France: Revolutionary Optimism is Material; It Reflects an Understanding of the Times
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a La Cause du Peuple editorial, published on the 20th of May.
Editorial No. 84: “Revolutionary optimism is Material; It Reflects an Understanding of the Times”
It is with boundless revolutionary optimism that we present Issue No. 84 of La Cause du Peuple, a reflection of the growth of the subjective forces of the proletarian revolution in France and around the world. Revolutionary optimism is grounded in reality; it reflects an understanding of the times—an era marked by a new wave of revolutions that will change humanity forever. It is in this spirit that we celebrate May 1st, the International Day of the Struggling Proletariat. Genocidal wars, social and ecological crises, and the reactionary and fascist transformation of societies are one aspect of the revolution; while invincible People’s Wars and national resistance movements, uprisings, and insurrections represent the other aspect. This second aspect is the primary one; it expresses the fact that the subjective forces—those that will put an end to imperialism—are already here, on the rise and growing more powerful every day.
The media monopoly representing the interests of the big bourgeoisie is attempting to plunge the masses into pessimism and reaction, manipulating minds through reactionary propaganda on a scale unprecedented in history. Lies, stupidity, submission, conformism, and the rejection of science go hand in hand with the intensification of repression against anything that rebels against the State of the country and the world. The sole purpose of all these apparatuses is to maintain the genocidal, barbaric, anti-people social system: imperialism.
It is a futile effort: the proletarian revolution is an objective process that develops independently of the will of any single force; it is the result of the internal contradictions of imperialism. We know that it is the masses who make history. The masses are all-powerful; they can do anything. It is they who make history; they are the true heroes. More than ever, the peoples of the world are ready to take up the struggle, to endure hell if necessary, refusing to capitulate or submit. This is one of the transcendent truths of our era.
US imperialism, the main enemy of all the peoples of the world, has not won a war since 1945: all its wars of plunder and colonial adventures have been crushed by the resistance of oppressed peoples and nations. From the Korean War, through Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, to today’s conflicts in Ukraine, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran: everything proves that the imperialists are paper tigers. Across the five continents, the masses are preparing for their liberation and their revenge against centuries of imperialist oppression and humiliation.
So how can we not be optimistic when, after immense suffering, the Palestinian Resistance refuses to lay down its arms and is strategically determining the fate of Zionism? We must assert this ever more forcefully: the development of the world proletarian revolution is an objective fact; there can be no intensification of imperialist chaos without its opposite. The revolution consists of two major currents that must absolutely unite: the proletarian movement, whose People’s Wars1 point the way toward total emancipation; and the national liberation struggles, which represent its current heart, primarily the national resistance movements in the Greater Middle East.
In particular, the People’s War in India is facing difficulties associated with the new era, but it will endure because its leadership, the Communist Party of India (Maoist)—its heroic fighter—has extensive experience and is closely connected with the country’s most exploited masses. More importantly, the revolutionaries of India are not alone. The Indian reactionaries, and with them all reactionaries, are surrounded by the vast masses of the world who detest them and are waiting for the right moment to overthrow them.
In France, too, the billionaires, the bourgeoisie, the Macrons, and their ilk are under siege. The proof is that they had to back down on the May 1st reform solely because of the prospect of triggering chaos. The big bourgeoisie is doomed to push for increasingly repressive governments in order to ward off its own crisis. This process of reaction, rooted in the economic crisis, is developing into a social and political crisis of unprecedented depth. All of this can only intensify the class struggle. The need to restructure the old State and the old society intensifies the revolutionary process, which is developing unevenly. Revolts, social movements, strikes—but also, and we must understand this, violence, gangs, racism, etc.—are part of its complex dialectic.
We must be clear about one thing: despite all this, the revolution cannot take place unless the proletariat, drawing in the broad masses of the people, reorganizes itself into a Communist Party—the command center and vanguard of the socialist revolution. The objective and subjective conditions for revolution in France are ripe for major developments, but the path ahead will be difficult, complex, and fraught with detours and defeats.
Thus, revolutionary optimism is a flower that must be nurtured ceaselessly. The upper bourgeoisie will never lay down its arms and will fight to the death, using every means at its disposal. There is no “peace of the brave” in revolution; the proletariat is destined to triumph, and the bourgeoisie knows this better than anyone. The situation will become increasingly intense; the 2027 presidential elections will mark—regardless of who wins—a new phase in the class struggle, and thus in the reaction.
We must be unequivocal on one point: there is no immediate fascist threat. Reactionary tendencies have been a process in the making ever since the bourgeoisie switched to the side of the counterrevolution, in June 1848. Fascism will emerge as the bourgeoisie’s solution when the armed proletariat directly challenges State power. The task will be to build a powerful tactical front defending democratic rights and the anti-fascist spirit, in order to counter the attacks of the reaction, which, in its desperation, will intensify them.
In the face of all these challenges, a new generation of communists and revolutionaries is working tirelessly to organize the masses wherever they wish to fight. This is the path of light that we must follow.
This issue is thus a powerful expression of the return of the Communist Movement in France and around the world. Communism, as luminous as ever, is a phoenix that cannot die, for it embodies the resolution of the contradiction between imperialism and the peoples of the world, between labor and capital. No propaganda can kill it, no police can silence it, no genocide can destroy it. The true enemy always comes from within its own ranks, from those who decide to renounce the principles, to liquidate the great idea, to capitulate in the face of difficulties. The new generation of communists will remain faithful and will uphold the principles bequeathed to us by the immortal Paris Commune and its joyful Communards: “We will never surrender the cannons of Montmartre Hill.”
Let us rise to the challenges of our time and fulfill our responsibilities; let us serve the people and the revolution with all our hearts!
Long live May Day!
1India, Turkey, Peru, the Philippines.
