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p The CPSU Programme, giving a generalised analysis of the contemporary historical situation, defines anti-communism as the chief ideological-political weapon of imperialism, which is being used by imperialist reaction in the sphere of both domestic and foreign policy, and of ideology.

p Anti-communism does not amount to a mere denial of socialist ideology and policy, to their non-recognition, to disagreement with them, as the prefix “anti” may suggest. It is an aggregation of quite concrete aggressive political and ideological acts and instruments used by imperialist reaction in the fight against communist ideology and the practice of socialism. Anti-communist ideas are inspired and fostered by the most reactionary forces, which are hostile not only towards socialism and communism, but to the whole of the democratic movement. The financial oligarchy and the militarists, the fascists and the reactionary clericals, the colonialists and the landlords, the ideological and political henchmen of imperialist reaction—all of these are banded together under the same dark standard of anti-communism.

p What is the characteristic feature of their ideology? What is the main content of their slanders of the socialist system, of their falsification of the Communist Parties’ policies and purposes, and of the doctrine of Marxism-Leninism?

p Anti-communist ideology directly feeds and orients the policy of imperialism, above all its foreign policy with respect 72 to the socialist countries, reflecting and expressing the class interests of imperialist reaction. Another specific feature of anti-communism is that it is most closely connected with the propaganda and the day-to-day political information being disseminated by the state machine and by special propaganda centres of the imperialist powers. Lenin attached much importance to the potential influence of reactionary propaganda, about whose methods he wrote: “To lie, scream, raise a hullabaloo, and keep on reiterating lies on the offchance that ‘something may stick’.”  [72•1 

p Among the characteristic features of anti-communism are its lying, slanderous and fraudulent character, and its double edge directed simultaneously against the practice of the revolutionary movement and against revolutionary theory. Falsification of Marxism-Leninism is not an extraneous element but an organic component part of the ideology of anti- communism.

p What then are the main lines of contemporary anti- communism? It is spearheaded against the three powerful motive forces behind social progress: the world socialist community, the international working-class movement, and the peoples’ national liberation struggle.

p It was noted at the International Theoretical Conference held in Moscow in January 1970 that anti-communism sets itself three inter-related tasks: to undermine socialism or at any rate to weaken the positions of the countries where it has already won out; to prevent revolutions in the capitalist countries from taking place; and to prevent the peoples which have already escaped from the colonial rule of imperialism from taking the way of socialist transformations. In its efforts to adapt itself to the changes taking place in the world under the impact of the victories scored by socialism and other revolutionary and progressive forces, anti-communist strategists increasingly rely on political-ideological means of struggle. However, there should also be continued vigilance with respect to the military threat presented by imperialism. Anti-communism has a primary role to play in shaping and justifying its aggressive policy, of which the Soviet Union has been and continues to be the main objective.  [72•2 

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p The strategy of anti-communism amounts to a policy designed to restore capitalism in the countries constituting the world socialist system. Stooping to all sorts of means and modifying their tactics depending on the situation, the imperialists seek to deprive the peoples of the socialist countries of their historical gains. With that end in view, they resort to direct armed intervention from outside, and to subversive activity within these countries, acting through the anti-socialist forces in these socialist countries, and also smuggling into these countries specially trained men to carry on intelligence operations, subversion and sabotage.

p The present-day tactics of anti-communism aimed directly against the socialist countries consists of two main prongs: the efforts to fragment world socialism as a system, on the one hand, and to erode the socialist states in the bourgeois spirit, on the other.

p The main content of the first prong is to range the socialist countries against the Soviet Union. At the back of this are far-reaching political schemes constituting the core of imperialist strategy and designed to change the world balance of forces. The sum and substance of the second prong is emphasis on the “internal evolution” in the socialist countries, and their political and ideological “softening-up”. In socio-political terms, these schemes are oriented not only on the remnants of the defeated exploiting classes and their fellow-travellers, but also on the revisionist, opportunist elements (and this is essentially a new feature). These specific features of the new tactics of anti-communism stood out in bold relief during the well-known events in Czechoslovakia.

p The main strategic task of anti-communism in its fight against the international working class is to strengthen the power of the monopolists by eroding the class consciousness of the workers, of their internationalist feelings by fighting against the establishment of a working people’s united front, by mounting persecutions and reprisals against the most steadfast and courageous fighters for the interests of the working class.

Anti-communism seeks to sever the ties between the Communists and progressive social forces, to corrupt the communist movement from inside, to deprive the Communist Parties of their combat capacity, to fan the differences in the

74 communist movement, and to erode it as an international force.

p Imperialism pins special hopes on the splitting line pursued by the present Chinese leadership, above all its anti-Soviet policy.

p Anti-Sovietism, anti-socialist propaganda are the main lines along which the anti-communists are trying to brainwash the working people in the capitalist countries.

p Among the important “channels” along which anti- communism is being injected into the mass consciousness are political organisations operating within the working-class and democratic movement. Examples are provided by the activities of Right-wing Social-Democratic leaders, the leaders of reactionary trade unions, especially in the USA, and also of various Leftist ultra-revolutionary or pseudo- revolutionary—Trotskyite, Maoist, etc.—groups.

p Anti-communism also serves imperialism as its main ideological-political weapon in the area of national liberation where its most important aim is to sever the national liberation movement from the other revolutionary forces of our day, the socialist countries above all.

p Past experience provides irrefutable proof that anti- communism is the most important obstacle to strengthening the independence of the developing countries, and a drag on their economic emancipation and progressive social development. The anti-communist policy clashes with the national interests of the countries escaping from colonial dependence.

p Anti-communism as a means of fighting against the national liberation movement is aimed at keeping the developing countries within the world capitalist system. In order to keep them within the sphere of their influence, the imperialists mount offensives on the freedom and independence of the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, seeking to separate them from the USSR and the other countries of the socialist community and so to prevent their peoples from deciding their own future.

The evolution of present-day anti-communism shows up its specific features. Marxism-Leninism, which in our day has become not only a theory but an element of life itself, has also forced anti-communism to undergo a series of modifications.