Organisation is the central aspect of the revolutionary question of arming the masses

Adam K.

Guns and gun control laws are once again a topic for discussion following the news of yet another mass shooting in the United States, this time at a high school in the state of Florida. It is a topic that sparks a wide range of responses from various perspectives.

For Marxist-Leninists it is imperative to understand that the most basic element of a correct revolutionary approach to the gun question is that of organisation.
 
Marxism recognises that fundamentally the State is the instrument for the rule of one class over another. In capitalist society that means the rule of the capitalist class (or bourgeoisie) over the working class (or proletariat). In a superficial democracy, like Australia, the ruling class may first try to maintain its rule through deception via institutions like parliament, but ultimately this rule of the bourgeoisie rests on force and violence. It relies on the police, the law, the courts and the jails. Always backing up this force and violence in case it isn’t enough is the central component of state power: the army. The armed force of the capitalist class can only be overthrown by the armed force of the ideologically and organisationally prepared working class. This is a historically proven universal truth and a basic principle of Marxism-Leninism.
 
This is one reason why some communists and revolutionaries often argue against the call for legislation to prohibit and restrict the ability of ordinary civilians to acquire firearms. In short, they argue it renders the working class unarmed and leaves the state and its agents with a monopoly on armed force. While this is partially true, it still neglects the most decisive factor in the question of armed struggle between the classes; the ideological and political preparation and organisation of the working class into a fighting force under the leadership of the Communist Party.
 
Failure to understand and give this most decisive factor its due importance often means falling in to the trap of bourgeois legalism and overemphasising the importance of this or that particular legal reform in order to defend the working class. From a revolutionary perspective, the legality of the working class owning guns is largely irrelevant. The arming of the organised working class in a revolution will not be dependent on any legal right to do so and acquiring arms will mean doing so by any means available. Sufficient preparation and organisation, as well as correct leadership from the proletarian party, will solve these problems at the appropriate time. 

Marx on arming the proletariat

There is a quote by Marx that is often used by those who argue against the introduction of laws to restrict the sale of firearms to ordinary people to give their argument a ‘Marxist’ justification.
 
“Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary.” – Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League, March 1850
 
This cherry-picked quote taken out its historical context, and indeed the context of the surrounding text, seems to justify the arming of the working class under any pretext.

 In 1850, the working class of Europe had already experienced two years of revolutionary upheaval against the remnants of feudalism. In France, the revolutionaries were successful in abolishing the monarchy, but in Germany the revolution was mostly defeated. By 1850, the seizure of power by the petty bourgeois democrats in Germany was imminent, and Marx foresaw that they would turn on the workers’ movement the moment they achieved power. Marx was calling for the workers’ party to “go into battle with the maximum degree of organization, unity and independence, so that it is not exploited and taken in tow by the bourgeoisie as in 1848.”

He was not arguing for the spontaneous and haphazard arming of the working class masses regardless of historical context, or arguing in defence of any existing bourgeois legality to keep and bear arms, but was calling for the maximum organisation of the working class to defend its own independent agenda in a volatile revolutionary situation.
 
The centrality of the element of organisation to Marx’s argument is clear if we read the quote in full.
 
“To be able forcefully and threateningly to oppose this party , whose betrayal of the workers will begin with the very first hour of victory, the workers must be armed and organized. The whole proletariat must be armed at once with muskets, rifles, cannon and ammunition, and the revival of the old-style citizens’ militia, directed against the workers, must be opposed. Where the formation of this militia cannot be prevented, the workers must try to organize themselves independently as a proletarian guard, with elected leaders and with their own elected general staff; they must try to place themselves not under the orders of the state authority but of the revolutionary local councils set up by the workers. Where the workers are employed by the state, they must arm and organize themselves into special corps with elected leaders, or as a part of the proletarian guard. Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary.”
 
Armed struggle and Australia’s revolution
 
The debate over gun control laws has largely been settled in Australia for the time being, and there is little desire among the Australian people to see the sort of lax gun laws or gun culture that exists in the US.
 
Although notable exceptions exist such as the war of resistance by First Nations people to British colonisation (known as the Frontier Wars) and the Eureka Stockade, historically speaking armed struggle has not been a major form of struggle in Australia. One of the main reasons for this has been the strong hold of the illusions of bourgeois parliamentary democracy and the faith of the people in the forces of social democracy and the trade unions which have time after time been used to defuse and funnel the anger of the people back into the peaceful and legal struggle of the ballot box.

Despite this, the people’s movement is continuously met with the force and violence of the state. We see examples of this with draconian legislation against civil liberties, police assaults, the increasing militarisation of the police force, and the deployment of increasing numbers of riot police and their willingness to deploy non-lethal chemical weapons at otherwise peaceful rallies and protests.

 
Sooner or later, the people will need to confront this state violence. The fact remains that the highest form of revolution is the seizure of political power by armed force. This is a universal truth and Australia is no exception. 
 
Following our theory of a two-stage continuous revolution, the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) analyses the current stage of Australia’s revolution to be the anti-imperialist struggle for independence under the leadership of the working class as the first stage on the road to socialism.
 
To overthrow imperialist domination will require intense revolutionary struggle by Australia’s working class and its allies, and will inevitably be met by the counter-revolutionary force and violence of the reactionary ruling class. To defend against this counter-revolutionary violence the Australian people will need to be well organised for armed struggle.
 
The question of arming the anti-imperialist forces will inevitably arise as the cause of anti-imperialist independence and revolution becomes a mass question. Firstly, this requires the Australian people to be convinced by their own experiences that such a revolution is necessary. But it also requires the Party to be organised deep in the heart of the working class and among other progressive strata of the people, learning from them and in turn teaching them, step-by-step raising their ideological and political understanding. It means building organisations and institutions that can serve their immediate needs and further their struggles, directing them against the main enemy of imperialism in Australia.
 
It is with this spirit of serving the people that our Party and its members approach the revolutionary tasks that lay before us.    

The role of a revolutionary party

Vanguard May 2014 p. 4
Bill F.

Updated from an earlier Marxism Today article

 

 

Most people who are serious about the need for revolutionary change in Australia agree that the working class is the main force, and that the working class needs its own revolutionary organisation. The form and style of working class revolutionary organisation is a point of difference between various trends in the revolutionary movement.

Marxist-Leninists seek to build a revolutionary vanguard party as the ideological, political and organisational leadership of the working class. Here we look at some of the characteristics of a revolutionary vanguard party and examine how these differ from other models sometimes put forward.

An organisation of revolutionaries

A key feature is Lenin’s concept of a ‘vanguard’ party consisting of ‘professional’ revolutionaries dedicated to organising and leading the working class through its inevitable economic and political struggles.

Revolutionary work should be carried out in a way that steadily develops the political consciousness of the working class. Political consciousness empowers workers to understand the economic and political features of their particular society, their class position in that society and the need to ultimately overthrow the dominant class rulers of the society, rather than merely pursuing day to day narrow economic interests.

To provide the necessary leadership for this to happen, it follows that party members must study and really grasp the essence of Marxist ideology and philosophy. It is not enough just to be ‘progressive’ or ‘left’ or even ‘militant’ without a depth of understanding of Marxism.

Depth does not mean theoretical understanding alone, although familiarity with fundamental concepts is essential. It means being able to interpret events from a class standpoint, being able to apply the Marxist method of dialectical analysis to all sorts of struggles, situations and people. It means finding ways to advance the political awareness of workers in struggle and the class as a whole. It means finding ways to mobilise workers into activities and actions where they can learn from their own experience the real nature of the class system that exploits and oppresses them.

It means every comrade must become an active contributor, taking responsibility and being accountable to the collective. Some may have the time, capacity and opportunity to contribute more than others, but all play their part in advancing the Party Program. In this revolutionary party Lenin noted, “…all distinctions as between workers and intellectuals, and certainly distinctions of trade and profession, must be utterly obliterated.” (What is to be Done 1902)

Most other models of revolutionary organisation do not require such high individual and collective standards from the membership. Some put forward the concept of a ‘mass revolutionary party’ which usually means that anyone can join, whether or not they are activists or just active when they feel like it, or are merely passive supporters.

Seemingly anti-elitist, this concept ensures that the membership is quickly sorted in tiers, with the leadership dominated by a small group of well-read and articulate intellectuals rather than both workers and intellectuals working and learning alongside each other in struggle.

Mass line method of political work

Another key feature of a revolutionary vanguard party is the way in which it conducts its political work amongst the workers and the masses.

The starting point must always be investigation, both academic and practical. Mao Zedong put it bluntly enough, “No investigation, no right to speak.” In other words, listen to people, seek the facts and don’t just charge in with preconceived ideas. Knowledge must be connected to practice and this demands research, study and understanding of the principal and secondary contradictions in society.

After investigation, sort out the main contradiction from the secondary ones. Sort out the strengths and weaknesses of the forces involved, the people’s forces and the enemy’s forces. Sort out the tactics of struggle most likely to involve the mass of workers or people in struggle, and work to win support for this. At all times, promote unity around the main demands, be where the struggle is hardest, build networks of allies and encourage natural leaders from the ranks of the masses.

In the aftermath of struggle, whether successful or not, be there to assist in summing up and drawing out the main lessons from people’s experience. In this way, comrades can move the level of political consciousness to a higher level.

This style of political work is not easy. It requires comrades to have close and regular involvement with people over a prolonged period of time, whether in the workplace, community or in particular issue organisations.

In contrast to this, the style of some petty-bourgeois radical groups is to set up a headquarters and drag people away from their natural circles into a ‘left’ hothouse. They hobnob with trade union officials and ‘left’ personalities. Some even blow in on activities organised by others and push their newspapers, leaflets and badges promoting often completely different issues. Such behaviour only alienates people and gives a bad name to ‘socialists’ and the ‘left’ generally.

Democratic centralism

Democratic centralism is also a key feature of a vanguard party. It is characterised by a high level of self-discipline based on an understanding that the role of a Communist is to serve the people and to recognise the importance of the collective, not to seek personal gains.

Decision-making is carried out through systems of democratic consultation and democratic voting. Once a decision has been made, there is an obligation on all members to carry it out. Dissenting minority views can be reserved and re-presented on a future occasion, but in the meantime, all members are expected to unite and work to implement democratically agreed decisions.

It was plainly put by Mao Zedong in his article, The role of the Chinese Communist Party in the national war (1938) where he stated, “We must affirm anew the discipline of the party, namely: the individual is subordinate to the organisation, the minority is subordinate to the majority, the lower level is subordinate to the higher level and the entire membership is subordinate to the Central Committee.” Mao himself was in a minority position on the Central Committee for more than ten years, but never violated democratic centralism.

In other political organisations, such discipline does not apply. Those with minority views can just walk away from any responsibility to implement the agreed policies. Factional activities are accepted and often formalised, even when the factions work to undermine and sabotage democratic decision-making. This petty-bourgeois attitude to party discipline stems from the substitution of liberalism and trade union politics and methods over revolutionary politics and methods.

Forces of the state

Another key feature is the attitude to the forces of the state apparatus. While making use of the limited scope of ‘legal democratic rights’ to agitate, distribute material, conduct meetings and so on, a vanguard party also takes into account the surveillance and disruption instigated by the paid agents of the state apparatus.

It should never be forgotten that many millions of dollars are pumped into spreading rumours, intercepting mail, telephone and email communications, tracking comrades, friends and acquaintances, to say nothing of outright spying, infiltrating agents and poisoning relationships, as well as blatant bribery and intimidation.

There may now be greater recognition of this with the WikiLeaks and Snowden disclosures, but that just means the revolutionary movements must exercise greater responsibility and greater care.

A revolutionary vanguard party guards its members, supporters and mass connections as much as possible. It does not conduct all its business in public scrutiny. It does not proceed as though the ruling class in ‘its’ country is so ‘civilized’, so ‘nice’ as to never resort to vicious, fascist repression in defence of its wealth and power and domination of society.

Marxism and Nationalism

Vanguard July 2011 p. 4

The ideal of Communism is a world society based on human cooperation, without the historical divisions of class or nation. Communists are true internationalists who confront the issues of class and nation in order to abolish them forever.

It is true that in the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels stated, “The workers have no country”. But far from advocating the complete disregard for national issues, they went on to say, “…the proletariat…must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must constitute itself the nation, it is, so far, itself national, though not in the bourgeois sense of the word.” Lenin also linked the class struggle to the struggle for national liberation.

Revolutionary program
Australian Marxist-Leninists have sometimes been unfairly accused of petty-bourgeois nationalism by promoting a program of revolution by stages; a stage of anti-imperialist national independence, leading to the later stage of socialism.

As with all matters, nationalism has a class basis. Bourgeois nationalism promotes the chauvinist jingoism of imperialism. The working class position upholds the revolutionary anti-imperialist stand of internationalism. It is entirely different.

One distortion is the idea that any alliance of the working class with other class forces, such as sections of the petty bourgeoisie and sections of the national bourgeoisie, formed to struggle against imperialism, is bound to mean surrender to the interests of these other classes.

This simply ignores the Marxist-Leninist position of promoting the leading role of the working class and the position of upholding the independence and initiative of the working class revolutionary forces within the united front (or national movement against imperialism). In Russia, China, Cuba, Vietnam and other places where revolutionary forces achieved success, this was due to Marxist-Leninist leadership which was able to mobilise the masses well beyond the purely working class core.

A second distortion is the refusal to recognise the fact that Australia is not merely a capitalist economy, but is one dominated by the ownership and interests of large foreign corporate monopolies which control all key sectors of the productive and financial economy.

This fact, plus the overwhelming direct and indirect influence of the United States in the political and military matters of Australia, means that US imperialism is the main and strongest pillar of capitalism in Australia. The domination of US imperialism is defended by the Australian state apparatus. Revolutionary overthrow of US imperialist domination of Australia inevitably strikes at the heart of the capitalist system, including the state apparatus.

A third distortion comes from the failure to see the dialectical relationship between the stage of anti-imperialist struggle and the stage of struggle for socialism. In the revolutionary struggle to expel imperialism and seize ownership and control of Australia’s key industries and resources, the working class will emerge with a much heightened political consciousness and organised capacity.

In the new situation with imperialism defeated, the class forces will re-align (not disappear) and revolutionary struggle will continue in the building of socialism. Some people are pleased to hail this process of continuing revolution in far-away places such as Venezuela, but choke over the idea that it should or could happen here.

Nation-States
Writing on matters of nation and the relationship to capitalism Lenin noted, “Developing capitalism knows two historical tendencies in the national question. The first is the awakening of national life and national movements, the struggle against all national oppression, and the creation of nation-states. The second is the development and growing frequency of international intercourse in every form, the breakdown of national barriers, the creation of the international unity of capital, of economic life in general, of politics, science, etc. Both tendencies are a universal law of capitalism. The former predominates in the beginning of its development, the latter characterises a mature capitalism moving towards its transformation into socialist society.” (Lenin Critical Remarks on the National Question 1913)

In our present era of mature, decaying capitalism (“globalisation”), the various (national) economic systems of capitalism are being transformed into a single (international) system of imperialism. While this may be news to some, Lenin recognised the process more than eighty years ago. “Imperialism is the highest stage of development of capitalism. Capital in the advanced countries has outgrown the boundaries of national states.” (Lenin Theses: Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination 1916). In setting up the conditions for a global economy, monopoly capitalism is also preparing the economic basis for the eventual merging of nations.

International movement against imperialism
The division and re-division of the world between the imperialist powers has been a feature of the last century, with US and European imperialism now moving towards further confrontation, while Japanese imperialism is falling well behind.

In addition to these conflicts, imperialism is weakened by endless cycles of economic crisis, as well as the conscious world-wide movement against it. This growing movement includes the peoples of the socialist countries, the workers and peasants of countries struggling against imperialist bullying and resisting neo-colonialism, and it also embraces the workers and working people of advanced counties such as Australia, and within the imperialist nations themselves.

Struggle against imperialism is class struggle
“The characteristic feature of imperialism is that the whole world, as we see, is now divided into a large number of oppressed nations and an insignificant number of oppressor nations, which command colossal wealth and powerful armed forces.” (Lenin Report of the Commission on the National and Colonial Questions July 1920)

Australian Marxist-Leninists place Australia in the category of an oppressed nation, one that is economically and politically subservient to the imperialist “world order”. The reality of capitalism in Australia is domination by US imperialism, and to a lesser extent, European imperialism. The class struggle for socialism in Australia cannot ignore the national question, cannot effectively oppose capitalism without calling for the overthrow of imperialist-dominated capitalism.

National independence movement
Leading this struggle, the Australian working class stands in the front line, as it is the class most exploited and oppressed by imperialism, the class with nothing to lose, the best organised and determined class.

But it is not the only class oppressed by imperialism. Potential allies of the working class include the working small farmers and small producers, and some local industrial capitalists. This is shown by example in Western Australia of an alliance between local steel manufacturers and construction and manufacturing unions in a campaign to have all construction materials made in Australia.

Building a united movement against imperialist domination of Australia is not petty-bourgeois nationalism. It is the application of Marxism to the reality of Australian conditions.

The dawn of a new era: the Great October Socialist Revolution

Vanguard November 2010 p. 6
Alex M.

The Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 heralded the beginning of a new era for humankind. For the first time in history an avowed working class party not only dared to seize power, it did so with the declared intention of overthrowing the last vestiges of absolutism and building socialism.

The seizure of power in the old Russian capital of Petrograd was undertaken in the name of the Petrograd Soviet. Soviets were bodies of representatives from the working class and peasants, soldiers and sailors, first appearing around the time of the 1905 Russian revolution. Soviets sprang into being because in Tsarist Russia the working class and peasantry were denied any direct political representation.

The crushing of the 1905 revolution did not lead to the disappearance of Soviets, but it did drive leaders of Soviets into exile or imprisonment. Any dissent was crushed during Prime Minister Stolypin’s tenure in office which lasted from 1906 until he was assassinated in 1911. However, the experience of the 1905 Russian revolution and the appearance of Soviets had a profound influence on the thinking of revolutionaries in what were then called the Social Democratic parties (Socialist), throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

Twelve years later, with the dreadful carnage of the First World War seemingly set to drag on, Soviets of workers, peasants, soldiers and sailors once again came to exert a powerful influence in Russian society. The incompetence of Russian generals on the battlefields of the Eastern front against the German and Austro-Hungarian armies combined with the casualties, deprivations and the hunger of the general populace created the conditions for the removal of the Tsar and his replacement by a provisional bourgeois democratic government led by Alexander Kerensky.

The February revolution was the first of three revolutionary waves that shook Petrograd and other cities in Russia during 1917. The next upsurge, in July 1917, resulted in a set-back for the Bolsheviks. By late September, the continuation of the imperialist war by the bourgeois government of Kerensky, waves of mass desertions from the front and continued misery in the cities, mass unrest by the people again reached a head.

By October, Lenin judged that the time was ripe for the overthrow of Kerensky’s Provisional Government. The masses revolted. On the night of October 24th -25th armed detachments of workers arrested Kerensky’s ministers in the Winter Palace. The new era had begun.

Bolshevik leaders, such as Lenin, thought that with the war-weariness of the workers, peasants, soldiers, sailors and citizens of Europe, a spark such as the October uprising would precipitate revolutions in other European countries. There were outbreaks. In Hungary, the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic led by Bela Kun lasted from March to August 1919. In Germany, the period of November 1918 through to the proclamation of the Weimar Republic in August 1919 was the first of three periods of intense social and political unrest which brought Germany to the brink of a successful proletarian revolution.

The revolutionary upsurge in Europe in the immediate aftermath of the First World War really shook the world’s bourgeoisie and remaining aristocracies. It really did appear that worldwide proletarian revolution was a possibility. However, Russia’s history and the social, political and economic conditions at the time were different in revolutionary Russia to other European countries, where all the requirements for a socialist revolution were not fully developed or matured.

Revolution is a mass movement
One of the important features of the Bolshevik led revolution was that it was a mass movement. It was not a mere coup d’état, rather the majority of the people could see that the old order was crumbling and could not and did not represent their interests. There was a crisis of confidence not only in the old autocratic Tsarist regime, but also in the bourgeois Kerensky government which replaced it. Consequently, the majority of the Russian people became politically active, using tribunes like the Soviets to push for change.

A second important feature of the October revolution was the part played by the Bolshevik party. Acting as a directing force, channelling working class, peasant and soldier’s disaffection, the Bolsheviks were able to focus the people’s discontent.

Combining tactical flexibility with party discipline, Lenin’s party outflanked its political rivals such as the Mensheviks, not only offering up slogans that tapped into popular aspirations, but acting on them as well. The slogan ‘Peace, Land and Bread’ reflected the yearnings for peace of the Russian masses, bled white by the war. ‘Land’ represented peasant aspirations for a more equitable distribution of land and ‘Bread’ was the desire for relief from hunger that many were experiencing. The old bourgeois order could no longer continue, and the contradiction between the people, with the working class in the lead, and the bourgeois state, erupted in intense revolutionary conflict that shook the whole world.

Among the first decrees that the new Soviet Government promulgated were those offering peace to Russia’s belligerents, and another abolishing private property and distributing the landed estates amongst the peasants. Not only did this new government reflect the hopes and aspirations of the toiling masses, it strove to implement them, relying on the enthusiasm, energy and creative capacities of the workers and peasants to construct a new society.

Lessons from the 1917 Revolution
Australia’s history and conditions are vastly different to the situation in revolutionary Russia of 1917. For a start we do not face a revolutionary situation in Australia. For a start we do not face a revolutionary situation in Australia. Nor do we have the experience and background of feudalism and autocracy. Our bourgeois liberal democratic traditions provide limitations of social democracy that confine people to bourgeois class rule. There are nominal democratic rights that are confined to bourgeois parliamentarism and giving the illusion of democracy for the people. Our conditions are beyond the scope of what was available in Russia up until February 1917.

Bearing this in mind, it is still possible to highlight some general similarities between revolutionary Russia and contemporary Australia. There was and is disenchantment with the established political order. In Russia of course, the disenchantment reached very high levels. The same cannot be said for popular sentiment in Australia; though this appears to be changing, with more disaffected Labor voters casting about for alternatives.

The key similarity lies in the desire for working people to make a difference in not only their own lives but collectively, in the building of a more just and equitable international order. The Great October Socialist Revolution marked the beginning of real progress in the building of that order and for that reason its significance will not fade.

Reform or Revolution?

Vanguard September 2010 p. 6
Duncan B.

The question of reform or revolution is an important one. It is true that a revolutionary situation does not exist at present in Australia. It is also true that the last couple of years have seen a continuing struggle in this country.

The workers have led the way with some staunch resistance to employers’ attacks on wages and conditions and the right to organise. Community and environmental groups have also had some good wins. As inspiring as they are, these struggles do not alter the fact that Australia is a nation still dominated by foreign imperialism, especially US imperialism.

Imperialism dominates Australia
Imperialism dominates all the main sectors of the Australian economy such as finance and banking, the mass media, mining, food processing and manufacturing. It also dominates our cultural life, smothering our own Australian culture. Imperialism is behind the attacks on the wages and working conditions of Australian workers. What is needed is to rid Australia of imperialist domination, rather than try to reform the existing system.

Reformism is strong in Australia
The reality of Australian politics over the past one hundred and twenty years is that most struggles have been for ‘a few crumbs from the rich man’s table’, that is, for reforms through the actions of the trade union movement and by the Labor Party in parliament.

The Labor Party was formed in the 1890s to win reforms in the interests of the workers in parliament. The trade union movement and the parliamentary system have had a strong hold on Australian workers for the last hundred years or so, and the Labor Party is still seen by many to be the party for the workers. In reality, the Labor Party does not challenge the capitalist system or the domination of Australia by US imperialism.

The trade unions are an important form of working class organisation. While unions struggle to defend workers’ wages and conditions from the attacks of the capitalists, even the most militant union still operates within the confines of the capitalist system. The recent struggle over the leadership of the Labor Party is sure to set people thinking about the question of who will lead the working class as it strives to meet the challenges of the present situation in Australia. The question of leadership of the working class is more important than ever.

Revolutionary leadership
The working class needs revolutionary, not reformist leadership. The time has come to look beyond parliament and trade union politics for a solution to our problems.

The workers need organisation that will offer revolutionary political leadership outside the capitalist system. The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) is working hard to build its revolutionary leadership and to win the respect of the working class. It seeks to win the support of the most advanced elements drawn from the ranks of the working class and members of other classes who support the working class. The CPA (M-L) is guided by the Marxist philosophy of dialectical materialism which recognises that the material world – matter – is primary. Ideas – consciousness – are the reflection of this objective reality.

Dialectical materialism informs the practice of the party. With the aid of this philosophical outlook we can see that all things in nature and society are constantly coming into being and passing away. We understand that things like parliamentarism and parliamentary politics are bound to pass away, but we also see that that must be achieved through the class conscious activity of the mobilised working class.

Day to day struggles
Undoubtedly, the struggle for reforms and immediate demands is critical to lifting the consciousness of the working class. In the experience of class struggle around specific issues, working people learn that Australian capitalist society is dominated by foreign and local monopolies that exercise political power, and that the state is a tool of their rule. The CPA (M-L) strongly supports all struggles of the people to defend and improve their rights and conditions and has proposed some immediate demands on important issues. (See opposite)

Capitalist exploitation
The Communist Party uses the dialectical-materialist approach to analyse Australian society. It has concluded that Australia is a capitalist society characterised by production for profit. This profit is derived from the unpaid labour time of the workers who produce the manufactured goods, build the office blocks or work in the mines, power stations or railways.

The CPA (M-L) recognises that the production of commodities by Australian workers is largely socialised. That is, production is mainly organised on a mass basis in workplaces where tens, hundreds or thousands of workers are employed. On the other hand, the capitalists privately appropriate the commodities that the workers produce. This is one of the fundamental contradictions of the capitalist system. Sooner or later the workers will act to put an end to this contradiction and establish a socialist society in Australia.

The age of imperialism
We live in the era of imperialism, which is the stage of capitalism where monopolies and finance capital dominate; when the export of capital is of pronounced importance compared with the export of commodities; when the world has been divided amongst the big trusts and multi-national corporations and when there are no longer any new territories to be seized without conflict.

The CPA (M-L) recognises that the present stage in the struggle to end capitalism in Australia is to win Australian independence from the foreign (mainly US) imperialist interests and their local allies who dominate the key sectors of Australia’s economy.

Australia has a limited measure of independence, but the foreign imperialist powers (in particular the US, Japan and Britain) continue to exert decisive political, economic, diplomatic, military and cultural influence in Australia.

The leading class
The CPA (M-L)’s analysis of Australia’s class society leads to the conclusion that the working class is the leading class in Australia’s struggle for national independence. This is because large-scale production forces the working class to be the most disciplined, cohesive and politically-conscious class. The working class can draw support from members of other classes in Australian society (small businesspeople, farmers, urban petty-bourgeoisie, etc.) to achieve its goal.

The capitalist state
The capitalist state comprises the various levels of state bureaucracy, the armed forces, the police (open and secret), the courts and the gaols. The state exists to protect the imperialist domination of Australia against the threat of revolutionary over- throw by the working class and its allies.

Currently, they maintain their domination mainly by deception (parliament, ‘democratic’ rights, ‘free’ press, etc.) Should the deception become less effective, the capitalists will turn to violent means to preserve their rule.

What is the alternative?
The CPA (M-L) points to an alternative to the continued imperialist domination of Australia. The whole reason for the Party’s existence is to assist the Australian people to win Australian independence and through that, socialism.

The CPA (M-L) works towards the formation of a vast peoples’ movement in Australia. This will comprise all Australians who oppose imperialism in any way and will ensure that the tiny handful of supporters of imperialism will be isolated from the vast majority of Australians.

As time goes by, more and more Australian workers will realise that the struggle for a multi-stage revolution for Australia is the best way forward.

Victory in this great struggle is more likely if the Communist Party is built in the heart of the working class so that it can assist in the Australia-wide mass movement of the working people and all those who want progressive, fundamental change.