Lessons of the Second International

1. In the XXI, there is a widely felt need for a new revolutionary theory which would take over the role played by Marxism.

2. To understand history of an international communist movement, focus on the dominant party in the movement. This was: German social-democracy in the period of the Second International, the Bolshevik party in the Third International, the Socialist Workers Party, USA, in the Fourth International.

3. The Second International illustrated various kinds of compromises of socialists with capitalists:

(a) "opportunism" - socialists taking various positions in capitalist governments.

(b) "centrism" - a peaceful co-existence of revolutionary socialists with opportunists in the same organization.

(c) "revisionism" - an open refusal to aim for revolution as the means of changing the capitalist society.

4. A union of revolutionary and reformist parties as a rule ends up in the defeat of the revolutionary wing.

5. "The middle class" of imperialist countries was responsible for "opportunism" of most socialist parties of the Second International. However, the middle class is disappearing in XXI century, as production is migrating to China and other countries with cheap labor.

6. The business of most parties which claim to be "revolutionary", "communist", etc. is not to organize the masses for revolution, but rather to deceive and pacify them. Sometimes, the powers that be pay these organizations to organize pickets and demonstrations that defend the interests of these powers. The business of real revolutionaries is to reveal these tricks played by the phony "revolutionary" parties.

7. One can not take a new born, weak revolutionary party into a revolution. A party must have time to mature to withstand the storm of a revolution and a civil war.

8. An imperialist world war and a socialist world revolution are two twins. Signs of an approaching world war are also the signs of an approaching world revolution.

When soldiers, sailors, etc. observe that the High Command is leading them into a certain and unnecessary death, they may rebel. They will set up councils and thus will start to take the direction of their own affairs into their own hands. Hence, a military defeat is likely to be a prologue to a new revolution.

9. A supreme test for a party is its attitude towards a war, both before it starts (in theory), and after it has started (in practice). Hence, it is very important to form a correct evaluation of the states involved in the war.

10. One must judge a nature of a state according to the revolution in which this state originated. The basic nature of a state doesn't change, in spite of counterrevolutionary coup d'etat, or a compromise between the ruling capitalist class and a communist party.

11. Imperialist "proxy" wars become "people's wars" (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan) and hence are prolonged indefinitely, till they turn into a socialist revolution.

12. Each revolution starts where the previous one has left of. And this is also the reason why a new revolution is more difficult to start than a previous one, for its goals are higher and require greater preparation.

13. A revolutionary (or, for that matter, a counter-revolutionary) party must a centralist, military structure. This flows from the problem which it faces, i.e. destroying the army of the old regime.

14.  In the face of external danger (intervention), revolutionaries must sharpen the struggle against the internal enemy. Do not fall for the trap of "unity" before an external enemy.