3. Dealing with the conditions and challenges of the 21st century
On the basis of the current conditions and trends that we see clearly, we can be optimistic that in the next decade or so the people will intensify in a dramatic way and on an unprecedented scale their revolutionary struggle for national liberation, democracy and socialism against imperialism and reaction. Let us line up the major conditions that proletarian revolutionaries must deal with in the 21st century, particularly in the early decades where we are now. The century will either be too long for great leaps in the cumulative advance of the revolutionary forces or too short for the entire historical epoch needed for socialism to overpower capitalism.
First, let us observe immediately that the disintegration of the revisionist-ruled systems has led to the acute crisis of the world capitalist system and the unbridled oppression and exploitation of the working people by imperialism and reaction. Conspicuously, the US has been in the forefront of generating economic crisis, political turmoil and wars of aggression. It has enjoyed the unprecedented role of being the sole superpower in command of an obviously expanded world capitalist system through the complete integration of nearly all the former revisionist-ruled countries.
But the expansion of the world capitalist system has actually led to an increase in the number of imperialist powers and to the intensification of inter-imperialist contradictions. The world cannot accommodate too many imperialist powers. The US-led imperialist alliance became crisis-stricken, especially with the phenomenon of stagflation, as soon as the World War II losers were reconstructed and strengthened economically in the late 1960s. The addition of Russia, China and India as big players in the playing field of imperialism spells further crisis and troubles for the original Group of 7 and the original OECD countries.
Second, the policy of "neoliberal globalization" has been a big failure in overcoming the problem of stagflation under Keynesianism and in shoring up the imperialist powers from worse economic and financial crisis. The problem of stagflation is persistent and has been merely covered up by ever rising levels of indebtedness in both imperialist and underdeveloped countries. The imperialist powers headed by the US have applied the policy of "neoliberal globalization" (denationalization, liberalization, privatization and deregulation of economies) at the expense of the world proletariat and the oppressed nations and peoples. And it has aggravated and deepened the crisis of overproduction and of finance capital and pushed the imperialist powers to compete with each other and adopt protectionist measures as in the decades before World War I and likewise before World War II.
The policy of "neoliberal globalization" has caused such worse crisis that the US has resorted to military Keynesianism. The Bush administration has sought to stimulate the US economy by stepping up military production. In this regard, it has also unleashed war hysteria, wars of aggression and state terrorism on a global scale under the pretext of combating terrorism and so-called rogue states. But the problem with high military production is that it has little employment potential. The US has also maintained a high level of consumerism by outsourcing goods, widening current account deficits and incurring an overly large foreign debt.
Third, despite the glaring failure of "neoliberal globalization" which is actually unbridled monopoly greed camouflaged by the petty bourgeois term "free market", the monopoly bourgeoisie continues to misrepresent its ideas and policies in petty bourgeois terms and give full play to petty bourgeois ideology as an instrument to befuddle not only the petty bourgeoisie but also the working people concerning the social, economic, political and cultural realities. Thus, the imperialists are funding and touting the petty bourgeois-run reformist nongovernmental organizations as the "civil society" and as the people's part in the triadic "social accord" of states, big business and a docile population.
The monopoly bourgeoisie is using a wide range of instruments (the cultural and educational system, the mass media, the electoral process, think tanks, policy institutes, charity foundations, religious institutions and so on) for promoting big bourgeois and petty bourgeois ideas in order to counter the resurgence of the proletarian revolutionary ideology and the revolutionary mass movements against imperialism and for socialism. Of course, various petty bourgeois currents masquerading as proletarian, such as classical revisionism (social democracy), Trotskyism and modern revisionism are still around to assist the monopoly bourgeoisie and trying to outflank the theory and practice of genuine Marxism-Leninism.
But no matter how clever are the ideological and political trappings of the monopoly bourgeoisie, these become futile as the crisis of the world capitalist system worsens and the proletarian revolutionaries and the revolutionary mass movement arise, persevere and further develop the revolutionary struggle. As in the prelude to the October Revolution from the defeat of the 1905 revolution to the February revolution in 1917 when the Bolsheviks appeared to be small and weak, their proletarian revolutionary descendants of today appear likewise, especially in the aftermath of the disintegration of the revisionist-ruled systems from 1989 to 1991. But once more the objective conditions are favourable for the resurgence of the revolutionary forces of the proletariat and the people.
Fourth, the use of higher technology in production and consumption under the auspices of "neoliberal globalization" has accelerated the concentration and centralization of capital in a few imperialist countries. This has aggravated the crisis of overproduction in all types of goods and services. In the aftermath of every crisis of overproduction are the increase of chronic unemployment and the lowering of incomes. The destruction of productive forces is not being segued by any new round of expanding production and reemployment.
The adoption of higher technology by the monopoly bourgeoisie for the purpose of maximizing profits, accumulating capital and reducing the variable capital for labor can only result in aggravating the crisis of overproduction and the narrowing of the market. The higher technology that can be used for determining needs and market demand, expanding production and accelerating distribution is suitable to socialism and not to monopoly capitalism.
The higher technology for collecting, storing, processing and communicating information and knowledge is mainly under the control of the monopoly bourgeoisie. This kind of technology is used to promote monopoly bourgeois ideology and politics with embellishment by petty bourgeois phraseology, to propagate the petty bourgeois ideology of self-interest and to preoccupy the public with the message of consumerism, sports and entertainment. Most of the personal computers and other gadgets for disseminating information are in the hands of the petty bourgeoisie, particularly the professionals and the youth with a high level of formal education. However, as the crisis of the world capitalist system worsens, the petty bourgeoisie becomes more discontented and more inclined to join up with the working people in progressive alliances against imperialism and reaction.
It is a sign of desperation and weakness that the monopoly bourgeoisie has been driven by crisis and competition to raise profits on new products by commercializing the information technology and other forms of technology that used to be exclusively for the military. Even now these openly available technologies can be used by the revolutionary forces for undertaking information and educational campaigns and for launching tactical offensives. The multi-media based on personal computers have been used to spread revolutionary theory and political messages and to mobilize people for mass actions. The cellphone has been used for precise tactical offensives by revolutionary armies.
Fifth, the contradictions between the working people of the world and the imperialist powers and reactionaries are intensifying. So are those between the countries asserting national independence and the imperialist powers. The imperialist powers are increasingly finding themselves at loggerheads with each other in the political and economic institutions that they have created to harmonize their relations against the working people of the world.
The continuing aggravation of the crisis of the world capitalist system under the policy of "neoliberal globalization" can push the imperialist powers to resort to Keynesianism, to further state monopoly capitalism, intensified monopoly competition and protectionism and to wars of aggression for the redivision of the world. The intensification of the inter-imperialist contradictions generates more favourable conditions for the resistance of the proletariat and people of the world.
Revolutionary parties of the proletariat must lead the resistance of the people in all types of countries, in the imperialist countries and in the dominated countries. The increase of competing imperialist powers deepens the crisis in every imperialist country. The proletariat in every country is driven by worse conditions to intensify resistance through strikes, protest rallies and other concerted actions. The working people and the oppressed nations and peoples suffering the most from imperialist plunder and war are the most hard pressed to rise up in armed revolution.
The crisis conditions of the moment generate the immediate issues of the struggle against monopoly capitalism and local reaction. But in recruiting and developing party members, the revolutionary parties of the proletariat must inculcate in them the historic mission of building socialism up to the theory and practice of continuing revolution under proletarian dictatorship. There is the need to counter the propaganda of the enemy that socialism is successful only up to a certain point and then fails. There is the need to assure the proletariat and the people that modern revisionism and the restoration of capitalism can be prevented and that socialism can be consolidated repeatedly until it gains the upper hand over imperialism on a global scale and reaches the threshold of communism. ###
