Decision of the Comintern (SH) of February 21, 2025

The Comintern (SH) resolves today that the Comintern (SH), its sections and mass organizations should, if possible, not only propagate the election boycott in upcoming parliamentary elections worldwide, but also in each country, and should call for revolutionary anti-parliamentary actions - at least on election day - and organize these themselves if possible.

We want to not only call for an election boycott, but to link the election boycott with revolutionary extra-parliamentary actions on the streets.

The purpose of this decision is to propagate the dictatorship of the proletariat in every country and the dictatorship of the world proletariat, proletarian democracy, the socialist system of workers' councils, the socialist world republic, and the democratic functioning of the socialist world order.

Just as the imperialist world order cannot be voted out peacefully, the bourgeoisie's parliamentary system cannot be replaced peacefully by the world socialist system of workers' and soldiers' councils.

To enforce proletarian world democracy in a socialist world order, a violent world socialist revolution is needed, because in history, exploitative and oppressive orders have never voluntarily given way to make way for the exploited and oppressed. One cannot be in favor of proletarian democracy without fighting for the liquidation of the bourgeoisie, for the liquidation of the ruling class.

This is the lesson of the 5 Classics of Marxism-Leninism: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Enver Hoxha.

The essence of electoral fraud in a capitalist world society is that the voter cannot influence politics with his vote. In the parliamentary system, the voter can decide which party to vote for ( = which party will take the money out of his pocket afterwards), but nothing more. This is the current state of affairs, which has been proven by increasingly painful experiences in all previous elections: with the active casting of the ballot, the citizen has already given up his active influence on politics and must passively watch how he is cheated and fleeced. The fact is that not a single citizen of the poor majority is represented in parliament. The parliament is exclusively composed of representatives of the rich minority, the capitalists, the bourgeoisie. The voter can struggle as much as he wants: the politicians add a new fraud to the previous one after each new election. In doing so, the politicians treat the voters even more ruthlessly and unscrupulously each time! The majority no longer believes in the justice that the parties promised and failed to deliver. The majority has already lost faith in bourgeois democracy.

That is why we say:

Parliament is the theater of deceit of a state that is basically not governed by the people, but in reality behind closed doors by a rich minority, by the capitalists, by the bourgeoisie, an instrument of the rich to bleed the poor.

The state is a link in the chain of world-imperialist states, a state of the ruling monopoly and finance capital, which not only serves to maintain the capitalist order, but also, with its measures, brings about an ever-increasing exploitation and oppression of the majority of the population, whereby, on the one hand, the masses become more and more impoverished, while, on the other hand, the wealth of the propertied, privileged classes. This is a reality that plays out daily in thousands of small state affairs and cannot be denied by anyone in the world.

Under the appearance of electoral equality, the ballot box of bourgeois democracy proclaims the "equality" of the ballots of the haves and the have-nots, the rich and the poor, the exploiters and the exploited. In the real life of capitalist society, the poor and the rich are treated anything but "equally". On the contrary, the state itself ensures that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.

In bourgeois democracy, this is perfectly normal, because after all, the constitution is based on the private property of the rich being protected. It is not the democratic majority of the population that decides, but the minority that rules over the means of production and propaganda. In bourgeois democracy, the equality of citizens exists only on paper; in reality, it is built precisely on the existence of a poor majority and a rich minority. Name one bourgeois democracy in the world where this has ever been different. All bourgeois democracies have one thing in common: power is always exercised by those who have enough money to bribe politicians. The parliamentary system is a system of corruption and lobbying of the monopoly bourgeoisie.

Bourgeois democracy is therefore a tool for the exploitation and oppression of the majority of the population, a tool in the hands of the rich minority to maintain their constitutionally guaranteed privilege of being allowed to exploit the majority of the population just because they have the capital that they squeeze out of the working majority. Private property is basically nothing more than theft of the labor performed by the majority. And a state founded on private property is thus a state of robbers who quarrel ("conduct parliamentary debates") over how the stolen national wealth is to be divided among them.

So real ballot equality only exists in a society in which the power of the rich minority over the poor majority has been abolished, and that is precisely what bourgeois democracy fights tooth and nail against. And it is precisely the rule of the poor majority over the rich minority that it naturally declares "undemocratic".

Is there at least equality and freedom in proletarian democracy?

No, even in proletarian democracy there is still inequality and lack of freedom, which, as is well known, can only be eliminated later in a classless, communist society – so it cannot be magically achieved in one fell swoop. Where everyone is equal and free, there is no longer any domination of the one over the other, nor the domination of the majority over the minority. Proletarian democracy, so to speak, prepares the conditions in the new socialist world society under which the necessity of popular rule (which is only a special form of domination) becomes superfluous. The abolition of proletarian democracy therefore means not only the abolition of the rule of the majority over the minority, but the abolition of all forms of rule by humans over humans. But before the rule of the majority over the minority can one day be abolished with the help of proletarian democracy, it must first solve a completely different task, namely to abolish the still existing rule of the minority over the majority.

There is a huge difference between the existing inequality in bourgeois and proletarian democracy, namely that bourgeois democracy is about the unequal treatment of the poor majority of the population, while proletarian democracy (i.e. the democracy of the majority of the population) exercises its power over the rich minority of the population.

What is democracy?

The power of the poor majority over the rich minority or the power of the rich minority over the poor majority?

Bourgeois democracy is undemocratic and in reality a form of dictatorship of the bourgeoisie simply because the minority rules over the majority and takes the liberty to exploit it. The social order in every country in the world is based on the exploitation of some members of that society by others and therefore cannot be considered democratic. Real democrats are staunch opponents of the exploitation of people by people. Real democrats are against the power of capital over labor, are opponents of wage slavery, which serves only one purpose - namely, to make a profit from the labor of the working people.

In bourgeois democracy, capital rules over labor, and in proletarian democracy, labor rules over capital.

Proletarian democracy is a tool of the oppressed and exploited majority of the population to abolish this glaring inequality of the classes, to eliminate the class society, which is built on private property, and thus a democracy to fundamentally eliminate the unequal relationship between a poor, working majority and a rich minority that accumulates capital for itself.

The rich minority is never voluntarily prepared to relinquish its power to the poor majority, because its entire existence depends on this power. That is why the rich use state power to defend their wealth by force.

So the majority of the population, whose situation is deteriorating day by day, has no choice but to get rid of the exploiting minority.

Proletarian democracy cannot be achieved with ballot papers, but only by forcibly removing the power of the capitalists and by smashing their exploitative and oppressive state. The people can only achieve the democracy that capitalism denies them through revolution. Once the majority has triumphed over the minority, democracy in the hands of the majority is anything but assured. Rather, the minority redoubles its efforts to regain its old privileges. The majority has no choice but to defend its democracy and prevent the minority from seizing power again. And it is precisely this defense of proletarian democracy by the majority of the population that is only possible through the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The dictatorship of the proletariat is not only justified as a means to overthrow the exploiters and suppress their resistance, but it is also absolutely necessary for the majority of the population as the only protection against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, which is always instigating new wars of plunder.

The fundamental difference between the proletarian dictatorship and any other dictatorship, and not only the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, is that it is the only dictatorship that can abolish class society and thus abolish dictatorship altogether.

What does proletarian democracy look like?

The form in which proletarian democracy unfolds is the form of the councils, is the council democracy. Everyone is familiar with works councils and councils in public institutions. They now take control of production, services, distribution, and defense of the state of workers and poor peasants, the socialist council state.

The essence of the soviet democracy is that the masses of those classes that have been oppressed by capitalism, that is, the masses of the working and unemployed population, are the permanent and only basis for the organization of the entire state power, the entire state apparatus. They themselves govern and administer the socialist soviet state, no one else.

The councils are elected by secret ballot, under the system of universal, equal and direct suffrage.

The councils are accountable to their constituents and can be recalled by them at any time if necessary.

The same purpose is served by the unification of legislative and executive power in the organization of the socialist council state. And the replacement of territorial constituencies with production units such as plants, factories, and facilities such as hospitals, schools, etc. - works councils.

The command of the army is withdrawn from the bourgeoisie and placed under the control of the socialist council government, that is, soldiers' councils are formed that are part of the socialist council government. The council power ensures that the people are armed for self-defense and that the bourgeoisie is disarmed in order to prevent them from regaining their old power.

The socialist council system does not exclude the rural population. On the contrary, the rural working people also elect their councils and naturally participate in the government and administration of the socialist council state in cooperatives and collectives.

The socialist council state is based on the three pillars of the workers', soldiers' and (working) farmers' councils.

The socialist council system is suited to the leading role of the proletariat because the proletariat is the class that capitalism has most concentrated and enlightened. The proletariat is the only force capable of uniting and leading the fragmented, wavering and backward sections of the working population.

Only by organizing a socialist system of councils is it possible to smash and permanently destroy the old, reactionary bourgeois state apparatus.

The new socialist council state ultimately serves to abolish the state, and this task will be achieved all the more quickly as it becomes possible to draw ever larger sections of the working population into the administration of the state.

That is what every country needs in its deepest crisis, in its most difficult situation – not tinkering with the symptoms of dying capitalism, but a fundamental turn away from capitalism and toward socialism.

Only when every country has freed itself from capitalist decay will it overcome its crisis and recover under socialism.

Parliamentary elections are a fraud of capitalism!

The dictatorship of the proletariat and elected councils are the only correct path to socialism.

Why do we fight for the elimination of parliamentarism?

Because no one wants to be taken for a ride and hoodwinked by the politicians anymore.

Because there is no point in voting for any party just to teach another party a lesson. You can't vote out one evil by voting for another evil.

Because the voters are tired of being fleeced for nothing for years to come!

Because capitalism, which parliamentarism has served faithfully for over 100 years, is at an end!

Who do those in power want to sell "their democracy" to today?

To the taxpayers, who still have to finance the luxury of the rich, this unjust state and its interest on debt, its bankruptcy and downfall, its war destructions of nature and society?

Or to the workers who are pushed to the margins of society and who have to take the blame for the shit that the politicians make all day long and who keep dragging the cart further and further into the mud?

Or to the unemployed?

Or to the people without a roof over their heads and to all those who have to live in run-down apartments for extortionate rents?

To the refugees and migrants who are scattered all over the world?

To welfare recipients?

To the youth, who can no longer be offered a future?

Or to the old people, whose pensions are being stolen bit by bit by the state and who are being pushed aside?

To the poor farmers, whose livelihoods are being taken away and who are being driven from their small farms?

Or the soldiers who are used as cannon fodder for the rich all over the world and have to shed the blood of civilians?

Or the women who are put behind the stove and exploited twice?

Or the families whose child-hostile government continues to turn off the tap?

About the foreign workers who are treated as fair game here?

About the people out there in the world who are experiencing world fascism first hand?

No, parliamentary democracy is not a democracy of the majority, but a dictatorship of the rich, the capitalists, the bourgeoisie. It is democracy for the banks and the financial elite, for the interest rate cutters and stock market speculators, for the managers in the executive suites of the economy, for the industrialists, the AI corporations, for the agricultural capitalists and large landowners, the construction tycoons and rent sharks, the rip-off artists in the state apparatus, for the bureaucracy, for the bigwigs in the trade unions, for all those who "care" about the people, that is, fill their bellies at their expense... in short, it is the democracy of the whole parasitic rabble that robs us of our livelihoods.

We communists have always openly stated that bourgeois democracy is a fraud against the people, that the rulers will take out their truncheons and guns the moment the masses want to clean up the parliamentary mess, the moment they want to get rid of capitalism, the moment the masses are no longer satisfied with critical words but openly boycott the election hype, want to get rid of the lying system, rebel and can no longer live as before and no longer want to live as before. Let us not forget that some fascist systems did not come to power with a clumsy military coup, but made legal use of the electoral system to strip the democratic cloak of parliamentarism and move to an open fascist dictatorship. And the most loyal representatives of bourgeois democracy, the reformists, the social-democratic leaders, held out their hands to help them mount their horses. Even after World War II, social democracy remained a pioneer of fascism, whether in the West or in the East. It is part of this capitalist system and does not want to be anything else. And in China today and in former so-called "socialist" states, the social fascists ("socialists" in words and fascists in deed) rule and ruled, wrapping themselves in a "socialist" cloak in order to exploit and oppress the workers and peasants in reality.

How democratic is a democracy when, despite all the egg dances, fascists and social fascists sit in parliaments and in the army, police, judiciary, security service, in radio and television stations, newspaper, video and music publishers? In short, everywhere they spread their inhuman propaganda, organize marches and attack or even murder dissidents on the streets?

What kind of democracy is it that instead of banning and imprisoning fascists, bans and beats anti-fascists and puts them behind bars?

What kind of democracy is it that does not protect the people, but rather bends the people under the heel of those in power?

What kind of democracy is it in which bourgeois politicians from "left" to right and in all political colors only promote and protect the money bags?

We communists do not want to play doctor at the sickbed of capitalism and reform parliamentarism. We have no interest in preserving this system of exploitation and oppression. We are not an election party for renewal, but a fighting party for the abolition of this parliamentary electoral system.

We have always shown the revolutionary way of the working class to end capitalist rule under their leadership, if necessary, with the revolutionary violence of the masses in the shortest possible way, i.e. not with the ballot paper but with the weapon in hand. Only those who benefit from this exploitative system have an interest in defending it. Under capitalism, the democracy of the poor has no chance because it is incompatible with the democracy of the rich and also not divisible. There is no way around it: the question is: who - whom? The peoples can only realize their democracy on the ruins of capitalism, on the ruins of the bourgeois parliamentary system, which can turn into a fascist system at any time.

We communists have always emphasized that proletarian democracy, once achieved, must be defended with weapons in hand, because the rich will not let themselves be sidelined so easily. Since the advent of socialism in the countries of Lenin and Stalin and socialism in Albania, the rich have made every effort