| DIRECT COMMUNIST DEMOCRACY: Power to the political community! |
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| Written by Ianko Stoianov |
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Tomorrow's brave new world needs an absolutely new and pragmatic communist teaching
Marxism must be developed! The time for a new communist teaching and a new communist democratic movement has come! It always comes! A new – non-utopian and feasible – communist teaching is as absolutely necessary today as it was in the past whereas our will to realise it and live in a better world is as tremendous and inspiring as ever. The communists have the absolute and eternal will of the human species to change and adjust the science and practice of communism ceaselessly in accordance with the higher demands of each following epoch and make it eternally new. The new communist teaching aims at creating the ideology which will be in the centre of the ideological battles of the next centuries! Communist democracy is the categorical imperative of the will of the third millennium! It is the aufhebung of capitalism! It has a historical mission: creating a new culture – the culture of political communism!
It takes enormous courage to talk about a new communist teaching nowadays because many and many years of Red Bourgeois pseudo-communism and many and many years of neo-liberal smearing campaigns before and after 1989 have made the category of communism an incredibly dirty and unpopular word. The former "communist" – now shamelessly neo-liberal and rightist – parties in the former Soviet bloc and Western Europe as well as the parties of greedy capitalist exploitation and their lackeys fight relentlessly trying to kill the perpetual and invariably invincible will of humanity for communist democracy. True, for the time being the parties-beneficiaries of bourgeois democracy are so successful that virtually all contemporary people – brainwashed and manipulated by many and many years of ceaseless deliberate neo-liberal propaganda of venomous hatred of communism – speak contemptuously about the so called commune as well as the so called commies. Poor minds! They were and are still taught to think that Stalinism was communism, the perfect realisation of communism as such. Wrong! Utterly wrong! Freedom of the political community is the main criterion of true communism; it is the supreme aim of new communism. Stalinism did not fulfill this criterion; based on the totalitarian dictatorship of the Red Bourgeoisie over the proletariat, it was the embodiment of pure anti-communism. Stalinism is absolutely alien to us, the new communists. We condemn it as an utterly inhumane – and, therefore, utterly anti-communist – totalitarian political order based on its greedy Red Bourgeoisie, terror, gulags, secret police etc. We have no doubt about it: Stalin and his comrades were anti-communists! As anti-Stalinists we are anti-anti-communists, i.e. as a negation of the negation of communism we are true and positive democratic communists. Today we definitely need a new communist movement, which refutes everything that is dead in the previous movements of Marxist communism and, at the same time, preserves and contains in itself everything great in them, develops them in order to respond to the higher needs, desires and spirit of our time. The communist teaching must be reinvigorated; it deserves to be given a new lease of life. The image of communism must be decisively improved. The next generation needs a new ideology, new goals, a new historical mission. The critique of the existing neo-liberal system of modern capitalism offered by the ideologists of traditional conservative Marxist parties as well as prominent dissidents such as Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein is categorically insufficient and unproductive as long as they do not proclaim urbi et orbi what is to be done. The most important task of the new communists is to go beyond the boundaries of pure and just but fruitless critique and point the way forwards: we want to propose a radically new constructive ideology and create a powerful democratic communist movement capable of being victorious and changing the world. We have to make the will for pragmatic political communism powerful again. We reject Marxist dictatorship of the proletariat as utterly anti-communist. Our will for a democracy of a new type – a communist democracy – is adamant. We are convinced that the time of a new communist teaching and a new political movement for communist democracy has come. We come to express the absolute will of humanity for new communist ideas and solutions of the problems of modern political communities. The time to create a new humanist ideology has come as it has already happened so many times in human history. Never was a communist ideology more needed indeed, and never was it more lacking; an ideology, which is capable of inspiring the present and future generations, an ideology of the new Renaissance of humanity. This new ideology must be realistic, pragmatic and implementable in order to be successful and working. But an ideology is successful and working only when it is true and expresses the absolute ends of Man. All Utopians – and, therefore, Marx, who was under their profound influence – made a huge mistake: They always based their ideas on their idealization of primitive communism, which was politically immature and undeveloped. Unfortunately, they never freed their minds from the myths about the Golden Era of primitive communism for they failed to take into consideration the fact that it was an era without a great political development. They did not understand that the whole capitalist development, which was taking place in their lifetime was absolutely necessary; the institutions of capitalism had to be developed and, what is more, are still being developed with absolute necessity. It is the new communists' task to provide the ideology of tomorrow's world. We are aware of the fact that today we come from a mature capitalist society and aim at developing it as a mature communist society, which preserves the market economy but is based on a totally free and sovereign political community, the result being that the total power belongs to the sovereign political community, not the exploiting and dominating Big Bourgeoisie; a community, which controls the rich and abolishes their present indisputable power and unconditional influence. Marx's class fight teaching was superb; his analysis of capitalist economy from the point of view of the working class perfect. Without question, as long as the political order of exploiting capitalism exists, Marx's ideas will inspire the fights of all progressive people. Unfortunately, his communist doctrine sensu stricto though was influenced by utopian communism and remained utopian. He made the first step towards a modern communist ideology only; the road to a rational, absolutely actual and feasible communist teaching still lies ahead of us. Marx failed to work out the principles of the communist society, of its political and economic system. In his works it is virtually impossible to find any concrete and detailed examinations of the communist society he was in favour of building. Never did Marx elaborate upon the finest details of the constitution of the communist state or the subtleties of a communist economy. He should have. All the more that – as a matter of fact – later Stalin's dictatorship did not give scientists any freedom to develop the theory of communist economy as well as politics. Unlike Marx, who was so profoundly influenced by the utopians that he himself became one of them, the new communist movement supports a brand new kind of anti-utopian post-Marxist communism. This new communism has little in common with the utopian Marxist doctrine of communism; the truth of communism was not and could not have been revealed by Marx alone. Unlike the abstract Marx's communism, post-Marxist communism is based on the whole development of humanity before and after Marx; it decisively breaks with the world of Utopia. New Communism is not based on the abstract Marxist notion of common property, which according to him must be introduced after abolishing the institution of private property. Etymologically, New Communism has nothing in common with Marxist commune. It is based on the category of political community; political communities must be free, powerful and sovereign. It is based on the common good, the rights and duties of all members of the political community; in other words, New Communism aims at establishing the communist state – the highest type of state – as an organisation of the common good of the whole political community. The communism we propagate has nothing in common with Stalinism and vigorously rejects Plato and Marx's utopian communism. We call it communism because it is based on the common good and the sovereign rights and duties of the political community. The modern notion of communism comes from the notion of political community. It is a creative development of the teaching of Rousseau about the inalienable and indivisible sovereignty of the people. It aims at implementing the idea of direct democracy; an idea, which existed even in the XVIII century. An idea, which Robespierre and his supporters wanted to implement in 1793 but did not have the courage to do so. An idea, which was against the will of the Big Bourgeoisie – the leader of the Great French Revolution. Only when the working class become a part of the ruling political community due to a genuine political order of direct democracy, will Rousseau's teaching about the inalienable and indivisible sovereignty of the people be implemented. What Rousseau never wrote about was that the idea of direct democracy must be also implemented in the field of practical political economy as well. New communism is anti-Utopian. True, Marx had expertise knowledge in the field of economics; however, never did he examine political philosophy. He was definitely not interested in it. His knowledge of philosophy – especially Hegelian philosophy – was far from being perfect. He was alien to the principle of unity of the opposites. His presentation was too one-sided, too abstract and it were his infeasible abstractions which made it and will invariably make it impossible to build a communist society of Marxist type on Earth. We aim at creating a post-Marxist communism. And as a matter of fact it does not have much in common with Marxist communism. For it is much wiser – it has grown wiser because of its whole post-Marx development and with far better knowledge of Hegelian philosophy. And that is exactly the point. What Marx's communism lacks first and foremost is Hegelian wisdom. Only after its radical Hegelianisation can and will Marxism certainly become a truly mature teaching being capable of successful implementation. It is not the first time in human history when a category is being developed in search of the just political order of the future which is fated to supersede its outdated predecessors. The time for the new communist political and economic project of our time has come. An important question is still to be answered elaborately at this point: Why do we call the ideology at which we aim New Communism? Why don't we want to use another famous expression – socialism, all the more that even in today's world of omnipotent neo-liberalism "socialism" is still gladly and wholeheartedly accepted and tolerated by the global Big Bourgeoisie. Unlike communism, social democracy has not been even slightly discredited by the latest development of modern world history. The reason? Quite simple! Treason against ideals! The ex-"social democratic" parties have happily and willingly betrayed their Marxist roots and become staunch supporters of XX-century neo-liberalism still shamelessly calling themselves social democrats. These turncoats are beneath contempt; the world history will neither tolerate their existence nor will justify them. The task of the new communist movement is to unmask and denounce them publicly and thus to accelerate the process of throwing them, their masters and their new ideal – neo-liberalism in its pure form – away on the rubbish dump of history once and for all. This is the answer of the question above. We prefer to abide by our principles and use the category of communism for there is a huge difference between socialism and communism. Modern "democratic socialism" is worthy of its name; it is content with the declaration of the Great Bourgeois French Revolution – the declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen. In other words, it is content with the atomisation of the population, with the privatisation and, therefore, with the depoliticization of the political community in which each and everyone is supposed to be engaged with their own private affairs and their private businesses only. Society is the name of the amorphous mass of individuals connected by their apolitical self-interests. Society is atomized; its atomization is the unhidden dream of all neo-liberal dogmatists, such as Margaret Thatcher, who in 1987 famously said "There is no such thing as society. There are only individuals.” Unlike socialism, modern Communism pays attention to the political community and wills to create it as a united body politic based on the unity of will of all zoons politikon. We aim at communist democracy. Western cultures are rightly said to be losing the spirit of community. Political animal (zoon politikon) – this is the highest determination of Man. Remarkably enough, because of its absolute truth and necessity, humanity attained it as long ago as in antiquity. The huge difference between a social being and a zoon politikon reflects the difference between a society and a political community and this difference is enormous for only as a political community can a huge mass of people establish a state based on the authentic sovereignty of the ruling – not the passive and ruled – people. We aim at transforming the people into a political community, i.e. into a sovereign; it is the political community that must be the sovereign of all political institutions. Unlike the unfair neo-liberal bourgeois ideology, not atomised society is the object of our goals but united political community as the body politic of the sovereign existing as one body and one will – the universal will of the human species. The time has come for outgrowing the epoch of society. A transition from the epoch of society to the higher epoch of political community is today's task. It is high time humanity performed the transition from a society to a political community, from socialism to communism. We are victims of our own success: To say Marxism failed is simply not true. Our politico-economic fabric has completely changed from what it was in the 1800's when Marx and Engels called for change. In all western countries, pre-Marx capitalism is as extinct as Stalinist anti-communism is in Eastern Europe. Nowadays they have: universal suffrage, workers' rights, a minimum wage, sick pay, unemployment assistance, little class discrimination, redundancy laws, universal health services. Had it not been for Marx & Engels, many of these rights would probably simply not exist in the modern world. We may call our present economic system "capitalism" but the name is misleading, it is a radically different system to the "capitalism" which existed before Marx & Engels. Like Christianity, which has created a kind of still existing Christian ethics and civilisation, the Marxist communists, the followers of Marxist communism – have created a Marxist capitalism, they have completed the great deed of Marxisation of capitalism. Universal suffrage was won due to the fights of the Marxist educated working class; it was an enormous step towards the creation of political community. This and nothing else but this is the secret of longevity of capitalism. It is a sad fact that modern Left parties turned their backs on their Marxist roots, renounced them after the collapse of the pseudo-communist Soviet Union and happily and overtly sided with neo-liberalism. Thus, they betrayed the millions and millions of fighters for communist justice, who contributed to creating a new kind of capitalism – capitalism with a humane face, in fact, capitalism with a Marxist face. Humanity has made a tremendous step towards communist capitalism. That is one of the greatest reasons why capitalism is still well kicking and alive. Nowadays the task is to continue the movement and make it more and more communist through attaining more and more power of the political community. We aim at communist democracy. The principles of communist democracy must be briefly and concisely stated as well as the features of a communist as a member of a sovereign political community. He has to have the will to rule. For the time being people are taught and brought up to be ruled by the dominating ruling class, not to rule; they are taught to have a passive will, not an active will, which wills to rule. This is the kind of will that the new communist doctrine wants to teach; in its political part it develops the communist teaching of Rousseau. It aims at teaching and imposing new political duties on each member of the political community the major one being the duty of developing a will willing to rule. The duty of having a political will and willing to be an active and conscientious participant in the life of the sovereign political community, i.e. the duty of one's will to enter in possession of the common good is as important as his duty to possess his private good. Not only does each member of the political community have the private duty-right to possess private property and use it without hindrance but as a political communist he also has the duty-right to possess public property and use it without hindrance. Unlike Marxist communism, the New Communists are in favour of liberal communism, which expresses their unswerving belief in the merits of the free market, growth, entrepreneurship, enterprise and wealth creation. At the same time the New Communists will to supersede the highly corrupted and unethical bourgeois social democracy and establish a communist democracy; they are unreservedly and unhesitatingly in favour of communist justice and want the total political community – not the bourgeois state of the dominating and exploiting class – to play a major role in politics. Liberal political communism aims at constituting a communist democracy as a realisation of the newest goal of the World History to supersede and go beyond modern social democracy. It aims at developing a humanist political order, which is uncompromisingly better than the social democracy of our times for it is based on the fundamental principles of sovereignty of the whole political community not the sovereignty of one dominating and exploiting class: the Big Bourgeoisie. Marxist communism aims at building an ideal and living in it; it is the fruit of utopian fantasy for it rejects completely all capitalist institutions without trying to understand those of their positive sides which a pragmatic and realistic communist political order has to preserve with absolute necessity. New Communism is not narrow-minded. It aims at creating the ideology which will be in the centre of the ideological battles of the next centuries; an ideology capable of having a tremendous influence on the development of the political will of the following epochs. In times of worldwide powerful neo-liberalism today’s Left is losing the ideological fight against it and we have to counterbalance its tremendous influence and power to brainwash people; we have to oppose the power of humanist-minded people willing to fight for Equality, Fraternity and Liberty in their modern humanist form to the injustices of the neo-liberal capitalist order. New Communism is a must! It comes with a new programme aiming at transforming the popular support of European Left into a new political reality. It is the new force offering to bring a fresh air of anti-capitalist alternatives and create a new political reality. It is a part of the search for a new strategy of the modern leftist movement. The aim of The New Communist Manifesto is to originate the founding of many newly-born Left parties, to show the way forward and reinvigorate the Left movement. It will start the long march of neo-humanism all over the world; a march, which is a part of the perpetual revolution of humanism. The New Communist Manifesto is bound to become the manifesto of a strong humanist movement similar to the one of the first Christians and as powerful as the communist parties in the XIX and XX centuries. Bearing in mind that the beginning of the new millennium needs a new vigorous winning humanist ideology capable of expanding its influence amongst supporters of social-democratic and communist parties, its major objective is to raise humanity to a perfectly new stage of its development and to lay the foundations for the more humanized political communities of the future. The manifesto aims at developing the theory of communism of the new millennium; it is the task of our time. Implementing the newest political humanistic project is one of the categorical imperatives of the XXI Century. The new communists have the historical mission, the theoretical courage and the political will to abolish – to sublate – the capitalist civilisation and develop a new humanist civilisation. Modern Marxism has to be adjusted to the world that has changed so much. We are going to preserve everything that is good in capitalism; yet, developing it tremendously. Europe and the world have a need of new humanist movements and parties capable of creating a economically and politically viable – Pan-European as well as worldwide – anti-capitalist project for a left social alternative. The new communist teaching aims at providing this so much needed alternative; it aims at setting the beginning of that theoretical revolution which will cause the practical revolution for rational and successful rejection and radical transformation of the capitalist system through nationwide and worldwide movements for changes. The deed of humanistic communism cannot but be successful. Nevertheless, we have to put a great amount of work into educating the left political forces in order to win the approval of the predominant part of the society for the humanist project so as not to be disputed after the next elections. The New Communist Manifesto is to begin this long process of education. All modern left parties – I mean all genuinely left parties, not the ideological turncoats, such as the German Social Democratic Party, the British New Labour Party or the French Socialist Party, which totally and shamelessly betrayed their Marxist roots, moved to the right and became parties of the Big Bourgeoisie – still do not propose any economically and politically viable alternatives. They have to. The time of neo-liberalism and its famous mantra T.I.N.A. – There Is No Alternative – has passed. It is time for T.I.T.A.N. – This Is The Alternative Now; this is the new message of communist democracy. It is our chance and we have to make a good use of it. Yes, it is an outstanding fact that Marxism has changed capitalism enormously. The new communists can do still more. Communist democracy is absolutely possible and feasible; it is an integral part of the absolute actual movement of humanity towards its highest ends. Communism certainly needs its science. Marx and Engels were absolutely right to aim at creating the so called scientific communism. They had the dream and began building the foundations of the science of communism. Today we continue their deed. Humanity is still to learn that the category of communism must be treated in its dialectical development in World History; and there is no doubt whatsoever that the communist doctrine will be developed. New Communism is different. Its history will be different. A new democratic communist movement will appear on the world stage. The sooner, the better. Such is the newest and the latest categorical imperative of the will of our time.
Creating communist democracy
is the supreme task of the newest world history
Marxist communism is dead! Long live New Political Communism! The task of the newest political Renaissance is to make the public of passive bystanders develop into a political community! Aristotle's political animal is to develop into a political communist, a member of the political community, which reign supreme and abolish the power of any classes willing to dominate, rule and exploit all other classes!
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