The first great step of the proletariat in realizing its historic mission is to overthrow the dictatorship of the capitalist class (bourgeoisie) and establish its own rule: the dictatorship of the proletariat.
This means that the masses of workers must rise up in arms, forcibly smash and dismantle the armed forces and political apparatus of the bourgeoisie and create in their place the organs of power of the armed working class. The working class, of course, would rather win its emancipation through peaceful means but all of history argues against such a possibility.
No ruling class in history–whether slaveowning, feudal or capitalist–has stepped down from the political stage simply because the system it rules has become a brake on the development of society. In fact, all such ruling classes use the greatest force to remain in power, and the more clearly it is exposed that they stand in the way of progress, the more viciously they resort to suppression against the oppressed classes. And, once overthrown, all reactionary classes inevitably work for a comeback and try to organize attempts, including armed attempts, at restoring the old order.
The imperialists cannot be talked out or voted out. This does not mean that communists refuse in principle to take part in elections. But where they do it is always for the purpose of exposing the nature of the system and its crimes before the masses of people, and using elections (and political office when they win it) to put forward their programme, representing the revolutionary interests of the working class. Communists see participation in the electoral process as one possible tactic for building the struggle of the working class in its millions and preparing for the eventual armed onslaught on the bourgeois state.
In an advanced capitalist country such as the United States, the armed seizure of power by the working class can only mean mass insurrection followed by civil war. The idea of seizing power through “urban warfare” carried out by isolated “guerrilla bands,” or any other attempt to substitute the actions of a small group for the armed uprising of the masses, can only lead to defeat and demoralization, just as the notion of the “peaceful road to socialism” can only set the masses up for an ambush.
In carrying out the insurrection and civil war, the working class, while waging all-out warfare against the armed forces that remain under the command of the bourgeoisie, must also make every effort to win over or at least neutralize as much of the bourgeois armed forces as possible, before as well as during the actual stage of warfare. The great majority of those in the bourgeois armed forces are drawn from the working class and other oppressed groups in society. In the insurrection and civil war, the bourgeoisie will call on them to shoot down their own people; if the forces of the working class struggle correctly, they can win large sections of them to turn their guns around at the real enemy.
The bourgeoisie, especially of this country, tries to frighten the working class and oppressed people with its extensive arsenal of weapons. But weapons do not decide warfare in the end–the people do. In the final analysis the proletariat is bound to defeat the bourgeoisie on the battlefield, because the proletariat represents the great majority of people and fights in the interest of freeing them from all oppression, while the bourgeoisie represents only a handful of decadent exploiters who try to use armed force to keep the masses enslaved and are hated by the great majority of the people.
The bourgeoisie tries to paint proletarian revolution as a disaster and the destruction of everything civilized. But a revolution, especially in the era of proletarian revolution, is a festival of the oppressed; and the proletariat in rising up to strike down the bourgeoisie brings the bright dawn of a whole new and higher form of civilization. The overthrow of the bourgeois dictatorship and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat is certain!
The dictatorship of the proletariat is fundamentally different from the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and all previous forms of state. All states represent the rule (or dictatorship) of one class over another, but for the first time in history, the dictatorship of the proletariat represents the rule of the majority over the minority. It makes possible for the first time real democracy and political power for the masses of people. And its purpose is not to enforce exploitation, to allow one class to live parasitically off another, but to end all exploitation and create the community of working people, without class distinction.
The capitalists have exercised their dictatorship over the working class for hundreds of years, and they believe they should go on doing so, however much they cover this up with talk about “democracy.” So why should the working class, having overthrown them, not exercise dictatorship over them to prevent them from regaining their rule and re-establishing their exploitation?
But the proletarian dictatorship will go one further–it will eventually eliminate the bourgeoisie as a class. The capitalists cannot eliminate the working class-and certainly cannot convert the working class into capitalists–for then whose labor would the capitalists live off! The working class, on the other hand, can run production and all of society much better without any capitalists at all.
Having seized power, the proletariat will take into its own hands, through its state, the ownership of the means of production and control of credit and trade, stripping the capitalist bankers and corporation heads of the economic basis of their power. But the proletariat cannot stop there. Through the exercise of its dictatorship it must move to transform all of society and overcome all the ulcers left over from capitalist society.
The working class in power will have inherited from capitalism its “division of labor”–division between mental and manual workers, between workers in industry and working people in agriculture, between the city and the countryside, and between workers in different branches of the economy. The working class must break down these divisions and step by step eliminate all aspects of commodity production (production for exchange controlled by private individuals, or groups of individuals, rather than production for use controlled by society as a whole), which contains within it the core of the separation of society into classes, based on private ownership of means of production. The working class must also overcome the inequalities that capitalism fosters between men and women and between different nationalities, as well as the differences in regional development caused by capitalism.
Beyond this, the working class must revolutionize the political institutions, the culture, educational system and the very philosophy of the people, in order to bring them into conformity with the task of developing production and organizing society according to the principles of cooperation and with the aim of eliminating every vestige and “germ” of capitalism and class society. And, with this aim, the working class must consciously grasp the laws of development of nature and society, in order to carry out production and organize society according to a rational plan which makes possible all-around, balanced development and provides for the constantly rising material and cultural standards of the people.
In carrying out its revolutionary tasks, the working class must ally with all possible forces, all those oppressed by the old system, including small-scale producers and traders, both in order to overthrow the old ruling class, and to suppress it once overthrown. But at the same time the working class, the only class which has no stake in the preservation of any aspect of capitalism or its “division of labor,” must give leadership to these other forces, and must struggle against their tendencies to compromise with the old ruling class or to resist the complete transformation of society.
When all of society has been transformed, the ulcers left over from capitalism have been eliminated, and the community of workers has been established, then communism, completely classless society, will have been achieved, and humanity will enter a whole new stage of history. There will no longer be the need for the state, since there will no longer be any class to suppress, and the state will be replaced with common administration by all of society.
But the advance from capitalism to communism requires a long period of transition. This transition period is socialism, which is the first, and lower, stage of communism. During this entire transition period, the dictatorship of the proletariat must be defended and strengthened by the working class.
Although socialism is not yet full communism, it is a tremendous advance over capitalism, and opens the road to communism. Socialism eliminates the anarchy of capitalism and its crises, by collective ownership of the means of production and collective planning of the economy controlled by the working class through its state. This removes the tremendous barriers to production that capitalist relations have erected.
Unemployment will be ended, because socialism will be able to make full use of the labor of everyone in society, while at the same time developing and introducing new machinery and scientific methods to expand output. As machines can replace workers, workers will not be thrown into the streets, but transferred to other jobs–according to an overall plan–and gradually the work day for all workers will be reduced.
The nature of work itself will change completely, because the labor of the workers will no longer go to enrich capital to further enslave the working class, but to improve life today, while providing for the future, according to the conscious plan of the working class itself. The pride that workers have in their work will be unhindered by any sense that they are working themselves, or someone else, out of a job, or that they are being driven to produce for the private benefit of some moneybags, under the orders of his foremen and the constant threat of being fired.
Machines will no longer be weapons in the hands of the capitalists to grind down the working class, and workers will no longer be a mere extension of the machine, as they are under capitalism. Instead machines will become weapons in the hands of the working class in its own struggle to revolutionize society and conquer nature.
The organization of work will be the province of the working class itself. All this will unleash the stored-up knowledge of the working class, based on its direct experience in production, and inspire workers to make new breakthroughs in improving production. Work itself will become a joy and enrichment of the worker’s life, instead of a miserable means to sustain existence, as it is under capitalism.
With state power and the ownership of the means of production in its hands, the working class will take up the ending of all inequalities between nationalities as a crucial part of building socialism. Special attention will be paid to overcoming the depressed conditions in the regions, areas and communities where capitalism has concentrated and subjugated minority nationalities. Discrimination in work and all areas of society will be wiped out. Suppression of the languages and cultures of minority nationalities will be abolished, and the proletariat will devote great effort to assisting the development of those cultures and languages.
National oppression and inequality only serve capitalism and the bourgeoisie. The proletariat has no interest in preserving them and every interest in eliminating every aspect of them. This it will fully accomplish under socialism, as a key part of strengthening its rule, continuing to revolutionize society and advancing to communism.
The working class will have a variety of organizations to involve the masses of people in the process of ruling and remaking society. The revolutionary Party of the working class will be the leading organized force within the government and every aspect of society, but other forms will be developed to involve the maximum number of nonparty fighters. Within the framework of centralized national plans which the working class as a whole will set through its Party and state, the workers in every factory will themselves set production plans and goals. They will select factory committees to supervise the implementation of their plans.
Besides its regular army, the working class will have armed militias drawn from its ranks and other previously oppressed groups to protect socialist America from subversion and aggression by the overthrown bourgeoisie and its agents within the country and the bourgeoisies of remaining capitalist countries and to suppress any attempt by the forces of capitalism to restore the old society. In fact, organs of power like factory committees and militias will exist in every plant and community to mobilize the masses of people in carrying out socialist revolution, to maintain social order and see that the workers’ specific needs are met. These mass organs will act in coordination with the government under the leadership of the Party of the proletariat.
Socialism will make possible the building of well-constructed housing for the masses of people. Under capitalism, it is more profitable to speculate in land, maintain slum housing and put capital into buildings for big business than to build decent housing for the masses.
The working class, once it has seized power, will take the land and buildings held by the banks, insurance companies and other such capitalist parasites; any mortgages and other debts they hold against the people and their homes, cars and other personal property, will be immediately cancelled. The slums will be ripped down, and in their place new homes and other facilities for the masses of people will be built.
More than that, the working class will develop housing construction as part of its overall plan, in a rational way, so that homes are built near factories, with easy access to stores, clinics, nurseries for children, schools and other social services. If all this seems like a mere dream now, it is only because the rule of capital has so greatly distorted development, and brought such decay.
Health care under capitalism is a nightmare for the people and big business for the drug companies, hospital corporations and others who make billions from the butchery of the people. Under socialism health care and hospitals will no longer be a means to make profit, but a means for the working class to prevent disease and to preserve the health of the people. Doctors, as well as other hospital staff, will take their turns working in the factories and other work places, so they will know the health problems of the workers. They will be politically educated and supervised by the working class and learn to value the lives of workers as the most valuable of all society’s resources.
Education in class society reflects and promotes the interests of the ruling class and instills in the youth the values and outlook of this class. Under capitalism this means that education is geared to maintain the division of society into classes, the conditions of capitalist exploitation and the rule of the capitalists over the working class and masses of people.
Capitalist education prepares the great majority of youth only for existence as wage-slaves and as a key part of perpetuating the capitalist system of wage-slavery distorts history to make it revolve around the “brilliant ideas” and individual heroism of great “geniuses,” Kings, Emperors, Presidents, bankers, industrialists and other representatives of the exploiting classes throughout history. Children are taught to compete against each other and that competition is what “makes this country great.” Reality is stood on its head, so that it seems that capital, not labor, is the source of all progress and that the workers live by the grace of the capitalists.
Education in socialist society will serve the interests of the working class in building socialism, suppressing the forces of capitalism and continuing the revolutionary struggle to transform all of society and achieve communism. It will put reality back on its feet and expose this bourgeois propaganda. It will instill in the youth the understanding that the laboring people throughout history have been the backbone of society and the source of its development. It will promote cooperation in place of competition, and equality between nationalities, between countries and peoples, and between men and women, in place of the bourgeois garbage that one nation should be over another, that men are superior and women inferior, etc. In place of the bourgeois view of history that presents it as a jumble of unrelated events, stemming from the personalities of “great men,” it will teach the youth that history is determined by the struggle between classes and will enable them to determine the class outlook of all ideas.
Socialist education will stress the living link between theory and practice, between knowing and doing, and will help develop workers who are capable of combining mental and manual labor. In short, socialist education will be a crucial part of raising new generations that can carry forward the revolutionary role of the working class.
In capitalist society many workers and other oppressed people are drawn to religion because it represents their hopes and aspirations for a better life–projected, however, into the future and into another realm completely beyond man’s ability to understand. The bourgeoisie promotes religion to convince people that since life is miserable on this earth–and it cannot be denied that this is so under capitalism–the answer is to hope for a better life “beyond this one.”
Further, religion serves capitalism by telling people that they are basically helpless before the forces of nature-and the rulers of society–and they should put their faith not in the ability of the masses of people to change the world, but in a supreme, supernatural being, or beings. And if that isn’t enough, religion can call up the image of fire and brimstone to threaten people.
More, those who control major organized religions make huge fortunes from collecting large sums from their members, investing much of these sums and exploiting labor. While telling the people to wait for “pie in the sky,” these hypocritical leeches live like kings, right here and now, from the sweat and blood, hopes and fears, of the people. At the same time, in every community, hustlers of all kinds–calling themselves “men of god, prophets,” etc.–prey on workers and other poor people, promising them all kinds of miracles to ease their misery–for a nice fee (donation), of course.
While protecting freedom of religion, socialist society will eliminate all use of religion to exploit and oppress the people. And the Party of the working class will lead a consistent political and ideological struggle to arm the masses of people with the understanding that they are the true force that changes the world and that they can conquer nature. The outlook of the working class is scientific–it recognizes that the causes of things lie in the living struggle of opposing forces, in nature and society. While at any time there are things that are not yet known, there is nothing unknowable, there is nothing that is not bound by the laws of nature and society and nothing in the universe which cannot be harnessed and transformed in the interests of the people, once the basic laws governing it have been discovered and grasped by the masses of people. The working class, once it becomes conscious of all this, has no need for belief in supernatural beings or forces of any kind.
Culture, like education, represents the viewpoint of one class or another and is a powerful weapon in the hands of that class for creating “public opinion.” The capitalist class spreads its culture, not only through the educational system, but through its vast mass media–its newspapers, magazines, television, radio and movies, and other forms. Bourgeois culture, which reflects the outlook of the capitalists, is decadent. It glorifies parasites–whether bank president, gangster or pimp–and those who do the dirty work of the bourgeoisie in suppressing the people, like cops. It promotes cynicism, despair, and the lie that the masses of people are at fault for all the problems of society–since these can hardly be covered up. It tries to demoralize people with the idea that they are the helpless pawn of mysterious and sinister forces.
When it deals with the problems ordinary people face every day, it tries to paint them as purely “personal problems” not stemming from the nature of society itself, or at most as the fault of some “bad” people with “bad” ideas, not representing any class. In all its forms it aims at deflecting the anger of the people away from the ruling class back onto themselves–hate people of another nationality, or the other sex, hate yourself, hate people in general, hate anything but the ruling class itself.
Proletarian culture is the exact opposite of bourgeois culture. It arises from and reflects the outlook and interests of the working class in its revolutionary struggle. Because the proletariat is the productive class and because it has the historic mission of advancing society to a qualitatively new stage, proletarian culture presents, in place of the glitter “glory” of bourgeois parasites, the true glory of working people in moving society forward. It points to the bright future. It shines a spotlight on the crimes of the bourgeoisie, illuminates the real reason for the evils and the sufferings of the people in society–capitalist exploitation–and portrays the joy of the working class in uniting to smash down the rule of capital and eliminate all exploiting classes.
Developing and promoting proletarian culture is a crucial part of building the revolutionary struggle of the working class to overthrow the bourgeoisie. Once having won political power, the proletariat, in building socialist society, will continue the revolution in the field of culture, to wipe out the influences of bourgeois decadence and give full expression to proletarian values. Socialist society will use television, movies, songs, plays, literature and art to portray workers, working class families and the proletariat as a whole contributing to the cause of building socialism and advancing to communism. The true heroes of history, the masses of working people, will take their rightful place on the stage.
Cultural workers will join in productive labor together with the masses of people, and new cultural workers will be developed from among the masses. In this way culture will truly become the weapon of the whole working class.
This country is made up of people of many different nationalities, from all parts of the world. This provides a great potential wealth of culture. The proletariat and its socialist society will unlock this great treasure so that workers of all nationalities can learn from each other’s cultures and, through many different forms, stress the common class bond and the common content of revolutionary struggle. This will make possible both great diversity and great unity, and will tremendously enrich society.
Like other aspects of culture, sports is big business under capitalism. Most people are reduced to “spectators” and decent facilities for the youth and working people as a whole are very few. Socialism will build sports as a mass activity and, not bound by the laws of private profit, will construct facilities for sports in all neighborhoods and widely organize sports programs to provide recreation for and promote the health of the masses of people. And sports will promote the bonds between working people, above competition among them.
Socialist society will wipe out the decadence of capitalism in all spheres. Prostitution, drug addiction, homosexuality and other practices which bourgeois society breeds and the bourgeoisie promotes to degrade and enslave the masses of people, will be abolished. The prostitutes, drug addicts, homosexuals and others who are caught up in these things will be re-educated to become productive members of society, with working class consciousness. The shame connected with these practices will be taken from the shoulders of these victims and the guilt will be placed where it belongs–on the bourgeoisie.
Capitalist society, which is based on the robbery of the working class by the bourgeoisie, breeds crime on all levels. The capitalists themselves are the greatest criminals and murderers of all time, and there is no way they can eliminate crime. Socialist society will eliminate crime, along with eliminating the criminal capitalist class.
Those who, in capitalist society, are forced into crime for survival, because they cannot find work–at least not at a living wage–will no longer have the need to do so. They, too, will be re-educated and will take their place in the ranks of the revolutionary working class. Those who have made crime their business and have built whole criminal syndicates, like the Mafia, will be ruthlessly punished. Their organizations will be smashed by the armed power of the working class.
In promoting the proletarian values of cooperation and equality between men and women, as well as between different nationalities, socialist society will transform social and family relations. The family itself will become a fighting unit of the proletariat, where men and women share in household work and support each other in contributing to revolution and helping to raise future generations of proletarian revolutionaries.
But more fundamentally, socialist society will make available to the masses of people public laundries, cafeterias, nurseries and other facilities near the home and work. This will make it possible to greatly reduce the burden of household work, and free women–and men as well–to play a greater part in productive labor and the political role of the working class in ruling and revolutionizing society. The right of divorce will remain, but as society as a whole is transformed, and these new proletarian relations are fully developed in the family, marriage will more and more be based on a voluntary union, free of economic compulsion and combining genuine feelings of love with the joy of the proletariat in building a new world.
Socialism will mean all this, and much more. But none of this will come as a “gift,” or “automatically” as a result of the seizure of political power by the proletariat.
The experience of socialist countries has shown that the transformation of society by the working class is a protracted process, which must develop step by step, and is marked by the most intense struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie at every step. All during this process, the proletariat must exercise the most ruthless dictatorship over the old ruling class, must ruthlessly suppress any attempt by the forces of capitalism to restore the old society and must continue to break down the old “division of labor” and the old self-seeking ideas of capitalism. Otherwise, it will lose power to the bourgeoisie, and capitalism with all its misery will be restored.
Seizing the large-scale means of production from the overthrown bourgeoisie is an act which can be accomplished almost immediately once the proletariat has won political power. And it is an act which must be carried out swiftly, backed up by the guns of the proletariat. But eliminating small-scale production and trade and the narrow outlook that characterizes small-scale operators can only be accomplished gradually, through a series of steps, in tempo with the overall development of the economy and society, under the rule of the proletarian state. To achieve this the proletariat cannot rely on armed compulsion, but must rely on persuasion and political education to show these people that their only hope for the future lies with the proletariat in eliminating all vestiges of capitalism, all private ownership of means of production, and advancing to communism.
But beyond that, the ideas and outlook of the capitalists, and other exploiting classes which have ruled society for thousands of years, have become deeply entrenched in society, and have largely acquired the “force of habit.” The bourgeoisie takes advantage of this to promote the so-called “theory of human nature,” which says that people are basically selfish and will never change, so socialism is bound to fail and communism is a hopeless Utopia.
This bourgeois “theory” is age-old garbage. There is no such thing as “human nature” in the abstract, divorced from classes. Each class in history has its own nature, reflecting its position in society stemming from its relation to production.
In the slave system, it was considered “natural” for one group of people, the slaveowners, to own other people, the slaves. In capitalist society, this idea is regarded as criminal and absurd, because the bourgeoisie has no need for slaves as private property (at least not in its own country). But it has every need for wage-slaves, proletarians. So it presents as “natural” the kind of society where a small group, the capitalists, own the means of production and on that basis force the great majority of society to work to enrich them.
The slaveowners and the capitalists have one fundamental thing in common–they are both exploiters, and they both regard it as the correct and perfect order of things for a small group of parasites to live off the majority of laboring people. They differ only in the form in which they exploit and therefore in their view of how society should be organized to ensure this exploitation.
When humanity has advanced to communism, society as a whole will consciously reject the idea that any one group should privately own the means of production. Then wage-slavery, based on the ownership of capital as private property, will be seen as just as criminal and absurd as ancient slavery, based on the ownership of other people as private property.
The proletariat, by its own nature as a class, has no interest in promoting private gain at the expense of others and every interest in promoting cooperation. For only in this way can it emancipate itself and all humanity.
But the outlook of the bourgeoisie, including its “theory of human nature,” has influence within every class in society, including the working class itself. So long as classes continue to exist, so long as there is a bourgeoisie and other non-proletarian groups in society which benefit from capitalism or at least stand above the working class as a result of capitalism’s “division of labor,” there will be social forces that actively promote the reactionary ideology (philosophical outlook) of the bourgeoisie. This remains true throughout the socialist transition period, and it is most decisive for the ruling proletariat to wage continual struggle against this ideology in all its forms and in all spheres of society.
One of the key aspects of the bourgeoisie’s ideology is national chauvinism, or the theory that one nation (the nation of the particular capitalist class) is superior to others and that the other nations are incapable of handling their own affairs. Frequently the bourgeoisie presents this as a theory of “racial inferiority,” “cultural backwardness,” or other ideas which put the blame for the depressed conditions of the other countries, especially the colonies, and of minority nationalities at home, on these people themselves, and cover up the fact that it is oppression by imperialism that is the cause. This aids the imperialists in their drive to rob superprofits from these peoples, and is part and parcel of their exploitation of the workers of “their own” nation and of their view that the bourgeoisie should “naturally” rule over the proletariat.
The proletariat, in its revolutionary struggle, smashes this rotten theory. Capital, in its international scramble for profit, has transformed the world in its own image, but as part of this it has formed the workers of all countries into an international army. The working class in each country is one division in this army, and only by uniting in the common battle can the working class free itself once and for all from the rule of capital.
Further, the attempt of the ruling classes of the imperialist countries to maintain the rest of the nations in the world as colonies or dependent countries gives rise to a storm of struggle by the peoples of the oppressed nations to free themselves from imperialist rule. This struggle, which especially since WW II has swept most of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, has struck tremendous blows against the imperialists. It has been a great support to the struggle of the workers in the imperialist countries themselves, weakening the imperialists and bringing closer the day when the working class in the imperialist countries can finally bring down the imperialists. This is why the workers in the imperialist countries, as they become conscious of the historic role of their class, support as their own the struggle of the oppressed nations for liberation.
This is especially important for the working class of the United States, one of the two imperialist superpowers. The U.S. ruling class is one of the two main enemies of the people of the world, and one of the two main pillars still holding up imperialist rule in the world. In the struggle against its imperialist rulers, the U.S. working class is greatly aided by the struggles of people throughout the world against imperialism, and especially against the rulers of the two superpowers. And in finally overthrowing U.S. imperialism, the U.S. working class will strike a great blow for the liberation of people throughout the world.
When the working class in this country has seized power, a crucial part of its task in building socialism will be to give every possible assistance to the masses of people in other countries, especially the former colonies of the U.S., in their revolutionary struggle. The socialist state in the U.S. will immediately end all colonial relationships, direct or indirect, with other nations; will renounce all privileges extorted from other nations at the point of a gun by the imperialists; and will establish relations with all countries on the basis of respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, mutual non-aggression, mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence. And it will establish the firmest unity with the working class in power in other socialist countries.
Beyond that, having liberated the productive forces in this country from the shackles of capitalism, the working class of the U.S. will unleash them not only to bring tremendous improvement in the lives of the people here, but to assist the development of other countries. This will mean genuine aid and will be nothing like the “foreign aid” of the imperialists, which robs the money of the people in the imperialist countries and uses it to further enslave the people in other countries.
For the proletariat, aiding the struggle of people in other countries has nothing to do with so-called “charity.” So long as capitalism and exploitation exist in any country, this will be a base for the bourgeoisie in its attempts to defeat the working class and restore capitalism everywhere. And wherever capitalism rules and maintains backwardness, it stands as a great barrier to the workers of all countries in developing the rational use of the world’s resources and the mighty productive forces that labor has created over centuries.
The international working class can emancipate itself only by emancipating all humanity, it can achieve communism only by eliminating the rule of capital and the chains of exploitation everywhere. Once communism has been achieved, the division of the world into nations will be replaced by the world community of people, cooperating to conquer nature, harness its forces and advance to heights undreamed of now.
The working class has already seized power in many countries, and today more than one quarter of humanity is advancing along the socialist road. The experience of the Soviet Union and some other countries has shown that the overthrown bourgeoisie, and new bourgeois forces that arise within socialist society itself from the soil left over from capitalist society–commodity production and the “division of labor” and inequalities that characterize capitalism–can succeed in restoring capitalism. This soil cannot be uprooted all at once, but only step by step. Therefore the danger of capitalist restoration exists all throughout the socialist period. But the experience of China shows that by continuing to revolutionize society, the working class can beat back the bourgeoisie’s attempt at regaining power and can continue the march toward communism. There, in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the masses of people have risen up in their millions, led by Mao Tsetung and the Chinese Communist Party, and smashed the attempts of the bourgeoisie, including traitors within the Party itself, to subvert the proletarian state from within and re-establish the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, as happened in the Soviet Union.
The restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union has brought with it all the evils that stem from the basic nature of capitalism, and has given rise to widespread struggle by the masses of Soviet people against their new exploiters. These bourgeois rulers of the Soviet Union are bound by the same laws of capitalism as all capitalist rulers, and are caught in the same basic contradiction of capitalism, which can only be resolved through socialist revolution. Therefore this capitalist restoration can only be temporary. The working class will once more seize power in the Soviet Union and advance with even more determination along the socialist road–learning from the setbacks of the past–as it will in every country.
Nothing can save capitalism in the long run, because it has long since become a barrier to progress and long since prepared the conditions for its own destruction. The movement of history, propelled forward by class struggle, is irresistible. The advance of the proletariat, the greatest and most powerful class in history, to communism, to the elimination of class society, is inevitable.