First Published: Workers’ Press, Vol. 3, No. 10, October 1977.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Each year since 1917, the international proletariat celebrates the victory of the October revolution in Russia. This marks the founding of the first workers’ republic and the beginning of the epoch of socialism. Under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, the Soviet Union made great strides forward: the bourgeois state was smashed and a strong proletarian state was built to defend socialism from external and internal enemies; a socialist economy was built to eliminate the material basis of the classes that thrived on exploitation:;’ and material and moral support was given to the international working classes in their struggles against capitalism.
Since 1956, there has been a drastic change in the Soviet Union. The remnants of the old bourgeoisie and newly emerging bourgeois elements were able to seize state power and gradually transform the socialist economy into state monopoly capitalism. These class traitors have revised the principles of Marxism-Leninism. Instead of class struggle they preach class collaboration and theories of ’a state of the whole people’. Now we hear of how the bureaucratic class lives in luxury while the proletariat is exploited and repressed; we read that the Soviet Union is sending arms and mercenary troops to subvert national liberation movements and to gain military bases in Africa and other areas; we see where they are stockpiling weapons and war materials in preparation for imperialist plunder. The Soviet Union is socialist in words and imperialist in deeds.
Both superpowers are the main danger to the working classes and oppressed peoples of the world (see Workers’ Press, V 3, No 6 for a more complete analysis). Whether they are acting in collusion, such as trying to prevent the independence of the peoples of Angola, Eritria, or Ethiopia, or they are in fierce contention, with sabre rattling and war games demonstration of military might in Europe, these two imperialist powers are struggling for hegemony over the world’s markets, raw materials, and countries where they can extract huge super-profits from the sweat and blood of oppressed workers and peasants.
In recent months the contention has stepped up, increasing the danger of world war. The smokescreen of detente cannot hide the aggressive maneuvers of nearly a million troops in Europe by the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact countries and the US-controlled NATO forces. The failure to continue the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) allows both superpowers to scramble ahead with newer, more deadly, and more destructive weapons systems, such as the US’s neutron bomb and pilotless ’buzz bomb’ Cruise missile, and the Soviet Union’s backfire bomber and the SS-20, a long-range multiple warhead missile. In the last issue of Workers’ Press (V 3, 9) we elaborated other aspects of this buildup, especially how it affects the ship-building industry here in the US. We pointed out that while the danger of war is growing, the future is not bleak. We want to re-emphasize Mao’s teaching that either war will give rise to revolution or revolution will prevent war. If we cannot stop the outbreak of imperialist war, then we must turn it into a civil war against our ’own’ bourgeoisie, and fight to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat here in the US!