Dear friends and comrades!

Thank you very much that the organizers today have come up with a very special contribution to international working-class unity: To honor Vladimir Lenin. But with a focus on the future. That is why you have raised the question,

What does Lenin still have to say to us today?

First of all, he answers us with his entire professional revolutionary life. Vladimir Lenin was born in 1870 and died in 1924. He began his political activity by writing leaflets about the situation of the workers. The workers in the large industrial center of St. Petersburg were exploited under extreme conditions at the time. They were a very small group in Russian society in those days. Despite this, Lenin recognized in them the leading force of the revolutionand the future leaders of socialist construction.

Lenin listened very carefully to the workers and associated very closely with them. He was an intellectual, but never distanced or arrogant. He spoke the language of the workers and did a great deal to develop revolutionary leaders from the working class. The workers respected and loved him because he explained the most difficult things to them in a way that they understood; he gave them orientation, courage and foresight and was nevertheless very modest.

Lenin was courageous and determined. He never wavered. He was arrested, sent to Siberia and had to flee into exile. In the summer before the revolution, he had to hide once again in Finland. His hiding place was a hut in the middle of the forest. There, on a tree stump, he wrote his important, far-sighted work The State and Revolution on the construction of a socialist state. Lenin became the leader of the October Revolution, which fought for and achieved socialism in Russia and put an end to the First World War.

Dear friends and comrades!

In September, the ICOR will hold a large Lenin seminar with hundreds of participants. Lenin’s work will be presented there in eight thematic blocks. In a real mass discussion we will pose and answer the question of Lenin’s significance today. Everyone is cordially invited today to join us.

The thematic blocks of the Seminar are:

1. Lenin and imperialism. Lenin analyzed that capitalism continues to develop. The further development towards imperialism is characterized above all by the formation of monopolies. Great Britain was the strongest imperialist power at the time, but Lenin particularly examined which new imperialist countries were emerging. At that time, these were primarily Germany and the USA. Lenin also noted:
   Capitalism is growing with the greatest rapidity in the colonies and in overseas countries. Among the latter, new imperialist powers are emerging (e.g., Japan). The struggle among the world imperialisms is becoming more acute. (Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism,” in: Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 22, pp. 274f.)
   Lenin characterized imperialism as the last, rotting stage of capitalism before it is necessarily replaced by socialism.

2. Lenin’s worldview and the dialectical method. Lenin had studied the works of Marx and Engels very thoroughly and had always done theoretical work himself. However, he did not study simply to acquire book knowledge, but to solve problems in practice. In doing so, he applied the dialectical method and developed it further with his “Elements of Dialectics”. Unfortunately, he was not able to complete his writings on dialectics. But his mastery of the dialectical method made him very creative. He was always thinking about how to develop class consciousness to a higher level so that the workers could liberate themselves and lead the state themselves. He realized very quickly that some leading people were settling into socialism, becoming bureaucrats, putting personal interests first. He detested that. In the struggle against the bureaucratic mode of thinking he came very close to the fundamental question of socialist construction: socialism can only be built with a proletarian mode of thinking. The petty-bourgeois mode of thinking destroys socialism, the proletarian mode of thinking is building it. A great example were the Subbotniks – voluntary saturday work, which he thought to be of “great importance”. He said:

It is the beginning of a revolution that is more difficult, more tangible, more radical and more decisive than the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, for it is a victory over our own conservatism, indiscipline, petty-bourgeois egoism, a victory over the habits left as a heritage to the worker and peasant by accursed capitalism. Only when this victory is consolidated will the new social discipline, socialist discipline, be created; then and only then will a reversion to capitalism become impossible, will communism become really invincible. (“A Great Beginning,” in: Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 29, pp. 411f.)

1. Lenin and proletarian internationalism. Lenin was an internationalist with all his heart and lived the slogan “Workers of all countries, unite!” He worked tirelessly to unite the workers and their revolutionary parties internationally. He repeatedly demanded that the workers of different countries should not turn their weapons against each other in war, but against their own capitalist governments. He fundamentally rejected defense of the fatherland in imperialism as social chauvinism. He wrote:
   This idea logically leads to the abandonment of the class struggle during the war, to voting for war credits, etc. The social-chauvinists reiterate the bourgeois deception of the people that the war is being waged to protect the freedom and existence of nations, thereby taking sides with the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. (“Socialism and War,” in: Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 21, pp. 306f.)
   When almost all other social democratic parties in Europe switched to supporting their own imperialist governments during the First World War, he adhered to the principle of proletarian internationalism. His party, the Bolsheviks, ended the war immediately after the October Revolution. Lenin countered:
   Bourgeois nationalism and proletarian internationalism—these are the two irreconcilably hostile slogans that correspond to the two great class camps throughout the capitalist world, and express the two policies (nay, the two world outlooks) in the national question. (“Critical Remarks on the National Question,” in: Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 20, p. 26)

2. Lenin and the struggle for national liberation. On the struggle for national liberation, Lenin said that communists must courageously and openly cooperate with the most diverse forces in the struggle for national liberation; but that they must never merge with the bourgeois-national forces, but must “under all circumstances uphold the independence of the proletarian movement even if it is in its most embryonic form….” (“Preliminary Draft Theses on the National and the Colonial Questions”, in: Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 31, p. 150). He emphasized:
   the Marxist fully recognises the historical legitimacy of national movements. But to prevent this recognition from becoming an apologia of nationalism, it must be strictly limited to what is progressive in such movements, in order that this recognition may not lead to bourgeois ideology obscuring proletarian consciousness. (“Critical Remarks on the National Question,” in: Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 20, p. 34)
   This question is highly up to date, as we see in Palestine. The ICOR has passed a resolution to support the independence and strengthening of the democratic, secular and revolutionary organizations in Palestine. Lenin also greatly respected the rights of national minorities. In the socialist Soviet Union, their children should always learn their own language at school. He categorically advocated the right of self-determination (for example, of Ukraine – for which Putin vicously attacks him today).

3. Lenin - champion of the youth. He always saw the youth as the pioneers for the construction of socialism and communism. He had great confidence in them, challenged them to achieve great things, but also demanded a lot from them: to learn, to learn, to learn. Lenin is a role model for young people because of his discipline and because he devoted his entire life to the goal of socialism.
   The middle-aged and the aged often do not know how to approach the youth, for the youth must of necessity advance to socialism in a different way, by other paths, in other forms, in other circumstances than their fathers. Incidentally, that is why we must decidedly favour organisational independence of the Youth League ... We stand for the complete independence of the Youth Leagues, but also for complete freedom of comradely criticism of their errors! We must not flatter the youth. (“The Youth International,” in: Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. 164)

4. Lenin - pacemaker for the liberation of women. Lenin said:
   In the Soviet Union, the most modern laws for the liberation of women were already in place shortly after the October Revolution. They have not even been enforced in all capitalist countries to this day.
   The second and most important step is the abolition of the private ownership of land and the factories. This and this alone opens up the way towards a complete and actual emancipation of women, her liberation from “household bondage” through transition from the petty individual housekeeping to large-scale socialised domestic services. (“International Working Women’s Day” 1921, in: Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 32, p. 162)

5. Lenin and revolutionary party building. The parties of the new type, as developed by Lenin, are also the model for most ICOR parties. Lenin defended the leading role of the working class and the leading role of the party in class struggle. He wrote:
   The more the popular movement spreads, ... and the more pressing will the Party’s task be in leading the class, in becoming its organiser, instead of dragging at the tail-end of events. ... The wider the new streams of the social movement become, the greater becomes the importance of a strong Social-Democratic organisation capable of creating new channels for these streams. ... the greater becomes the importance of an organised Social-Democratic leadership to safeguard the independence of the working class from the bourgeois democrats. (“New Tasks and New Forces,” in: Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 8, pp. 216f.)

6. Lenin and the socialist revolution. A fundamental lesson also for today is this: The old state power cannot be taken over (for example through elections) and put in the service of the proletariat. In his famous work The State and Revolution Lenin emphasized:
   for it was Marx who taught that the proletariat cannot simply win state power in the sense that the old state apparatus passes into new hands, but must smash this apparatus, must break it and replace it by a new one. (Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 25, p. 489)
   Lenin's entire genius finds expression in the socialist revolution. His tactics were agile, bold and full of risk. Although the plans of the revolution were betrayed, he recognized that the time was ripe and the balance of power favorable for victory. He was an excellent organizer and under his leadership the Soviet people successfully defended the victory of the October Revolution in five years of brutal civil war against all attempts from within and without.

So much for the topics and a first look at Lenin’s significance today. We cordially invite everyone to this seminar from September 13 to 15, 2024, in Germany. You are welcome to apply to ICOR to give an introductory speech on one of the topics.

Dear friends and comrades!

let us learn the lessons for a new upswing in the struggle for socialism

Time and again, the working class has had to suffered defeats in its struggle. The greatest defeat was inflicted on it by revisionism and the destruction of all formerly socialist countries. But let us learn the lessons for a new upswing in the struggle for socialism! Let us organize ourselves – in the factories, in the residential areas of our countries, and internationally. Let us optimistically win new respect for socialism.

The widespread lamentation of the revisionists was never Lenin’s concern. Looking to the future, he wrote in “L. N. Tolstoy and the Modern Labour Movement”:

The representatives of the modern labour movement find that they have plenty to protest against but nothing to despair about. Despair is typical of the classes which are perishing, but the class of wage-workers is growing inevitably, developing and becoming strong in every capitalist society, Russia included. Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle. The modern industrial proletariat does not belong to the category of such classes. (Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 16, p. 332)

With this in mind: thank you for your attention and welcome to the Lenin Seminar in Germany