Chapter 1 – The Historic Period in Which We Live

The 2008 economic crisis inaugurated a new period in the international class struggle. The capitalists’ global counterrevolutionary crusade began in the mid-1970s and peaked in 1991, with the final destruction of collectivized property and other remnants of the conquests of the Russian Revolution in the countries of the Warsaw Pact. These conquests represented, for workers all over the world, the existence of some alternative to the capitalist system. Their destruction, together with the widespread plunder and economic subjection of almost a fifth of the planet’s surface by the imperialist bourgeoisie, was a terrible moral blow to the organizations claiming to be socialists, whether supporters of the Soviet bureaucracy or not. It also saved capitalism from a great crisis for almost two decades.

While the ostensibly revolutionary left at the time was already fragmented and disorganized by the successive degenerations of the Second, Third and Fourth Internationals, the atmosphere of defeat which followed ensured the marginalization of socialist groups that still held significance. This was a reactionary peace, its terms imposed by ideological hegemony and the arms of a capitalist class that felt confident enough to announce the “End of History” and the “Death of Communism”. The majority of so-called socialists had already abandoned, either openly or in practice, the foundations of Marxism, resigning themselves to the role of trying to correct this or that more problematic aspect of capitalism. Only a handful of revolutionary Marxists remained, who were unable to do much more than try to safeguard an ideal they refused to abandon.

This period has not yet come to an end. However, the disenchantment and clear exposure of the meaning of capitalism since the crisis that began in 2008 in the imperialist centers also marked the return of class struggle as a recognized and widespread phenomenon. The last decade was marked by heavy attacks by the bourgeoisie against already deteriorating living and working conditions worldwide, through the means of “austerity measures” and “reforms” against workers to transfer resources of unprecedented magnitude to the capitalists. It was in these conditions that resistance of workers and the oppressed was organized against the capitalist offensive, generally without a socialist character in the leadership. As a result of this, the influence of ostensibly socialist organizations has experienced some growth again, although it remains so far, at the beginning of what appears to be an even deeper economic crisis, still in an amorphous state. The organizational and political traditions of Marxism were not taken up and updated as a result.

In each country, the particular level of organization and political composition of the working class has led to different expressions of class struggle, both in its forms and means, and in its intensity. What binds these movements together is the global and interrelated character of the capitalist economy and the general axes of resistance against bourgeois plundering. The disastrous fall of the Soviet bloc by capitalist counterrevolution would not have been so fatal now if we had inherited from the 20th century a consistent Marxist tradition with clear practical authority around which workers could have organized and mobilized themselves. But as this was not a reality, the post-Soviet period only worsened the state of complete confusion, fragmentation, demoralization and adaptation of the workers’ movement to “possibilism”, that is, to what is considered acceptable by the ruling class, features which were already predominant among the left-wing organizations.

Successive rebellions occurred throughout the world, which did not develop into revolutions due to the absence of a Marxist perspective in the political and organizational practice of the workers in struggle. It is the absence of revolutionary socialist leadership, perspectives and traditions in the movement that makes it impossible to take a step forward.

Among the masses, Socialism continues to be simultaneously identified with bureaucratic dictatorship, left bourgeois governments, or “welfare states”. The emergence of figures such as Hugo Chávez and his “Socialism for the 21st century” at the beginning of the century; Bernie Sanders and his “Socialism” along the lines of European Social-Democracy, based in one of the twin parties of American Imperialism; and a generation of propagandists and rehabilitators of Stalin and his methods of “building socialism” in the USSR boosted such confusion. The vanguard of the working class in our period is characterized by political fragmentation and ideological confusion, with organizations claiming to be socialists echoing such false ideas. The study of past struggles often does not resolve political differences, but rather obscures them, because the historical legacy which organizations claim directly contradict their concrete actions in the present, not just in the details, but in the fundamental issues of revolution and class struggle.

The working class movement suffers from complete lack of ideological clarity as to the tasks and methods required. Groups of opposing camps on the left sometimes claim the same traditions, while there are parties where members of all kinds of traditions coexist, without any balance sheet. The events of the past decade have proved this is true, but they have done little to remedy or solve the situation. On the contrary: ostensibly socialist organizations implode and split, sometimes without consistent political justification, leading further confusion in the workers’ movement; organizations merge without programmatic clarity; they turn to positions opposite to those they claimed to defend yesterday, in a ball dance completely irrational and inexplicable from the point of view of the urgent need of the struggle for socialism.

The new generation of socialists is faced with a crisis of great magnitude. To resolve it, we need to reestablish a consistent Marxist and internationalist perspective, based on a balance sheet of what was inherited from the 20th century and this long period of reaction. It is necessary to begin by reaffirming the essential: the relevance of Marxism, class struggle and the need for a revolution that will establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. In order to overcome the crisis of leadership in the workers movement which revolutionaries are facing, we must first of all be clear about the fundamental issues that confront us. This programmatic manifesto aims to serve as a starting point for debates with other revolutionaries on the political tasks and methods that the proletarian revolution requires of Marxists.

Despite all that was and is still repeated until exhaustion by bourgeois propagandists about the “Death of Communism”, and those who deny even the existence of class struggle, the global socioeconomic system of the 21^st Century, despite its significant changes which need to be taken into account, is still the one against which Marx and Engels declared war on in the Communist Manifesto of 1848. Marxism will not be outdated until capitalism is overcome. For most of the planet, the last decade has been one of absolute impoverishment and terrible attacks on workers’ material conditions in order to maximize profits for the capitalist class. The climate crisis caused by capitalism is knocking on our doors with increasing concern. Coups and wars more and more become a part of the everyday vocabulary of the workers in the face of imperialist powers’ frenzy to maintain their supremacy. Only an organized working class bearing the essential lessons of Marxism and class struggle can put an end to the dark future that the continuation of bourgeois rule holds for humanity.