ON November 7 this year, we enter the 100th year of the triumph of the October Revolution. This event deeply influenced the course of world history in the 20th century, qualitatively shifting the trajectory of human civilisational advance.  It was an epoch-making event that resoundingly vindicated the creative science of Marxism and its assertion of the inevitable march of human civilisation towards the establishment of a social order free from human exploitation.  In this lies its eternal relevance.

Soon after the death of Karl Marx, in a moving  Preface to the German edition of the Communist Manifesto, in 1883, Frederick Engels notes: “The basic thought running through the Manifesto – that economic production and the structure of society of every historical epoch necessarily arising therefrom constitute the foundation for the political and intellectual history of that epoch; that consequently (ever since the dissolution of the primeval communal ownership of land) all history has been a history of class struggles, of struggles between exploited and exploiting, between dominated and dominating classes at various stages of social development; that this struggle, however, has now reached a stage where the exploited and oppressed class (the proletariat) can no longer emancipate  itself from the class which exploits and oppresses it (the bourgeoisie), without at the same time forever freeing the whole of society from exploitation, oppression and class struggles – this basic thought belongs solely and exclusively to Marx.” (Emphasis added).

This is precisely what the October Revolution achieved:  “….freeing the whole of society from exploitation....”  Naturally, the forces of international reaction pounced upon Marxism denouncing its conclusions as an unrealisable dream.  The Russian Revolution and the subsequent establishment of the Soviet Union validated in an emphatic manner, that Marxism is a creative science based on scientific truth. 

The significance of the October Revolution lies precisely in this: The realisability of an non-exploitative social order which, at the same time, releases human creativity in hitherto unknown dimensions.  The rapid strides made by socialism, the transformation of a once backward economy into a mighty economic and military bulwark confronting imperialism has confirmed the superiority of the socialist system. The building of socialism in the Soviet Union is an epic saga of human endeavour.

The history of the 20th century has, in the main, been determined by the establishment of socialism following the October Revolution.  The decisive role played by the USSR in the defeat of fascism and the consequent emergence of the East European socialist countries had a profound impact on world developments. The victory over fascism in Second World War, achieved mainly due to the decisive role played by the Soviet Red Army, provided the impetus to the process of decolonialisation that saw the liberation of countries from colonial exploitation. The historical triumph of the Chinese Revolution, the heroic Vietnamese people's struggle, the Korean people's struggle and the triumph of the Cuban Revolution made a tremendous influence on world developments.

The achievements of the socialist countries – the eradication of poverty and illiteracy, the elimination of unemployment, the vast network of social security in the fields of education, health, housing, etc – provided a powerful source of confidence and inspiration to the working people all over the world in their struggles.

World capitalism met socialism’s challenge to its order, partly by adopting welfare measures and granting rights that it never conceded to the working people before. The entire conception of a welfare State and the social security network created in the post-second world war capitalist countries was a result of the struggles of the working people in these countries inspired by the achievements of socialism in the USSR. The democratic rights and civil liberties that are today considered as inalienable from human civilisation are the product of the people's struggle for social transformation and not the charity of bourgeois class rule.

These revolutionary transformations brought about qualitative leaps in human civilisation and left an indelible imprint on modern civilisation. This was reflected in all fields of culture, aesthetics, science, etc. While Eisenstein revolutionised the grammar of cinematography, the sputnik extended the frontiers of modern science to outer space.

REVERSES

Despite such tremendous advances and the inerasable imprint on the advance of human civilisation in the 20th century, the mighty Soviet Union disintegrated leading to the demise of socialism there.  The reasons for this had been analysed by the CPI(M) in its 14th Congress Ideological Resolution in 1992. 

It was erroneously assumed that once socialism was established, then the future is a linear, non-reversible path.  Though one-third of the world came under socialism, post-Second World War, most of these countries were, from the capitalist development point of view, generally backward.  Two-thirds of the world being led by advanced  capitalism meant that world socialism continued to remain encircled by world capitalism, which relentlessly pursued the objective of regaining control over the lost one-third of the world.  Socialism marked the overthrow of capitalism, but it is the transitory stage in the movement from a class exploitation based capitalism to a classless society of communism.  The period of this transition of socialism is, hence, the theatre of intense class struggles with capitalism seeking to overthrow socialism and socialism seeking to consolidate itself and mounting the assault on the rule of capital globally. Hence, in this period of transition, the correlation of class forces can shift depending on the successes of socialist consolidation.

If incorrect estimations about the relative strengths of the correlation of class forces are made, then, naturally, this affects the nature of the onward march of socialism. Following the defeat of fascism and the triumph of other socialist revolutions noted above, there was an erroneous tendency to overestimate the strength of socialism and underestimate the strength and capacities of capitalism.  Capitalism remaining with the advanced capitalist countries and in two-third parts of the world meant that their control over the production forces remains.  Adapting itself to the changed global order, capitalism continued to consolidate itself while mounting a relentless offensive – militarily, politically, economically and in terms of propaganda – against socialism.  This post-Second World War period is usually referred to as the Cold War global bipolarity. 

While USSR and world socialism met this challenge of imperialism, its internal strength was weakened by certain mistakes and shortcomings in the process of socialist construction in the Soviet Union.  There were basically four areas where major shortcomings can be seen in retrospect. It needs to be underlined that socialism was embarking on an unchartered path of human advance.  There were no blueprints or specific formulae for socialist construction.

The shortcomings, as analysed by the CPI(M) at its 14th Congress, were in the areas of class character of the socialist State; the establishment of socialist democracy; socialist economic construction and the neglect of developing the ideological social consciousness of people under socialism (a detailed analysis of this  is contained in the 14th Congress Resolution).

Therefore, one can conclude with certainty that these reverses to socialism have occurred not because of any inadequacies in the revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism. On the contrary, they have occurred primarily due to the departure from the scientific and revolutionary content of Marxism-Leninism.  Hence, these reverses do not constitute either a negation of Marxism-Leninism or of the socialist ideal.

CURRENT CAPITALIST CRISIS –

SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE

The socialist ideal remains in today’s conditions of global capitalist crisis the only manner in which humanity can emancipate itself from exploitation.  Since the 2008 global financial meltdown, global capitalism has plunged from one crisis into another.  Every effort to overcome the crisis has laid the seeds of a deeper crisis.  It has become increasingly clear – with the unprecedented economic burdens imposed through intensified capitalist exploitation on the people, consequent sharply widening economic inequalities and the immiserisation of vast sections of global population – that the predatory nature of capitalism has assumed a more naked form.  No amount of reforms within capitalism can liberate humanity from the clutches of such exploitation.  It is only the political alternative of socialism that can achieve this purpose.  The assault on the rule of capital by this political alternative of socialism has to be intensified for eventual human liberation from exploitation. 

Capitalism never collapses automatically, whatever may be the intensity of the crisis. Unless a political alternative develops to challenge capitalism, capitalism invariably survives by intensifying human exploitation.  Hence, the strength of the socialist political alternative has to vastly grow. While there are growing struggles all across the globe against the current predatory expression of capitalist plunder and the accompanied imperialist hegemonic aggressiveness, these popular mobilisations continue to remain essentially defensive.  Defensive in the sense that people are in the midst of struggles to defend their existing democratic rights and livelihood conditions. It is such struggles that must accumulate to reach the levels of mounting the class assault against the rule of capital.  This requires, as we analysed in our 20th Congress Ideological Resolution, the strengthening of the Leninist subjective factor, ie, the strengthened capacity of the revolutionary party to marshal the people’s protests and movements to deliver such a decisive blow against capitalism in individual countries.

This is precisely the task that the CPI(M) in India is today engaged in. Our 21st Congress and the Plenum on Organisation has focused attention on achieving this objective of strengthening this subjective factor in Indian conditions.

SOCIALISM IN

INDIAN CONDITIONS

What socialism means in India can only be concretised after the completion of the democratic stage of the Indian revolution, ie, the people’s democratic revolution.

However, we can anticipate on what should constitute the basis for the full realisation of the potential of all human beings in India under socialism.  Therefore, what does socialism in India mean?

·                It means providing all people food security, full employment, universal access to education, health and housing. It means the economic, political and social empowerment of the people by vastly improving the living conditions of the workers, peasants and the hitherto marginalised sections.

·                It means, first and foremost, that people’s power would be supreme. That democracy, democratic rights and civil liberties would be inseparable elements of the socialist juridical, political and social order. Under bourgeois democracy, illusionary formal rights may exist but the majority of people are denied the capacities to exercise these rights. Under socialism, democracy will be based on the economic, educational and social empowerment of all people, the fundamental and essential requirement for the continuous deepening and development of the quality of human life, on whose foundations socialist democracy will flourish. Under socialism, the right to dissent, freedom of expression and plurality of opinion will flourish with the aim of strengthening socialism under proletarian statehood.

·                It means the ending of caste oppression by abolishing the caste system. It means the equality of all linguistic groups and equal development of all languages. It means the true equality of all minorities and marginalised sections and ending gender oppression.

·                It means that the socialist economic construction will be based on the socialised means of production and central planning. As long as commodity production exists, the market is bound to exist. The market forces, however, shall be subsumed under the guidance of central planning. While various forms of property can and will coexist, the decisive form will be that of the social ownership of the means of production. This does not necessarily express itself only as the State-owned public sector. While this plays an important role, other forms like collective and cooperative ownership and State control of economic policies that regulate the economic lifeline will necessarily coexist. (20th Congress, Resolution on Some Ideological Issues)

OCTOBER REVOLUTION:

WORLD CAN BE CHANGED

Karl Marx had famously said once that: “Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways:  The point is to change it.”  The October Revolution has shown that it is possible to change the world.  This will remain as its eternal relevance.  Notwithstanding the reverses, the October Revolution and its contributions continue to shape the trajectory of human civilisational advance.  This epoch-making event in human history continues to remain the inspiration for all of us in the pursuit of our revolutionary struggles. If the October Revolution could change the world, so can the Indian revolution.  We need to equip ourselves to convert this possibility into reality.