Foreword
The following document in its first part summarises in a compact form principal considerations about capitalism, imperialism and communism and about socialist revolution. The second part then presents – also in a
compact form – questions about the preparation for socialist revolution in Germany. Here too there is an extensive explanatory programmatic statement for more detailed study. The principles of scientific communism
didn’t emerge out of thin air, they weren’t simply thought up, but were developed from the study of the history of capitalism and of the class struggle. In order to underline this relationship, the last sections present an overview of the framework of our understanding both of the history of world imperialism and of worldwide class struggles, and of the history of German imperialism and of the class struggles against German imperialism.
The aim of these abstracts is both to present our position in a clear, concise form and also to encourage and invite study of the extensive explanations in the “Programmatic Documents” (volumes No. 1 and 2) and in the “Fundamentals Documents” (volumes No. 3 and 4). The version of the “Central Programmatic Questions” presented here, together with the contents of volumes No. 1-4 will be submitted to discussion within ‘Gegen die Strömung’ (GDS) and its supporters, but also to other revolutionary groups oriented on communism. The results of these discussions will be presented in summary form in one year and incorporated into a future edition.
December 2016