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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 36, Number 22. 1973

Class Struggle

Class Struggle

Under the leadership of a revolutionary workers' party the proletariat immediately establishes and consolidates its position by the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This dictatorship of the majority over the minority is an essential stage in the construction of socialism. Lenin commented, "Only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat." During his life time of successful [unclear: real Jonary act] [unclear: int] [unclear: ly] stressed the necessity for such a dictatorship as the transitional stage between capitalism and communism. During this stage of revolutionary development as the work of socialist construction is carried out, the class struggle continues. Reviewing the results of the first five year plan in the USSR (1933) Stalin commented "We must bear in mind that the growth of the power of the Soviet State will intensify the resistance of the last remnants of the ruling classes. It is precisely because they are dying and their days are numbered that they will go on from one form of attack to another, sharper form, appealing to the backward sections of the population and mobilising them against the Soviet regime."

The dictatorship of the proletariat must therefore be maintained to ensure that the national bourgeoise do not regain power - by means of power or assets they may retain, by infiltrating and subverting the workers movement or by any other means. But this is not the only reason for the maintainance of a socialist state, of the proletarian dictatorship. Stalin pointed out another aspect of the class struggle in a socialist country in 1934, at the end of the second five year plan, "but can we say that we have already overcome all the survivials of capitalism in economic life? No, we cannot say that. Still less can we say that we have overcome the survivials of capitalism in people's minds. We cannot say that, not only because the development of peoples minds trails behind their economic position, but because we are still surrounded by capitalist countries, which art- trying to revive and sustain the survivals of capitalism in economic life and in the minds of the people of the USSR, and against which we Bolsheviks must always keep our powder dry."