We are gratified to learn that the keynote address of the CPP to the 2nd theoretical conference has been welcomed by participants and its readers for having provided a strategic Marxist-Leninist view of the capitalist and imperialist economic crisis, as a means of understanding the current economic crisis and phenomena, and framework to view prospects for future revolutionary struggle.
As communists, it is critical that we use Marxism-Leninism as a tool to have a long historical view of things. We do so in order to understand the fundamental questions as a way of getting a proper handle of the current isssues we face. Without this grasp of the fundamental questions, we can sometimes be overwhelmed by the details and make the mistake of giving them all equal weight, and lose sight of the issues or questions that are more fundamental than the other.
Without a general overview of the how the crisis of capitalism has developed under imperialism, there is the danger of giving too much weight to changes in the forces of production leading to conjure the un-Marxist notion that changes in relations of production have occurred without a revolution. This is the mistake some make in imagining that semicolonial and semifeudal countries have undergone capitalist transformation under the so-called “internationalization of production.” These mistakes underscore the necessity of repeating and reiterating the Marxist-Leninist basics. Otherwise, we run the risk of making a superficial analysis of statistics leading to misrepresenting big bourgeois compradors in the Philippines as capitalist “monopolies,” simply for having “overseas operations,” slurring over the fundamental fact that big bourgeois operations continue to serve as mere appendages of international finance and have failed to bring about domestic industrialization of the economy).
On the other hand, grasping the general contours of history does not mean disregarding the details of the situation. Indeed, everyday, the working class are confronted with a constantly evolving socioeconomic and political landscape, whether brought about by latest technological breakthrough that bring about a reorganization of the division of labor, changes in the workplace or patterns of investment; or by earthshaking changes in the realm of inter-imperialist conflicts.
These rapid changes in the situation require the revolutionary proletariat to be agile and flexible in order to quickly adopt to changes, whether in Spain where there is a re-insourcing of production in which large numbers of industrial workers are being re-concentrated in workplaces; or in the Philippines, where workers are being atomized as gig workers in delivery services or in freelancing.
Improvements and perfection of artificial intelligence will ultimately lead to further lowering of costs of some fields of mental labor (including software programmers, and business process outsourcing). As the demand for electronic batteries rise, there too is the rise in the demand for minerals that produce these, and more aggressive entry of mining companies which dislocate tens of thousands of peasants and ethnic minorities from their land. With the overproduction of LNG in the US, the Philippines has to confront the aggressive push to build LNG storage and power plants to serve as dumping ground of US monopoly capitalists.
All these demand the working class to quickly adapt its methods and forms of organization, its focus and concentration, without losing sight of the fundamental issues they face in their own countries. In the end, the success of the revolutionary proletariat is measured, first and foremost in their efforts to be at the forefront of the struggles of the working class and people in their own countries, and lead these struggles with the ultimate aim of enhancing the class leadership of the revolutionary proletariat.
An intelocutor correctly pointed out that there is a rise of class struggles in Europe and in many parts of the world. The CPP’s keynote address pointed out the broad range of democratic resistance by oppressed and exploited classes and sectors. Indeed, we are seeing a steady rise in workers strikes and demonstrations demanding wage increases and better living conditions, as well as different forms of mass resistance of oppressed and exploited classes defending themselves against economic dispossession.
These, indeed, show a rise in class struggles, in the sense that workers and oppressed classes are being brought together by their common travails to defend their immediate and urgents interests. To the class-conscious proletariat, these present conditions that are favorable for revolutionary work. In Europe, as well as in other parts of the world, communist forces are actively taking part in this waves of resistance. A lot of work, however, is still needed to be done for the proletariat to lead these class struggles to struggles of the conscious working class. As Lenin said of Engels, communists should teach “the working class to know itself and be conscious of itself.”
Let us not forget what Marx declared in the Communist Manifesto:
Though not in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. The proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all settle matters with its own bourgeoisie.
We cannot understate the importance of discussing our analysis of the economic crisis of the global capitalist system, calls for international cooperation and coordination, and the prosepects for the resurgence of the socialist revolution. In the end, however, we will need to give priority attention to the practical work of building and strengthening communist parties capable of leading the class struggles, i.e marching at the vanguard of millions of workers and oppressed classes in their own countries, waging protracted people’s wars in semicolonial and semifeudal countries, or carrying out preparations for armed insurrections in capitalist countries, with the end in view of seizing political power (“settling matters” with the reactionary ruling classes) as the key question in class struggle.