The moguls of monopoly capitalism and their retinue of executives, think tankers, politicians, academic pedants and publicists have been boasting since the 1989-1991 period that the socialist cause is dead and history has ended with capitalism and liberal democracy as the optimum condition of mankind.

In fact, the fall of the revisionist regimes, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the turmoil in China were a consequence of betraying socialism and of taking the capitalist road. They were part of the worsening crisis of the world capitalist system. In the same period, the centers of the world capitalist system were then in recession and the mass of imperialist-dominated countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America were in a continuous state of depression.

Since then, the former Soviet-bloc and third world countries have plunged further into a state of depression. Japan and the European Union have stagnated. In the entire decade of the 1990s, especially from 1995 to 1999, the US expanded its economy and claimed full employment by taking advantage of its lead in high technology and attracting foreign investments from Japan and the European Union, including the capital flight from the sinking "emergent markets".

The touters of imperialist globalization and the US-style "new economy" boasted that high-technology in the service of the "free market" had abolished the business cycle of boom and bust and driven the last nail on the coffin of socialism. They also spoke of the information technology as the instrument of democratization against totalitarianism.

Current studies show that the latest commercialized high technology has so far increased only marginally the efficiency in production of durable goods. It has served mainly the service sector, such as finance, trade, communications, entertainment, mass media, the health and legal professions, the military and police and the like.

But let us assume that in due course high technology is adopted to a far greater extent in all sectors of the economy in order to raise productivity. It cannot be but an instrument that drives the monopoly bourgeoisie to raise the organic composition of capital and accelerate the concentration and centralization of capital.

There is nothing new about the owners of capital adopting higher technology in order to increase productivity, maximize profits, accumulate capital and beat competitors within a capitalist country and in other capitalist countries. Marx and Engels said in the Communist Manifesto in 1848, "The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society."

The advance from the first stage of technological revolution (spinning jenny and steam engine) to the second (electro-mechanical motors and chemical processes) and further on to the third (computers and microprocessors, the joining of laser and fiber optics and other technologies) has merely served to increase exploitation, accelerate capital accumulation, and make capitalism more mature and more ripe for socialist revolution. Every higher technology that raises social productivity opens the road wider to socialism.

Capitalism is irrational and unjust precisely because the forces of large scale commodity production are social in character but the appropriation of the product in the relations of production is private. Thus socialist revolution is the scientific and moral necessity for socializing the relations of production.

The US itself is now in an economic decline and is pushing the entire world capitalist system into lower levels of economic, social, political and cultural degradation and turmoil. Being exposed are all the lies of "free market" globalization and the "new economy" as ever-growing due to high technology , particularly in the US.

It is clear more than ever that we are in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. By its own laws of motion and its accelerated cycle of boom and bust, monopoly capitalism keeps on accumulating, concentrating and centralizing capital through the exploitation and oppression of the world’s proletariat and people.

The world capitalist system has plunged deeper into the fourth stage of its general crisis since the latter half of the 1970s. The contradictions between imperialism and the oppressed nations and peoples, among the imperialist powers and between the monopoly bourgeoisie and the proletariat in that order are intensifying.

The present circumstances of global economic crisis and the new world disorder challenge and require the proletariat and the rest of the people to wage revolutionary struggles against imperialism and for national liberation, democracy and socialism.

To realize its historic mission of building socialism, the proletariat must win the battle for democracy. In the imperialist countries, the proletariat must conjoin with the nonproletarian masses to confront the deteriorating economic and social conditions and the political threats of chauvinism, fascism and racism and prepare for the overthrow of the monopoly bourgeoisie.

In the underdeveloped countries, where the land problem remains the main or major problem , the proletariat must link with the peasantry in order to wage the new-democratic revolution before the socialist revolution can commence. The battle for democracy takes the form of the new-democratic revolution under the leadership of the proletariat.

The struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is an epochal one. We must therefore take a long view of history. Without this, we cannot have the tenacity to persevere in the historic struggle for socialism and further on to communism, especially when we are confronted with such developments as those in 1989-91 when China was wracked by mass uprisings and the revisionist regimes were disintegrated in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

So far, the most significant periodization in the 153-year revolutionary history of the proletariat is in segments of 40 to 50 years. Each one of such segments is relatively short if we consider that the epochal struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie will run probably for some centuries before socialism can defeat imperialism on a world scale and make communism possible.

In every such segment of time, the proletariat has been faced with tremendous odds, suffered great setbacks and scored great victories. We have seen how one level of victories leads to a new and higher level in a cumulative manner. We have also seen how one level of setbacks leads to a lower level, such as modern revisionism running rampant for decades and ultimately leading to the full and open restoration of capitalism.

At this time, the world capitalist system is in grave crisis and yet its supporters ceaselessly try to demoralize the proletariat and the people with the negative examples of socialist countries that have degenerated and become capitalist. In this regard, it is absolutely necessary for us to have a sharp sense of the revolutionary history of the proletariat, grasp the basic principles and learn the positive and negative lessons from experience. With these, we are ready to take advantage of new conditions in order to advance the socialist cause.

In the era of free competition capitalism in the 19^th century, Marx and Engels founded scientific socialism in contraposition to utopian socialism. They did so in connection with their development of dialectical materialist philosophy, their critique of the capitalist economy and in their advancement of social science on the basis of historical materialism and the class struggle.

Still valid today is their proposition that the possibility as well as the necessity of socialism arises from the laws of motion of capitalism and from the material conditions of capitalist society. The industrial bourgeoisie needs the proletariat to work on the equipment and raw materials and create new material values from which to extract surplus value. The growth of the social forces of production strains against the integument of the capitalist relations of production.

In the course of competition, one capitalist wins against another capitalist by raising the organic composition of capital and decreasing the variable capital for wages in order to maximize his profits. The result is the crisis of overproduction relative to the decreased market demand.

Recurrent crisis leads to the bankruptcy of the losing capitalists or to their absorption by the winning capitalist, and to the concentration of capital until free competition is transformed into monopoly. It also leads to intensified class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat with the latter moving forward from being a class in itself to being a class for itself through the trade union movement and the building of the revolutionary party of the proletariat.

For the first time in history, here is a class that can liberate itself as well as other exploited classes, establish a socialist society and make the radical rupture from the millennia of private ownership of the means of production. But precisely because of its high revolutionary potential, the proletariat is confronted by the bourgeois state with violence. Therefore, the revolutionary goal of socialism can be realized only with the forcible overthrow of the bourgeois class dictatorship and its replacement by the proletarian class dictatorship.

From the Communist Manifesto and workers’ uprisings of 1848, it took more than 40 years before Marxism became the dominant trend in the European working class movement in the last decade of the 19^th century. Within that same period, the most significant armed revolution was undertaken by the proletariat to establish the Paris Commune of 1871. Marx celebrated this as the prototype of the proletarian dictatorship and drew revolutionary principles and lessons from its short-lived victory and its defeat.

Capitalism grew into monopoly capitalism or modern imperialism. Lenin took the leading role to further develop the theory and practice of Marxism in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. He was unwavering in his view that the wave of armed revolutions, which could be led by the proletariat, had moved to the East. Going by the theory of uneven development, he was certain that proletarian revolution could win victory in Russia, the weakest link in the chain of imperialist powers, especially under conditions of interimperialist war which could be turned into a revolutionary civil war.

In the Second International, he contended with the classical revisionists, headed by Kautsky, who tried to purge Marxism of its revolutionary essence and act as the parliamentary tail of the bourgeoisie by whipping up social chauvinism and social pacifism, supporting colonialism and imperialism and voting for the war budget.

Forty-six years after the Paris Commune, the Bolsheviks carried out the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 and established the first sustained socialist state. Soon enough, the imperialist powers banded together in an attempt to destroy the newly established socialist state. But the revolutionary proletariat, in alliance with the peasantry, prevailed.

Under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, the Bolsheviks and the Soviet people proved that socialism could be built in one country. After the transitional New Economic Policy served the purpose of reviving the economy, Stalin successfully engaged in a series of five-year plans to build socialist industry, collectivize and mechanize agriculture, educate and train a huge number of experts in various fields and raise the material and cultural standards of living and change the urban-rural ratio of the population from 25-75 percent to 75-25 percent.

In the process of socialist revolution and construction in the Soviet Union, class struggle continued in the society at large, in the institutions and organs of state and party leadership. As Lenin had pointed out, the bourgeoisie multiplies its resistance ten thousandfold after being deprived of its power and property. It uses every possible way to oppose socialism and avails of reactionary traditions and its connections with the international bourgeoisie. Antagonistic contradictions existed between the people and the enemy as well as nonantagonistic ones among the people. Some of these contradictions were handled well, others were not.

Under the leadership of Lenin and then of Stalin, the Third International inspired the international working class movement and resulted in the establishment of communist parties in scores of countries. The socialist example of the Soviet Union and the work of the Third International promoted the world proletarian revolution and struck fear in the hearts of the imperialists.

With one hand, the monopoly bourgeoisie used social democracy in a scheme to discredit the communists and split the working class movement and with the other hand it used the open rule of terror through fascism to attack the communists on an international scale and attempted to destroy the Soviet Union. But economic crisis and the second interimperialist war provided the favorable conditions for the rise of several socialist countries and the vigorous advance of national liberation movements.

For so long as the countries pioneering in socialism remained socialist, they could withstand, confront and defeat the threats and acts of aggression launched by the US and other imperialist countries in the course of the Cold War. They could also take advantage of the contradictions within and among imperialist countries as well as between the imperialists and the oppressed nations and people.

No socialist country has ever been defeated by any imperialist war of aggression. What has proven to be the most lethal to socialism is the rise to power of modern revisionists as a consequence of degeneration within socialist countries. This involves the liquidation of the proletarian class stand, the abandonment of class struggle, the mishandling of contradictions, the persistence of unproletarian customs and habits, the covert opposition and sabotage by reactionary diehards, complacency and degeneration of party cadres and members, the rise of new corrosive bourgeois trends and forces, the misallocation of resources and unchecked corruption of bureaucrats.

To build socialism, it is necessary to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, socialize the means of production, raise the level of material, technical and cultural conditions of society and have adequate national defense that relies mainly on mass mobilization and secondarily on weapons. But all these are not enough.

A continuous and protracted proletarian cultural revolution, on top of scientific and technological revolution which is also cultural, is needed. Otherwise, the victories in the overthrow of the old system, the liberation and development of productive forces and the improvement of material and cultural conditions are not sufficient for keeping alive the proletarian revolutionary spirit and preventing the rise of modern revisionism.

The proletarian cultural revolution must promote class struggle as the key link, put revolutionary politics in command of production, strengthen the socialist relations of production and revolutionize the superstructure. The point is to carry out the cultural revolution under proletarian dictatorship in order to combat revisionism, prevent the restoration of capitalism and consolidate socialism.

The big mass of professionals, technicians and students produced by the socialist system can easily acquire a petty-bourgeois outlook if they are not steeped in the proletarian stand, viewpoint and method through their experience in proletarian cultural revolution and proletarian internationalism.

Without the proletarian cultural revolution, they become the initial social base for the rise of modern revisionism. As they enter the bureaucracy of the state, party, economic enterprises and cultural institutions, they promote contempt for the proletariat, worship the imperialist countries and conjoin with the vacillators and degenerates among the older crop of bureaucrats.

In the case of China, before the Dengist counterrevolution started to adulate the US, a considerable number of the new intelligentsia and bureaucrats had gone to the Soviet Union for training. Many of them worshipped everything that carried the Soviet brand, including the revisionist trend. They openly did so in the 1950s and covertly after the Sino-Soviet ideological debate broke out into the open in the early 1960’s.

Revisionism starts to gain ascendance as soon as the communist party in a socialist country proclaims the end of the class struggle. In the Soviet Union, the revisionist mantra was that the proletariat had "accomplished its historic mission". In China, it was the "dying out of the class struggle".

The liquidation of the proletarian class stand and denial of the class struggle are the prologue to the flood of ideas and policies that breach the principles of socialism, restore capitalism in the guise of developing the productive forces (actually economism and productionism), bring in the tentacles of imperialism and revive the monsters of the old society. Increasingly, ahistorical comparisons are made with regard to levels of development between the socialist and imperialist countries in order to denigrate socialism and develop contempt for it.

We must grasp the basic principle that the building of socialism takes a long historical period. This means that the dictatorship of the proletariat is needed for a long time in building socialism, until socialism prevails over imperialism on a world scale and thereby gives way to communism. Socialism is possible in one or several countries but communism is possible only upon the global defeat of imperialism.

Mao developed Marxism-Leninism to a new and higher stage by confronting the problem of modern revisionism centered in the Soviet Union, criticizing it and then putting forward the theory and practice of continuing revolution under proletarian dictatorship through the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR). On the whole, the GPCR succeeded for 10 years, 1966 to 1976. But so soon after the death of Mao, the Dengist counterrevolution reversed it. This can only mean that the theory and practice of proletarian cultural revolution must be further studied and developed.

The proletarian cultural revolution correctly targeted modern revisionism. It was the weapon that averted an earlier defeat of Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line. This was vindicated and proven correct as undisguised restoration of capitalism occurred in the revisionist ruled countries. Mao is correct in teaching that when the revisionists take power they overthrow the proletarian dictatorship and begin to restore capitalism.

The theory of continuing revolution under proletarian dictatorship through the cultural revolution is a crucial weapon for analyzing what went wrong with the former socialist countries, for holding our ground against the taunt of the enemy that socialism is hopeless, and for anticipating problems in establishing and consolidating socialism.

As a result of the betrayal of socialism by revisionist ruling cliques, we are now in a world situation similar to that period before World War I in the sense that no formidable socialist power confronts the imperialist powers, and that monopoly capitalism once again waves the anachronistic flag of "free market" or "free trade" while exploiting and oppressing the proletariat and the people of the world in the most retrogressive and ruthless ways.

But the proletarian revolutionary parties can avail themselves of the rich historical experience of the proletariat in socialist revolution, construction and cultural revolution. They can learn both the positive and negative lessons in order to strengthen themselves in ideology, politics and organization, be in a position to take advantage of the worsening crisis of the world capitalist system and advance the world proletarian revolution through revolutionary mass struggles.

Within the current decade, the class struggle can be expected to intensify in the imperialist countries, especially in those that have most stagnated in the previous decade. The current recessionary trend in the US will cause collapses in finance and production in other countries. As in previous times, the monopoly bourgeoisie can be expected to turn to fascism to oppose the mass movement of the proletariat and nonproletarian masses. At the same time, contradictions among the imperialist powers can intensify upon the aggravation of the crisis of overproduction and the rise of domestic fascist movements.

The monopoly bourgeoisie appears to be so powerful by its ownership and control of the highest forms of technology, by its accelerated concentration and centralization of capital and by its capability to move trillions of dollars at electronic speed. But all these precisely have accelerated the recurrence of the crisis of overproduction as well as financial collapses, with devastating consequences to the working people and client-states.

The monopoly bourgeoisie has the information technology in its hands and maintains a tight control over the capital-intensive and the most powerful instruments of propaganda. It looks like the progressive forces can never compete with these. But history has proven that whatever are the available instruments and forms of communication, these fall into the hands of the people after the cry of mass discontent and the revolutionary mass actions ring louder than these and isolate the ruling class until it is defeated.

In the hands of the monopoly bourgeoisie, information technology is a tool for mass deception, exploitation and oppression. But in the hands of the revolutionary forces and people, it is a means for knowing social needs and demands, for promoting democracy, for effective planning, for attuning production to the general and specific needs of the people, for raising efficiency in production and distribution, and for developing revolutionary education and culture.

As policeman of the world and No. 1 enemy of the people, US imperialism appears to be invincible with its high-tech weaponry. But this is self-defeating as it is exceedingly costly and is effective mostly for targeting and destroying fixed structures under the responsibility of recalcitrant or disobedient client states. US imperialist strategy and weaponry necessitate that the proletariat and peoples of the world adopt a revolutionary strategy to defeat the US and the local reactionaries on the ground through protracted people’s war and other forms of revolutionary mass actions, depending on the stage of development of the world proletarian revolution and the concrete conditions of a country.

So far in history, the proletariat in imperialist countries has not seized political power from the monopoly bourgeoisie, unless the proletarian revolution takes advantage of an interimperialist war. That is because an imperialist power is strongest in its own homeground and is in a position to either appease or suppress the masses. But such an imperialist power can be brought down through a combination of class struggle by the proletariat, the advances of revolutionary movements in the underdeveloped countries and the intensification of interimperialist contradictions.

In the entire run of the epochal struggle of the monopoly bourgeoisie and the proletariat, proletarian revolution in imperialist countries is certain. However, it is possible only with the steadfast propagation of Marxism-Leninism, the building of the revolutionary party of the proletariat and the development of the revolutionary mass movement. The advance of the revolutionary movement can accelerate if the imperialist country is so crisis-stricken that it exposes the brutal face of the monopoly bourgeoisie and the revolutionary party is prepared to lead the upsurge of the mass movement.

In the meantime, the highest potential for armed revolution led by the proletariat are now with peoples in the countries most exploited by the imperialists and the local exploiting classes. The greatest advantage available to them is that they can wage protracted people’s war ahead of proletarian revolutions in the centers of world capitalism. In some countries, Marxist-Leninist parties are already waging protracted people’s war. In other countries, they are preparing to do so. They are opening the way for a revolutionary conflagration of unprecedented proportions.

The proletarian revolutionaries in the former socialist countries ought to be in the best position to build Marxist-Leninist parties because they can draw principles and lessons from previous experience in socialist revolution and construction some generations ago. But they have to contend with decades of revisionist misrepresentation of socialism and the discredit it suffered as a result. They need to make a critical study of modern revisionism and learn how to gain the trust and confidence of the proletarian and nonproletarian masses for a new socialist revolution.

The imperialist policy of aggravating neocolonialism with neoliberalism has weakened puppet states. The ruling cliques run bankrupt and debt-ridden governments. Thus, their puppetry, corruption and repressiveness drive the people to rise up in mass protest. They can be overthrown through tactics of the broad united front and militant mass actions. The revolutionary party of the proletariat in one country can thus overthrow one ruling clique after another and in the process strengthen itself until it is ready to overthrow the entire ruling system. If the imperialists engineer a military coup at any time, then this would be an even more hated target of the revolutionary movement.

The devastation of national economies as a result of "free market" globalization is so sweeping and so intense that it is feasible for the proletariat and people in many countries in several continents to wage armed revolution and other forms of revolutionary struggle against imperialism and local reaction within the next 10 to 30 years. The neoliberal revanchism of the monopoly capitalists against the proletariat and people is so rapacious and so violent that the resurgence of the anti-imperialist and socialist movement is bound to be unprecedented in scope and intensity.

What is needed is the development of the subjective forces of the revolution, chiefly the Marxist-Leninist party. Such a party needs to lead all forms of mass organizations and all forms of revolutionary struggle. Most important of all, it must wage armed revolution according to the concrete conditions of a country and must prepare for it if it is not yet waging such a struggle.

So far, since 1990, the new world disorder has come to the fore mainly with imperialist wars of aggression and armed conflicts among reactionary forces. These wars of aggression and armed conflicts expose and exacerbate the grave crisis conditions of the world capitalist system, and point to the possibility and necessity of increasing the number of armed revolutions for national liberation, democracy and socialism. The current turbulence in the world is the prelude to social revolution. #