Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism: A Primer

Last updated Nov 23, 2022

• Source book
• Creed communism

# Chapter 1. Dialectical Materialism

• When Marxists refer to objctive reality, they speak of things as existing independently of whatever one may think.
• The idea of an infinite self-subsistent supernatural being has been invented in the same manner as Micky Mouse by Walt Disney. If one studies history of the various religions, one cannot fail to see the concept of the supernatural as a mythological creation of human imagination.
• Marxism philosophically opposes religion, but politically tolerates it

• The three laws of dialectical materialism

• Social practice is the basis and source of knowldge (Marxism)
• Social practice leads to better knowledge, which leads to better social practice. This is a spiraling process.
• There are two extremes that one can err in.
  • Empiricism: When ideas are not being rised to a higher level through social practice.
  • Dogmatism: When social practice is construed to fit old ideas instead of developing in accordance with changing conditions.
• The struggle for freedom is endless.
• Even after the final defeat of exploiting classes, there will always be a struggle between correct and incorrect ideas.

# Chapter 2. Historical Materialism

• Historical Materialism

• Material base of society (Marxism)
• It is through production that man has differentiated himself from other animals.
• The Forces of production (Marxism) in primitive society was at an extremely low level.
  • The palaeolithic savage society had crude stones.
  • The neolithic/barbaric society had polished stones and bow and arrows.
  • The level of the productive forces was so lwo that it could not produce a significant surplus for long.
  • It took some 50-60,000 years before civilization emerged.
• In the socialist Mode of production, the income a above wages will be distributed in the following manner:
  1. The expansion of productive capacity, not just simple reproduction of capital or simple replacement of deprecation.
  2. Increased fund for public-welfare
  3. Administration
  4. Defense

• Superstructure of society (Marxism)
• To the Marxists, the most important consideration in characterizing a state is what class rules. The state is just an instrument of class coercion over another class.
• The state arose with exploitative class society. (Refuted in The Dawn of Everything)
• There was no surplus product to take away as the whole community struggled together for bare subsistence.
• Because of the extremely low level of primitive communal society’s base, it had a very crude superstructure.
• The slave-owning class built the state for the first time in civilization.