Wang Yuan: Contemporary Explorations of Paths to Socialism by Communist Parties in Developed Capitalist Countries
Since the beginning of the 21st century, and particularly under the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis, neoliberalism has gradually declined. A wave of anti-globalization has begun to surge, and left-wing thought, populism, and far-right forces have all experienced varying degrees of revival. Meanwhile, the influence of "new social movements"—such as environmentalism, feminism, racial civil rights, and LGBT rights movements, each with distinct interest claims—has continued to expand. However, the capitalist world has not yet found a new alternative development model, and the space for its self-improvement and self-adjustment is shrinking. How to propose an alternative to capitalism in response to these changing circumstances has become the central theme of the world socialist movement. In the developed countries, where capitalism is most fully developed and its flaws are most thoroughly exposed, Communist Parties that have persisted in their struggle through this low ebb are staying true to the guidance of Marxist theory while advancing with the times [1]. Addressing the new characteristics and trends of contemporary capitalism, they are continuously exploring socialist programs suited to their own national conditions. Between 2017 and 2020, the Communist Parties of major developed countries—including the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Canada, and Australia—intensively revised their party programs, marking a noteworthy new trend in the contemporary world socialist movement.
I. The "Bill of Rights Socialism" Program of the Communist Party of the USA
The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) was founded in 1919. During World War II, by combining the anti-fascist struggle with class struggle, it became the largest left-wing force in the United States. However, due to continuous suppression by the U.S. government and the CPUSA’s dogmatic adherence to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), its influence gradually waned, entering a long period of stagnation.
During the period of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, then-CPUSA Chairman Gus Hall wrote and published a pamphlet in 1990 titled The编写 Road to Bill of Rights Socialism in the USA. He argued that the U.S. Bill of Rights guarantees the people's democracy and individual rights; therefore, if socialism is to win the support of the people in the United States, it must inherit and develop the democratic spirit within that document rather than overthrow it. In 1991, at the 26th National Convention of the CPUSA, Hall introduced his concept of "Bill of Rights Socialism" to the entire party, advocating for the abandonment of CPSU dogma and the independent exploration of an American-style path to socialism. However, some comrades within the party believed that taking a democratic path would lead to a departure from class struggle and delay the revolution. Furthermore, large internal differences regarding the future path of development following the upheavals in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe made it difficult to reach a consensus on the concept of "Bill of Rights Socialism." To unify the party's thinking, Hall published an article titled "Bill of Rights Socialism" in the July 1999 issue of the CPUSA theoretical journal Political Affairs. He reiterated that American-style socialism should be built according to the history, culture, and national conditions of the United States. It should realize those rights in the Bill of Rights that have not yet been fully achieved and establish a democratic society that eliminates all forms of inequality, exploitation, and poverty.
In 2001, at its 27th National Convention, the CPUSA elaborated on the relationship between the democratic struggle and class struggle within "Bill of Rights Socialism": "There is no such thing as a pure class struggle in the world; every class struggle contains elements of democratic struggle, and every democratic struggle contains elements of class struggle. Without a continuous struggle for democracy, the working class will be separated from its allies and will be unable to play a leadership role. The image and content of American socialism must be thoroughly democratic."
In 2005, the CPUSA held its 28th National Convention, making the persistence and deepening of "Bill of Rights Socialism" the fundamental task of the congress. It argued that the Soviet model had created a negative "undemocratic" impression of socialism. The CPUSA needed to reverse its political passivity and explore a democratic route to socialism with American characteristics. The convention pointed out that while the Bill of Rights laid the foundation for American democracy, its capitalist elements—such as the wealth gap, class exploitation, and racial and gender discrimination—limited the people's exercise of democratic rights. Therefore, American socialism should eliminate these capitalist factors, truly fulfill the democratic promises of the Bill of Rights, eliminate all oppression through democratic struggle, and ensure that people enjoy equal rights in areas such as work, education, and healthcare. Then-CPUSA Chairman Sam Webb also authored an article noting that, given America's democratic tradition, a peaceful transition to socialism could take the form of multi-party cooperation. The new socialist regime would implement a Bill of Rights of a socialist nature to liberate democracy, while simultaneously using coercive means to strike at the sabotage of opponents. Socialist democracy is a dialectical unity of liberation and coercion. As socialist construction progresses, coercion will gradually disappear, ultimately realizing true socialist democracy.
In 2014, at its 30th National Convention, the CPUSA amended its party constitution, using the phrase "the leading role of the working class in the struggle for social change" to downplay expressions related to class struggle, further highlighting the concept of "democratic struggle and a characteristic transition."
The year 2019 marked the centenary of the founding of the CPUSA. At the 31st National Convention held in Chicago, the CPUSA revised its party program, proposing to establish a democratic, equal, humane, and sustainable socialism based on the country's historical traditions and reality. After analyzing the new characteristics of capitalism, the new program pointed out that contemporary monopoly capital, on the one hand, has increased exploitation both quantitatively and qualitatively through new "weapons" such as automation, artificial intelligence, and big data. On the other hand, it uses cynicism and fatalism to weaken the working class's will to resist, while inciting racism and far-right populism to create divisions within the working class and undermine unity, making it difficult to guarantee workers' democratic rights. To this end, the CPUSA declared it would formulate and implement a new Bill of Rights of a socialist nature. It would replace the anarchy and destructive competition of the capitalist economy with a strategic planned economy, nationalize key industries to eliminate capitalist waste and the exploitation of workers, and guarantee equal rights for citizens and immigrants of all races, ethnicities, and genders. It would also guarantee the public nature of education and healthcare while protecting private property rights and allowing for multiple forms of ownership.
Overall, "Bill of Rights Socialism" with American characteristics pursues peace, democracy, and equality, committing to inheriting and developing the American democratic spirit of the Bill of Rights in a socialist manner. However, such a socialist Bill of Rights cannot be implemented under the capitalist system. To this end, the CPUSA combines the goal of mass democratic participation with class struggle, planning to advance "The Road to Socialism in the USA" in three stages. The task of the first stage is to fight back against far-right populist forces represented by Donald Trump and establish a working-class-led alliance with other democratic parties, left-wing, and progressive forces to prevent far-right forces from continuing to hold power. After Trump's defeat in 2020, the CPUSA’s struggle entered the second stage: forming an anti-monopoly alliance to resist monopoly capitalism. On one hand, the CPUSA seeks to seize power through electoral struggle and then implement reforms, such as nationalizing large banks to promote the growth of public ownership and expanding spending on public services. On the other hand, it uses demonstrations, strikes, petitions, boycotts, and civil disobedience to oppose monopoly capital’s manipulation of elections and control of the media, fighting for equal rights for ethnic minorities, women, and the oppressed. Monopoly capital will try its best to stop this process, which will move the struggle into the third stage. In this stage, the CPUSA will use propaganda and indoctrination to enhance the class consciousness and socialist awareness of the working class, thereby achieving a revolutionary transition of power to the working people and striving to prevent a restoration by the reactionary classes.
Although the CPUSA proposes a "revolutionary transition," it also emphasizes that "revolution" is a profound democratic process, and "transition" is a peaceful process toward socialism realized on the basis of democratic expression and social movements (including both electoral and non-electoral) by various groups. The CPUSA has not proposed a specific timetable for when the goals of each stage will be achieved; instead, it believes that everything depends on the specific conditions at the time. Therefore, energy should be focused on promoting the revolutionary movement and continuously strengthening and improving the "Bill of Rights Socialism" program through actual struggle.
II. The "British Road to Socialism" Program of the Communist Party of Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was founded in 1920 and was the first Communist Party in the world to systematically propose a program for a peaceful transition to socialism. As early as its 1951 party program, The British Road to Socialism, the party first proposed a scheme for a peaceful transition.
In the 1980s, the CPGB split into a majority faction led by Martin Jacques, editor of the party journal Marxism Today, and a minority faction led by Tony Chater, editor of the party newspaper Morning Star. The majority faction abandoned Marxism and changed the party's name to "Democratic Left" in 1991. The minority faction continued to inherit and adhere to the Marxist tradition, rebuilding the Communist Party in 1988 under the name "Communist Party of Britain" (CPB).
In 2001, to reverse a long period of decline, the CPB formulated a new party program based on The British Road to Socialism. It reaffirmed that it would continue to be guided by Marxism-Leninism and adhere to the principle of democratic centralism. It also pointed out that Britain did not yet possess the conditions for a socialist revolution and needed to seek an "alternative economic and political strategy" against capitalism.
In 2011, the CPB revised the new program, noting that the strategy proposed in 2001 was merely an action program against monopoly capitalism and was insufficient to guide Britain to socialism. To win elections, it would be necessary to "form an anti-monopoly democratic alliance of the people, led by the labor movement," with the goal of "establishing a socialist society where wealth and power are shared and planned for the benefit of all," and ultimately achieving communism.
In 2018, the CPB revised the program again, further detailing the "British Road to Socialism" plan. The CPB argued that capitalism is facing a new round of economic crisis, where long-term laissez-faire monopoly financial capital continues to expand, and private and government debt levels remain high. However, against a backdrop where the productive economy has lost its profitability and the national economy is stagnant, developed countries have nationalized the debts caused by the 2008 financial crisis and distributed the debt pressure onto their citizens. Consequently, most of the benefits of economic bailouts have been reaped by monopoly capital, while workers increasingly face job insecurity, reduced wages and pensions, and shrinking public services. At the same time, the economic crisis has led to a decline in civic political participation and trust in political parties, intensifying class conflicts and further triggering a world-wide distribution crisis and ecological crisis, resulting in food and medicine shortages for most of the world's population and a continuously deteriorating environment. Under these circumstances, imperialism not only continues to indulge the global expansion of this anti-social, parasitic financial capital but also implements super-exploitation of the Third World through unequal trade, wars of aggression, and the large-scale absorption of skilled immigrants. To resolve these crises, the CPB proposed a new socialist transition plan, planned in three stages.
In the first stage, a left-wing government is to be established. The CPB will build an anti-monopoly democratic alliance of the people among progressive forces to struggle against monopoly capital on three fronts: economic, political, and ideological/cultural. Economically, it aims to establish strong trade unions and alliances with other progressive groups to ensure full employment and improve workers' living standards. Politically, it intends to organize labor and progressive movements to protect and expand democratic freedoms and penetrate political struggle into all areas of the state to accumulate experience in exercising state power. On the ideological front, it uses values such as cooperativism, collectivism, class justice, the common good, multiculturalism, internationalism, rational thinking, and human liberation to oppose the ruling class's values of free markets, racial and gender discrimination, homophobia, obscurantism, and nihilism. Once the fruits of the struggle are recognized by the majority of the people, the CPB will join with socialists, the Labour Party, and other progressive forces to establish a left-wing government through elections.
The second stage is the transition to socialism. The Left government will work closely with other progressive forces to advance the implementation of a Left program through united struggle both inside and outside of Parliament. Economically, this involves rebalancing the economy and putting an end to the control of economic policy by financial capital, while simultaneously developing productive industries and high-tech manufacturing. Regarding social security, it entails increasing investment in public services to eliminate severe inequality. Ecologically, it involves the use of clean energy to protect ecosystems. Politically, it means adhering to the principle of popular sovereignty and establishing organs of people's power to ensure the implementation of the Left program, guaranteeing that socialists can oversee or take over state functions. In international affairs, it involves developing free and equal trade, commercial, and political relations with other countries globally, supporting the Third World within the United Nations and other international institutions, standing in solidarity with oppressed peoples, and promoting socialist values.
The third stage is the consolidation and building of socialism, ultimately leading to the realization of communism. The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) will ensure the unity of the Left government and utilize an anti-monopoly alliance led by the working class to safeguard popular sovereignty, allowing the construction of socialism to be sustained. Politically, this involves replacing the capitalist state apparatus with a state apparatus that represents the interests of the working class and all people, abolishing the monarchy and royal prerogatives, and expanding grassroots participation and direct democracy within a multi-party environment led by the CPB. This ensures that all departments of state institutions at all levels are subject to the direction and oversight of elected representatives, guaranteeing democracy and freedom for everyone. Economically, it involves extending social ownership to every significant sector of the economy, while allowing for the existence of small businesses, self-employment, and various forms of cooperatives. Socio-culturally, it involves liberating social resources from the waste caused by capitalist competition, promoting further cultural development, and enhancing social vitality. Based on the achievements of the aforementioned work, the CPB will push for Britain’s further transition toward communism.
III. The French Communist Party’s "Historical Struggle for Communism in Our Time" Program
The French Communist Party (Parti communiste français, PCF) was founded in 1920. During World War II, under Nazi German occupation, the PCF actively carried out armed guerrilla struggles and emerged as the largest party in France in the early post-war period. Following the establishment of NATO, the PCF faced suppression, and its influence gradually declined. During the Cold War, the PCF’s path to socialism underwent several shifts, increasingly emphasizing "peace and democracy." First, at its 22nd Congress in 1976, it abandoned the "dictatorship of the proletariat"; later, at its 24th Congress in 1982, it proposed building "socialism with French characteristics"—characterized by "social justice, economic growth, peace, democracy, fraternity, and liberty"—which differed from the highly centralized Soviet model.
In 1996, after a period of hesitation following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe [2], the PCF convened its 29th Congress and replaced the formulation of "socialism with French characteristics" with the theory of "New Communism." The PCF argued that in the contemporary era, the goal of "abolishing capitalism" was unrealistic; instead, a long-term process was required to comprehensively transform the autocracy, exploitation, and alienation of capitalist society to ultimately "transcend capitalism." The PCF also merged its short-term socialist goals with long-term communist goals, proposing the direct construction of a "New Communism" "characterized by justice, democracy, shared benefits, and association." Subsequently, the PCF explored "New Communism" for over 20 years, but achieved little success due to a lack of practical realism.
In 2018, the PCF convened its 38th Congress and promulgated the "Manifesto for a 21st Century Communist Party," proposing a socialist transition program titled "The Road of Historical Struggle for Communism in Our Time." The program begins by criticizing the new maladies of contemporary capitalism: in economy and technology, internet oligarchs and monopoly financial capital dominate the real economy, and capital’s monopoly over data resources, artificial intelligence, and the platform economy has created new modes of exploitation. The high professional threshold of information technology hinders the exercise of civil rights, and the tech oligarchs' uncompensated collection and use of personal data not only amounts to a disguised plunder of the public but also violates privacy rights. Workers are forced to "cooperate" with robots or algorithms, leading to new forms of alienation. Socially, refugees created by war must also endure the exploitative and oppressive social relations of racism. The unequal division of labor between men and women inherited from traditional patriarchy is combined with contemporary capitalism’s objectification of women, making sexism more insidious. In terms of lifestyle, declining employment rates are accompanied by rising costs for education and living, as well as intensified class stratification; this has resulted in young people having lower living standards than their parents’ generation despite having higher levels of knowledge. In international affairs, imperialism dominates international institutions and the rules of the game, pursuing neocolonialism and placing people under the surveillance of capital; furthermore, profit-driven capital expansion has led to the deterioration of the global ecological environment. To solve these problems, the PCF plans to simultaneously carry out struggles in three areas in the 21st century.
First, the PCF will unite Left political forces and activists among the citizenry to form a political alliance to carry out political struggle. At the national level, the PCF will actively strengthen the Party’s organizational and trade union presence within enterprises and banks, revitalize the Party’s organizational life, and promote the awakening of class consciousness and political alignment among the working class [3]. This aims to force capital to invest more in ensuring employment and training and to promote equality between different occupational groups, as well as between urban and rural areas and different regions, thereby gradually implementing comprehensive social change. At the EU level, the PCF will strive for gender and ethnic equality, defend labor rights, and increase wage levels. It proposes establishing a European Fund for Solidarity and Development to urge national central banks to seize evaded taxes from multinational corporations to increase investment in public services. It also pushes for the EU to formulate a unified energy policy to address global warming and achieve an ecological transition.
Second, the PCF will carry out ideological struggle against the pervasive propaganda of capitalist ideology. The PCF believes that media and cultural enterprises under the control of capital have commodified culture, entertainment, and information; therefore, there is an urgent need to liberate them from the control of capital to secure diverse information and cultural rights for the public. At the same time, the PCF will utilize new digital technologies to open up other propaganda fronts and use the PCF’s official newspaper, L'Humanité, to promote alternatives to capitalism.
Finally, the PCF will lead and participate in various progressive social movements to carry out social struggle. The PCF considers the goals of new social movements—such as the environmental movement, the feminist movement, and the LGBT rights movement—to be consistent with the socialist movement, as all strive for human equality, liberation, and solidarity. Therefore, the Communist Party must build a united front based on independence and cooperative exchange, working with other progressive social forces in the struggle to replace capitalism.
To ensure victory in these struggles, the PCF will also advance a series of foundational tasks. For example, regarding Party building, it will establish the PCF’s advantage in primary-level organizations and strengthen theoretical and practical training for all members. To expand its mass base, it will make the PCF an attractive organization for young people, continuously bringing in "fresh blood." Regarding international alignment, it will establish an international network of united progressive forces to coordinate the global anti-capitalist struggle. The PCF believes that only by continuously accumulating the fruits of victory through these struggles can they achieve the transcendence of capitalism and ultimately build a new communist civilization free from exploitation and oppression.
IV. The Japanese Communist Party’s "Democratic Revolution—Socialist Transformation" Program
Founded in 1922, the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) was suppressed by the fascist government for a long time and only gained legal status and began to grow after Japan's defeat in 1945. In 1994, to eliminate the impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, the JCP convened its 20th Congress to revise its Party Program. The new program argued that Japan was in the "stage of democratic revolution" rather than the "stage of socialist revolution" as determined by the old program. This was because the development of contemporary Japanese social contradictions and people's struggles were all caused by democratic issues. Therefore, the democratic revolution should serve as a transitional stage to the socialist revolution, and the JCP must advance democratic reforms, including the issue of national independence, within the capitalist framework. In 2004, the JCP convened its 23rd Congress and revised its program again, clearly proposing a plan to first carry out a democratic revolution to establish a democratic and peaceful Japan, and then carry out a socialist revolution. This further adjustment of the Party Program catered to the mainstream public opinion in Japan seeking democracy, peace, and national independence, which has allowed the JCP to maintain seats in the Diet for a long time, with its membership numbers leading among Communist Parties in contemporary developed nations.
In 2020, against the background of long-term economic stagnation and the increasing severity of US control and utilization of Japan—which has damaged Japanese sovereignty—the JCP convened its 28th Congress. The new Party Program revised at the 28th Congress emphasizes that Japan has unique national conditions: first, Japan is effectively a subordinate state of the United States, with significant parts of its territory, military, and other national affairs controlled by the US; second, after World War II, Japan embarked on a path of state-monopoly capitalism subordinate to the US. Based on this understanding, the JCP pointed out that Japanese society remains in the stage of democratic revolution. The objective of this stage is to establish a democratic coalition government, break free from Japan's subordination to the US, end the tyrannical rule of large multinational corporations in industry and commerce, ensure Japan's true independence, and carry out democratic reforms in the political, economic, and social spheres. This involves transferring state power from interest groups that represent Japanese monopoly capitalism and are subservient to the US into the hands of political forces that represent the interests of the people. To achieve this goal, the JCP will unite all democratic forces to form a united front and engage in a long-term struggle against reactionary forces. After gaining the support of the majority of the people, the JCP will establish a democratic united government with the participation of all democratic forces and classes to realize a true democratic transformation of Japan. This transformation requires, diplomatically, the abolition of the Japan-US Security Treaty, the restoration of national sovereignty, and the pursuit of a path of neutrality and non-alignment. Politically, it means defending the Constitution, maintaining the parliamentary democratic system, reforming the electoral, administrative, and judicial systems, and realizing popular sovereignty. Economically, it means overcoming the disorderly expansion of capital and using democratic regulation as the primary means to cancel the economic autocracy of large enterprises. In terms of social justice, it involves striking at the "corruption triangle" formed by reactionary politicians, privileged bureaucrats, and some large corporations, protecting labor, and achieving gender equality.
If these goals are realized, Japan will enter a new socialist stage. The JCP's 28th Congress modified the name of this stage from the "stage of socialist revolution" to the "stage of socialist transformation," reducing the radicalism of the original plan. The JCP believes that the primary goal of this stage is to implement social ownership of the means of production, transferring ownership and management rights of enterprises to society. However, two points must be grasped during the socialist transformation: first, the socialization of the means of production can take various forms of ownership, control, and management, but must never deviate from the socialist principle of producers being the primary participants; second, the transition to socialism through a market economy conforms to the laws of socialist development in Japan, and the economy should be developed effectively and flexibly through a combination of planned and market economies.
The JCP’s socialist transformation program points out that once the socialization of the means of production is achieved, conditions for the realization of socialism must continue to be created in three aspects: first, abolishing the exploitation of man by man, paving the way for the elimination of social poverty and the shortening of working hours; second, ensuring that economic production activities are no longer aimed at profit, but instead implement planned economic management to prevent the recurrence of economic recessions, environmental destruction, and the gap between rich and poor, thereby creating the material conditions for the full development of productive forces; third, making the people social participants in the true sense, so that the concept of "popular sovereignty" becomes a reality in all fields, thereby creating the political and legal conditions for the comprehensive development of the individual.
The JCP realizes that conducting socialist transformation in a developed capitalist country is a task that possesses both special difficulties and great potential. The world has not yet experienced the transition from developed capitalism to socialism, and Japan's path to socialism will be a new process of exploration.
V. The Communist Party of Canada’s "Establish People’s Government—Build Socialism" Program
The Communist Party of Canada (CPC), founded in 1921, has consistently and actively supported the international communist movement and made significant contributions to the global anti-fascist movement during World War II. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, George Hewison, the then-General Secretary of the CPC, advocated for the abandonment of Marxism. This move once caused a split within the party, but after an intense struggle over the political line, the CPC ultimately upheld its Marxist tradition. In 2001, the CPC held its 33rd Convention, where it passed a new party program, "Canada's Future is Socialism," based on a synthesis of the party’s historical experience. This program proposed a preliminary plan to first establish an alliance of people's forces, then form a people's government, and finally build socialism. In 2019, the CPC held its 39th Convention, which refined and perfected the party program. It advocated for active participation in environmental protection as well as issues regarding ethnic minorities, women, and gender equality, and identified resurgent populism and fascism as objects of proletarian struggle. Simultaneously, the CPC elevated the opposition to contemporary imperialism to a more prominent position, arguing that the Canadian people suffer under both domestic class oppression and foreign imperialist oppression. It contends that capitalist globalization, led by US imperialism and fully supported by the Canadian ruling class, is threatening Canada’s sovereignty and independence, leaving the country at risk of becoming a vassal of the United States. To escape this danger, the CPC plans to achieve socialism through two stages.
The first stage is the establishment of an independent and autonomous people's government. To this end, the CPC seeks to form an anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist democratic alliance comprising the Communist Party and other progressive forces. This involve engaging in a unified struggle outside of parliament to defend the interests of the working people, while simultaneously seeking to win power through elections within parliament to establish a people’s government. This people's government would formulate a plan for social transformation to: first, confront and limit the power of domestic and foreign financial capital and expand public ownership of key economic sectors; second, redistribute wealth to improve the living standards of the vast majority of the people; and third, carry out extensive democratic reforms to strengthen the people's supervision of government at all levels.
As the working class and progressive political forces gain more experience in struggle and management, Canada's road to socialism will enter its second stage—the stage of socialist construction. This stage is marked by the transfer of power from the hands of the bourgeoisie to the working class. The CPC's plan for building socialism includes the following: Politically, it entails establishing a socialist multi-party government that guarantees citizens' freedom of speech, press, association, and assembly. Economically, social ownership will be implemented in key economic sectors such as finance, industry, land, resources, transportation, and communications, though small and medium-sized non-monopoly enterprises will be permitted to continue existing in various forms for a period of time, and the private property rights of working people will be guaranteed. Socially, once the means of production are returned to the ownership of the working people, the bourgeoisie will disappear, and a new type of social relation with socialist characteristics will form, thereby harmonizing the interests of workers, engineers, scientists, and managers. Ideologically and morally, the great ideal of liberating all of humanity will become the supreme pursuit of the working class.
VI. The Communist Party of Australia’s "Democratic Stage—Stage of Revolutionary Transformation" Plan
The Communist Party of Australia (CPA) was founded in 1920 and experienced multiple splits during its development. The most serious occurred in 1970 when the CPA, at its 22nd Congress, announced the removal of Marxism as its guiding ideology. This led those members who maintained a Marxist position to break away and establish the Socialist Party of Australia (SPA) in 1971. Following the dissolution of the original Communist Party of Australia in 1990, the SPA took up the mantle of Marxism and renamed itself the Communist Party of Australia in 1996. In 2005, to provide direction for future work, the CPA held its 10th National Congress and revised its party program, proposing a plan to "enter a socialist society through a stage of anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly democratic revolution and a stage of socialist revolution." In practice, the CPA focuses on strengthening alliances with other left-wing forces, expanding its influence by forming a "Communist Alliance." In 2017, to adapt to changes in the domestic and international situation, the CPA revised its party program again at its 13th National Congress. The new program toned down the rhetoric of "revolution," changing the "democratic revolutionary stage" to the "democratic stage" and the "socialist revolutionary stage" to the "stage of revolutionary transformation," thereby rendering the CPA's socialist transition plan more moderate.
The new program states that during the democratic stage, the CPA's task is to combine parliamentary activity with extra-parliamentary struggle, uniting the working class and left-wing progressive forces to conduct an anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist struggle. Upon gaining power, the CPA will lead a left-wing progressive alliance to establish a people's coalition government and carry out New Democratic [4] transformation. Politically, the coalition government will be composed of political representatives from all progressive, democratic, and patriotic forces, taking various measures to implement democratic reforms so that the three branches of power—legislative, judicial, and executive—are accountable to the people rather than to big capital. Economically, the coalition government will implement New Democratic economic policies, combining central planning with market mechanisms to leverage the role of the private sector while strengthening the public sector. In terms of environmental protection, the coalition government will emphasize the balance between economic development, social responsibility, and environmental protection, cracking down on the excessive exploitation by monopoly capital to avoid ecological destruction. Regarding foreign policy, the coalition government will emphasize the economic impact of an independent and peaceful foreign policy, advocating for the termination of Australia’s subordinate military ties with the United States or military alliances with other countries, the dismantling of US military bases in Australia, and peaceful coexistence with countries of different social systems.
Following the democratic stage, Australia will move toward the stage of revolutionary transformation. The new program maintains that while the democratic stage weakens monopoly power and expands the people's democratic rights and political participation, it cannot stop there; social change is a continuous process, and the ultimate goal is the realization of socialism. Therefore, in the stage of revolutionary transformation, the CPA will work to replace bourgeois power with working-class power and achieve control over the state apparatus. This ensures that a working-class government can adjust political and economic relations along socialist lines, further abolish capitalist private ownership, and satisfy the interests of the working class. The new program also emphasizes that this transformation process will face strong opposition from reactionary forces whose privileged positions are challenged. These forces will use various tactics to strike back, such as organizing capital flight, instigating international sanctions, and carrying out internal sabotage. Under these circumstances, the working class can only achieve socialism by continuously struggling and defeating the counter-attacks of reactionary forces.
VII. The Communist Party of Germany’s "Transition to Socialism Through Anti-Monopoly" Plan
In 1918, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg founded the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In 1946, the KPD in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was banned, but was later reconstructed in 1968. In the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), the KPD merged with the Social Democratic Party of Germany to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which remained in power until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, and German reunification. In 1989, amid the tide of the Soviet collapse and Eastern European changes, the SED abandoned Marxism and renamed itself the "Party of Democratic Socialism." Following German reunification in 1990, the former West German Communist Party became a national party. In 1993, the KPD held its 12th Congress, defining its goal as establishing a non-exploitative socialist society by breaking the relations of production of monopoly capitalism through class struggle, guided by Marxism-Leninism. The primary targets of this struggle are monopoly capitalism and imperialism.
In 2006, the KPD held its 17th Congress and revised its party program after analyzing the situation in Germany since the start of the new century, proposing the "Transition to Socialism through Anti-Monopoly" plan. The KPD believes that contemporary monopoly capitalism has undergone immense changes: the development of neoliberalism has accelerated the internationalization of monopoly capital; and the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe has removed the pressure on capitalist countries to conduct economic, social, and democratic reforms. The bourgeoisie has not only lost the capacity for social and political mediation but has intensified policies detrimental to the people's interests, leading to the serious destruction of people's democracy, the restriction of trade union rights, the cutting of wages and benefits, and the dismantling of collective bargaining power, while the "police state" is continuously reinforced. More dangerously, the mass media increasingly integrates people's thoughts ideologically into capitalist society, ensuring they no longer pose a threat to the rulers. The KPD points out that in this situation, the content of its struggle will increasingly take on an anti-monopoly character. Only by breaking the power and property relations of monopoly capitalism can exploitation, war, poverty, ecological degradation, and the alienation of human relations be ultimately eliminated. Personal human rights can only be guaranteed in a society based on public ownership of the means of production and a democratic life where political power is held by the working people. Such a society is the first stage of communist society—socialist society. Socialism is the only fundamental alternative to capitalism.
In the view of the KPD, anti-monopoly is a necessary stage in the transition from capitalism to socialism. To conduct an anti-monopoly struggle, class struggle is essential; socialism can only be realized through a revolutionary transformation of capitalist property and power relations. This requires strengthening the organization and combativeness of trade unions, establishing an alliance of various progressive social forces with the working class as the decisive force, and continuously carrying out democratic and social movements. It further requires expanding the concept of democratic self-determination in workplaces and social spaces to ultimately achieve two goals: first, to ensure the anti-monopoly alliance has sufficient parliamentary influence to form a government representing common interests, utilizing extra-parliamentary workers' movements and democratic forces to trigger profound political and economic changes and break the power advantage of monopoly capital; second, to implement public ownership under proletarian democratic management in strategic economic sectors such as banking, insurance, and key production industries, thereby paving the way for socialism.
VIII. Summary and Outlook
In summary, the plans for realizing socialism proposed by Communist Parties in contemporary developed capitalist countries exhibit the following characteristics:
First, all these Communist Parties view anti-monopoly as the prerequisite for achieving socialism. Contemporary monopoly capitalism has entered a new stage, controlling state power and implementing neo-imperialism and neo-colonialism globally. The parasitic nature of monopoly finance has intensified the crisis of capitalism and amplified its harmful effects, making it a primary target of struggle for Communist Parties in developed countries.
Second, these Communist Parties are all exploring ways to gain power peacefully through democratic means. They argue that the systems in developed capitalist countries are not "true" democracies and must be replaced by genuine people's democracy. Democracy is seen not only as an important means of achieving socialism but also as an essential requirement of socialism itself.
Third, all these Communist Parties believe that realizing socialism is a long-term and arduous process. They have all adopted strategies of continuously accumulating socialist factors within their respective countries, initiating qualitative change through quantitative accumulation. Except for the French and German Communist Parties, which lack a clear demarcation of stages, the other parties believe socialism must be achieved through distinct stages. The CPUSA and CPB believe three stages are necessary, while the JCP, CPC, and CPA believe two stages are required.
Fourth, all these Communist Parties attach great importance to alliances with other left-wing progressive forces. they seek to combine the socialist movement with other progressive social movements—such as the environmental movement, feminist movement, anti-racism movement, and LGBT rights movement—to expand the contemporary influence of socialism.
Fifth, these Communist Parties place special emphasis on using Marxist theory to analyze the contemporary characteristics of capitalism. They have exposed and criticized how capitalism uses new technological means—such as automation, intelligent systems, artificial intelligence, and big data—to intensify the exploitation of workers and the control over society.
Viewed as a whole, after enduring a prolonged period of stagnation following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe [5], Communist Parties in developed capitalist countries have generally accumulated a certain amount of experience. Their explorations of programs for achieving socialism in their respective countries have broken free from the shackles of dogmatism, advancing the localization and modernization of Marxism, and causing the socialist movement to present a situation where "a hundred flowers bloom" [6]. However, while formulating new programs and schemes to adapt to new circumstances and address new problems, these Communist Parties also face new challenges.
First, there is currently no successful experience in the world of achieving a socialist transition through democratic and peaceful means within the framework of the capitalist system. Communist Parties in developed capitalist countries often fall into a dilemma: if they engage in radical extra-institutional struggle, it is usually unfavorable for uniting the majority in a peaceful environment, making it easy to be marginalized by mainstream politics and suppressed by the violent apparatus of capitalism. Yet, if they engage in intra-institutional struggle within the framework of the capitalist system, their principled proletarian stance is easily weakened by the absorptive influence of the capitalist system, making it difficult to shake the foundations of capitalism.
Second, long-term industrial upgrading and the "hollowing out" of industry in developed capitalist countries have led to an expansion of the white-collar middle class and a decrease in the number of blue-collar workers. Coupled with the improvement of material living conditions, this has weakened the appeal of traditional class struggle. To seek new sources of strength, Communist Parties in various developed capitalist countries actively participate in various new social movements and expand the left-wing united front. However, they do not yet possess the ability to integrate these new social movements using Marxist theory. Consequently, they have not only failed to secure leadership of these movements or expand their own influence but have instead diluted the appeal of class struggle, resulting in a situation where their mass base is diverted by these new social movements.
In the long run, Communist Parties throughout the capitalist world will remain in a state of depression for a long time. There is no ready-made answer as to how to achieve a socialist transition through democratic and peaceful means. New programs and schemes need to be continuously tested and refined in practice. This will constitute the long-term historical mission of Communist Parties in developed capitalist countries.
(Author Profile: Wang Yuan, School of Marxism, Nankai University) (This article is a periodic result of the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation General Financial Support Project [2018M631733]) Internet Editor: Tong Xin Source: Foreign Theoretical Trends [7], Issue 1, 2022