p GUS HALL

p GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES

p Dear comrades, from the vantage point of 60 years of socialist construction and continuing along the line of the report of Comrade Leonid Brezhnev, Comrade Mikhail Suslov and Boris Ponomarev have clearly sketched the theoretical outlines of present-day developments.

p Viewing world developments from within the hub of world imperialism, we. United States Communists, always welcome and greatly appreciate every opportunity for collective exchanges and assessments of world trends. We have always been convinced, that it is the only way the forces of the world revolutionary processes can fully harness the power that ensues from objective developments. Such exchanges add context and richness to proletarian internationalism. It is the Marxist-Leninist method and style.

p In a sense we are observing two interrelated anniversaries. We are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first socialist state that broke the world monopoly of capitalism-and, largely because of that, we can also observe-and even celebrate, the opening phase of the decaying processes feeding the general crisis of world capitalism. The 68 relationship between them is that of a growing and living process, and a decaying and dying one.

p Capitalism is, indeed, its own automated grave-digger. Its general crisis is propelled by its own inner laws. But it is just as true, that the growing socialist sector and its magnetic revolutionary force is speeding up the processes of capitalist decay and is thus adding nails to the coffin of this outdated dilapidated system.

p In this connection, there is a lesson in a law, accepted by all railroad workers, that a railroad spike when driven in rhythm by three hammers, sinks the spike four times faster.

p One of the significant manifestations of the general crisis of capitalism is the pulls of the centrifugal forces in its camp.

p These tendencies need a more careful ongoing examination by us. They are a very important factor in our struggles against policies of imperialist aggression. They were an important factor in ending the United States aggression in Indochina. They were a factor in the oil crisis of 1974. Last year they limited the London conference of capitalist powers to having a cup of tea.

p The rise of these centrifugal tendencies has added new importance and presents new possibilities for application of the Leninist tactic of using the inner imperialist rivalries and contradictions. We see it as a most effective weapon in the struggles against United States imperialism. But again its effectiveness depends on the law of the railroad workers, on the unity of the forces driving in the anti-imperialist spikes.

p Accommodations or capitulations to imperialism, for any reason, make the tactic counter-productive. The clear and unmistakable aim of Lenin’s tactic must be to weaken imperialism.

p Like the rhythm of the railroad workers hammers, powerful blows are possible only when the forces of the world revolutionary processes are united. There is a fundamental 69 difference between using the divisions in the ranks of capitalist countries and letting them use you.

p In the United States we have to view the effects of the general crisis and the centrifugal forces in the historic framework that for some years the law of uneven development has been at work eroding the dominant position of United States capitalism.

p Because the main roots of world capitalism are so interwoven within United States monopoly state capitalism, all effects and shock waves of the general crisis become an active force on the United States economic and political landscape.

p The new stage of the general crisis of the capitalist world is a factor in the stagnation of the present economic boom. It is reflected in the crisis of the steel industry in the capitalist world. It is a factor in the world monetary crisis.

p After almost two years of the upswing side of the economic cycle United States economy sits on a four-horned dilemma-on inflation, on high unemployment, on an unprecedented 25 billion dollar annual trade deficit, and a capital strike against investment.

p Of course, US monopoly state capitalism still has options open. A cut in the military budget and a cut in corporate profits would be steps in the right direction.

p The bilateral commission is the first serious effort to overcome the effects of the centrifugal forces. It is an ongoing effort to overcome the contradictions between the major imperialist powers.

p It is an effort to circle the wagons of imperialism as a defence against the forces of the world revolutionary processes. It is an effort to pool the economic, financial, and military reserves of the main imperialist powers. In a sense it is world capitalism commission on its general crisis.

p George Meany, the head of the AFL-CIO, is noted for his idiotic remarks like, "I have never walked on a picket 70 line”, or his recent remark, "Ideology is bunk" or, "We do not seek to recast American society in any particular ideological image”. This, about a country that is the world centre and most steeped in the ideology of monopoly capital. Meany echoes the dilemma of monopoly capitalism in the stage of its general crisis, because there is a general crisis of its ideology as well. Monopoly spokesmen work to cover-up its ideology of decay, exploitation and racism, by talking about no ideology or that "ideology is bunk”.

p The aim of the campaign that "ideology is bunk" or that ideological thoughts are out of date is to downgrade and if possible to eliminate ideological thoughts, identified with and sustained by the working class.

p When George Meany says, "We do not seek to recast American society in any particular ideological image”, he wants to put over the fraud that it is possible to have a state that has no ideological base, to have a state power that is without ideology, a state power that is not motivated by class interests or class ideologies.

p A state is not a fluttering butterfly. Any state has to deal with concrete matters and concrete matters inevitably involve class interests, which brings into play ideologies associated with such classes.

p If the world movement has learned anything, it is that ideological thoughts must be in harmony with specific socio-economic systems. Ideology is as real as are the classes and the class struggle.

p In the United States we cannot predict or make promises as to what the monopoly capitalist will do, especially when it will be against the wall.

p We can and we do promise to work to limit its ability to strike back. But history indicates that imperialism does not passively or willingly give up its ideology, its special privileges or political power. It seems to us, we must indicate that truth to the masses.

Is that not the lesson of October 60 years ago?