This message was sent by an Australian comrade to our party’s celebration of the 98th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, held on 7 November 2015.
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I send you the warmest fraternal greetings on the occasion of the 98th anniversary of the glorious Great October Socialist Revolution.
The October revolution remains, almost a century later, as humanity’s beacon of hope and inspiration. The proletariat and oppressed peoples of the world look forward to a world freed from exploitation, misery, hunger and war, and this golden path is lit by the undiminishable glow of the October revolution.
Before October 1917, the idea of a society and world that worked toward the common goal of freedom for all could be dismissed as utopian daydreaming. By adhering to the revolutionary science of Marxism Leninism, the Russian working class and peasantry showed us for ever more that socialism and communism were within our grasp. The proletariat could never be turned back from this objective, no matter how hard the oppressors tried.
Let Comrade Stalin speak, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Great October, on the significance of that immortal day: “The October revolution cannot be regarded merely as a revolution ‘within national bounds’. It is, primarily, a revolution of an international, world order, for it signifies a radical turn in the world history of mankind, a turn from the old, capitalist world to the new, socialist world.
“Revolutions in the past usually ended by one group of exploiters at the helm of government being replaced by another group of exploiters. The exploiters changed, exploitation remained. Such was the case during the liberation movements of the slaves. Such was the case during the period of uprisings of the serfs. Such was the case during the period of the well-known ‘great’ revolutions in England, France and Germany …
“The October revolution differs from these revolutions in principle. Its aim is not to replace one form of exploitation by another form of exploitation … but to abolish all exploitation of man by man, to abolish all groups of exploiters, to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, to establish the power of the most revolutionary class of all the oppressed classes that have ever existed, to organise a new, classless, socialist society.
“It is precisely for this reason that the victory of the October revolution signifies a radical change in the history of mankind, a radical change in the historical destiny of world capitalism, a radical change in the liberation movement of the world proletariat, a radical change in the methods of struggle and the forms of organisation, in the manner of life and traditions, in the culture and ideology of the exploited masses throughout the world.
“That is the basic reason why the October revolution is a revolution of an international, world order.”
The poor get poorer and the rich get richer, goes the old adage. Yet why is that? Production levels have risen to unprecedented levels. It is because of the incurable crisis of imperialism.
This crisis is why Syria, Ukraine and Palestine, to name just a few, are in flames; why the world is flooded with asylum seekers escaping the barbarity of imperialism, but yet sees, in the major cities of the imperialist heartlands, people condemned to poverty, unemployment, homelessness, and abuse by the forces of ‘law and order’.
Where can these people seek asylum? They must seek asylum in the science of Marxism Leninism, and in the practical realisation of this science in organisations like the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist). Only socialist revolution can liberate humanity from imperialism and the wars and poverty it inevitably engenders. But imperialism knows it is in crisis and thus throws at the proletariat the suffocating, false illusion of social democracy to paralyse social emancipation.
In this context we have the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, and other such ‘messiahs’ to deliver us from the tyranny of finance capital. Once again, the British proletariat are being led to place their hopes and dreams in a mirage. Yes, imperialism leads this charge (despite unhinged elements in the bourgeoisie equating Corbyn with Lenin!), but it can only achieve this through its paid agents in the proletariat: namely, the Trotskyists, the revisionists, and social democrats.
Fortunately, the British proletariat has the CPGB-ML to expose these plots to divert the socialist struggle into the fatal waters of reformism. As the October revolution has taught, it is only the dictatorship of the proletariat that can destroy imperialism and lead to communism. It is the duty of each communist to imbue the proletariat with the understanding of the absolute, fundamental necessity of this dictatorship.
As Comrade Lenin said: “Only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is what constitutes the most profound difference between the Marxist and the ordinary petty (as well as big) bourgeois. This is the touchstone on which real understanding and recognition of Marxism is to be tested.”
I wish my dear comrades in the CPGB-ML all the best in this endeavour, which your party has the historical privilege of carrying out. Raise a toast on my behalf, comrades, for all the proletarian and oppressed peoples, in the spirit of Great October, fighting imperialism, with mind and body, as we speak. Victory will be ours!
Eternal glory to the Great October Socialist Revolution!
Eternal glory to the Soviet Union of Lenin and Stalin!
Death to imperialism!
