Following is the fourth part of an eleven-part series of study columns on the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought.
The study series was originally developed for study groups conducted by the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L) and is the product of a number of years of practice in leading study groups in Marxism-Leninism among workers and students.
Among the topics covered in the series are classes and class struggle; the crisis of capitalism and the inevitability of socialism; imperialism; the national question; the state and revolution; the communist party; and Marxist philosophy.
Lenin, Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, Chapters 7-10.
Stalin, Foundations of Leninism, pp. 1-6; 26-34. (Supplementary Readings: Lenin, Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, Chapters 1-6; Lenin, The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky, pp. 77-89.)
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In the late 19th century, capitalism developed into its monopoly stage, imperialism. Lenin, Stalin and Mao analyzed this development and its implications for the proletarian revolution. They pointed out that with capitalism’s development into monopoly, it had become a fully reactionary, decadent and moribund system. Economic power became concentrated in the hands of a small number of finance capitalists. Monopoly intensified the exploitation of the working class and laboring people and at the same time oppressed whole countries around the world. Monopoly, too, intensified all the basic economic contradictions of capitalism, resulting in greater crises and instability.
The imperialists are driven by an insatiable desire for markets, sources of raw materials and areas for capital investment. Huge areas of the globe become spheres of influence under the imperialist powers. But these divisions are unstable because, due to the uneven development of the imperialists and their constant competition with one another, they seek to redivide the world to their advantage. Thus, the era of imperialism is marked by continual clashes among the imperialists, resulting at times even in war. The Spanish-American War was one such war. World War I was a bloody predatory war. World War II also began in such a way.
The imperialists also sacrifice countless young workers in wars of aggression to dominate other peoples. The Philippines-American War, the Korean War, the Indochina War, and the “police action” in the Dominican Republic are all such examples.
Due to the profits the imperialists gain from the exploitation of the working class and the superprofits squeezed from their plunder of the oppressed peoples, the monopolists are able to bribe a small section of the workers and the top trade union officials. This “labor aristocracy” works for the monopolists by trying to tie the workers movement to imperialism. The imperialists also strive to corrupt a wider section of the working class, spread national chauvinism and racism, and blunt the revolutionary potential of the proletariat.
But Lenin also pointed out that imperialism is the eve of the socialist revolution. The system is periodically wracked with tremendous economic and political crises and war. The great struggles of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples, directed as they are against imperialism, become allies of the proletariat. The Chinese Revolution of 1949 is an example of this. For these reasons, communists recognize that imperialism’s days are numbered and that only socialism can put an end to the war, violence, racism and poverty bred by the imperialist system.
1. What are the features of imperialism? In what ways has imperialism intensified the basic contradictions of capitalism?
2. Why does Lenin say that monopoly capitalism is parasitic and moribund? What examples do we have today to verify this observation?
3. What link does Lenin draw between the superprofits gained from imperialism and the working class? What lessons should we draw from this regarding the fight against opportunism?
4. What is proletarian internationalism? Why and how should we uphold this in the U.S.?