Article by Albano Nunes, member of the Political Committee and of the Secretariat of the CC
The October Revolution will always be a source of inspiration for the communists and all those who fight against the capitalist exploitation system and struggle so that the magnificent achievements of human intelligence and work be placed not at the service of a parasite class, but of all the workers and peoples all over the world.
The Portuguese communists celebrate the 7th of November to honour the memory of its builders and because of those exalted "ten days that shook the world "are rich in knowledge on the revolution creative dialectics, which is particularly important in the present times we are living, when class struggle is sharpening, amid which great dangers coexist together with great revolutionary potentialities. It‘s never too much to highlight the historical meaning of the October Revolution and the pioneer achievement of a new born society and therefore, notwithstanding its short-life and tragic defeat, revealed the socialism potentialities and its superiority over capitalism.
The great capital and imperialism never accepted the conquest of power by the proletariat in the old Russia of the czars and declared a non-truce war, towards the new social order. From the invasion of the fourteen states, at the dawn of the soviet power, to the insidious Munich conspiracy, which guided the Nazi troops against the USSR, passing by an exhausting run to armament, all performed within a military plan.
Along with other plans, such as the ideological war and the hostile propaganda, together with the adulteration of the historical reality, directed to weaken the communists’ conviction on the possibility of overthrowing the bourgeoisie power and reorganizing society in new basis. Such campaigns won new breath with the disappearance of the USSR and of socialism as a world system; socialism was not feasible and capitalism the "purpose of History ", with no alternative. The choice should stand, at least, among alternative versions of the capital power, among unruly exploitation policies, with more or less "social consciousness", among different forms of exercise of power and "management of the monopolies interests.
But over the last twenty years, did not prove the capitalism ideologists’ triumph. The current economic and financier crisis out there, openly proving the contradictions, derangements and failures of capitalism, opens up such serious breaches within the dominant ideology, that many of those who despised socialism and surrendered to neoliberalism, have been forced to recognize Marx was right.
But is there anything new in all this? No, absolutely nothing. Lenine said Marx’s doctrine was omnipotent because it was just. So just, that even his opponents do not dare denying his value. But look out, they do it, reducing Marx’s works to its economic nature and attempting to empty it from its revolutionary spirit, namely on what concerns the party, the power and the property issues. And, confronting Marx and Lenine, on their analysis of imperialism, the conception of a vanguard party, the Leninist revolution theory and the pioneer work of the building of the new society from which Lenine was so prematurely separated.
When the capitalist crisis puts in evidence the systemic crisis and the historical limits of the capitalist system, the more important the offensive position on what concerns the ideological struggle. We are living in a time, on the turn from capitalism to socialism, which the October Revolution initiated. In historical terms, the alternative to socialism is more current and urgent than ever. However, that does not signify the conditions are met at present and everywhere, but the communist parties must be prepared to give way, as far as possible to its Programme, binding the immediate tasks and the socialism purpose and persisting, always persisting, in the Party’s reinforcement and in its tight bond with the workers’ class and the masses. Just as the October builders did.