p The results of the international class struggle in recent years have corroborated the assessment of the nature of the contemporary epoch elaborated by the Marxist-Leninist Parties at the 1960 Meeting in Moscow. The peoples of the world visualise more clearly and graphically the profound historic fact that the 20th century is an epoch of the general crisis of capitalism and downfall of the capitalist system, an epoch of struggle between the two world systems, an epoch of democratic and national revolutions, an epoch of social revolution of the working class and the victory of the socialist social system.

p In the less than ten years which have passed since the previous Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties in Moscow, the socialist social system has scored great victories, and the peoples of the community of socialist states have registered new achievements in every sphere of their endeavours. Under the leadership of the Leninist Communist Party the working people of the Soviet Union have attained notable successes in building communism. They have reached the highest world level in decisive spheres of science and industry. Soviet builders erect houses at the fastest pace in the world. The number of books annually printed, sold and read in the Soviet Union is well over 1,000-million copies. Every fourth scientist on our planet is a citizen of the Soviet Union.

p All these are facts which reflect the power and energy of triumphant socialism, the successes of socialist society in the economy, science, technology and culture and in the people’s life.

These common successes have been attained by the efforts of all socialist countries. The working people of the German Democratic Republic have also considerably advanced during these years. Under the leadership of a united working class and its Marxist-Leninist Party they have demonstrated what creative powers the socialist system is capable of engendering in an industrially developed country. The elaboration of a developed social system of socialism, of the socialist Constitution of the German Democratic Republic, the socialist economic system, the socialist remaking oi agriculture 218 and also the development of the socialist system of education and of a socialist national culture—all these are notable achievements of the Common constructive initiative of the Workinj people. The socialist German state is erecting an insurmountable barrier to the aggressive and revanchist policy of West German imperialism and militarism and, together with the progressive democratic forces of West Germany, is indicating to the entire German nation the way to a peaceful socialist future. In close alliance with the Soviet Union and other socialist states, the German Democratic Republic is a strong bulwark of peace and security in Europe. Thereby we are discharging our historic mission.

PROCESS OF GROWTH OF THE COMMUNITY
OF SOCIALIST STATES

p Despite all subversive activities of world imperialism and difficulties of internal growth the community of -socialist states as a whole has grown stronger and more consolidated in recent years, and its influence in the world has risen. Member states of the Warsaw Treaty and of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance in their decisions, taken in Budapest and Moscow, mapped out important measures for strengthening their unity and cohesion and raising the efficacy of their co-operation and integration. The proposals of socialist states, designed to ensure world peace, to solve such intricate problems of world politics as the cessation of US aggression in Vietnam, withdrawal of the aggressive Israeli forces and a political settlement of the Middle East question, to safeguard peace and security in Europe and to prepare an alt-European conference on questions of security and co-operation, to restrict and end the arms race, and so on, prove that it is these states that hold the political initiative in the struggle for peaci and security the world over,

p Comrade L. I. Bre’zhnev, General Secretary of the CC CPSU in his speech painted a convincing picture of the achievements of the USSR in building the socialist social system and in the effort to attain the highest scientific and teunnological level. We heartily congratulate our Soviet friends on these successes.

p The building of the material and technical basis of communism by the glorious Soviet people, the building of socialism by the peoples of the People’s Democracies promote in our days the joint accomplishment of two tasks of historic import: the socialist revolution must facilitate the development of socialist society and the mastery of the scientific and technological revolution. It is necessary to cut short the expansionist plans ol imperialism and by united struggle compel it to accept peaceful coexistence. Struggle for the highest labour productivity, for the most efficient forms of socialist planning, guidance and organisation of all social processes, that is, struggle for the people to live in conditions of social security, peace and happiness, has become for the socialist co mtries the main content of the struggle between socialism and capitalism on an international scale.

p Today no socialist country is able to cope with these tasks single-handed. The operation of socialism’s economic laws in the socialist countries the 219 exacerbation of the international class struggle and the development of the contemporary productive forces demand the further development, strengthening and integration of the community of socialist states as a jointly operating system based on Marxism-Leninism and socialist internationalism. The community of socialist states is not merely a sum total of the national forces of the member countries of this community. Its strength is rooted above all in the purposeful co-operation in different spheres, and the pooling of all creative potentialities. This is particularly important because considerable differences still exist in the development level of the productive forces and relations of production in individual countries, while close co-operation makes it easier for all the fraternal Parties to gain the necessary experience and knowledge for solving intricate problems of developed socialist society. Socialist economic integration of the states of our community is becoming a decisive factor in accelerating the progress of the national economies of socialist countries and in the eco  nomic competition between socialism and capitalism. Interdependence and close solidarity of the socialist countries, consequently, is an objectively operating law of their voluntary association in a community of nationally sovereign socialist states.

p Only by joint effort will we be able to accomplish our common historic task— to achieve socialism’s superiority in all the decisive spheres of social development. A long period is needed to accomplish this task. We will achieve it in the community of socialist states by combining the national interests with the general interests of socialism. This will open up new prospects in the struggle against imperialism, new prospects for more vigorous and effective support to all the revolutionary forces of the world.

p It is an axiom that in different Countries the socialist social system is being built in different conditions. This is important, but not decisive. The laws of social development, the general laws of the socialist revolution and the building of socialist society, discovered by Marxism-Leninism, hold good for all countries.

p It goes without saying that the epochal transition from an exploiting society to socialism is a complex and difficult process. Naturally, the problems of this transition do not become easier to solve just because this period is regarded as a brief phase. The experience of history shows that the pace of socialist progress depends on two factors: on the one hand, on the development of the productive forces and the socialist relations of production, the degree of the MarxistLeninist maturity of the Communist and Workers’ Parties of socialist countries, on the socialist development of the superstructure, and on the other, on the level of the all-round co-operation among the states of the socialist community.

p Ever since the October Revolution there have been those who have tried to divert attention from the consequences of capitalism’s general crisis by exaggerating the difficulties and contradictions that arise during the transition from capitalism to communism. They view socialist countries usually through the prism of various high achievements of capitalist industry and the “ pluralism” of capitalist democracy. That is why they are unable to discern the problems which naturally arise during the transition from capitalism to socialism, the struggle between the economic laws of socialism and the eonsequences 220 of the operation of capitalism’s economic laws. They advise us to replace the policy of a broad alliance, effected in the National Front under the leadership of the working class and its revolutionary Party in socialist countries, by the so-called pluralism of different parties. But this pluralism in effect is nothing but a reflection of the contradictions of the class struggle within capitalist society. It serves to camouflage the dictatorship of monopoly capital. What is, then, the meaning of such recommendations which seek to impose on the socialist system capitalist pluralism which is alien to it? Must we give the class enemy the opportunity to gain influence under the guise of pluralism ? This, to say the least, would retard socialist development.

The situation is different in the capitalist countries, where Communist and Workers’ Parties are still waging the struggle for power. It is an entirely different matter when in such conditions understanding is reached not only with Social-Democratic but also with inimical parties. True, the ruling class allows pluralism as a rule only to the extent that it does not endanger the existence of the bourgeois system. Although in some capitalist countries the Communist Parties are the largest parties, with regard to them the rules of the “pluralist” game usually are disregarded the moment the issue of state power comes up. Then bourgeois-democratic rights are curtailed in an increasingly undisguised way, the constitution is emasculated, parliament is deprived of independence and state-monopoly dictatorship is extended.

THE ADVENTURIST NATURE OF IMPERIALISM

p In recent years, imperialism provided added proof of its adventurist manhating nature, particularly by the barbarous US war against the heroic people of Vietnam and Israel’s war of conquest against the Arab countries, primarily the United Arab Republic, the Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan and Iraq. But the courageous and dedicated national liberation struggle of the glorious sons of Vietnam has proved that the people of a small country supported by the Soviet Union and international solidarity is able to defeat the United States, the mightiest of the imperialist powers. In the Israeli war against the Arab states, too, the aggressor fell short of his political aim.

p A state-monopoly system of rule by capitalism has fully crystallised in imperialist states. Our assessment of new phenomena in the system of imperialism coincides with the analysis given by Comrade Brezhnev. The main contradictions of the capitalist system have grown so acute that the interlocking of the power of the monopolies with the power of the State has objectively become the only possible condition for the existence of contemporary imperialism. The state and the monopolies coalesce, turning into a single machine, thereby exacerbating the old contradictions of capitalism and giving rise to new ones. The main contradiction between the group of big industrialists, financial tycoons and militarists, on the one hand, and the broad sections of the people, on the other, is becoming ever deeper.

p The sharp exacerbation of the class struggle between socialism and imperialism on a world scale is the main feature of present-day international development. 221 The new element in the policy of the ruling class of monopoly capital in West Germany is the striving for expansion and for the winning of hegemony over the West European states, infiltration of People’s Democracies with the object of preventing the building of socialism in them, the drive to capture political and economic positions of power in Arab, African and Asian countries. It was only a few days ago that the West German Finance Minister, Strauss, expounded in London a project for a West European military alliance equipped with nuclear weapons. On the basis of West Garmany’s economic potentialities the militarists of that country would like to capture a leading role in that alliance in order, as Strauss put it, "to regain a voice in world politics". Early this year Bonn War Minister Schroeder in his speech at the Export Club in Munich put forward as the aim of West German expansionist policy the demand to make the Bonn state a "model and initial point for the solution of our national problem in the way we want". This means that a spokesman of the ruling party, War Minister Schroeder, advocates the annexation of the German Democratic Republic. And this is termed a change of the status quo by these gentlemen.

p Every reasonable person in the world can foresee what terrible consequences would result from equipping West Germany with atomic weapons. The atomic arming of the West German state, which pursues a revanchist policy directed against the German Democratic Republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Poland and the Soviet Union, is imperialist madness, a crime against the German nation and against the peoples of Europe.

p Twenty years ago the big West German bourgeoisie, through a coup, divided Germany in order to rearm West Germany. Today by its policy of revanche and atomic arming it stakes the existence of the entire nation. That is why unity of all peace forces in West Germany and their co-operation with the first peaceloving German state, the German Democratic Republic, is a vital necessity.

p The opinion has been corroborated that state-monopoly capitalism fears the growing might and the power of attraction of the world socialist system and that the internal contradictions of the predatory imperialist system are weighing it down. And so it, as it were, resorts to a "flight forward". Making use of its historically conditioned, temporary economic advantage, state- monopoly capitalism wants to reinforce its growing aggressiveness by its economic potential. It utilises science and technology on a wide scale as a decisive weapon in the economic, political and military struggle between the two world systems. It wants to go over to the offensive and tries to change the international balance of forces in its favour.

p The conflict with imperialism has grown sharper, it involves ever wider spheres and no one can evade it. That is why there can be no "between- thefronts policy". There can be no "logic of blocs". There is only the firm class position and the logic of the class struggle and a wide struggle of the people for ensuring the peace.

p Typical of new methods of imperialism is the waging of psychological warfare, the attempt to undermine the bastions of the working class and of socialism and to corrupt socialist consciousness with the help of the convergence theory. The imperialists demagogically picture the scientific and technological revolution 222 as a way which supposedly leads to the overcoming of "old capitalism" and to the drawing together of monopoly capitalism and the socialist system. The scientific and technological revolution and the concentration of the productive forces under capitalism do lead to the further socialisation of production. But this merely proves that the domination of several thousand monopolists is increasingly becoming an anachronism, that on the order of the day is the turning of the big monopolies into the property of the people, and the struggle for socialism.

p We should add to this that big capital, which from the moment socialism arose in the Soviet Union has constantly attacked the very idea of economic planning, now itself is planning in the large concerns and is even compelling the state machine to engage in a kind of programming in the interest of capital. The big monopolies are thus forced to borrow from the Soviet Union definite forms and methods of programming, although in a modified form. Here it is a matter of trying to mitigate the contradictions inherent in the capitalist system. But this does not alter the substance of capitalism.

p The so-called "new Eastern policy" of the Bonn government also belongs among the diverse new methods of imperialism which aims to penetrate the socialist countries and reverse the development of socialism.

p This policy ultimately is only a variety of the convergence theory. Moreover, the Social-Democratic ministers have undertaken the task, taking cover behind statements about "love of peace" of the supposedly "changed imperialism" and about its "readiness for mutual understanding" and utilising the Trojan horse tactics, of finding ways for penetrating the socialist countries and opening the gates to ideological subversion, economic dependence and counter- revolution. The Bonn Foreign Minister writes, for example, in the Italian press about reducing tension, but in Bonn he does not even speak up for signing the treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and fights against the recognition of the German Democratic Republic as an equal state.

p Imperialism has succeeded in driving breaches in sectors of the international class struggle where the fighting efficiency of the national revolutionary forces was temporarily paralysed or where the international solidarity and unity of the progressive forces were temporarily weakened and therefore could not fully display themselves. The community of socialist states and other revolutionary forces acting in alliance with it, however, succeeded in beating back the attacks of world imperialism, and turning its initial successes into defeats in some decisive sectors of the class struggle in the world arena.

p The lessons of the international class struggle of recent years teach us: imperialism preserves its adventurist nature, it has become more aggressive, more perfidious and dangerous. But it no longer has the strength fundamentally to change the balance of forces in the world in its favour. Objectively, the world revolutionary forces have everything necessary to score new victories and to inflict new defeats on imperialism. This, however, calls for tireless strengthening of their fighting efficiency, for further reinforcing and uniting their ranks in the struggle against the chief enemy of mankind—imperialism.

p The most important thing is to create a united front and an all-out movement of the democratic and anti-imperialist-minded people.

p If we can speak today of new conditions of the revolutionary struggle, they stem from the greater might of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, from the straggle of the working class in the capitalist countries, from the successes of the national liberation movement. As state-monopoly rule is fully established, the class and people’s struggle in capitalist countries increasingly encompasses all of society.

p We watch with feelings of deep solidarity the efforts of fraternal Parties in capitalist countries to utilise the new possibilities of the anti-imperialist struggle by applying a bold and flexible policy of alliance with the peasantry, intelligentsia, workers in Culture, the youth and students, with part of the middle strata, and so on. We agree with the opinion of fraternal Parties that the new conditions of struggle in the capitalist countries, the influx of new millions into the working class and also the broadest alliance with non-proletarian classes and strata demand an internal strengthening of the Communist Parties, greater propaganda of MarxistLeninist ideology, determined struggle against Right opportunism and Left adventurism and also the ensuring of the necessary political and. social composition of the leadership.

p One of the distinctions of the international class struggle is that the Soviet Union and other socialist countries are exerting an ever greater influence on development in the capitalist countries, while the psychological war of the capitalist countries, in turn, also influences the socialist countries. The capitalist states have not only built a whole network of radio stations around the socialist countries but they have also succeeded in recruiting turncoats among revisionists from some socialist countries who have entered the service of anticommunist institutes of the United States and West German imperialism and are working quite energetically there.

p The international balance of power will change in favour of the forces of peace, democracy, national independence and socialism to the extent that these forces are able:

p —to consolidate still more the political, military and ideological alliance of the states of the socialist community, to effect socialist, economic integration and reinforce their might and unity;

p —to build communism in the Soviet Union and developed socialist society in other fraternal countries in an exemplary way, in combination with the most rational mastery of the scientific and technological revolution;

p —to strengthen united action of Communist and Workers’ Parties against imperialism and step by step achieve complete ideological and political unity;

p —to reinforce the alliance of socialist states, of Communist and Workers’ Parties with all the other anti-imperialist forces and build up an invincible world-zoide militant community directed against the chief common enemy— imperialism.

p A guarantee of the accomplishment of all these tasks—and of this we are firmly convinced—is the closest rallying of the revolutionary forces of the entire world round the CPSU and the USSR, which, under the guidance of Lenin, were the first in the world to lead the proletarian revolution to victory and build socialist society and now are the first in the world to blaze mankind’s trail to communism; which bore the brunt of the struggle for the liberation of 224 Europe and the entire world from fascism; which as the leading force of peace and socialism have decisively contributed to preventing the imperialist aggressors from unleashing a third world war.

Some say that the need for rallying the Communist and Workers’ Parties, all the forces of progress round the Soviet Union has diminished now that there are several socialist states as compared with the time when the Soviet Union was the only country building socialism. But the opposite is the case: historical materialism teaches us that the importance of society, of the state, is determined above all by its social nature. The international role of the Soviet Union as the pioneer of progress naturally increases because today it is the first in the world to build communist society. It is with the birth and growth of several socialist states, with the formation of the world socialist system, that the role of the Soviet Union has increased. Today, in conditions of the revolution in weaponry and military science, the defence capability of the Soviet Union, more than ever before, is the decisive guarantee of the defence of all socialist states and also of progressive, newly free national states, a guarantee of the defence of world peace.