Marxism and World Revolution
Haz Al-Din
Abstract
This essay reinterprets the Marxist–Leninist conception of world revolution in the context of contemporary debates on multipolarity. Contrary to the Trotskyist association of world revolution with “permanent revolution,” Haz Al-Din argues that Marxism historically unites proletarian internationalism with the strategy of building socialism in one country. Revisiting the long-noted “paradox” of Marxism — its insistence on both objective historical laws and the decisive role of subjective political will — the essay draws on Lenin to resolve the tension. Lenin’s view situates political consciousness as a force that accelerates or delays, but does not create or negate, the objective trajectory of history. World revolution, therefore, is not a voluntarist project but a probabilistic inevitability emerging from material contradictions whose expression is often accidental and unconscious. The role of Marxism is to scientifically concentrate existing, disparate revolutionary forces — national liberation movements, socialist states, and anti-imperialist actors — into a unified plane of struggle. This unification distinguishes Marxist–Leninist world revolution from Trotskyism and offers a framework for understanding contemporary global conflicts as components of an already-unfolding revolutionary process.
Keywords
Marxism, Marxism–Leninism, proletarian internationalism, multipolarity, socialism in one country, permanent revolution, trotskyism, class consciousness, Haz Al-Din
