Socialism
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Here are a collection of quotes to combat Revisionists and Ultra-Leftists.

Part 4 of This Series:

“Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call Communism the real movement which sublates the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence” - Karl Marx

“We must announce to the governments: We know you are the armed power which is directed against the proletarians; we will against you in peaceful way where it is possible, and with arms if it should become necessary” - Karl Marx

“To confine Marxism to the theory of class struggle means curtailing Marxism, distorting it, reducing it to something acceptable to the bourgeoisie. Only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle and the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat” - V.I. Lenin

“Owing to the present circumstances the whole world is developing faster than we are. While developing, the capitalist world is directing all its forces against us. That is how the matter stands! That is why we must devote special attention to this struggle” - V.I. Lenin

“Some people believe that Marxism and Anarchism are based on the same principles and that the disagreements between them concern only tactics, so that, in the opinion of these people, no distinction whatsoever can be drawn between these two trends. This is a great mistake. We believe that the Anarchists are real enemies of Marxism. Accordingly, we also hold that a real struggle must be waged against real enemies” - J.V. Stalin

“You are wrong if you think that the Communists are enamoured of violence. They would be very pleased to drop violent methods if the ruling class agreed to give way to the working class. But the experience of history speaks against such an assumption” - J.V. Stalin

“It is difficult for me to imagine what ‘personal liberty’ is enjoyed by an unemployed person, who goes about hungry, and cannot find employment. Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished, where there is no oppression of some by others, where there is no unemployment and poverty, where a man is not haunted by the fear of being tomorrow deprived of work, of home and of bread. Only in such a society is real, and not paper, personal and every other liberty possible” - J.V. Stalin

“The People’s Communes were to represent a shortcut to Communism. Three years of toil would lead to ten thousand years of happiness. Poetry was displacing Marxism as a guide to economics” - R. Palme Dutt

“The socialist society could probably be divided into two phases. The first one is undeveloped socialism and the second one is relatively developed socialism. The latter may need much longer time to be achieved than the former” - Mao Zedong

“In a country such as China completing socialist construction is a tough task. Hence it’s still early to say we’ve completed our socialist construction” - Mao Zedong

“Understanding China’s realities is the fundamental basis for understanding all the problems of the revolution” - Mao Zedong

“Oppose book worship; Seek truth from facts; No investigation, no right to speak” - Mao Zedong

“People of the world, unite and defeat the U.S. aggressors and all their running dogs! People of the world, be courageous, and dare to fight, defy difficulties and advance wave upon wave. Then the whole world will belong to the people. Monsters of all kinds shall be destroyed!” - Mao Zedong

“If the imperialists insist on launching WW3, it is certain that several hundred million more will turn to socialism, and then there will not be much room left on earth for the imperialists; it’s also likely that the whole structure of imperialism will utterly collapse” - Mao Zedong

“A new upsurge in the struggle against U.S. imperialism is now emerging throughout the world. Ever since the Second World War, U.S. imperialism and its followers have been continuously launching wars of aggression and the people in various countries have been continuously waging revolutionary wars to defeat the aggressors. The danger of a new world war still exists, and the people of all countries must get prepared. But revolution is the main trend in the world today” - Mao Zedong

“The Soviet people and Government helped us both morally and materially in the years of our struggle for independence, and. they continue to help us in every way: with credits, industrial plants and specialists” - (President Henri Boumedienne of Algeria, in New Times, June 9, 1965)

“The progress of the African peoples is unthinkable without the fraternal and sincere assistance of the Soviet Union" - (President Sekou Toure of Guinea, October 2, 1965)

“There never was and never will be an anti-Soviet Communism” - Janos Kadar

“What fool (durak) invented this word perestroika? Why rebuild the house? Is there anything wrong in the Soviet Union? We are fine! What is there to rebuild? It is necessary to improve, reorganise, but why, if the house is not falling apart, why does it need to be rebuilt?” - Volodymyr Shcherbytsky

“All levels of society contribute to the impetus for social revolution. Within the base, advancments in the means of production precipitate conflicts with the relations of production. The inherent revolutionary nature of capitalism at work within the means of production runs counter to the institutional path dependencies found in the relations of production. This conflict ultimately provides the magnitude of revolutionary impetus but no direction. Direction emerges as the resultant sum of all applied ideological vectors emanating from the superstructure. Chief among these vectors is the reactionary. This is the tendency which must be overcome” - Louis Althusser

“With the revolution progressing and getting into its stride our view on and attitude towards the role of the young people and students changed radically. We defined the young people and students as constituting the fully-fledged main force of the revolution, thus breaking away from the old viewpoint according to which the motive force of the revolution had been defined with the main emphasis on the workers and peasants. This is proved to be correct by the course of the youth and student movement… the old theory which did not regard students even as a social stratum does not conform with the actual situation in our country” - Kim Il-sung

“So, to build socialism it is necessary to develop the productive forces. Poverty is not socialism. To uphold socialism, a socialism that is to be superior to capitalism, it is imperative first and foremost to eliminate poverty. True, we are building socialism, but that doesn’t mean that what we have achieved so far is up to the socialist standard. Not until the middle of the next century, when we have reached the level of the moderately developed countries, shall we be able to say that we have really built socialism and to declare convincingly that it is superior to capitalism. We are advancing towards that goal” - Deng Xiaoping

“The socialist system has been basically established in China, the principal contradiction within the country was no longer the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie but the one resulted from the need of the people for rapid economic development” - Deng Xiaoping

“It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white; as long as it catches mice, it’s a good cat” - Deng Xiaoping

“Without the existence of the Soviet Union the socialist revolution in Cuba could not have been possible" - (Fidel Castro, speech in the Red Square, April 28, 1963)

“Lucanamarca. Neither they nor we have forgotten it, to be sure, because they got an answer that they didn’t imagine possible. More than 80 were annihilated, that is the truth. And we say openly that there were excesses, as was analysed in 1983. But everything in life has two aspects. Our task was to deal a devastating blow in order to put them in check, to make them understand that it was not going to be so easy. On some occasions, like that one, it was the Central Leadership itself that planned the action and gave instructions. That’s how it was. In that case, the principal thing is that we dealt them a devastating blow, and we checked them and they understood that they were dealing with a different kind of people’s fighters, that we weren’t the same as those they had fought before. This is what they understood. The excesses are the negative aspect… If we were to give the masses a lot of restrictions, requirements and prohibitions, it would mean that deep down we didn’t want the waters to overflow. And what we needed was for the waters to overflow, to let the flood rage, because we know that when a river floods its banks it causes devastation, but then it returns to its riverbed… [T]he main point was to make them understand that we were a hard nut to crack, and that we were ready for anything, anything” - Abimael ‘Gonzalo’ Guzmán

“No theory in history can match Marxism in terms of rationale, truth, and spread, and no theory has exerted such a huge influence on the world as Marxism. This proves the truth and vigor in Marxism and its irreplaceable role in understanding, reshaping and advancing the world” - Xi Jinping

“Although there is a vast ocean between China and Latin America, we are connected heart and soul. We are bound together not only be profound traditional friendship and close interests, but also by our common pursuit of beautiful dreams” - Xi Jinping

“I believe that, for real Communists, Stalin weighs no less than Lenin, and in a percentage of right decisions, he doesn’t even have an equal in world history” - Xi Jinping

Part 5:

  • enigma@lemmygrad.mlOP
    2·
    2 years ago

    “What kept production in true, or more or less true, proportions? It was demand that dominated supply, that preceded it. Production followed close on the heels of consumption. Large-scale industry, forced by the very instruments at its disposal to produce on an ever-increasing scale, can no longer wait for demand. Production precedes consumption, supply compels demands” - Karl Marx

    “Not as with the instrument, which the worker animates and makes into his organ with his skill and strength, and whose handling therefore depends on his virtuosity. Rather, it is the machine which possesses skill and strength in place of the worker, is itself the virtuoso, with a soul of its own in the mechanical laws acting through it; and it consumes coal, oil etc., just as the worker consumes food, to keep up its perpetual motion. The worker’s activity, reduced to a mere abstraction of activity, is determined and regulated on all sides by the movement of the machinery, and not the opposite. The science which compels the inanimate limbs of the machinery, by their construction, to act purposefully, as an automaton, does not exist in the worker’s consciousness, but rather acts upon him through themachine as an alien power, as the power of the machine itself” - Karl Marx

    “If the whole working day were to shrink to the length of its necessary component, surplus labour would vanish, something which is impossible under the regime of capital. Only the abolition of the capitalist form of production would permit the reduction of the working day to the necessary labour-time. But even in that case the latter would expand to take up more of the day, and for two reasons: first, because the worker’s conditions of life would improve, and his aspirations become greater, and second, because a part of what is now surplus labour would then count as necessary labour, namely the labour which is necessary for the formation of a social fund for reserve and accumulation” - Karl Marx

    “The possessor of money or commodities actually turns into a capitalist in such cases only where the minimum sum advanced for production greatly exceeds the maximum of the Middle Ages” - Karl Marx

    “Let us take, first of all, the words ‘proceeds of labour’ in the sense of the product of labour; then the co-operative proceeds of labour are the total social product. From this must now be deducted: First cover for replacement of the means of production used up. Second additional portion for expansion of production. Third, reserve or insurance funds to provide against accidents dislocations caused by natural calamities, etc. Before this is divided among the individuals, there has to be deducted again, from it: First the general costs of administration not belonging to production. This part will, from the outset, be very considerably restricted in comparison with present-day society, and it diminishes in proportion as the new society develops. Second, that which is intended for the common satisfaction of needs, such as schools, health services, etc. From the outset, this part grows considerably in comparison with present-day society, and it grows in proportion as the new society develops. Third, funds for those unable to work, etc., in short, for what is included under so-called poor relief today. The ‘undiminished’ proceeds of labour have already unnoticeably become converted into the ‘diminished’ proceeds, although what the producer is deprived of in his capacity as a private individual benefits him directly or indirectly in his capacity as a member of society” - Karl Marx

    “Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention” - Karl Marx

    “It seems that every worker’s party in a great country can grow only through internal strife, this is based on the general law of dialectical development. The German Party became what it is in the struggle between the Eisenachers and the Lassalleans” - Friedrich Engels

    “In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things. In all these movements, they bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question, no matter what its degree of development at the time” - Friedrich Engels

    “The Socialist of another country cannot expose the government and bourgeoisie of a country at war with ‘his own’ nation, and not only because he does not know that country’s language, history, specific features, etc., but also because such exposure is part of imperialist intrigue, and not an internationalist duty” - V.I. Lenin

    “This so-called bipartisan system prevailing in America and Britain has been one of the most powerful means in preventing the rise of an independent working class, i.e., genuinely socialist, party” - V.I. Lenin

    “The Executive Committee of the Third International must, in my opinion, positively condemn, and call upon the next congress of the Communist International to condemn both the policy of refusing to work in reactionary trade unions in general (explaining in detail why such refusal is unwise, and what extreme harm it does to the cause of the proletarian revolution)” - V.I. Lenin

    “It is impossible fully to grasp Marx’s Capital, and especially its first chapter, if you have not studied through and understood the whole of Hegel’s logic. Consequently, none of the Marxists for the past half century have understood Marx!” - V.I. Lenin

    “Without surplus product you cannot build the new system. It is necessary that the workers understand that under capitalism they are interested in what it is that they are getting. But under socialism they take care of their own society and this is what educates the worker. Income remains but it acquires another character. The surplus product is there, but it does not go to the exploiter, but towards increasing the welfare of the people, strengthening defence etc. The surplus product gets transformed” - J.V. Stalin

    “In our country distribution takes place according to labour. We have qualified and unqualified labour. How should we define an engineer’s work? It is multiplied simple labour. With us incomes are distributed according to labour. It cannot be that this distribution happens independently of the law of value. We think that the entire economy is run according to the plan, but it does not always happen this way. There is a lot of spontaneity with us also. We knowingly, and not spontaneously, make calculations according to the law of value. In their system the law of value operates spontaneously, bringing in its wake destruction, and demands huge sacrifices. In our system the character of the law of value undergoes a change, it acquires a new content, a new form. We knowingly, and not spontaneously, set prices. Engels speaks of leaps. It is a risky formula, but it can be accepted, if we correctly understand the leap from the realm of necessity into the realm of freedom. We must understand freedom of will as necessity recognised, where the leap means a transition from spontaneous inevitability to the recognition of necessity. In their system the law of value operates spontaneously and it leads to large-scale destruction. But we should conduct things in such a way that there are fewer sacrifices. The necessity resulting from the operation of the law of value must be used by us consciously” - J.V. Stalin

    [Surplus product in a socialist society - the term is embarrassing] “On the contrary, we have to educate the worker that the surplus product is needed by us, there is more responsibility. The worker must understand that he produces not only for himself and his family, but also for creating reserves and strengthening defence etc. [In the Critique of the Gotha Programme Marx did not write about surplus product] If you want to seek answers for everything in Marx you will get nowhere. You have in front of you a laboratory such as the U.S.S.R. which has existed now for more than 20 years but you think that Marx ought to be knowing more than you about socialism. Do you not understand that in the Critique of the Gotha Programme Marx was not in a position to foresee!” - J.V. Stalin

    “The Nazi party is the party of big business, on the same principle, if not in the exact form, that the Democratic and Republican parties are the parties of big business in the U.S.A.” - William Z. Foster

    “First of all, the vanguard will divorce itself from the masses when it fails to perform its obligations as the vanguard of the people, when it fails to represent at all times and in all circumstances the maximum interests of the broadest possible sections of the people, when it fails to define correct tasks, policies and methods of work at the right time and when it fails to stick to the truth and correct its mistakes in good time. In other words, tailism and negligence willl lead to our estrangement from the masses; Secondly, the vanguard divroces itself from the masses when it fails to adopt a correct attitude and correct methods to lead them, when it fails to help them recognise in their own experience the correctness of the Partys slogans and act accordingly, when the slogans it adopts are too radical and the policies ultra-Left, or when the forms of struggle and organisation it advocated are impossible to carry out at the time or unacceptable to the masses. In other words, commandism, adventurism and closed-doorism will lead to isolation from the masses” - Liu Shaoqi