|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Communism is the abolition of power of people over people. This means abolishing
"oppression," whether the oppression be of nations by nations,
classes by classes, women by men or any other division in society. Communism
is based on mutual cooperation, peace and justice instead of oppression.
Long-run goals of communism include the abolition of classes and organized society
without governments or borders. Communists believe that as in certain tribal societies
in the past and living still today, it is possible for humyns to organize themselves
without war, crime, starvation and homelessness. When there are social problems,
communists blame those problems on how society is organized. They seek to organize
society to bring out the best in people, however flawed the species may be.
Except in tribal societies, no communist leader* has ever claimed that a society has achieved communism yet. That means the industrial societies of our time have either lived in capitalism or socialism.
Many people have communist intentions, that is, they want to abolish oppression
and claim work towards communism. Because MIM judges political movements
based on their long term effects relative to other real-life movements,
MIM encourages people with communist intentions to study and apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism,
which we believe has proved the most effective path towards communism. MIM
reserves the term "communist" for those who share our views on
the historic attempts in foreign countries to move toward communism and
apply the method of dialectical materialism to current problems. The dividing
line questions for communists involve an understanding of the two largest,
most socialist experiments: China and the Soviet Union. MIM believes communists
must agree on two important questions:
1. The Soviet Union was a state capitalist country. This means that while
the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution set Russia on the course of communism--and
the socialist road was followed under Stalin--the struggle was in the end
lost and the bourgeois restoration in the USSR was evidenced as it adopted
capitalist methods and economy. The same process of bourgeois restoration
happened in China after the death of Mao and the arrest of the so-called
Gang of Four. State capitalism means that the state runs the economy according
to capitalist accounting such as profitability and markets, not human need.
There exists a state class of bureaucrats which controls production, a state
bourgeoisie.
2. The Chinese Cultural Revolution was the farthest historical advance toward
communism. From 1966 to 1976 in China, all of society was placed in a state
of internal revolution, mostly the mobilization of the workers, students
and peasants against the party bureaucracy to make it more accountable to
the masses. It was a restructuring of health care, education, work and cultural
values right down to daily life. This ended in 1976 when the "Gang
of Four", Mao's successors, were arrested in a coup.
Communists in the First World and in oppressed nations within imperialist
borders must agree on a third question:
3. The imperialist nation working classes are not exploited and not revolutionary
at this time. As a labor aristocracy, their interests are opposed to that
of the international proletariat.
In the Third World, this question is important in the struggle to recognize
one's international friends as separate from one's enemies. This question
is not of dividing line importance in the Third World, however.
Finally, communists believe that a communist party--not just ad hoc or individual
organizing--is necessary. MIM accepts people as members who understand and
accept these three positions and who will carry out party discipline on
all other issues. This means upholding the party line in public, democratic
centralism.
People working to end oppression who do not agree with MIM on these three
questions or do not believe in the necessity of a party belong in other
organizations--organizations MIM believes belong to political trends that
are historically proven to be less effective in bringing about the end of
oppression.
MIM expresses general unity with all other groups and outbreaks against
imperialism: mass movements against oppression have as many forms as forms
of power. In this sprit, the party insists on telling people the uncompromised
truth and discusses and criticizes the strategy and tactics of any given
action.
MIM encourages everyone, communist or not, to be involved in the struggle
against imperialism.
*In the last few years of life Stalin said the Soviet Union was building the first stages of communism, but he expected many more to come.
Buy Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's "Communist Manifesto" (1848)