FTIRIBUNE

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

PRODUCED BY USSR EMBASSY PRESS OFFICE > 28

NOVEMBER 16, 1987

Fa a
af

ve

70th Anniversary

of the

Russian Revolution

Capitalism has an alternative,
that alternative is socialism

Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secre-
tary of the CPSU Central Committee,
spoke Nov. 4 at a meeting of represen-
tatives of parties and movements par-
ticipating in the celebration of the 70th
Anniversary of the Great October So-
cialist Revolution. Following is the full
text:

My greetings to you again -- this
time as participants of our meeting,
which is unusual from all points of
view, and reflects the deep changes in
the world today.

I take this opportunity to thank you
for coming, and for taking part in our
celebrations. This is an honour and
support for us.

All of you attended the Festive
Meeting on the 70th Anniversary of the
October Revolution. That relieves me
of the need to speak again of our affairs.
Here, I would like to voice a few ideas
elaborating on what I have said in the
report.

When the mighty revolutionary
wave had receded, Lenin realized ear-
lier than others the whole complexity of
the movement which, it seemed to
many, the goals of the October Revolu-
tion had brought much closer. His new
economic policy changed the idea of
peaceful coexistence (‘‘peaceful co-
habitation’’) from what was initially
purely political, even diplomatic, into
the sphere of the epoch’s fundamental
laws.

Nuclear Era

and Survival

Later, it is true, other notions would
gain ascendancy at times. But now we
have once and for all overcome attempts
to trifle with history, when, at times, we
believed what we wanted to believe
rather than what was.

The specific features in the develop-
ment of the world that had been accu-
mulating and maturing in the postwar
period became clearly visible in the
1980s:

First of all, the nuclear era has
pushed to the forefront the problem of
humanity’s very survival. There is also
the complication of world-wide eco-
nomic ties, the greater interdependence
of all countries and nations, and the
world’s emergence as an integral whole
in a setting of diversity and contradic-
tions. All this is also being stimulated
by the ongoing scientific and technical
revolution.

Finally, there is the exacerbation of
the global problems that are challenging
humanity’s biological ability to adapt to
the dangers, speed and stresses of
modern living.

All this brings out new elements in
the idea of peaceful coexistence, requir-
ing that political movements re-exam-
ine and reconsider their tasks, and over-
come prevailing ideological schemes

and stereotypes.

That is not easy todo. Noone has any
ready-made prescriptions. It is hardly
likely that anyone is holding Ariadne’s
thread, to help find the way out of the
labyrinth of today’s contradictory
world. As we set forth our concepts of
the new way of thinking, we do not in

the least claim a monopoly on the truth.
Weare searching ourselves, and invite
others to look jointly for the ways along
which humanity can cross the mine-
field of our times and emerge into the
21st century, and into a nuclear-free
and non-violent world.

Socialism
Decisive

Certainly, in the historical perspec-
tive, it is socialism (of this we are
convinced) that will make the decisive
contribution to overcoming the critical
elements that have arisen in the onward
march of our civilization. No other
system but socialism has the potential
to effectively influence the search for
that Hegelian ‘‘measure’’, that balance
of interests, which will enable human-
ity to break through toa fundamentally
new frontier, spelling safety for it.
Socialism’s potential has not yet nearly
been fully marshalled.

In substance, a most profound so-
cial revolution is underway, one whose
origins go back to October,1917. But
its long duration, novelty, and lack of
uniformity, the combination and coex-
istence of progressive moves and re-
cessions, the alternation and intercon-
nection of revolutionary and evolu-
tionary processes, make sterile all logi-
cal schemes drawn up by the old manu-
als.

The logic of the social movement of
our epoch is increasingly apparent. Its
substance is the material and spiritual
self-discrediting of exploiting socie-
ties.

Neither the negative moments in

socialism’s history, nor the whole li-
braries of refuters of Marxism, nor the
acuteness and refinement of the ideo-
logical polemics going on in the world,
have been able to upset the conclusion
that capitalism has an alternative -- and
that this alternative is socialism.

But the diversity of development

remains. At each successive spiral of
history the forces of the old world are
able to relieve the most dangerous
contradictions of the moment, and thus
protract their rule.

That is what happened, for ex-

ample, when capitalism took advan-
tage of the scientific and technical
revolution. Certainly, the intrinsic
antagonisms of the capitalist system
reproduce themselves at every new
stage, but in a new and different way.

To be sure, the technological revo-
lution is still at its very beginning, and
the main consequences of its uses by
capitalism are still to come. Thorough
theoretical study of this matter is also
only just beginning. The substance of
what is happening within the mode of
production is only just showing behind
the habitual formula about the continu-
ous aggravation of capitalism’s general
crisis, to say nothing of political prog-
nostications.

Revolutionary
Reorganization

The fact that living socialism is so

far trailing behind capitalism in tech-

Continued on next page

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 3, 1987 e S1