Hundreds of thousands are marching against the Trump inauguration. Some march against fascism. Others march to “defend the marginalized,” others to uphold liberal values.
We invite all to march with ICWP for communist workers’ power. Only communist revolution can end capitalism and its brutal dictatorship, whether blunted by its “glorious” democracy or taken to extreme acts of inhumanity by its fascism.
We are confident that the mighty working class can defeat the capitalist dictatorship in any of its forms. History has ample proof of this. History also proves that only scientific communism – which has not yet been established – can accomplish this.
Russia: Communist Workers Defy Terror, Seize Power
In 1905, the Russian working class erected barricades, picked up arms and fought heroically to overthrow the capitalist czarist regime. It was brutally put down: more than 14,000 people were executed and over 75,000 were imprisoned.
The “Reign of the Necktie” followed. Thousands of working class leaders, students and progressive intellectuals were hung. The Russian communists in particular were targeted and decimated. After 7 years of this terror, in 1912 there were only about 200 Bolsheviks (communist organizers) in a country one sixth of the globe and with a population of 130 million.
Under these conditions, could the Russian working class make a socialist revolution? It had never been done before. However, the Bolsheviks’ confidence in the working class never faltered. As the worldwide capitalist crisis intensified, the Russian working class began to rise again. By 1914, on the eve of World War I, the Bolsheviks had recruited 32,000 workers in Petrograd alone.
By 1917, they had recruited over 240,000 Bolsheviks nationwide – many of them soldiers – and were accomplishing the impossible: leading millions of workers and soldiers to take state power.
Nazi Dictatorship Crushed the German Communists
At the beginning of the 1929 Great Depression, the German Communist Party (KPD) had 130,000 members. It grew in numbers and popularity during the crisis. By November 1932 it numbered almost 300,000 and received 17% (6 million) votes during the federal elections that month.
After the election of 1933, in which it got 4.8 million votes, the KPD was banned and its members were arrested by the thousands. The first concentration camps were set up to jail them because the regular prisons were not enough. Shortly afterwards, the KDP practically ceased to exit.
Although the KDP eventually organized clandestinely, they were only able to maintain sporadic, defensive underground organizing under Nazi rule.
Why Did the German Communists Fail?
Like the Russian communists, the German communists had also participated in armed uprisings for revolution. Like the Bolsheviks they were defeated. Each, however, drew different lessons from this.
The Bolsheviks never lost confidence that workers would rise again in arms. They organized clandestinely in the factories and military for armed insurrection. The German communists lost this confidence and chose the electoral path: peaceful transition to end capitalism.
Thus, they concentrated organizing in neighborhoods which were also electoral precincts, rather than factories and the military. Although communist neighborhoods bravely took on the Nazi’s Brown Shirts and SS in bloody street battles, their strategy focused on elections, not revolution.
This also led the KPD to unite with liberal capitalist parties to advance their agenda in the government. It was a fatal mistake. These parties betrayed the KPD and facilitated Hitler’s rise to power to destroy them.
With no such illusions, the Bolsheviks had no united fronts with electoral parties or capitalist led organizations. In early 1917, there were 24 other mass organizations – all bigger than the Bolsheviks – vying to lead the Russian workers, peasants and soldiers. With patience, perseverance and openly advocating their revolutionary ideas, these crucial sectors took the Bolsheviks to power.
Crucial to this is these sectors’ ability to meet under all conditions. The rulers can ban all workers’ meetings, but they have to gather the workers in the factories and work places, and the soldiers in the barracks. They can’t stop their gravediggers from organizing!
History’s Lesson: Only Communism Can End All Forms of Capitalist Dictatorship
Socialism in Russia, China and other places is a form of state capitalism. It is another form of capitalist dictatorship. As such, it has proven to be as brutal. It also must be destroyed with communist revolution.
Only a communist world – without money, exploitation, racism, sexism – where production for human need is its main concern, can eliminate any form of dictatorship that benefits the interest of the few.