In order to know whether the communist revolution is necessary and possible today,we have to pose the question of the deca­dence of capitalism, to define the historic basis of the pro­gramme and strategy of the proletariat in the present epoch.

Questions such as the content of socialism, the nature of the unions, the politics of ‘frontism’, the nature of national libera­tion movements, are intimately linked to an analysis of the decadence of capitalism.