Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-68ccn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T11:17:53.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Class Struggle, the Proletariat, and the Developing Nations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Extract

The concepts of class struggle and the leadership of the proletariat figure high among the tenets of Marxist-Leninist ideology and strategy that Soviet theoreticians deem applicable to the developing areas of the world. “A new contingent of the world proletariat — young working class movement of the newly free, independent and colonial countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America — has entered the world arena,” asserted the 1961 Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It is this newly emerging proletariat that hopefully is expected to convert the nationaldemocratic revolutions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America into genuine socialist revolutions of the Marxist-Leninist variety. Hence, the advancement of the working class and the promotion of class struggle have become major concerns of Soviet strategy and tactics in the Third World.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Chapter V. An English translation of the Program may be found in Herbert Ritvo, The New Soviet Society, The New Leader, New York, 1962.Google Scholar

2 Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, (1961) (subsequently referred to as Program), Ritvo, op. cit., p. 105; Fundamentals, p. 471; The Declaration of 81 Communist Parties of 1960 (subsequently referred to as I960 Declaration)Google Scholar, English text in Jacobs, Dan H., ed., The New Communist Manifesto, (Evanston, 1961), pp. 2829.Google Scholar

3 Fundamentals, p. 164;Google ScholarPotekhin, I. I., afrika smotrit v budushcheye, (Moscow, 1960), p. 22;Google Scholarsotsializm, kapitalizm, slaborazvityie stranyMirovayia Ekonomika i Mezhdunarodnyie Otnosheniya, No. 4, (1964), pp. 166 ff., and No. 6, (1964), pp. 63 ff.;Google ScholarKashin, Y., “Are There Classes in Black Africa?” International Affairs, No. 4, (1965), pp. 108109;Google ScholarGoncharov, L. V., ed., ekonomika afriki, (Moscow, 1965), pp. 3 ff.Google Scholar

4 Fundamentals, p. 162.Google Scholar

5 Concerning the Basic Contradiction of Our Time,” Vol. 7, No. 7, (1964), p. 3.Google Scholar

6 Problems of Peace and Socialism, Vol. 7, No. 11, (1964), p. 7778.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., No. 12, pp. 3 ff.

8 Fundamentals, pp. 171 and 486.Google Scholar

9 Problems of Peace and Socialism, Vol. 6, No. 3, (1963), p. 64;Google Scholar

see also: Luis Figueroa, “Some Problems of the Working Class Movement in Latin America,” Ibid., Vol. 9, No. 3, (1966), pp. 62 ff.;

Alvaro Delgado, “The Working Class and Labor Movement in Colombia,” Ibid., Vol. 9, No. 9, (1966), pp. 51 ff.;

R. Iscaro, “The Working Class in the Struggle for the Liberation of Latin America,” Ibid., Vol. 9, No. 3, (1966), pp. 49 ff.

10 O klassovoi strukture v slaborazvitykh stranakh,” mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnyie otnosheniya, No. 4, (1962), pp. 68 ff.;Google Scholar English text in Thornton, Thomas P., ed., The Third World in Soviet Perspective, (Princeton, 1964), pp. 277 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Fundamentals, p. 496.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., pp. 172, 154.

13 Mirskii, G., “The Proletariat and National Liberation,” New Times, No. 18, (1964), pp. 6 ff.;Google ScholarRa'anan, Uri, “Moscow and the Third World',” Problems of Communism, XIV, 1, (1965), p. 26;Google ScholarUl'yanovskii, R., “Some Questions of the Non-Capitalist Development of the Liberated Countries,” Kommunist, No. 1, (1966), pp. 109 ff.;Google Scholar discussed in An Alternative to Communist Parties?Mizan, Vol. 8, No. 2, (1966), pp. 53 ff.Google Scholar

14 Iscaro, R., op. cit., pp. 49 ff.Google Scholar

15 Thornton, , op. cit., p. 277.Google Scholar

16 Keuneman, Pieter, “New Features of the National-Liberation Movement,” Problems of Peace and Socialism, 7, No. 12, (1964), pp. 3 ff.Google Scholar

17 Writing specifically about South and Southeast Asia in 11 1966, Vladimir Lukin estimates the number of factory workers only at three to six percent of the population of the region.Google ScholarSome Aspects of Class Structure in South and Southeast Asia,” Problems of Peace and Socialism, Vol. 9, No. 11, (1966), pp. 47 ff.Google ScholarReferences to the inadequate size of the Third World's proletariat, especially in Africa and Asia, may be found in virtually every communist analysis of the Third World's class structure. See, for instance, “sotsializm, kapitalizm, slaborazvityie strany,” lac. cit.;Google ScholarMirskii, G., “Developing Countries at the Crossroads,” New Times, No. 48, (1966), pp. 6 ff.;Google ScholarUl'yanovskii, R., loc. cit.Google Scholar

18 Zakharia, Ibrahim and Magigwana, Cuthbert, “The Trade Unions and the Political Scene in Africa,” Problems of Peace and Socialism, Vol. 7, No. 12, (1964), pp. 19 ff.Google Scholar

19 Gordon, L. A. and Fridman, L. A., “osobennosti sostava i struktury rabochego klassa v ekonomicheski slaborazvitykh stranakh azii i afriki /na primere indii i oar/,” Narody Azii i Afriki, No. 2, (1963), pp. 222; English text in Thornton, op. cit., p. 185; Thornton, op. cit., p. 287. Figueroa, op. cit. pp. 62 ff.Google Scholar

20 Woddis, Jack, “Role of the African Working Class in the National Liberation Movement,” Problems of Peace and Socialism, Vol. 5, No. 7, (1962), pp. 44 ff.Google Scholar

21 Thornton, , op. cit., p. 287;Google ScholarLukin, , op. cit., pp. 47 ff.Google ScholarDelgado, , op. cit., pp. 51 ff.Google Scholar

22 Woddis, Jack, op. cit., pp. 44 ff.Google Scholar

23 Gordon, L. A. and Fridman, L. A., op. cit., pp. 222;Google ScholarThornton, , op. cit. p. 185,Google Scholar and Figueroa, , op. cit., pp. 62 ff.Google Scholar

24 V. Lukin, loc. cit. Only 2.4 million workers in all of Africa are employed in large and medium enterprises according to Ibrahim Zakharia and Cuthbert Magigwana, loc. cit..

25 Avakow, R. and Mirskii, G., loc. cit., Thornton, , op. cit., p. 287.Google Scholar

26 Fundamentals, p. 477.Google Scholar

27 Idem.

28 Idem.

29 Lenin, V. I., “proyekt i ob'iasnenie programmy sotsial demokraticheskoi partii,” Sochineniya, Vol. I, (1964), pp. 439440Google Scholar and Lenin, V. I., Marx-Engels-Marxism, Foreign Languages Publishing House, (Moscow, 1953), pp. 333–34;Google ScholarFundamentals, p. 304Google Scholar

30 Fundamentals, p. 167.Google Scholar

31 Lukin, V., loc. cit.; Potekhin, I. I., “panafrikanizm i bor'ba dvukh ideologii,” Kommunist, No. 1, (01, 1964), pp. 104113;Google ScholarWoddis, Jack, loc. cit.;Google ScholarAvakow, R. and Mirskii, G., loc. cit.;Google ScholarFridman, L. A., loc. cit.;Google ScholarMirsky, G., “Developing Countries at the Crossroads,” loc. cit.Google Scholar

32 See Potekhin, I. I., afrika smotrit v buduschcheye; Potekhin, I. I., “ob'afrikanskom sotsializme. Otviet moim opponentam,” mezhdunarodnaiya zhizn, No. 1, (1963);Google ScholarProblems of the National Liberation Movement of the Arab Peoples,” Problems of Peace and Socialism Vol 7, No. 9, (1964), pp. 54 ff.Google Scholar

33 Gordon, L. A. and Fridman, L. A., loc. cit.; Figueroa, , loc. cit..Google Scholar

34 Program, Ritvo, op. cit., p. 87.Google Scholar

35 English text in the Current Digest of the Soviet Press, No. 26, (1965). In particular, communist strategists look with anticipation toward a rapid growth of the working class in Latin America. See Delgado, , loc. cit.; Figueroa, , loc. cit.;Google ScholarIscaro, , loc. cit..Google Scholar

36 Fundamentals, p. 297; Gordon, L. A. and Fridman, L. A., loc. cit.Google Scholar

37 Fundamentals, p. 297.Google Scholar

38 Idem.

39 Pravda, , 06 28, 1965; Gordon, L. A. and Fridman, L. A., loc. cit.Google Scholar

40 Fundamentals, p. 167.Google Scholar

41 Ibid., p. 297.

42 Ibid., p. 167; 1960 Declaration, Jacobs, op. cit. p. 37.

43 The Revolutionary Movement in the Colonies, (London, 1928), p. 36.Google Scholar

44 Ibid., p. 26. The Communist Party of China was rebuked in the same document for having committed this “fundamental mistake” in 1925–1927.

45 Fundamentals, p. 477. 1960 Declaration, Jacobs, op. cit., p. 40.Google Scholar

46 Fundamentals, pp. 330 and 298. See also Lukin, , loc. cit.;Google ScholarFigueroa, , loc. cit.;Google ScholarDelgado, , loc. cit.Google Scholar

47 The Revolutionary Movement in the Colonies, p. 2122.Google Scholar

48 Ibid., p. 44.

49 Tropkin, N. V., ob osnovakh strategii i taktiki leninizma, (Moscow, 1955), pp. 3334.Google Scholar

50 Jacobs, , op. cit., p. 37.Google Scholar

51 Fundamentals, p. 342; Zakharia, Ibrahim and Magigwana, Cuthbert, loc. cit.; Popow, Jurii, “neokolonialismus a dělnickē hnutĪ v africe,” Odborář, No. 16, (1962), pp. 805 ff;Google ScholarRoberts, Margaret, “African Trade Unionism in Transition,” World Today, 17, No. 10, (1961), pp. 447 ff;Google ScholarLukin, V., loc. cit.; Iscaro, , op. cit.Google Scholar

52 Tráce /Prague/, 12 6, 1961; Popov, Jurii, op. cit.; Zakharia, Ibrahim and Magigwana, Cuthbert, loc. cit.;Google ScholarBykhovsky, A., “George Meany's Subversion,” New Times, No. 31, (1965), pp. 2122;Google ScholarCold Warrior,” New Times, No. 9, (1966), pp. 2122;Google ScholarDelgado, , loc. cit.;Google ScholarFigueroa, , loc. cit.;Google ScholarSoviet Approaches to African Trade Unions,” Mizan, 7, No. 4, (1965), pp. 6 ff.Google Scholar

53 1960, Declaration Jacobs, , op. cit., p. 3738.Google Scholar

54 Fundamentals, p. 310; See also Delgado, , op. cit.; Iscaro, , op. cit.Google Scholar

55 Roberts, Margaret, loc. cit.; Zakharia, Ibrahim and Magigwana, Cuthbert, loc. cit.; “Soviet Approaches to African Trade Unions,” loc. cit.; profsoyuzy stran zapadnoi afriki, (Moscow, 1964).Google Scholar

56 Práce, /Prague/, 11 28, 1962.Google Scholar

57 Práce, 03 4, 1964; Labour Monthly, 07 1965, pp. 318 ff.Google Scholar

58 Fundamentals, p. 310; See also Lukin, V., loc. cit.Google Scholar

59 o smeshenii politiki s pedagogikoi,” Sochineniya, 7, (1935), p. 307.Google Scholar

60 Fundamentals, p. 342.Google Scholar

61 National Democracy — The Way to Social Progress,” Vol. 6, No. 2, (1963), pp. 39 ff.Google Scholar

62 Potekhin, I. I., “Vozrastayiushcheye znachenia Afriki v mirovoi ekonomike,” Kommunist, No. 6, (1957), pp. 110–11.Google Scholar

63 Zakharia, Ibrahim and Magigwana, Cuthbert, loc. cit.Google Scholar