p An analysis of ideological life in the non-socialist world and a study of the characteristic features of the evolution of the intellectual atmosphere as well as of the ideological struggle between capitalism and socialism allow us to draw the conclusion that today this struggle has reached an unparalleled pitch. It has widened and deepened, influencing all parts of the globe and becoming more massive and more intensive than ever before. Today, no country in the world is ideologically neutral.

p Bourgeois ideologists and politicians are making desperate efforts to tip the world balance of forces in favour of capitalism. Along with traditional means of anti-communist falsifications of Marxist-Leninist theory and the experience of socialist and communist construction, they are resorting to more subtle and crafty methods of struggle.

p Anti-communism is spearheaded at the main revolutionary forces—the world socialist system, the international communist movement and the movement for social and national liberation—and at their unity. It is making a frontal assault on a global scale so as to keep every stratum of the population and every mass movement under its influence.

p Within the capitalist system the working class is the leading force in the struggle against the imperialist monopolies. Therefore, the full weight of the slander fabricated by the bourgeois ideologists and the revisionists naturally 90 falls on the working class. They preach the shoddy reactionary idea that it is “degenerating”, “losing its revolutionary spirit” and so forth. The facts, however, indicate that as the leading revolutionary force of the epoch, the working class and none other is capable of crushing capitalism. This is borne out by both quantitative and qualitative indicators. In the large capitalist countries the numerical strength of the working class and the army of wage labour is growing inexorably.

p The strike movement is on the upswing, while the importance of the political actions of the working class is mounting. In 1965 the strikes in all the capitalist countries involved 57 million, while in 1974, 65 million people.

p The crisis of world capitalism, on the one hand, and the successes of the theory and practice of the communist movement, on the other, are steadily aggravating the class struggle between capitalism and socialism. In the ideological sphere this is mirrored by the intensification of the struggle between Marxist-Leninist ideology and the ideology of the bourgeoisie, of which anti-communism is the extreme form.

p Anti-communist ideologists and politicians reprove the Soviet Union for not spreading the principle of peaceful coexistence to ideology. The Communists, they complain, reject the policy of coexistence as a means of “building bridges” between the West and the East, and the Soviet Union is waging an uncompromising ideological struggle against the West.^^1^^ This complaint mirrors their typical attitude to the ideological struggle. What they are demanding is the relaxation not of the ideological struggle but of communism’s ideological resistance to the onslaught of bourgeois ideology in order to ensure bridgeheads for ideological infiltration into the socialist countries. Whereas only a few years ago the bourgeois ideologists were more cautious, saying that it was necessary to “build bridges” between the West and the East, today they are quite bluntly declaring that bridges are being built with one-way traffic, namely from West to East.

p Anti-communist reaction now displays considerable social and ideological adaptability to the alignment of class and political forces on the international scene, thereby increasing the strength of its resistance. In some areas it employs its favourite “carrot and stick” tactics in an effort to give effect to the insidious policy of “selective coexistence” with individual socialist countries, encouraging and flirting with opportunism and, at the same time, playing on the nationalistic feeling of backward people in order to link anticommunism with revisionism, chauvinism, nationalism and religious fanaticism. Imperialist reaction is using every possible means to create an atmosphere of anti-communist hysteria and, under its cover, deal summarily with the progressive forces, mainly the Communists, massacring them in a number of countries.

p The bourgeoisie, which is experienced in ideological and political actions against the working class, is having ever wider recourse to its smooth-running mechanism of social demagogy in order to discredit revolutionary thought and action. It plays on revolutionary slogans to suppress the revolutionary movement and organise counter-revolution. It strips concepts such as “socialism”, “democracy”, “humanism”, “patriotism”, and “national interests” of their genuinely humanistic and revolutionary content in order to lull the political vigilance of the working people, and uses revolutionary slogans which it borrows and distorts to further its class, anti-communist aims.

p Throughout its fairly long history, anti-communism, which is essentially a reaction to the developing theory and practice of the communist movement, has not had its own clearly delineated line of evolution dictated by the internal logic of some special independent trends. Changes take place in the strategy and tactics of anti-communism depending on how the bourgeois politicians and ideologists perceive one or another phase of the revolutionary movement. The reactionary essence of anti-communism is manifested in concrete tactics depending on major political and ideological 92 events that characterise the international communist movement and the phases of its development. For instance, during the preparations for and after the 1969 International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties the accent in anti-communist policy and ideology was placed on efforts to split the communist movement and secure its disintegration as a united international force. The course was steered toward the intensive isolation of the communist movement from the other anti-imperialist forces.

p The bourgeois mind refuses to reconcile itself to the endless cascade of blows that socialism is striking at capitalism. On the one hand, this evokes and stimulates growing protests against the bankruptcy of imperialist policy and fosters increasing criticism of that policy. On the other hand, this entails intensive quests for new tactics for the most effective ways of fighting communism; strategic plans are drawn up to weaken the Soviet Union’s positions, undermine its international prestige and discredit its policies. Seemingly opposed to each other, both these lines of the evolution of the bourgeois mind cross because they do not go beyond the framework of bourgeois political and ideological aims. A covert apologetics is usually much more dangerous than self-exposing open demagogy.

p At the same time, we must distinguish between liberal and extremist bourgeois ideologists. This is important, first, because the governments of many capitalist states have to take both points of view into account in their practical work; depending on which is given preference, some formal modifications in foreign policy may be foreseen. Second, in the polemic between the “opposing” anti-communist groups, a real opposition often takes shape gradually, furthering anti-imperialist feeling and helping to put an end to anti-communist prejudices among large sections of the population.

p The liberal bourgeois mind is characterised mainly by theories built up on criticism of the most glaring vices of capitalism and suggesting “positive”, “realistic” ways of 93 abolishing them in order to improve the same old capitalism. Henry Morgenthau, leader of the US school of “political realism”, could not help noting the obvious setbacks of imperialist policy and admitting the successes of Soviet foreign policy.

p All this is further evidence that despite the elaboration of anti-Marxist doctrines, the falsification and misrepresentation of communist theory and practice, the bourgeois politicians and ideologists are unable to effectively resist the spread of communist ideas throughout the world.

Awareness of this fact has led many of them to attempts to find “new” ways of fighting the “global advance of communism”.