Polemic on General Line of International ... - From Marx to Mao

Engels wrote in Anti-Dühring, “The proletariat seizes politicalpower and turns the means of production into stateproperty.”Having seized political power, the proletariat must concentratethe means of production in the hands of the state ofthe dictatorship of the proletariat. This is a fundamentalprinciple of socialism.In the early period of Soviet power following the OctoberRevolution when some people advocated handing the factoriesover to the producers so that they could “organize production”directly, Lenin sternly criticized this view, saying that in realityit meant opposition to the dictatorship of the proletariat.He acutely pointed out:. . . Any direct or indirect legalization of the possessionof their own production by the workers of individual factoriesor individual professions or of their right to weaken or impedethe decrees of the state power is the greatest distortionof the basic principles of Soviet power and the complete renunciationof socialism. 1It is thus clear that “workers’ self-government” has nothingto do with socialism.In fact, the “workers’ self-government” of the Tito cliquedoes not provide self-government on the part of the workers;it is a hoax.The enterprises under “workers’ self-government” are actuallyin the clutches of the new bureaucrat-comprador bourgeoisierepresented by the Tito clique. It controls the enterprises’property and personnel and takes away much thegreater part of their income.Through the banks the Tito clique controls the credit of theentire country and the investment funds and liquid capitalof all enterprises and supervises their financial affairs.1V. I. Lenin, “On the Democracy and Socialist Character of theSoviet Power”.156