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International Newsletter

DEFEND MARXISM-LENINISM AND MAO ZEDONG THOUGHT


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July 2007 Publisher: Joint Coordinating Group (JCG) No. 33
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Content
History of the Party Ranjbaran
Principles of the Ranjbaran, Iran.....................................................27
International Conference...........................2
Country Report Italy
Country Report Argentina Party of the Committees to Support Resistance –
PCRA Argentina ........................................3 for Communism (CARC) - Italy ……….................30

Mao’s Legacy in China’s Current United Front, Class and the Party
Development, 3rd and last part Contribution to 9th IC
Pao Yu Ching, ...........................................5 PC (ML) Panama ................................................. 32

Country Report Germany Country Report Peru


Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany PC del Peru (ML)...................................................36
MLPD…................................................... 9
Country Report Turkey
The History of the ”Internationale” as Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey............40
Form of Organization of the
International Revolution The Economic and Political Development
Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany of the Imperialist World System
MLPD.......................................................14 Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey)...........47

Country Report India The Struggle of the International Working


CPI (ML), India ......................................22 Class, the Anti-imperialist Struggles of the
Peoples and Marxist-Leninist Party Building
The Struggle of the International Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey)...........51
Working Class, the Anti-imperialist
Struggles of the Peoples and Forms of Organization of International
Marxist-Leninist Party Building Cooperation - History, Present and Future
CPI(ML) India ..............................…….24 Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey)...........56

The Development of the International Country Report


Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties Ray O. Light, USA ............................................. 58
and Organisations (ICMLPO) and
Preparation of the 10th
International Conference
CPI(ML) India..........................................26

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mailing Address: T. Scheller, P.O. Box 131058, D-70068 Stuttgart, Germany
Fax: 49-711-9979571, Email: int.co@t-online.de, www.icmlpo.de
Price per copy: US$ 5.00 – Euro 5.00 €
Financial contributions should be sent to:
Landesbank Baden Württemberg, Germany, IBAN DE 45 600 501 01 000 76 38 578, T. Scheller
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

The International Conference is a forum of Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations.


Participation in the International Conference is based on the following main criteria:
• Adherence to Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought and their creative application in
the conduct of the class struggle in each country.
• Struggle against modern revisionism, and a positive attitude towards Stalin and Mao.
• Acceptance of the Rules of the Conference.

The 4th Conference adopted the following principles on which the cooperation of the
participating Marxist-Leninist organizations is based, which were amended and again adopted at
the 8th Conference:
• Independence and equality, mutual respect, mutual support and cooperation.
• Non-interference in internal affairs as well as in the bilateral or regional relations or any
party or organization with other parties and organizations. Every organization is sovereign
in its conclusions.
• Consensus and unanimity in decision-making.
• Achieve gradual unity step by step; principled debate and cooperation among
parties/organizations and no public attack by any party/organization on another.
• Obligation of all participating organizations to prepare and conduct the 9th International
Conference jointly in accordance with their possibilities.
• Financial independence and self-financing of the common work according to the
possibilities.

Call for the Support


of the International Conference of Marxist- Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO)

The internationalization of production and the globalization of the fundamental problems of mankind in the entire
world lead to the internationalization of the class struggle and therefore also demand increased and systematic
cooperation among Marxist-Leninists.

For this reason we call upon all progressive, democratic and anti-imperialist people in the entire
world to support the cooperation among the Marxist-Leninists for the emancipation of the
international working class and the national and social liberation of the people and to make the
convening of the International Conference possible. Donate to fund the 9th International
Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO):

International Donation Account:


T. Scheller, Account No. DE 45 6005 0101 000 76 38 578
Bank code: 6000 501 01, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg

Treasurer of the International Conference of the Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations


April 2007

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Country Report Argentina


PCR Argentina

1. As the Program of our Party states: 6. Although, the government has received several
”Argentina is a dependent country, is part of the group blows in the last period
of colonial, semi-colonial and dependent countries a.) people of Misiones province massively repudiated
oppressed by imperialist countries. Capitalist relations government’s candidate due to his corruption and
of production are predominant along with a very attempt to perpetuate in power.
important industrial development that placed b.) Kirchner´s attitude of not supporting the
Argentina at the top of the Latin American ranking commemorative acts for the 25th Anniversary of
during the 50´s. This relations of production are Malvina´s War, a fair war which showed that
historically jammed and distorted by imperialist Argentina is a country dependent from imperialism,
dominion and maintenance of large state property in with a portion of its territory occupied by Great
the country side (latifundium). This economic structure Britain that defends its occupation of the islands and
and the policies applied by the ruling classes make the of the maritime argentine Antarctic sector with
important wealth and means of our country to contrast atomic submarines.
with hunger, unemployment and poverty of our people. c) During the last period of time a big struggle was
Argentina makes part of Latin America, traditional waged by teachers in several provinces. The murder
area of Yankee imperialism. It has been and still is a of a teacher in Neuquén generated huge
country for which several imperialist powers contend demonstrations throughout the country. Particularly
for”. important were the struggles waged by teachers in
2. Main contradiction to be solved at the present Santa Cruz, Kirchener´s province, that were on strike
historical phase and that determines the nature of during more than 30 days and with the support of the
argentine revolution is the one that opposes in one side entire population.
the imperialism, landlords, compradora bourgeoisie 7. Kirchner tries to present himself to the public as
and reactionary forces subordinated to them, and in the opposed to the policies applied during the 90¨s,
other side the working class and other wage earners, Decade of budget shortcuts policies and surrendering
semi-proletarians, poor and median peasants, original of our national wealth that some call ”neo-
peoples, petit bourgeoisie, majority of students and liberalism”. Although Kirchner actively participated
intellectuals, patriotic and democratic portions of the in the most important part of that decade: with the
urban and rural bourgeoisie, soldiers and patriotic and privatization of the oil, gas, transport, everything.
democratic officers and noncommissioned officers of Even more, they urged former national government
the military. to privatize YPF (former state oil enterprise). This
3. This main contradiction can be solved only through a still remains so and he just extended to
democratic, popular, agrarian and anti-imperialist PANAMERICAN (union of the English British
revolution in progress toward socialism. Petroleum with Bridas, of Russian capitals but it
4. During the year 2001, huge masses burst into a appears as argentine)since 2017 to 2047, the
popular revolt: The Argentinazo. An objective concession of one of the main oilfield in Chubut.
revolutionary situation was created. The 8. Another foundation of the 90´s was large state
Argentinazo was unable to impose a government of property in the countryside (latifundium). Menem
patriotic and popular unity because it did not have the knocked off the reforms achieved by rural workers
required organization and leadership. We do not have during Isabel Peron´s government and stablished
the same situation now but mass peak still remains. freedom of contracts, he also knocked off agrarian
5. Kirchner´s government takes advantages of an laws, and today there are oral renting contracts of
international economic favorable condition in order to land for a year or a crop, in some cases reaching
put an end to the hegemony crisis within the ruling 50%.
classes bloc that emerged in the Argentinazo based on 9. Big large state properties(latifundium)in the
the increase of international prices of agrarian products, countryside not only persist but are also enlarged.
first of all Soya bean, oil, fishing and mining. Despite Benetton has 900 thousands hectares in Argentina,
the contradictions within the ruling classes bloc they 200 thousands of them in Santa Cruz. Besides,
are all interested in reverting this crisis of hegemony. foreign ownership of the land is deepening in

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Argentina. The northamerican Tompkins, who owns of State” for Venezuelan government to have a
more than 300 thousands hectares at Kirchner´s policy of certain consideration towards Kirchner.
province, Santa Cruz, and the Esteros of Ibera in But it has been almost 40 years when we splitted
Corrientes. A Chilean monopoly, Arauco, and some from the old ”Communist” Party and we created
other that have more than 100 thousands hectares in the Revolutionary Communist Party of Argentina
Corrientes and Misiones. because the CP had made a ”reason of State” of
10. National government follows a policy of high the defense of Soviet government´s – which
dollar in order the exporters can earn money and at the already was imperialist but it ”look like socialist”
same time they can have treasury surplus. This surplus for the world- diplomatic positions.. We took an
is not used for education or health, or any other popular oath by then- that we have honored- that the only
needs. It is used for the payment of the foreign debt. At
and sole ”reason of State” for us is to defense the
the same time, this policy rises inflation that people
interests of the working class and oppressed
suffers with the reduction in their life conditions.
peoples of the city and the country.
11. The use of the Gendarmery in Santa Cruz to repress
teacher ´s strike and recent enforcement of 14. Huge struggles gave birth to a new
Antiterrorist Law, required by Bush’s government, phenomenon multi-sectorials and self-convokeds.
shows which is the real Kirchner´s government human These are Latin-American experiences: they were
rights policy. the base of the Caracazo, of the Bolivian people
12. On the other side, Jorge Julio López´s abduction uprising with the water multi-sectorial in
and threat against other witnesses of trials against Cochabamba and in El Alto, and they were the
genocides of the dictatorship also show that Kirchner´s foundation of great progress in the era of big
policy is not a guarantee for defending human rights struggles against Menem. During the last popular
against fascists. rebellions appears again the moto ”¡They should
13. There is a strong pressure from those who support all go away!”: it arose in Misiones, Alberdi in
Kirchner in order to justify themselves and they state Tucumán, Santa Cruz and Santa Fé.
that: ”Kirchner is in the same line of Cuba, Venezuela, 15. A political crisis is fully developing in Argentina.
Correa and Evo Morales”, and they accuse us to attack Even without talking of economic crisis. Of course
him not taking in consideration that fascism and those we are aware that there are fascistas and right wing
who wants the so-called ”national reconciliation” for forces that take advantage of the situation and are
the dictatorship murderers” will arise. They also say plotting! But we are going to stop the right wing
that to attack Kirchner is to favor Yankee imperialism forces if a powerful popular movement grows and is
that wants to split Argentina from Chavez and to move able to impose a government of popular and
it closer to Lula´s Brazil”. We do not want that. So revolutionary unity.
each time national government has hit the Yankees, as 16. With the elections they are going to choose a
it was in Mar del Plata president´s meeting for the manager for those who manage Argentina. If in
ALCA, there the RCP was present. Our party and our these elections a popular and anti-imperialist front
glorious youth were present, demonstrating on the in order to impose a government of popular unity
streets. And when Bush came to Montevideo, and there and open the way were possible as it was in
was the need to demonstrate along with Chavez, there Venezuela, Bolivia, or Ecuador, we would be
was the RCP, as all the world watched on TV. We are there. We would support and be there. Being
not stingy about this. Of course we always preserve our aware, of course, that it is only a way of approach,
independence. We understand that for Cuban,
because in Latinamerica the power had never been
Venezuelan and Evo Morales´governments it is a
conquered from the government, because without a
reason of State not to offend Kirchner. Despite they
revolution nothing can be solved.
snubbed Fidel Castro when he visited Argentina few
17. Some tell us: ”You do not want that an alternative
days before he got ill. We understand Cuban´s reason
may exist, a space”. No. We do not want to create
of State when they do not address Kirchner as a pro-
and ”alternative” or a ”space” within the system. We
Yankee ruler. And we understand Chavez, despite
want to overthrow the system!. We shall keep
Kirchner and wife’s comings and goings with their
fighting through the way pointed by the Argentinazo,
statements to the World Jew Committee about the
in order to impose a revolutionary government of
report that accuses Iran of AMIA´s terrorist attack.
broad popular and anti-imperialist unity that shall
We understand when Chavez says that is a ”reason
open the path for the revolution in Argentina. #

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Mao’s Legacy in China’s


Current Development
3rd and last part
Pao Yu Ching

III. The Relevance of China from the


Left Perspective.
The representatives of international monopoly
capital obviously think China is relevant. They on the Left lost their confidence that socialism
set China up as, in the words of Hart-Landsberg would one day replace capitalism. The Right,
and Burkett, their ”poster country” for good on the other hand, had a well-planned strategy
reasons. In an era of global crisis and economic to aggressively attack and discredit socialism
stagnation, China has become one country and proclaimed the triumph of capitalism at a
where the economic growth rates have stayed moment when capitalism itself was in deep
high. Multinational corporations have profited crisis. In the West, most on the Left had a
from China by investing their surplus capital difficult time defending those former socialist
and exploiting its cheap labor. Deng’s Reform countries; they also had trouble explaining why
to open up China to foreign goods and attempts to institute socialism ended so
investments, and China further liberalizing its disastrously. Some on the Left, however, did
economy since its accession into the WTO, offer some explanations.
came at an opportune time for global monopoly In May 1998 the Monthly Review published a
capital. They seized the time to expand to this special issue commemorating the 150 year
large piece of virgin land and into what they see anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, which
as a gargantuan market for their surplus included an article written by Ellen Meiksins
products. Wood --”The Communist Manifesto After 150
Years.”i In her article Wood returned to Marx’s
Moreover, the development in China in the past manifesto to explain the historic ”failures” of
two and half decades has been relevant socialism. She said, ”...[W]e should not
ideologically to the representatives of the global underestimate the significance of his [Marx’s]
capital and the ruling class in imperialist assumption that a socialist revolution would be
countries. The scholars on the Right regard most likely to succeed in the context of a more
China as one more piece of evidence in their advanced capitalism. In that sense, it could be
argument that capitalism has won and that argued that the ultimate failure of the Russian
history has indeed come to an end. They argue revolution, which occurred in the absence of
that China abandoned socialism and embraced those preconditions, fulfilled his predictions all
capitalism to save itself from its turbulent past too well”ii. (Note: Three of us disagreed with
that left its economy in ruins. Since the Right her analysis and conclusions and we responded
conveniently possesses the power to interpret by writing a letter to the Monthly Review
freedom and democracy, they have further editors. I am integrating portions of that letter
asserted that capitalism will eventually bring below.)
freedom and democracy to the Chinese people. Wood’s article represented a good number of
people on the Left, who were at a loss to defend
The question then is: the former socialist countries. Since they felt
Why should China be relevant to the Left? defenseless from the vicious attacks of the
Right, they tried to disassociate and unburden
After China was on its way to restore capitalism themselves from the histories and realities of
and the former Soviet Union and Eastern those countries. In making that choice, they also
European countries collapsed, many disassociated themselves from the heroic

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

struggles of the Russian people in winning the plantations grow food for export that the native
revolution, the liberation of Russian people people cannot use or afford. They are
after the revolution, and the achievements made environmental dumping grounds that are
in the early decades of the Soviet Union. They destroying the land, water, and air. Marx’s
relieved themselves of the burden of explaining prediction about capitalism developing
or understanding how and why so called productive forces can only be taken in context
communist leaders betrayed the revolution, why of the time in which he wrote, and reexamined
a country that began with such great hopes, in the context of the world today. But, as it is
degenerated into the conditions that we all laid out in the context of his other work,
witnessed, until its final collapse. culminating in his masterpiece Das Capital, his
Wood chose to explain the failure of socialism overall analysis of capitalism is still dead on. iii
by asserting that the former socialist countries Why then, did the Soviet Union collapse? Why
did not meet what she called ”Marx’s is China restoring capitalism? These are heavy
prerequisites for a transition from capitalism to questions, ones that require further study of
socialism...” – an assertion with some rather concrete history. The lack of advanced capitalist
serious implications. One of these implications development in those countries may well have
is that all former attempts to develop socialism been a factor. It is not, however, the only nor
were doomed to fail from the beginning, most important one. It is of the utmost
because those countries did not meet the important for the Left to study and to analyze
prerequisites set forth by Marx. It’s unfortunate the reasons behind the failures to attempt to
then, that people in the past did not understand build socialism. The Left in China are already
Marx’s prerequisites, and as a consequence engaged in analyzing why a system that
sacrificed their lives for an unattainable goal. It benefited so many people could be so
also implies that oppressed people living in less ”peacefully” transformed.
developed countries today, would do well to If the Left in the West indeed believes that the
learn from the mistakes made by revolutionaries development of productive forces is the
in the past and not to engage in any precondition for socialism, what should the Left
revolutionary struggles lest they repeat them. If tell people in the less developed world, who
we were to believe her analysis and have suffered even more severely in the past
conclusions, then this argument would have the two and half decades, when imperialist
same impact as arguments made by the Right, countries with the help of international financial
who debunk Marxism and socialism as utopian and trade organizations, shifted the burden of
dreams. global crisis to them through so called
globalization? Should the Left in the West tell
We responded in our letter: them not to move forward, even when the
What Marx did not foresee was the emergence conditions for revolution already exist? Should
of imperialism. Its dominance changed the they hold off any actions because according to
landscape… For the most part, imperialism Marx they have not yet met the preconditions
does not develop the productive forces in its for socialist transition, and so they should wait
”client” countries. In countries such as the for their brothers and sisters in the advanced
Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Mexico countries to take the lead?
(to name a few), there is no illusion that the Later we were encouraged to read Harry
exploitation of their labor forces and natural Magdoff write -- ”A Note on the Communist
resources will lead to any kind of advanced Manifesto ” in the same issue:
capitalist development. They are merely pools ...in view of the way capitalism has spread
of disposable workers for low skill, low pay jobs throughout the world... it is essential that the
in factories and in fertile fields that vision of socialism focus on a social
agribusiness seized and converted from transformation which will put first and
sustainable agriculture to huge cash crops. The foremost: the empowerment and meeting the
factories manufacture goods and the

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

basic human needs of the poorest, the most those thirty years, a balanced growth between
oppressed, and disadvantaged.iv industry and agriculture, so that the peasants’
The Chinese people, before the 1949 revolution standard of living in the countryside, though
were among the poorest, the most oppressed, still behind urban residents, improved,
and disadvantaged. Chinese peasants suffered narrowing the gap between the two. The
thousands of years under the cruel land tenure peasants worked extremely hard to build the
system of feudalism, that entitled landlords to foundation of agriculture, including irrigation
take all (if not more) of the agricultural and drainage systems, basic infrastructure such
surpluses through exorbitant rent on their land as roads and bridges, and land conservation and
and usury interests on their loans. In more improvement. The State also gradually reduced
recent history, the Chinese people suffered agricultural taxes, improving the terms of trade
more than one hundred years of war imposed in favor of the agricultural sector, and increased
upon them by imperialist aggressors. The 1911 State investment in large agricultural
revolution, led by the bourgeoisie, did not infrastructure, such as the Red Flag Canal and
terminate the land tenure system, nor did it lead Yellow River Project among many others.
to any economic development. China remained One of the most important accomplishments in
weak and defenseless against foreign those 30 years, was that by the end of the
aggression. The founding of the Chinese 1970’s, even though China was still a poor
Communist Party in 1921 brought hope to the country, it was able to raise the welfare of its
China. The Chinese people, under the population at large. In that relatively short span
leadership of CCP in a coalition with the of time, indicators such as life expectancy,
Kuomingtang (KMT), fought eight long years infant mortality, nutrition levels, and literacy
against Japanese invasion and occupation and rates in China, were closer to those of
finally won the war against Japan in 1945. developed countries than of the underdeveloped
In June 1945, on the eve of the victory against countries.vii China was able to make those
Japan, Mao wrote ”The Foolish Old Man who accomplishments in the most unfavorable and
Moved the Mountains.” He used an old Chinese hostile international environment. China
folklore as a metaphor, showing the Chinese developed its economy by relying on its internal
people that the two big mountains blocking savings, without any outside help.viii During
their way and pressing down upon them were those years, China was under an economic
imperialism and feudalism. He urged the embargo by the United States and other
Chinese people to learn from the foolish old Western countries. Moreover, China had to
man who proved that he could move the two spend a lot of its scarce resources to build its
mountains, one shovelful at a time, to work as military defenses, as it faced constant military
diligently to dig their way out from under the threats during the twenty years between the
oppression of these two big mountains.v Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Some may argue that the China has achieved
In the next four years, the Chinese people, even higher rates of economic growth in the
under the leadership of the CCP, won the post-Reform years.ix In addition to the question
revolution. And during the 30 years of socialist of who has actually benefited from the high
construction that followed, China was able to rates of growth, China’s current development is
achieve rapid development in agriculture, unsustainable. The high rates of growth, on the
industry, transport, and construction. The one hand, were generated by large sums of
annual growth rate for agriculture, industry and foreign investment, in the magnitude of $50
transport, and construction grew at the average billion a year, for the past few years. Foreign
rates of 3.4%, 9.4% and 10.7%, respectively investment coupled with government
during the period of 1952 and 1978.vi investment in infrastructure, buildings and
China was able to develop both its heavy and industries has been used to combat recession in
light industries and lay the foundation for long- the few years after 1998 and has created excess
term and sustainable growth. It achieved in capacity of over 90% of China’s industries.xxi In

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

1995 excess capacity for bicycles, color TV’s, countries, where the poorest, most oppressed
washing machines, and air-conditioners, was and disadvantaged people are engaging in their
45%, 54%, 57% and 70%, respectively. struggles against imperialism and capitalism. It
Moreover, China’s overwhelming dependence has been in Marx’s name and with Marx’s
on exports for growth can no longer continue. teaching, the workers and peasants in China and
European Union and Japanese economies are elsewhere brought about and will continue to
stagnated and US trade deficits (one third of bring great changes and progress. It is their
which is with China), which have been financed achievements that have made the Communist
entirely by external borrowing, has reached an Manifesto worth celebrating after 157 years. As
alarming level; China’s exports will soon run Mao said ”The road has many twists and turns
out of places to go. China’s financial but the future is bright.”
institutions, heavily burdened by bad debts, are
very fragile and will have to face increasing Published in:
competition from foreign banks in China. The Asia Weekly
real estate bubble in China’s big cities looks (Vol. 18, no. 20, May 16th 2004)
increasingly like those experienced by the
i
Southeast Asia countries in the late 1990s. Even Ellen Meiksins Wood, ”The Communist Manifesto
some mainstream economists agree that the After 150 Years”, Monthly Review, May 1998, pp. 14-
crisis is China is inevitable. 35.
ii
Ibid., 29
iii
Dao-yuan Chou, Fred Engst, and Pao-yu Ching,
Hart-Landsberg and Burkett accurately stated Response to Ellen Meiksins Wood’s article ”The
that China’s development since the Reform Communist Manifesto After 150 Years,” Monthly
cannot serve as a model for other less developed Review, May 1998, pp. 14-35.
iv
countries. The crisis when it does occur in Harry Magdoff, ”A Note on the Communist
China will further destroy the myth that in the Manifesto, ” Monthly Review, May 1998, p.13
v
Mao Zedong, ”The Foolish Old Man who Moved the
long run a country can depend on export to
Mountains,” in Selected Works of Mao Zedong,
develop its economy. However, China’s Peoples’ Publishing Co., 1964, pp. 1101-1104. Another
revolutionary victory against imperialism and version of ”the Foolish Old Man who removed he
the socialist development in the thirty years that mountains has three mountains and the third one was
followed, served and still serves as a model of bureaucratic capitalism.
vi
development for other Third World countries. Thomas Rawski, Economic Growth and Employment
The Chinese people under Mao’s leadership did in China, Oxford University Press, 1979.
vii
Sidel, Ruth and Victor W. Sidel, The Health of
remove the two big mountains pressing down
on them, and in the process they empowered China, Beacon Press, 1982.
themselves. Workers who have been laid-off or viii
Soviet Union pulled back its original aid projects
forced into retirement in China today still say after the ideological disputes between China and the
with full knowledge and confidence, ”We built Soviet Union began. China had since paid back all
this country. We have a glorious past. No one loans extended by the Soviet Union.
can deny that.” For these reasons China’s ix
socialist development is relevant to the poorest, According to some estimates, the official rates of
growth posted by Chinese officials are overstated. The
the most oppressed, and disadvantaged people World Bank estimated that the real rate of growth
of the world and, therefore, should be relevant between 1978 and 1995 was 1.2% below the official
to the Left. figure. Research published by OECD estimated
In conclusion, Deng’s Reform programs China’s growth rate in 1986-1994 was only 6%. See
implemented since 1979 have their origins in Nicholas R. Lardy, Integrating China into the Global
the previous socialist period. The legacies from Economy, (Brookings Institution Press, 2002) pp. 11-
15 for further discussion.
the socialist period have not only shaped
China’s current development – they will x
New York Times Magazine, July 4, 2004, p. 30.
continue to play a dominant role in China’s xi
China’s Industrial Development Report, 2003, p. 27. #
future, as well as the futures of many other

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Country Report Germany


Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD)

The MLPD (and its forerunner organizations) have At the suggestion of the MLPD the attempt to
been doing revolutionary work for just on 40 years. extend working hours was to be answered by
In 2007 the MLPD celebrates the 25th anniversary of company-wide action across national frontiers if
its party founding and justifiably can speak of having possible. In fact, in February at Bosch, then at
the biggest mass influence to date in its history and a Siemens, and in July at DaimlerChrysler, powerful
grown ability to move and lead masses. It meanwhile company-wide strike days took place. The strike
has a presence in more than 500 cities in all the at DaimlerChrysler had special significance. On
states of Germany and in half of the 500 largest July 5, 2004, 60,000 DaimlerChrysler workers
industrial enterprises. went out on strike in a company-wide day of
The Marxist-Leninist factory and trade union work strike; 2,000 workers blocked a main traffic artery.
of the MLPD among the six million blue- and white-
Today company-wide struggles practically are an
collar workers of large-scale industrial enterprises is
accepted fact for the European working-class and
our main fighting line. We concentrate 50 percent of
our forces on it. We have the strategic goal in the
trade union movement! This characterizes the
first stage of class struggle, the period of relative growing influence of the MLPD on the core of the
calm or of a non-revolutionary situation, to win to class-militant industrial workers, but also the
the side of socialism the class-conscious workers of development of an internationalist consciousness.
the 500 largest industrial enterprises, where as many The working-class offensive in Germany reached
as three million industrial workers are employed its highest point, for the time being, in the seven-
today. We combine our strategy of winning over the day independent strike of 7,600 Opel workers
decisive majority of the working class for genuine in October 2004 in Bochum against the closure
socialism with the inclusion of broad masses in the plans of General Motors. Contrary to the
struggle against the monopolies and the government. attempts of the Rightist works council and metal
Linked with this was the preparation and staging of workers’ union (IG Metall) leadership to call off
the independent mass demonstration against the the strike after just a few hours, the workers
government on November 1, 2003, in Berlin. This organized a general blockade at the gates and the
demonstration was explicitly rejected by the Rightist occupation of the factory. Production at all
trade union leadership and it was mainly thanks to General Motors operations throughout Europe was
the MLPD that many delegations from big factories severely disrupted! There was a well-thought-out
set the tone and carried in a clear thrust against the information and discussion system, regular
anti-people policies of the then Social-Democrat-led discussion and information meetings, and a
Schröder/Fischer government. One hundred permanent discussion as to what the next steps
thousand people took part in this biggest self- should be. In democratic votes and discussions,
organized mass demonstration in Berlin against the class consciousness was systematically developed.
Schröder/Fischer government.
The international press partly reported live on the
strike. The world’s biggest auto company, General
In 2004, in the pay round in the metalworking
Motors, could not enforce its closure plans for the
industry, the monopolies tried to test their power
against the working class in order to extend the
Opel factory! This self-organized strike with its
working hours to 40 per week while at the same time new forms of struggle, its high level of
cutting wages. 500,000 metalworkers spontaneously organization, and the European General Motors
took part in warning strikes and demonstrations and Day of Action at 13 locations in Belgium, Brazil,
demanded a strike vote. To avoid a strike the Germany, England, Poland, Austria, Portugal,
monopolies backed down. The dispute over working Spain and other countries, with 100,000
hours shifted to the individual enterprises. This participants, was an expression of a new
provided the opportunity for independently fought development in the class consciousness of the
class disputes. working class in Germany! Above all it reflected

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the grown mass influence of the MLPD. It initiated 200 cities. In most cities, from the start the MLPD
the transition to the working-class offensive on was able to give this mass movement an
a broad scale. independent and unmistakable new character: the
open microphone with mass discussion, the
What does the slogan of the working-class participation of various forces on an equal footing
offensive mean? The struggle for everyday on the basis of joint struggle, a democratic culture
demands and partial slogans must be conducted in of debate and struggle, democratic votes on the
an offensive manner. Only then is it possible to street, and finally a system of delegates as new
raise its level. Economic struggle must be form of direct democracy which united the
combined with political struggle or transformed Monday demonstrations into a nationally
into political struggle. Individual struggles must be organized movement. With that the MLPD
concentrated and developed higher into mass attained a qualitative leap in mass influence – and
struggles. If necessary, the unionist framework also in the media. The union of the Monday
must be broken through and the working class demonstration movement with the strength and
must go over to independent struggles. The experience of the MLPD brought a qualitative leap
working class must successfully come to grips in the development of the militant opposition and
with the social system of the petty-bourgeois mode also in the efforts to lastingly break through the
of thinking so that its class consciousness can relative isolation of the MLPD. Today, several
unfold and the struggles can develop into class thousand Monday demonstrators still rally every
struggle in the true sense. This development Monday in over 120 cities – and have done so
towards the working-class offensive is the main more than 130 times.
thing to enable class struggle to pass over from
the first stage of relative calm to the second The Monday demonstration movement is an
stage of the acutely revolutionary situation. important movement which can unite and focus
the social protests against the federal government.
Whereas the first stage is characterized by relative The transition to the working-class offensive
calm in the class struggle, the second stage is exerted a major influence and attraction on the
determined by mass economic and political Monday demonstration movement as people’s
struggles. In conjunction with increasing class movement against the Schröder-Fischer
disputes, revolutionization of the struggles takes government. Both were a visible expression of the
place. Class struggle in the true sense unfolds and fact that the Social-Democratic Party of Germany
moves towards a fundamental decision. A (SPD) has lost in ability to bind the masses to the
transition to the second stage only can occur if the system. At the moment the Monday
decisive majority of the working class has been demonstrations are mainly public forums for
won to the side of socialism on the basis of a social protest rather than a broad mass movement.
close, trusting relationship between the industrial
workers and the Marxist-Leninist party, and if the The elections to the state parliament in North
MLPD has become party of the masses. Moreover, Rhine-Westphalia on May 22, 2005, ended in a
it is necessary to draw the broad masses into the devastating defeat for the SPD on its home ground.
struggle against the government. The struggles in On the same evening Schröder declared his
the summer and autumn of 2004 were an resignation as chancellor and announced new
important step in this direction. elections to the federal parliament. And on the
In early August 2004 the Monday demonstration very same evening the MLPD, too, prepared its
movement against the ”Hartz IV” tactics for the federal elections. Within a very
unemployment laws grew into a new mass short time the MLPD mounted an impressive,
movement against the government! independent, nationwide election campaign. The
lasting results are an appreciable strengthening of
It reached its climax, for the time being, at the end our membership by 25 percent and the extension
of August: 250,000 people demonstrated in almost of our organized work to a large number of new

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cities, enterprises and regions. 45,000 votes were At the same time the intermediate strata in
received, more than four-and-a-half times the Germany increasingly have begun to move. From
result of the last nationwide elections. Under the 2003 to 2006 around 8.5 million people took to the
conditions of the five-percent clause (which streets. In part the new people’s movement
refuses any party with less than five percent of the explicitly cites the working-class movement and
general vote a seat in parliament) and the takes it as model. That also applies to a definitely
extensive media boycott of the MLPD our invigorated and politicized student movement.
participation was reasonably successful. With the deployment of UN troops in Lebanon,
The elections as a whole confirmed a clear trend German imperialism effected a major change in
to the left in Germany. The Leftist List of PDS foreign policy and pressed for military
(Party of Democratic Socialism) and WASG involvement of the Federal German Army in the
(Election Alternative Work and Social Justice) Middle East. A new ”Bundeswehr White Paper”
made appreciable gains. The SPD lost 4.5 percent. furnishes programmatic justification for the
The voters gave the brush-off to the ”dream” Army’s deployment as a worldwide army of
government of monopoly capital consisting of intervention and for the involvement in Bush’s
CDU (Christian Democrats) and FDP (Free ”New War”, while the majority of the population
Democrats). The masses did not want any of the disapproves of the deployment of the Bundeswehr
established government variants. The process of in foreign countries. The antimilitary and peace
breaking away from the bourgeois institutions and struggle must be accorded more weight especially
parties continued. It had gone over into a in work among youth. That also applies to the
downright erosion of the mass basis of the antifascist movement, against the attempt of those
dictatorship of the monopolies and the parties in rule, in combination with social demagogy, to
and institutions upholding it. The newly formed build up fascist shock troops as a reserve against
Grand Coalition of CDU and SPD headed by the revolutionizing of the masses. In the
Angela Merkel put an end to the open political environmental movement, in conjunction with
crisis that had broken out in May 2005 by digesting the sellout of the former ecological
exercising restraint in its attacks on the social party, The Greens, a new upswing is in the
rights of the masses. This is an expression of a making. The working-class offensive includes
serious weakening of the monopolies. But non-proletarian strata in the struggle against the
pressured by the monopolies, since April 2006 the government. It was among other things the
government began replacing the ”step-by-step protests targeting the health system which in
policy” with the policy of ”big cruelties”. This autumn 2006 led to a rapid loss of confidence not
immediately gave rise to new mass protests: 1.8 only in the governing parties, but in the entire
million employees took part in the union- political system. Opinion polls in September 2006
organized struggles of the metalworkers and showed: CDU and SPD each had the backing of
service workers in the first half of the year – more only about 30 percent of the voters. A mere 19
than triple the number of people participating in percent still had confidence in the government! 66
strikes in 2005. The strike of the service workers percent considered the system unjust, and 51
union ver.di against massive changes for the worse percent were dissatisfied with the entire political
in the health system became the longest strike in system. The slogan, ”The government must go”,
the public service sector in the history of the met with great approval. The government backed
Federal Republic of Germany. The big strikes in down in a number of areas in order to defuse the
university hospitals and the persistent protests of situation.
health system employees showed that these social The relative economic revival and the reduction in
strata increasingly have become a part of the the official unemployment figures conduced to an
industrial proletariat, not only because of their easing off of the situation in which the separation
working conditions; their strikes have made them a of the masses from the capitalist system
political part of it, too. temporarily had peaked. The current relative
revival within the framework of the fluctuating

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International Newsletter No. 33 23rd of July 2007

stagnation has nothing to do with a permanent dependent and oppressed countries. In Germany
recovery of the capitalist world economy. It takes today 860,000 people are acutely threatened by
place in interaction with a new wave of cross- homelessness, millions live below the poverty line,
border mergers and acquisitions which practically including 1.7 million children under the age of 14.
amount to a restructuring of entire industries. The A major new demand on the class consciousness
accelerated concentration across national borders of the workers is posed by the enlargement of the
is a preliminary to the outbreak of a worldwide European Union. The reorganization of
overproduction crisis. The current economic international production has added competition
pickup will not last for long. The present world- between individual countries to the competition in
spanning mergers, the gigantic speculative bubble national production. It is very important that the
on the world stock exchanges already are an workers recognize across borders that they all
expression of a huge plethora of capital which will belong to one class, and that they not let
give vent to itself in a new world economic crisis. themselves be played off against each other
As we know, such world economic crises always nationally, as for example the reformist union
involve increasingly deeper crises in which the bureaucracy does trying to split the workers with
class consciousness of the working class grows by slogans emphasizing local interests and factory
leaps and bounds and the influence of socialism sites. More and more clearly, the dividing line
can take hold of the masses. between reformist and revolutionary tactics is the
willingness to take up company-wide struggle
We Marxist-Leninists are well advised to lose no across borders. On July 12, 2005, 8,000 Electrolux
time, get ready in these quieter periods for the workers walked out simultaneously in Nürnberg
sharpening of class struggle and gather forces. (Germany), Italy, Spain, France.
The situation of the broad masses in Germany is
getting drastically worse. Germany is a leading On October 21 there was a second European day
imperialist country at the stage of state-monopoly of action with strikes and demonstrations by
capitalism, economically the strongest country in 25,000 employees of Electrolux factories in seven
the European Union (EU). With over 82 million European countries. Under the pressure generated
inhabitants it also has the biggest population in the by Europe-wide strikes of the dockworkers the EU
EU. 35 million people are gainfully employed; 85 Parliament was forced to reject Port Package II on
percent of them are in dependent employment. 45 January 18, 2006. The dockworkers’ action was a
percent of the gainfully employed are women. coordinated EU-wide political strike against the
Whereas the living standard rose steadily until the EU as instrument of the international monopolies.
mid-1970s, since the mid-70s a growing At the beginning of 2007 a European day of
unemployment has emerged as a permanent action of the Airbus workforces took place
phenomenon in consequence of the international against the restructuring plan Power8. It was
structural crisis. The situation was seriously preceded by spontaneous strikes in factories in
aggravated in the new millennium. In real terms, Germany and France and a national day of action
in Germany we meanwhile have 6.8 million in France. A remarkable aspect is the higher level
unemployed and around 11 million of class consciousness as expressed in the
underemployed persons. widespread slogan, ”An injury to one is an injury
to all.” This consciously declared war on divisive
Accordingly, about 50 percent of the persons in nationalism. Remarkable, too, the high degree of
dependent employment are either jobless or organization in a European day of action of all
underemployed. As a result of the mass workforces, in which the processing of the
unemployment, the general reduction of wages and experience of prior European days of action such
the smashing of the social reforms, manifestations as at Opel/General Motors is reflected.
of a general relative and absolute pauperization
appear among the working people which until now To prepare and develop an offensive of systematic
we have known mainly from the neocolonially rank-and-file work, in January 2007 the MLPD

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published a program which uncompromisingly the stage of the non-revolutionary situation to the
concentrates solely on the interests of the working stage of the acutely revolutionary situation. The
class and broad masses: The ”15-Point Program MLPD can look back on a very favorable balance
for a Political Alternative to the CDU/CSU/SPD in this work. Over the past years it has succeeded
Government”. Putting this program through calls in moving and leading masses. It was able to play
for a ”broad, concerted alliance of the militant a determinant role at many focal points of the
opposition”. This militant opposition can grow and working-class movement, but also the women’s,
win only in the unity of the entire working class youth and peace movements as well. The Seventh
and the people’s movement and to this end must Party Congress of the MLPD posed the main task
learn to overcome everything that divides. In the of making party building the leading factor in the
end, the needs of the broad masses cannot be class struggle. To achieve this, above all any form
satisfied by reforms, but only by a proletarian of worship of spontaneity has to be overcome. The
revolution should to shoulder with the objective is to increase the party’s strength many
international Marxist-Leninist and working-class times over.
movement and the anti-imperialist struggle of the
peoples. Hence we need a broad social discussion Only in interrelationship between an appreciably
on the future of society: on genuine socialism. stronger MLPD and überparteilich self-run
We can gain new credit for genuine socialism only organizations which really have become mass
in offensive confrontation with all forms of organizations can the working class and its allies
anticommunism, reformism and revisionism, with go over to the strategic offensive. Only in the unity
all nice-sounding hopes and expectations in – what of objective factor and subjective factor can the
some people talk and dream about – a reformed party of the masses emerge and mature.
and tamed capitalism, an imperialism without its The class contradictions are going to intensify
barbaric ”neoliberal” methods. And it is only greatly, but no one can predict how the class
possible to gain this credit if the masses acquire a struggle actually will develop. The MLPD must be
positive basic attitude to Marxism-Leninism, the prepared for everything and make party building
world outlook of the worldwide working-class as leading factor the focus of its activities. With
movement, and to the superiority of socialism over the work on the theoretical organ Revolutionärer
decaying capitalism. Weg, Nos. 32-34, The Strategy and Tactics of the
This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of International Proletarian Revolution, as main
the founding of our party. Highlights are certainly theoretical method of CC leadership work, and
the international seminar on 2 and 3 August in with the reorganization of the party as necessary
Essen under the title, ”The Reorganization of practical preparation for the transition to the
International Production and the Preparation of second stage, the MLPD has begun to gear its
the International Socialist Revolution”, the central work to the coming developments.
celebration on 4 August in Duisburg, and an
international antifascist rally on 5 August 2007 at The reorganizing of the party into seven state and
the Buchenwald concentration camp. The MLPD 50 country organizations is the most important
will strengthen its efforts to advance international organizational task up until the Eighth Party
cooperation. ”Class solidarity, mutual support across Congress of the MLPD.
frontiers are the order of the day. Proletarian
internationalism is the root of our moral and political The focus is on training in and systematic
superiority to wage the struggle to overthrow familiarization with leadership work on the basis
imperialism and to stand up for a new, socialist of the proletarian mode of thinking.
society.” (Stefan Engel, Rote Fahne, Nos. 51/52, 2006).
In this endeavor, learning and mastering the
The MLPD has set itself the task of organizing the dialectical method is the central concern.
strategic counteroffensive of the working class and June 2007 #
promoting the development of class struggle from

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Contribution to the International Conference


The History of the ”International” as Form of Organization
of the International Revolution
Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD)

The central practical problem of proletarian strategy prevailed ”that the emancipation of labour is
and tactics is the problem of organization: neither a local nor a national, but a social problem,
”Disunited, the workers are nothing. United, they embracing all countries in which modern society
are everything.” (Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 19, p. exists, and depending for its solution on the
519.) The content and form of proletarian class concurrence, practical and theoretical, of the most
struggle must constitute a dialectical unity. Since advanced countries” (Marx and Engels, Collected
class struggle manifests itself locally, nationally and Works, Vol. 20, p.14). In 1864 the International
internationally, it must also have local, national and Working Men’s Association (IWA) was formed.
international forms of organization to unite the Marx strongly advocated a democratic form of
individual wageworkers into a superior force. Today, organization. The IWA did not have a movement
and even more so in future, a system of different to create, but only to unite, to link the already
international forms of organization is necessary to do existing, unconnected movements in the different
justice to the diversity of the class struggle and countries. This proletarian tendency prevailed in
establish the dialectical unity of theory and practice struggle against a claim to leadership staked by
in the international Marxist-Leninist and working- petty-bourgeois democrats and anarchists, who
class movement. wanted to turn the IWA into a conspiratorial secret
Since its establishment in 1988, the International society for the engineering of insurrections by a
Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and small minority. Under the determining influence of
Organizations (ICMLPO) has developed into an Marx, who was a member of the General Council,
important organizational form of the international the IWA took the overall interests of the workers
Marxist-Leninist and working-class movement. It is of all countries as starting point and provided
a discussion forum whose object is gradual material and moral support in many workers’
ideological-political unification, which has made struggles. Its influence had, among other things,
progress. Accordingly, it cannot be turned into the the effect that the workers no longer let themselves
form of organization required for the international be used as strikebreakers against the workers of
connection of class struggle and revolutionary party other countries.
building. The upcoming 9th International
Conference, however, must make headway in The Paris Commune in March 1871 made it clear
unifying the mode of thinking so that the steps that the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie must be
necessary to coordinate and revolutionize the replaced by the dictatorship of the proletariat and
struggles, and the various international forms of the bourgeois state destroyed. Marx initially was
organization required for that purpose, can be against the uprising, because he felt it came too
supported and developed jointly. With this soon. But when it broke out he ardently supported
contribution to the agenda item ”Forms of the Commune. In his Greeting to the French
Organization of International Cooperation – History, Workers in 1892 Engels paid tribute to the
Present and Future,” the MLPD would like to present Commune: ”Its highly internationalist character
various ideas on this issue for joint discussion.
imparted historical greatness to the Commune. It
was a bold challenge to every kind of expression
of bourgeois chauvinism” (Marx/Engels, Werke,
The International Working Men’s Association Vol. 22, p. 284; our translation). The entire
European reaction joined forces to suppress the
At the beginning of the 1860s the conditions had Commune. It could have stood its ground against
ripened for the creation of an international political this united international counterrevolution only
organization of the proletariat. The realization had if revolutionary uprisings had occurred

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simultaneously in European centers. Marx drew workday they declared the 1st of May the
fundamental lessons in 1872: international workers’ day of action. The
strengthening of the socialist parties, the growth of
”Citizens, let us bear in mind this fundamental the working-class movement and its organizations
principle of the International: solidarity! It is by took place in struggle against advancing revisionism.
establishing this life-giving principle on a reliable One of revisionism’s main proponents was E.
basis among all the workers in all countries that Bernstein, who preached a gradual, peaceful growing
we shall achieve the great aim which we pursue. of capitalism into socialism and coined the notorious
The revolution must display solidarity, and we phrase, ”The movement is everything, the aim is
find a great example of this in the Paris nothing.”
Commune, which fell because there did not In ”The Third International and Its Place in
appear in all the centres, in Berlin, Madrid, etc., History,” Lenin stated:
a great revolutionary movement corresponding to
this supreme uprising of the Paris proletariat. The First International (1864-1872) laid the
(Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 23, p. foundation of an international organisation of the
256) workers for the preparation of their revolutionary
attack on capital. The Second International
International solidarity as mutual support through (1889-1914) was an international organisation of
revolutionary uprisings in all capitalist centers is a the proletarian movement whose growth
question of survival both for every proletarian proceeded in breadth, at the cost of a temporary
revolution in individual countries and for the drop in the revolutionary level, a temporary
international proletarian revolution. Educating the strengthening of opportunism, which in the end
working class in the spirit of proletarian led to the disgraceful collapse of this
internationalism was the greatest historical service of International. (Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 29,
the IWA. It was not capable of organizing a p. 306)
revolutionary onslaught at the international level.
This would have required proletarian-revolutionary The revolutionary Marxists succeeded in beating off
parties at least in the most important European undisguised distortions of the proletarian world
countries, but such parties did not yet exist. The outlook and defending Marxist positions. For
defeat of the Paris Commune spelled the end of the example, in the face of the imminent threat of war
International in the form of the IWA. Its General the 1912 congress in Basle called on the peoples to
Council moved to New York in 1872 and on Marx’s do everything to prevent a predatory war, or in the
advice resolved its dissolution on July 15, 1876. event of the outbreak of war, to respond with
Concerning the connection between content and revolutionary actions. But when the imperialist
form of the proletarian class struggle, Karl Marx world war broke out in 1914, the abscess of
stated in 1875: opportunism ruptured. Most leaders of the
International, almost all social-democratic parties,
The international activity of the working classes made truces with their governments. Under the
does not in any way depend on the existence of deceitful slogan ”defense of the fatherland” millions
the ”International Working Men’s Association”. of workers were thrown into the imperialist slaughter
This was only the first attempt to create a central to fight each other. In contrast, the Russian
organ for that activity; an attempt which was a Bolsheviks continued to adhere to proletarian
lasting success on account of the impulse which it internationalism and advocated turning the
gave, but which was no longer realisable in its imperialist war into civil war. Opportunism, which
first historical form after the fall of the Paris degenerated into social-chauvinism upon the
Commune. (”Critique of the Gotha Programme,” outbreak of world war, was the product of the
Marx and Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 24, p. growth of capitalism of free competition into
90) imperialism. Its essence was the replacement of
proletarian revolution by reformism, of class struggle
The Second International and Its Collapse by class collaboration, of proletarian
internationalism by bourgeois nationalism.
The Second International was founded in 1889 by The Second International had changed from within,
393 representatives of the working-class movement was dead, ”overcome by opportunism” (Lenin,
from 22 European and American countries in Paris. Collected Works, Vol. 21, p. 40).
In memory of the heroic struggle of the workers of Resolutely breaking with the social-chauvinists,
Chicago on May Day 1886 for the eight-hour separating from the opportunists, was the first

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International Newsletter No. 33 23rd of July 2007
condition for a new International. ”There are such strengthening of the communist world movement,
that are afraid to admit that the crisis or, to put it with as many as 72 parties and millions of members,
more accurately, the collapse of the Second was tied to the existence of the Comintern. It was the
International is the collapse of opportunism” (ibid., nightmare of all reactionary governments and
p. 35). The Bolsheviks developed keen international regimes. Through the Comintern, proletarian
activity on behalf of the union of the revolutionary internationalism became a powerful weapon of the
Left. But in most cases, for a long time the working-class movement. It organized international
revolutionary Left shrank from a complete break campaigns to protect the Soviet Union against
with the opportunists and hesitated to found new imperialist threats, to defend the Chinese revolution
revolutionary working-class parties. This was one (”Hands off China!”), for solidarity with workers’
major reason why the forces of reaction were able to struggles, for the release of political prisoners
bloodily stifle the revolutionary crisis in Europe at (”Freedom for Thälmann”). A heroic highlight was
the end of the First World War. The 1917 October the International Brigades raised in 1936, in which
Revolution could have resulted in the hoped-for up to 40,000 antifascists from over 50 countries took
chain reaction of international revolution only if, in up arms to defend the Spanish Republic against the
the most important capitalist countries at least, in fascist putsch of General Franco and the wirepullers
particular Germany, revolutionary parties had Hitler and Mussolini. The communist parties were
existed which were willing and able to lead the national sections of the world party. The directives
working class to overthrow ruling monopoly capital. of the Communist International were binding on
The Bolsheviks, the Russian workers and peasants, them. Between 1919 and 1935 seven World
did what was possible for the world revolution in Congresses took place. The elected Executive
their country. But an international organizational Committee, based in Moscow, was able to expel
form for coordinating the revolutionary movement persons, groups and entire parties from the
was lacking. Comintern. For admission to the Communist
International, at the proposal of Lenin the Second
The Founding of the Communist International World Congress (1920) adopted ”Theses on the
Terms of Admission into the Communist
In March 1919, 52 representatives from 30 countries International”, which contained ”21 terms of
established the new workers’ International. Except admission”. Item 17 of Lenin’s proposal stated: ”All
for the Bolsheviks, most were representatives only of decisions of the Communist International’s
small communist groups or currents. Lenin urged the congresses and of its Executive Committee are
immediate establishment of the International based binding on all affiliated parties” (Lenin, Collected
on the assessment ”that the world revolution is Works, Vol. 31, p. 211).
beginning and growing in intensity everywhere”
(Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 28, p. 455). As The reason given for this character was that the
regards the self-image of the Communist Comintern at that time was ”operating in conditions
International (Comintern), the Manifesto of the First of acute civil war” (ibid.). It was a form of
Congress states: organization intended to direct and speed up the
world revolutionary process, starting from the
If the First International presaged the future October Revolution, and unite the revolutionary
course of development and indicated its paths; if masses worldwide. Accordingly, all parties were
the Second International gathered and organized obligated to ”everywhere build up a parallel illegal
millions of workers; then the Third International organisation, which, at the decisive moment, will be
is the International of open mass action, the in a position to help the Party fulfil its duty to the
International of revolutionary realization, the revolution” (ibid., p. 208).
International of the deed. (Minutes of the First
Congress of the Comintern, Appendix, p. 17; our But the building of parallel structures went far
translation) beyond that. Otto Vargas, Secretary General of the
Partido Comunista de Argentina (PCR) since 1968
The Comintern uncompromisingly demanded the and an international functionary of the Communist
break with opportunism and centrism. It was Youth in the 1950s, reports:
established as a centralized world party to carry out
world revolution and establish the dictatorship of the Article 3 of the terms of admission to the
proletariat on an international scale and exerted a Communist International permitted the
great attraction on the class-conscious workers and Comintern to build up structures parallel to the
revolutionaries the world over. It helped directly to structures of the (legal or illegal) communist
form communist parties in various countries. The parties which exercised actual leadership in the
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International Newsletter No. 33 23rd of July 2007
activities of these parties. The center of the opposition to make its members form red trade
parallel structure to the communist parties was unions. The revolutionary opposition could not
headed by Osip Pyatnitsky from the Comintern’s allow itself to be taken in by such splittist policy
International Liaison Department (OMS), which of the reformist trade union leadership. Initially,
was referred to as the ”heart of the Comintern.” therefore, the formation of the RGO
(Revolutionäre Gewerkschaftsopposition
This department’s representatives had de facto [Revolutionary Trade-Union Opposition]) was
authority over the representatives of the local CPs only a loose gathering of workers who had been
and increasingly were bound up with the organs expelled from the unions. This was correct and
of the Soviet secret services. They also necessary in order to keep this revolutionary
coordinated training and propaganda in the force together. But by involving unorganized
Comintern and headed publications that had people in the RGO and by organizing economic
nothing to do with parties in the capitalist struggles under RGO leadership, the latter took
countries…. In the apparatus of the Communist on a more solid organizational form. In several
International, the International Control cities, red trade unions developed from them, like
Commission of the Executive Committee of the the United Association of the Metal Workers,
Comintern played a very important role. Victorio United Association of the Construction Workers
Codovilla was one of its members from 1928 to and the United Association of the Coal-Miners.
1935, and later was the highest ranking party This was a serious mistake because it began to
leader of the CP of Argentina and of the show that the masses of the union members did
Comintern’s South American Secretariat. These not follow. (W. Dickhut, Trade Unions and Class
structures were linked with the secret services and Struggle, Neuer Weg, pp. 57-58)
special agencies of the USSR and were ultimately
controlled by them. From a certain time on the From this Willi Dickhut concluded:
secretaries of the communist parties – with the
approval of the Executive Committee of the Revolutionary work in the trade unions is above
Comintern – designated a cadre of the Central all an ideological struggle to win over the union
Committee of each party who served as the link members for the revolutionary class struggle.
between the structure of the CP of the particular This does not mean taking over the union
country and the covert structure built up and led apparatus by voting out the reformist leaders and
by the International. (Otto Vargas, El marxismo y replacing them by revolutionary members,
la revolución argentina [Marxism and the because this is impossible….
Argentine Revolution], Vol. II, Buenos Aires
1999, p. 57; our translation) To counter the reformist leadership's policy of
expulsion, the communists must work with great
In practice, the ideological-political and skill in the unions and prove to be active members. It
organizational independence of the communist
parties was undermined or even abolished by way of is fundamentally wrong to withdraw from the trade
these parallel structures. Democratic centralism in unions or encourage the organization of red unions
the Comintern acquired bureaucratic-centralist affiliated to the party. Granted all difficulties
features. This had a negative impact on the work of connected with working in the union – it must be
the individual parties because little value was placed clear to every communist: there can be no revolution
on their concrete experience and analyses in each without influencing and revolutionizing the millions
country, and a tendency to mechanical application of of trade union members. (ibid., pp. 61-62)
strategy and tactics, a tendency to transfer the
concrete experience of Russia to other countries took Closely related with the sectarian RGO policy was
hold. the social-fascism theory, which likewise originated
Political mistakes and dirigism by the Executive with the Comintern. Aggressive anticommunism was
Committee of the Comintern mainly were an essential ideological root of fascism. The
responsible for grave errors in the policies of the adoption of aggressive anticommunism in theory and
Communist Party of Germany, KPD. The Executive practice by the Rightist leaders of the Social-
Committee was the initiator, for example, of the so- Democratic Party (SPD), however, did not make the
called RGO policy, which Willi Dickhut criticized in SPD anything like a social-fascist party. Willi
his book, Trade Unions and Class Struggle: Dickhut pointed out the historic consequences of this
wrong theory:
The mass expulsions [from the unions] also
served the aim of provoking the revolutionary
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International Newsletter No. 33 23rd of July 2007
Defaming all social-democrats as social-fascists loss of credibility; the party’s membership was
destroyed existing contacts between communists confused, and the rift with the social-democratic
and social-democrats and prevented the creation workers became increasingly deeper. This serious
of a proletarian united front which, as a strong tactical error of the KPD made it easier for the
backbone of a broad antifascist unity of action, Rightist SPD leadership to pursue its anticommunist
could have prevented Hitler from seizing power. smear campaign and split the working class. Even
(ibid., p. 124) after finance capital had eliminated the remnants of
bourgeois democracy and set up a fascist dictatorship
Starting from the Eleventh ECCI Plenum in in Germany, the ECCI was blind to the realities. On
March/April 1931, the main thrust directed at social- December 2, 1933 – fully 10 months after the
democracy, which was regarded as ”moderate wing assumption of power by the Hitlerite fascists – with
of fascism,” was even intensified. The KPD, its tens of thousands of communists and social-
members waging a self-sacrificing struggle, frittered democrats already being tortured together in the
away its forces in a ”war on two fronts.” When the concentration camps, O. Pyatnitsky declared at the
fascist NSDAP initiated a referendum against the Thirteenth ECCI Plenum ”that the political line and
social-democratic Prussian government in 1931, the organizational policies of the Communist Party of
KPD leadership around Ernst Thälmann was at first Germany before and during the assumption of power
against the participation of the KPD and declared so by the fascists were entirely correct.” (XIII. Plenum
publicly. The ECCI intervened and the CC KPD des EKKI, O. Pjatnitzki, Die kommunistischen Par-
revised its correct decision. Even if this only teien im Kampf um die Massen [The Communist
succeeded with the help of an intrigue of the Parties in the Fight for the Masses], p. 52; our trans-
ultraleftists in the KPD leadership (Heinz Neumann lation)
and others) and Thälmann ultimately submitted, the
fact remains that it was the political secretariat of the It was only the Seventh World Congress of the
ECCI which pushed through this fateful sectarian Comintern in 1935 which corrected the sectarian
change of tactics. O. Pyatnitsky∗ presented an absurd course and gave out a new tactical orientation to
view of the events at the Twelfth ECCI Plenum establish a united front against fascism. The errors of
(September 1932). Under the heading ”successes and the national sections were justifiably criticized; there
achievements of the KPD” he emphasized: was no self-criticism by the responsible leaders of
the Comintern such as Pyatnitsky or Manuilsky at
You know, for example, that the leadership of the the congress. How could old Bolsheviks sink so low?
party opposed taking part in the referendum on It can only be explained by the encroachment of the
the dissolution of the Prussian Landtag. A petty-bourgeois mode of thinking, a grotesque loss
number of party newspapers published leading of a sense of reality, a desperate clinging to mistakes,
articles opposing participation in that a vain concern for one’s personal esteem and
referendum. But when the Central Committee of position. Stalin tacitly approved the change of
the party jointly with the Comintern arrived at the policy, was present at the opening ceremony – that
conclusion that it was necessary to take an active was it. Whereas Lenin took self-critical stock before
part in the referendum, the German comrades in the delegates of the fact that the international
the course of a few days, roused the whole party. revolution as chain reaction failed to materialize as
Not a single party, except the CPSU(B) could do he had predicted, Stalin remained silent at this
that. That proves that the KPD is maneuverable. important hour. Manuilsky, in his report to the
(Speech at the Twelfth ECCI Plenum, September Seventh World Congress, still managed to cite
1932, p. 15; our translation) Stalin’s wrong thesis about social-democracy being
the twin brother of fascism. Stalin himself said in
The subsequent justification of this horrifying 1924: ”Social-Democracy is objectively the
sectarianism as maneuverability is a caricature of moderate wing of fascism” (Stalin, Works, Vol. 6, p.
Leninism. By participating in the fascist-initiated 294). The renunciation of open, candid, principled
Prussian referendum the KPD suffered a massive criticism and self-criticism irrespective of the person
concerned, such as Lenin always had practiced,

From 1923 to 1935 Pyatnitsky was a member of the ECCI created a climate in which the petty-bourgeois
and its secretariat, treasurer, and head of the International bureaucrats formally adapted to the proletarian line,
Liaison Department (OMS). At the Seventh World Congress but retained their petty-bourgeois mode of thinking.
he was no longer elected to the leading bodies. He was However justified the criticism of the Comintern, we
relieved of his functions in the CC CPSU(B), condemned to do not forget the Comintern’s great merits, which
death in nonpublic trial and executed by firing squad in remain in the final analysis the most important
1938. aspect. In the 1920s it provided crucial assistance for
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International Newsletter No. 33 23rd of July 2007
the formation and development of new communist in his time to organize the international revolution.
parties in many countries. With its international Stalin himself took the initiative, though late, to
bolshevization campaign it provided fundamental call into question the outmoded form of the
guidance for the self-transformation of many parties Communist International. Georgi Dimitrov,
into revolutionary workers’ parties. The international General Secretary of the Comintern since 1935,
communist and working-class movement reports on a talk with Stalin in April 1941:
experienced a big upswing. The Comintern helped One should make the communist parties
the KPD, for instance, to overcome serious completely independent parties instead of
weaknesses and deviations such as the initial sections of the Communist International. They
fundamental rejection of participation in bourgeois must become national communist parties.…
elections. By 1932 ”bolshevization” made the KPD a They must have a communist program, must
communist mass party with up to 340,000 members
and six million voters.
draw upon a Marxist analysis, not always look
Trotsky and his followers, in contrast, slandered and to Moscow, but solve the problems on the
fought the Communist International. To this day the agenda in each country on their own.... When
Trotskyites love to envelop themselves with the the communist parties have grown stronger in
nimbus of the true advocates of the ”international this way they can reestablish their international
revolution.” It makes you wonder though that organization. (Dimitrov, Tagebücher 1933-
bourgeois historiography, which normally has 1943, p. 374; our translation)
nothing good to say about revolutionaries, is only too The decision to dissolve the Comintern, taken by
pleased to court Trotsky. After Trotskyism changed mutual agreement on May 23, 1943, states:
from a political current within the working-class The differences in the historical roads of
movement into an anti-party opposition of petty- development of each country of the world, the
bourgeois careerists, it attempted to subvert and diverse character and even the contradiction in
liquidate the communist parties and their world their social orders, the difference in the level
organization. Trotskyism and its Fourth and rate of their social and political
International, formed in 1938, were, as Stalin development and finally the difference in the
remarked, an ”advanced detachment of the counter- degree of consciousness and organization of the
revolutionary bourgeoisie, which is fighting against workers condition also the various problems
communism, against the Soviet regime, against the which face the working class of each individual
building of socialism in the U.S.S.R.” (Stalin, Works, country. The entire course of events for the past
Vol. 13, p. 101) quarter of a century, as well as the
accumulated experiences of the Communist
Trotskyism was and is objectively an agency for International, have convincingly proved that
sabotaging the international proletarian
the organizational form for uniting the workers
revolution!
as chosen by the First Congress of the
For the sake of objective criticism of mistakes of Communist International, which corresponded
the Communist International, it would be wrong to to the needs of the initial period of rebirth of
consider only the subjective side. The more the labor movement, more and more outlived
complicated class struggle proved in the itself in proportion to the growth of this
1920s/1930s, the more complex the movement and the increasing complexity of
interconnections became between the developing problems in each country, and that this form
class struggle in the different imperialist countries even became a hindrance to the further
and in the countries oppressed by imperialism and strengthening of the national workers’ parties
the world revolutionary process, the more (ibid.; our translation).
unsuitable became the one-sided centralistic form
of organization of the Comintern. The severe After the end of the revolutionary world crisis
defeat of the international working-class (1923) and with the development of imperialism
movement at the hands of the fascist dictatorships into state-monopoly capitalism, the form of
set up in Italy, Spain, Japan and Germany should organization as a centralist world party no longer
already have given cause for a self-critical review agreed with the contents of the class struggle.
whether the Comintern still was in keeping with During this period of imperialism the national-
the times as a form of organization of the state character of the productive forces
international communist and working-class predominated. The class struggle in the countries
movement, legitimately called into being by Lenin of state-monopoly capitalism, but also in the

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International Newsletter No. 33 23rd of July 2007

dependent countries, the semicolonies and meeting, the Soviet leaders exerted enormous
colonies, had to be conducted mainly within the pressure on the other parties and abused the
national framework even though it was a international structures and relations to enforce
component part of the era of proletarian world revisionism. Beginning in 1963 the CP China
revolution. This called first of all for independent conducted a public polemic against the revisionist
parties willing and able to concretize the theory of betrayal. It climaxed in 1963 in the Proposal for a
Marxism-Leninism by applying the dialectical General Line of the International Communist
method to revolutionary practice in their countries Movement, which defended the teachings of Marx,
and to realize strategy and tactics according with Engels, Lenin and Stalin against the modern
the specific laws and conditions. In an exemplary revisionists and continued to adhere to
manner the Communist Party of China under Mao revolutionary class struggle. The Great Proletarian
Zedong’s leadership managed to achieve this with Cultural Revolution in 1966 was the creative
the successful new-democratic revolution. advancement of the strategy and tactics of class
struggle in socialism, a successful mass movement
to counter the danger of revisionist degeneration of
Fragmentation of the the CP China and the restoration of capitalism in
International Marxist-Leninist and China. In the wake of these events in China,
Working-Class Movement everywhere in the world new Marxist-Leninist
organizations and parties emerged. Mao Zedong’s
Following the dissolution of the Comintern, on the initiative China became the center of the international
of the Soviet Union the Information Bureau of the Marxist-Leninist and working-class movement. At
Communist and Workers’ Parties (Cominform) was formed
on September 30, 1947. Its objects were improved the time the Communist Party of China was
coordination of the struggle against the aggressive, against an international form of organization for
anticommunist policy of imperialism, led by the USA, and the Marxist-Leninists and maintained solely
the exchange of experience on problems of the construction bilateral relationships. At first this was an effective
of the people’s democracies and socialism. However, only a precautionary measure to protect the organizations
small section of the international communist and working-
class movement was involved: the communist parties of the from interference by the Soviet revisionists and
Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, promote their independence. Mao Zedong himself
Bulgaria, Yugoslavia (until 1948), Albania (from 1947), warned the representatives of other parties again
France and Italy. The German Socialist Unity Party (SED) and again not to mechanically follow the Chinese
had observer status, the CP China did not join. It was not a model and strongly urged them to use their own
firm organization with democratic centralism like the
Comintern, but an assembly to ”organize the interchange of heads. On this basis, the KABD, the forerunner
experience and, if need be, coordinate the activities of the organization of the MLPD, was able to diagnose,
Communist Parties on the basis of mutual agreement” shortly after Mao Zedong’s death in 1976: The
(Founding Communiqué; our translation). Chinese Leadership Sails in the Right Deviationist
Even though the Communist Information Bureau Wind. From the start the MLPD exposed the
(1947-1956) never attained the importance of the subsequent restoration of capitalism in China and
Comintern, because of its tough attitude towards at the same time defended Mao Zedong Thought
Anglo-American imperialism and its ideological against the attacks of the Hoxha clique. This was
irreconcilability it was a thorn in the side of the done while a worldwide wave of liquidationism
revisionists. Khrushchov dissolved the Cominform raged, which resulted in hundreds of splits,
in April 1956, immediately after the Twentieth collapses and self-dissolutions of Marxist-Leninist
Party Congress, in a surprise attack, in order to parties and organizations and to this day has left
pave the way for reconciliation with the revisionist deep wounds in many countries.
Tito and appease US imperialism. At the
international meetings of the communist and International Forms of Organization
workers’ parties (Moscow 1957 and Bucharest for Coordinating and
1960) his only interest was now to spread the Revolutionizing the Class Struggles
revisionist line of the CPSU. Nevertheless, the
representatives of the Communist Party of China With the reorganization of international production
and the Party of Labor of Albania defended beginning in the 1990s, with the emergence of an
Marxism-Leninism against modern revisionism. international industrial proletariat, the process from a
Starting with open attacks on the Chinese and predominantly national form of class struggle
Albanian Marxist-Leninists at the Moscow towards international class struggle has gathered

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International Newsletter No. 33 23rd of July 2007
speed. The tendency towards the internationalization gradual unification can make progress. The character
of class struggle only can mature into a victorious of the International Conference as forum for
international revolution if the working class, across discussion, without binding agreements for practice,
national frontiers, coordinates and revolutionizes the simultaneously underscores its limitations. For the
struggles raging in the world. This is impossible
without international forms of organization. The preparation of the international revolution,
negative experiences of the old communist international forms of organization are required
movement do not, however, justify skepticism and which conform to the character of the present tasks
rejection of all forms of firm international structures. in the preparation of the international revolution. The
complexity of the international revolution; the course
The International Conference of Marxist-Leninist of the struggles, differing from country to country
Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO) originated and not developing in straight lines; the different
in 1988 as an important forum for the ideological- characters and scopes of the revolutionary
political exchange of views among the participating movements; the diversity of the forms of
organizations on a basis of equality. The Fourth
organization and struggle; the specific complexities
Resolution of the Eighth International Conference in
2004 characterizes how the ICMLPO sees itself: of history, culture and mentality – all that makes a
Participation in the International Conference is monolithic international form of organization out of
based on the following main criteria: the question. The indissoluble interaction of the
• Adherence to Marxism-Leninism and Mao struggles and movements, the inner connectedness of
Zedong Thought and their creative the struggles across national borders, the necessity of
application in the conduct of the class opposing a superior force of the international
struggle in each country. revolution to the international cooperation of the
• Struggle against modern revisionism and a imperialists in organizing the counterrevolution – all
positive attitude towards Stalin and Mao that calls for a system of international forms of
Zedong. organization for coordinating and revolutionizing
• Acceptance of the Rules of the Conference.
the struggles of the working-class and people’s
The 4th Conference adopted the following movements.
principles on which the cooperation of the
participating Marxist-Leninist organizations is The leading factor for uniting the class struggles in
based, which were amended and again adopted at the individual countries into an international class
the 8th Conference: struggle is the close cooperation of parties and
• Independence and equality, mutual respect, organizations on a revolutionary basis. An
mutual support and cooperation . organization for this purpose could be a kind of
• Noninterference in internal affairs as well as international league of revolutionary and Marxist-
in the bilateral or regional relations of any Leninist parties that has an underlying continental
party or organization with other parties and structure so that existent regional initiatives and
organizations. Every organization is
sovereign in its conclusions. meetings on the various continents also could be
• Consensus and unanimity in decision-making. embedded in it. Such an international league should
• Achieving gradual unity step by step; not be a new Communist International, but an
principled debate and cooperation among organization on a basis of equality. That implies the
parties/organizations and no public attack by independence of each participating organization
any party/organization on another. as regards the strategy and tactics of the class
• Obligation of all participating organizations struggle in the particular country, as well as
to prepare and conduct the 9th International involving binding practical agreements on the
Conference jointly in accordance with their cross-border coordination and revolutionization of
possibilities. the struggles and mutual support in party building.
• Financial independence and self-financing of At the same time each party commits itself to
the common work according to the
possibilities. (Resolution No. 4 of the 8th making a contribution of its choosing and is
ICMLPO, INL No. 29) responsible for making that contribution. #
In their dialectical unity the principles of cooperation
are an expression of the proletarian culture of 20th of May 2007
debate. If this culture prevails, the process of
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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Country Report India


CPI (ML) Central Committee, India

1. Six decades after the transfer of power in 1947, revolutionary forces and bringing them together in a
under imperialist globalization the contradiction single communist party is the need of the hour.
between imperialism and the Indian people, the 3. It was with this objective the erstwhile CPI (ML)
contradiction between feudalism and broad masses of and CPI (ML) Red Flag had formed a Co-ordination
people and the contradiction between capital and Committee with the purpose of uniting in to a single
labour have unprecedentedly sharpened reflecting the organization before the time of the 8th ICMLPO.
growing plunder and suppression by imperialism and Organizing the International Conference of Marxist-
the comprador ruling classes on the one hand, and the Leninist Parties with the slogan "Against
resistance against them by the working class, the Imperialism, Socialism is the Only Alternative" at the
peasantry and all other oppressed masses and time of World Social Forum at Mumbai in January
sections, on the other hand. Under the neo-liberal 2004 and other joint activities with the resolve to
regime hundreds of thousands of industrial units were uncompromisingly fight right opportunism and 'left'
closed down, the public sector enterprises were fully sectarian trends led to preparation of joint documents
or almost privatized, unemployment has reached and later declaration of unity in to a single
alarming scale, all trade union and democratic rights organization, CPI(ML), in Vijayawada Unity
are usurped away, education, health-care, etc. are Conference during 27th January to 1st February, 2005.
privatized and being made beyond the reach of This was a significant step towards the unity of
common people, prices of essential commodities are Marxist-Leninist forces in India.
soaring up and the vast masses of people are facing 4. The unity took place based on four documents:
devastation. The so-called IMF-World Bank-WTO Outline of Party Program, Party Constitution,
dictated development has only made the 5-10% of the Political Resolution and Unity Resolution. The
elite classes super-rich. These sharp realities have Outline of Party Programme stated: "The historic
reached explosive situation with the introduction of developments and concrete conditions of the country
hundreds of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) which determine the present stage of revolution which is
are neo-colonial enclaves within the country, Agro New Democratic. The CPI (ML) which upholds
Economic Zones (AEZs) intensifying further transfer Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought as its
of agricultural land for 'corporate farming', opening guiding ideology and seeks to apply it to the concrete
of retail sector also for corporate houses and MNCs, conditions of India and to integrate it with the
etc. with the people left with no other option but to concrete practice of Indian revolution,
resist with all their might, which they are now doing uncompromisingly struggling against both revisionist
in ever-increasing scale. and sectarian tendencies of all hues, is committed to
2. In the political sphere, all the political parties complete the New Democratic Revolution. The task
including the right reactionary and communal ones before the party in the stage of the New Democratic
like Congress and BJP to the so-called 'left' parties Revolution is to overthrow the rule of comprador
led by CPI (M) which are in power at centre and in bureaucratic bourgeois-landlord classes serving
the states are basically united in speeding up the imperialism and to replace the present reactionary
implementation of imperialist globalization policies. Indian state with the New Democratic or People
In order to divert the toiling masses from revolting, Democratic state led by the proletariat and based on
communal, casteist, parochial feelings are aroused to the worker-peasant alliance. The basic program of the
create vote banks. At the same time imperialism led party is to complete the tasks of the NDR with
by US imperialism is making further inroads in to all agrarian revolution as its axis and to advance towards
sphere of the country's life. In this situation only the Socialist Revolution, to the realization of socialism
communist revolutionary forces who and communism.
uncompromisingly oppose all ruling class policies
"The path of New Democratic Revolution in India is
including imperialist globalization can provide
based on the concrete conditions in our country,
leadership to the struggle against imperialism,
taking the experience of all hitherto revolutions in the
comprador bureaucratic bourgeois classes and the
world and the people's revolutionary movements in
landlord classes and the political parties representing
our country. Rejecting parliamentary cretinism and
them. Only the communist revolutionary forces can
the line of individual terrorism, and upholding the
provide correct revolutionary orientation to the
revolutionary mass line, we resolves to utilize all
masses, unite all anti-imperialist and anti-ruling class
forms of struggles and organizations to seize political
forces and build up a people's alternative to the ruling
power by overthrowing the Indian State through
system. To realize this, the unity of all genuine
armed means. Strategic united front of all

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

revolutionary classes and forces with the working Some political parties are fomenting open caste
class as the leading force and the peasantry as the hatred and caste based politics in the name of social
main force based on worker-peasant alliance as well justice.
as necessary tactical united fronts should be
National chauvinism is also being propagated by the
developed for furthering the people's revolutionary
ruling classes and their political parties to suppress
movement."
the just demands and aspirations of the national
"The CPI (ML) is engaged in a strenuous struggle for
minorities in our country as is witnessed in Manipur,
uniting the communist revolutionary force. In the real
J&K, etc.
sense, it is the historic task of reorganizing the
communist movement itself, uniting the genuine This situation calls for the need of a strong and
communists in our country and paving the way for powerful movement against the ruling system, uniting
the building of the Communist Party which is capable all sections and strata of the working people for
of leading the New Democratic Revolution in a equality and emancipation from exploitation and
country of more than 100 crores of people." oppression. The Communist Revolutionary forces
5. While the Party Constitution provided the must be in the forefront of this struggle.
guidelines to build a Bolshevik style party "6. This situation calls for the building up of the
organization based on the principle of democratic broadest possible platform of the working class, the
centralism, the Unity Resolution stated: peasantry, the women, the youth and students and all
"2. The international scene is marked by the other oppressed classes and sections against the
intensifying frenzied hegemonic aggressions and Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre, the
machinations along with the imperialist globalization BJP-led NDA and various state Governments
by imperialism, especially US imperialism, on the including 'Left Front' Governments. The historic task
one hand, and the ever growing protests, movements, of the communist revolutionary forces is to unite all
resistance struggles and uprisings by the world these classes and sections and launch a powerful
proletariat and all oppressed people and nations of revolutionary movement against the ruling system.
the world, on the other. This shows that we are still "7. To carry forward this task, we, the Communist
in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. Revolutionaries, are to unite all the patriotic,
"3. The noose of imperialist globalization is democratic and genuine left forces. In this context,
tightening around our country affecting the economy, we are to take every step to consolidate and
the polity, military and social life, threatening the strengthen our party, CPI(ML), politically and
very sovereignty of our country. Though the organizationally and expand our class/mass
government has changed, the basic policies continue organizations.
to be the same, and despite rosy promises the plight "8. We, therefore, appeal to the Communist
and miseries of the people are aggravating. Even the Revolutionary forces to close their ranks and unite
communal threat remains. Against these the people into a single party of the Indian proletariat guided by
are becoming more and more restive and their Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, waging
protests are growing. relentless struggles against both revisionism and
sectarianism of all shades to carry forward this
"4. The semi-feudal agrarian relations continue to be
historic task."
prevalent in large parts of our country. Existing land
6. The Political Resolution defined the International
reform laws are being watered down to suit the
Tasks of the party as follows:
landlord class, Indian corporate houses and the
MNCs. Vast masses of peasantry and rural poor are "1. Awaken and arouse the Indian people against
being exploited and oppressed by the landlords and imperialist globalization and aggressive doctrine of
the market forces leading to pauperization of the pre-emptive strike of Bush-Blair combine threatening
peasant masses on large scale. This situation coupled the national sovereignty and independence of the
with recurring droughts and floods have created a countries of the world.
deep crisis for the agricultural sector and acute "2. Develop anti-imperialist movements against the
misery for the rural masses. invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and
"5. Indian ruling classes and their organizations, support the ongoing resistance struggles in these
especially the Sangh Parivar, are using countries against occupation. Support the Palestinian
communalism to divide our society to suit their people struggle for national liberation.
objective of furthering the exploitation and "3. Develop the solidarity movement of Indian people
oppression of working people coming from all with the ongoing movement of the world people
religions and sections of society. They are inciting against imperialism and war.
communal carnages as was witnessed in Gujarat.

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

"4. Combat all anti-Communist propaganda "6. Expose and oppose the regional and so-called
unleashed by imperialists and their henchmen. social justice parties who are serving the ruling
Launch ideological offensive based on Marxism- classes betraying the people whom they claim to
Leninism-Mao-Tsetung Thought and Proletarian represent.
Internationalism.
"7. Fight for protection and extension of democratic
"5. Strive to develop understanding and relations
rights.
with the Marxist-Leninist forces, left forces and other
anti-imperialist forces at international level. Strive to "8. Launch a powerful peoples movement against the
build up united movements with forces against pro-landlord, pro-imperialist and anti-people
imperialism, especially US imperialism and world policies of the ruling class governments serving the
reaction. cause of imperialism.
7. It defined the National Tasks as follows: "9. Strive to build All India Working Class, peasant
"1.Struggle against the existing semi-feudal agrarian and other class/ mass Organizations in accordance
relations and the growing penetration of imperialism with the concrete situation.
and its agencies in the agrarian sector and launch a
country-wide agrarian revolutionary movement Communist revolutionary forces close ranks and
against landlordism, imperialism and all its agencies. unite to fulfil the historic task of leading the working
class and all oppressed classes and sections against
"2.Strive to build up a country-wide united working the ruling system in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal
class movement against the fierce all round attacks struggles towards Peoples' Democracy and advance
by imperialism and the big bourgeoisie. towards Socialism."
"3. Expose and oppose Congress led UPA 8. Contrary to the counter-revolutionary propaganda
government and arouse, mobilize and lead the people of the enemy forces predicting breaking down of the
in the struggle against its anti-national, anti-people this unity, during last two and half years the unity has
policies. Continue to expose, oppose, and fight strengthened, taking up numerous people's struggles,
against BJP-led NDA and Sangh Parivar against and consolidating the organization and spreading it to
their polices of surrender before imperialism and more areas. It has enabled the party to carry forward
communalism. the tasks within the country with more vigor, while
taking up the international tasks of helping the unity
"4. Unmask and oppose the pro-ruling class and anti-
of the Marxist-Leninist forces and carrying forward
people policies of the CPI (M) led 'Left Front'.
international solidarity actions.
"5.Intensify the ideological, political struggle against 25th June, 2007#
social democracy and sectarian anarchist tendencies.

Contribution to the International Conference


The Struggle of the International Working Class,
the Anti-imperialist Struggles of the Peoples,
and Marxist-Leninist Party Building
CPI(ML) India

brand of development perspective, is accelerating


The present international situation is marked by
the devastation of the nature and ever-increasing
further intensification of the contradiction
number of world people. It is leading to neo-
between imperialism, especially US imperialism,
colonization in all spheres.
and oppressed peoples and nations of the world.
The imposition of imperialist globalization based Imperialism, particularly US imperialism, is
on neo-liberal policies during last 2-3 decades by intensifying the plunder and oppression in the
the imperialist forces through various agencies main utilizing the services of the comprador
like IMF, World Bank and WTO, the ever- ruling system in the semi-colonial, neo-colonial
intensifying monopolization of capital while it countries. This has given rise to intensification of
takes speculative character increasingly, and the various forms of people's resistance to imperialists
plunder of Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) and the comprador ruling classes in these
and corporate giants, along with the imperialist countries.

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Wherever the ruling system in these countries is vicious counter-revolutionary offensive chanting
not bowing down to the dictates of the "end of history", "end of class struggle",
imperialists, especially US imperialists, they "socialism has become obsolete" like slogans
conspire to overthrow them and unleash naked when Soviet Union had disintegrated, and when
aggressions occupying these countries. During the the international working class movement and
last decade it was witnessed in the US-led national liberation struggles had suffered severe
imperialist interference and aggressions leading to setbacks, the situation has changed
disintegration of Yugoslavia. In this decade the internationally. Once again the struggle of the
aggression and occupation of Iraq and working class and oppressed peoples and nations
Afghanistan, the occupation of Palestine through are developing giving rise to the hope of a new
Zionist Israel, the threat of aggressions against revolutionary upsurge.
Iran, Syria, North Korea like countries and the
aggressive military interference in a large number
of countries of West Asia, Africa and South East It is in this context the importance of Marxist-
Asia in the name of so-called 'war on terrorism', Leninist party building should be viewed. During
etc. have increasingly exposed the heinous and the 1960s under the impact of increasing
pernicious character of the US-led imperialist domination of Soviet revisionism which
powers. But these interferences, bullying, degenerated most of the communist parties to
aggressions and occupations are facing increasing bureaucratic bourgeois organizations on the one
resistance from the popular forces as in Iraq, hand, and under the influence of various 'left'
Afghanistan, Palestine, etc. US imperialists are sectarian adventurist tendencies, especially the
caught in a quagmire in Iraq, facing the threat of a emergence of Lin Bioaist sectarian positions
Vietnam like ignominious withdrawal. which dominated the CPC during its 1969 Ninth
Congress advocating the change of present era
What is being witnessed in increasing number of
from the Leninist concept to one of "total collapse
Latin American countries is new type of people's
of imperialism and world wide victory of
offensive against US imperialist plunder, bullying
socialism", the concept of Bolshevik style
and interferences. While Cuba continues to firmly
Marxist-Leninist party building surrounded by
uphold its anti-US imperialist positions, the
class/mass organizations and based on democratic
popular regimes in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua,
centralism had suffered severe setbacks. Through
Equador like countries have thrown out neo-
a process of rectification the Marxist-Leninist
liberal policies, nationalizing its natural resources
parties are trying to overcome the deviation. Only
and enterprises, and trying to provide a better
by speeding up this process the present problems
livelihood for the masses.
faced by the movement including
The popular upsurge sweeping across Latin uncompromising struggle against both right
America has weakened the stranglehold of US opportunism and 'left' deviations, struggle against
imperialists in this region. It is providing hope for all alien tendencies and ideologies like post-
a revolutionary offensive in this region in coming Marxism, post-modernism, etc., struggle against
days. NGO ideology and practice, mobilization and
politicization of working class and all other
The attack of the bourgeoisie around the world on
oppressed classes and sections, etc. can be
the workers and all toiling masses through
effectively carried forward. As the historical
flexibilisation of work, extension of working
experience and concrete conditions differ in each
hours without wage compensation, wage cuts,
country, this rectification process and party
increasing of retirement age, cuts in social
building should be taken up accordingly.
welfare, health-care and education system,
ICMLPO should be viewed as a platform for
occupation of vast agricultural lands in the name
exchange of experience, for learning from each
of industrialization, etc. have intensified the
other.
contradiction between capital and labour to
unprecedented levels.
The progress achieved in Marxist-Leninist party
The struggle of the Working class everywhere
building around the world shall create favorable
including in the imperialist countries against the
conditions for coming together of these parties
deterioration of working and living conditions and
based on proletarian internationalism and through
against the dismantling of economic and
evaluation of the experience of the First, Second
democratic rights is developing.
and Third Internationals, Cominform and the post-
Contrary to what was witnessed in the early 1990s Cominform period. It shall create conditions for
when US-led imperialist forces had mounted a bringing together all genuine Marxist-Leninist

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

parties and organizations within ICMLPO and for Marxist-Leninist Parties.


consolidating it as an international platform of
CPI (ML), Central Committee

The Development of the International Conference of


Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations (ICMLPO) and
Preparation of the 10th International Conference.

In general we agree with the following main criteria for participation in the International Conference as approved
by the 8th International Conference.
1. Adherence to Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought and their creative application in the
conduct of the class struggle in each country.
2. Struggle against modern revisionism, and a positive attitude towards Stalin and Mao.
3. Acceptance of the Rules of the Conference.
The 4th Conference adopted the following principles on which the co-operation of the participating
Marxist-Leninist organisations is based, which were amended and again adopted at the 7th Conference.
1. Independence and equality, mutual respect, mutual support and co-operation.
2. Non-interference in internal affairs as well as in the bilateral or regional relations or any party or
organisation with other parties and organisations. Every organisation is sovereign in its conclusions
3. Consensus and unanimity in decision-making.
4. Achieve gradual unity step by step; principled debate and co-operation among parties/organisations
and no public attack by any party/organisation on another.
5. Obligation of all participating organisations to prepare and conduct the 8th International Conference
jointly in accordance with their possibilities.
6. Financial independence and self-financing of the common work according to the possibilities.
But we are of the view that the second criteria should be redefined as follows:
Struggle against modern revisionism and all shades of right opportunism on the one hand, and against all forms of
'left' sectarian and anarchist tendencies which goes against all tenets of revolutionary mass line and Bolshevik style
party building, on the other.
Add the following criteria also:
Actively participate in all international solidarity actions called by the JCG of the ICMLPO in consultation with all
participating organisations, with a view to consciously strengthen the unity of international working class and all
oppressed peoples.
Central Committee
CPI (ML)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

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History of the Party


”Hezbe Ranjbaran Iran”

”Hezbe Ranjbaran Iran” was founded on comrade committee of the organization criticised their
”Mao’s” birthday on 26 December 1979 out of a opportunistic attitude concerning the Iranian regime
solidarity movement consisting of 9 Marxist-Leninist and put its destruction on the agenda. They prepared
groups (1st congress). The best-known and largest the 2nd congress to criticise the old attitude
group in this constellation was ”Sazeman Enghelabi” concerning the Iranian regime and to give reasons for
(revolutionary organization) which was created in the the change of their view. But in June 1981 the
year 1964 after the separation and splitting within the Islamic regime increased its attacks against them and
”Tudeh Party” abroad. This separation had become deprived them of the opportunity to put through this
necessary after the ideological struggle within the change.
party against revisionist views of the Tudeh party.
Meanwhile the organization concentrated on the
This organization rated the roll of Iran in the North, South and West of the country and was
democratic revolution and focussed on creating a preparing an armed rebellion against the regime, and
people’s army and the people’s struggle in the there were armed clashes with the troops devoted to
revolution and made two armed rebellions against the the regime in the South of the country. The lack of a
Shah regime in the South and in the West of Iran broad people’s support in the North and South of the
which however were not successful. country brought the result that these clashes lasted
After the defeat of these two rebellions it took only a few months. In Kurdistan, however, where the
another way; the contact to the workers and peasants support existed, the organization could continue its
and the social movements and at the same moment partisan war against the Islamic regime until 1989.
establishing a communist party in Iran became a
people’s duty from a proletarian point of view. During the preparatory phase of the 2nd congress in
1982 and as the regime was taking action against
The foundation of the revolutionary organization was everybody a big splitting took place within the party
at the time when the Shah regime began to carry out a which weakened it very much. One wing of the
so-called land reform in Iran according to the plans of leadership expressed its opposition with the official
US-imperialism, so that the broad people’s attitude of the party, believing one should rather
movement in the villages was put down and US- approach the broad masses and support them during
imperialism got away with it. About 10 years after the oppression by the regime. The leadership of the
the establishment of the ”Revolutionary party, however, was of the opinion that one should
Organization” the leadership of this organization follow a dual-track policy, i.e. to wage armed
which had secretly moved to Iran made a survey of struggle against the regime and at the same time to
the different views after the so-called land reform and take notice of the broad masses and to protect the
drew the conclusion that the Iranian society was organization from the police. This weakening of the
getting a period over and done with it and was party led to comrades belonging to the leadership
defeating the comprador bourgeoisie. But the being persecuted by the police, arrested and executed.
comrades and a part of the leadership of the One part of the leadership who believed in the dual-
”Revolutionary Organization” and due to the track policy was also weakened, persecuted, arrested,
execution of these comrades by the Shah regime in tortured and executed and thus the whole leadership
the years 1975 – 1976 this line could not be put was weakened. So in the time between the two
through. congresses many comrades of the leadership were
According to the three-world-theory as strategic executed. But also a number of our cadres and
proletarian line on a worldwide level and after the comrades suffered the same fate.
death of Mao in 1976 the leadership of the
”Revolutionary Organization” followed this Other organs like e.g. the women’s organization,
revisionist view and supported the Islamic regime in youth organization, artist organization were stormed
Iran 1979 using the danger of the two superpowers by the police in 1980 and declared as illegal
USA and USSR as a pretext. organization and as a result dispersed.

A year after the foundation of the ”Revolutionary The 2nd congress was held in 1984. The opportunists
Organization” in 1981 the leadership and the central were criticised and avoided in this congress because

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

they defended the interests of the Islamic regime and


agreed to the three-world-theory. Moreover the So globalization of the capital is leading to an
Iranian society was rated as a capitalist society and extension of the proletarian world revolution. The
the working class as the backbone of the revolution. weak links have grown now. The proletarian
But due to the existing of a rest of feudalism, the revolution is going over from a ”national revolution
unequal and unjust treatment of women, the influence in one country” to a ”regional revolution”. This is
of the religion on the government, the oppression of why the proletariat has to meet, communicate and act
liberal national movements the Iranian revolution in solidarity on a worldwide level. Imperialism is in
was still called democratic to some extent. These an inflationary phase and now is only able to act with
outside demands within a society, being covered with violence to have its way. It can only oppress the
contradictions and appearing between proletariat and peoples in its surroundings with violence and it
bourgeoisie, could be reached by proletarians with a cannot be controlled any more.
socialist revolution. Concerning the three contradictions we mentioned
the one of the peoples is the most important, namely
After the 2nd congress the armed struggle of the party the contradiction in the ranks of the proletariat, the
against the regime in Kurdistan had quasi come to a oppressed peoples against imperialism and national
standstill since 1990, because the Iraqi regime was backwardness are still of relevance to the present. But
permanently bombing our positions. So the the two other contradictions, namely the
leadership of the party was forced to leave the contradiction in the ranks of the proletariat in the
country and to go to Europe. imperialist countries, the contradiction in the ranks of
the ”super-national monopolies” are merging into one
In the 3rd congress – October/November 2006 – the and are still too small. So the proletariat in the world
Iranian revolution was rated as a socialist revolution. especially in the developed capitalistic countries has
Another change was the so-called ”scientific to take action against this. It has to oppose to it and
communism” as signpost of the party. This signpost take action so that the struggle of the peoples against
had the following definition: ”The theory of scientific the imperialists and the inner backwardness will be
communism being created by Marxism is the only continued.
revolutionary school against the different forms of
the bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie. Marxism The right-wing revisionism (old, modern, three-world
reached its full flowering in the course of its practical and post-modernism) and the left-wing (Trotskyists,
use at first by Marx and afterwards by Mao.” But pseudo-Trotskyists, anarchists etc.) thus have
”Leninism basically was Marxism of the early weakened the communist movement, and after a
imperialist era and the time of the proletarian quarter of a century it is leaving behind this phase of
revolution”. There was only a dogmatic definition of standstill. So out of this reason and in addition with
the theory of proletarian revolution by comrade the general weakness of imperialism, growing of the
”Stalin”. In principal this theory is structured bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie in the peripheral
dialectically and has to be completed and added in countries a state has developed in which the non-
collaboration with the proletariat. As long as proletarian classes even further struggle for their
imperialism exists, one cannot claim that the theory share of the cake. The cheap labor in these countries
of the proletarians did not develop. The questioning is suppressed. This caused these classes to oppose
of comrade ”Lin Piao” concerning the train of imperialism to a certain extent (e.g. in Latin America,
thought of comrade ”Mao” is just the same that in the Middle East and in parts of Africa) so that the
Marxism-Leninism would not be the right way in the current tendency in the world is not more likely
time of the fall of imperialism and the victory of running with proletarian movements or oppressed
socialism. Thise questioning is driving a wedge into peoples under the rule of communism but in the
the camp of the proletariat and preparing the ground peripheral countries the leadership is put in the
for anarchistic, opportunistic and revisionist bourgeoisie’s and petty-bourgeoisie’s hands.
questioning within the revolutionary Marxism. Nevertheless we are of the opinion that the solidarity
of the communists in the countries and in the regions
The party ”Hezbe ranjbaran Iran” thinks that is able to change this situation and again bring the
imperialism has been entering a new phase on a proletariat to the head against imperialism and
worldwide level since the 70ties of last century in capitalism.
which the national monopolistic capital is proceeding After what we mentioned before we add that new live
in the direction of expansion, and today we find the has to be put into the world movement ”communism”
imperialistic competition being increased and according to the view of ”Lenin” concerning the
extended and at the same time limited and ”unity on basic questions” and the important aspects
accelerated. and tactics. These points are above all:

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

1. Adoption of scientific communism as Victory to the 9th conference of some parties


theoretical basis going together with and organizations of Marxism-Leninism!
Marxism and further developing besides the
practical revolution and progressing by Dedicated to the 9th Conference of Marxist-
”Lenin” and ”Mao” in the merging process of Leninist Parties and Organizations.
theory and practice in the single countries
and regions. Hezbe Ranjbaran Iran June 2007 #
2. Three contradictions are still the most
important subjects: The contradiction of the
proletarians and the oppressed peoples
against imperialism and the inner
backwardness.
3. Neo-liberalism and imperialism of the super-
nationalists leads capitalism into a new
phase. US-imperialism is about to loose its
endeavours for hegemony.
4. The struggle against the imperialistic
endeavours is the duty of the communists in
the world and will foil the plan ”to create a
big empire in the Middle East” under the
leadership of the USA and the Zionist state.
Stand up against the war plans of the
imperialists.
5. Defending the ”struggle of the oppressed
peoples” is a central column of the world
proletariat.
6. The communists should interfere to an
increased extent in the efforts of the workers
and oppressed and be involved in the
movements of the masses and get active in
bringing about workers’ organizations as
these circumstances are without any doubt
the circumstances for their growth and the
growth of parties and organizations of
communism.
7. Founding of communist united parties in the
world and their cooperation with the
workers’ organizations and movements and
harmonizing activities in the region and on a
worldwide level belong to the duties of the
communists.
8. Founding of the Communist International is
also a necessity to harm sectarianism and
forming groups and to strengthen the
proletariat.
9. The other necessities are to add up the
reasons of the defeat of socialism and to
correct errors and solidarity concerning
views.

Workers of the world unite!

Long live the proletarian revolution and the


dictatorship of the proletariat!

Long live the proletarian international!

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Country Report Italy


Party of the Committees to Support Resistance –
for Communism (CARC) – Italy

In the latest two years in Italy, there are been many of the electoral campaigns, the activity of
significant events for Communist movement's Parliament and other elective Assemblies, the
rebirth and for the development of popular masses' campaigns of public opinion’s orientation, the
struggle. demonstration and the strikes organized by the
bourgeois organizations.
On October 2004, it was founded the (new) Italian
Communist Party ((n)PCI), as a clandestine party. The CARC enter in this field of struggle for
On November 2004, the Statement of its defending the freedom of political and social action
foundation affirmed that the Party "was born in conquered by the Resistance against Nazi. Fascism
order to complete the work the first Italian and for showing to the widest masses that popular
Communist Party let unfinished, that is to make masses’ and imperialist bourgeoisie’s interests are
Italy a new socialist country and so to contribute to not compatible. In fact, the bourgeoisie has
the world proletarian revolution." The (n)PCI answered to the initiative of our Party with a hard
declared that its task was to resume the way begun and continuous repression, with inquiries, house
by the first Italian Communist Party (PCI, the party searches, sequestration of computers and
of Antonio Gramsci), constituted in 1921. That documents, defamatory campaigns through the
party carried out a heroic resistance against media. All this demonstrates that the bourgeoisie
Fascism, gaining consideration and support by the want to carry out its electoral theatre without the
working class, until it take the direction of the Communists, because their presence in that theatre
popular masses and led them to victory in the shows how fake its democracy is.
Resistance (1945). However, starting from the
Fifties, owing to internal and international factors In these two years we saw the end of the
and to its own errors and limits, in the party the government of Berlusconi's gang. Berlusconi didn't
modern revisionists led by Togliatti prevailed. succeed in carrying out the program assigned to
They have led again the popular masses under him by the class that really rules our country (the
imperialist bourgeoisie's direction and the party to imperialist bourgeoisie, constituted by industrials,
corruption, desegregation and dissolution. bankers, Vatican, US imperialists and Mafia).

The birth of (n)PCI started a debate within the According to this program he had to dig as deeper
CARC, that ended in the Spring of 2005. The and more quickly as possible into workers’ and
CARC recognized the (n)PCI as the embryo of popular masses’ conquests. Wide workers and
future headquarters of the working class, and gave popular masses’ struggles wrecked the
it their full trust. Afterwards, on April 2005, an bourgeoisie’s plans and overwhelmed Berlusconi’s
Extraordinary Congress sanctioned the gang. The most significant struggles were at
transformation of the CARC. They were an Scansano, against the incinerator, at the FIAT of
organization working for the reconstruction of the Melfi, in Susa Valley, against the construction of
communist party. the High Speed Railway, and the one carried out
by the tram drivers in Milan.
Then they became a party that has brought
Communists to enter again in a field let to After Berlusconi’s fall, the government of Centre
bourgeois and revisionist parties for years, the field Left Circus began. Its leaders are Prodi, ex
of bourgeois political struggle. This was a Christian – Democrat, D’Alema, ex member of the
particular task within the general struggle carried revisionist Italian Communist Party, Bertinotti, ex
out by the (n)PCI, for making Italy a new socialist trade unionist leader, and Epifani, leader of the
country. The CARC believe necessary to carry out CGIL, the greatest Italian trade union. They are
the work in this front of the struggle, where the trying to be successful in what Berlusconi failed.
Communists are almost completely absent, because The current events completely confirm our thesis
this front involves, interests and mobilizes a very according to which Centre Left and Centre Right
great part of Italian popular masses. It is the field have the same common program. Prodi’s

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

government hopes to realize it by different Ministries and the Presidency of Chamber of


methods, not by the Berlusconi’s arrogance, not Deputies.
fighting the trade unions of the regime. For the first
time it directly involves all the parties of bourgeois Besides, Prodi’s government got agreement and
Left and the so called Communists, who got many support by the trade unions of the
regime, particularly by the CGIL and its secretary we need a qualitative leap in order to struggle
Epifani, and creates very profitable jobs and effectively against the Prodi’s government. We
positions for thousands of exponents of working believe that this qualitative leap is the development
class’ aristocracy. of a popular front politics, struggling against the
bourgeoisie’s common program, for defending and
On the international level, the US imperialist and extending workers and popular masses’ rights and
their allies are suffering defeats facing the popular conquests in every field, that is in political,
masses’ resistance in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine cultural, social and trade union fields. In order to
and Lebanon, communist parties are carrying out do it we need to build a more ramified and strong
revolutionary popular wars in Nepal, Philippines, organization of the popular masse, really politically
India, Turkey, and a strong anti-imperialist and ideologically independent from the
movement is growing in Latin America and all bourgeoisie. We need to give more determined and
over the world. The rebirth of the popular and farsighted political objectives to every struggle of
communist movement advances everywhere and in resistance and popular aggregate. These advanced
this situation the principal task of Italian objectives are summed up in the slogans ”let’s
Communists and other vanguard struggling people make Italy a new socialist country” and ”rebirth of
and organizations is to carry out the mobilization the international communist movement”.
against the imperialist bourgeoisie’s common
program. Free and open confrontation, unity in the struggle
and class solidarity are the words indicating the
This is the only way for preventing Prodi from process of transformation and strengthening of the
doing what Berlusconi’s gang wasn’t able to do. struggle against imperialism and for socialism, in
Owing to the corruption and desegregation carried our country, in our international relations, and
out by Centre Left parties and trade unions of the within the international communist movement.#
regime among the workers and the popular masses, 29th of April 2007

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Party of the Committees to Support


Resistance – for Communism (CARC) - Italy
Via Tanaro, 7 - 20128 Milano –
Tel/Fax 02.26306454 National Direction –
e-mail: resistenza@carc.it – International Relations Department
website: www.carc.it Tel. +39 0226306454 –
e-mail: carc.ri@libero.it

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Country Report Panama


United front, class and party
PC(ML) Panama
The fact that an uncritical evaluation of the party build it up. Or is this not the case? Neither are
congress of FRENADESO was elaborated in the there masses without classes, nor a class from
last edition of “El mundo del trabajo" raised some which no political vanguard rises. That is
objections against us: "too much correspondence", Leninism, not Luxembourgism and not anarchism
"you support sectarianism and avant-gardism". A in the question of organization.
terrible sin, if it was true. But it is absolutely not. Considering the four fundamental contradictions
We were among the first to gather the left parties within our semifeudal and neocolonial society in
and organizations in order to prepare a people's Panama - the contradiction between working class
counter offensive to stop oligarchic Second and capitalist class, the contradiction between
Republic which has been established meanwhile . nation and imperialism, mainly and actually US
So the assembly of the Panamanian Left (MEIP) imperialism, the contradiction between peasantry
arose, which had promoted the efforts for a unity and feudal big landowner class, the contradiction
of action of these organizations and the labor between the working population and the
movement for one year. Some supported it comprador bourgeoisie - our party points out that
honestly and identified themselves with it, other the way for the socialist revolution is still very
mentioned this or that excuse and refused their long. Maybe this situation will stretch out over
participation: this was the case with “Buscando several decades or a century until the objective and
Camino", “Movimiento Popular Unificado" as well subjective conditions are ripe in order to carry out
as the “Partido del Pueblo". The MEIP did not the socialist revolution in the country. Therefore
succeed in taking on its role fully; it was disbanded we expect a long continuous period during which
without any explanation by “Propuesta we must unite the revolutionary forces. In this
Socialista" and the PAT, the same ones who had situation we propagate the priority of a united front
accused it of this sin of “sectarianism" and of the workers and all working people for full
"insurgent avant-guardism". So far the facts. political freedom, for the national freedom of our
Our organization thought and repeated pointed out, homeland and the social freedom of all those being
that in order to stop the neofascist offensive, it is exploited and suppressed. Finally we urgently call
urgently necessary to pay full attention to the for joining the different struggle fronts of the
political task of constructing a broad united front masses to a united revolutionary peoples
of the workers from the basis. Such a united front movement on a massive scale to achieve
should, with the unions as a fundamental basis and democracy, that is a Democratic Republic, which is
relying on the alliance of workers and farmers, carried and surrounded by organizations of the
organize and unite all revolutionary, democratic people.
and patriotic political forces of the people against The existence, the political attitude and practice of
their cruel enemies, the big bourgeoisie and the every revolutionary party is shaped by its being
imperialism . able to identify the class that is the mainstay of the
The MLN-29 itself decided to give birth to and political and social change inevitably and by
support its own united front, based on its own supporting it in the implementation of its political
experience in mass struggles. That is why she got line. And the proletariat has proved to be this class.
the critical pointed remarks, maintaining the it The Marxism-Leninism determined that and this
practices “sectarianism" and ”does not know how was confirmed by more than two centuries of
to build unity", as well as the well-known gibe proletarian struggle, revolution and construction of
about its " avant-guardism ". socialism. Contrary to the theses that bourgeois
We ask, however, whether it is not actually the class theoreticians proclaim and false Marxists
Party of the People that is "avant-guardistic"? Is repeat, who deny this.
the Party of the Workers which is being built up The predominant way of thinking is exactly the
not “avant-guardistic"? And the “Party of the negation of the existence of classes per se and the
People's Alternative"? It is a fact that in order to existence of the working class in particular. We
become the vanguard, in order to achieve the Marxist Leninists did not invent the theory about
vanguard of the class, one first have to dare to the social classes, but the bourgeoisie itself, when

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

it was a revolutionary class and was not afraid of one. In the former, the party has no cultural
facing up to the facts of social reality. From Marx facilities at its disposal that it has not created itself.
until today we claim again and again: However, in the latter, the party must implement a
“1) that the existence of classes is accompanied flexible united front policy: The united front for
only by a certain historical stage of the evolution the socialism, the united front for the well-being of
of the production; 2) that the class struggle the people, the united front for the people's
necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the democracy and the united front for national
proletariat ; 3) that this dictatorship inherently is independence.
nothing else than the transition for the abolition of Thus, we have defined the principal contradiction
all classes and to a classless society... (own and our strategic objectives. In doing so, we use
translation). the principle “one against ten and ten against one"
But what do the facts and figures show us about as a strategic method of struggle. Consequently, we
this increasing disappearance of the working class? will have to define the principles which guide our
Let's take the statistics which the audit division of work together with the masses: FIRSTLY, to
the Republic provided us, although we have to assess the entire situation and to direct the main
consider that Panama is not a sufficient example of thrust currently against the direct main enemy.
the confirmation or non-confirmation of the SECONDLY, not to attack on several flanks and
evolution of the working class. According to this not to antagonize several enemies at the same time,
source 1,814,927 persons (63,32 percent) are THIRDLY, to gain the maximum number of
counted to the economically active population and friends. We FOURTHLY have to think for the
728,229 (25,04 percent) to the non-economically majority when we define our politics and tactics,
active in 2000. Of the first mentioned, 942,024 FIFTHLY we as Marxists represent a minority of
were employed (51,9 percent) and 144,574 (7,96 the population. We must always know where we
percent) unemployed. stand and work in an adequate way.
The economically active population climbed within The revolution is inevitable. However, it will not
37 years from 631,627 (1963) to 1,814,827 (2000). arise by itself; we must help it to see the light of
In other words its numbers tripled. Within the same day. Three irreplaceable instruments are necessary
period, the number of the employees increased for it to be born: A revolutionary class which is led
from 345,375 to 942,024. So it also tripled. The by a revolutionary party, a revolutionary united
number of unemployed persons equally increased front and a revolutionary army. It is clear that the
from 1395 to 144,574. That means six times as party plays a decisive role in these three arms of
many. the revolution, in order to carry it out with
According to this data the total of the workers determination and not deviate from the path.
strictly speaking was 336,362 and if we consider
the workers in broader sense, there were 592,103. End the repression against the students!
The reader can already recognize how much he can In face of the collapse of the educational system
believe the bourgeois class theoreticians and their and in order to express their aversion to the arrival
graduated footmen, who disguise themselves badly of the lackeys [monita] of the Nazi criminal Bush,
in a socialist mantel. the students of the National University and the
The question of the classes is of highest University for Art and Trades staged a street
importance. This means answering three basic blockade. The student action was obviously legal
questions: 1) Which class has the power? 2) Which and justified, because the government had not yet
class must be overthrown? 3) Which class is the been able ban the social and political protest by a
one to seize the power. In answering these three change of the political constitution. Nevertheless,
key questions we will come closer to the question, the Torrijo government and his rabid Dobermann
“who is our friend and who is our enemy?" In turn, terrier Mirones conducted a brutal police
this gives us information about the question of the repression against the students. The public
political alliances, the limitation or the greater insecurity... no, the public security forces
extent of the circle of our allies. implemented their complete combat inventory:
The party must distinguish two kinds of the beatings, rubber projectiles and the infiltration of
activity when it draws up the line of strategy and agents provocateur into the line of the students, to
tactics, which must be developed together with the drive them apart and discredit them.
working class. On the one hand, the ideological Arrests occurred, the closing of two schools and
struggle and, on the other hand, the two other the demand that the parents should pay for
forms of struggle, the economic and the political supposedly incurred damages.

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

In face of such pretension on the part of the former comrades, who are justifiably proud of their work
G-2-agents in the office of the minister for national for which they had been attacked, stated: ”WE
brutalization, the parents refused to pay and WILL GIVE THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE
threatened to go on the streets and to protest STUDENTS BACK THE ROLE THAT WE
against the illegal actions of the perfidious ONCE HAD IN HISTORY AND THAT WE
Cañizales. WILL FULFILL: TO BE THE CRITICAL
CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE NATION!”
Shameful and abhorrent Because of all of this the accusers write: ”We
The actions of fascist mobs in the university demand:
Our editorial board received a letter with strong • that the principal and the academic council
accusations concerning physical attacks against immediately initiate a thorough investigation
students, actual punitive expeditions, as we know and find the persons who are responsible.
them from the PRD (Revolutionary Democratic • That it will be found out why these
Party) , merely because the students tried to functionaries of the University of Panama
develop ties to the masses of the people, the perform such tasks in their working time,
peasants and indigenous people and to avoid the namely instructing and promoting gangs within
bureaucratic controls of the henchmen in robes, our school.
who are in high offices in the university. We • That the Principal for Student Affairs, the
publish the following excerpts: deacon of the Humanistic Department, the
”THE U.E.R. INFORMS AND CHARGES: director of the Regional Center of Chorrera, the
On Thursday, 14 June, between 10:30 and 11:30 in director of the School for Sociology and the
the morning, 30 evildoers disguised as students and Regional Center of Darién fulfill their duty and
being protected and supported in their cowardice give a complete report on the occurrences on
by the University People’s Block and its pseudo- Thursday, the 14th, on how it could be that
leaders Boris Sánchez (University Council for students of the Humanistic Department, as well
Humanistic Studies), Carlos Moya and René as the Regional University Centers of Darién
Crespo (both functionaries of the University of and Chorrera could play a leading role in the
Panama) physically attacked the comrades and crimes of vandalism on the center campus.
students of sociology Ricardo Cóniga and Martín • That the pseudo-leader Boris Sánchez and
Castillo in the hall of the Humanistic Department other evildoers disguised as students who took
in an utmost vile and brutal way. After they part in the attack be dispelled from the
disparaged and provoked our comrades with university; that the functionaries Raúl Crespo
abusive remarks, these villains began to attack and Carlos Moya, who led this cowardly attack
them in numbers with objects, fists and kicks, so during their working time be dismissed and
endangering their lives and their physical safety. punished. That also goes for any other student,
This block of thugs was composed of student of the administrative employee or teacher who
Humanistic Department of the Regional Center of participated in these occurrences intellectually
Chorrera and the Regional Center of Darién, which or physically. That means and funds of the
is led by Migdonio Murillo and where the leaders of the student association at the
henchmen Raúl Crespo and Carlos Moya do what Institute of Sociology, which had been used for
they please. Using public funds out of the personal interests for more than two years, be
university budget meant for the Regional Center in audited.
Darién, they planned and organized this gangster In this matter we demand of the honest
action against our organization. groupings and organizations of students,
We know that this attack was launched by teachers and administrative employees, as well
OBSCURE AND ANTI-PEOPLE INTERESTS as of the entire independent student family, that
OF VARIOUS GROUPS who were smuggled into these show their solidarity with our
the university for fear of the dynamics and the organization. These occurrences must serve to
actions which our organization initiated in and end the CORRUPTION, the IMPUNITY and
outside of the university.” After our comrade the IMPUDENCE which have developed at the
students named the numerous activities which they University of Panama. OUR UNIVERSITY IS
developed together with broad parts of the people NOONE’S WAR SPOILS!” So the end of the
and so were the object of the anger of the political statement issued by the students.
student organizations, the University of Panama,
the P.R.D. and the National Security Service, these

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

We will broaden our identification and solidarity construction trade) which take the above
with the Revolutionary Student Association instruments into consideration as well as the
(Unidad Estudiantil Revolucionaria). We will stipulations already contained in the labor law,
also protest with determination against the the constitution of social security funds, in
machinations and the attempts of the PRD and its criminal law, in the laws on health, the decrees
government to silence the social protest by using of the Mayor of the city of Panama (on
the methods of fascist terror squads. protective clothing, noise protection, etc.). In
Workers’ Struggles addition the leading board of the social security
SUNTRACS begins a nationwide strike fund should adopt the rules for security and
Following month long massive actions aimed safety in the construction trade.
at forcing the labor administration offices to In order to push through their demands the
assume their responsibility for the growing trade union has developed a number of mass
number of ”workplace accidents”, the trade actions (pickets, street blockades, occupation
union of the construction workers decided to of construction sites, etc.). For example, more
go on a nationwide strike for their central than 160 construction sites in the entire country
demand ”Accident Prevention or Death”. with more than 10,000 workers participating
They so fulfil the explicit mandate of the were brought to a standstill. That was directed
general meeting of April 26th. This had been a against the extremely slow pace of the
reaction to the massive deterioration of administrative offices and the sabotage of the
working conditions in industry resulting from labor ministry.
the reckless striving for profits of the With the help of this declaration in which we
entrepreneurs, who do not care in the least declare our class-conscious and militant
about the workers’ lives. This was the cause of solidarity, we also want to call upon the entire
killings of dozens of workers that went trade union movement in Panama, upon all
unpunished or of their becoming cripples. people’s, student and democratic organizations
These had terrible results: mothers became to express their support for this justified strike.
widows, boys and girl became orphans and Their struggle is our struggle.
proletarian families were left back without any The city administration wants to drive out
help. the street vendors
As the trade unionists explain, this amounts to There is much concern among the street
manslaughter, when ”the entrepreneurs force vendors about the tricks of the oligarchic Juan
the workers to do heavy labor which endangers Carlos Navarro, mayor of the city. Even if he
their health, the physical safety and their lives, disguises his genuine underhanded intentions
even going so far as to death on the grounds of with regard to the trade unions, you should not
carelessness, disregard of the laws or of forget that it was he who demanded parallel
neglecting to distribute the necessary tools to trade unions, who ordered the street vendors to
ensure job safety.” It is also necessary that the go into non-existent ”rooms” for which he is
entrepreneurs as those responsible be severely demanding one Balboa per day, after a
punished (with prison or compensation municipal ordinance forced them to pay five
payments), as well as the officials of the labor Balboas per month. Are we workers supposed
administration who guilty of neglect. to pay for your candidature to the presidency?
In order to end or to mitigate this criminal You scoundrel!
behavior of the entrepreneurs, as well as the And to top that, the mayor is paying for the
conspiracy of the Torrijos government, the trade union office with municipal funds in
construction workers demand that the former order to maintain control over one of the
ratify the IAO-Treaty 167 for Health and general secretaries. What other dirty tricks are
Security on Construction Sites of 1988 and that you thinking out against our interests?
they adopt the Rules for Health and Security in None other than to drive us away from our
the Construction Trade, which were worked simple vending stalls in Calidonia, the
out in a commission formed by a number of pedestrian zone, Salsipuedes and other places
institutions. They should also revise the Law in the city center.
on the Program for On the Job Risks on the Articles from ”El mundo del trabajo”
basis of the proposal made by Frenadesco, (Labor world), Volume 1, No. 5, June 2007. #
known as the Law of Life. We also demand
laws (code for health and job security in the

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Country Report Peru


Declaration of the Political Commission,
Submitted in shortened form as a Country Report to the
9th International Conference

The Political Situation and Our Tasks him.


A real and genuine super-cooperation of the
1. After Lourdes Flores Nano, the man upon control of power and the government has been
whom US-imperialism and its allies in the established. The right-wing and the corrupt
country (the comprador-bourgeoisie and the head of the APRA under Alan Garcia’s
other right-wing reactionaries) had put their leadership with Fujimorism as an ally, the
hopes, had suffered a defeat, they had no other PPC, the leadership of the ultra-right wing like
choice than to play their second card, Alan Rey Rey and Cipriani, parts of "fascistic
Garcia, the candidate of the APRA-Party, in militarism", whose most prominent
order to prevent the victory of the progressive representative is Giampietri, the first vice-
and nationalistic forces at all costs. president, and the big groups of economic
power, who are unconditional partners of
With the mass media at their service and by imperialism - they all have built an anti-
implementing a ruthless campaign of national block, prepared to uphold the
ideological and economic terrorism, including neoliberal program, the famous " stabilization
deceit and demagogy, they succeeded in treaties ", which favor the imperialist
having Alan Garcia become a candidate. So monopolies, which exploit our natural
APRA, the old party which Victor Raul Haya, resources, without touching their fabulous
the big chameleon of Peruvian policy, founded, extra-profits in the least. These strategic
wrote another page in its long history of enterprises (energy, communication, finances,
capitulation and indulgence, as it had done etc.), which were sold out by Fujimori for a
before with Benavides, Odria, Prado and miserable price, are not being returned to state-
Belaunde, all former leaders of the Peruvian ownership. They pay the incredible interest on
oligarchy. schedule, regardless of what may happen,
even if the workers die of starvation. They
The fright and fear, which flowed through the concluded the free trade agreement TLC, even
middle classes like oil, the ambivalent speech if the little industry still existing is ruthlessly
of O.Humala, who plumply tried to ”show privatized, agriculture and the farmers are
respect for property and democracy”; the naive going bankrupt and Peru is being transformed
interference of C. Chavez (to put it mildly), into a new North American colony. They push
which was used skilfully by the right-wing and through impunity for corruption and genocide
A. Garcia to stir up animosity against and, because they are directly involved, they
foreigners slumbering in the middle class; the deviously manipulate the justified opposition
presence of dubious persons on the electoral of the people against brutality and murders
list, as well as on the list of candidates for committed against minors, and even the
congress, who were ”repeaters” with dubious opposition of the masses against the irrational
backgrounds; sectarianism promoted by fraud and state terrorism, which they have been
revisionism and splits within the democratic subject to for years. They also want to install
and left forces; the plump and lunatic the death penalty. Their goal is to get the
declarations of family members, and of course, country out of the responsibility towards the
the weakness of the revolutionary Marxist Inter-American Court of Human Rights and to
Leninist organisations themselves are so avoid their being tried and sentenced. The
doubtlessly the reason for the electoral defeat neoliberal continuity, obedience, lies and
of O.Humala and the frustration of the hopes demagogy constitute the true nature of the
that many sectors of the people had placed on current government headed by Alan Garcia. A

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

government that is formally in accordance with workers.


the constitution, but where you can
increasingly sense the growth of In contrast to that, the big factories are making
authoritarianism with fascist tendencies. fabulous profits, especially those which are
owned by imperialist capital and protected and
The neocolonization of Peru and the helped by the governments, including the
impoverishment of the people are increasing. present one. For example, in the year 2005, the
As a fundamental result of the economic great majority of the 100 largest firms had a
development in which the international price of transnational income of more than 31 billion
raw materials has risen to a historic level (for US$.
instance the copper price has risen from 0.83
US$ per pound in 2003 to 3.60 US$ in 2006, The mining industry for example, which makes
gasoline from 15 US$ per barrel 2002 to 70 up for more than 50% of all exports, made
US$ in 2006), Peru has experienced economic profits of more than 850 Mio. US $ in the
growth of more than 5.5% annually in the last second quarter of 2006 and will make an
five years, and in the last 6 years the economy estimated 3 billion US$ in profits by the end of
has grown by 36%. However, the features of the year. The sum of 500 soles per year, which
poverty have not changed. More than 53% of Garcia is begging for on his knees from the big
the population live in poverty, which means on firms, is less than 5% of their profits. He now
less than 2$ per day, and more than 25% live in claims this to be a big success, so turning it
extreme poverty on less than 1 $ per day. into dreadful demagogy. Actually only
According to the INEI (national institute for pittance.
statistics and informatics), 2,700,000 children
are working, most of them in jobs like Our task is to mobilise the people to develop a
collecting garbage, in the coal and stone mines, strong opposition in all fields and with all
washing cars, in construction, as waiters, shoe forms and to struggle against the continuing
shiners etc.. They have no access to the health neoliberal program and the authoritarian line of
and education system nor to recreation, to the regime, for the defense of its justified
which they actually have the right . economic and political rights, for better living
and working conditions, for the defense of
The lack of jobs is another menace for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and national
people. More than 12 % of the working dignity. We have to strive to mobilize the
population are in absolute and open various revolutionary, democratic, patriotic and
unemployment and many more are out of progressive forces and fields, to unite and fight
public notice. Millions are underemployed with together in all fields and to so defeat the dark
an income of less than 400 soles per month. intentions of imperialism and its partners and
Those who have work (the majority only allies, the reactionary bourgeoisie and the
temporary) have no social security, insecure government of Alan Garcia, which is in their
wages (400 to less than 1000 soles per month service. The coordination and the treaty of
according to the statistical information of unity in action, which we have achieved with
MT(Mesa Tripartita) ), are working until some organisations with nationalistic and
exhaustion and without overtime pay. To get a indigenous tendency, is a first step. It is only a
more concrete picture of this situation, it is small one, but it has to be strengthened with
necessary to be familiar with the big firms, like utmost initiative. This is our concrete political
Barric, Backus, Telefonica, etc. where almost orientation. For this we propose the following
80% of the workers are not union organised. platform of struggle and unity to the workers
Their relation to the firm is through contractor and the people:
firms and other forms of outsourcing. The • End neoliberal economic policy.
factories are using all forms of coercion; with • Announce a break in foreign debt
threats of dismissal and bribery they try to payments and demand their annulment
uphold this situation in order to have more • Annul those treaties for handing over
favorable conditions for exploiting the and "selling" public enterprises, the

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

sources of income and the raw Peruvian university. Free entrance to


materials, which have been negotiated the universities.
with the monopolies and the • Freedom for all political prisoners and
transnational firms. social fighters.
• Fundamental tax-reform with the direct • Material and moral compensation for
taxes as a basis. Those who earn the the victims of the "dirty war"
most, pay the most. Abolition of the tax • Total destruction of the criminal and
privileges granted to the big monopoly Mafioso organization introduced by the
enterprises. dictatorship and upheld by Toledo,
• No to ALCA or TLC exemplary punishment of the leaders
• Directive on raising wages or income and puppet figures of this organisation,
for the active workers, as well as for starting with the most responsible, the
those without work and retired people. ex-dictator and traitor to the country A.
Rehiring of the dismissed workers. Fujimori.
Effective abolition of the system of • Justice in service of the people.
contract labor and all other forms of Comprehensive reform of the power of
outsourcing. the judiciary, by doing away with
• Taking urgent measures in the credit corruption under control by the
sphere and the system of taxes with the organised population.
aim of supporting the national industry, • Promotion of the reorganization and
the middle-, small and micro- democratization of the armed forces,
enterprises and of giving incentives to with the aim of transforming them into
agriculture. Distribution of land and a useful instrument for the economic
abolition of debts for the small and and social development in the country
middle farmers and an immediate stop and for defending national sovereignty
of selling land estates. and territorial integrity.
• Defense of the legal cultivation of coca • Effective and real decentralisation.
and its traditional use by peasants and Complete economic, political and
ethnic groups. Industrialisation of administrative autonomy of the regions.
processing coca. • Maintaining an international policy of
• Introduction of a universal, obligatory, Bolivarian unity, with constant and
mutually supportive system of social determined respect for the principle of
insurance. independence and self-determination of
• Complete acknowledgment of the the countries and peoples and the
political, economical and cultural rights rejection of every kind of foreign
of the nationalities and ethnic groups intervention.
living in Peru. • Uncompromising defense of national
• Defense of the environment and the and territorial sovereignty.
ecological balance. Compensation by Condemnation and rejection of all
the transnational firms to the people attempts to violate it. No to a ”marine
and communities for the environmental treaty”.
damage of their land, their waters and • Convening a constitutional assembly
the environment. aimed at setting up a new, democratic,
• Immediate acknowledgment of all patriotic, decentralized and socially just
democratic, political and union rights of assembly.
the workers and the people.
• Reinstallment of an educational system The political orientation which we propose are
which is free of charge for all stages concrete tactics to achieve the broadest
and qualifications, development of accumulation of political and social forces, to
educational personnel and educational unmask the reactionary and treacherous
policy. Giving back the autonomy and character of the regime of Alan, to further
the democratic leadership of the develop the political awareness of the masses

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

and to create the best possible objective and 4. In the same way, we must work to rebuild
subjective conditions and to lead the people to the peoples’ movement. Its unity and
a peoples’ rebellion within a short or medium- organizations, mainly the defense fronts, the
term period of time. This will prepare the way organisations in neighborhoods and
for a democratic peoples` government and to communities, the peasant-guards (rondas
abolish the neoliberal program with its campesinas), who take a firm stand against
consequences and so to put an end to the revisionism, which tries to contain them
period marked by neoliberal colonialism, this bureaucratically and so subordinate them to
vileness of imperialism, introduced by Alberto collaboration and appeasement.
Fujimori and shamelessly continued by
Painagua, Toledo and now upheld by the 5. Special attention must be paid to building
APRA regime. In this way, a real turn in the and organizing the peoples’ meetings with the
political history of the country will be reached. clear perspective, that these are the nucleus of
peoples’ power and must therefore be
2. The weakness of the revolutionary Marxist- independent, able to make decisions and
Leninist forces is still the biggest problem and control.
the biggest deficiency that the workers’ and
peoples’ movement faces in order to advance 6. Democratic and united organisations for the
and gain victory. Because it must be our first self-defense of the people must be built up,
and most important task to overcome this which are called upon to play an important role
situation, it is not enough to establish how far in the defense of the peoples’ democratic
we have advanced up till now. These limited rights, the integrity of its organisations and
results have a lot to do with the lack of leaders, in the cities as well as in the
understanding of the vital importance of the countryside.
task, its merely formal and not concrete
acknowledgement, with economism, small- 7. Agitation and propaganda work has to be
minded local patriotism, spontaneity and other intensified, most importantly, the regular and
mistakes that threw us backwards. We must permanent publishing of the party newspaper
improve ourselves and work with honesty, "Bandera Proletaria". All necessary political,
openness and creativity to stand the challenge organizational and material measures have to
and rebuild a party that is armed with the be taken for this.
Marxist-Leninist ideology and theory and
Mao-Tzedong Thought; a party, true to the 8. Intensify the party’s Marxist-Leninist
ideas of its founder José Carlos Mariátegui, a educational work, aiming especially at building
party which takes an irreconcilable stand up a larger number of groups, especially with
against reformism, revisionism, dogmatism, young people, who will improve the quality of
adventurism and all other forms of the working and leading bodies at all levels.
opportunism.
9. Continue persistently with the preparations
3. Struggle and work to rebuild a united to conduct the party congress on schedule.
workers’ and trade union movement with a
class trade union line. It must be democratized
and free of bureaucracy, manipulation and
exploitation as practiced by old crusty Political Commission
revisionists and bureaucratic and aristocratic Lima, March 2007
reformists. The reorientation along the line of
class struggle of CGTP and SUTEP and other
_________________________________________
important trade union organisations of the ___________________________
workers is a key issue in this direction.

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Country Report Turkey


Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey)
Turkey is a capitalist country, dependent on imperialism, Urban and rural population The majority of the
with feudal remnants especially in the superstructure. It is population (beginning of 2007 – 62.83 %) is living
listed in the documents of the World Bank under the in urban areas.
category ”countries with medium income (upper
category)”. The ”dependent capitalism” does not hinder Occupation according to sectors of the
the Turkish private capitalistic big bourgeoisie from working population 20.03 % of the workforce
possessing rather large amounts of equity capital and also are working in the processing industry – January
investing abroad. 2007 – 5 % in the building trade, 49.2 % in the
Thus it is an important regional power in the Middle East, service sector, 25.5 % in the agricultural sector.
has been keeping North Kurdistan and North Cyprus The share of agriculture is 10.3 %, industry 25.4
occupied and has expansionist intentions. Currently this
quality is manifested in the form of threats and actual %, building trade 4.4 %, services 59.9 % of the
preparations for a military intervention in South Kurdistan. GNP. While the workforce in the agricultural
Some facts concerning the structure of Turkey: sector and the share of the agricultural sector of the
Population At the end of 2006 nearly 73 million people GNP/GDP is continuously decreasing, the figures
were living in Turkey. (*1) for the other sectors are increasing.
Turkey is a multinational state. The prevailing nation The economy is also organized in a capitalistic
– Turks – is the majority (about 70 %); the Kurds way in the agricultural sector. The still existing
are the second biggest group of the population with rests of feudal conditions of ownership especially
about 20 %. (*2) They mainly settle in the area of in North Kurdistan are nearly of no importance for
Kurdistan, which remained in the borders of the the economy as a whole.
”Republic of Turkey” with the imperialist Conditions of ownership of the land
re”organization” of the borders in the Middle East The main form of land ownership in Turkey/North
after the First World War: North Kurdistan. In Kurdistan today is small and middle property.
addition, national minorities live in Turkey: Most of the agriculture businesses in Turkey are
Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Arabs, Circassians, small farms mainly on the basis of ”family work”
Lazens, etc. Armenians and Greeks are also and in addition only employ few wageworkers.
recognized as ”Christian minorities” in the treaty ”Serfdom” practically does not exist any more.
of Lausanne (1923). (Only a few of them are still The feudal remnants are more obvious in the
living in Turkey. 1.3 million people of the superstructure than in the economy
Armenian nation were killed by the Turkish ruling They are manifested in the influence of religion
classes in the first genocide of the 20th century. (Islam), which still penetrates everything, in
Over a million Anatolian and Thracian Greeks various forms of non-economic relationships of
were expelled to Greece in an ”exchange of dependence of former serfs on their former
population” according to the treaty of Lausanne, landlord, in the partial continuation of some feudal
while nearly one million Turks from Greece were traditions like feudal family and clan bonds, blood
moved to Turkey.) The other – mainly Muslim – vengeance (even if not as a mass phenomenon),
nationalities do not exist at all according to the killing of wives by ”decision of the family
official Turkish reading. The Turkish ruling classes council”, etc.
deny any national suppression, as everybody is Economy
said to have full civil rights regardless of his or her The gross domestic product (GDP) of Turkey came
nationality. Everybody in Turkey who does not to 400.046 billion US dollars in 2006. In 2005
belong to the Armenian or Greek minority is a Turkey was number 20 on the worldwide GDP
”Turk”. Who does not accept this and defines his ranking list of the states. In the GDP ranking list of
or her national identity differently is labeled as purchasing power parity (GDP in ppp) Turkey was
”separatist” and is persecuted. number 18. In terms of the size of its economy,
National suppression of non-Turkish among the EU member states and accession
nationalities is a characteristic of the Republic of candidates Turkey is the 8th largest power. In
Turkey since its founding. 2000/2001 Turkey saw one of its deepest crises of
Religion The majority of the population is Muslim the last decades so that the development of the
(99 %), mainly Sunnite. (*3) GDP was negative in this year – minus 8.7 %.
Since the crisis of 2001, without exception there
has been a relatively high balance of development.

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

The average economic growth in the years 2002 – act as the classic comprador, i.e. only as agent of
2006 was 7.1 %. With this speed of growth, Turkey the foreign capital, but has quite a bit of equity
belonged to the countries in the EU developing capital at its disposal (*5), makes foreign
fastest of all. This high growth rate also continued investments itself, etc., this development is secured
in 2006 with about 6 %, though it slowed down a at the expense of high foreign debts. Turkey’s
little bit. economy is an economy dependent on imperialism.
That means the Turkish economy as a whole is a It is a state deeply in debt. The foreign debts
growing capitalist economy with all the amounted to 198.261 billion US dollars in
peculiarities belonging to a capitalist economy. September 2006. International organizations of
This was proved e.g. by the development of capital like the IMF and the World Bank, for which
industrial production and by the export structure of the most important thing is that the so-called ”debt
Turkey. The exports of Turkey today no longer service” passes off smoothly, are dictating
consist of raw materials and a few selected Turkey’s ”economic programs”.
agricultural products, but mainly of industrial The ruling Turkish big bourgeoisie offers its
products. In 2005 Turkey had a total export volume service to the imperialists – against good money of
of 73.414 billion US dollars. The total volume of course – as willing helper to open up the markets
the agricultural exports was 3.46 billion USD, i.e. in the Middle East and in the peripheral countries
only 4.71 % of the total export. Mining products of the former Soviet Union with mainly Islamic
accounted for 1.01 % (809 million USD). 93.64 % Turkic peoples.
of all exported goods were goods of the processing US imperialism still is the predominant imperialist
industry. Capital goods with a value of 24.810 power in Turkey. But it has a serious competitor in
billion USD are of significant importance. In 2005 German imperialism, which has been Turkey’s
the textile business was again number one in biggest ”trading partner” since the 1970s and also
exports with a total value of 25.460 billion USD. outstripped the USA in direct investments – except
(*4) Cars and trucks (13 % of exports) and in the military industry. Also French, English,
machines (10 % of exports) were among the Swedish imperialism are strongly engaged in
exported goods as well. That means Turkey is no Turkey. There is a struggle for dominance in
longer only an agricultural and raw material Turkey between the USA and the EU, i.e. of course
exporter, a ”low-wage” country and a big market mainly Germany and France.
for the imperialist powers, but also a power State sector The economy of the ”state sector” still
potentially developing into a serious competitor at is of significant importance in Turkey/North
least in some lines, one which one has to reckon Kurdistan. This importance, which was decisive
with and cooperate with in jointly opening up new until the 1980s, is more and more driven back by
markets. privatization. In Turkey the special thing about this
So many ”joint ventures” are developing especially is that the higher bureaucrats working in this sector
in light industry and the building industry in which define themselves as the true ”masters of the state”
the imperialist capital does good business together and behave accordingly. That includes not only the
with its lackeys in Turkey. higher leaders of the state-owned concerns in
Turkey’s position in world production of some selected industry, but also the leaders of the state-owned
products We can see the result on the basis of service enterprises.
Turkey’s current position in the world production Résumé
of some selected industrial products: With 158,000 We think that these facts speak for themselves and
new apartments in 2005, Turkey was number 9 in show clearly that Turkey is a capitalist country
the world in the housing construction sector. With dependent on imperialism. To estimate Turkey of
35.076 million tons Turkey is number 9 in cement today as a semi-feudal country, as still just a few
production. In the production of synthetic fiber on Maoist organizations do, ignores the realities of
cellulose and synthetic basis it is number 10. With Turkey. In our opinion, in such a country it is out of
20.478 million tons in 2004 it is number 12 in steel place to propagate the people’s war, mainly as a
production, with 12.463 million sets it is number 2 peasant revolution on the basis of the agrarian
in the production of TV sets and number 12 in the revolution, as the only way to revolution.
production of household refrigerators. There was and there is no peasant movement in
Dependent capitalism But we should know for sure Turkey which has been developing on the basis of
that this development does not diminish Turkey’s agrarian revolutionary demands – above all for land.
dependency on imperialism, but strengthens it. Such a movement also will not develop on the
economic basis of Turkey.
Even if the Turkish big bourgeoisie today does not

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

The dissolving process of fascism Politically Turkey thousands of people were in the streets everywhere in
still is a fascist state. That means the rule of the Turkey after the fascist-Turkish racist assassination
Turkish bourgeoisie is mainly based on open of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January
systematic terror – to be precise, since the foundation 2007 with the slogans ”We are all Hrant Dinks”, ”We
of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. The Kemalists, are all Armenians”. This was the first time in the
who had led the liberation war of the peoples of history of Turkey/North Kurdistan that people of all
Turkey against the imperialist occupants and above nationalities, classes and strata of Turkey openly
all against the willing helpers like the Greek rulers, expressed their annoyance about the ignorant racist
founded a new bourgeois Turkish state on the ruins of policy of the state in mass actions. The
the Ottoman Empire after the military victory in the ”unchangeable” ideology of the state, Kemalism,
liberation war. In this state any opposition was which is even established in the constitution as the
suppressed with fascist means in the name of ”principles of Atatürk”, today is called into question
defending the Turkish/Kemalistic revolution. A one- not only by real communists but also by wide
party/one-man dictatorship was established. sections. The state radio/TV institution – TRT – finds
The organized communist movement in Turkey itself forced to offer programs in a language the
nearly always mistakenly overstressed the positive existence of which has been denied by the Turkish
aspects of the Kemalistic rule and in the end acted as state until recently, in Kurdish – even if it is
supporter of the Kemalistic revolution, which did not temporally very limited. All of that and even more
prevent the Kemalistic attacks aimed at smashing the are signs that we see as a democratization in a
CP. bourgeois sense, in other words ”a dissolving process
Only Ibrahim Kaypakkaya, the founder of the of fascism”.
TKP/ML – our forerunner organization – analyzed The ”adaptation process to the EU standards” during
the true character of the Kemalistic dictatorship as the EU membership efforts of Turkey is of significant
fascist in 1972 and opened the way to develop a importance in this process in Turkey – the private
communist movement as an independent political capitalistic big bourgeoisie of Turkey absolutely
force. Though a multiparty democracy was formally wants to be a member of the EU. Dozens of statutes,
introduced after the Second World War, the power of decrees, regulations, etc., signify on the legal level
government always remained in the hands of the that Turkey is on the way from fascism to a
Kemalistic bureaucratic bourgeoisie with the army as reactionary democracy. In this context our 8th
the center. And at any time when the state congress stated the following:
bureaucracy saw its power in danger the army ”Taking the bills being passed during the adaptation
organized a putsch (as on 27 May 1960 and 12 process to the EU standards as a basis, currently there
September 1980) or threatened with a putsch to is no fundamental difference between Turkey and the
enforce its favored government (as on 12 March 1971 ‘bourgeois-democratic countries’ of the EU. The big
and 28 February 1997). bureaucratic state bourgeoisie still ruling the state
In recent years, however, we have seen and we see a apparatus, however, is fighting against the practical
development which our party called the ”dissolving implementation of these bills, is trying to prevent
process of fascism” at its 8th congress at the practicing them with all means. There are lots of
beginning of 2006. Admittedly we are not as far as examples in the judiciary and in the relationships
the Turkish state having changed its fascist character. between the government and the army, etc.
But today it is a fact that various allegedly This is the reason why we still cannot currently judge
unchangeable basic policies, ”red lines” of the state, Turkey as a bourgeois-democratic state even if,
are called into question even by a part of the big according to the statutes, there are no fundamental
bourgeoisie. We saw this e.g. in the ”Cyprus differences to the bourgeois-democratic countries.
question”. The private capitalistic part of the big Open terror and legal arbitrariness still are the main
bourgeoisie openly demanded a policy change in the ruling methods even if they are more and more driven
Cyprus question, which again and again has been set back. For this reason it is right to define Turkey still
before the Turkish bourgeoisie in foreign relations as a fascist state where fascism is in a dissolving
since decades. This policy change, providing for the process.”
adoption of the ”Annan plan”, was carried out in the Character and way of the revolution
end by the AKP government in spite of all ”betrayal In its first stage the revolution in Turkey/North
of the fatherland”, ”sell-out of Cyprus”, Turkish- Kurdistan will be an anti-imperialist, anti-fascist,
racist campaigns of the Kemalistic bureaucratic new-democratic one. This revolution will have a
bourgeoisie. Also in the question of the genocide on socialist perspective and will be incessantly
the Armenians the decades-old hush-up policy had to
continued under the dictatorship of the workers and
be thrown overboard. The Turkish state was forced to
peasants. Within the current socioeconomic
discuss this question by its own institutions. In this
structure of Turkey we have to assume that there
context it is very important that hundreds of

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

will be no long period of transition from the new- to be ready to support a military putsch against the
democratic to the socialist revolution and that a ”Islamic, anti-laicist” AKP government.
number of socialist measures will be possible also The year 2007 is very important in the power
in the new-democratic stage of the revolution. struggle of these two wings. For there are two
The reasons for a new-democratic stage are not the important elections which could be of significant
existence of a ”semi-feudal structure” or decisive importance for the power struggle. First is the
anti-feudal issues in the economy. The necessity election of the state president. In this first election,
for it is in the existence of anti-imperialist tasks, which has to be finished by 15 May, it seems that
tasks in the national issue, anti-fascist tasks and the present foreign minister, one of the cofounders
above all a missing tradition and consciousness of of the AKP and a very intimate friend and comrade
democracy, let alone of socialism, among the in the struggle of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
toiling masses. Erdogan, Abdullah Gül, will be elected state
Concerning the way of the revolution in Turkey it president with the votes of the AKP. He was
will not take the line of people’s war (peasant nominated as candidate by his party, which has a
revolution, encirclement of the cities from the great majority in parliament. If so, the AKP would
villages, etc.). It will rather take the Russian than have seized another very important bastion of the
the Chinese line, but of course without copying it. Kemalistic state in the power struggle. The capture
Some present political developments of the state president’s office by the AKP, which
At the moment there is a bitter struggle among the currently already represents a one-party
ruling classes in Turkey. There are two opposite government based on an impressive majority in
camps in this struggle. On one side are the parliament, would mean an enormous increase in
defenders of the status quo of the now 84-year-old power in its struggle to seize the whole power and
Kemalistic-fascist state: the Kemalistic would drive the Kemalistic rulers even more into a
bureaucratic bourgeoisie, which holds the state corner. To stop this development the Kemalistic
apparatus in its hands with the fascist army in the rulers are trying everything. A prevention through
center. Politically, nearly all parties of the ruling an appeal to the constitutional court and early
classes are on this side, except the AKP in the elections would be one possibility. The second
government. The support of this wing by the election in 2007 is the general election for
population is more and more decreasing. They are parliament. It has to take place by November of the
behaving as defenders of – what they call – the year 2007 at the latest, but very probably will be
”laicist, democratic constitutional state” and the earlier. In the months to come the power struggle
”independence of Turkey”. Which is a fraud in all will concentrate on these elections. If the AKP
points. emerges victorious from these elections and wins a
majority which makes it possible to form the
On the other side there is the present governing government alone (without a coalition partner), this
party calling itself a ”conservative-democratic” would be the worst-case scenario for the
party. This party admittedly has an impressive Kemalistic rulers. They will try everything to
majority in parliament (with a first-past-the-post prevent such a development. The only thing they
electoral system), however it is afraid of a direct cannot do – so it seems today – is a direct military
confrontation with the state bureaucracy, with putsch and a direct seizing of power through the
those really in power in the country. It tries to army as e.g. on 12 September 1980. This does not
creep to power with very careful steps. This party exclude threats of a putsch, which are partly being
had split off from the radical-Islamic party, which openly voiced. Neither the international mood nor
was forbidden several times. It tries to get the mood of the broad masses favor a direct
recognized as a ”moderate Islamic democratic military putsch. Under these conditions other
reform party” by the imperialists and the Turkish options are on the agenda. For instance, by
big bourgeoisie. During its nearly five years in intensifying the war in North Kurdistan and
power this attempt was quite successful. It seems through a military operation against South
that imperialist powers from the USA to the EU Kurdistan, armed clashes could be provoked in the
along with organizations of the private-capitalist interior, racism and chauvinism could be
big bourgeoisie in Turkey (like TÜSIAD and TISK stimulated, the backward masses gathered around
and others) have accepted the AKP as a model of a the fascist army under the banner of ”national
”moderate Islamic Western-oriented” party. It is a interests”. In case elections are taking place in such
fact indeed that today no imperialist power seems a racialistically-nationalistically stirred up

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

situation, the possibility to prevent any big AKP peasants’ movement. The peasants did not allow
majority is greater than in ”normal” times. themselves to be bought. This movement showed that
In the struggle for state power the issue of EU environmental demands could be an important point
membership is of significant importance. The to start developing mass movements in the future.
government intends to put through the The women’s movement in Turkey is developing
”democratization” and ”liberalization” demanded slowly but continuously as a mass movement.
by the EU to drive back the Kemalists’ power Whereas a strong desire is developing among the
while the Kemalists are more and more stepping working women to fight as an independent movement
out with an anti-EU and anti-imperialistic jargon. of women with its own demands, this desire is
The negative attitude towards full membership of ignored and an independent movement of women is
Turkey also among leading forces in the EU works waved aside as feministic and divisive by most
revolutionary organizations. So e.g. in recent years
to the advantage of those forces. It seems to be a
the proposal of various women’s organizations – also
struggle of democracy against national
by us – to organize an independent women’s
independence. Which is an illusion. Neither does
demonstration without men on 8 March in Istanbul is
one side stand for real democracy, nor does rejected by most of the revolutionary organizations.
independence from imperialism really matter to the We think that it is a just desire of the women, that the
other side.Our position in the struggle among those independent organization of working women also in
in power is to make clear to the workers that it is their own organizations does not weaken the class
like choosing between the plague and cholera. We struggle of the working class, but will strengthen it
have to lead our own struggle for democracy, by involving women in the direct struggle who would
independence, liberty and socialism against all otherwise perhaps stay at home.
parties of the ruling classes. We are too weak to The struggle of the learning and studying youth
benefit from the contradictions between them for for their democratic and economic demands should
our revolutionary struggle. not be underestimated in the mass movements in
The movement of the toiling masses Turkey. In the late 1960s all future revolutionary and
The struggle of the working class Compared to the communist organizations developed from this
challenges the workers’ movement in Turkey is movement. Today the level of this movement is not
weakly developed. The grade of consciousness and very high, but it has potential and has recovered from
organization is low. Not even 10 % of the workers the deep depoliticization after 12 September 1980.
are organized in unions. The current struggles are
defensive struggles as a whole and their leadership The strongest mass movement of the working
usually is in the hands of the union bigwigs grown people in Turkey/North Kurdistan in the last 15
closer to the system. Thus the workers’ struggles years has been without any doubt the Kurdish
mostly could be reduced to an appendage to a part national movement. The bourgeois-nationalistic
of the ruling classes in their power struggle. We organization PKK and the armed struggle led by it
have seen this in the struggle against privatization. were of decisive importance for its development.
The union bigwigs titled the state capital as This organization has developed more and more
”people’s property” and lead the struggle as a openly on the basis of a reformist line. After being
struggle for state capitalism. Or e.g. in the kidnapped and arrested its chairman Abdullah Öcalan
campaign against a bill presented by the now openly declared, under the control of the Turkish
government concerning a reform of local state, ”strengthening a unified Turkey” as the
government. The Islamists wanted to weaken the political aim. The PKK followed its chairman, who
central government and give more responsibilities has himself celebrated as ”sun”. The PKK today is
still determining its policy according to the guidelines
to the local authorities to drive back the Kemalists’
of its chairman, who is a hostage in the hands of the
power. The Kemalistic central state and its
Turkish state. The whole policy of the PKK is
apologists were howling. And together and behind
oriented to reconciliation with the Turkish state. The
them the union bigwigs. The workers are called armed struggle is only of importance for the PKK to
and organized for actions to defend the status quo. be recognized as opposite number in the negotiations.
(*6) The Kurdish national movement today still is the
The peasants’ movement This movement as a biggest mass movement in Turkey. It is, however,
movement with special peasant demands is weaker now a reformist mass movement within the system,
than the workers’ movement. In recent years the in agreement with the system. The reason of its
longest-lasting peasants’ movement was a struggle on sometimes radical appearance is because the Turkish
the basis of environmental demands. It was about fascist state is not ready to accept offers of the PKK.
gold mining using cyanide in an area at the Aegean. It wants the PKK to dissolve and surrender totally. It
An MNC wanted to buy the whole region to end the
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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

is an important task to win the still existing And us: BP T/NK has been existing as a party
revolutionary potentials in this movement for the since 26 years. In these 26 years we have carved
communist struggle. This will only be possible if the out our political profile and, starting with an
Bolshevik Party of North Kurdistan is able to expatriate organization, have developed into a
embody itself as the real alternative among the working organization in Turkey/North Kurdistan.
masses in the struggle against the fascist Turkish Main task: Bolshevist party building In our
state and against bourgeois nationalism and opinion the most important thing for the
reformism. This is a difficult task, but without communists in any country is creating and building
solving this task the unity of the working people of a Bolshevist party. This party has to be built in
Turkey and North Kurdistan in the struggle against
class struggle. This party must have grown roots
the common enemy will not be achieved. We must
among the working class. In our view any
and will solve this task.
Bolshevist party building runs through two phases
The organized left movement Concerning the
and has to do so. In the first phase of party building
organized left movement left of social democracy,
it is the main task to win the vanguard of the
on the one hand legal leftists calling themselves
proletariat for communism. We are still in this first
socialist, partly communist, exist. None of these
phase. We are working systematically to win the
parties is really socialist. None of them really has a
vanguard of the proletariat. This is why we are
mass influence. Their real strength perhaps gets
concentrating our forces on the struggle of the
clearest in connection with elections. All together
proletariat. We try to gain footholds in the factories
they would perhaps get 1 percent of the votes.
and base our organizing work on our factory cells.
Inevitably the revolutionary left is organized
We are working for a line of class struggle in the
illegally in fascist Turkey. Of course, that does not
reactionary trade unions. Our whole practice shows
mean that they do not work legally at all. They are
us that this work is very difficult and protracted
publishing legal journals, are working in legal
and will not meet with greater success in the short
mass organizations like the trade unions, partly
term. But Marxism-Leninism teaches us, and we
have their own ”mass” organizations, ”cultural”
know it from the experiences of the communist
centers, people’s houses, etc., but they are illegal
world movement and from our own experience,
as a party. All these organizations call themselves
that this is the only proper way for the proletarian
socialist, communist, Marxist-Leninist or Maoist.
party and for the victory of the proletarian
There are three main movements: the former PLA
revolution.
supporters, Castroistic-centristic groups and
Two parties for two countries In regard to the
Maoists.
organizational structure of our party we have
In our opinion a common characteristic of all of
pursued a new method taking the concrete analysis
these left revolutionary organizations is that they
of the situation in Turkey/North Kurdistan and the
make subjectivist assessments of the situation and
Marxist-Leninist principles and experiences of the
grossly exaggerate. They exaggerate the
communist world movement, especially of the
spontaneous movement of the masses. They
CPSU, as starting point. We have begun to build
exaggerate their own situation and success.
up two organizationally independent regional
Studying the organs of revolutionary left
parties in Turkey and North Kurdistan which are
organizations in Turkey/North Kurdistan one could
joined together in a central party.
come to the result that the revolution in
At the end of our party building there will exist one
Turkey/North Kurdistan is already on our doorstep.
BP Turkey in Turkey and one BP North Kurdistan
It will break out in the next days, months, etc. And
in North Kurdistan. These parties are going to
the particular organization has strong links to the
carry out their regional work totally independent of
toiling masses and is leading their struggles.
each other under their own responsibility. These
This image, however, has less to do with the reality
parties are merged in the central party BP (NK/T).
but with the wish! To change the wish to reality,
Due to the fact that the BP (NK/T) was founded as
first of all it is necessary in our view to understand
a central party we are now treading the reverse
the reality as it is! An example for being out of
way. We try to develop two regional parties out of
touch with reality is the ”death-fast action” which
one central party. We see and experience the
was ended in January 2007 and lasted for nearly 6
difficulties. But in the last years we also achieved a
years. 122 revolutionaries lost their lives, more
certain success and made important steps forward
than 600 revolutionaries suffered permanent
in overcoming these difficulties.
damage to their health. In our view this was an
”New orientation” policy abroad Another issue is
action wrongly started and wrongly continued.
the future of our expatriate organization. We were

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

forced by developments to start as a pure expatriate Western Europe, more than 1.5 million of them in
organization. We had rather large expatriate Germany.
organizations in some Western European countries, (*2) As there is no question about the national identity in
the census there are no assured figures about the number of
mainly in the FRG. There was not only a foreign Kurds in Turkey. But there is a pretty broadly based
mission for international relations and some population study made by a respected opinion research
organizations for special tasks, but a whole party institute on behalf of the journal Milliyet, the results of
and sympathizer organization which made which were published in March 2006. According to the
agitation and propaganda for the revolution in study the number of those identifying themselves as Kurds
Turkey/North Kurdistan in the European countries or Zaza is projected to 15.6 % of the total population.
among the workers from Turkey/North Kurdistan
(*3) The majority of the Muslim population are Sunnites.
and tried to organize them for the revolution there. According to the aforesaid Milliyet study, 6.2 % of the
At our 5th congress (1994) we clearly analyzed that population define themselves as ”Alevis”, which is an
the workers from Turkey/North Kurdistan in the Anatolian version of Shiism. As the ”religious confession”
European countries whose life center is in these was registered obligatorily at birth until 2004, it is difficult
countries have become part of the working class of to estimate the number of atheist ”Muslims”.
these countries and that they should organize in the (*4) Of which: off-the-rack clothes/garments 13.708
billion USD; textiles and raw material 4.861 billion USD,
communist parties of these countries. The future of leather and leather goods 1.017 billion USD.
our comrades and sympathizers abroad is in the
communist organizations of the countries where (*5) According to the 2007 Forbes report, 25 out of 946
they live if they do not return to NK/T or are sent ”dollar billionaires of the world” are from Turkey.
there or are organized abroad for special tasks. We Considering that these are the ”official” billionaires and
have been trying for years to put into practice this that the economists estimate the extent of the so-called
policy called ”new orientation”. We gained good ”non-registered” black economy to be at least half of the
entire economy, one can correctly estimate the capital
experience and took concrete steps with it. Our 8th possessed by the Turkish big capitalists.
congress analyzed the situation and passed a
resolution to intensify the steps taken on this issue (*6) One of the most meaningful facts to see the real
and to complete the dissolving of the expatriate situation of the working class struggles are the strike
organizations in the particular communist statistics. For the recent 6 years the statistics show the
organizations as quickly as possible. This following:
resolution was implemented in summer 2006.
Since July 2006 the expatriate organizations of the
BP NK/T no longer exist. Comrades who can do a Year Number of Number of Number of
more effective work in Turkey or NK than abroad strikes strikers lost
are working in Turkey and North Kurdistan. working
Comrades living abroad for various reasons have days
been called upon to work in organizations of the
particular countries which we estimate as 2000 52 18705 368475
communist. Very few organized BP NK/T
comrades temporarily entrusted with special duties 2001 35 9911 286015
have remained abroad. This development is of 2002 27 4618 43885
tremendous importance both for our own party 2003 23 1535 144772
history and for the history of the revolution of 2004 30 3557 93161
2005 28 2950 70311
NK/T. 25. April 2007

*(1) According to the official figures of Mernis (central Concerning the struggle of the working class there was no
population registration system at the central directorship important change in the year 2006, either. Claiming on the
for population and nationality affairs) there were basis of these strike statistics that the working class
74,530,939 citizens in Turkey at the end of 2006. The movement in Turkey is in an upswing or anything similar
planning authority of the state (DPT) reported a population is missing the reality. #
of 72.97 million people living in Turkey at the end of
2006. At the last census in 2000 there were 67,844,903.
The rate of the increase in population was 1.83 % from
1990 to 2000, with the trend pointing down. In 2004
Turkey was the country with the 3rd largest population
growth rate in Europe (1.52 %) after Spain (1.64 %) and
Ireland (1.63 %). There are about 3 million emigrants from
Turkey in various countries in the world as well, mainly in

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Contribution to International Conference


The Economic and Political Development of the Imperialist World System
Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey)

Economic trends and not just refer to a ”constantly intensifying


When we talk about the economic development of general crisis”, etc.
the imperialist world system, we must first agree In regard to the world economy it is important to
on the contents of the terms ‘crisis’”, ‘economic know that the development of a handful of
crisis’, ‘general crisis of the imperialist world imperialist Great Powers continues to be the key to
system’, ‘cyclical crisis’, ‘crisis cycle’, ‘phases of the development of the world economy. And
a crisis cycle’, etc. Because in our opinion there is among these imperialist powers the USA continues
great confusion on this issue in the ranks of the to play the main role. In 2005 the USA accounted
revolutionaries and Marxist-Leninists. We stated for 33.6 percent of the real gross domestic product
our position how we believe these terms have been of the world, the share of the Europe of the 25 is
defined in Marxism-Leninism, what we should 33.7 percent, more than that of the US for the first
take as basis, in our contribution to the 8th time; the share of the industrial countries as a
ICMLPO entitled ”The Economic Crisis of whole, except China 4.8 percent, Russia 1.3
Imperialism and Its Consequences”. We do not percent, is 84.7 percent.
wish to repeat this here. In the world economy, in the second half of 2000
Today we can only speak of a general crisis of the beginning of a new crisis cycle announced
capitalism in the sense that imperialism is itself – despite continued strong growth in China
moribund capitalism, that the only alternative to and despite a recovery phase in Japan –
the unchecked development of the productive manifesting itself mainly in the decline of
forces lies in smashing imperialism with the production and economic growth in the USA and
proletarian world revolution. the EU region.
But we cannot speak of the ”general crisis of Through the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq,
capitalism” in the sense that the world is divided where the USA pumped enormous sums into the
into two systems. Through the help of the military industry on credit, the USA stimulated
revisionists, but partly also due to mistakes made industrial output and consumption. This stopped
by the communists, i.e., mistakes of ours, the crisis from deepening and turned the trend
capitalism has managed to again create a situation around for the time being. While the USA
similar to the one before the First World War, i.e., succeeded in reversing the trend through wars, the
a situation in which imperialism held unlimited weakest link in the world economy of the Great
sway over the world, where no socialist and Powers was the EU, and there mainly Germany.
people’s democratic powers exist. Though this is The EU powers eagerly tried to overcome their low
certainly a temporary situation of defeat for the by intensifying the exploitation of the workers, by
proletarian world revolution, it is still a fact. In our launching new economic recovery programs which
opinion it is an illusion to view relatively gave big capital tax breaks, and through so-called
”independent” economies which partly call austerity programs, which of course affect all
themselves socialist, for example, China, the DPR working people. It seems as if this has succeeded
Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, etc., and which are partly for the time being. Between 2003 and 2006 world
assessed, propagated and supported as socialist by production grew at an annual average rate of 4.8
various Leftist forces, as powers existing outside percent and thus appreciably faster than the
the imperialist world system. These assessments medium-term rate of 3.3 percent observed up until
partly start from the existence of these countries or then. In 2006 the expansion of the world economy
from the argument that there are struggles of the continued. Real GDP even increased at the rate of
working class and the oppressed peoples against 5 percent, a little faster than in 2005. That is, the
the imperialist world system, that Marxist-Leninist trend reversal due to the US-led wars created a
forces, though weak, fighting for socialism exist, situation in which the normal course of the cycle
and to that extent imperialism is in a general crisis was interrupted and an artificial ‘upswing phase’
– in our view this is not an analysis based on was initiated. In the industrial countries as a whole,
Marxism-Leninism. To pretend in the given but mainly in the USA, this upswing lost
situation that there has been no defeat will not get momentum in the course of 2006. In 2006, for the
us any further. For this reason, when we speak of first time since 2003 economic growth in the USA
the crisis today we must study the cycles exactly was less than 3 percent. On the other hand, with
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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

4.8 percent growth in 2006 the Japanese economy fights to gain sole world hegemony. The ‘New
continued to boom. In 2006 the Euro area attained World Order’ declared by the Bush I
its highest growth rate since 2003 with an average Administration is nothing but the plan for a US
growth of 3.6 percent. Whether the drop in the empire, while at most the role of ‘junior partner’ is
pace of growth in the USA means the end of the intended for the other imperialist Great Powers
artificial upswing phase and the beginning of a who are willing to go along with US imperialism
new – or rather the continuation of the interrupted under its leadership – currently Britain, for
– cycle with a crisis remains to be seen in 2007. example.
Factors opposing this: a) in Japan and in the EU With its strategy of ‘preemptive strikes’ the Great
the economy continues expanding; b) China and Power USA is at the same time the chief
India continue to enjoy very high growth rates and warmonger among the imperialist Great Powers
the cheap products from these countries stimulate today. US imperialism cleverly used the attacks of
private consumption in the industrial countries, and September 11, 2001, on the WTC twin towers and
– also through the pressure of low wages – the Pentagon to declare a worldwide ‘war on
inflation in the biggest imperialist countries is terrorism’. It has issued itself a license to break
being kept within limits. Factors favoring this: the international law and set the US war machine in
war both in Iraq and in Afghanistan is not going motion against the peoples of the world.
well for US imperialism; in the medium term this But in our opinion, these facts should not mislead
‘lack of success’ will tell negatively not only on us to assess US imperialism as sole ‘superpower’,
politics, but also on the economy as a whole. to invent a separate category for it, so to speak, to
Important in this connection: portray it as if US imperialism in qualitative terms
Revolutionary work, education of the workers and were something different from the other imperialist
working people for revolution and organizing, does Great Powers.
not depend on whether an economic crisis We have seen in the last four years in the
currently exists. No matter what the economic occupation of Iraq that US imperialism, despite its
situation is we can and must do revolutionary military strength, is not able to control everything,
work. The crises clearly show us that imperialism is unable to enforce all its plans. The armed
is parasitic and decaying capitalism. resistance against the occupation of Iraq deals
Crises are inevitable accompaniments of severe military blows to the occupiers and their
capitalism. This being so, the struggles against the accomplices every day. The US imperialists are in
manifestations and effects of the crises, which are a completely desolate situation in which they
devastating for the working people, necessarily themselves do not know exactly how they can
must be conducted as struggles to smash withdraw from Iraq. They have had to throw all
capitalism. Crisis combating programs which do their plans overboard owing to the resistance in
not call in question the framework of the capitalist Iraq.
system – such as the programs of the leaders of the We are of the opinion that Lenin’s analysis of
WSF– are eyewash. imperialism is still valid. The invention of
Political developments ‘superpowers’ as a separate category is an
It is still a fact: invention of the three-worlds theoreticians which
* that US imperialism is aggressive and served only to sell the alleged ‘second world’ to
expansionist; the peoples as possible allies in the struggle against
* that it acts like a world policeman; the superpowers. US imperialism, even if it is
* that it invades countries – as in Afghanistan and currently the most powerful, is only one of the
Iraq – and occupies them; imperialist Great Powers, whose common ground
* that it builds up further military bases is the struggle for world hegemony.
everywhere – in the Middle East, in the These facts showing that US imperialism currently
Philippines, in Afghanistan, etc. – to translate its is the strongest imperialist Great Power also should
plans for world hegemony into action; not mislead us to direct the peoples’ struggles
* that it supports counterrevolutionary action solely against US imperialism. Not US imperialism
against the peoples everywhere in the world – for alone is the main enemy of the peoples of the
instance, in Palestine, where the US is the principal world, but imperialism as a whole, the imperialist
supporter of Zionist state terrorism against the world system.
Palestinian people. The imperialist Great Powers squabbling with US
US imperialism undoubtedly is the biggest imperialism over world hegemony partly pose as
imperialist power today, as regards economic ‘peace-loving’, ‘democratic’, etc. This is nothing
power and also military and political power, and it but deception and must be exposed.
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German, French, Russian imperialism and China, Despite this fact it is our view that it is wrong to
who opposed military intervention in Iraq in 2003 portray US imperialism alone, still the Number 1
in the UN, are no more or less belligerent or peace- among the dominating imperialist powers in
loving than US imperialism. Their opposition Turkey, as the main enemy.
against military intervention in Iraq was in truth In Turkey/North Kurdistan the main enemy of the
only dictated by their own imperialist interests. It peoples is the fascist Turkish state.
was clear that intervention by US imperialism in It is the state of the Turkish ruling classes, who
Iraq would mean the annulment of the contracts make deals with various imperialist powers, above
they all concluded with the Saddam regime and the all with US imperialism, and are lackeys of these
sole dominance of US imperialism in Iraq. With imperialist powers. In their struggles the workers,
their opposition the imperialist rivals of the USA peasants and other working people are confronted
wanted to prevent US imperialism from recovering by the Turkish state machinery as main enemy, not
a lost in position in the Middle East in the struggle by the US state machine, not by US military,
for world hegemony. Not to see such powers as police, judiciary, etc. Fascism in Turkey is not
‘main enemy’, to consider US imperialism the sole practiced by US imperialism but by the Turkish
main enemy, is theoretically wrong; in practical state! In this situation, to conduct the struggle in
politics it leads to accepting enemies of the people Turkey/North Kurdistan primarily and directly
as possible allies. In 2006, after Zionist Israel’s against US imperialism means that in Turkey the
attack on Lebanon, when a military occupation struggle to smash the fascist Turkish state is seen
force was to be provided by the UN, we saw how as a minor theater of the struggle. Sections of the
this wrong approach benefited the European ruling classes of Turkey are then even taken into
imperialists – mainly the French and German consideration as possible allies in the fight against
imperialists. They were able to send their troops to US imperialism. For example, one of the main
Lebanon without meeting major resistance in the slogans of the antiwar movement in Turkey was,
Middle East – unlike US imperialism – even ”We will not become soldiers of America!” The
declaring them to be a ‘peacekeeping force’. If we fact that the Turkish state was about to send
really want to work with terms like ‘main enemy’, soldiers to Iraq/South Kurdistan not only as
then unless we want to lead the peoples astray we ‘soldiers of America’ but as Turkish soldiers, i.e.,
must clearly say: the main enemy is the imperialist soldiers who also and MAINLY fight for the
world system in its entirety! That system has to be interests of the Turkish ruling classes, was ignored!
smashed! And when the issue of sending soldiers to Lebanon
And the imperialist world system only can be came up, large sections of the Left in Turkey
fought successfully if we understand that the main opposed this mission on the grounds that ”We do
enemy of each division of the international not want to be soldiers of America!” With
proletariat stands ‘in its own country’, as the arguments like this, these ‘Leftists’ cover up the
German communist Karl Liebknecht correctly fact that it is mainly a question of the interests of
observed in 1915 in the face of social-patriotic the Turkish bourgeoisie itself when Turkish
calls to ‘fight for the fatherland’, to ‘defend the soldiers are deployed abroad in Afghanistan,
fatherland’, etc.! This he said in an imperialist war, Bosnia, in Lebanon, Somalia, etc.
in an imperialist country. It is the same way in all other countries of the
In this connection we want to talk specifically world with the exception of the USA and countries
about our country: directly occupied by US military in regard to the
Turkey is a client country of imperialism. It is not question of the main enemy.
occupied by the imperialist powers on which it Anyone who, for example, in Germany fights US
depends – this is mainly US and German imperialism as main enemy instead of German
imperialism. Its dependence is not a colonial imperialism, or who in France fights US
dependence. The imperialists do not rule in Turkey imperialism as main enemy instead of French
directly, but indirectly through their lackeys, imperialism, etc., etc., is not acting as a
through the Turkish ruling classes. The Turkish revolutionary, a Marxist-Leninist.
state is in a direct way the state of the Turkish As far as the inter-imperialist contradictions are
ruling classes. They in turn are in league with the concerned, it is a fact that they are intensifying.
imperialist powers. In Turkey the smashing of this The basis for the intensification of these
dependence on imperialism is one of the main contradictions is the struggle of the imperialists,
goals of the revolution. The revolution in Turkey is most of all of the imperialist Great Powers, for the
in its first phase a new-democratic, anti-imperialist ‘redivision of the world’ and world hegemony.
revolution.
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After the collapse of the Social-imperialist bloc a facts for future struggles with its rivals. In the
new array of forces emerged in the imperialist struggle for the redivision of the world, wars are
world, putting the redivision of the world among the main means employed by the imperialists.
the imperialist Great Powers on the agenda. These So far the struggle for the redivision of the world
struggles for redivision continue today unabated. has not taken the form of a direct war between the
For a brief period after the collapse of the Social- imperialist powers, but of proxy wars in the
imperialist bloc it appeared as though US dependent countries and wars of occupation
imperialism had won across the board and as if the against these countries.
entire imperialist world were going to accept the But the sharpening contradictions among the
‘leadership’ of US imperialism. The first Gulf War imperialist powers involve a real, growing threat of
against Iraq in 1991 was a war of all imperialist inter-imperialist wars that can grow into a world
powers under the leadership of US imperialism. No war.
other imperialist Great Power opposed this war; all In the struggle against the ongoing imperialist
accepted the leadership of US imperialism and interventions in the dependent countries, in the
joined in. wars of the imperialists against the peoples of the
But the imperialist front split already during the oppressed countries, and in the struggle against
war on Yugoslavia. The war on Yugoslavia was the developing threat of a direct inter-imperialist
mainly a war of Western imperialist powers under war and the danger of world war, we must start
the military leadership of US imperialism. The from the principle of the Leninist analysis and
winner in this war in Europe was mainly German make it clear to the peoples:
imperialism, which was adept at utilizing that it is impossible to escape imperialist war,
American military power for its own interests in and imperialist peace which inevitably engenders
this case. imperialist war, that it is impossible to escape
In the course of the 1990s, a serious rival to US that inferno, except by a Bolshevik struggle and a
imperialism gained strength in the EU, mainly in Bolshevik revolution. (Lenin ”Fourth
the quite close alliance between German and Anniversary of the October Revolution,” October
French imperialism. 14, 1921, Selected Works in three volumes, Vol.
The decline of Russian imperialism was stopped. 3, p. 583)
Since the end of the 1990s Russia has increasingly 1. The struggle against the ongoing imperialist,
reappeared on the world stage. reactionary, counterrevolutionary wars and the
At the ‘security conference’ of the imperialist danger of imperialist world war must be
powers in Munich in 2007, Russia openly opposed conducted in a revolutionary manner. War and
the aspirations of US imperialism to world capitalism are inseparable companions. If you
hegemony. really want peace you must fight capitalism. War
Japanese imperialism, which, although an imperialist war! Victory in the people’s war!
economic giant, politically and militarily long has Victory in the socialist and new-democratic
been more of a dwarf, has reported back, for the revolutions! must become the chief slogans of
time being still in the role of junior partner of the our struggle.
USA. 2. Though bourgeois pacifism can be a temporary
The rapid economic growth of China has come so ally against a current war or a war in concrete
far that China slowly but surely is developing into preparation, it must be combated ideologically
an imperialist Great Power with worldwide and defeated because it disarms the proletariat
ambitions. In Africa China already has become a and the peoples and ultimately helps imperialism.
serious rival to other imperialist Great Powers. In 3. The struggle against the danger of imperialist
Latin America it is strengthening its positions. world war must not be waged only against a
This, in particular, is an important new single imperialist power, but against all
development in terms of the changes in relative imperialist powers, above all against the
strength in the imperialist world. imperialist Great Powers. A guiding principle of
the struggle against reactionary,
These changes in the power relations are the basis
counterrevolutionary wars and the danger of
of the intensifying contradictions among the
world war must be: The main enemy is in our
imperialist powers. own country!
At the same time US imperialism, relying mainly
on its military superiority, also is trying to create

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We must struggle today against current wars and suddenly fascist Islamic forces were welcomed as
wars in concrete preparation and against the anti-imperialist revolutionary fighters. In the name
nascent danger of world war. However, concretely of fighting Zionism, in some cases open anti-
this means that in this struggle we must not fight Semitism came up in the ranks of the antiwar
only one imperialist power or coalition, but movement. Representatives of imperialist and
imperialism as a whole. The antiwar front must be reactionary powers could again make their mark as
approached today as an anti-imperialist front. alleged opponents of war against Zionism and US
At the same time we must act in awareness of our imperialism.
own weakness. We do not have the strength to vary
our tactics greatly without ourselves, in the name Until we communists are able to establish among
of tactics and exploiting contradictions among the the masses the truth that opposition to war without
imperialists, becoming appendages of the struggle opposition to the foundations of current wars,
of the imperialists among each other. without struggle against the imperialist world
During the last invasion of US imperialism and its system and all its powers, necessarily degenerates
allies in Iraq, in the antiwar movement we into support for certain supposedly peace-loving
witnessed how the imperialist rivals of the USA imperialist, reactionary powers – until then this
managed in a way to take in this impressive mass will continue. But to enable us to establish this
movement for their own policies. truth among the masses, we must first make a
We saw a similar thing in the antiwar movement radical break with remnants of the ‘theory of three
against the occupation of Lebanon by Zionist worlds’ in our own ranks.
Israel. In the name of supporting the struggle of the
peoples of Lebanon against Zionist aggression, April 26, 2007

Contribution to International Conference


The Struggle of the International Working Class, the Anti-imperialist Struggles of the Peoples
and Marxist-Leninist Party Building
Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan/Turkey)

The struggle of the international proletariat as a pushed. This development goes hand in hand with
whole currently is going through one of its weakest preparations for war or direct external aggression.
periods. This is true both objectively, as concerns The more the imperialist bourgeoisie is able to
the level of the spontaneous struggles of the enforce its reactionary offensive without meeting
workers on a world scale, and subjectively, as bigger resistance, the more shamelessly it
concerns the level of consciousness and continues its ‘reforms’. Of course, in the
organization of these struggles. imperialist metropolises there are struggles, strikes
In the imperialist metropolises the level of the and demonstrations of the workers and other
economic struggles is low, although there are more working people against these attacks. Since the 8th
than enough reasons calling for a fight. In the years Conference of the ICMLPO they have even gained
since the collapse of the Social-imperialist camp, in intensity both in terms of the number of such
in all imperialist countries the economic and struggles and their different forms. There have
democratic rights of the working class and the been struggles taking place despite and without and
entire working population have been systematically partly even against the trade union bureaucracy,
and steadily dismantled. Under the label of e.g., the Gate Gourmet strike or the Opel Bochum
‘reforms’, in all imperialist countries without strike in Germany. But compared with the assault
exception real wages have been and are being cut, of the bourgeoisie these struggles are poorly
working hours extended, labor intensity raised to developed and almost exclusively aimed at
increase the degree of exploitation of the workers. warding off attacks and protecting what exists.
Millions of jobs get slashed, millions are thrust into Viewed on the whole, the working class in the
unemployment, degraded to recipients of state imperialist metropolises in its poorly developed
alms. Unemployment benefits and social services struggles is on the defensive. This is the objective
get cut, drastic cuts are made in the benefits of the situation.
health insurance funds and pensions offices. As far as the subjective aspect is concerned, we know
Parallel to this, politically hard-won democratic of no imperialist country, where Marxist-Leninist
rights are being annulled and internal fascization forces are leaders in the struggles of the working
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class. One can sooner say that a large gap yawns Various factors play a role in the weakness of the
between the (spontaneous and weak) working-class spontaneous working-class movement. In particular,
movement and the (even weaker) communist due to the utter bankruptcy of revisionism, which
movement. The cases where Marxist-Leninist forces sold itself as ‘real socialism’, socialism as a whole
took a leading part in these struggles are rather the has lost its attraction. The imperialist bourgeoisie and
exception. its apologists have succeeded in creating a great
In countries dependent on imperialism (neocolonial uncertainty in the ranks of the workers with their
countries) the level of the spontaneous working-class campaign of lies about the death of communism and
movement is all in all higher than in the imperialist the final ‘victory of the free market economy’.
metropolises. The working and living conditions of The domination of the labor aristocrats in the yellow
the workers are much worse there than in the trade unions plays a crucial part in this.
imperialist metropolises and the attacks of the Also, the possibilities for the imperialist bourgeoisie
bourgeoisie and imperialism on the economic rights to bribe parts of the working class with the
as a rule mean the destruction of the livelihoods of superprofits extracted from the dependent countries
workers and their fall into absolute pauperism. From have increased enormously compared to the
that point of view, in these countries there are more beginning of imperialism. The chauvinism of the
reasons challenging the workers to fight than in the metropolises, which pushes the idea that the wealth
imperialist metropolises. But again, compared with accumulated there is something that has to be
these challenges we see here, too, that the level of the protected ‘from the hungry hordes from the South’,
spontaneous struggles of the working class in the which hammers into people’s heads the social-
countries oppressed by imperialism on the whole is partnership ideology ‘We all sit in the same boat’,
not yet sufficiently developed. Of course, there are which functionalizes emigrants, refugees as
countries where during the economic collapse the scapegoats, etc., befuddles the brains of the working
working-class movement gained tremendously in people. It keeps the workers from taking more
strength and in some cases even raised the question radical, mass action against their own bourgeoisie.
of power. But the fact is that the bourgeoisie in these In the oppressed countries the lackey bourgeoisie
countries succeeded in overcoming the acute crisis operates with nationalism, religion and the like to
and maintaining its power, as was the case in divert the class struggle of the workers.
Argentina, where several governments were swept The power of the media, the possibilities of the
away by mass movements in 2000/2001. In some bourgeoisie for occupying the thoughts of the
countries of Latin America (like Brazil, Mexico, workers are greater than ever before.
Venezuela) the struggle of the workers is much more In this concrete situation, in view of a few smaller
politicized than in other regions of the world. In successes, in relation to the necessities and
various countries of the world (South Korea, for possibilities – any announcement of the beginning of
instance) the workers’ struggles are more militant a ‘working-class offensive’, even if well meant and
than elsewhere. But all in all the spontaneous struggle an appeal to the liberating power of the working
of the workers lags behind the possibilities, class, is a misjudgment and a prettification of the real
necessities and challenges also in the countries situation, a gross exaggeration, and above all an
oppressed by imperialism. underestimation of the tasks before us. This
As far as the subjective side of the struggle is assessment, on a world scale, is wrong. For
concerned, the observation that we made on the imperialist metropolises it is completely wrong.
imperialist metropolises also applies to most of the Objectively the basis for a much stronger class
dependent countries. With a few exceptions, the struggle exists, also due the tremendous
union of communism with the working-class internationalization of capital – which the apologists
movement has not been achieved. The communist of imperialism describe with the newfangled term
forces as a rule do not play any big role in the globalization. The objective foundations for
working-class movement, let alone in the leadership conducting the struggles of the proletariats literally
of its struggles. and practically as international struggles have
The mass movement of the workers both in the become much more mature.
imperialist metropolises and the oppressed countries For the communists this means nothing less than that
as a rule is controlled by Social-Democracy, today the creation and building of Marxist-Leninist
reformism, yellow trade unions. The bourgeoisie parties is much more urgent than ever before. That is,
succeeds as a rule in preventing the development of the opportunities and necessities for the international
these struggles into true class struggle, i.e., the cooperation of Marxist-Leninist forces are much
struggle of class against class. Often the struggles of greater than ever before.
the workers are used by the bourgeois parties as We must work much more intensely and
pawns as they gamble for power. systematically to carry Marxism-Leninism into the
movement of the working class, to create the missing

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unity of communism with the working-class Marcos in Mexico was 21st century socialism, now it
movement. The situation will change only if the is Chavez’s movement.
working class becomes aware of its own condition In Afghanistan and Iraq, countries directly occupied
and mission, and only if it recognizes its own by the imperialists, the imperialists and their lackeys
strength in the struggles. are confronted with a growing war against the
The anti-imperialist struggles of the peoples occupying forces and their lackeys. The military
It is a fact that the level of these struggles is still losses of the occupying forces and their lackeys
more developed compared with the struggles of the increase day by day. The developments in Iraq have
working class in the imperialist metropolises. clearly shown that the calculations of the imperialist
The struggle of the working class in the oppressed occupiers were completely off the mark. In a brief,
countries nowadays, where it in part raises political bloody war the Saddam regime was to be
demands, is mainly, and necessarily, anti-imperialist. overthrown, Iraq quickly pacified and a US-
In different countries and regions of the world today dependent government installed, which was then
there are also armed struggles of the peoples which supposed to take over business. Fours years after
rock the prevailing conditions. In Asia, for example, occupation the armed resistance is stronger than ever.
both in the Philippines and Sri Lanka the armed The occupying forces and their lackeys are not even
forces of the people are in a position to carry on able to protect their lackeys’ parliament, located in
negotiations with those in power. In Nepal the the allegedly safest security zone, from military
popular revolution of April 2006 swept away the old attacks of the resistance.
regime. The struggle for a new republican Nepal Undoubtedly, the movement of the oppressed peoples
continues. is generally more developed today than the
In the Middle East the struggle of the Palestinian movement of the proletariat in the imperialist
people has reached the point where the founding of a metropolises. But just as we must make note of this
state is not far off despite daily massacres by the fact, we must also make note of the following:
Zionist state Israel. * The level of these struggles, too, is not as developed
In South Kurdistan the founding of a state for the as in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century.
Kurdish nation de facto is on the agenda. * The influence of the communists in these
In Africa various peoples are fighting for their own movements – a few exceptions notwithstanding – is
state power in the situation created by the very small. Usually this influence is negligible.
colonialists, imperialists and their lackeys. * The possibilities open to the struggles of the
Latin America is seething. Everywhere there are peoples for taking advantage of inter-imperialist
armed formations of the peoples, everywhere the contradictions for their own ends are much smaller
prevailing conditions are called into question. In than in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century.
several countries of Latin America, in the past few * The possibilities open to the domestic bourgeoisies
years a number of governments have been swept and imperialists for suppressing the struggles of the
away by mass movements. In many Latin American peoples or turning them into reform movements
countries ”Leftist” governments rule today. The within the system have grown.
developments in Colombia, Ecuador, but above all In the countries dependent on imperialism the
Venezuela even are propagated by not a few forces of building of real communist parties also is the main
the Left outside these countries as socialist link to grasp in the work of the communists. Only
developments. Chavez’s ‘Bolivarian’ socialism is in strong, truly communist, Bolshevik parties are the
our opinion nothing other than the program and guarantee that the struggles of the peoples against
action of the national bourgeoisie, who are not imperialism and the domestic bourgeoisies can be led
disinclined to cooperate with imperialism as long as with the clear goal of a new society liberated from
the interests of the national bourgeoisie also come exploitation.
into play. This ‘socialism’ is hyped by many Leftist The relatively developed level of the struggles in the
forces in the imperialist metropolises as 21st century oppressed countries (relative to the struggle of the
socialism. Frequently we encounter this attitude proletariat in the developed imperialist countries) has
among ‘metropolitan socialists’ who have abandoned the effect that not a few within the ranks of the
hope in the revolutionary power and ability of their Marxist-Leninists put forward the theory that the
own proletariat and expect revolution to be more contradiction between the oppressed peoples (and
likely in the dependent countries and approach the nations) on the one hand and imperialism on the other
revolutionary movements in the dependent countries is the main contradiction on a world scale.1
in an uncritical way, romanticizing them. They make In our view, this statement is wrong. It is
solidarity work with a revolutionary movement theoretically wrong because it is not understood that
abroad their main task, and the object of solidarity the world revolutionary process is the sum of
changes according to what is fashionable. Five years
ago the Zapatista movement with Subcommandante

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manifold revolutionary processes in the individual The Communist International should support
countries. Roughly speaking, the world revolutionary bourgeois-democratic national movements in
process is the sum of non-simultaneous SOCIALIST colonial and backward countries only on condition
REVOLUTIONS in the imperialist countries and anti- that, in these countries, the elements of future
imperialist NEW-DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTIONS in the proletarian parties, which will be communist not only
oppressed countries. On top of that the revolution in in name, are brought together and trained to
every single country will have its own characteristic understand their special tasks, i.e., those of the
features. It is correct to state the main contradiction struggle against the bourgeois-democratic
for every single revolutionary process in the movements within their own nations. The Communist
respective countries, but it is wrong to do this for the International must enter into a temporary alliance
world revolution, which basically is not a with bourgeois democracy in the colonial and
simultaneous and homogeneous process but the sum backward countries, but should not merge with it,
of hundreds of revolutions. and should under all circumstances uphold the
In practical political terms, establishing a main independence of the proletarian movement even if it
contradiction on a world level has the effect that one is in its most embryonic form. (Lenin, Collected
component of the proletarian world revolution – in Works, Vol. 31, pp. 149-150)
our case the struggles of the proletariat in the At the same Congress Lenin held the ”Report of
imperialist metropolises – is one-sidedly seen as the Commission on the National and the Colonial
being dependent on the revolutions in the oppressed Questions” and pointed out that as a result of the
countries. Commission’s discussion of the Preliminary Draft
The two components of the proletarian world Theses it had arrived at the decision to speak of the
revolution condition each other and mutually support ‘national-revolutionary movement’ rather than of
each other. Neither of these two components is the the ‘bourgeois-democratic movement’. He said:
‘leading’, ‘decisive’ one, while the other ”occupies a The significance of this change is that we, as
secondary and subordinate position” (Mao Zedong, Communists, should and will support bourgeois-
”On Contradiction, Selected Works, Vol. 1, p. 332). liberation movements in the colonies only when they
Proletarian world revolution will not be victorious in are genuinely revolutionary, and when their
the manner that first the contradiction between the exponents do not hinder our work of educating and
oppressed nations and peoples on the one hand and organising in a revolutionary spirit the peasantry
imperialism, led by US imperialism, on the other, is and the masses of the exploited. (ibid., p. 242)
tackled and resolved, and then afterwards the It clearly follows from all this that the communists
‘secondary and subordinate’ contradiction between must in any case unconditionally defend the right
proletariat and bourgeoisie in the imperialist
of the oppressed peoples to existence as an
countries comes to the fore and can be resolved.
independent state against any imperialist
There is no one-sided dependence of the two currents
intervention. In any case they must support in the
of the proletarian world revolution!
On the issue of the support of national movements the actions directed against
anti-imperialist struggles. national oppression. Beyond that they have only an
The imperialist world is divided into oppressing obligation to support REVOLUTIONARY
imperialist countries and countries oppressed by MOVEMENTS. In this case, too, the communists in
imperialism. The communists must unconditionally these countries are tasked with independently
defend the right of oppressed nations to self- organizing the workers and peasants.
determination as the right to existence as a separate Today there is a broad current in the Leftist
state. movement which, in the case of countries attacked
However, for communists this obligation towards and occupied by the US imperialists, calls for
the liberation movement of the oppressed peoples unconditional solidarity with every resistance
to unconditionally defend the right of self- movement and wants to prohibit us, so to speak,
determination does not mean the communists from making any distinctions in the solidarity
unconditionally support all concrete national movement.
movements. Clear criteria for this were established We as communists practice solidarity with any
by the Comintern. resistance directed against imperialist occupation;
In his ”Preliminary Draft Theses on the National however, this solidarity of ours with EVERY
and the Colonial Questions”, which Lenin resistance is limited only to the negative action of
submitted to the Second Congress of the resistance.
Comintern and which became the foundation of the Beyond that we practice solidarity only with the
Comintern’s line, Lenin made the following sections of the resistance which are revolutionary.
observation: For us this means that in the case of support for the
resistance in Iraq, for example, we support the
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struggle of this resistance against the imperialist In this period the Party focussed its attention and
occupiers and their stooges as a whole, but that as care upon the Party itself, upon its own existence
communists we do not support the positive and preservation. … The principal task of
programs of large sections of this resistance, communism … was to recruit into the Party the
namely that of the Arab-nationalist, fascist best elements of the working class, those who were
Baathists, and that of the Islamic fascists, whether most active and most devoted to the cause of the
Sunni or Shiite. Conversely, we try to explain to proletariat; to form the ranks of the proletarian
the peoples the true counterrevolutionary character party and to put it firmly on its feet. Comrade
of these forces. Lenin formulates this task as follows: ”to win the
As to the forms of resistance, we also do not vanguard of the proletariat to the side of
approve of everything and do not have to do so. communism.”
Such armed resistance activities (if they are at all 2nd Period of winning the broad masses
actions of resistance) which reckon with the largest of the workers and peasants
possible casualties among the civilian population ”In this period the Party was by no means as weak as
are not expedient in our view; they terrorize the it was in the preceding one; as a driving force, it
people that have to be won over in the struggle became a most important factor. It could now no
longer be a self-sufficing force, for its existence and
against the occupying forces.
Main task: construction of development were now definitely ensured; it changed
real Marxist-Leninist, i.e., Bolshevik parties from a self-sufficing force into an instrument for
Both in the imperialist countries and in the winning the masses of the workers and peasants, into
countries dependent on imperialism the main task an instrument for leading the masses in overthrowing
of the communists, the main link they must grasp, the rule of capital. In this period the Party’s strategy
acquired wide scope....
is the creation and building of genuine Marxist-
The Party’s tactics also acquired wide scope.... The
Leninist parties. Naturally, right from the start
Party’s principal task in this period was to win the
these parties must be built up in connection with
the class struggle of the working class. For real
vast masses to the side of the proletarian
communist parties are mainly workers’ parties in vanguard, to the side of the Party, for the purpose
class terms. A party that calls itself Marxist-Leninist of overthrowing the dictatorship of the
is not a real Marxist-Leninist party, not a Bolshevik bourgeoisie, for the purpose of seizing power. The
party, if it has not united within its ranks above all Party now no longer focussed its attention upon
the most advanced sections of the working class. The itself, but upon the vast masses of the people.” (cf.
theory that reduces the leadership of the working Stalin, ”The Party Before and After Taking
class to ideological leadership is not a Marxist- Power”, Works, Vol. 5 , pp. 103-106)
Leninist theory. We are still in the first phase of our party building
In addition, we are of the opinion that any Bolshevik and we think that today most Marxist-Leninist
party must pass through roughly two phases in its parties are only in this phase of formation.
construction (before the revolution). These two To us, consciously distinguishing these phases
phases are roughly as follows: means correctly tackling the tasks of party
1. Period of formation, creation of the party. building. April 27, 2007#
”In this period the Party, as a driving force, was Remark
1
weak. … We are of the opinion that if we want to talk about the
The Party’s strategy – since strategy presupposes main contradiction in the world, we can only do it in the
the existence of reserves and the possibility of form of comparing the main forces of the proletarian
world revolution and the counterrevolution. This means
manoeuvring with them – was necessarily narrow
that the contradiction between the proletariat of all
and restricted. The Party confined itself to countries and the oppressed peoples on the one hand and
mapping the movement’s strategic plan, i.e., the imperialism and all reaction on the other is the main
route that the movement should take; and the contradiction on a world scale.
Party’s reserves – the contradictions within the This contradiction is resolved in the proletarian world-
camp of the enemies ... – remained unused, or revolutionary process by various revolutions in various
almost unused, owing to the weakness of the Party. countries, by socialist revolutions in the developed
imperialist countries, anti-imperialist new-democratic
The Party’s tactics, since tactics presuppose the revolutions with a socialist perspective in the oppressed
utilisation of all forms of the movement, forms of countries. #
proletarian organization, their combination and
mutual supplementation, etc., with the object of
winning the masses and ensuring strategic success,
were also necessarily narrow and without scope.

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Contribution to International Conference


Forms of Organization of International Cooperation
History, Present and Future
Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey)

In regard to the forms of organization of As we see it, to develop this platform it would be
international cooperation, in our opinion the most necessary to assess in joint open and public
advanced form of organization of international discussions (public in the sense that one does not
cooperation to date, and the form best suited to the keep major differences of opinion secret from the
international character of the working class, is the masses)
Third (Communist) International. *the founding document and statutes of the
The Communist International was a communist Comintern,
world party. *the Comintern Programme of 1928,
What we need in future is a communist world *the Comintern’s policy of the antifascist united
party, But we are a long way off today from the front and the 7th Comintern Congress,
goal of a new Communist International. *the 1943 decision to dissolve the Comintern,
As starting point for building a new Comintern we *the Cominform resolutions on Yugoslavia,
first need a common platform. *the Moscow declarations of 1957-1960, and
*the 1963 Polemic.
It is our view that such a common platform no In addition, the subsequent attempts at unification
longer exists since the complete takeover of power would have to be jointly evaluated.
by the modern revisionists in the former SU, i.e., It is necessary to make theoretical work, analyses,
since about the mid-1950s. etc., performed by the various parties alone on
The 1957 and 1960 joint declarations of the these topics, a part of the joint work on these
communist and workers’ parties, which both the topics.
revisionists and Marxist-Leninists cite as common We know how difficult this is, but it can be done.
platform, are rather compromise documents in Joint discussions, joint theoretical work is, of
which right things and wrong things stand side by course, not the only means of unifying or
side. Objectively, these declarations made the reunifying the communist world movement.
revisionist line of the 20th Party Congress of the Parallel to this, in practical politics we must make
CPSU, as ”continuation and advancement of the working-class movement of all countries a truly
Marxism-Leninism”, the basis of the international internationalist movement, must cooperate in joint
communist movement. international action. The objective conditions for
this are better than ever before.
Although the ”Proposal Concerning the General It is our view that mutual open, public criticism
Line of the International Communist Movement” also serves to educate the masses, and that we do
submitted by the Communist Party of China in the not have to be afraid of it. Only in joint practical
”Great Polemic”, plus the nine commentaries that struggle and in joint efforts to create a political
go with it, are positive attempts of the Communist international platform which do not exclude, but
Party of China to reunify the international include open and public debates and mutual
communist movement on a Marxist-Leninist basis, criticism, will the communist world movement
they ultimately were unable to fulfill this purpose, grow together again.
and at the same time these documents themselves
contained serious concessions to the revisionist If we succeed in developing the ICMLPO into a
line, grave errors. But the main problem was that main instrument for organizing the joint platform
these documents were not taken as what they are, a discussion, it would be a remarkable achievement
”proposal”, but as a readymade new platform for in our view.
the Marxist-Leninist world movement. The result
is that we as Marxist-Leninist world movement April 28, 2007
even today have no jointly elaborated platform.
The main criteria for participation in the ICMLPO
do not suffice as platform for the unity of the
Marxist-Leninist world movement and are not
intended as such.

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Country Report, USA


Ray O. Light Group
The main enemy of the international working class productive day’s work!) ”A total of 3.2 million
and of the billions of oppressed peoples in the factory jobs, or 1 of every 6, have been lost since
semi-colonial and dependent countries of the world the start of 2000. (AP)” (4-23-07, Christian
is monopoly capitalism and imperialism, Science Monitor) In the field of education, for
dominated today by global finance capital. In the example, the United States is now unable to
past few decades the accelerated concentration of provide sufficient scientists and engineers; it must
capital and the extension of its tentacles into the far import Indian, Chinese and other skilled
corners of the earth has become increasingly professionals, or outsource its work. And, ”for the
referred to as ”globalization” by both its bourgeois first time, Toyota Motor Corp. has surpassed
and petty bourgeois proponents and opponents. We General Motors Corp. in global auto sales for a
proletarian revolutionaries know it to be quarter, the Japanese automaker said Tuesday.” (4-
imperialist globalization, that is, the continuation 25-07, Christian Science Monitor)
of the development of imperialism as the highest
and last dying stage of capitalism, precisely along As it has become clear that US imperialism cannot
the lines illuminated by comrade Lenin more than reverse this disastrous economic direction, in order
ninety years ago. As he taught, this era also to postpone the inevitable day of accountability the
features the new and rising unfolding proletarian United States has to be armed to the teeth. The
revolution. emergence of the Bush Regime with its unending
The chief bulwark of this old and dying system is global imperialist war against the international
United States imperialism. As the only proletarian proletariat and the oppressed peoples and against
vanguard organization from the USA represented any and all its great power partner-rivals for
in this Conference, we have a great responsibility resources, spheres of influence, etc. is the result.
toward our comrades, especially those from the Since 9-11, wherever oil and/or natural gas is in
many other lands oppressed, threatened and abundance, or where strategic transport routes and
brutalized by ”our own” imperialists, to clearly and pipelines for oil and natural gas are at stake, from
accurately share our assessment of the current Georgia in the former USSR to Qatar in the Middle
conditions of the US ruling class, working class East, to Colombia in South America to the
and oppressed nationalities within the ”belly of the Philippines in Southeast Asia, and especially in
beast”. Afghanistan and Iraq, US imperialism has sent its
military to take control of the world’s oil and
The Desperation of the natural gas supply in order to keep these vital
United States Ruling Class resources out of the hands of its imperialist rivals
For almost sixty years, since the end of World War and maintain its economic hegemony.
II, US imperialism has been a virtually unrivalled Right after 9-11-01, Bush’s rating among the US
imperialist power. This monopoly position has populace was about 90% favorable. At the time of
enabled US imperialism to bribe and brutalize its the 2004 Presidential election when it had already
own population even more thoroughly than become apparent that US imperialism was still
previous imperialist powers. But, as Lenin taught, struggling to hold its position both in Afghanistan
the more powerful the imperialist country, the and Iraq, Bush’s rating had fallen to about fifty
more precipitous its decline. Now, in less than a percent favorable.
generation, US imperialism has been transformed Under the impetus of the world capitalist economic
from the foremost creditor country in the world crisis, the Bushites were responsible for the
into the greatest debtor country. unprovoked war, invasion and occupation of both
The extreme parasitic position of the current US Afghanistan and Iraq, and a new doctrine of
economy based so largely on the labor of the ”preventive war” (shades of Hitler Germany). At
working people of Mexico and Central America the same time, they were responsible for waging a
and South America, of Russia and the former war at home in the USA itself — including the
Soviet bloc, as well as Egypt, Turkey, Bangladesh, rapid removal of workers’ rights to overtime
the Philippines, India and China and elsewhere has protection and on the job rights, union rights, etc.,
placed its parasitic stamp in every sphere of social as well as the rapid erosion of civil liberties with
life in the United States. (Shades of the Saudi the PATRIOT Act, increases in police state,
privileged Sunni masses --- incapable of doing a intelligence and other surveillance forces, and the

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

establishment of a massive homeland security month, the General Accounting Office (GAO)
department. Bush brought unprecedented tax lamented that ”Pentagon procurement is out of
breaks to the super rich, record government budget control.” (”Uncontrolled Pentagon Spending” by
deficits to the working people and massive George C. Wilson, 4-23-07, National Journal.)
unemployment and underemployment to the The heroic and advancing Iraqi Resistance was the
masses. Despite all these things, this time Bush key to Bush’s deep slide in popularity down to a
received a majority of the votes as tallied (51% to thirty percent favorable rating at the time of the
48%); and almost sixty percent of the eligible 2006 US Congressional election!! Bush’s
voters had cast a vote, up from barely fifty percent Republican Party lost control of both the US
in the 2000 election before the 9-11 hysteria and Senate and the US House of Representatives to the
Bush’s launching of the unending war of terror. Democrats. In this manner, by repudiating the
Bush Regime, the US electorate expressed its
The fact that virtually the entire US society has desire to cut the Empire’s losses in Iraq and bring
benefited, however temporarily and however the US troops home. Unfortunately, the
unevenly, from the oppression and super- Democratic Party is simply the other branch of the
exploitation of the workers and oppressed peoples US Imperialist War Party. So, Nancy Pelosi, who
of the entire world, goes a long way in explaining was about to become the Speaker of the House of
the results of the November 2004 US presidential Representatives, assured the US ruling class that,
election. in the event of a Democratic Party victory, the
The monopoly capitalist ruling class in the USA, Democrats had no intention of impeaching George
with generations of blood on its hands, and made W. Bush!
increasingly desperate and isolated under the
impetus of the world capitalist economic crisis, To appease the US populace after his election
will not surrender its privilege and power on the defeat, Bush compelled Secretary of Defense
basis of an election. Comrades will do well to keep Rumsfeld’s resignation. But with the departure of
this fact in mind as bourgeois democratic illusions the principal proponent of a small, well-trained US
about US ”Democracy” (”American military, backed by expensive, high tech weaponry,
Exceptionalism”), and Democratic Party Bush has begun plans to increase US military
candidates such as Barack Obama and Hillary manpower by a hundred thousand troops. More
Clinton are promoted worldwide in the run-up to immediately, Bush has ”smacked the US voters in
the 2008 US Presidential election. the face” by announcing, a troop ”surge” of more
than twenty thousand US soldiers deployed to Iraq.
The current period in which the Bush Regime has Yet no US troop increase can repair the damage
been at the helm of the US ship of state has marked done to both of US imperialism’s chief pillars in
the most dramatic and steep decline of the US the Middle East --- the Sunni-based reactionary
Empire. The two years between the 2004 Arab regimes of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, etc.
Presidential election and the 2006 Congressional on the one hand, and the Israeli settler state,
election represented a sea-change in the USA. The especially after its 2006 debacle in Lebanon, on the
heroic Iraqi Resistance, the main force on the other.
frontline of the world-wide struggle against US The Afghani liberation fighters, whose resolve has
imperialism, has clearly gained the upper hand also been strengthened by the Iraqi Resistance,
militarily in Iraq and has forced the bullying Bush have compelled US imperialism and its few allies
Regime onto the defensive, exposing its cowardly to increase their troop strength to attempt to avoid
and contradictory weaknesses. military defeat at the hands of the peoples forces in
Afghanistan and the ouster of President Karzai, the
The Pentagon’s controller in her ”National Defense former UNOCAL (US oil company) employee.
estimates for FY 2008” documented that Bush has The heroic Iraqi Resistance has also inspired the
spent $2.5 trillion in FY 2003-2007), or $400 strong anti-imperialist voice of Venezuela’s
billion dollars more in the same fiscal 2008 dollars, President Hugo Chavez, the popular election of a
than President Lyndon Johnson spent on the US number of leftist governments throughout Latin
military during the comparable five biggest years America and the economic-political alliances of
of the Vietnam War (FY1964-1968), despite the these forces with the Venezuela-Cuba alliance at
fact that Johnson had four times as many troops in its core. Bush’s recent tour of Latin America,
the field and well over twice the total troop attempting to halt or at least slow down this
strength and was also fighting the Cold War!! Last development, was shadowed and haunted by

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

Venezuela’s Chavez, the outspoken opponent of ”their own” US military troops as mere cannon
”Yankee imperialism” and especially ”the devil” fodder; Bush-Cheney cover-ups of oil company
Bush in this period. price gouging and record oil company profits ---
taking full advantage of the destruction of oil
At the same time, with a bankrupt economy, the production capacity both during the war in Iraq and
Bush Regime has been unable to increase the in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath; the Bush
imperialist bribery of the US multinational government’s illegal appropriation of private
working class. telephone company and banking records of most of
Consequently, the Bush Regime’s margin for error the US population; the current ”cloud” over Bush
is growing increasingly small, while the caliber of intimate Paul Wolfowitz’ job as head of the World
political leadership based on decades of US Bank for creating a ”cushy” job for his girlfriend in
hegemonic power in the imperialist camp has the Bush White House; the continuing assault on
deteriorated into blatant corruption of all kinds --- US civil liberties through the extension of the USA
bullying, arrogance, ignorance, chauvinism, and PATRIOT Act; the continuing use of and
rank cronyism. The above helps explain the justification of torture including at the infamous
astounding list of political crises and scandals that Guantanamo Bay prison complex; the debacle of a
have been a more or less constant feature of the Bush government deal handing over management
Bush Presidency, especially during the post 9-11 of six of the most important US ports to the United
period of the so-called ”war on terror”. Arab Emirate-owned Dubai Ports World at a time
of Bush-created anti-Arab hysteria as well as the
This long list includes: the financial scandal spectacle of Arab emirs allowing their business
involving Kenneth Lay, the biggest backer of crony, George W. Bush, to renege on the deal
Bush’s first presidential election, who pillaged the when it became public knowledge; the recent
retirement pensions of his Enron employees; announcement that Cheney’s Halliburton
Cheney’s Halliburton Corporation connection and Corporation is moving its headquarters to Dubai.
the no-bid multi billion dollar Iraqi war and
reconstruction contracts followed by the fraudulent No wonder former Chrysler Corporation CEO and
billing of these war contracts, adding more billions US corporate guru Lee Iacocca, recently expressed
of loot to Halliburton from the public coffers; the outrage of many US ruling class elements with
Bush’s open contempt for the US Congress, the bankruptcy of the current US leadership when
evidenced by his many ”signing statements” he wrote: ”I hardly recognize this country
attached to newly enacted laws, indicating his anymore. The President of the United States is
unwillingness to abide by them; the decision not to given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our
stand for re-election by Texas Republican Whip phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies.
Tom DeLay due to exposed influence peddling, Congress responds to record deficits by passing a
including the conviction of Republican bagman huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don’t
Jack Abramoff; the resignation and conviction of need it). The most famous business leaders are not
Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff ”Scooter” the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While
Libby for ”outing” key CIA operative Valerie we’re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning
Plame in retaliation for (her husband) former US and nobody seems to know what to do. And the
ambassador Joseph Wilson’s exposure of the Big press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard
Lie Bush-Cheney justification for launching the questions…I’ve had enough. How about you?”
war on Iraq; the recent resignation of several top
aides of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and European Union and Japanese imperialist leaders
his own current job jeopardy due to blatant and would have never been able to survive such a
illegal White House political interference series of substantial political scandals. Why is the
manifested in the firing of eight federal attorneys, Bush Regime still standing?
either for prosecuting key Republicans or for not
prosecuting big Democrats; the resignation of the The Concrete Situation in the USA Today
Surgeon General of the United States and the After decades of US imperialist hegemony in the
military general in charge of the famous Walter world capitalist camp: the USA has a solidly
Reed Hospital, now infamous for the scandalous imperialist bourgeois electoral system that
conditions that seriously injured US soldiers have promotes two wings of an imperialist bourgeois
experienced there, which has underscored the fact war party, an imperialist bourgeois mass media in
that Cheney and Commander in Chief Bush view print, TV, radio, et al., and even to some extent an

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

imperialist bourgeois proletariat and anti-war working class in the United States on a course of
movement. great nation chauvinism and unity with ”our own”
imperialists against our best friends around the
Electoral politics: The entrenched character of this world, it is little wonder that the union leadership
imperialist bourgeois Democratic-Republican Party has been completely unable and unwilling to
political duopoly is what enabled Bush to defend even the short - term economic interests of
announce a troop "surge” in Iraq immediately after the US working class against capital. The disarmed
the US voters expressed their will to bring the US US working class has taken a beating on the ”home
troops out of Iraq; it is what has allowed him to front”.
keep committing war crimes without fear of
impeachment! For the loyalty of Pelosi and the The minimum wage stands at a paltry $5.15/hour
Democratic Party is not to its trade union and with no increase in more than a decade. Pensions
working class and middle class ”mass base” but to are wiped out. In August 2005, the US Census
US monopoly capitalism and imperialism, to the Bureau’s annual report on consumer income
US Empire. Likewise, Bush’s loyalty is not to his showed that, ”Although the US economy grew
mass base of right-wing white Christian robustly last year, the income of the median
fundamentalists and their chauvinist poison against household slipped … , wages of full-time workers
”the others”, but to his real base of US and fell, the number of Americans living below the
international capitalists. This explains his loyalty to poverty line rose and more Americans went
the UAE’s government-owned Dubai Ports World without health insurance.” (ROL Emphasis, Wall
in the face of anti-Arab hysteria and to a ”liberal” Street Journal, August 31, 2005)
approach to the question of illegal immigration and It was in this grim setting for the US working class
”open borders”. that, in the summer of 2005, on the fiftieth
anniversary of the merger of the American
The mass media: Even though there is a Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial
worldwide acceleration of technology-induced Organization, the AFL-CIO was split up. Six large
changes in media communications, nevertheless, unions, representing about 40% of the entire AFL-
mass media has become increasingly concentrated CIO, formed the Change to Win Coalition (CTW)
in the hands of a few mega corporations. allegedly so that they could more effectively
Especially in the USA, monopoly capitalist control organize the unorganized millions of US workers.
of news information is extremely tight. It is this
media that helped convince Al Gore to give up his As we reported at the time, the split in the AFL-
fight for the US presidency in 2000. It has CIO is not principled on either side. This ”split”
remained virtually silent on the existence of the does not represent the building of a new CIO. The
Carlyle Group, a giant defense contractor and formation of the CIO took place in 1935 when the
Saudi real estate company that included both key working class of the United States was clamoring
bin Laden and Bush family and inner circle for and building union and other self-defense
members at the time of the 9-11 ”attacks”. organization and was not afraid to use the strike
Currently, while focusing on each of the thirty-two weapon and other mass actions in its fight. The
victims of a random terror attack at Virginia Tech working class had strong links with the rest of the
(mostly white middle class college students), this international working class through genuine
corporate media never individually mentions the communist leadership of the CPUSA and the
similar number of Iraqis killed every day since the Communist International and years of political
US invasion and the almost three quarters of a education by the CPUSA-led Trade Union
million Iraqi victims of violence in that war and Educational League (TUEL). Clearly, this is not
occupation thus far, perpetuating and reinforcing the US situation today.
the crucial imperialist idea that US lives are more Those who clamed to want to rebuild the labor
important than those of other (”lesser”) peoples movement within the newly formed CTW coalition
and suppressing the indisputable connection as well as those who remained in the AFL-CIO
between US perpetrated violence in Iraq and flunked an early test. In August 2005, less than one
elsewhere with violence at home including at month after the AFL-CIO ”split”, 4,400 mechanics,
Virginia Tech. represented by AMFA (Aircraft Mechanics
Fraternal Association), went on strike against
The US working class and trade union Northwest Airlines, refusing to accept massive
movement: With the AFL-CIO leading the concessions and job reductions as so many other

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

airline unions had done. Like PATCO a quarter of Twenty months later, most of the 70% majority
a century ago, AMFA, an association built on the Afro-American population has still been unable to
raiding of other unions, was a pariah in the return to their homes. This has been nothing short
organized labor movement. Just as with PATCO, if of ethnic cleansing for the ultimate profit of the
other airline unions had honored the Northwest same banking elite that has run New Orleans since
mechanics picket lines, the strike could have been slavery times (when New Orleans was the richest
won. Instead, the strike was lost, and the US city in the USA), for more than a hundred years in
monopoly capitalist class was the victor. Unions in conjunction with the Rockefeller Chase Bank
both the AFL-CIO and the CTW Coalition elements. This terrible crisis for tens of thousands
represent airline workers. Both consciously refused has underscored the importance of the fight for the
to stand in solidarity with the mechanics and both Afro-American peoples’ right to return to New
share responsibility for the labor setbacks that have Orleans and need for Land and State Power in the
occurred since. Black Belt territory of their homeland. The
continuing struggle against systematic police
Since 2005, SEIU President Andy Stern, the most brutality aimed at the Afro-American national
imaginative of the ”new” CTW leaders, in the minority workers in the US North also underscores
name of trying to enlarge SEIU’s membership the importance of the exercise of the Afro-
base, has made unprecedented ”sweetheart” American people’s national right to self-
agreements both with Walmart and with the largest determination in the Black Belt homeland.
corporations in the California nursing home
industry over the heads of his own membership Immigrant workers: In 2006, in a spectacular
and staff. This is a bad omen concerning the future display of worker activism in the USA, several
of US organized labor as we know it. million mostly immigrant workers demonstrated on
May Day. Faced with the threat of being
In the meantime, in a radical departure from most criminalized, massive mobilizations of immigrant
of the recent history of organized labor in the USA, workers took place in cities and towns throughout
thirty-four thousand bus and subway workers in the USA in the early part of 2006.
New York City, members of Transport Workers
Union Local 100, carried out a bold though brief Initially, the mostly Latino immigrant workers
strike against the Transit Authority during the were so worried by the ”criminalization” bill that
height of the December 2005 Christmas shopping there was much support for various ”liberal”
season. With militant and enlightened local Senate proposals. This was a ”liberal” trick-bag,
leadership, these workers overcame such obstacles supported by President Bush, whereby immigrant
as their own union bureaucracy’s betrayal, the workers could end up supporting their own semi-
threats of the New York City Mayor, and the fears feudal enslavement in guest worker programs that
of the population regarding a prolonged strike might provide a ”path to legalization”, directly
during the key holiday buying season of the year. tying their status in the USA to their employment.
Their strike was a rare shining moment for US
workers in this period and provides hope for better The growing momentum in the weeks and months
days ahead. leading up to May Day was so enormous and so
inspiring to the participants that the initial
The Afro-American people: Among the Afro- defensive posture of the immigrant rights groups
American people in their Black Belt South with their demand to stop the criminalization bill
homeland, the devastation caused by Hurricane was replaced by the more militant mass demand
Katrina and the breaching of the levees in New for immediate amnesty. Thus, at least temporarily,
Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast area led to many immigrant workers were able to escape the
the forced dispersal of more than a half a million liberal trap.
people. The brutal treatment they received from
their ”rescuers” from the Department of Homeland Meanwhile, the Congressional debate and the mass
Security, the National Guard and other US military movement it spawned represented some of the
troops was akin to the treatment that the Iraqi greatest political difficulties for the Bush Regime
masses have received from the Bush-led caused by the contradictions between Bush’s mass
occupation army in their Iraqi homeland. base of right wing, white supremacist
fundamentalist Christians who supported the
criminalizing House bill and his real base among

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International Newsletter No. 33 July 2007

the monopoly capitalists and imperialists who US Labor Against the War, connected to the AFL-
supported Senate ”liberalism”. CIO trade union bureaucracy, has objectively and
effectively defended the US Empire. It has tried to
In the past year, the US ruling class has used get the Iraqi working class to renounce the
increased immigration raids and deportations by liberation struggle against the US occupation: first,
the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by stating that the US had won the war and that the
branch of the Department of Homeland Security to Iraqi working class should accept the occupation
”beat down” the immigrant workers and thereby and focus solely on trade union rights and narrow
also beat down the rest of the US working poor. ”economic” questions; and later, attempting to
Bush has deployed National Guard troops to the provide legitimacy for pro occupation Iraqi trade
Mexican border where they have remained. A unions at the expense of patriotic Iraqi trade
fascistic white settler force of ”Minutemen” has unions. Finally, a large majority of anti-war
become an adjunct force at the militarized border. protesters continue to support Democratic Party
This tendency toward ”Fortress America” has been politicians such as Gore and Kerry who promise to
symbolized by the Bush-Congress joint and be more effective defenders of the US Empire than
outlandish determination to erect the infamous Bush.
seven hundred mile wall on the border.
Nonetheless, over the course of the past five years,
May Day 2007 is upon us. However, in the absence especially under the impetus of the heroic Iraqi
of a clear-sighted international communist resistance movement. organizations such as
movement or even a genuine Marxist-Leninist Military Families Speak Out and Iraqi Veterans
Party in the USA, that promotes both immigrant Against the War have emerged and represent a
rights in the USA and national liberation substantial and deep-seated opposition within the
movements in Mexico and Central America, etc., US military itself. Mainly because of the success of
the cumulative effect of the attacks and threats to the Iraqi Resistance and also the liberation struggle
undocumented workers, and the use of NGO’s, in Afghanistan, but also partly as a result of this
liberals and other ”friends of the immigrants” has anti-war movement within and among the military
disoriented and disorganized many thousands of and their families, US imperialism is unable to
immigrant workers. May Day this year will feature meet its manpower requirements. It is plagued by
neither the massive numbers of one year ago nor strategic military overreach.
the militancy of the demands. The liberal trap of a
regulated multi-year path for undocumented CONCLUSION: US Imperialism is a real tiger
workers to US citizenship, under the authority of and a paper tiger
their US employers, especially with the
Democratic majority in Congress, now looms as a Referring to US imperialism in particular, comrade
likely outcome. But the struggle continues, and the Mao Tse-tung stated: ”…Imperialism and all
spirit of mass protest and defiance still burns in the reactionaries, looked at from a long term point of
hearts and minds of many Latino and other view, from a strategic point of view, must be seen
immigrant workers. for what they are---paper tigers. On this we should
build our strategic thinking. On the other hand,
The US Anti-war Movement: Despite the fact that they are also living tigers, iron tigers, real tigers
they recognize that Bush launched an unprovoked which can eat people. On this we should build our
war against the people of Iraq on the basis of lies tactical thinking.” (Political Bureau Meeting at
and deception, almost none of the forces in the US Wuchang, 12-1-58, cited in footnote on page 98,
anti-war movement, including its Selected Works Volume IV)
Trotskyite/Anarchist radical wing, have attempted
to mobilize support for the heroic Iraqi Resistance Possessing this strong orientation, communist
to US imperialism. Most of this white petty- forces both within the US multinational state and
bourgeois-dominated movement, including United internationally can hasten the crumbling of the US
For Peace and Justice (UFPJ), view the US war in Empire and lead successful revolutionary struggles
Iraq as a policy ”error”; and many do not even that will help usher in an era of national liberation
oppose the US invasion and occupation of and socialism leading to communism.#
Afghanistan at all! 1st of Mai 2007

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