What Is the Scientific Nature and Contemporary Value of Leninism?—A Discussion with Professor David Lane

ABSTRACT

This article poses the question of how to correctly understand the working class and the socialist movement, stresses the existence and development of the Marxist left movements that represent the vanguard of the working class, while putting forward a definition of the proletariat and examining the structural changes the proletariat has undergone. The article indicates how the relationship between the dictatorships of different classes and democracy should be understood, suggests that the state systems of capitalist countries, that is, their class attributes, represent bourgeois-democratic dictatorship. The article puts forward views on how to correctly understand socialism, parliamentary democracy and proletarian revolution, sets out the reasons why proletarian dictatorship constitutes the dictatorship of the people. It explains how the new and old imperialism and the aspirations of the working class should be understood, details the characteristics of the new and old imperialism, and points out that it is necessary to use historical materialism to dialectically analyze the appearance and essence of the aspirations of the working class and of the broad masses of the people. It indicates how the general development trend of human society should be understood; expounds views on the basic contradictions of contemporary capitalism, the law of accumulation and the existence and continued development of various crises; and contends that Leninism is an international Marxist theory, paralleling the thought of Marx and Engels, that has guided the international proletarian revolution and socialist construction.

KEYWORDS:

• Leninism
• Marxism
• proletarian revolution
• old and new imperialism
• world socialism

Acknowledgements

This article is translated from Chinese by Associate Professor Shuqing Li at the Yantai Research Institute, China Agricultural University.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The author agrees with Professor Pinyue Lu’s definition of class from the perspective of economic power, expressed by him in a communication on WeChat.

2 For instance, the system of donations from individuals and private enterprises to fund the election of parliamentarians and heads of state should be abolished through legislation. Instead, the state financial authorities should pay the funds needed on average for the activities of all candidates, according to the same criteria (that is, a standard sum to cover the costs of candidates’ campaigns). This is the revolutionary reform that the monopolistic bourgeoisie in the United States and other countries are least willing to implement, because if the money-dominated electoral system were abolished, left-wing parties that truly represented the will and interests of the broad masses of people would be more likely to come to power through fair and open elections. Under the capitalist system of money-dominated elections and political life, the majority of people are strictly limited in their opportunities for participation, or simply abstain and do not participate in the venal political games.

3 A YouGov poll found that support for capitalism among Americans under 30 fell from 39% to 30% between 2015 and 2018—14 percentage points below the average for all Americans and 26 points below the figure for seniors (Harris 2020). A 2016 Harvard University survey of millennials found that 51% of the respondents did not support capitalism (Pembroke 2019). “Millennial socialism” is different from socialism in Marxist theoretical discourse, and under the high-handed rule of the American monopoly bourgeois elite and its money, the broad masses of people do not find it easy to understand the issues concerned.

4 Data sources: Data Bank World Development Indicators. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://databank.shihang.org/reports.aspx?source=2&type=metadata&series=NY.GNP.PCAP.CD#.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Enfu Cheng

Enfu Cheng (His name is Cheng Enfu in Chinese tradition, Cheng is his surname, Enfu is his given name) is Director and Distinguished Professor of the Innovative Marxism Research Center, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Chief Professor of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Chairman of the World Association for Political Economy.