150 years since the Paris Commune — Abstract from Karl Marx's "The Civil War in France"

Today, 18 March 2021, marks the 150th anniversary of the heroic Paris Commune, the first time in the history of mankind when the state power passed, albeit for a short time, into the hands of the proletariat, the most pioneering and only revolutionary class of capitalist society. 

The Commune founded by the workers of Paris lived for only 72 days. However its historic importance was enormous. Nothing after the Paris Commune would be the same for the working class, nor for the bourgeoisie which, from then on, would be forced to live with the nightmare of a revolution overthrowing its dominance.

On the occasion of the 150 years since the Commune de Paris, we publish two chapters from Karl Marx's work "The Civil War in France" (1871) which refer to the historical events of the then period. 

Want Democracy? Then You Need a People's Dictatorship

 By Charles Andrews.

A mob was permitted, even helped, to take over the United States Capitol building on January 6, 2021. No government can allow that sort of thing and survive.

Officials and public figures ranging from social-democrats like Congressional Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez through a broad range of conventional politicians and even continuing into the right wing condemned the action as a threat to democracy.

Marxist-Leninist Theory with Nikos Mottas | The Dictatorship of the Proletariat: A Higher Form of Democracy [Audio]

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM - Dictatorship of the Proletariat: A Higher form of Democracy

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM: 

ON THE SOCIALIST POWER.

Central Council of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE).

Published by Synchroni Epochi, 2013.

Click here to read the book in pdf.

PART II: THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT: A HIGHER FORM OF DEMOCRACY.

The leap that takes place during the socialist construction, i.e. during the transition from capitalism to communism, is qualitatively higher than any previous one, since communist relations, as non-exploitative, cannot be formed in capitalism. The political revolution is the precondition for these new relations to be imposed and dominate, i.e. the conquest of power by the working class and the establishment of its own state, the dictatorship of the proletariat. 

This is a basic difference in the transition to the communist socioeconomic formation in relation with the previous. In the framework of the transition from an exploitative socioeconomic formation to another, the new relations could be developed and dominate first in the confines of the previous socioeconomic formation and then, as the last part of this process, the class that was the bearer of the new relations struggled for and took power. This happened for example in relation to capitalism. 

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM - The phony dilemma: "Democracy" or Totalitarianism"?

TRUTH AND LIES ABOUT SOCIALISM: 

ON THE SOCIALIST POWER.

Central Council of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE).

Published by Synchroni Epochi, 2013.

Click here to read the book in pdf.

PART I: THE PHONY DILEMMA: "DEMOCRACY" OR TOTALITARIANISM"?

INTRODUCTION. 

A great part of anti-communist, anti-socialist propaganda focuses on the issue of the so called lack of “freedom and democracy” during the construction of the new society, of socialism-communism. The main focus of that attack is the revolutionary workers’ power, the state of the working class, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the role of the Communist Party. The capitalists cannot abide it; they tremble before the idea that the working class will emerge as the dominant class, and that they will be thrown into the dustbin of history. 

Joseph V. Stalin- Concerning Questions of Leninism

Concerning Questions of Leninism.

By Joseph V. Stalin.

 January 25, 1926.

Source: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954 via Marxists Internet Archive.

Dedicated to the Leningrad Organisation of the C.P.S.U (B).

I. THE DEFINITION OF LENINISM

The pamphlet The Foundations of Leninism contains a definition of Leninism which seems to have received general recognition. It runs as follows:

“Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution. To be more exact, Leninism is the theory and tactics of the proletarian revolution in general, the theory and tactics of the dictatorship of the proletariat in particular.”1