First Published: The Call, Vol. 7, No. 18, May 8, 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
Many of our readers may already be somewhat familiar with Marx’s general view of society and his overall class stand as well as something about his life’s work struggling for a communist world.
What may not be as widely known is that Marx and Engels’ view of the international situation in their day (the latter half of the 19th century) was the forerunner of the theory of three worlds, developed under today’s conditions by Mao Tsetung.
Mao’s theory of three worlds bases itself on a concrete analysis of the world situation in which the two superpowers are the main enemies of the world’s peoples. It shows particularly that the Soviet Union is the main source of a new world war and therefore the most dangerous of the two.
Similarly, Marx and Engels concretely examined the situation of Europe during the period of the bourgeois revolutions. They pointed to czarist Russia as the principal enemy of the revolutionary movements there.
As Engels points out: “No revolution in Western Europe can gain final victory as long as the present Russian state exists beside it.”
Just as Chairman Mao utilized the contradictions between the superpowers and the lesser imperialist powers of the second world, Marx drew distinctions, for example, between the Turkish Empire and the czarist empire.
At that time, Turkey itself was the victim of an annexation attempt by the Czar, and Marx and Engels defended Turkey’s resistance. As Marx himself said, it is necessary to make use of every “rift” among the enemies and at times to “ally ourselves even with our enemies.”
Finally, Marx fully supported the national movements for self-determination and against national oppression, and viewed them as a powerful ally of the working class movement. For example, he firmly defended the movement for national independence of Poland, which he called “the starting point for the International.”
Marx’s analysis was similar to Chairman Mao’s view of the third world’s struggle for national freedom and independence from the domination of the two superpowers, which today serves as the most powerful reserve on the side of the international working class.
Today the revolutionary policy of forming a broad international front against the two superpowers is a continuation of Marx’ brilliant tactics of striking at the main enemy.