Solution to the problems of society can be found only on the basis of the discoveries of Karl Marx

The global economy has been sinking deeper and deeper into crisis over the past five years. Unemployment, poverty, inflation and all the diseases of the capitalist system are growing from bad to worse.

Solution to the problems of society can be found only on the basis of the discoveries of Karl Marx

The global economy has been sinking deeper and deeper into crisis over the past five years. Unemployment, poverty, inflation and all the diseases of the capitalist system are growing from bad to worse. The ruling bourgeois classes and their leading spokesmen keep on talking as if the cause of the crisis lies in some faulty government policies; and the solution lies in some magical package of policy reform. But the facts and phenomena show that the cause of the crisis lies in the very nature of capitalism, as was discovered by Karl Marx more than 150 years ago.

Marx proved that capitalism is a crisis-ridden system. It leads repeatedly to one economic crisis after another because of the contradiction between the social character of production and the private character of ownership of the means of production. The permanent solution to such crises lies in resolving this contradiction, by converting the means of production from private to social property. This revolutionary transformation from capitalism to socialism is the mission of the proletariat, the class that owns nothing except its labour power.

Summing up his own contribution to the theory of class struggle, Marx said, “Long before me, bourgeois historians had described the historical development of this class struggle and bourgeois economists the economic anatomy of the classes. What I did that was new was to prove: 1) that the existence of classes is only bound up with particular historical phases in the development of production, 2) that the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat, 3) that this dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society.” [Marx, Letter to Weydemeyer (1852)]

The bourgeoisie wants people to believe that society will always be divided into exploiting and exploited classes, a rich minority and a poor majority. The bourgeoisie is quite happy with political parties that recognize the class struggle, as long as they do not recognize where it leads and do not organize on the basis of this recognition.

Marx identified the proletariat as the gravedigger of the capitalist system because it is the class which creates wealth but is unattached to private property. It is a class that is brought together in production and armed with the strength of collective organisation and productive powers of social labour. The potential of the working class to lead all the discontented masses of people needs to be harnessed by its advanced detachment, the Communist Party. It is the duty of communists to make the proletariat conscious of the necessity to become the ruling class of society, in alliance with the peasantry and all the oppressed.

Communist Ghadar Party of India bases itself on the ideas of Karl Marx because they reflect the objective laws of social development. They are a great inspiration and indispensable guide for the proletariat to accomplish its revolutionary aims.

In order to accomplish its aims, the proletariat needs unified communist leadership. The Indian proletariat has been deprived of such leadership because of different factions of the communist movement falling prey to unscientific anti-Marxist ideas. These include ideas of a joint rule by the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and of a middle path or intermediate stage between capitalism and socialism. They include notions such as a “secular front” or “third front” led by some so-called progressive or “less evil” party of the bourgeoisie. The restoration of unity of Indian communists requires a clean break with such ideas, which have all been shown to be harmful illusions.

Karl Marx was born on 5th May, 1818. On the occasion of the 196th anniversary of his birth, Mazdoor Ekta Lehar is publishing, for the purpose of serious study, The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism, by V.I. Lenin.