“Looking at the world with Lenin” concretely emphasizes the conscious realization of the possibility for the revolutionary-communist movement to rebuild and restructure itself with Leninism. Only by overcoming the crisis of revolutionary subjectivity can the revolutionary-communist movement fulfill the need of the oppressed for revolutionary leadership. The only way to do this is to look at the world and oneself with Lenin’s eyes. To put it more clearly: the application of the reality of Leninism to revolutionary vanguards shows the way out and perspective of the leadership crisis.
“In order to understand our struggle, the concrete conditions of each battle must be studied. Once this is done, we can see, clearly, that development does indeed proceed dialectically through contradictions. Genuine dialectics does not justify the mistakes of individuals, but examines inevitable turns; it proves their inevitability by providing a detailed study of the process of development in all its concreteness. One of the fundamental principles of dialectics is that there is no such thing as an abstract truth, truth is always concrete. The essence of Marxism, its living spirit, is the concrete analysis of the concrete situation.”
It has been one hundred years since Lenin’s death. Lenin, one of the leaders of the world communist movement at the beginning of the last century, understood Marxism through the revolutionary dialectical method of concrete analysis of the concrete situation. He used it to analyze and theoretically describe the given world and the political character of the class struggles of the epoch. As a revolutionary leader, Lenin dealt with the multi-layered problems of the class struggle that confronted and challenged him with a high degree of seriousness. He produced theoretically and politically revolutionary solutions to the given problems. He made qualified revolutionary interventions and great contributions to the Marxism of his era in its theoretical, political and organizational dimensions. He restructured Marxism through its revolutionary continuity and elementary aspects.
When we look at the last century from the point of view of the always concrete Leninist truth, we can see that Lenin opened Marxism to all the oppressed. Lenin renewed Marxism and applied and developed it with revolutionary creativity. The first Marxists updated Marxism by relying on the communist accumulation of Marx and Engels. He added the principles of Leninism to the continent of theory and practice of Marxism.
As the theoretical-political unity that carried the Marxism of the oppressed to power, Leninism developed by fringing. In this context we can say with strong emphasis: historically, the 20th century is a century of Lenin. Leninism was embodied as the Marxism of the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. Leninism, whose roots go back to the beginning of the century, essentially declared its right to exist with the split of the Second International. Under the conditions of the First Imperialist War of Partition (World War I), it stepped forward in the international Marxist movement with its role as a revolutionary separator, purifier and pioneering catalyst. In the age of imperialism, under the slogan “Workers and oppressed peoples of all countries unite” and with a strategy that turned the imperialist war into a civil war, it led the Russian working class and oppressed to power.
Lenin’s short 20th century sealed an epoch with the great October Revolution and the attempt to build socialism. With its gigantic political body and even greater ideo-political gravity, Leninism became the leading locomotive of thought and action in the class struggles of the entire 20th century. Undoubtedly, Leninism inspired and influenced all the national and social liberation revolutions of its time at different levels and directly determined many of them. From a series of Eastern European revolutions to the Chinese revolution, from the Cuban revolution to that of Vietnamese, Leninism was the heart of various national and social liberation movements in its theoretical, political and organizational dimensions. In all continents and geographies of the world, Leninism waved as the flag of revolution and socialism. In the conditions of the Second World War and in the post-imperialist period, when the second wave of decolonizing revolutions was rising, Leninism continued to function as a distinctive feature of national liberation revolutions.
In the period after the World War II, Leninism rose again as a revolutionary distinctive against the theory and strategy of the Soviet Union’s (SU) coexistence with imperialism. Revolutionary ruptures took place against the revisionist and reformist line of a number of communist parties. New revolutionary parties and organizations based on the revolutionary continuity of Marxism-Leninism appeared on the stage of history. The overwhelming majority of these revolutionary parties took ML as their party name and raised the revolutionary banner of Leninism.
The collapse of the USSR into itself and its tragic defeat on the stage of history threw the international revolutionary and communist movement into the vortex of a severe ideo-political crisis. The crisis, embodied in the character of the structural crisis of the international revolutionary and communist movement, undoubtedly limited the field of action for Leninism. In today’s reality, despite its shrinking field, Leninism continues to be an ideo-political entity that maintains its continuity and actuality in the 21st century.
There are many distinctive characteristics of Leninism. Leninism, which attributes its historical right to exist to winning the revolutionary liberation and power of the oppressed, is a theoretical-political movement that builds its existence on the actuality of the revolution. The Leninist theoretical and political procedure of concrete analysis of the concrete situation is the compass to comprehend the class struggles of the 21st century in revolutionary terms. Therefore, there is a pressing need to grasp, establish and activate Leninism again and again in the very heart of the class struggles and contradictions of the present.
In the world historical phase of world capitalism in the 21st century, all the conditions for social revolution are emerging at a new level. The 21st century universal class struggle is confronting us with new conditions. A series of subjective and objective class struggle problems challenge the Marxist-Leninists. First of all, the picture of the class struggle in the world today is characterized by a vacuum of revolutionary leadership. The international communist and revolutionary movement is going through a structural crisis that has become more pronounced and aggravated after the collapse of the USSR. The revolutionary and communist movement is unable to produce the necessary response on the leadership level to the class struggles taking place on this ground. The movement, which cannot overcome its structural crisis with a Leninist method and restructure itself, cannot develop as an actual entity. It cannot become the revolutionary pole, leadership power and capacity of the world oppressed.
The international revolutionary and communist movement can find answers to today’s problems and challenges concerning social revolution only by relying on the revolutionary continuity of Leninism and following the revolutionary compass of it’s actuality. Precisely at this historical juncture– the era of imperialist globalization– the revolutionary-communist movement’s insistence on looking at the world through Lenin’s eyes is filled in with principled meaning and gains vital character.
In the last century, Lenin paved the way for the revolutionary development of the Marxist movement with his theoretically comprehensive analysis of global capitalism. By analyzing the phenomenon of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, he created a foundational strategy, laying out the possibilities on the developing path to the revolution. Combined and advanced with revolutionary tactics, it won the revolutionary power of the oppressed. Today, the international revolutionary-communist movement can pave the way theoretically and politically by operating with Lenin’s revolutionary path and procedure.
In this context, “Looking at the World with Lenin” means grasping two concrete planes of truth simultaneously. The first one involves producing theory and politics for today’s problems of social revolution on the basis of the historical continuity of Leninism. This directly finds its expression in the abstraction, conceptualization and comprehension of the phase of imperialist globalization with all its economic, political and class relationship aspects through a concrete analysis of the concrete situation. Secondly, it points to the revolutionary possibility of the revolutionary-communist movement emerging from its structural crisis on the basis of the actuality of Leninism.
“Looking at the World with Lenin” concretely emphasizes the conscious realization of the possibility for the revolutionary-communist movement to rebuild and restructure itself with Leninism. Only by overcoming the crisis of revolutionary subjectivity can the revolutionary-communist movement fulfill the need of the oppressed for revolutionary leadership. The only way to do this is to look at the world and oneself with Lenin’s eyes. To put it more clearly: the application of the reality of Leninism to revolutionary vanguards shows the way out and perspective of the leadership crisis.
In the age of imperialist globalization, global capitalism is experiencing an existential crisis. This crisis has been in the background of new social struggles in all corners of the world in the last few decades. The 21st century is characterized by social revolts generated by this existential crisis. The revolts of the oppressed of the world are developing in revolutionary waves and shaking world capitalism. However, the revolts of the 21st century, which march like a tide rising and dying with flashes, are not crowned with revolution due to the crisis of revolutionary leadership. In the age of imperialist globalization, the possibilities for social revolution, constantly prepared by the sharpening class contradictions, make Leninism as relevant and contemporary as ever and invite it to realize its historical mission. Leninism expresses the only revolutionary unity of theory, politics and organization for the social liberation of the oppressed in the 21st century. In the first century after Lenin’s death, Leninism guides the oppressed as well as communists.
On the centenary of his death, we commemorate Lenin, the most advanced and great leader of the entire history of oppressed humanity, with love and respect.
*Editorial in the 151st issue of ATILIM, the Voice of the Working Class and the Oppressed, dated January 19.