For a Century of People's Wars!
Forward towards the Victory
of Socialism and Communism!Revolutionary Worker #1054, May 14, 2000
The following statement was formally adopted by the participating parties and organisations of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement.
So, the imperialists and their lackeys want us to celebrate the coming of a new millennium. Very well, but whose? A millennium of these parasites or of the people who have created everything? And how should we celebrate? By waiting upon them in their banquet halls as they gorge on the fruits of our labour and dance on floors strewn with skulls of their victims to the screaming accompaniment of war machines, even now spewing death and devastation? And should we forget their centuries of inhuman exploitation, wars of conquest, plunder, condemnation of billions to unimaginable misery, genocide, Auschwitzes and Hiroshimas? Should we stand in awe, as they wish we would, gaping at their gadgets, numbed by their shrill propaganda of promises for the meek?
History, for all oppressors, starts with their own reign of oppression. Thus they vainly try to immortalise their fleeting existence by freezing time and stamping it with their arbitrary wills. But the march of humanity is relentless. History shows us how both crowns and calendars were unceremoniously swept aside by the necessary agenda of class struggle, inevitably imposing itself through twists and turns. This is how it was and this is how it will be until exploitation and oppression are eliminated once and for all.
So what does this calendar show? Heroic sagas, not of emperors or saints, but of the wretched of the earth. Rebellions and revolts, now here, now there, crushed and crucified, but nevertheless bursting out relentlessly. Ripping apart the lies of religious pacifiers. Shattering the peace of rulers. For centuries, the oppressed had dreamed and hoped for some end to their misery and suffering. In the very midst of abject existence and drudgery they cherished memories of long-gone societies free of exploitation. Lively expressions of art and music pulsed with their dreams of a new dawn. They rose up against oppression, fought the masters, and sought a new life. Let us not forget, it was this struggle, this ceaseless striving for an end to brutal exploitation and inhuman existence that propelled humanity's advance. But the fruits of their struggles were never theirs. Appropriated by new exploiters, the very winds of freedom became new chains of thraldom.
It took many millennia of struggle and violent reconstitutions of societies before the final answer was brought forth-the proletariat. Born of capitalism and destined to be its gravedigger. The last class, an internationalist class. A class which could liberate itself only by emancipating the whole of humanity. The emergence of the proletariat and its struggles also brought forth its ideology-Marxism. A masterful synthesis of struggles, ideas and experiences, all to serve this class and its historical mission. The tortuous course of human history now revealed itself in its logical grandeur, the history of class struggle. The claims to permanence of the exploiters stood exposed as wretched pretensions of a dying order. The march of humanity could now become conscious, daring assaults on their bastions of reaction. Let us recall some of the red days in this calendar up until the end of the 19th century: the Communist Manifesto, the founding of the First International, the publication of Capital which laid bare the workings of the capitalist system and its inevitable doom, the heroic days of the Paris Commune, the founding of the Second International which declared May 1st International Workers Day and March 8th as International Women's Day, the fight for the 8-hour workday. All this in a span of barely 50 years! Which class in history has achieved so much in so short a span of time? And these were just the opening shots.
What about the imperialists and their lackeys who, just as they do today, were arrogantly celebrating the birth of their 20th century? The imperialists looked around them and saw a world held down by their jackboots. Their bayonets for the rapacious thrusts of finance capital were tearing up Africa, Asia and Latin America. War had disappeared from the face of Europe. The revisionists in the Second International were busy fixing deals with the masters and leashing in the rage of the working class. An unparalleled period of super-profits and growth was heralded. So this was how the world looked to the imperialists in 1900.
Less than two decades later it was to blow up in their face. War ravaged Europe. Crowns were rolling in the street. The October revolution gave birth to the socialist Soviet Union and its salvoes brought Marxism-Leninism, the second stage of Marxism, to the oppressed peoples of the world. The Third International rose up tearing down the maze of class collaboration built up by the revisionists. With political power in their hands the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union began building a whole new kind of socio-economic system which unleashed an explosion of the growth of the productive forces. The factories and fields were no longer chains on the working masses but tools in their hands to transform society. Socialist construction in the Soviet Union started to reveal the road to a society free from exploitation.
The imperialists succeeded in stamping out the flames of revolution and national liberation in most countries. They boasted of containing revolution. But there was no lasting peace for them. Instead what they got was depression, fascism, another world war and more revolutions. The victory of the Chinese revolution liberated one fourth of humanity, charted the road to achieve new democratic revolution in the oppressed nations and gave the proletarians throughout the world their developed military science-people's war. The socialist camp emerged with one third of the world's population. Despite all attempts by the imperialists and their lackeys to crush the liberation struggles of the oppressed peoples and deceive them with the drama of granting "independence", the oppressed nations continued as the storm centres of world proletarian revolution. Under the leadership of Mao Tsetung an unprecedented revolutionary upheaval took place, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, in which tens of millions of workers, peasants and revolutionary youth beat back the capitalist-roaders and took great strides in transforming the society in the direction of the communist future, when all class distinctions and the vestiges of class exploitation will be completely eliminated.
"But that is all old stories", imperialism, reaction and revisionism howl in unison. First we grabbed your Soviet Union and then we recaptured Red China too, they say. Look, the imperialists tell us, now the world is surely theirs and the coming centuries belong to them. Well, we've heard their arrogant swaggering before. Didn't they say this after butchering the Communards of Paris, only to scurry, just a few decades later, from the battlefields of Red October in Russia? Didn't they say this when the revisionist curs usurped power in socialist Soviet Union? And didn't they run, bloodied from head to foot, when the powerful storms of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China spread Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the new, third and higher stage of proletarian ideology, all over the world and sparked off a high tide of revolutionary upsurges and rebellions?
Even now as the imperialists and reactionaries arrogantly boast of their victory, Maoist people's wars are delivering sharp blows, advancing through twists and turns. More people's wars are in the making. Marxist-Leninist-Maoists, united in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, are marching forward to impose Maoism as the commander and guide of the emerging new wave of world proletarian revolution. Maoism is being embodied by Communist parties to drive and lead this new great wave. The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement is present through participating parties and organisations, candidate organisations and supporters in the four corners of the earth-from Iran to Colombia, from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the United States and Italy, from Turkey and Afghanistan to India as well as in parts of Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and Europe. In Peru and Nepal the proletariat led by Maoist vanguard parties united in RIM has once again established red political power of the masses in vast rural areas.
Remote? Insignificant? Certainly not for the class conscious proletariat and the oppressed and exploited throughout the world. These inspiring victories in Peru and Nepal are only as remote as Yenan was. They were won through fierce struggle to uphold, defend and apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, shedding blood in the cause of the people and defeating brutal campaigns of encirclement and suppression by the enemies. The battle of "restoration/counter-restoration" has been joined in Peru and Nepal as the reactionaries try to stamp out the people's red political power and the people's wars are fighting to defend and expand the base areas where the rule of the people prevails.
The guns roaring in the hands of the Maoist-led peasant guerrillas of the TKP(ML) striving to establish red bases in Turkey. The formation and strengthening of Maoist parties united in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement in the oppressed nations. The revolutionary armed struggles led by Maoist and revolutionary forces, outside as well as inside RIM, in the Philippines, India, Bangladesh and other countries. The "revolutionary mole" digging away in the bellies of the imperialist monsters through the building and strengthening of Maoist parties in those countries. The signs are clear for those who want to see.
The future is bright. But, of course, the path is tortuous. We Maoists are not afraid of this. We are disciples of Mao Tsetung who has taught us, "Nothing is hard in this world, if you dare to scale the heights." The glorious achievements of our advanced detachment in Peru are a vibrant testimony to his words. The Communist Party of Peru faced a difficult situation following the capture of its Chairman in 1992. But the joy of the enemies was shattered by Chairman Gonzalo himself through his powerful and inspiring speech of September 24, 1992 delivered from prison. Demonstrating the materialist strength of revolutionary optimism and communist morale, he pointed out that this blow was nothing more than a "bend in the road" and declared "The road is long and we shall arrive. We shall triumph!" The PCP has persevered on the path of people's war, in the face of the enemies' suppression; it has smashed the vicious attacks of a Right Opportunist Line which collaborates with the enemy and calls for ending the war through a "peace accord" as well as the enemy's propaganda that Chairman Gonzalo has himself called for "peace accords", a claim for which there is no proof and which the PCP has denounced as a hoax.
In the continuing situation of the harsh and absolute isolation of Chairman Gonzalo, the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, in its Call of March 1995, "Rally to the Defence of Our Red Flag Flying in Peru" rejecting the Right Opportunist Line, pointed out, "...one cannot accept indirect and unverifiable communications attributed to Chairman Gonzalo as representative of his thinking...the fight must continue for an end to his isolation." The revolutionary masses all over the world know well enough that the Fujimori regime, denounced by the PCP as fascist, genocidal and country-selling, is notorious for its genocide, fabricated lies, etc.
Following the red line of Chairman Gonzalo the PCP has defended, persisted in and developed the People's War and today in the face of the capture of Comrade Feliciano, Comrade Julio is heading the PCP Central Committee. It has announced that the People's War is now coming out of the "bend in the road" within the stage of strategic equilibrium and continues its relentless march towards the conquest of power in the whole country. The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement has mobilised world-wide campaigns in support of the People's War in Peru, to defend the life of Chairman Gonzalo and repudiate the Right Opportunist Line. In view of reports on the increased danger to his life the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement joins the PCP and Peruvian people in demanding that the Fujimori regime present Chairman Gonzalo before the international and national televised press, that he be allowed to make a statement, live. It reaffirms its determination to carry forward the struggle to support the People's War and defend the life of Chairman Gonzalo-and linked to that, now, the life of Comrade Feliciano as well.
If the imperialists and their lackeys dreamt that the People's War in Peru could be contained, they now have another spectre: the Himalayas are aflame. The People's War initiated by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) under the leadership of Comrade Prachanda is sweeping forward confronting the enemy head on in fierce battles. All the monsters and their lackeys have desperately clubbed up to stave off the doom of the reactionary regime in Nepal. U.S. imperialism and Indian expansionism are playing a particularly sinister role in assisting the Nepalese regime in its genocidal campaigns of suppression. The reactionary states of Israel, Sri Lanka and Peru are also involved. Yet the People's War advances. Already 2 million people are beginning to build a new future in vast areas in which the enemy's grip has been broken. Led by the Party they are building new organs of power, defending and expanding them with guns snatched from the enemy. No doubt, the path ahead is not smooth. No momentous historical advance has been smooth. Armed with the weapon of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism the People's War will persist and win, in its turn inspiring the people of other countries, particularly in South Asia, to wage war against imperialism and reaction.
So where did we leave the imperialists and their lackeys? Yes, their future, their promises. Their bragging that Marxism, the dictatorship of the proletariat, socialism, and the communist party have been defeated with the collapse of the social-imperialist Soviet Union. Their assertion that Western-democracy and capitalism are leading to a new age of prosperity. But can they deny the fact that what disintegrated in the social-imperialist Soviet Union was nothing other than bankrupt revisionism, that the promise of capitalism has delivered nothing more than misery to the millions who were already being ground down by social imperialism? What has come about is not peace but wars unleashed by reactionaries and fanned by imperialist rivalry. What is emerging is not world peace but new imperialist centres of rivalry.
Between the two trends of revolution and world war, revolution is the main trend in the world today. The principal contradiction is between imperialism and the oppressed peoples and nations. In the midst of instability, wars and rebellions the imperialists are busy staking out claims and counting profits. But we communists see new opportunities for the proletariat and the masses to reclaim their socialist legacy by forging new Maoist parties which will initiate, develop and lead people's wars to victory. We will do this in both kinds of countries, the countries dominated by imperialism and in the imperialist citadels, in accordance with the specific conditions of each country. It will happen.
What about their pious claims that the free market is leading to a new era of peace and prosperity? Let's look at facts. At the start of the 19th century the average standard of living in the richest countries was only about three times higher than in the poorest countries. In 1900 it was about six times higher. Now it is about 20 times higher. Imperialist spokespersons point to the improvements in healthcare and life expectancy. While the most advanced and costly treatments are available to the wealthy in the West, 40,000 children die every day in the Third World countries from preventable diseases. In the United States itself more than one child in ten lives in extreme poverty. More than 35 million people suffer from varying degrees of hunger.
And what about their hi-tech revolution? Has it given results? Well, yes, one individual, Bill Gates, has amassed wealth equivalent to the GNP of dozens of the world's poorest countries combined. Consider the internet. Many had illusions that it would lead to a new era of global people-to-people democracy. But today it is increasingly clear that overwhelmingly it is a means to connect together a vast high-speed capitalist marketplace. Under this system, the technology and knowledge that humanity has built up over countless generations is not used to liberate humanity, but to enrich those who appropriate such technology. The wealth and knowledge produced by the world's peoples can never be used to serve the people themselves so long as a minority owns and controls the world's resources, so long as this minority of exploiters wield political power.
There's an old poem by an Irish revolutionary-"We Only Want the Earth". That's it. That's all the proletariat and toiling masses demand. Is that unjust? Look at the blind forces of imperialism-shredding humanity, laying to waste the whole globe, in greedy pursuit of profits. Look at the reactionary rulers in the oppressed nations-selling out the people and the land to imperialist masters so they can fill their bank accounts and wallow in filthy luxury. Look at the state of humanity-class, national, gender, racial, ethnic, caste oppression, chauvinism, religious bigotry, child labour, trade in human flesh, brutal forms of feudal servitude, lives ground into unbelievable misery. Look at the creative power of the people, at the immense capacity of the productive forces straining on the leashes of an irrational, inhuman system. Enough. We want the world, all of it, and that's just. We, the Maoists, united in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, resolutely declare our determination to rise to the responsibilities posed by this just demand of the exploited and oppressed masses all over the world. Yes, together with the people, relying on them and serving them, we will lead in making the 21st century a century of people's wars, marching ahead to the glorious future of communism.
LONG LIVE THE PROLETARIAN WORLD REVOLUTION!
LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM!
LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE'S WARS!
MOVE HEAVEN AND EARTH TO DEFEND THE LIFE OF CHAIRMAN GONZALO!
ESTABLISH THE REVOLUTIONARY INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN THE HEARTS OF THE OPPRESSED!
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
May 1st, 2000
Ceylon Communist Party (Maoist)
Communist Party of Afghanistan
Communist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist-Leninist)[BSD(ML)]
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
Communist Party of Peru
Communist Party of Turkey Marxist-Leninist [TKP ML]
Marxist-Leninist Communist Organization of Tunisia
Proletarian Party of Purba Bangla (PBSP) [Bangladesh]
RedWorker Communist Organisation [Italy]
Revolutionary Communist Group of Colombia
Revolutionary Communist Party USA
Union of Communists of Iran (Sarbedaran)(In addition to the above list of participating parties and organisations of RIMthere are candidate participants of RIMin a number of countries struggling to form vanguard Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties.)
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