I- Introduction
Return to The New Democratic Revolution is the main force of the World Proletarian Revolution
I- Introduction
December 26th will mark the 130th anniversary of the birth of the great titan of the international proletariat, Chairman Mao Zedong. Chairman Mao, Great Leader of the CPC, was directly and personally responsible for leading two great events in the 20th century: the Great Chinese Revolution (1949) and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). In the course of these processes, he established and developed Maoism: the new, third and higher stage of Marxism. It propelled the ideology of the international proletariat to its highest peak, continuing the work of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, resolving decisive issues for the World Proletarian Revolution in a comprehensive manner. The Great Chinese Revolution represented the solution to the problem of how to make the proletarian revolution, uninterrupted to socialism, in colonial, semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries. The GPCR solved the question of the continuity of revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat towards the golden communism. From a theoretical point of view, Maoism constitutes a qualitative leap in the three component parts of Marxism as a whole. In Marxist philosophy, Chairman Mao made a brilliant leap by establishing the law of contradiction as the sole fundamental law of materialist dialectics, as well as completing the development of the Marxist theory of knowledge established by Lenin. In Marxist political economy, he makes crucial progress in establishing the economic laws of socialist construction, on how the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie remains as the principal contradiction in this stage of transition to communism. In addition, he establishes the theory of bureaucratic capitalism, a kind of capitalism that is engendered by imperialism in the colonies/semi-colonies, resulting from the export of capital. In doing so, he develops the Leninist theory of imperialism, as he shows the indissoluble relationship between imperialism and latifundium in the countries it oppresses. In scientific socialism, Chairman Mao establishes the theory of the New Democratic Revolution, the universal form of the proletarian revolution in the colonial/semi-colonial countries and its uninterrupted passage into socialism; and how to carry out class struggle in socialism, in the conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat, to develop the transition into communism and prevent the danger of restoration, through successive proletarian cultural revolutions. Furthermore, he establishes the military theory of the proletariat in its most developed form: the Protracted People’s War. Today, more than ever, to be a communist is to be a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist. Therefore, the International Communist League’s (ICL) call for the celebration of the 130th anniversary of Chairman Mao Zedong’s birth all over the world is of great importance. This December 26th will mark the one-year anniversary of the public announcement of the founding of the ICL, the new international organization of the proletariat created by the successful Unified Maoist International Conference (UMIC). The UMIC was the result of more than ten years of concentrated work, meetings, Regional Conferences and international action campaigns. After this resolute and heightened struggle, 15 Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Parties and Organizations from 14 countries gave birth to the ICL and thus communicated their decision to the international proletariat:
“The Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Parties and Organizations participating on the UNIFIED MAOIST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE (UMIC) – following the path of the Third International founded by the Great Lenin and the best traditions of the International Communist Movement (ICM) – solemnly declare to the international Proletariat and the peoples of the world that the historical and transcendental decision of giving birth to the new international Maoist organization was taken, founded under the three great and glorious red banners: Maoism, the struggle against revisionism and the world proletarian revolution.
With deep communist conviction, we parties and organizations reunited here reaffirm ourselves – once more and with solemn commitment – in fulfilling the agreements of the Unified Maoist International Conference, defending and applying the almighty ideology of the international proletariat– Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
It is a firm commitment in the arduous and restless struggle for imposing Maoism as the sole command and guide of the World Revolution, the only deeply red and unfading flag which is the guarantee of triumph for the proletariat, the oppressed nations and the peoples of the world in its inexorable march towards the golden and forever shining communism.” 1
The holding of the UMIC culminated a whole phase characterized by dispersion and attempts to regroup forces and, at the same time, opened a new phase of an intense two-line struggle, which ran throughout 2022, after the publication of the Bases for Discussion by the Coordinating Committee for a Unified Maoist International Conference. The journal Communist International published all the critical and supportive positions to the Bases for Discussion, promoting a two-line struggle that had not been seen in the International Communist Movement for a long time. The UMIC was the culmination of a stage for the organizations present and for the supporters who didn’t make it to the big event. The brilliant Political Declaration and the Principles, published on December 26th, was the highest ideological result. The flag-waving actions in its celebration, which were carried out across dozens of countries in January 2023, were the first practical results of the founding of the International Communist League, followed by the massive May Day celebrations, the international campaign against the construction of the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (Mexico), the powerful tribute to the 50th anniversary of the fall in battle of Ibrahim Kaypakkaya (TKP/ML), the campaign to honor and glorify the memory of Filipino comrades Benito and Wilma (CPP), the internationalist actions for the release of political prisoners in the demonstrations in France and the call to the democratic, anti-imperialist and revolutionary forces to forcefully demonstrate their support for the heroic Palestinian National Resistance and to condemn and reject the Zionist state of Israel and its criminal actions throughout the 76 years of genocide of the Palestinian people.
Exactly 40 years ago, Chairman Gonzalo and the PCP launched the challenging Campaign for Maoism. The holding of the UMIC and the founding of the ICL have succeeded in completing an important stage of this task, which represents a decisive step towards the worldwide reunification of communists, overcoming dispersion, combating revisionism and towards the future reconstitution of the glorious Communist International. It therefore represents a heavy blow to imperialism, revisionism and world reaction, which will sooner rather than later be swept away from the face of the earth by the World Proletarian Revolution! This world revolution is composed of two major currents: the international proletarian revolutionary movement (present in all countries) and the national liberation movement (present in colonial and semi-colonial countries). The first current is the existing Communist Parties or those to be constituted and reconstituted in all the countries of the planet and the ICM; the second current represents the democratic-revolutionary struggle present in all the colonial and semi-colonial countries, which must be led by the respective Communist Parties. The founding of the ICL plays an important role in the revolutionary fusion of these two great currents of the World Proletarian Revolution.
The brilliant revolutionary counter-offensive by the heroic Palestinian National Resistance has dealt a resounding blow to the genocidal Zionist state of Israel. The audacious attack by the Palestinian guerrillas, under the leadership of the Palestinian National Resistance (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine), against the territory occupied by Israel is a great victory of the World Proletarian Revolution. After all, it represented a resounding blow against the occupation and expansionism of the Zionist Israeli state and its master, Yankee imperialism, the greatest enemy of the peoples of the world. The masses of the whole world celebrated this great victory of the Palestinian National Resistance, which even more forcefully puts at the center of the world debate that the oppressed peoples and nations of the whole world are alive, burning with hope in a determined and bloody struggle against imperialist domination. These masses are demand for consistent ideological, political and military leadership and, therefore, it is the duty of the International Communist Movement to accelerate the pace of their struggles in order to reach the higher form of the revolutionary class struggle that is People’s War.
The heroic Palestinian National Resistance, the great victory of the Taliban in expelling Yankee troops from their territory and the persistent resistance of the Ukrainian people who are fighting both the Russian imperialist occupation and the leadership of Zelensky, a lackey of Yankee imperialism and the European Union, represent the current confirmation that in imperialism the principal contradiction of this stage of capitalism is that which opposes oppressed peoples and nations to imperialist domination. This powerful banner, unfolded by Chairman Mao in the 1960s, was once again raised by the ICL, in a precise and forceful manner, in its Political Declaration and the Principles:
“The whole process of the capitalist society has the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie as the fundamental contradiction. Yet, three fundamental contradictions are developed in the world when it transits from non-monopoly capitalism into monopoly capitalism – or imperialism:
[…]
First contradiction: between oppressed nations, on the one hand, and imperialist superpowers and powers on the other. This is the principal contradiction in the current moment and the principal contradiction of the epoch of imperialism at the same time.
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Second contradiction: between proletariat and bourgeoisie.
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Third contradiction: inter-imperialist.” 2
The forceful resurgence of the tireless struggle for national liberation in the 21st century, expressed in a condensed form in the heroic struggle of the Palestinian masses, is a clear demonstration that the World Proletarian Revolution urgently demand for Maoist leadership. For only Maoism can provide leadership to this struggle and lead it to victory against imperialism; this is because it was Maoism that, by establishing the law of contradiction as the sole fundamental law of materialist dialectics, succeeded in demonstrating that imperialism sustains national oppression in the reproduction of semi-feudality in colonial and semi-colonial countries, and thus forged the New Democratic Revolution as the universal form of the Proletarian Revolution in the countries oppressed by imperialism. Maoism will be taken up by these masses to the extent that communists support, directly participate in and lead these struggles. In this sense, the ongoing People’s Wars in Peru, Turkey, India and the Philippines, and those about to initiate, are great bulwarks for the impetus and correct leadership for these struggles.
The Palestinian, Afghan and Ukrainian resistances, despite their national-semifeudal and national-bourgeois leaderships, are spontaneously approaching the postulates of Maoism through the theory of Protracted People’s War, applying it in their own way, because only this way can they strike decisive blows against imperialism. However, this is not enough, it is necessary for these processes to take up Maoism as their ideological-political line and leadership, because only then will they be able to raise their anti-imperialist resistance to a national-democratic revolutionary war uninterrupted toward socialism, the only possible way to defeat and sweep imperialism away from the face of earth. However, this can only be achieved by strengthening the ICM, by constituting and reconstituting Communist Parties in each country in order to initiate and develop the People’s War. With regard to national resistances, it is urgent that communists support them, directly participate in them and in this way fight to provide them with proletarian leadership.
The founding of the ICL is an important step in this direction, as it has made great strides against the danger of dispersion, by unifying 15 Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Parties and Organizations from 14 countries in the same international organization. These include the Communist Party of Peru-PCP and the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist-TKP/ML, which are leading two very important people’s wars in the world. At the same time, the founding of the ICL opens a new stage in the two-line struggle in the ICM. On the one hand, important parties which are leading very important people’s wars but were unable to take part in the UMIC and its preparatory debates such as the Communist Party of the Philippines-CPP and the Communist Party of India (Maoist)-CPI(Maoist) have taken different positions this year on the founding of the ICL and on its Political Declaration and the Principles. On the other hand, organizations that were invited to the Conference took part in the public two-line struggle last year and deliberately decided not to take part in the UMIC and defend their positions there. This latter group includes two organizations that were very close to Avakianism and Prachandaism in the recent past, respectively UOC (MLM) in Colombia and PCm (Italy), which have continued to express the same critical positions towards the UMIC and the then founded ICL.
The two-line struggle around the ICL’s Political Declaration and the Principles, which has been going on throughout 2023, is the continuation, on a new level, of the two-line struggle around the Basis for Discussion that served as the call for the UMIC. There are several differences and nuances in these positions, but among them there are important differences that delineate a demarcation line: those who defend the validity of the New Democratic Revolution and the principality of the contradiction between oppressed nations and peoples versus imperialism; and those who deny the crucial importance of the New Democratic Revolution and relegate the principal contradiction to a secondary condition
On the one hand, the Parties and Organizations participating in the ICL, plus the CPP 3 and CPI(Maoist) openly stand for the proletarian, red line, which fully corresponds to the imperialist stage and the present epoch. On the other side there are the UOC (MLM) and PCm (Italy), who argue that imperialism has swept away the semi-feudal relations of the semi-colonial countries, making the new democratic revolution increasingly outdated. The former represents the defense of Maoism, the universality of the New Democratic Revolution for semi-colonial countries. The latter continue to defend the revisionist modalities of the 21st century, notably Avakianism and Prachandaism. The UOC (MLM) in a more explicit way, the PCm (Italy) in a more cunning and covert way.
The day after the historic announcement of the founding of the ICL, the Communist Workers’ Union (mlm) of Colombia issued a communiqué in which it justified its non-participation in the UMIC to its bases. Shortly afterwards, they published a long document in which they criticized the 15 founding Parties and Organizations of the ICL, and particularly our party, the Communist Party of Brazil (P.C.B.), for alleged “sectarianism and leftism”. In this document, the UOC (MLM) specifically attacks us for allegedly having been treated in a “grotesque and humiliating” way during a visit they made to Brazil in 2016. We will refute this rabid and vile lie in the end, as we consider it more important for the ICM to go into the ideological, philosophical, political, and economic content of the UOC (MLM)’s criticisms to the UMIC and the ICL’s founding parties and organizations. As Chairman Gonzalo teaches us, we must raise the ideological struggle to the level of a two-line struggle in order to eliminate right-wing and “left-wing” opportunist positions and dogmatism, thereby smashing revisionism. The document of the UOC (MLM) attacking the ICL and the P.C.B. in particular, insofar as they defend their position in detail, exposing their understanding of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in such a way that allows us to see their convergence with revisionism and consequent negation of Maoism. For, although they define themselves as “Marxist-Leninist-Maoist”, they openly deny the law of contradiction as the sole fundamental law of dialectics, deny the validity of the new democratic revolution for the colonial/semi-colonial countries, affirming the existence of a supposed progressive tendency in imperialism, deny the decisive importance of the peasant struggle for the revolution in the countries oppressed by imperialism. Colombia is the country with the highest concentration of land in the world, with one of the longest traditions of peasant armed struggle in Latin America, and the leadership of the UOC (MLM) claim that there are practically no peasants left in their country and that the Colombian revolution would be immediately socialist.
A century after its founding, after very hard experiences in the struggle to establish itself as an authentic revolutionary party of the proletariat and especially in the last almost three decades of struggle for its reconstitution as a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, principally Maoist, contributions of universal validity of Chairman Gonzalo, militarized communist party, the P.C.B. in the long process of learning from its own history and international experience, rectifying errors, but always relying on the positive aspects of all international experience, considers that it is necessary and urgent to deal more thoroughly and rigorously with the deviations and prevarications on fundamental questions of Marxism and that are so crucial to the evaluation of the historical experience of the Proletarian Revolution and the International Communist Movement (ICM), particularly these deviations and their prevarications at the present time. In this document, in order to contribute to the two-line struggle on these questions, we do so in the form of a polemic, insofar as the criticisms and attacks by the leadership of the UOC (MLM) on the ICL and the P.C.B., positions which we characterize as Avakianism and Trotskyism, are presented in a more concentrated and explicit form. Throughout the text, in our analysis and arguments, we make use of numerous and lengthy quotations from the classics of Marxism, many of which are already well known to many, but which we have used repeatedly because we consider them to be extremely important in the currently ongoing two-line struggle in the ICM, to lay out its conceptual basis with all scientific rigor and, at the same time, to contemplate to all possible readers and those interested in this struggle, who are concerned on attracting the growing revolutionary activism of the new generations to them, among whom many surely still lack a better grasp of revolutionary theory.
