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

Events since World War II have demonstrated yet again thatthe chief component of the bourgeois state machine is armedforce and not parliament. Parliament is only an ornamentand a screen for bourgeois rule. To adopt or discard the parliamentarysystem, to grant parliament greater or less power,to adopt one kind of electoral law or another — the choicebetween these alternatives is always dictated by the needs andinterests of bourgeois rule. So long as the bourgeoisie controlsthe military-bureaucratic apparatus, either the acquisition ofa “stable majority in parliament” by the proletariat throughelections is impossible, or this “stable majority” is undependable.To realize socialism through the “parliamentary road”is utterly impossible and is mere deceptive talk.About half the Communist Parties in the capitalist countriesare still illegal. Since these Parties have no legal status, thewinning of a parliamentary majority is, of course, out of thequestion.For example, the Communist Party of Spain lives underWhite terror and has no opportunity to run in elections. It ispathetic and tragic that Spanish Communist leaders like Ibarrurishould follow Khrushchov in advocating “peaceful transition”in Spain.With all the unfair restrictions imposed by bourgeois electorallaws in those capitalist countries where CommunistParties are legal and can take part in elections, it is very difficultfor them to win a majority of the votes under bourgeoisrule. And even if they get a majority of the votes, the bourgeoisiecan prevent them from obtaining a majority of the seatsin parliament by revising the electoral laws or by other means.For example, since World War II, the French monopolycapitalists have twice revised the electoral law, in each casebringing about a sharp fall in the parliamentary seats held bythe Communist Party of France. In the parliamentary electionin 1946, the CPF gained 182 seats. But in the election of 1951,the revision of the electoral law by the monopoly capitalistsresulted in a sharp reduction in the number of CPF seats to389