Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism A Primer Jose Maria Sison Foreign Languages Press Foreign Languages Press Collection “Colorful Classics” #20 (English) A collection directed by Christophe Kistler Contact - [email protected] Paris, 2020 ISBN: 978-2-491182-22-9 Printing: • First printing : 100 copies This book is under license Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC-BY-SA 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Contents Forword 5 Introduction 11 CHAPTER 1. DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM 15 A. Materialism 15 B. Materialist Dialectics 19 C. Theory of Knowledge 23 CHAPTER 2. HISTORICAL MATERIALISM 29 A. The Material Base of Society 30 B. The Superstructure of Society 44 C. Social Transformation: Revolution 59 CHAPTER 3. POLITICAL ECONOMY 75 A. Marx’s Critique of Capitalism 78 B. Lenin’s Critique of Monopoly 89 Capitalism C. Decline of Capitalism and US 103 Imperialism CHAPTER 4. SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM 115 A. Class Dictatorship of the Proletariat 121 B. The Socialist Economy 136 C. Transition to Communism 151 Appendix 1: Pre-Marxist Materialism and 165 Idealism Appendix 2: On Preindustrial Capitalism 169 and the Primitive Accumulation of Capital Forword FORWORD Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism: A Primer was written by Jose Maria Sison when he was in prison. After the manuscript was smuggled out, it became part of the mandatory study for new members of the Communist Party of the Philip- pines, serving as the main study material for the Advanced Party Course (“AKP”). Two aspects of this book make it important for study. Accuracy First, its content continues to be valid and rele- vant, in spite of having been written three decades ago. Thus, by studying this book you will be able to grasp the development of Marxist ideology more deeply and with an up-to-date understanding. This text was written a few years after the death of Mao, at a time when revolutionary parties who were upholding Mao Zedong Thought were still debating the universal validity of those teachings, debates that did not reach the cell where Sison was detained. But while the goal of this study wasn’t to formulate a synthesis of Mao’s teachings, but rather to explain in a comprehensive and mod- ern way the three component parts of Marxism, we can see that at that time Sison already had a clear understanding of what philosophical teachings of Mao were universal. 5 Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism: A Primer Service to the Revolution Second, the background of how and when this text was written demonstrates the unwavering dedication of its author to serve the revolution. Sison wrote the primer from his jail cell. Arrested in 1977 during the fascist Marcos dicta- torship, the military believed his capture and arrest would be the blow to the Revolution that could lead to the liquidation of the Communist Party of the Philippines. To that aim, they did everything they could to force its founder to betray the Party. In December 2015 the United Nations adopted a resolution commonly known as the “Mandela Rules,” which defined the standard of treatment of prisoners. It explicitly banned “prolonged sol- itary confinement,” meaning the isolation of a prisoner for more than 15 days, because modern studies proved that such detention constituted a form of psychological torture. From his arrest in 1985, Sison was held in solitary confinement (with the exception of a few months in 1980 and 1981 when he was reunited in a “partial isolation” with Julie de Lima, his wife), and water “cures” and beatings were routine. All of the regime’s measures were in vain, and Sison, trained as a teacher, made use of this time to do everything he could to help to advance the rev- olution. In the beginning of the 80s, the first ideo- logical confusions born out of Right and “Left” 6 Forword opportunism emerged in the CPP—confusions that would lead to the Second Rectification Move- ment a decade later. From prison and through his lawyer, Sison wrote and sent out many letters and articles to address and criticize the confusion. He understood that criticism wasn’t enough—com- rades needed a more comprehensive understand- ing of the basic principles of Marxism. It took two years to complete this work; the book you hold in your hands is the result of it. Released in 1982, Julie de Lima smuggled the text out of jail, and while its study was imme- diate and widespread, it was only in 2013 that the International Network for Philippines Study (INPS) officially released it in the 4th volume of the Selected Works of Jose Maria Sison (Detention and Defiance against Dictatorship). Ongoing Study Studying this primer will help you understand the core of the ideology of today’s Marxism— that is, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism—and see the world through the lens of class struggle and the dynamics of contradictions. But it’s important to keep in mind that this text is, as it is titled, a “primer.” It takes more than one book to understand our complex ideology, and this book can’t replace the study of the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao. Moreover, each country has its own particularities that need 7 Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism: A Primer to be studied, analyzed and tested in practice. If you wish to pursue your study to understand more of the history of Marxism we recommend Marxism-Leninism-Maoism: Basic Course written by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the Five Golden Rays and Five Essays on Philosophy by Mao Zedong, which will help you to grasp com- munist principles and world outlook more deeply. We wish you a fruitful study. Redspark Collective 8 Introduction INTRODUCTION Marxism is a comprehensive ideology, ranging from philosophy to strategy and tactics. It seeks not only to interpret the world but to change it. It is acclaimed as universal, serving as guide and general method of cognition and practice in both natural and social sciences. It is a system of ideas or ideology that guides the organized conduct of the working class and the people as well as proletarian parties and states in building socialism and carrying out the anti-im- perialist movement. This ideology has inspired and impelled the rapid social, economic, scientific and cultural progress of socialist countries in a matter of a few decades. It has adherents of no mean mag- nitude and significance in the third world and in the capitalist countries. In summing up Marxism, Lenin cited philos- ophy, political economy and socialism as its three basic components. Describing Marxism as a devel- opment of revolutionary theory and practice on the high road of civilization, he pointed to the fact that Marx and Engels based themselves on the most advanced sources of knowledge during their time. Marx and Engels applied their critical-creative faculties on German philosophy (especially on the materialist Feuerbach and the idealist Hegel); on British political economy (especially on the classi- 11 cal economists Adam Smith, David Ricardo, etc.); and on French social science (especially on the democratic revolutionaries and utopian socialists). In pointing to political economy, specifically Das Kapital, as the core of Marxism, Lenin clearly recognized its significance as the most profound explanation for an entire historical epoch, that of capitalism. Marx explains the emergence, develop- ment and maturation of capitalism in a compre- hensive and thoroughgoing manner. Up to the present, the theory and practice of Marxism is known to have undergone three stages of development. The first stage covers the period when Marx and Engels clarified the laws of motion in free competition capitalism that led to ever-increasing concentration of capital; and when revolutionary activities (not even led by Communists or Marx- ists) ranged from the 1848 revolutions through Marx’s ideological leadership in the International Working Men’s Association (First International) to the first successful armed revolution of the prole- tariat, the Paris Commune of 1871, which lasted for over two months. The second stage covers the period when Lenin clarified the growth of capitalism into imperialism and the Bolshevik revolution won and gave way to the building and consolidation of socialism in one country. Stalin carried on the theoretical and practical work of Lenin for a long period. Introduction The third stage covers the period when social- ism exists in several countries and Mao Zedong Thought confronts and clarifies the problem of revisionism and restoration of capitalism in some socialist countries. Even as imperialism and the world capitalist system are in rapid decline, the problem of revisionism has also arisen in socialist countries. Mao put forward the theory and prac- tice of continuing revolution under proletarian dictatorship. It may be observed that although Marxism or Marxism-Leninism is a theory based on the funda- mental teachings of Marx and Engels, it is contin- uously developing, in stride with the ever-chang- ing world and with the particularities of coun- tries. Marxism today is the acclaimed guide to the world transition of capitalism to socialism and, in semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries particu- larly, the completion of the democratic revolution and transition to socialism. 13 1. Dialectical Materialism CHAPTER 1. DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM Marxist philosophy is otherwise known as dialectical materialism. It assumes that reality is material (constituted by particles) and that con- sciousness arises and proceeds from matter; and accounts for development or change in terms of the laws inherent to matter as well as the interac- tion of matter and consciousness, peculiar to man. It may sound redundant and trite to speak of reality as material or as consisting of matter. But we must recall that for long periods in the history of philosophy the Platonic and Augustinian kind of objective idealism held sway and dictated that reality is ideal or consists of ideas and that the material, sensible things are but a reflection and poor copy of that reality.