True Unity and Action Stem from Principled Theory, Not Its Abandonment.
Some comrades shun staying true to principles and theory. They hold them with the same amount of value that Democrats do. Democrats say "vote blue no matter what," and when one mentions anything about principles or policy, Democrats are quick to say there's no perfect candidate and that voters must compromise principles and sacrifice policy if they want to win. Some on the left are trying to adopt that mentality, where principles and ideological views don't mean anything, and all that matters is obtaining power; and those who don't fall in line are called utopians, purists, bougie, or ultra. From primitive communists to Marxist-Leninist theorists and leaders, this is a response to those anti-principled individuals on the left.
"The Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true. It is comprehensive and harmonious, and provides men with an integral world outlook irreconcilable with any form of superstition, reaction, or defence of bourgeois oppression." - Vladimir Lenin, "The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism" (essay, 1913).
"To belittle the socialist ideology in any way, to turn aside from it in the slightest degree means to strengthen bourgeois ideology." - Vladimir Lenin, "What Is to Be Done?" (pamphlet, 1902).
"However much that state of things may have altered during the last twenty-five years, the general principles laid down in the Manifesto are, on the whole, as correct today as ever." - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "Communist Manifesto" (1872 German Preface).
"But then, the Manifesto has become a historical document which we have no longer any right to alter." - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "Communist Manifesto" (1872 German Preface).
"The working class cannot play its world-revolutionary role unless it wages a ruthless struggle against this renegacy, spinelessness, subservience to opportunism and unexampled vulgarization of the theories of Marxism." - Vladimir Lenin, "Socialism and War" (pamphlet, 1915).
"No natural science can hold its own in the struggle against the onslaught of bourgeois ideas and the restoration of the bourgeois world outlook unless it stands on solid philosophical ground. In order to hold his own in this struggle and carry it to a victorious finish, the natural scientist must be a modern materialist, a conscious adherent of the materialism represented by Marx, i.e., he must be a dialectical materialist." - Vladimir Lenin, "The Significance of Militant Materialism" (article, 1922).
"It is correct, thirdly, because it correctly notes the organic connection between Leninism and the teachings of Marx, characterising Leninism as Marxism of the era of imperialism, as against certain critics of Leninism who consider it not a further development of Marxism, but merely the restoration of Marxism and its application to Russian conditions." - Joseph Stalin, "Foundations of Leninism" (pamphlet/speech, April 1924), Section I.
"Since when have we come to regard departure from Leninism on a cardinal question of Leninism as internationalism?" - Joseph Stalin, "Speech to the Fourteenth Congress of the CPSU(B)" (conference speech, December 1925).
"The defence of Marxism-Leninism was from now on the driving force. After this poison [revisionism] affected most communist parties, made them degenerate into revisionist parties, the true Marxist-Leninists had to stand up in defence of the purity of Marxism-Leninism." - Enver Hoxha, "Report on the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties" (pamphlet, 1979).
"Even if we have to go without bread, we Albanians do not violate principles. We do not betray Marxism-Leninism." - Enver Hoxha, "Speech at the 5th Congress of the PLA" (conference speech, November 1961).
"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is universally applicable. We should regard it not as a dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of revolution." - Mao Zedong, "The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War" (speech, October 1938), in Selected Works, Vol. II.
"The seizure of power by armed force, the settlement of the issue by war, is the central task and the highest form of revolution. This Marxist-Leninist principle of revolution holds well universally, for China and for all other countries." - Mao Zedong, "Problems of War and Strategy" (essay, November 1938), in Selected Works, Vol. II.
"Step by step, along the struggle, by studying Marxism-Leninism parallel with participation in practical activities, I gradually came upon the fact that only socialism and communism can liberate the oppressed nations and the working people throughout the world from slavery." - Ho Chi Minh, "The Path Which Led Me To Leninism" (article, April 1960).
"Leninism is not only a miraculous ‘book of the wise’, a compass for us Vietnamese revolutionaries and people: it is also the radiant sun illuminating our path to final victory, to socialism and communism." - Ho Chi Minh, "The Path Which Led Me To Leninism" (article, April 1960).
"Integrity is the seed for achievement. It is the principle that never fails." - Earl Nightingale, "The Essence of Success" (1968), often linked to Sioux teachings.
"Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations." - Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux Chief, "Land of the Spotted Eagle" (1933).
"What is a labour victory? I maintain that it is a twofold thing. Workers must gain economic advantage, but they must also gain revolutionary spirit, in order to achieve a complete victory." Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, "Words on Fire: The Life and Writing of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn" (ed. Rosalyn Fraad Baxandall, 1987), from speeches ca. 1910s.
"Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement." - Vladimir Lenin, "What Is to Be Done?" (pamphlet, 1902).
"Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations." - Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux Chief, "Land of the Spotted Eagle" (1933).
"What is a labour victory? I maintain that it is a twofold thing. Workers must gain economic advantage, but they must also gain revolutionary spirit, in order to achieve a complete victory." Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, "Words on Fire: The Life and Writing of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn" (ed. Rosalyn Fraad Baxandall, 1987), from speeches ca. 1910s.
"Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement." - Vladimir Lenin, "What Is to Be Done?" (pamphlet, 1902).
"The Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true. It is comprehensive and harmonious, and provides men with an integral world outlook irreconcilable with any form of superstition, reaction, or defence of bourgeois oppression." - Vladimir Lenin, "The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism" (essay, 1913).
"To belittle the socialist ideology in any way, to turn aside from it in the slightest degree means to strengthen bourgeois ideology." - Vladimir Lenin, "What Is to Be Done?" (pamphlet, 1902).
"However much that state of things may have altered during the last twenty-five years, the general principles laid down in the Manifesto are, on the whole, as correct today as ever." - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "Communist Manifesto" (1872 German Preface).
"But then, the Manifesto has become a historical document which we have no longer any right to alter." - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "Communist Manifesto" (1872 German Preface).
"The working class cannot play its world-revolutionary role unless it wages a ruthless struggle against this renegacy, spinelessness, subservience to opportunism and unexampled vulgarization of the theories of Marxism." - Vladimir Lenin, "Socialism and War" (pamphlet, 1915).
"No natural science can hold its own in the struggle against the onslaught of bourgeois ideas and the restoration of the bourgeois world outlook unless it stands on solid philosophical ground. In order to hold his own in this struggle and carry it to a victorious finish, the natural scientist must be a modern materialist, a conscious adherent of the materialism represented by Marx, i.e., he must be a dialectical materialist." - Vladimir Lenin, "The Significance of Militant Materialism" (article, 1922).
"It is correct, thirdly, because it correctly notes the organic connection between Leninism and the teachings of Marx, characterising Leninism as Marxism of the era of imperialism, as against certain critics of Leninism who consider it not a further development of Marxism, but merely the restoration of Marxism and its application to Russian conditions." - Joseph Stalin, "Foundations of Leninism" (pamphlet/speech, April 1924), Section I.
"Since when have we come to regard departure from Leninism on a cardinal question of Leninism as internationalism?" - Joseph Stalin, "Speech to the Fourteenth Congress of the CPSU(B)" (conference speech, December 1925).
"The defence of Marxism-Leninism was from now on the driving force. After this poison [revisionism] affected most communist parties, made them degenerate into revisionist parties, the true Marxist-Leninists had to stand up in defence of the purity of Marxism-Leninism." - Enver Hoxha, "Report on the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties" (pamphlet, 1979).
"Even if we have to go without bread, we Albanians do not violate principles. We do not betray Marxism-Leninism." - Enver Hoxha, "Speech at the 5th Congress of the PLA" (conference speech, November 1961).
"The theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin is universally applicable. We should regard it not as a dogma, but as a guide to action. Studying it is not merely a matter of learning terms and phrases but of learning Marxism-Leninism as the science of revolution." - Mao Zedong, "The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War" (speech, October 1938), in Selected Works, Vol. II.
"The seizure of power by armed force, the settlement of the issue by war, is the central task and the highest form of revolution. This Marxist-Leninist principle of revolution holds well universally, for China and for all other countries." - Mao Zedong, "Problems of War and Strategy" (essay, November 1938), in Selected Works, Vol. II.
"Step by step, along the struggle, by studying Marxism-Leninism parallel with participation in practical activities, I gradually came upon the fact that only socialism and communism can liberate the oppressed nations and the working people throughout the world from slavery." - Ho Chi Minh, "The Path Which Led Me To Leninism" (article, April 1960).
"Leninism is not only a miraculous ‘book of the wise’, a compass for us Vietnamese revolutionaries and people: it is also the radiant sun illuminating our path to final victory, to socialism and communism." - Ho Chi Minh, "The Path Which Led Me To Leninism" (article, April 1960).
"There is but one thing that you have to be concerned about, and that is that you keep foursquare with the principles of the international Socialist movement. It is only when you begin to compromise that trouble begins." Eugene V. Debs, "The Subject Class Always Fights the Battles" (speech, Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1918).
"What is the socialism we have to apply here? Utopian socialism? We simply have to apply scientific socialism. That is why I began by saying with complete frankness that we believe in Marxism, that we believe it is the most correct, the most scientific theory, the only truly revolutionary theory." - Fidel Castro, "Speech on Marxism-Leninism" (December 2, 1961).
"At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality." - Ernesto "Che" Guevara, "Speech at the University of Havana" (speech, March 1965), in Socialism and Man in Cuba.
"Finding the method to perpetuate this heroic attitude in daily life is, from the ideological standpoint, one of our fundamental tasks." - Ernesto "Che" Guevara, "Socialism and Man in Cuba" (essay, March 1965).
“Both in revolutionary struggle and in construction work, we should firmly adhere to Marxist-Leninist principles, applying them in a creative manner to suit the specific conditions of our country and our national characteristics. [...] Marxism-Leninism is not a dogma, it is a guide to action and a creative theory. So, Marxism-Leninism can display its indestructible vitality only when it is applied creatively to suit the specific conditions of each country.” - Kim Il-sung, "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work" (speech, December 28, 1955).
"What is the socialism we have to apply here? Utopian socialism? We simply have to apply scientific socialism. That is why I began by saying with complete frankness that we believe in Marxism, that we believe it is the most correct, the most scientific theory, the only truly revolutionary theory." - Fidel Castro, "Speech on Marxism-Leninism" (December 2, 1961).
"At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality." - Ernesto "Che" Guevara, "Speech at the University of Havana" (speech, March 1965), in Socialism and Man in Cuba.
"Finding the method to perpetuate this heroic attitude in daily life is, from the ideological standpoint, one of our fundamental tasks." - Ernesto "Che" Guevara, "Socialism and Man in Cuba" (essay, March 1965).
“Both in revolutionary struggle and in construction work, we should firmly adhere to Marxist-Leninist principles, applying them in a creative manner to suit the specific conditions of our country and our national characteristics. [...] Marxism-Leninism is not a dogma, it is a guide to action and a creative theory. So, Marxism-Leninism can display its indestructible vitality only when it is applied creatively to suit the specific conditions of each country.” - Kim Il-sung, "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work" (speech, December 28, 1955).
"Without correct theory there can be no revolution, no socialism." William Z. Foster, "History of the Communist Party of the United States" (1952), drawing from Lenin.
To those who dismiss principles as utopian or purist, history's revolutionaries, from indigenous wisdom keepers to Marxist-Leninist leaders, offer a resounding rebuke: true unity and victory arise not from abandoning theory but from wielding it as a living guide. Luther Standing Bear's call for truth and equity echoes in Lenin's insistence that without revolutionary theory, there is no movement. Marx and Engels upheld the timeless principles of the Communist Manifesto, while Hoxha and Mao rejected revisionism's poison to preserve Marxism-Leninism's purity. In America, Debs warned that compromise breeds trouble, and Foster declared that correct theory is the foundation of socialism itself. Far from divisive, principles forge unbreakable solidarity; they are the compass for action, not a barrier to it. As we fight for a world free of exploitation, let us stand foursquare with these truths, for only through unwavering commitment to revolutionary theory can we achieve the complete victory communists from the primitive and tribal to the modern communists of the in the 20th century envisioned, a triumph of both spirit and substance.
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