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Volume 15, No. 02, 21 January 2016 |
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Red Alert Celebrating the life and times of Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Great October Socialist Revolution"Lenin departed the land of the living on this day, 21 January 1924" |
By Cde Justice Piitso
The world today commemorates the 92nd anniversary of the death of one of the most outstanding revolutionary thinkers in human history, Comrade Vladimir Lenin. We take the opportunity offered by this rare, historic moment to commemorate the living memories of this titanic leader of the international proletariat revolution.
The world's most outstanding genius of the century departed the land of the living on 21 January 1924. It was during this portentous day, that the bulwark army of the proletariat throughout the world, started defining the historical events as after and before his life.
Vladimir Lenin was the finest leader of the world revolutionary movement and the leader of the first Socialist state in the history of mankind. His immense contribution to the struggles of the world proletariat movement will continue to decorate the beautiful chapters of our history books.
Our memories will forever treasure his magnificent contribution to the development of human society.
In the morning of the day following his death, the revolutionary government of the Soviet Russia conveyed the following message of condolences to the people:
"Lenin is no more with us but his cause lives on. Acting on the will of the masses, the Soviet government will carry on the work of Vladimir Lenin and will advance along the path charted by him. The Soviet state stands firmly at its post, on guard over the gains of the proletariat revolution".
The following day, the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, conveyed a message of condolences enumerating his selfless and historic leadership role in the party, the country and the whole of the progressive world of humanity.
The message of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party read:
"Never since Marx has the history of the great liberation movement of the proletariat produced such a titanic figure as our departed leader, teacher and friend. All what is truly great and heroic is his proletariat fearless mind, a will of iron, unbending, persistent and able to surmount all obstacles, an undying hatred of slavery and oppression, a revolutionary passion that moves mountains. All this found splendid embodiment in Lenin, whom his name has become the symbol of the new world from the East to the West and from the North to the South.
"But his physical death is not the death of his cause. Lenin lives on in the heart of every member of our party. Every member of our party is part of Lenin. The whole of the Communist party is the embodiment of Lenin. The death of our teacher, a heavy blow, will unite the ranks of our party even more closely.
We are marching against capital in a solid militant chain and no force on earth will be able to prevent our ultimate victory. The victory will be the finest monument to Comrade Lenin, the man whom, as their best friend, the masses call their Ilyich".
On the day of his funeral, the international proletariat declared a five minutes work stoppage. This was the most humbled way the working people of the world expressed their inner most loss to their teacher, their best friend and leader.
Lenin will forever live in the hearts and minds of the coming generations of man to be the most extraordinary revolutionary of the world Communist movement. His revolutionary ideas and teachings shall forever have great impetus on the spheres of the development of human society.
His embodiment to the struggles of humanity remains to be a treasure storehouse to the history of the working class throughout the world. After 92 years of his death, he remains the martyr of the oppressed and the exploited.
His contribution to the development of Marxism as a scientific revolutionary theory for transformation of society remains colossal. His immortal works remain an inexhaustible fountain of great ideas to steer society into the realities of the present world material conditions.
Lenin developed Marxism to the next level into the new historical period of the epoch of imperialism. His theoretical formulation of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, remains to be of a profound historical significance.
Lenin understood well that for humanity to transcend into the new epoch of development, the victorious epoch of the world of socialism, the working class has the political necessity to form a vanguard revolutionary party. The party of the most advanced elements and a political leader of the entire society.
The task of such a vanguard party is to lead the present stage of the worldwide transition from capitalism to socialism. Its supreme goal is to construct the ultimate Communist society on whose banner will be inscribed" from each according to his ability, and each according to his needs".
In his own country, the Bolshevik party led by himself, became the vanguard of the working class. The party that inspired and led the first socialist revolution which ushered in the first workers and peasant republic in history.
Lenin defined the new stage of the development of human society to be the new epoch of imperialism, the epoch wherein the world economy and politics are under the hegemony of international finance capital. His appeal to all communists was for them understand the unfolding world realities on the basis of our revolutionary scientific theory.
He was firmly convinced that a revolutionary party can base itself only upon an international programme corresponding to the character of a particular historical epoch. His understanding was that the party is an amalgam of the common feature of the international balance of forces.
He believed that the programme of the Communist movement must proceed directly from the analysis of the conditions of the world economy and the world political system taken as a whole. His theoretical thesis was that monopoly capital necessarily assumes a nationalist posture in its form and an internationalist character in its appearance.
The anniversary celebrations of the life and times of Vladimir Lenin is taking place against the backdrop of momentous events of great political significant in our country and the whole world. Importantly, it is taking place a year before the centenary anniversary celebrations of the victorious great October Socialist revolution.
The historic memories of the great October Socialist revolution continue to be the guiding torch of the struggles of the working class into the future. The great October revolution continues to be a flame that illuminates international working class solidarity and internationalism.
Leninism is Marxism during the epoch of imperialism. Its political significance was to smash the chains of oppression in the former colonies and semi colonies. This greatly contributed to the emancipation of the oppressed nations of the world to have the right to self determination.
One of the hallmarks of the strategy and tactics of the Bolshevik party was its ability to define the relationship between the Communist international and revolutionary nationalist movements in the oppressed countries dominated by the capitalist imperialism.
The Communist international was able to give a profound analysis of the conditions confronting progressive nationalist movements and how they should broaden their struggles to the overall struggles waged by the world revolutionary movement against imperialism and colonialism.
As a result the Communist international instructed all Communist parties of the world to establish relationships with revolutionary national liberation movements in the colonies and semi colonies. They were instructed to work side by side by providing moral and material support to the embryonic national liberation movements in the colonies and semi colonies.
This dialectical relationship between the Communist international and national liberation movements, in our own specific South African conditions, led the Communist international to call for the creation of an independent native republic, which would be the first stage towards a workers and peasant republic, with full, equal rights to all races.
The slogan for the creation of an independent native republic became a foundation of hope upon which the oppressed people of our country forged their struggle against capitalist exploitation and imperialist domination, but also from racial discrimination. This was the theoretical basis upon which our revolutionary alliance understood the contradictions of the national, class and gender questions in our society.
Today we remember the living memories of Lenin against the backdrop of a growing offensive by counter revolutionary forces from both within and outside the ranks of our national liberation movement. Counter revolution is determined to undermine the objectives of our national democratic revolution.
More than ever before, it is becoming evident, that the forces of neo colonialism are collaborating with some from our own ranks to turn our democratic state into a kleptocracy. The biggest peril facing our revolution are the forces of reaction which seek to turn our hard won democratic republic into a lumpen state.
In his memory, the South African working class must defeat the growing danger of our country leading to a failed African state. Ours is to defeat the agenda of counter revolution to turn our country into a paragon of corruption.
Societies with growing features of corruption are at a turning point of counter revolution. The only way to safeguard the strategic objectives of our national democratic revolution is to combat the growing phenomenon of opportunism from our own ranks.
The mainspring of opportunism emanates from the departure of the culture and traditions of our revolutionary movement. It is in fact a manifestation of the highest form of expression of counter revolution.
Throughout history, the working class movement has been waging irreconcilable struggles against the phenomenon of opportunism. Revolutionaries have always understood the struggle against opportunism to be the struggle for the unity of our revolutionary forces.
In the year 1872, the International Communist League expelled the bunch of opportunists from the faction of Bakunin during its congress at the Hague. Defending the principled decision to expel opportunists from the congress, Frederick Engels had to say the following profound words:
"If the Marxists had adopted an unprincipled and conciliatory attitude towards the divisive activities of the Bakuninists at the Hague, it would have had grave consequences for the international working class movement. The international would indeed have gone to pieces, gone to pieces through unprincipled forms of unity".
In other words the struggle for proletarian unity is inseparably connected with the struggle for our revolutionary principles. Therefore the struggle against opportunism is an ideological weapon for the unity of any revolutionary movement.
Again, after the collapse of the first international, Karl Marx and Engels critiqued the German Social Democratic Party for compromising with opportunists for the sake of unity.
In the Circular Letter written to the German Social Democratic Party in 1879, Karl Marx says the following words:
"For almost forty years, we have stressed the class struggle as the immediate driving power of history, and in particular the class struggle between bourgeoisie and the proletariat as the great lever of the modern social revolution, it is therefore impossible for us to co-operate with people who wish to expunge the class struggle from the movement".
After the death of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Vladimir Lenin had to fight insurmountable struggles against the opportunists of the second international. This faction of the opportunists of the second international was rebuking Marxism to be incomplete and outmoded.
Defending the profundity of the revolutionary theory of Marxism and the Communist movement against the opportunists during the congress of the second international, Lenin stood firmly on the following words, "we take our stand entirely on the Marxist theoretical position, because revolutionary theory unites all socialists".
In the year 1912 when the Bolsheviks expelled the Mensheviks from its own ranks, Vladimir Lenin again expressed the following profound words:
"Unity is a great thing and a great slogan. But what the workers cause needs is the unity of the Marxists, not unity between Marxists, and opponents and distorters of Marxism".
Again in 1919 during the founding congress of the third international, Lenin said the following against opportunism:
"It is impossible to carry out the tasks of socialism at the present time, it is impossible to achieve real international unity of workers, without a determined rapture with opportunists and explaining to the masses of its bankruptcy".
Today we remember the living memories of this great son of the October Socialist revolution, we remember the great teacher of the international, and the great philosopher who raised high the banner of Marxism over the world.
We remember the heroic son of man who led a powerful wave of national liberation revolutions which swept away the colonial system of imperialism throughout the world; a man whose remarkable feats emancipated two thirds of the world population from oppression and exploitation.
We remember Lenin, the master of Marxism, a revolutionary theory which discovered the objective laws of social development and revealed the contradictions inherent in capitalism. We remember our great teacher who confirmed the correctness of Marxist analysis of moribund capitalism as the highest form of imperialism.
LONG LIVE THE GREAT MEMORIES OF CDE VLADIMIR LENIN
Cde Justice Piitso if former Provincial Secretary of the SACP in Limpopo, former Ambassador to Cuba, and writes in personal capacity
Party Congress for bright future of Vietnam
UMSEBENZI ONLINE, VIETNAM FOCUS
The opening ceremony of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) took place in Hanoi on 21 January 2016. The Congress, comprised of 1510 delegates representing for more than 4.5 million party members nationwide, is scheduled to last till 28January 2016.
The Congress is expected to focus on such tasks as building a strong and transparent Party, promoting the strength of the whole nation and democratic socialism, accelerating comprehensive reform, protecting the Motherland and maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, striving to soon fundamentally transform Vietnam into a modern industrialised country. The Congress will also be responsible for appraising the results of 30 years of reform, reviewing the implementation of the 11th Party Congress` Resolution (2011-2015), deciding on the orientations and objectives of the 2016-2020 period, and electing the 12th Party Central Committee for the 2016-2020 tenure.
Thanks to unceasing reform efforts and international economic integration, Vietnam has recorded significant socio-economic development achievements. After posting average growth of 4.4% in the early of reform of 1986 - 1990, in the subsequent periods Vietnam`s economy has seen an impressive growth pace. From 1991-1995, the GDP expanded by an average of 8.2% a year, a two-fold increase compared to that in the previous 5 years. In the 1996-2000 period, despite the negative impacts of the Asian financial crisis, Vietnam`s GDP maintained an annual average growth of 7%. During 2001-2005, it experienced a year-on-year growth of 7.34%. In spite of the international economic recession in 2006-2010, Vietnam continued to record an annual 6.32% GDP growth. During 2011-2015, Vietnam`s growth was hampered by the global financial and public debt crises but still maintained at 5.9%/year, making it one of the best performers in the region and the world. In 2015, the GDP was estimated to have risen by 6.68%, surpassing the set target of 6.2% and showing the economy`s recovery.
Overall, Vietnam`s GDP per capital has seen a nearly five-time increase from US$ 471 in 2003 to US$ 2,300 in 2015 with the economic size of US$ 204 billion. This spectacular growth pace brought Vietnam from one of the world`s poorest to the ranks of middle-income countries in 2010.
The reform efforts over the last 30 years have also created a constantly improved business environment, which in turn helps attract increasing investment capital for national development. Vietnam`s economic structure has been gradually moving in the direction of modernisation with the increase in the share of service and industry. Meanwhile, the realisation of various economic sectors` potential and interweaving ownerships continues to be promoted.
Besides economic development, Vietnam has also attached special attention to and allocated significant resources for poverty alleviation and social development. These firm commitments and efforts have brought about remarkable accomplishments. The proportion of poor households saw a decrease from 58.1% in 1993 to around 9.8% in 2013 with more than 30 million people lifted out of poverty. Especially, at of the end of 2015, the poor household rate has fallen down to under 4.5%. With these results, Vietnam is considered by various countries and international organisations as “a role model” in poverty alleviation. The United Nations has even praised Vietnam as one of the countries with the most striking feat in poverty reduction in the implementation of Millennium Development Goals.
Vietnam`s landscape has also undergone positive changes, thanks to reform policy. Infrastructure development has leapt with the construction of new and important projects, particularly in the transport sector. Simultaneously, many new and modern urban areas have been developed in major cities. The fields of education and training, science and technology, culture and society have also witnessed tremendous progress, contributing to improved social welfare and living standards. With a view to sustainable development, Vietnam has attached great attention to environment protection and climate change adaption. In short, the outlook for the future is promising with socio-political stability and strengthened national defense and security, ensuring the country`s continuing development.
Thirty years of reform has witnessed Vietnam`s journey of deep international integration. From a country isolated politically and embargoed economically, Vietnam has established diplomatic relations with more than 170 nations and trade links with over 200 countries and territories. Moreover, it has participated in most of the international organisations and institutions and signed 11 free trade agreement (FTA), the latest of which was the European Union - Vietnam FTA (EVFTA) inked in late 2015. Most notably, the nation has recently concluded the negotiations with 11 partners for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), marking a new milestone in Vietnam`s rising position and role in the international arena.
In the 12th Party Congress tenure, with Vietnam`s participation in the EVFTA, TPP and ASEAN Community, international experts believe in the rise of the world`s 13th most populated economy to become a bright spot in regional and international economic development. Vietnamese people have high hopes and trust in the Party`s sound policies to guide the nation through difficult times towards continuing and sustainable development.
Umsebenzi Online is an online voice of the South African working class
