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Tim Buck hails Soviet Union as living « creation of scientific Marxism

USSR, China,

ONE OF THE MANY import-
ant lessons that the 32 years of
experience of the Soviet people
has provided for all who care to
learn has been in their demon-
Stration of the fact that the de-
_ velopment of society can be plan-
ned.

They have demonstrated that

Social well-being can be continu-

Ously improved to the full extent
of the ability of the given society
to produce. They have demon-

_ Strated that economic crises can

be abolished.

They have demonstrated that
all the people prosper more if no

Man is allowed to profit from an- —

Other’s labor. They have demon-
_Strated that the:gulf between cul-
‘tured and “uncultured”, as be-
tween rich and poor, can be abol-
ished and that society as a whole
becomes richer and better!
through its elimination.

_ Marx and Engels spent inair
lives proving theoretically that
these things were so. They dis-
covered and explained the laws of
social development which make
them possible and by contro] of
which they were achieved..

The knowledge that, as Freder-
ick Engels pointed out 71 years
ago, men can and must advance

“from the realm of necessity into

the realm of freedom”, was the
impelling force that urged Lenin
and Stalin and hundreds of their
comrades to accept firmly the re-
sponsibilities of leadership and to
transform themselves into giants
among mén—workers whose life
work describes one of the great
' progressive turning points in the
development of civilization.

The science that they mastered
and applied, to guide one-sixth of
the earth to a higher! civilization,

els Marxism—the science of econ-
omic and social’ freedom. The les-
Son in these facts alone is con-
elusive. As working men grasp
the full meaning of the dazzling
accomplishments of the Soviet
people and learn that lesson,
there will be a rapid end to cap-
italist exploitation everywhere.

Millions of workers have al-
ready grasped the profound sig-
nificance of the historical example
provided by the Soviet people. For
those worker's there is another
lesson to be recognized and ab-
sorbed in the manner and method
by which Lenin and Stalin have
always and systematically united
theory and practice in an active
living process of development.

Lenin and Stalin and the Bol-
shevik party they led approached
the transformation of
from one of rapacious exploita-
tion, inequality , and wars, to a
society of economically free and
socially equal men and women liv-
ing in peace, as a task to be ac-
complished. AS a necessary part
of this task, Lenin transformed
the popular understanding of
Marxism by reviving the real, the
vital, content of the teachings of |
Marx. and Engels. a ,

THE TASK IS TO
‘CHANGE THE WORLD >

A GENERATION of right-wing
social democrats has systematical-
ly distorted Marxism. They had
‘emphasized the “philosophical” as-
pect of the teachings, of Marx and
gave to them the appearance of
being simply an explanation of
the contradictions of capitalism
and of social processes which ©

- \would eventually bring set its’
breakdown.

hey 8 ignored Marx’ emphasis
upon, the importance of the sub-
jective role of the worker's and

| their Communist party as the de-

cisive factor in the establishment

of socialism. Not only did- they

ignore that seraphasis put Karl

society _

Kautsky, the official “authority on
Marxism” in the German Social
Democratic party, © deliberately
suppressed the most vital parts of
the now famous preface, written
by. Engels shortly before his
death, to Mar’ study of “Class
Struggle in France.”

Lenin ripped the pseudo-Marx-

ism of the right-wing social demo-

crats to shreds. Against their
false, reformist pretenses at “mod-
ernizing” Marxism, he brought
before the workers what Marx
and Engels. rally said. Against
their misrepresentation of Marx-
ism as simply a system of philo-

sophical explanations, Lenin
aU UUM
: ss e

By TIM BUCK

SU

\

showed the working class move-

ment that its full vital content,

the spirit of Marxism, corresponds
fully and exactly with Marx’ fam-
ous declaration:.

different ways, the task, though,
is to change it.”

TO CHANGE THE WORLD:
that was the task that Lenin saw
clearly before the working class.

As he emphasized over and ovell

again, the supreme significance of
the great Russian Revolution lay
in the fact that it was the begin-
ning of the accomplishment of
that great historic task.

One ‘cannot read the “works
through whieh Lenin stimulated
the revival of the study of Marx-
ism without recognizing the truth
of his thesis that “without a revo-
lutionary theory there can be no
revolutionary party.” Neither can
one read them without becoming
gripped by his sense of stern re-

_ sponsibility in the struggle for the

purity of Marxist theoretical con-
cepts and against any tendency to
allow formulations to become con-
sidered as a dogma. :

Lenin and Stalin and the Bol-
shevik party that they built mas-
tered completely the warning of

Frederick Engels that Marxist

theory is not a dogma ‘put a ‘guide
to action. That is. the source of
their tremendous contributions to

Marxist theory equally as it is the ©

source of their triumph in making

the overthrow of czarism the be-.

ginning of the socialist transfor-

mation of the whole world. ‘

HISTORY PROVES
LENIN’S TH EORY

TT WAS their insistence upon
undeviating - application of Marx-
ism without permitting any fort
mulation to become dogma that
enabled the Bolsheviks. to recog-
nize the fundamental character-

istics of the epoch in which we

live! can

New Demociaci

“Philosophers ~
. have only explained the world in

_By unremitting study of mono-
poly-capitalism in the light of the
laws of motion of capitalist so-
ciety discovered by Marx, Lenin
showed that imperialism is the
highest stage to which capitalism
can develop, and therefore its fi-
nal stage.

His research into the funda-
mental characteristics of imperial-
ism enabled him to discover the
law of uneven economic and poli-
tical development under capital-
ism and to formulate a new theory
of the development of the socialist
revolution.

The effect upon the history of
the modern world of that change
introduced by Lenin into the ap-

plication of Marxism, has been so.

profound that\it alone will stand
for all time as adequate proof of
_ the importance of a tireless strug-
gle for correct theory.
Until then the social democratic
“theoreticians”, ignoring the revo-
» lutionary changes that had taken
place since Marx and Engels made
their studies, always insisted that
the socialist transformation of the
world would have to start in the
strongest and most highly indust-
rialized capitalist countries.
Lenin reversed that. He showed,
and proved, that the path to so-
cialism lay through working class
victory in the country or countries
where capitalism is weakest.

That was the concept flowing -

clearly from strict adherence to
Marx, using Marxism as a guide
to action, that enabled the work-
ing class “of all the Russias”, in
alliance with the peasantry, to
take over state POWweNs on Novem-
ber 7, 1917.

‘That was the brilliant concept
which enabled Lenin to declare,
swith confidence based upon knowl-
edge, to the delegates assembled
in the Petrograd Soviet that even-
ing: “Comrades, we will now me.
ceed to the building of socialism.”

STALIN EXPOSED —
FALSE THEORIES

THE IDEA that socialism could

be built in one country was an-

other challenge to the static con-
cepts that had been cultivated by
the right wing social democrats.
It expressed to the full the signi-
ficance of the systematic insist-

ence of both Marx.and Engels that |

the task of the working class is to
change the world, not merely to
explain it, andthe function of
Marxism*is that of a guide to ac-

tion, not a theoretical straitjacket. °

- Had the Soviet people accepted
the theory put forward by Trot-
sky ad his fellow pseudo-Marx-
ists, that socialism couldn’t be
‘built in one country, that it could

be brought into being only if and ;
when it was “established” in sev-

eral highly industrialized coun-
tries simultaneously, the Soviet
Union would not be in existence
today.

Hitler’s panzer divisions ould
have trampled its people, their
farms and their simple commod-
ity production underfoot. Fascism

would be. supreme over all Europe :

and a large part of the rest of the
world. The working class move-
“ment would have to start to strug-
gle for socialism all over again,
friom the very beginning.
\ Fortunately for the world’s
working class, and for all demo-
cratic people, the Soviet people
did not accept that false theory.
- Comrade Stalin won the major-

> ity of the Bolshevik party and the

majority of the. people of the So-
“viet Union to the correct Marxist
concept ‘that “men make their

own history but they do not make’
cloth, they.

it from the whole
make it from the sects that
lies at hand.”

wn

Ag Stalin emphasized again and
agein, history confronted them
with the necessity of building so-
cialism. The material at hand was
a sixth of the land surface of the
earth and 170 million united peo-
ple. And Stalin déclared, “People
decide everything.”

Through Stalin’s brilliant strug-
gle for correct theory the Soviet
people became stirred and inspir-
ed by the challenge of the great
historic task of building socialism.
They transformed their country
while developing themselves so
that Hitler’s panzer
were shattered against the un-
breakable morale and elan of
mankind’s first socialist society.

NEW DEMOCRACIES
BEAR OUT STRUGGLE

THE VITAL importance of the
uncompromising struggle fo1 the
correctness of theoretical analysis
is illustrated, not only by the ex-
perience of the USSR, but by the
New Democraties also.

The theoretical analysis out of
which flowed the merging of
their nationa] liberation war
against Hitler with the struggle
for people’s democracy was fought
for and. established in the great
struggle over policy which culmin-
ated in the historical “turn” made
in the tactical line of the Com-
munist International under the
leadership of Comrade Dimitrov
in 1935.

It is illustrated even more strik-
ingly in the world-changing vic-
tories being won by the people of
China. Looking back to 1929 and
the anti-Leninist theories which
dominated thg thinking of the
leaders of the Canton commune,
one cannot but be impressed with
the fact that the decisive turning
point in the history of the strug-
gle for people’s democracy in Ghi-
na, was the turn made when the
party leadership there finally de-
feated the supporters of Leon
Trotsky who were taking the par
ty into the swamp of petty bour-
geois adventurism.

divisions

es prove fight for theory

A comrade remarked to’ me
some days ago, “History has cer-
tainly refuted Trotsky in: China.”
The remark was true but it miss-
ed the point. History is taking its
present course of victorious demo-
cratic advance. only because the
majority of the Chinese party re-
cognized the correctness of Stal-
in’s Marxist-Leninist analysis of
class relationship in China and
their economic basis.

Comrade Mao Tse-tung, who has
made such brilliant contributions
to Marxism-Leninism, made his
first contribution when -he took up
the fight against the false, anti-

Leninist theories and proposals ©

propagated by Leon Trotsky con-
cerning the path of the Chinese
revolution,

Only the correct application of
Marxism-Leninism led to victories
which have extended the new de-
mocracy to one-third of al] man-
kind,

Dorothy Thompson raves that
the .American imperialists are
making a mess of their world
plan.by comparison with the So-
viet leaders because, she says, “the
Russians haye the power of analy-
sis.” For her statement to have
been fully correct she would have
to say: “... the power of Marxist
analysis.” The power of Commun-
ist analysis derives from the fact
that it is guided by a scientific
theory. As Lenin wrote

many
years ago: “The teachings of
Marx are all-powerful because

they are true.”

On this 32nd anniversary of the
great Russian Revolution let us
deepen our understanding of the
vital role that the fight for theory
has played in the triumphant
achievements of the Soviet peo-
ple. And, also, let us emphasize

their example to us that an un- —

compromising fight for correct
theory is the indispensable start-
ing point for an _ unflinching
struggle to carry correct policies

through. °

To paraphrase the words that
Stalin made famous: “Once the
correct policy is- decided upon,
people decide everything.”

SOVIET UNION
CHINA
POLAND

t

“Seven Hundred Million
March to Socialism”

CZECHOSLOVAKIA
HUNGARY |
BULGARIA

RUMANIA
ALBANIA

Ventne the basi aa of World Peace’

NIGEL MORGAN
ALF DEWHURST

1917\- 1949 coneeer CELEBRATION

Monday, Nov. 7 -8 P.M.
PENDER AUDITORIUM

“STRETCH OUT THE HAND OF FRIENDSHIP”

Auspices: Labor-Progresstve Party, Vancouver

‘PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 4, 1949 — PAGE 11 _

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