12 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
Chinese revolution, for the universally condemned interference in and violations of the right of nations to self-determination by the imperialist powers of which the Veitnam war is the most glaring example.
The theoretical "purism" which explicitly claims to motivate this view must, however, be itself subject to evaluation in the light of real material conditions. Since the historical processes and events in question cannot be wished away, our "purist" must take the responsibility for reducing them to irrelevance because his categories are unable to account for them. In the present case, this means responsibility for a glowing account of contemporary imperialism at each stage, the increasing recourse to the most anti-democratic methods and open acts of subversion against other nations, defeats and postures which the class-based Leninist analysis makes theoretically comprehensible, have been glossed over, while our attention is sought to be diverted to the "defeats" of the proletarian masses in the socialist countries.
1 Andersen, Considerations on Western Marxism, London, Verso Edition, 1979, Pi.
2 J V Stalin, "The Foundations of Leninism", in Works. Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1953, V®1 6, p 73.
3 Andersen, op cit, p 12.
4 Ibid, p 13,
5 Ibid, pp 19-20.
6 Ibid, p 12.
7 Lenin, "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism", in Collected Works, Moscow, Progress Publisher.,, 1964, Vol 22, p 9.
8 Andersen, op cit, p 18.
9 Lenin, op cit, pp 23-24.
10 Ibid, p 117.
11 Ibid, p 55.
12 Andersen, op cit, p 25.
13 Ibid, p 46.
14 Ibid, p 48.
15 Lenin, "State and Revolution", in Selected Works, Vol II, p 241.
16 Ibid, p251.
17 Andersen, op cit, p 105.