Re: Russia today
Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2022 2:31 pm
On the question of a new era
No. 5/69, V.2022
On February 24, when the start of the special operation was announced, Russia, and with it the whole world, crossed a historical milestone. Some naive citizens still believe that Russia and Ukraine will conclude some kind of "Minsk-3" and everything will return to normal. Will not come back. Too many contradictions have accumulated between American and Russian imperialism (and we are well aware that military operations in Ukraine are a struggle against the US and NATO). Putin hoped to agree with the "Western partners" that they would be "friends" against China in exchange for the recognition of Russia's sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. Did not work out. Concluding a truce with the Kyiv regime now means not only admitting one's military defeat, but also renouncing claims to influence in Eastern Europe. But this is not enough. The US imperialists have already started the flywheel of sanctions, forcing their satellites to literally cut themselves to the quick, cutting off economic ties with the “criminal” Russian Federation. And, apparently, this flywheel will not stop until the competitor of the USA - Russia - is finally broken.
The Russian oligarchy apparently did not support the idea of a military solution to the conflict, fearing sanctions and international isolation. But Putin managed to convince the oligarchy that the operation would go quickly: Russian troops would enter Ukraine with lightning speed, surround Kyiv, Zelensky would flee like Yanukovych, Medvedchuk or some other “pro-Russian” oligarch would come to power, and it would all be over. The West, of course, will react to this, introduce some sanctions, but they will not be so painful (in the end, the winners are not judged) and they can be compensated for by fresh production - Ukraine. I guess the situation looked something like this. But then it became clear to everyone :a special operation is a long time and there is no way back. At the end of March, our oligarchs did not yet understand this, they thought that they could play everything back, pretend that there was no special operation - this is how I explain Medinsky's bleating about "substantial progress in the negotiation process." But these bleatings irritated the proletarian masses, who consider the denazification of Ukraine a just and necessary thing, and perceive any negotiations with the Kyiv junta as nothing more than a betrayal. Now, as they say, either the chest is in crosses, or the head is in the bushes. The defeat of the RF Armed Forces in Ukraine may be fraught with political destabilization. That is why the termination of the special operation and the return to the former "status quo" is no longer possible.
So, the world has reached a new historical milestone, you can call it a new era. What is this era? You can answer: the era of exacerbation of inter-imperialist contradictions, threatening to develop into a world slaughter. Indeed, the military conflict in Ukraine is a consequence of the accumulated contradictions between the old predator, the United States, and the young predator, the Russian Federation. But there is one detail, if it is not taken into account, then it is impossible to adequately assess the entire course of events. The confrontation between Ukraine and the Russian Federation is in reality the confrontation between NATO and the Russian Federation, but this is just an episode of the global and irreconcilable struggle between the United States and China. Indeed, the Russian Federation cannot be perceived by the US imperialists as the main opponent due to its economic weakness and technological backwardness. China is what the United States sees as the "enemy of the civilized world," i.e., its main competitor.
As you know, many of our leftists believe that the United States and China are two equivalent imperialist predators, grappling with each other, like the Entente and the Triple Alliance. We, the breakthroughists, consider this position to be erroneous. In our materials, we prove that China is a socialist state. Why socialist? Because in China the dictatorship of the proletariat represented by the leadership of the Communist Party. If we take the leftist theses about bourgeois power in the PRC as true, then we will have to admit that we are dealing with a special breed of capitalists who feel the need to diligently pass themselves off as communists. Or maybe it's a matter of a special Chinese proletariat, which has managed to develop immunity to bourgeois propaganda, which forces local capitalists to mimic the Reds so diligently? How did the leftists, the witnesses of "Chinese imperialism", able to explain the fact that in the People's Republic of China Marxism is promoted at the state level, an entire institution of Marxism is functioning, and historical films are being made that emphasize the leading role of the Communist Party? In honor of the 200th anniversary of Marx, they even released an animated series, clearly aimed at teenagers, where the exploitative essence of capital is exposed. Although, of course, there are Trotskyist holy fools who do not see any contradiction in this and claim that anti-capitalist propaganda contributes to the preservation of ... the capitalist dictatorship of the CCP! In addition to the dictatorship of the proletariat, China has a powerful public sector operating on a planned basis. It's funny that in the Western liberal publications there are claims that in fact China has fake capitalism, because private corporations are controlled by the state and the CCP. That awkward occasion
So, to call the confrontation between the US and the PRC imperialistic is to make a gross mistake. In contrast to the beginning of the 20th century, there is a powerful socialist state in the world, China. In addition, there are still small socialist countries and countries oriented towards communism: North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Venezuela. That is why the parallels with 1914, which the well-known left-wing blogger is so fond of drawing, recently stunned with the statement that “there is not a single proletarian state in the world for which the workers would be worth fighting for,” are inappropriate. It's a lie! There is such a state and not one! However, the struggle of US imperialism against China is incomparable with the struggle against the USSR, primarily because the CCP does not demonstrate its desire to become the bulwark of the revolution, the homeland of all proletarians.
A caustic opponent may say: what about the CPC, if it expresses the interests of the proletarians, contributes to their infection with philistinism, nationalism and other abominations? Here the mistake lies in the fact that the opponent identifies the interests of the proletarian with the "interests" of building communism. He argues as follows: if communism saves the proletarian from wage slavery, provides him with all the necessary cultural and material benefits, then he must definitely be for communism, and if he is against it, then bourgeois propagandists simply fooled him. In reality, there is no such interest in “building communism”. This issue was discussed in detail in a separate article. In short, interest is an unbridled instinct. Communist society, on the other hand, is the opposite of the dictates of instincts. The interest of the proletarian is to profitably sell his labor power. A person must overcome his proletarianism in himself, rise above material interests, in order to become a true builder of communism, that is, a society based on a scientific worldview. The CCP expresses the interests of the proletariat in the sense that it subordinates the overall development of the economy to the gradual satisfaction of the needs of the broad masses, and not to the hedonism of a handful of oligarchs. The CCP adheres to the most general provisions of Marxism, which is why Deng Xiaoping's "perestroika" did not develop into Gorbachev's "catastrophe".
Trotskyists demand that socialism (the lower phase of communism) be ideal and sterile, like a textbook, and if there are some flaws in it, then they instantly declare it “deformed”, “mutant” - in short, wrong. But socialism is not something static, frozen, it is a process of fierce struggle between the old exploitative relations and the new communist ones. And NEP in China is part of this struggle. While the CCP's positions on a number of issues cannot be considered consistently Marxist, we have no grounds to accuse the Party of betraying the working class, just as there are no grounds to deny China "socialistism", albeit with certain reservations.
Returning to the main theme, one should ask: what is the essence of the new era? I believe that it would be correct to formulate it this way: the new era is the era of the collapse of liberal-democratic (petty-bourgeois) illusions. The razor of sanctions cuts not only Russian, but also Western inhabitants. The standard of living drops sharply. So, for example, according to media reports , the number of Americans living from paycheck to paycheck has grown to 64%. The cost of gasoline in the US breaks records. What can we say about Europe, which is directly suffering from the sanctions war unleashed by Washington. As is usually the case under capitalism, the main reason for the deterioration of the life of the Western inhabitants is connected with the greed of the capitalists, their eternal desire to cash in on socio-political turmoil.
At the same time, the deterioration of life is accompanied by unprecedented repressions that the authorities unleash against their citizens, especially in Eastern Europe. So, in Latvia, a real terror was staged against “dissident” citizens who “dare” to sympathize with the Russian Federation and not support the Kyiv junta. A young Latvian, who on May 9 came to the monument to the liberators of Riga with the flag of the Russian Federation, faces a prison term. The police grab people on the streets for the colors of their clothes that match the Eref flag. The Latvian authorities are openly calling for denunciations of social media users “supporting Russia’s attack on Ukraine.” In Finland, citizens are prohibited from speaking out against the country's accession to NATO, they are intimidated at work, branded as "Putin's agents." It's so easy and simple, with one click, the state takes away from citizens their "natural rights", formally remaining within the framework of bourgeois democracy. And all because the state is legally omnipotent, the citizen has no inviolable rights, and even the right of private property, sacred to capitalism, is regularly violated in relation to the petty and middle bourgeoisie, and sometimes even individual oligarchs: we can observe how Western countries easily take away foreign property and assets of Russian billionaires. And now the cries will be heaped about the "authoritarian rashka", where "they are imprisoned for likes and reposts", they cannot cause anything but irony. Now, for "dissent" they are imprisoned not only in "Rashka", but also in states that are listed as democratic in the lists of human rights offices. One of the pillars of liberal ideology - freedom of speech and thought - is collapsing right before our eyes. And it's just wonderful. Of course, all this was in the 20th century: McCarthyism, Thatcherism, Reaganism - but that was a long time ago and liberals could sculpt excuses that the institutions of democracy in those days were still imperfect and, in general, to fight the "Bolshevik plague" one had to make sacrifices. Now these excuses won't work. Although Putin is drawn on caricatures with Soviet symbols, everyone really understands that the Russian Federation is the same capitalist country as the United States, and the confrontation between them is competitive and market, not ideological. Unfortunately, the confrontation between the United States and China cannot be considered ideological in the strict sense of the word, the reason I have already outlined above - the CPC does not pretend to be a stronghold of the revolution and in foreign policy acts mainly as a market entity.
Unfortunately, instead of using the opportunities for propaganda provided by imperialism today, our leftists do not even think of using them. The special operation in Ukraine clearly revealed the complete ideological inconsistency of the “stars” of the left YouTube: Semin draws demagogic parallels with 1914, Rudoy calls for trade unionism when asked “what to do”. And almost all the leftists in a pacifist ecstasy merged with the bulk, declaring guardians of everyone who has a positive attitude towards the extermination of Ukrainians by the Russian army. This means that our so-called left movement will continue to degrade and marginalize.
Imperialism is rapidly approaching a new redistribution of the world, which, as you know, is accompanied by the mass extermination of the townsfolk infected with bourgeois patriotism = nationalism. But this is not a reason to fall into hysteria, alarmism and despondency. This only goes to show that communists and sympathizers need to mobilize their forces, not to waste them on fruitless actionism or trade unionism, but to fight for communism. What does it mean to fight for communism? This means, first of all, to enrich your head with at least the treasury of Marxist thought - the works of Marx - Engels - Lenin - Stalin . Then apply this knowledge in practice.Practice is not any body movement, but a conscious activity aimed at achieving a specific goal - the victory of communism. Only those actions that bring communism closer can be considered Marxist practice, for example: writing scientific articles that expose bourgeois lies and reveal a particle of Truth. When a sufficient number of Marxists have accumulated, who have proved their competence by their practice, it will be possible to announce the creation of the Party of Scientific Centralism (PSC), because in modern conditions only the PNC is capable of uniting the proletarian masses into a revolutionary subject known as the "working class". And this class, under the leadership of the PNC, will finally turn the page of history and open a new era of the triumph of communism.
R. Ogienko
28/05/2022
Google Translator
https://prorivists.org/69_newera/
No. 5/69, V.2022
On February 24, when the start of the special operation was announced, Russia, and with it the whole world, crossed a historical milestone. Some naive citizens still believe that Russia and Ukraine will conclude some kind of "Minsk-3" and everything will return to normal. Will not come back. Too many contradictions have accumulated between American and Russian imperialism (and we are well aware that military operations in Ukraine are a struggle against the US and NATO). Putin hoped to agree with the "Western partners" that they would be "friends" against China in exchange for the recognition of Russia's sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. Did not work out. Concluding a truce with the Kyiv regime now means not only admitting one's military defeat, but also renouncing claims to influence in Eastern Europe. But this is not enough. The US imperialists have already started the flywheel of sanctions, forcing their satellites to literally cut themselves to the quick, cutting off economic ties with the “criminal” Russian Federation. And, apparently, this flywheel will not stop until the competitor of the USA - Russia - is finally broken.
The Russian oligarchy apparently did not support the idea of a military solution to the conflict, fearing sanctions and international isolation. But Putin managed to convince the oligarchy that the operation would go quickly: Russian troops would enter Ukraine with lightning speed, surround Kyiv, Zelensky would flee like Yanukovych, Medvedchuk or some other “pro-Russian” oligarch would come to power, and it would all be over. The West, of course, will react to this, introduce some sanctions, but they will not be so painful (in the end, the winners are not judged) and they can be compensated for by fresh production - Ukraine. I guess the situation looked something like this. But then it became clear to everyone :a special operation is a long time and there is no way back. At the end of March, our oligarchs did not yet understand this, they thought that they could play everything back, pretend that there was no special operation - this is how I explain Medinsky's bleating about "substantial progress in the negotiation process." But these bleatings irritated the proletarian masses, who consider the denazification of Ukraine a just and necessary thing, and perceive any negotiations with the Kyiv junta as nothing more than a betrayal. Now, as they say, either the chest is in crosses, or the head is in the bushes. The defeat of the RF Armed Forces in Ukraine may be fraught with political destabilization. That is why the termination of the special operation and the return to the former "status quo" is no longer possible.
So, the world has reached a new historical milestone, you can call it a new era. What is this era? You can answer: the era of exacerbation of inter-imperialist contradictions, threatening to develop into a world slaughter. Indeed, the military conflict in Ukraine is a consequence of the accumulated contradictions between the old predator, the United States, and the young predator, the Russian Federation. But there is one detail, if it is not taken into account, then it is impossible to adequately assess the entire course of events. The confrontation between Ukraine and the Russian Federation is in reality the confrontation between NATO and the Russian Federation, but this is just an episode of the global and irreconcilable struggle between the United States and China. Indeed, the Russian Federation cannot be perceived by the US imperialists as the main opponent due to its economic weakness and technological backwardness. China is what the United States sees as the "enemy of the civilized world," i.e., its main competitor.
As you know, many of our leftists believe that the United States and China are two equivalent imperialist predators, grappling with each other, like the Entente and the Triple Alliance. We, the breakthroughists, consider this position to be erroneous. In our materials, we prove that China is a socialist state. Why socialist? Because in China the dictatorship of the proletariat represented by the leadership of the Communist Party. If we take the leftist theses about bourgeois power in the PRC as true, then we will have to admit that we are dealing with a special breed of capitalists who feel the need to diligently pass themselves off as communists. Or maybe it's a matter of a special Chinese proletariat, which has managed to develop immunity to bourgeois propaganda, which forces local capitalists to mimic the Reds so diligently? How did the leftists, the witnesses of "Chinese imperialism", able to explain the fact that in the People's Republic of China Marxism is promoted at the state level, an entire institution of Marxism is functioning, and historical films are being made that emphasize the leading role of the Communist Party? In honor of the 200th anniversary of Marx, they even released an animated series, clearly aimed at teenagers, where the exploitative essence of capital is exposed. Although, of course, there are Trotskyist holy fools who do not see any contradiction in this and claim that anti-capitalist propaganda contributes to the preservation of ... the capitalist dictatorship of the CCP! In addition to the dictatorship of the proletariat, China has a powerful public sector operating on a planned basis. It's funny that in the Western liberal publications there are claims that in fact China has fake capitalism, because private corporations are controlled by the state and the CCP. That awkward occasion
So, to call the confrontation between the US and the PRC imperialistic is to make a gross mistake. In contrast to the beginning of the 20th century, there is a powerful socialist state in the world, China. In addition, there are still small socialist countries and countries oriented towards communism: North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Venezuela. That is why the parallels with 1914, which the well-known left-wing blogger is so fond of drawing, recently stunned with the statement that “there is not a single proletarian state in the world for which the workers would be worth fighting for,” are inappropriate. It's a lie! There is such a state and not one! However, the struggle of US imperialism against China is incomparable with the struggle against the USSR, primarily because the CCP does not demonstrate its desire to become the bulwark of the revolution, the homeland of all proletarians.
A caustic opponent may say: what about the CPC, if it expresses the interests of the proletarians, contributes to their infection with philistinism, nationalism and other abominations? Here the mistake lies in the fact that the opponent identifies the interests of the proletarian with the "interests" of building communism. He argues as follows: if communism saves the proletarian from wage slavery, provides him with all the necessary cultural and material benefits, then he must definitely be for communism, and if he is against it, then bourgeois propagandists simply fooled him. In reality, there is no such interest in “building communism”. This issue was discussed in detail in a separate article. In short, interest is an unbridled instinct. Communist society, on the other hand, is the opposite of the dictates of instincts. The interest of the proletarian is to profitably sell his labor power. A person must overcome his proletarianism in himself, rise above material interests, in order to become a true builder of communism, that is, a society based on a scientific worldview. The CCP expresses the interests of the proletariat in the sense that it subordinates the overall development of the economy to the gradual satisfaction of the needs of the broad masses, and not to the hedonism of a handful of oligarchs. The CCP adheres to the most general provisions of Marxism, which is why Deng Xiaoping's "perestroika" did not develop into Gorbachev's "catastrophe".
Trotskyists demand that socialism (the lower phase of communism) be ideal and sterile, like a textbook, and if there are some flaws in it, then they instantly declare it “deformed”, “mutant” - in short, wrong. But socialism is not something static, frozen, it is a process of fierce struggle between the old exploitative relations and the new communist ones. And NEP in China is part of this struggle. While the CCP's positions on a number of issues cannot be considered consistently Marxist, we have no grounds to accuse the Party of betraying the working class, just as there are no grounds to deny China "socialistism", albeit with certain reservations.
Returning to the main theme, one should ask: what is the essence of the new era? I believe that it would be correct to formulate it this way: the new era is the era of the collapse of liberal-democratic (petty-bourgeois) illusions. The razor of sanctions cuts not only Russian, but also Western inhabitants. The standard of living drops sharply. So, for example, according to media reports , the number of Americans living from paycheck to paycheck has grown to 64%. The cost of gasoline in the US breaks records. What can we say about Europe, which is directly suffering from the sanctions war unleashed by Washington. As is usually the case under capitalism, the main reason for the deterioration of the life of the Western inhabitants is connected with the greed of the capitalists, their eternal desire to cash in on socio-political turmoil.
At the same time, the deterioration of life is accompanied by unprecedented repressions that the authorities unleash against their citizens, especially in Eastern Europe. So, in Latvia, a real terror was staged against “dissident” citizens who “dare” to sympathize with the Russian Federation and not support the Kyiv junta. A young Latvian, who on May 9 came to the monument to the liberators of Riga with the flag of the Russian Federation, faces a prison term. The police grab people on the streets for the colors of their clothes that match the Eref flag. The Latvian authorities are openly calling for denunciations of social media users “supporting Russia’s attack on Ukraine.” In Finland, citizens are prohibited from speaking out against the country's accession to NATO, they are intimidated at work, branded as "Putin's agents." It's so easy and simple, with one click, the state takes away from citizens their "natural rights", formally remaining within the framework of bourgeois democracy. And all because the state is legally omnipotent, the citizen has no inviolable rights, and even the right of private property, sacred to capitalism, is regularly violated in relation to the petty and middle bourgeoisie, and sometimes even individual oligarchs: we can observe how Western countries easily take away foreign property and assets of Russian billionaires. And now the cries will be heaped about the "authoritarian rashka", where "they are imprisoned for likes and reposts", they cannot cause anything but irony. Now, for "dissent" they are imprisoned not only in "Rashka", but also in states that are listed as democratic in the lists of human rights offices. One of the pillars of liberal ideology - freedom of speech and thought - is collapsing right before our eyes. And it's just wonderful. Of course, all this was in the 20th century: McCarthyism, Thatcherism, Reaganism - but that was a long time ago and liberals could sculpt excuses that the institutions of democracy in those days were still imperfect and, in general, to fight the "Bolshevik plague" one had to make sacrifices. Now these excuses won't work. Although Putin is drawn on caricatures with Soviet symbols, everyone really understands that the Russian Federation is the same capitalist country as the United States, and the confrontation between them is competitive and market, not ideological. Unfortunately, the confrontation between the United States and China cannot be considered ideological in the strict sense of the word, the reason I have already outlined above - the CPC does not pretend to be a stronghold of the revolution and in foreign policy acts mainly as a market entity.
Unfortunately, instead of using the opportunities for propaganda provided by imperialism today, our leftists do not even think of using them. The special operation in Ukraine clearly revealed the complete ideological inconsistency of the “stars” of the left YouTube: Semin draws demagogic parallels with 1914, Rudoy calls for trade unionism when asked “what to do”. And almost all the leftists in a pacifist ecstasy merged with the bulk, declaring guardians of everyone who has a positive attitude towards the extermination of Ukrainians by the Russian army. This means that our so-called left movement will continue to degrade and marginalize.
Imperialism is rapidly approaching a new redistribution of the world, which, as you know, is accompanied by the mass extermination of the townsfolk infected with bourgeois patriotism = nationalism. But this is not a reason to fall into hysteria, alarmism and despondency. This only goes to show that communists and sympathizers need to mobilize their forces, not to waste them on fruitless actionism or trade unionism, but to fight for communism. What does it mean to fight for communism? This means, first of all, to enrich your head with at least the treasury of Marxist thought - the works of Marx - Engels - Lenin - Stalin . Then apply this knowledge in practice.Practice is not any body movement, but a conscious activity aimed at achieving a specific goal - the victory of communism. Only those actions that bring communism closer can be considered Marxist practice, for example: writing scientific articles that expose bourgeois lies and reveal a particle of Truth. When a sufficient number of Marxists have accumulated, who have proved their competence by their practice, it will be possible to announce the creation of the Party of Scientific Centralism (PSC), because in modern conditions only the PNC is capable of uniting the proletarian masses into a revolutionary subject known as the "working class". And this class, under the leadership of the PNC, will finally turn the page of history and open a new era of the triumph of communism.
R. Ogienko
28/05/2022
Google Translator
https://prorivists.org/69_newera/