Kommunisten has received the following report and picture regarding an action that was performed against Victoriahem in western Stockholm. A local instance of the slumlord’s administrative office had its windows smashed and the slogan “It is right to rebel!” was sprayed on the outer wall along with a hammer and sickle.
We at Kommunisten welcome this action. We understand that the mass struggle can only advance by going beyond the frameworks that the ruling classes have imposed on society to defend their own position. In the struggle for the immediate demands of the working class, the question of political power must be interwoven and brought to the fore. As Lenin teaches us in What Is To Be Done (1902), the conscious struggle, which comes from outside, must be united with the spontaneous struggle. This is no easy task that Lenin sets out, and it took the Bolsheviks many years to master. Lenin further teaches us that “without power, everything is an illusion,” which means that the struggle for immediate demands is futile if it does not serve the struggle for political power. Political power can only be seized through violence, because the ruling classes will never voluntarily surrender it, but will do everything in their power to fight those who challenge them. Hence, the struggle for political power will inevitably lead to war between two classes: the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.
In the final analysis, every type of organization that deals with social issues has a clear political character, because taking a stand on these issues means taking a political stand. To clarify: if one deals with issues that concern political power, one must take a position on who holds power (i.e., the monopoly on violence) in society, which class exercises its dictatorship, and how this should be changed.
There are many who condemn the current system but at the same time distance themselves from (or even despise!) those who dare to move outside the framework of bourgeois legality in the class struggle and challenge this system. Some of them believe that a revolution is something peaceful, that change will fall from the sky, while others are fearful and tremble at the prospect of future violence and want to preserve their own personal status quo in peace and quiet. But the latter isolate themselves from the proletariat who, as Marx teaches us, “have nothing to lose but their chains. But they have a world to win.” Holding a position that opposes illegality or violence is not consistent with the necessities of class struggle. In this, the question of violence is inextricably linked to the question of the state.
If one does not recognize the necessity of violence, then one does not aim to overturn the prevailing order in the country so that the masses can live free from exploitation and oppression, but rather one joins the organizations linked to the ruling class and imperialism and thus serves only to maintain the prevailing order. In that case, one acts as the state’s “friendly encourager” within the ranks of the proletariat, in which the ruling classes can actually benefit from the struggle of the masses by making it part of their own self-preservation drive. For the masses, it is becoming increasingly obvious with the reactionary turn of society that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” All those who advocate the “peaceful path” out of oppression, despite their fine words, will remain mere footnotes in the pages of history. The situation today shows that it is becoming increasingly difficult for opportunists and revisionists of all kinds to mobilize the masses in defense of the existing order.
With this in mind, we recall the following quote from Lenin’s “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back”:
“When we speak of fighting opportunism, we must never forget a characteristic feature of present-day opportunism in every sphere, namely, its vagueness, amorphousness, elusiveness. An opportunist, by his very nature, will always evade taking a clear and decisive stand, he will always seek a middle course, he will always wriggle like a snake between two mutually exclusive points of view and try to “agree” with both and reduce his differences of opinion to petty amendments, doubts, innocent and pious suggestions, and so on and so forth.”
Imperialism and class society will inevitably be swept away, and we will also do our part in the struggle against revisionism and opportunism; it is not a question of “sectarianism” or “romanticism of violence”; it is a question of why we fight. Communists are the cry that says: It is right to rebel!