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

103, that is, there was a loss of 79 seats. In the 1956 election,the CPF gained 150 seats. But before the parliamentaryelection in 1958, the monopoly capitalists again revised theelectoral law with the result that the number of seats held bythe CPF fell very drastically to 10, that is, it lost 140 seats.Even if in certain circumstances a Communist Party shouldwin a majority of the seats in parliament or participate in thegovernment as a result of an electoral victory, it would notchange the bourgeois nature of parliament or government,still less would it mean the smashing of the old and the establishmentof a new state machine. It is absolutely impossibleto bring about a fundamental social change by relying onbourgeois parliaments or governments. With the state machineunder its control the reactionary bourgeoisie can nullifyelections, dissolve parliament, expel Communists from thegovernment, outlaw the Communist Party and resort to bruteforce to suppress the masses and the progressive forces.For instance, in 1946 the Communist Party of Chile supportedthe bourgeois Radical Party in winning an electoralvictory, and a coalition government was formed with the participationof Communists. At the time, the leaders of theChilean Communist Party went so far as to describe thisbourgeois-controlled government as a “people’s democraticgovernment”. But in less than a year the bourgeoisie compelledthem to quit the government, carried out mass arrestsof Communists and in 1948 outlawed the Communist Party.When a workers’ party degenerates and becomes a hirelingof the bourgeoisie, the latter may permit it to have a majorityin parliament and to form a government. This is the casewith the bourgeois social democratic parties in certain countries.But this sort of thing only serves to safeguard and consolidatethe dictatorship of the bourgeoisie; it does not, andcannot, in the least alter the position of the proletariat as anoppressed and exploited class. Such facts only add testimonyto the bankruptcy of the parliamentary road.390