Dare To Take Our Destiny Into Our Own Hands!

May 1st Statement of the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement

Revolutionary Worker #1101, May 6, 2001, posted at http://rwor.org

May First is the day when the class-conscious workers of all countries manifest their proletarian internationalism and reaffirm their common goal of achieving communism throughout the world. The division of the world between imperialist countries and those countries oppressed by them, and arising from this the great unevenness between nations and peoples, is one of the main characteristics of the world imperialist system. In each country the proletariat faces distinct tasks stemming from the differing social conditions, but all these struggles flow together to constitute the World Proletarian Revolution. May First is a magnificent day in which the courage to change the world is tested and tempered.

Today more than ever capitalism is a worldwide system. Capitalism's inner drive to continually expand long ago transformed it into its highest stage, imperialism. These same tendencies now appear as "globalisation"--more of this same imperialism.

However much the reactionaries try to hide it, the collapse of the former Soviet Union and its bloc was not a result of a so-called "crisis of communism" but rather the result of the workings and crisis of the capitalist and imperialist system itself, of which those countries had long been a part. In the ten years since then the U.S. imperialists have had a relatively free hand to impose what they called a "New World Order" or an "age of peace and democracy". But the Gulf War and the fighting in the Caucasus, Rwanda, and ex-Yugoslavia show the true nature of this order. Millions are forced to massacre each other, yet the imperialists call this "peace". The songs of praise to the "free market" which supposedly will benefit people all over the world cannot hide the reality in which hundreds of millions are driven below subsistence levels. The imperialist institutions charged with overseeing this criminal state of affairs, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation, have justly become targets of the people's wrath, and the gatherings of these blood-soaked exploiters in Seattle, Davos, Nice and Prague have been sites of fierce struggle by progressive youth and others within the imperialist countries themselves.

However much the imperialists tout the permanence and stability of their system, in reality it rests on intense and sharpening contradictions. The emerging revolutionary wave in the storm centres of Asia, Africa and Latin America is testimony to the intensity of the principal contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations. The contradictions between the different imperialist powers themselves are again heightening. And within the capitalist and imperialist countries the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie is also sharpening. All this means that there are tremendous opportunities for advancing revolution.

In the world today what stands out starkly is the need for Marxist-Leninist-Maoist leadership of the people's struggles. This is the case in the West where the exciting emergence of a new revolutionary generation is fertile ground for the development of new communist fighters and leaders. In most of the oppressed nations this is also the case.

The Palestinian people continue their heroic Intifada in the face of unequal odds, shrinking from no sacrifice. Neither the betrayal of Arafat nor the smoke and mirrors of the Islamic fundamentalists can smother their struggle. But again we see that without Maoist leadership, it is impossible for this struggle to succeed.

Marxist-Leninist-Maoist leadership is essential for defeating the imperialist-sponsored "political solutions" of the reactionaries. The opportunists and reactionaries preach that there is no alternative to seeking some kind of accommodation with the current unjust imperialist order that they consider to be the stage on which the people must act. The only true political solution to reactionary society is the political power that comes out of the barrels of the guns of the proletariat and the people. Our solution is people's war. The rule of the imperialists of today is no more eternal than the slave empire of Ancient Rome or Hitler's Third Reich. And in the future, humanity will look back at the rulers of today with just as much contempt.

Only genuine Marxist-Leninist-Maoist forces, armed with an ideology and programme that represents a real break with all kinds of class exploitation, can lead a thoroughgoing challenge to the current world order. The masses need Maoist leadership because without it they will not be able to take their destiny into their own hands and transform the world.

In Peru the Communist Party of Peru has fought heroically to overcome the "bend in the road" encountered with the capture of Chairman Gonzalo and to defeat the Right Opportunist Line that emerged in the Party calling for peace accords. The disarray of the Peruvian enemy can be seen in the fleeing of Fujimori and his gang. In these circumstances it is all the more important to seize the occasion to definitively break the vicious isolation in which Chairman Gonzalo has been held for eight years and demand his live presentation to the public. Further, we demand an end to the isolation of Comrade Feliciano and the inhuman conditions of other political prisoners and prisoners of war.

In Nepal the People's War is surging forward and demonstrating the bright future for the world to see. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and its leader, Comrade Prachanda, new political power is being forged in vast areas of western Nepal where several million people reside. The People's War is expanding and deepening simultaneously.

In Turkey, the recent hunger strike by imprisoned fighters of the Communist Party of Turkey (Marxist-Leninist), a participant of RIM, and other revolutionary prisoners has turned the enemy's dungeons into a shining combat trench of revolution. This will no doubt further promote the ongoing armed struggle waged by guerrillas of the TKP(ML), with the perspective of establishing red base areas.

Revolutionary armed struggles in India, Bangladesh and the Philippines waged by Maoist forces are also challenging the reactionary order. The clear truth affirmed by the overall world situation is that a new wave of world proletarian revolution is in the making. In other countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, Colombia, Sri Lanka and the USA, parties and organisations participating in RIM and struggling from the perspective of people's war are striving to put MLM at the head of this new wave. All of this enables us to reaffirm that this will be a century of people's war, propelling us further toward socialism and our final communist goal.

The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement is today the embryonic centre of the world's Maoist forces and fights for the creation of a new Communist International based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the universal and common ideology of the proletariat all over the globe. The oppressed masses need this ideology and they need communist organisation based upon it. To serve the people, be it in Palestine or Indonesia, Brazil or South Korea, or anywhere else in the world where the masses are struggling without a communist vanguard, means bringing the light of MLM into these struggles. It means that the masses will no longer just yearn for revolution but be able to transform their hatred for oppression and hopes for a different kind of society into an organised revolutionary onslaught, a people's war that can finally turn their dreams into reality.

On the 17th anniversary of its formation, the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement salutes May 1st 2001 with our communist enthusiasm and our pledge to do everything in our power to accelerate the pace of the world revolution. Together with the masses the world over we reaffirm that "We only want the earth!"

This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
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