Obstacles and Contradictions here ♦ Sharpening Contradictions here ♦ Understanding Contradiction here ♦
Obstacles and Contradictions
I recently attended an inspiring international conference. The discussions were valuable, but I noticed problems in how dialectical materialism was being applied.
The first concerns the word “contradiction.” Several speakers described trying to get someone to do something, say, attend meetings. They said we must understand that person’s “contradictions.” At first this seemed odd. It became clear they really meant understanding the obstacles preventing attendance—what is holding the person back.
But contradictions are not obstacles. In dialectics, a contradiction consists of two aspects in struggle. Each side limits and shapes the other. It is inaccurate to treat contradiction as a barrier that must be removed.
Understanding someone’s internal contradictions is essential if we want to help them move forward. However, in general we do not completely eliminate contradictions, at least not right away. For example, it will take generations before the contradiction between workers and bosses completely disappears. In the meantime, we weaken the aspect we oppose and strengthen the aspect we support.
What I heard at the conference, however, leaned heavily toward weakening the “negative” side. This produced an almost entirely defensive approach.
Consider a comrade who skips meetings because they fear judgment from more experienced members. One response is to reduce that fear by reassuring them that others are not judging them. That may help.
But there is also a positive approach. We can ask why this comrade wanted to attend in the first place. What motivates them?
Suppose they feel strongly about sexism. We could ensure that sexism is meaningfully addressed in upcoming meetings and let them know their concerns will be taken seriously. Their commitment to fighting sexism may strengthen their confidence and outweigh their fear. By reinforcing the positive aspect of the contradiction, we help shift the balance internally rather than merely trying to suppress the negative side.
There is also the question of materialism. One speaker suggested that we win people to communism simply by talking to them.
For a small number of people, especially those shaped by intense struggle, that may be enough. But for most, words alone are insufficient. People want to see practice. They want to know whether we live up to what we say. Materialism means recognizing that action—shared, concrete activity—carries decisive weight.
Fortunately, there were several discussions about collective actions, for example about comrade Soso organizing her friends to fight for a math teacher. Of course we don’t fight for reforms, but hiring a math teacher hardly counts as reforming the system!
Beyond workplace struggles, we can organize other collective efforts—such as a chorus, a picket squad, or a street theater group. Shared activity builds trust, confidence, and political understanding. Through such experiences, people see in practice what the International Communist Workers’ Party stands for.
If we apply dialectical materialism concretely—treating contradictions properly and grounding our work in collective practice—we strengthen both our theory and our organizing.
—Comrade in Canada
Sharpening Contradictions
Dialectical materialism shows there are contradictions in all processes. The unity and struggle of opposites inside every process determines its movement. This is not complicated, confusing, or misleading.
We are fighting for a communist world with no bosses or imperialist wars. We are struggling to sharpen the struggle within ourselves, our friends, and the working class in general for communism. To do that, we need to sharpen the contradiction between capitalist ideas and practice and communist ideas and practice in each of us, our friends and in the working class in general.
This is clear cut. Let’s say a comrade says, “my friend’s main contradiction is individualism, or fear.” Is this wrong? No. The comrade is saying that the contradiction in their friend is between individualism and collectivity, or between a capitalist outlook and a communist outlook. In the case of fear, it could be between lack of confidence in the working class and confidence in the working class. There are many ways to overcome these contradictions. If the friend goes to a demonstration with the Comrade and sees the good reaction to Red Flag/Bandera Roja, this can help overcome and defeat fear. Or marches with a communist contingent on May Day.
The previous letter incorrectly criticizes comrades who “confuse” obstacles with contradictions. They can both be true. Racism is both an obstacle and a contradiction. The contradiction is between racism and a working-class communist outlook that all workers are class brothers and sisters and have the same interest. Comments from comrades about their own or their friends’ contradictions and the struggle to strengthen the communist side and defeat the capitalist side are correct and helpful.
The above letter incorrectly says that in general we don’t eliminate contradictions. The contradiction between the workers and the bosses defines capitalism. Our struggle is exactly to defeat the capitalist bosses so that the working class can live without wage slavery, imperialist war, racism, sexism and all capitalism’s horrors. We are fighting every day to eliminate that contradiction. We are fighting to eliminate nationalism and racism and replace them with communist internationalism and class solidarity. A communist revolution will decisively defeat capitalism and resolve the contradiction between the workers and the bosses.
Our material practice is communist practice. It includes talking, writing, distributing communist literature, and struggling with friends while deepening communist relations. It means actively participating in the struggles and hardships of the working class raising communist ideas in them now. We invite friends to help distribute RF/BR and communist leaflets. We fight for our practice to be communist, not reformist, practice. We aim to organize communist class struggle, opposing the bosses’ terror and raising communist solutions. It is not “negative” to expose capitalist ideas while we fight for communist ideas! It’s positive.
It’s very good that more comrades are sharpening the struggle with themselves, friends and coworkers to strengthen the communist side and weaken and defeat the capitalist one. Rather than fear the struggle for communism, they welcome it. This gives us all more confidence that the working class will win the fight to defeat capitalism and its murderous wars with communist revolution.
—A Comrade
Understanding Contradiction
It is important, but not necessarily easy, for all communists to comprehend dialectical materialism. It is an understanding of the world that is so very different from what capitalism teaches us. ICWP has a very good series of articles on dialectics on our website.
Recently there has been some disagreement among comrades about the meaning of “contradiction” in dialectical materialism. I reread many of the articles by our late, beloved comrade Tom to refresh and increase my knowledge. I want to try to explain what a contradiction is.
Dialectical contradiction is a unity and struggle of opposite things or processes which are connected, but which interfere with each other and cause change. The opposed sides of a real contradiction cannot be unified or reconciled.
The worker/capitalist contradiction is internal to the capitalist system. It is the underlying cause of strikes, protests, and rebellions that happen everywhere in the world.
Ending a contradiction is called resolving it. Contradictions move toward resolution by the conflict between the two sides becoming stronger and more intense. The masses move toward resolving their contradiction with the capitalists by organizing for revolution. By becoming more united around communist politics and better prepared for an eventual armed struggle.
The victory of communism will resolve the contradiction between the working class and the capitalist class by destroying the capitalist class, and with it the capitalist system.
This is typical of how contradictions are resolved: one side defeats the other or even destroys it, often with a sudden dramatic result.
Resolving a contradiction always leads to new contradictions. And the defeated side always leaves traces of itself behind. These traces could even be the basis for a future revival of the defeated side.
After capitalism is destroyed, some of its ideology and habits such as racism, sexism, and individualism will remain temporarily, causing more contradictions. Our party will lead masses to struggle against these things as long as it takes to wipe them out forever.
The more people who join ICWP, read and write for Red Flag, struggle with co-workers, friends, and family members, the clearer these contradictions become. And the more we are able to advance in resolving them with communist revolution.
—Still Learning
Read more about communist philosophy here