In the name of the Editorial Board of NSC I would like to extend to you all a happy reflective 85th anniversary of the Great October Revolution. This month in the year 1917, the proletariat of the former Russian empire ushered in the beginnings of a new world free from exploitation and oppression. Yet 85 years later here we are in the throws of a new US-led imperialist offensive to re-carve once again the world. What happened to the promise of Great October? Was it but a utopian dream? What then of our work here in Northstar Compass, is it too a utopian dream?
We think not. Let us never forget that the Russian revolution, despite multiple invasions by various imperialist powers, despite economic blockades, despite civil war, and despite starting from a state of unbelievable backwardness, grew by leaps and bounds from 1917 to 1956. Nothing it seems in the world could stop the mobilized proletarian masses led by its conscious and determined vanguard as exemplified in alliance with the peasantry from abolishing step-by-step exploitation and oppression in their own country while lending fraternal help to all exploited and oppressed humanity. Nothing that is except the demobilization of this same proletariat and the rupturing of its alliance with the peasantry brought about by the counter-revolutionary policies initiated by Nikita Khrushchev and his coterie, systematized by Brezhnev, Kosygin and their gang, and finalized by Gorbachev, Yeltsin and their kind. That is why this journal stands by Joseph Stalin and why the bourgeoisie and its tails spare no effort to malign, disparage and slander the name of Joseph Stalin. As Mao once said, once you drop the sword of Stalin you drop the sword of Lenin. That is why we must pick up once again the sword of Lenin. That is why this journal was established ten years ago: to aid in whatever way possible the proletariat of the former Soviet Union into re-establishing the USSR under socialism.
We have come along way since then from a few stapled sheets. Our journal has vastly improved in quantity and in quality. It has many more pages and now comes out monthly. Its articles are better written, its analyses are better executed, and its scope is much wider. It is now read in over 60 countries. As a result, we have spread the news of what is happening in the former lands of Lenin and Stalin both abroad and even in these countries. We have aided in clarifying the disasters of 1956-1965-1990.
We have promoted communication between militants in the former USSR. And we have rallied many organizations from around the world to the formation of an International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with Soviet People (ICFSSP). All this in ten years, despite the demoralization brought on by the destruction of the Soviet Union in many progressive circles, despite the disparagement from certain quarters and despite lacking in so much material resources. We have gone this far all because of the devotion and hard work of so many people and because of your constant unwavering support.
We are, of course, aware of all our shortcomings, our errors and some negative tendencies. Such are inevitable in any human endeavour especially by a mass organization such as ourselves. Yet, how should we approach these matters? Is it, as it is for some, an occasion to negate our entire work and the hope behind it, to throw away the baby with the bath-water, if you will. Or, is it as it is for us, rather, an opportunity for rectification and growth as is evidenced by the vibrant struggles in our conferences, meetings and in the pages of our own journal.
Our current state is as follows: our advance since the founding conference of the ICFSSP in 2001 has not been as quick as we had hoped due to many factors, among them the danger of US invasion of Iraq and other hot spots in the world due to the hegemonic drive of US imperialism.. As an old saying goes, the road is torturous even as the future is bright! Thus, we are recommending that the next ICFSSP Congress be postponed about a year, to give more time for fulfillment of the tasks set by the founding conference. We now have a French edition. The Spanish and Russian editions are even closer to realization. Meanwhile, some our partners in the former Soviet Union are now finally seriously considering organizing their corresponding friendship organizations. We urge them to seize the day. Imperialism will not wait for us to get our act together!
For your part, as reader and a subscriber, we call upon you to help us increase our subscriptions either by way of gift subscriptions to others, by placing our journal in local bookstores, by convincing libraries to buy a subscription, basically by any way that will bring exposure of our journal to a larger pool of potential interested readers. We need you to be active in your mass movement and to promote Northstar Compass journal and the International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with Soviet People.
Let us target this coming year for each one of us to get two new subscribers to Northstar Compass. We also urge you to form local chapters of the ICFSSP from the mass organizations in your area. Local chapters of the ICFSSP made up by mass organizations is key for success in our work of aiding the proletariat and peoples of the former Soviet Union in reestablishing the USSR under socialism. They are the foundations that will support the weight of our work. Without these mass organizations, we will be nothing but a sect.
In Solidarity,
Redmond Guerrero
Promotions Director
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