Proletarians of all countries, unite!





Marxist-Leninist Theory and Practice, part 2

14 Jan. 2001

"Practice is higher than theoretical knowledge, for it has not only the dignity of universality, but also of immediate actuality."

--V.I. Lenin

Ideologies which serve to create an organization require a conscious concept of unity. Cadre can recite the principle of an organization, the principles of an ideology, by rote, but one will not know whether he/she really thinks with them. Only by seeing how these abstract ideas are utilized in concrete action, i.e., in practice, can one see that manner of an individuals thinking. All modern rational organizations require conscious effort to maintain themselves, to achieve it goals, and demands a high degree of concentration and conscious effort from its members. In communist parties, consciousness is raised by inducing members to speak, write, and publish their understanding of the principles of Marxism and apply them to concrete circumstances which are encountered in our daily work. It is also induced, and perfected, through the struggle meeting where cadre argue their positions and two line struggle is developed along the principles of dialectical method until the political line is resovled--i.e., the minority submits to the majority. It is considered untiy-struggle-unity since the Party itself is united by an overall ideology, it is united. The Party initiates discussion--in the form of stuggle meetings--and resolves the contradictions produced through dialectial method and therefore departs as it arrived--in unity. A dialectic is a process of resolving two, or more, opposing points of view. It is true that opposition in political line is not persistent, i.e, antinomy, but is resolved through struggle. Antinimous contradiction is not persistent, but is resolved through dialectic. The struggle within the Party is therefore a "non-antagonistic contradiction". The primary contradiction is between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and is, therefore, called an "antagonistic contradiction"--a contradiction which is to be resolved at its highest level.

All organizations require a unified ideology in order to function. Pure ideology is a set of ideas designed to give the cadre a unifed and conscious world view, while practical ideololgy is a set of ideas designed to give cadre principles for action. The main contribution by Marx is dialectical materialism and historical materialism--i.e., that history is the development of class struggle. This is pure ideology and persists in the realm of theory. The main contribution by V.I. Lenin is the idea of the vanguard party. This is the pure ideology of Marx put in to practice. Marx gave us the over all theory, Lenin gave us an overall theory for action, i.e., for practice. Pure and practical ideology, though different, are inseparably bound together. Without pure ideology, the ideas of practical ideology have no legitimation. Without practical ideology the Party cannot transform its pure ideology into consistent action. One needs the other in order to satisfy the equation of dialectial materialism.

Though all revolutionary movements must have an ideology, not all of them have developed practical ideologies through which an effective organization can be developed, e.g., focoismo. Lenin created a practical ideology for revolutionary movements and Mao Tse-tung enriched this ideology with his long experience in revolutionary war. The principal aspect of Gonzalo Thought is having defined Maoism as the new, third, and superior stage of Marxism. In Lenin's time, Marxism was the pure ideology and Leninist Thought was the practical ideology. For Mao Tse-tung, Marxism-Leninism was the pure ideology and Mao Tse-tung Thought the practical ideology.