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

The delegation of the CPC expressed its disagreement withthese erroneous views in clear terms. On November 10, 1957it systematically explained its own views on the question ofthe transition from capitalism to socialism to the CentralCommittee of the CPSU, to which it also presented a writtenoutline.The main points made in our written outline are summarizedbelow.It is advantageous from the point of view of tactics to refer tothe desire for peaceful transition, but it would beinappropriate to over-emphasize the possibility of peacefultransition. It is necessary to be prepared at all times torepulse counter-revolutionary attacks and, at the criticaljuncture of the revolution when the working class is seizingstate power, to overthrow the bourgeoisie by armed force ifit uses armed force to suppress the people’s revolution(generally speaking, it is inevitable that the bourgeoisiewill do so).The parliamentary form of struggle must be fullyutilized, but its role is limited. What is most important isto proceed with the hard work of accumulating revolutionarystrength; peaceful transition should not be interpretedin such a way as solely to mean transition througha parliamentary majority. The main question is that of thestate machinery, namely, the smashing of the old statemachinery (chiefly the armed forces) and the establishmentof the new state machinery (chiefly the armed forces).The social democratic parties are not parties of socialism;with the exception of certain Left wings, they are a variantof bourgeois political parties. On the question of socialistrevolution, our position is fundamentally different from thatof the social democratic parties. This distinction must notbe obscured.These views of ours are in full accord with Marxism-Leninism.372