Revolutionary Worker #1238, May 1, 2004, posted at http://rwor.org
From the standpoint of turning the world rightside up, the founding of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, 20 years ago, was a great event--and a starting point for struggle to meet challenges today.
RIM united a significant number of Marxist-Leninist-Maoists in the world--and with an eye toward the future goal of a new communist international. This represented a crucial regrouping of Maoist forces at a decisive and very difficult time for the international communist movement. The formation of RIM was accomplished only a few short years after a coup in China reversed the gains of Maoist revolution and proceeded on the hell-bent path of restoring capitalism--and trashing the idea of Maoist revolution in the world. As the RIM's founding Declaration pointed out in 1984, "Today ...the forces fighting for a revolutionary line are a small minority encircled and attacked by revisionists and bourgeois apologists of all stripes. Nevertheless, these forces represent the future." The truth of that bold assessment stands out today, 20 years later.
The struggle for a MLM force to change the world deepened through the '80s and into the '90s. RIM advanced and sharpened its ideological unity. And RIM parties and organizations developed through tenacious and stirring efforts to develop revolutionary struggles around the world. An important expression of this was the people's war in Peru, which advanced greatly in that country until the capture of its leader, Chairman Gonzalo, and the development of a right opportunist line against continuing the people's war--all of which has posed the acute challenge for the Party there of forging the means for continuing on the revolutionary road. At the same time, on a world level, another challenge was posed: A new wave of "death of communism" rolled out with the collapse of the Soviet Union--which had long been exposed by Maoists as phony communist and, in reality, a capitalist/ imperialist power. In the face of this there was a need to stand up for the truth, relevance, and vitality of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Once again, there was sharp struggle to uphold our socialist project, and a liberating science of MLM--struggle which had to be waged even inside the RIM itself against those who were swept along in this tide. This struggle remains relevant down to today.
Today, the RIM's accomplishments, and the challenges before it, can be seen right in the immediate situation in Nepal, where the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), a participating party in the RIM, has led an eight-year-long people's war which is now approaching a struggle for countrywide power. Nepal, a small country, threatens to shake the South Asian subcontinent by inspiring hundreds of millions of oppressed. This revolution in Nepal is viciously opposed by reactionary states worldwide--from India all the way to the U.S.
These reactionaries are mobilizing their forces for even greater attacks on Maoist revolution in Nepal, and attacks on all who would dare stand in support of this great rising of the masses of Nepalese people who are struggling for a socialist future as part of a vision of worldwide communism. The RIM dares to rise to this challenge; and parties and organizations of the RIM are building political support among the masses of people living right inside those powers who would attack the Nepalese revolution--again, from India all the way to the U.S.
The RCP,USA has been part of these struggles in the RIM, and gladly takes up its responsibility to do all it can, facing all reactionary attacks, to advance the revolutionary struggle in the U.S., to work to strengthen the RIM, and to develop the heartfelt enthusiasm and deep support among the people for the revolutionary struggles led by the Maoists of the world.
And today, there are also important challenges in other dimensions, which the RIM is rising--and must rise--to meet. There are new conditions, and new challenges, facing revolutionary strategy, and revolutionary theory as well--- for MLM to meet head on. There are the great changes and dislocations the imperialist system has increasingly brought to the planet--forcing millions from countryside to cities, and even from their homelands to the rich countries where they are viciously exploited and persecuted. Building on Maoist foundations, how can revolutionaries understand the meaning of this for revolutionary strategy? What about the rise of religious fundamentalism in the world...how to develop the strength of the revolutionary, scientific, and emancipating attracting force of MLM revolution in the face of this challenge, too? And there is another, decisive task for those who would strive to mobilize the masses to change the world: How to sum up the experience of our first wave of socialist revolutions in the world, up through the defeat of Mao's forces in China; defend their great and liberating achievements; and learn from the mistakes of these great pioneering projects--and to further develop our MLM understanding of communism itself, and of the socialist transition to communism? RIM, from its founding Declaration, has pointed to the close link between the defense of MLM and its further creative development. Standing on this foundation, this process urgently cries out for advance. This is a common, worldwide challenge marking the path ahead for RIM's much-needed advance.
As Mao said, "Marxism is a wrangling ism." To forge answers to these pressing questions, there are great contributions to be made in the collective efforts of the parties and organizations of RIM. And in this dimension, too, the RCP,USA is determined to make its best contribution, As we see it, a vital aspect of this is engaging in this international process with the body of work and method and approach that RCP Chairman Bob Avakian has been developing over a number of years--work whose central themes, we believe, are an important resource for and an important part of what the international movement should take up in confronting and answering these important questions of MLM strategy and theory, which pose decisive challenges for the common advance of RIM and for the world proletarian revolution in this time of great upheaval.
The force that RIM represents--the emancipating force of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism--must stand on its great foundations, and develop greatly, in theory and in practice, to bring another world to birth--a socialist and, finally, communist world.
Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement