Revolution #224, February 6, 2011
PART 1: REVOLUTION AND THE STATE
Dictatorship—of the Proletariat—and the Transition Beyond Dictatorship
In terms of the dictatorship of the proletariat as a transition from capitalism to communism on a world scale, the Manifesto from our Party discusses—and this is a very important point—two basic reasons why the dictatorship of the proletariat is necessary.
First, to exercise dictatorship over exploiting class elements, old and new, while carrying forward the revolution toward the final triumph of communism, worldwide, with the achievement of the "4 Alls" (the abolition of all class distinctions, of all the production relations on which those class distinctions rest, of all the social relations corresponding to those production relations, and the revolutionizing of all the ideas that correspond to those social relations), which is the final aim of the dictatorship of the proletariat. So that is its first function—to exercise dictatorship over exploiting class elements, old and new, while carrying forward the revolution toward the triumph of communism, which can only be achieved on a world scale.
But the second function is also very important: to uphold and enforce the rights of the people, even with the inequalities that may exist at any given time, while the goal is—and the motion of society must be in the direction of—abolishing and moving beyond all such social inequality and all relations of exploitation and oppression.
And, again, you can see the essence of this embodied in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal). This is spoken to directly in the Preamble of that Constitution.
But, to expand briefly on this second function of the dictatorship of the proletariat, Mao actually made the statement, in his typically provocative way, that even a thousand years from now, in communist society, ill-gotten gains will still be wrong and you still can't just go into your neighbor's house and take something away from your neighbor. There still will be items of personal consumption and use, even if the notion of ownership will have been radically transformed. But certainly in socialist society, just because a doctor might get a higher salary than someone teaching school, say, or a physicist might have a higher salary than someone working in another part of the economy—you can't go and start removing things from the doctor's house or the physicist's house and say, "These things represent unjustified privilege, you can't have them, we're for equality after all." The dictatorship of the proletariat actually enforces the fact that you can't do that—it actually enforces a certain inequality, even while the goal is, and the actual motion must be, to move beyond that inequality. This, once again, is a fundamental difference between the broad outlook of the proletariat—understood, not in a reified sense or an economist sense, but in the sense of its most fundamental and largest interests, in achieving the "4 Alls"—and, on the other hand, the outlook of the petit bourgeois who wants to level things off immediately so that he or she can have a go at it, on better terms for himself or herself, in what amounts to commodity competition.
Back to Birds and Crocodiles
So we're back again to "birds and crocodiles." We're back to the point in our Party's Manifesto that it's not a matter of "Who are you to say"—or, in some abstract sense, "Who gets to decide" how things will be done? "How come your Party gets to decide what the Constitution is going to be?" Well, it's going to be one system or another—it's either going to be masses of people rising up, with the necessary leadership, and making revolution to bring a whole new system into being, or we're going to have the same old system. And if we actually lead that revolution and enable the masses to achieve that, we do not intend to abdicate that leadership so that someone can restore capitalism in the name of equality. It's just that basic.
Now, what we are talking about is not the stereotypical vision, and is not even the pre-new synthesis version, of the dictatorship of the proletariat. We are talking about an emancipating vision on a whole new level. The Draft Proposal for the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America1 brings this to life. But it is the dictatorship of the proletariat that we are talking about, and it is the leadership of the vanguard applying the new synthesis.
So, as the metaphor of "birds and crocodiles" illustrates, it is not a matter of arbitrarily "who gets to decide," but what are the actual dynamics of the material reality with which we are confronted and what pathways for change are there. And it really is either/or, as I've been emphasizing: either it's the seizure of state power by masses of people, led by a vanguard of this kind, and then the advance to communism throughout the world, and the final abolition of state power and of vanguards; or it's back to capitalism, or the perpetuation of capitalism without ever having a revolution in the first place. Those are the choices. How come? Because that's the way reality is, that's the way human society has evolved. All we've done is recognize it and act on it.
This underscores yet again the importance of a materialist understanding and of proceeding from where we are, where the historical development of human society has led (once again not "was bound to lead" but has led): what pathways that opens for change, in fact for a profound transformation and leap, in human society and its interaction with the rest of nature.
1. The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)—published by the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA—states, in the Preamble of that Constitution, that the Party has its theoretical basis in "the science of communism and the further development of this science through the new synthesis brought forward by Bob Avakian." Numerous talks and writings by Bob Avakian, and other publications by the Party—including Revolution and Communism: A Foundation and Strategic Orientation; Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage, A Manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA; and the Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA—speak to this new synthesis; and, as pointed to in this talk, the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) is a living application of that new synthesis. [back]