Revolutionary Worker #919, Aug. 17, 1997
The RW received the following statement from the Information Bureau of the CORIM:
"IT SHOULD BE EMPHATICALLY SAID THAT OUR MOVEMENT IS A PRODUCT OF THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION."--Ibrahim Kaypakkaya, "Critique of the Programme of Shafak."
In these words Comrade Kaypakkaya, the founder of the TKP/ML, pointed to the historic context of the soil which gave rise to this party. The TKP/ML, under the leadership of Comrade Kaypakkaya was founded as part of the new international communist movement, which was born in the great struggle against modern revisionism led by Comrade Mao Tsetung at the time of the Cultural Revolution. From its inception TKP/ML was based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought (which today we call Marxism-Leninism-Maoism).
In 1985, the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement wrote in a message on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the cowardly assassination of Comrade Kaypakkaya by the reactionary Turkish regime in 1973, "Under the leadership of Comrade Mao Tsetung and inspired to a large degree by the GPCR that Comrade Mao Tsetung had initiated, revolutionaries throughout the world launched a fierce struggle against revisionism on the ideological, political and organisational fronts. In most cases this meant a rupture with the old revisionist parties, which had long abandoned even the pretence of revolution, and the creation of new revolutionary parties based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought." The message continued, "In Turkey, it was Comrade Kaypakkaya who led this process in all its aspects. He developed a lucid and devastating critique of revisionism on a whole series of fronts and, furthermore, took the lead in putting this political line into practice--specifically by initiating the first serious attempt to launch a genuine People's War in the history of Turkey." [A World to Win 1985/3]
Since the birth of the TKP/ML, more than once the ideological and political foundations laid down by Comrade Kaypakkaya have come under attack by forces who have raised their heads right from both within the party and without. After the coup in China in 1976 and the ensuing crisis in the ICM, centrist trends grew in the party, and the ideological basis of the party, especially the grasp of Mao's development of our ideology to a qualitatively higher third stage, came under attack. Some, such as the self-proclaimed "Bolsheviks" and other renegades, tried to exploit the high prestige of Comrade Kaypakkaya and hypocritically claimed to defend his legacy while launching an all-out attack against Kaypakkaya's ideological and political line.
The formation of RIM based on its Declaration, a process which TKP/ML was part of, was a great victory of the MLM forces worldwide. It marked a major turning point in the crisis of the ICM and laid the basis for ending the dynamic of disintegration and collapse and moving towards higher unity and the growth of the revolutionary forces. As we wrote in our message of 1985, "Comrade Kaypakkaya did not live to see the great advance and great victory for the world proletariat that is represented by the creation of RIM. RIM, together with other Maoist forces, are the inheritors of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Tsetung, and the formation of this Movement is a precious fruit of the struggle of the proletariat and oppressed people throughout the world. The experience of the proletariat and oppressed peoples of Turkey, of the struggle of Ibrahim and of his successors, is reflected, along with the struggle in different corners of the world, in the Declaration of RIM (and since 1993 also in the RIM document Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!) to which the TKP/ML is a signatory.... Comrades, the most important way of honouring the memory of Comrade Kaypakkaya is by preserving and advancing along the revolutionary road. [Marxism-Leninism-Maoism] is the basic compass which charts the road ahead. It is this basic orientation that is embodied by the Declaration of the RIM. By persevering on this path, strengthening the unity of the proletariat on a world scale as well as its contingents in each country, by striving to correctly assimilate the lessons of the past, we can march ahead victoriously!" [A World to Win 1985/3]
The TKP/ML under the leadership of Comrade Kaypakkaya not only defended Mao and his development of the proletarian ideology but also ruthlessly exposed all false defenders of Mao who tried to take away Mao's proletarian revolutionary essence and leave it as a hollow shell to be used to hoodwink the revolutionary masses. As CORIM emphasised in its message on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Comrade Kaypakkaya's martyrdom [A World to Win 1993/19], Kaypakkaya exposed the reformist, legalist and economist activities of the "Shafak" group who imposed the activities on the masses as "revolutionary mass work." Comrade Kaypakkaya ruthlessly uncovered the poisonous revisionist eclecticism and convincingly argued that "these gentlemen think that by changing the name they can change the content." Comrade Kaypakkaya's observations on revisionist deception are still valid today for understanding political struggles.
Under the leadership of Comrade Ibrahim Kaypakkaya, the TKP/ML was founded on the basis of drawing sharp lines of demarcation with revisionism. His method of crushing eclecticism and making the correct stand out in sharp relief from the incorrect was a result of his thorough-going revolutionary ideology. Without this firm orientation based on the teachings of Marx, Lenin, and Mao Tsetung, the TKP/ML could not have come into existence as a party and a trend.
A firm MLM stand has been called dogmatic and extremist and ridiculed and considered a burden and source of problems by some forces. But the reality is that a lack of sharp political and ideological clarity will eat away at the strengths of any revolutionary party; a diffused and eclectic line will leave the rank and file confused; it will erode the line and practice of the party on all other fronts including the organisational and military fronts; it will push wrong solutions and answers to complicated problems and constantly emerging contradictions in the process of revolutions--problems and contradictions that every revolutionary party will face again and again in its history. Maoism teaches us that we should fight for a correct and clear ideological, political, organisational and military line. And Comrade Kaypakkaya has left a great legacy on this front. This is very important for forging a single strong revolutionary party united in RIM and capable of launching and developing a People's War in Turkey. To lead the masses of Turkey to liberation it is necessary to have a correct political and ideological line, a revolutionary party united around this line, and a revolutionary army to wage a people's war and a revolutionary united front. In the struggle to forge these weapons, the TKP/ML can count on RIM to do its utmost to assist.
Our Movement has advanced experiences on these fronts which all Maoists worldwide should learn from. For example, the experience of the Communist Party of Peru and of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), both part of RIM, show how the restructuring of the party on the basis of a correct political and ideological line has been the decisive factor for being able to initiate a people's war.
The revolutionary optimism of Ibrahim Kaypakkaya is needed very much today to answer defeatist trends in Turkey and around the globe that try to thrive on the problems that revolutions face in order to claim that revolution is not possible. Comrade Kaypakkaya was not only able to recognize the favourable revolutionary situation, he developed the line and practice to unleash the revolutionary potential of the masses.
The proletariat and oppressed masses of Turkey are waging heroic struggles and resistance against the reactionary comprador and feudal classes and their state, which is groomed and protected by the imperialist powers. These reactionaries want to suppress the masses. As part of doing so they hound, torture and kill revolutionary communists as well as try to corrupt them and move them away from the revolutionary interests of the masses. Attempts to undermine the line and heritage of Comrade Kaypakkaya as well as the ideological and political foundations of the TKP/ML and RIM would only strengthen the chains that continue to shackle the masses of Turkey. To uphold the struggle of the basic masses of Turkey for liberation is inseparable from upholding the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist revolutionary line which represents their political interests.
The foundation of the TKP/ML was a great achievement for the proletarian and oppressed masses in Turkey and worldwide. We are confident that the proletarian revolutionaries of the TKP/ML will safeguard this achievement and will boldly face present problems and challenges in order to conquer still higher peaks. In this struggle the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement stands shoulder to shoulder with our comrades of the TKP/ML.
DEVELOP AND STRENGTHEN THE TKP/ML ALONG THE ROAD CHARTED BY COMRADE IBRAHIM KAYPAKKAYA, TIGHTLY UNITED IN RIM!
UNITE AROUND A CORRECT LINE AND DEVELOP A STRONG REVOLUTIONARY ORGANISATION CAPABLE OF LAUNCHING AND DEVELOPING PEOPLE'S WAR AS PART OF THE WORLD REVOLUTION!
STRENGTHEN THE REVOLUTIONARY INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT!
LONG LIVE THE MEMORY OF THE COMRADES WHO HAVE FALLEN IN BATTLE WITH THE REACTIONARY TURKISH STATE!
COMMITTEE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
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