GenZhou

"The third socialist movement began with the First World War. The mainstream socialist parties abandoned internationalism and lined up behind their respective capitalist classes in support of the inter-imperialist mass slaughter.

Lenin and the Bolsheviks broke completely from the main socialist trend, denounced the Second International as traitors to socialism, and founded a new Communist International known as the Comintern, headquartered in Moscow, in 1918.

Marxism-Leninism, the official ideology of the Soviet state founded by the Bolsheviks, expanded the appeal of Marxism to the non-European world. Lenin stated that capitalism would only be defeated if the working class of the West united with the national liberation struggles of the colonized masses of Asia and Africa.

The kind of socialism built in the Soviet Union consisted of top-to-bottom nationalization and complete state control of all economic life, led by a tightly disciplined Communist Party. In the course of the 20th century, this economic model first built in Russia was replicated in half of Europe and large parts of Asia, as well as some countries in Africa and Latin America. For much of the 20th century, one-third of the human race lived under Marxist-Leninist governments.

In the 1960s and 70s, this third socialist movement entered a serious crisis. The total command economy practiced in the USSR, Eastern Europe, and Mao-era China began to stagnate. Such a model was effective for industrializing semi-feudal agrarian societies, eliminating poverty, spurring urbanization, mobilizing for war, and large-scale scientific/technological projects. But they were terrible at effectively producing consumer goods and also suffered deficiencies in efficiency and innovation.

While this model lifted people out of destitution, their material existence was still humble compared to First World capitalist countries. Discontent grew among populations in the Communist bloc who wanted the comforts and consumer lifestyle enjoyed by the Western middle classes.

In addition, by the 1960s the global Communist movement split between the USSR and China, for reasons too complicated to get into here. Suffice it to say that an enormous amount of time, weaponry, and resources were wasted by Moscow and Beijing fighting and undermining each other, sapping their strength and contributing to the victory of US imperialism in the Cold War. The Marxist-Leninist movement fractured, split, and almost completely collapsed.

The fall of the USSR devastated and crippled the global movement. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the most reactionary, pro-free-market, and imperialist forces advanced nearly everywhere on Earth.

This brings us to the fourth global socialist movement that exists today. After the USSR fell, China begrudgingly had to shoulder the burden of leading what remained of the socialist and anti-imperialist camp.

Starting in the 1980s, China engaged in market reforms that allowed for private enterprise to grow, in order to build its productive forces through attracting foreign investment in a largely capitalist world. Vietnam, Cuba, and other countries followed suit.

The fourth global socialist movement, while emphasizing that the state should still dominate the economy, allows for markets and lower-level private enterprise. It does not discourage entrepreneurship as long as such endeavors do not harm the broader society.

The fourth socialist movement is more ideologically diverse than the third; while the Communist Party of China commands the single most powerful state, there are also non-Marxist socialist forces such as the Bolivarian movement in South America, and Islamic socialists in Iran in this broad alliance. Shared ideology is not as important as shared opposition to neoliberalism, imperialism, and financial parasitism.

The fourth global socialist movement does not exclusively appeal to the working class either. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is meant to attract professionals and middle-class forces in Global South nations of a progressive outlook. People who want their respective countries to develop their own manufacturing and infrastructure, so that the most promising minds of their nations won’t be lost to a brain drain towards the Western imperial core.

Like the utopian socialists, many of the anti-imperialist Muslims and Christians in the fourth socialist movement are motivated by a strong moral opposition to capitalism. Unlike secular Marxist-Leninists, they see the struggle against capitalism as a spiritual struggle and not exclusively a class one.

In conclusion, the task of communist and socialist parties in the 21st century is to make themselves relevant players in this new movement of history.

The fall of the USSR, the severing of communist/socialist parties from their working-class base (especially in the West), as well as the demoralization brought about by repeated defeats, disoriented many socialists. Many parties stubbornly clung to dogmas from the old Cold War that no longer made any sense, becoming stale relics from another time. Others have capitulated to liberalism, allowing alien postmodern ideas imported from the bourgeois academy to infest our movements.

Our organizations must return to our calling of representing the independent position of the working class, and not tail after ‘progressive’ liberals or the false populism of the right. Globalist finance capitalism leads in only one direction, no matter how one votes: war, fascism, genocide, and degrowth.

We must study the lessons of socialism with Chinese characteristics and creatively apply Marxism to our own societies and present-day circumstances. From there, we can build strategic alliances with all anti-imperialist and pro-development forces."

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If so, where could one find a copy of it?

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For example many CPSU members were formally members of the social democratic party, almost all Eastern Bloc communist parties were mergers of the preexisting communist parties with social democratic parties, and the Korean Social Democratic Party is one of the few opposition parties in the DPRK

tværpostet fra: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4948996

This video was in my recommended today, and I thought I’d share with you all

The claim I’ve heard most is that Kalashnikov based the design of the AK-47 on the STG 44, but I’ve read a comment on this site (as far as I can remember) from a user whose username I can’t remember who said the opposite: That Kalashnikov did not base the design of the AK-47 on the STG 44

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This is the US foreign policy establishment's most important publication admitting it.

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You can read the text on ProleWiki. Post questions/analysis here and/or join our Matrix space

On how Lenin’s theory of imperialism was a conjunctural one to the period rather than a general/universal one, and how to conjuncturaly theorize on later periods, up to the present.

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The piece that is being discussed in this talk: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1921/jan/05.htm

COMRADES! Men and women compatriots!

The great day of victory over Germany has come. Fascist Germany, forced to her knees by the Red Army and the troops of our Allies, has acknowledged herself defeated and declared unconditional surrender.

On May 7 the preliminary protocol on surrender was signed in the city of Rheims. On May 8 representatives of the German High Command, in the presence of representatives of the Supreme Command of the Allied troops and the Supreme Command of the Soviet Troops, signed in Berlin the final act of surrender, the execution of which began at 24.00 hours on May 8.

Being aware of the wolfish habits of the German ringleaders, who regard treaties and agreements as empty scraps of paper, we have no reason to trust their words. However, this morning, in pursuance of the act of surrender, the German troops began to lay down their arms and surrender to our troops en masse. This is no longer an empty scrap of paper. This is actual surrender of Germany’s armed forces. True, one group of German troops in the area of Czechoslovakia is still evading surrender. But I trust that the Red Army will be able to bring it to its senses.

Now we can state with full justification that the historic day of the final defeat of Germany, the day of the great victory of our people over German imperialism has come.

The great sacrifices we made in the name of the freedom and independence of our Motherland, the incalculable privations and sufferings experienced by our people in the course of the war, the intense work in the rear and at the front, placed on the altar of the Motherland, have not been in vain, and have been crowned by complete victory over the enemy. The age-long struggle of the Slav peoples for their existence and their independence has ended in victory over the German invaders and German tyranny.

Henceforth the great banner of the freedom of the peoples and peace among peoples will fly over Europe.

Three years ago Hitler declared for all to hear that his aims included the dismemberment of the Soviet Union and the wresting from it of the Caucasus, the Ukraine, Byelorussia, the Baltic lands and other areas. He declared bluntly: “We will destroy Russia so that she will never be able to rise again.” This was three years ago. However, Hitler’s crazy ideas were not fated to come true—the progress of the war scattered them to the winds. In actual fact the direct opposite of the Hitlerites’ ravings has taken place. Germany is utterly defeated. The German troops are surrendering. The Soviet Union is celebrating Victory, although it does not intend either to dismember or to destroy Germany.

Comrades! The Great Patriotic War has ended in our complete victory. The period of war in Europe is over. The period of peaceful development has begun.

I congratulate you upon victory, my dear men and women compatriots!

Glory to our heroic Red Army, which upheld the independence of our Motherland and won victory over the enemy!

Glory to our great people, the people victorious!

Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the struggle against the enemy and gave their lives for the freedom and happiness of our people!

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(See first post for background: #1 Cultural Revolution, previous post: #5 Rise of First KMT-CPC Cooperation and Climax of the Great Revolution)

A Concise History of the Communist Party of China (2021, ISBN 978-7-5117-3978-0), pg. 30-35

《中国共产党简史》, pg. 25-28

(Chapter 1)

5. The Northern Expedition and the Worker and Peasant Movements

The Victorious March of the Northern Expedition

In July 1926, the National Revolutionary Army launched the Northern Expedition. The direct targets of the expedition were the imperialist-backed Northern Warlords, mainly Wu Peifu, Sun Chuanfang, and Zhang Zuolin, who had 700,000 troops under their direct control. The National Revolutionary Army under the Nationalist Government totaled around 100,000 men.

Vastly outnumbered, the NRA, under the guidance of Soviet advisors, opted for a strategy of concentrating its forces to eliminate enemy units one by one. With strong support from the locals along the way, the Northern Expeditionary Army won sweeping victories. In September, the army occupied Hanyang and Hankou. On October 10, it conquered Wuchang and wiped out the main force of Wu Peifu. The Army in Jiangxi eliminated the main force of Sun Chuanfang and occupied Jiujiang and Nanchang in early November. It seized Fuzhou in Fujian Province without a fight in December. The Army then made a plan to seize Zhejiang and Shanghai and gather its forces in Nanjing. In February 1927, it occupied Hangzhou and the whole province of Zhejiang. In March, it occupied Anqing and Nanjing and entered Shanghai. By this time, the Northern Expeditionary Army held all of the areas south of the Yangtze River.

While the Northern Expeditionary Army was building a tremendous victory, the Feng Yuxiang-led National Army, with the help of the Soviet Union and the CPC, moved south in September 1926, after taking a mass pledge in Wuyuan County, Suiyuan. In November, they took control of Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and prepared to move eastward out of Tongguan in support of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

The Northern Expedition was carried out under the anti-imperialist and anti-warlord slogans of the Communist Party. During the march of the Northern Expedition, members of the CPC and the Communist Youth League put their lives at risk and played a pioneering role, especially the independent regiment led by CPC member Ye Ting. The regiment, the first to enter Wuchang, matured into a heroic and battle-hardened unit of the Fourth Army, which was known as the “Iron Army.” The Communists made great contributions to the army’s political work and efforts to mobilize workers and peasants. Under the leadership of the Guangdong Regional Party Committee, the Guangzhou-Hong Kong Strike Committee of Guangdong organized 3,000 men into transport, propaganda, and medical teams to follow the troops north. The CPC Hunan Regional Committee mobilized workers and peasants to act as guides, deliver messages, transport equipment, and give medical aid. The committee also organized peasant self-defense corps to join in the fighting. Such enthusiasm was rarely seen in previous wars in China.

The great success achieved by the Northern Expedition in a short period of time was attributable to the cooperation between the KMT and the CPC.

The Upsurge of the Worker and Peasant Movements in Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi

After the victorious march of the Northern Expedition, the worker and peasant movements expanded at an unprecedented scale. The most remarkable developments occurred in Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces.

It was in these provinces that the peasant movement first rose to prominence. In November 1926, Mao Zedong became the secretary of the Peasant Movement Committee of the CPC Central Committee. The peasant movements in Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, and Henan were the main focus of Mao’s work. From the summer of 1926 to January of the following year, the membership of peasant associations surged from 400,000 to 2 million in Hunan. Once the peasants were organized, they started to take action, launching an unprecedented rural revolution. As Mao Zedong pointed out at the time, “The national revolution requires a great change in the countryside. The Revolution of 1911 did not bring about this change, hence its failure. This change is now taking place, and it is an important factor for the completion of the revolution.”

Landlords, gentry, and the KMT right-wing were horrified by the flourishing peasant movement. They attacked the movement, labeling it a “movement of riffraff” and “utterly appalling!” At the beginning of 1927, Mao Zedong conducted a 32-day investigation into the peasant movement in Hunan. In his subsequent “Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan,” he sharply refuted various fallacies inside and outside the CPC condemning the movement. He discussed the great significance of the rural revolution, and argued that all revolutionaries should stand in front of the peasants and lead them, not stand behind them and criticize them, much less stand opposite to them and oppose them. He emphasized that the Party should rely on the poor peasants, who were the “vanguard of the revolution” and unite with the middle peasants and other forces that could be won over. The Party should work to establish peasant associations and peasant armed forces so that the peasant associations could take over all the power in the countryside. Then they should reduce rents and interest and redistribute the land.

In the cities, the worker movement was also on the rise. In September and October 1926, the Hunan and Hubei provincial federations of trade unions were established. By January 1927, there were 700,000 union members in the two provinces. The Jiangxi Provincial Federation of Trade Unions was also formally established. These three provinces applied the experience of Guangzhou-Hong Kong Strike to organize armed workers’ pickets. In Changsha, Wuhan, Jiujiang, and other cities, workers held large-scale strikes, most of them successful. With the mass anti-imperialist struggle in full swing, the Nationalist Government was prompted to take back the British Concessions in Hankou and Jiujiang in February 1927.

Encouraged by the victorious advance of the Northern Expedition and the upsurge of the worker and peasant movements, the CPC Central Committee and Shanghai Regional Committee began in October 1926 to organize armed uprisings involving Shanghai workers. The first two were defeated. Thereafter, the CPC Central Committee and Shanghai Regional Committee jointly established a supreme body to command the uprisings. Known as the Special Committee, its members were Chen Duxiu, Luo Yinong, Zhao Shiyan, Zhou Enlai, with Zhou also serving as chief commander. Under its direct leadership, the Shanghai workers successfully staged a third armed uprising on March 21, 1927. On the 22nd, the Provisional Municipal Government of Shanghai Special City was established. It was the first revolutionary regime to be established by the people in a major city under CPC leadership.

The third armed uprising of the Shanghai workers was a major feat of the Chinese workers’ movement during the Great Revolution and the culmination of the movement’s development during the Northern Expedition.

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