Today, the word people is widely used not only by the ruling bourgeoisie ideologue but also by progressive writers, revolutionary intellectuals and various communist parties in India.
But what does it mean by the word "people" and "peoples' democratic dictatorship"?
In 1905, Lenin says: "It now remains to define more precisely what Marx really meant by 'democratic bourgeoisie' (demokratische Burgerschaft), which together with the workers, he called the people, in contradistinction to the big bourgeoisie. . There is no doubt that the chief components of the 'people,' whom Marx in 1848 contrasted with the resisting reactionaries and the treacherous bourgeoisie, are the proletariat and peasantry. Lenin on Two Tactics of Democratic Revolution. Page 134 & 136 Lenin C.W. Vol 9
Regarding the "liberal bourgeoisie," Lenin excludes them from the ranks of the word "people", as after the revolution, they will betray the peasants by taking the side of the landlords.
In 1917, Lenin points out that in a letter to Dr. Kugelmann (12 April 1871), Marx spoke of a "people's revolution" He then says that , "the idea of a people's' revolution seems estrange on Marx's lips , and the Russian Plekhanovites and Meneheviks...might possibly declare such an expression a slip of the tongue'. ..but in t h e Europe of 1871, the proletariat on the Continent did not constitute the majority of the people. A "people's" revolution, one actually sweeping the majority into its stream, could be such only if it embraced both the proletariat and the peasants. These two classes then constituted the "people". Lenin State and Revolution
After the-revolution, when the new transitional state is established, it can be, says Marx, only a dictatorship of the Proletariat.
"In other words: when the democratic bourgeoisie or petty bourgeoisie ascends another step, when not only the revolution but the complete victory of the revolution becomes an accomplished fact, we shall "substitute" (perhaps amid the horrified cries of new, future, Martynovs) for the slogan of the democratic dictatorship, the slogan of a socialist dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e., of a complete socialist revolution." Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution. Lenin
In his Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution Lenin savs: "The task now is to define which classes must build the new superstructure. This definition is given in the slogan: The democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry. This slogan defines...the character of the new superstructure (a democratic" as distinct from a socialist dictatorship),... as bourgeois-democratic development was still the order of the day in Russia.
Thus in his Why Can China's.Red Political Power Exist? of October 1928, Mao speaks of an armed workers and peasants"' regime , and in A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire of January 1930, he speaks of the correctness of the man about a workers' and peasants democratic political power.
Stalin also applies this concept of people in 1926 on China:
"I think that the future revolutionary government in China will in general resemble in character the government we used to talk about in our country in 1905, that is, something in the nature of a democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry, with the difference, however, that it will be first and foremost an anti-imperialist government. This shall be an interim state. power for China to attain non-capitalist development.
This idea of workers and peasants' political power i.e. people's political power, originally Lenin's, was not only used by Mao in October 1928 and January 1930, but also appears in the 1931 constitution of the Chinese Soviet Republic. That constitution referred to the political power of "the state of the democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants.
But in the late 1930s, after rise of fascist forces and 7th Congress, both national and international situation drastically changed and Mao began to revise the traditional Marxist Leninist concept of people by bringing yet another class-the "national bourgeoisie" -into the concept of people.
When the need for further broadening the united front was required to defeat the Japanese imperialist aggression, he propounded the theses that class struggle during the new democratic revolution and particularly during the war of resistance against Japanese imperialism, should be subordinated to the National interest. He says:
"To subordinate the class struggle to the present national struggle against Japan –such is the fundamental principles of United Front.' The question of Independence and Initiative within the United Front. SW Vol 2 page 215
He further says :
"The interest of class struggle must be subordinated to, and must not conflict with, the interests of the war of Resistance…. We do not deny class struggle, we adjust it." Mao – The Role of Chinese Communist Party in the National war" S.W Volume 2 page 200.
He was compelled to give concession to big landlord and big bourgeoisie saying that even if big landlord and big bourgeoisie should not be discarded if they are for resistances. He says:
"The pro-Japanese big landlord and big bourgeoisie who are against resistance must be distinguished from the pro-British and pro-American big landlords and pro-American big landlords and big bourgeoisie who are for resistances." On Policy S.W. Vol 2 P- 443
Even the question of Agrarian revolution was abandoned for certain period considering the necessity to broaden and intensify the war of resistance against Japanese imperialism. Mao says:
"The Communist Party has made a major concession in the anti-Japanese war period by changing its policy of 'Land to the Tiller' to one of reducing rent and interest….. If no special obstacles arises, we are prepared to continue this policy after the war. Mao- On coalition Government SW Vol 3, p- 298
And further he says :
"The confiscation of land of the landlords will be discontinued." -- The Tasks of the Chinese Communist Party in the Period of Resistence to Japan SW Vol1 P-269
Thus the tactics of the CPC during the war of resistance was primarily oriented towards the national liberation of China and towards the expropriation of property of pro-Japanese landlord and big bourgeoisie and class struggle and was subordinated to this goal itself
In the article "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship" (July 1949), Mao says :
"All the experience the Chinese people have accumulated through several decades teaches us to enforce the people's democratic dictatorship, that is, to deprive the reactionaries of the right to speak and let the people alone have that right.
Who are the people? At the present stage in China, they are the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie."
Thus the word people has a different meaning in Marx, Lenin and Stalin's writings from that of Mao's writings. For the first time Mao included national bourgeois also in the concept of the word people.
Also peoples democratic dictatorship was different from what Marx says in his Critique of the Gotha Program of 1875 "Between capitalist and Communist society lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one in to the other. There corresponds to this also a political transition period, in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat."
This is how Lenin and Mao applied Marxism in the specific conditions of their country.
Neither from the perspective of people's democratic revolution nor from the perspective of new democratic revolution but from the perspective of socialist revolution, we need to define :
Who is the main enemy class of the proletariat?
Who are their international master?
With whom the proletariat can ally-may be temporary, on tactical basis to fight against national and international enemy class.
According to us the main enemy is the big corporate bourgeois class supported by global imperialism. These are the backbone of fascist government and socio-political forces. At present all struggles should be oriented against these class - for the expropriation of their property- by a state under the leadership of proletariat in alliance with poor peasants and toiling people.
By M K Azad
https://kamgar-e-library.blogspot.com/
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