Bicentenary of Karl Marx
Communist Manifesto
Cha
pter
:III Socialist and Comm
unist Liter
a tur
e
Chapter
pter:III
Communist
Litera
ture
The word Socialism is not an invention of Karl Marx
and Frederick Engels. Before 1847, there existed different
concepts of socialism as the excerpts of Communist
Manifesto published here point out. These socialisms have
had their own theoreticians, leaders and propagandists.
Jawaharlal Nehru was prominent in India. The exploiting
classes used the word socialism as attractive protective cover
for their exploiting systems and as a tool to avert the
proletariat from emerging into a revolutionary class capable
of overthrowing the exploiting systems, establishing the
dictatorshi p of the proletariat and leading the struggle to
transform the society into a classless communist society.
The theory and practice of scientific socialism propounded
by Marx and Engels fundamentally differs from other
concepts and had emerged in the course of a bitter and
victorious struggle against feudal, petty bourgeois,
bourgeois and other utopian concepts of socialism.
In the post-1847 period, socialism propounded by Marx
and Engels came to be accepted as the most scientific,
revolutionary and widely popular idea among the exploited
and oppressed people in the world. The 1917 Socialist
Revolution in Russia, the defeat of Fascism in the hands of
forces led by the Socialist Russia, the victory of New
Democratic Revolution in China, the victory or advance of
National liberation, national independence movements ,
peoples’ revolutions and anti-imperialist movements in a
number of Asian, African and Latin American countries
and great achievements of Socialist Countries in Socialist
constructions had taken the acceptability and popularity of
scientific socialism to its Zenith. The imperialists,
reactionary ruling classes and their trumpeters found
themselves pushed into an extremely defenseless position
ideologically, politically and morally. They had to rely more on deceptive and sophisticated methods and wave the flag
of socialism to confuse, deviate and lure the exploited and
oppressed people away from scientific socialism. In the
aftermath of sever setbacks suffered by the socialist
revolutions and the communist movement in the world, the
exploiting classes feel more emboldened and encouraged to
go on an offensive in their attack on scientific socialism
and communism. All their talk that Marxism and Scientific
Socialism had become obsolete, thing of past and a failed
experiment and capitalism is the only solution came only
in this wake.
It is indeed an uphill task for the Marxist-Leninists
today to fight back this reactionary onslaught on our
ideology. Neither succumbing to this reactionary offensive
and living oneself in the illusion that what is peddled by
the bourgeois and petty bourgeois classes as socialism nor
the attempts to seek the solutions for the setbacks suffered
by the socialist revolutions and communist movement, as
some intellectuals are doing, outside the fundamental
principles of Marxism-Leninism and scientific socialism are
a way out to the problem. It cannot be called a struggle, in
the real sense of the term, against the reactionary ideologies.
Whether one likes it or not, whether one intends or not ,
such attempts, ultimately, land one only in the lap of
bourgeois or and petty bourgeois variety of socialism. The
communists must learn from their mistakes and failures and
improve their understanding and practice. But it is possible
only on the basis of Marxism Leninism and in the course of
its concrete application and practice. Let our comrades once
again study the excerpts we are publishing here so that they
would be better equipped to defend Marxism-Leninism and
Scientific Socialism.
1. Reactionary Socialism
A. Feudal Socialism
Owing to their historical position, it became the
vocation of the aristocracies of France and England
to write pamphlets against modern bourgeois society.
In the French Revolution of July 1830, and in the
English reform agitation, [A] , these aristocracies again
succumbed to the hateful upstart. Thenceforth, a
serious political struggle was altogether out of the
question. A literary battle alone remained possible. But
even in the domain of literature the old cries of the
restoration period had become impossible. (1)
In order to arouse sympathy, the aristocracy was
obliged to lose sight, apparently, of its own interests,
and to formulate their indictment against the bourgeoisie in the interest of the exploited working
class alone. Thus, the aristocracy took their revenge
by singing lampoons on their new masters and
whispering in his ears sinister prophesies of coming
catastrophe.
In this way arose feudal socialism: half
lamentation, half lampoon; half an echo of the past,
half menace of the future; at times, by its bitter, witty
and incisive criticism, striking the bourgeoisie to the
very heart’s core; but always ludicrous in its effect,
through total incapacity to comprehend the march of
modern history.
The aristocracy, in order to rally the people to
them, waved the proletarian alms-bag in front for a
banner. But the people, so often as it joined them,
May- 2017
– Editor
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