Revolutionary Worker #1003, April 25, 1999
We received this statement from the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement:
This year the international proletariat is holding the last May Day of the century. As was the case at the turn of the last century, there is no part of the globe where our class has power. Yet our class has gained the experience of carrying out successful proletarian revolutions and building socialism in vast areas of the world. In the passing century, our class fought the most momentous battles of humanity's entire history, battles that changed the course of history completely. Our class carried out three earth-shaking revolutions to establish socialist countries and move the world to a new epoch of communism: the October revolution in Russia in 1917, the October revolution in China in 1949, and finally the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, begun in 1966. It was in the process of these epic battles and in the midst of these momentous proletarian revolutions that the revolutionary science of Marxism was enriched and became Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM).
Today, we have lost both our great socialist bastions where the proletariat held power. World imperialism and new capitalist classes within these socialist states fought tooth-and-nail to overthrow proletarian rule, first in Russia in 1956 and then in China in 1976 in the aftermath of Mao Tsetung's death. These defeats, as well as our victories in revolution and socialist construction, concentrate the two opposite poles, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, of the present epoch--the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. Standing at the threshold of the 21st century, the capitalist/imperialist system continues its restless and ruthless pursuit of profit--subjecting the majority of the world's people to vicious exploitation, squeezing their labor, stealing their very lives, promoting a dog-eat-dog mentality and carrying out extermination, mass murder and the enslavement of entire peoples to protect its profit machine. Our class worldwide is fighting to abolish bourgeois rule and to establish proletarian rule once again in as many parts of the world as possible, to establish socialist states as base areas in the larger fight for a whole world without classes--communism.
Imperialism has not and cannot do away with the material basis for proletarian revolution. Even today, when U.S. imperialism is boasting of its success, conditions for huge sections of people in large parts of the world are sharply deteriorating. Even in the most advanced imperialist countries, unemployment, homelessness, and state brutality are on the rise. Today's situation can only worsen for the masses, as new waves of crisis inevitably sweep through the imperialist system. The East Asia crisis is a taste of what is in store around the world.
But the masses are resisting imperialism's vicious exploitation and oppression. The reactionary client states of imperialism in the Third World are fortifying their police states, but still are facing new waves of struggle and resistance from the people, which have already led to the collapse of long-established reactionary regimes, such as in Indonesia and Zaire.
The imperialists develop their international "policing" apparatuses to hound and bully the revolutionaries, as when they kidnapped the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. But this repression only fuels the flames of anger and revolt and breeds new generations of revolutionaries around the world.
At the same time, too often and in too many countries the struggling masses are leaderless and fight blindly, without the liberating ideology of MLM. This only makes it easier for bourgeois and reformist forces to derail their struggle and betray their hopes, ultimately trading the sacrifices of the masses for a share of power in the reactionary system. In contrast to that stands the People's Wars in Peru and Nepal and the advance of armed struggle under the leadership of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties more generally--this constitutes real progress towards our goal of winning state power for the proletariat. Yet these advances, however crucial, are still not commensurate with the international proletariat's goal of "winning the world." In most countries of the world there is still no vanguard proletarian party to lead the rebellion of the masses towards genuine revolution and the establishment of new socialist states. This great weakness is related to the restoration of capitalism in the ex-socialist states and the degeneration of communist parties into the swamp of revisionism and reformism in many parts of the world. To reverse this trend, 15 years ago Maoist forces from around the world formed the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) as their embryonic center. The formation of RIM was a product of going against the tide of revisionism and opportunism that engulfed the international communist movement in the aftermath of Mao's death and the restoration of capitalism in China in 1976. Many communist parties followed the Chinese revisionists and ended up betraying the proletariat, and many others were caught up in confusion and centrism between revolution and reformism. But the parties and organizations who went against the tide and took the bold step of forming RIM as a step towards forming a new Communist International fought vigorously to overcome this crisis and re-build the international communist movement on the basis of MLM. This process has prepared and steeled the MLM forces to organize and lead the coming waves of world revolution. RIM must be further strengthened to be able to spread Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to every corner of the planet and to help form new MLM organizations and parties wherever they do not exist. Building and strengthening such vanguards is a burning task if the coming waves of revolution are to yield real advances on the road to communism.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the earth-shaking revolution in China in 1949, led by Mao Tsetung, which freed a quarter of humanity from the clutches of semi-feudalism and imperialism. The legacy of proletarian revolution is a nightmare for the capitalist/imperialist powers and their reactionary clients in the Third World. But it is a source of power and inspiration for the proletarians and oppressed. RIM calls upon the proletarians and oppressed peoples the world over, especially all MLM parties and organizations, to mark the end of the 20th century by celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Chinese revolution in a resounding way and by proudly reaffirming the "old" idea that the proletarians around the world must resort to (in the words of the Communist Manifesto) the "forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions." With power in its hands, the proletariat can embark upon building a new world in which no private property is used to exploit the labor power of the workers, in which no division of labor can be a source of privilege for some and misery for others, in which no difference of race or sex can be the cause of social superiority, and where, at last, humanity, unfettered by classes, can enter into voluntary association in order to create wealth and well-being for all.
Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Victory of Revolution in China!
Down with Imperialism and Reaction!
Form MLM parties wherever they do not exist!
Fight for power for the proletariat and people-- Towards a new communist world!
Long live People's War in Peru, Nepal and around the world!
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