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

national arena. The development of state-monopoly capitalismhas, besides aggravating the contradictions of the capitalistsociety which appeared before, also given birth to new contradictions.State-monopoly capitalism has led to a still greaternarrowing of the social base of imperialism within a country,and to the concentration of power in the hands of a smallgroup of the strongest monopolists. This gives rise, on theother hand, to a joint anti-monopoly movement embracing theworking class, the peasants, the petty bourgeoisie, the workingintellectuals and certain other sections of capitalist societyinterested in freeing themselves from the sway of themonopolies and from exploitation, and interested in changingover to socialism.Our time is characterized by a sharp growth in thesignificance of democratic movements — the struggle forworld peace, for the prevention of a world thermo-nuclearcatastrophe, for the preservation of national sovereignty;movements in defence of democracy, against the onslaughtof fascism, for the introduction of agrarian transformations,the humanistic movement in defence of culture, and others.Our Party fully adheres to Leninist principles and to theprinciples expressed in the Statement, in saying that socialistrevolution is not necessarily connected with war. If worldwars bring about triumphant revolutions, revolutions arenevertheless entirely possible without wars.If Communists were to start tying up the victory of thesocialist revolution with world war, this would not evoke anysympathy for socialism, but would drive the masses awayfrom it. With modern means of warfare having such terribledestructive consequences, an appeal like this would only playinto the hands of our enemies.The working class and its vanguard, the Marxist-LeninistParties, endeavour to carry out socialist revolutions in a peacefulway without civil war. The realization of such a possibilityis in keeping with the interests of the working class and allthe people, and with the national interests of the country. At510