a high level of education and granting access to the wealth of world culture. Socialism introduced a new type of human relations based not on subordination and competition, but on cooperation and mutual assistance in the process of joint creative transformation of the reality. The USSR was the peoples’ support in the struggle for socialism and peace.
– We are convinced that Lenin’s extensive theoretical legacy and his lessons in political practice and party building are a further development of Marxist theory, have an enduring value and make the basis for the ideological and political education and activities of each new generation of revolutionaries around the world.
– We remain committed to the methodology of the materialist–dialectical analysis of contemporary society, developed by Lenin in continuation of the Marxist methodology; to the characterization of the highest stage of development of capitalism —imperialism with its basic features— as the eve of the socialist revolution, which was formulated, first of all, in the work “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism”. History has proved the correctness of Lenin’s scientific conclusions. Despite the individual changes that imperialism has undergone since the writing of this work, it has not changed its exploitative nature: it continues to be monopoly capitalism, capitalism in its most reactionary era, which is ruled by the law of extracting maximum profit based on increasing the exploitation of hired labor; the gap between rich and poor is growing (today 50% of the world’s population receive on average 8% of the world’s income, while the richest 10% receive 52%, according to the World Inequality Report – 2022); it continues to mercilessly exploit the earth’s natural resources; it regularly generates small and large-scale wars (49 since the beginning of the 21st century alone) which cause huge troubles for the peoples of the world.
– We are guided by the Lenin’s teaching on party construction; that only a party of a new, vanguard type is capable of meeting the needs of the class struggle, leading the proletarian masses, ensuring the beginning of the socialist revolution, and developing the socialist construction of a new society. The high-level authority of the Bolshevik party was confirmed at the construction sites of industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture, in the fight against the fascist plague, given rise to by capitalism.
– We insist on the need to follow Lenin’s directions on the issue of imperialist war, without which it is difficult to understand the causes, driving forces and essence of the military conflict taking place in many regions of our world and first of all on the territory of Ukraine. In his dozens of works e.g. “On the Slogan of the United States of Europe”, “Socialism and War”, “The Issue of Peace”, “Under a Foreign Flag” and others devoted to the analysis of war in the era of imperialism, V. I. Lenin states, “The struggle for markets and plunder of foreign countries, the desire to stop the revolutionary movement of the proletariat and democracy within countries, the desire to deceive, divide and kill the proletarians of all countries by pitting the wage slaves of one nation against the wage slaves of another for the benefit of the bourgeoisie is the only real content and significance of the war”. Today, Lenin’s directions on the issue of imperialist war, which are based on proletarian internationalism, are more relevant than ever.
– We warn about the danger of imperialist plans and competition in the region of the Middle East and the Red Sea as well as the threat that the imperialist war unleashed in 2022 on the territory of Ukraine and is waged between the bourgeoisie of Ukraine ,with the support of the USA–NATO–EU, and the bourgeoisie of Russia with the involvement of China etc., may be generalized and cause bloodshed in other countries, and due to nuclear weapons may lead humanity to a global disaster.
The ECA struggles against imperialist war, for the disengagement of our countries from imperialist plans and organizations. The solution for the peoples does not lie in the illusions fostered by bourgeois powers that there could be another, ‘better security architecture’, or NATO ‘without military plans and offensive weapons systems on its territories’, or a ‘pro-peace EU, or a ‘peaceful multipolar world’. The solution lies in strengthening the class struggle for disengagement from imperialist unions, against imperialist war and the womb that gives birth to it, that is, the capitalist system.
We are publishing this Statement on the centenary of the death of V. I. Lenin, not only to pay tribute to the leader of the world proletariat and to honour his memory, but also to call on all working people, the Communist and Workers’ parties in Europe and around the world, to follow the path of their historical perspective; to study more deeply the revolutionary theory, which is the guide of revolutionary action; to study communism; to study the multifaceted experience of the 3rd Communist International, whose initiator was Lenin, and strengthen their independent line that has nothing to do with all bourgeois and imperialist plans, against the bourgeois nationalist and chauvinist tendencies, as well as the cosmopolitanism of capital; to struggle against opportunism and parliamentary illusions; to contribute to the formulation of a contemporary revolutionary strategy – that is, to conform to the spirit of Leninism, to defend and continue the work of V. I. Lenin in the 21st century.
