International Newsletter

DEFEND MARXISM-LENINISM AND MAO ZEDONG THOUGHT

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31st of July 2006 Publisher: Joint Coordinating Group (JCG) No. 31
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Content Let the Communists of Imperialists Countries Unite

Principles of the their Forces for the Rebirth of Communist Movement!
International Conference....................... 2 Preparatory Committee for a (new) CPI Italy ...............32

30 Years after A Torrent of Liberation is Opening its Way through

The Fascist Coup D`Etat
Revolutionary Communist Party
of Argentina (PCRA) .................................3
Mao’s Legacy in China’s Current
Development
Pao Yu Ching, China .............................. 9
What the Elections in 2006 are
All About
Shambuyi Kalala CPL, Congo.............. 13
The Government on the Defensive:
Workers’ Offensive against Precarious
Existence
OCML Voie prolétarienne, France....... 17
and Unity is an Imperative for the Victory!
Partido Comunista del Perú (Marxista Leninista)........40
Let’s Strengthen Balkanian Movement of Struggle
Partija Rada Serbia-Montenegro...................................43
Fight to Hasten the Ouster of Arroyo Regime and
Strengthen the Revolutionary Movement
Communist Party of Philippines (CPP)4.......................44
Solidarity with the Struggle for Liberation in the
Philippines- Resolution .................................................48
Conference of Communist and Workers’ Parties
of the Balkans –
Announcement from 26th of July 2005 ..........................49

The Significance of Building up an Joint Declaration

International United Front for Saving the 5th Meeting of Revolutionary and Anti-imperialist
Environment from the Greed for Profit Parties, Movements and Organizations
Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany in South America............................................................50
(MLPD).................................................. 19
Tabare and Hernandarias II
The Publication of Cartoons on Partito Comunista Revolucionary del Uruguay ............54
Prophet Mohammed
The 8th Congress of the Bolshevik Party
CPI(ML) India....................................... 25
(Northern Kurdistan -Turkey):
Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan-Turkey) ...................56
Revolutionary Greetings to Heroic
People Making Anti-Bush Protest
The Iraqi National Liberation Movement
Action
and the World Proletarian Revolution
CPI (ML) India...................................... 27
Ray O. Light, USA ..........................................................59
On International Working
Information ....................................................................65
Women’s Day
CPI(ML) New Democracy, India .......28
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Mailing Address: T. Scheller, P.O. Box 131058, D-70068 Stuttgart, Germany
Fax: 49-711-9979571, Email: int.co@t-online.de, www.icmlpo.de
Price per copy: US$ 5.00 – Euro 5.00 €
Financial contributions should be sent to:
Landesbank Baden Württemberg, Germany, IBAN DE 45 600 501 01 000 76 38 578, T. Scheller
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International Newsletter No. 31 31st July 2006

The International Conference is a forum of Marxist-Leninist parties and

organizations.
Participation in the International Conference is based on the following main
criteria.

• Adherence to Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought and their creative

application in the conduct of the class struggle in each country.
• Struggle against modern revisionism, and a positive attitude towards Stalin and
Mao.
• Acceptance of the Rules of the Conference.

The 4th Conference adopted the following principles on which the cooperation of
the participating Marxist-Leninist organizations is based, which were amended and
again adopted at the 8th Conference:

• Independence and equality, mutual respect, mutual support and cooperation.

• Non-interference in internal affairs as well as in the bilateral or regional
relations or any party or organization with other parties and organizations.
Every organization is sovereign in its conclusions.
• Consensus and unanimity in decision-making.
• Achieve gradual unity step by step; principled debate and cooperation among
parties/organizations and no public attack by any party/organization on another.
• Obligation of all participating organizations to prepare and conduct the 9th
International Conference jointly in accordance with their possibilities.
• Financial independence and self-financing of the common work according to the
possibilities.

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International Newsletter No. 31
30 Years After The Fascist Coup D´ Etat
Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR) of Argentina
Out of “Theory and Practice”, theoretical organ of PCRA
Thirty years have passed by since the harmful
fascist coup d´etat on march 24th, 1976. This is the
reason why the debate on its causes, political
contents, resistance and withdrawal of
dictatorship has been intensified. This controversy
joins the discussions about the problems that the
popular field is facing today.
So it is very important to clarify main facts, that
are hidden or distorted by the media that are under
the control of oligarchic and imperialist interests
that made part of the dictatorial front.
Misinformation and confusion were and are fed by
those that claiming themselves as leftists have
spread the idea that we had to associate to the
Soviets in order to get rid of the Yankees and so
they worked for the coup d´etat and sew illusions
on Videla-Viola.
We invite our readers to look up Otto
Vargas´speech about the struggle against the coup
d´etat and the dictatorship in the RCP meeting in
March 16th (Hoy 1108); the contribution Ten years
in Argentine politics (1973-1983) in P&T nº 1; in
the RCP Program ; in the book that Editorial
Agora has just published about the 70´s: The plot
of an antagonic Argentina- since the Cordobazo
till the end of the dictatorship,
Hereunder we shall approach this controversial
issues.
What did the coup d´etat come to
Ruling classes spokesmen uphold the idea that the
coup d´etat came to fulfill “a vacant power” that
was generated by Isabel Peron´s inability to rule
and the influence of López Rega on her, while the
so called “subversion” widespread and economic
crisis exploded.
On other hand, the leadership or the Communist
Party (CP) stated that “ main responsibility lies
over Maria Estela Martinez de Peron”, as Orestes
Ghioldi emphasized in his report on76/06/08. And
he added: “ This movement (¡) in march 24th has
some features that make it different from the
previous... the United States had to admit- against
their common practice- this
different type of coup d´etat because the
“pinochetazo” was not ready yet”.
This political line badly damaged working class
and people movements. Roque Romero who was
Deputy Secretary at the SMATA (Córdoba) led by
Rene Salamanca recently remembered that he had
to make the debate on the struggle against the coup
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31st of July 2006
d´etat in Resistencia City jail. “ There were fellows
Montoneros, or from the ERP, or other political
forces. On December 1975, Yankees sector
attempted a coup d´etat. Many fellows prisoners
cheered and applauded this attempt, they said that
a dictatorship with “progressive” militaries was
coming. We always told them that there are not
good or bad dictatorships, that they are always
established to repress people. They also cheered
and applauded in march 24th, 1976 when the coup
d´etat. In March 25th, at night, several cells were
opened in the jail and fellows that were fighters of
the popular field, were taken out to be executed
and I remember one of those guys shouting: ¡
Lanusse, traitor son of a bitch!.
Now, thirty years after, those who pushed that
political line try to make us believe that the
dictatorship was a magnified version of Isabel
Peron´s government. Peronist government did not
control the key power points of the State. They
remained in the hands of the oligarchy and
imperialism. It was a national bourgeoisie
government,. It was weak and heterogeneous.
Ruling classes estimulated as well the lack of
provision of food for the people as the inflation.
Most important participant of the coup d´etat as
Videla (Chief of the Army), Viola (Chief of Army
Staff), Harguindeguy (Chief of the Federal Police),
Calabró (Buenos Aires Province governnor) made
use of their power positions in order to promote the
isolation of Isabel Peron and prepared the coup
d´etat. They covered the whole country with anti-
subversion operations and combed the areas
keeping the military device ready for the coup.
Government had right wing sectors as the one led
by López Rega , that along with the activities of a
big part of trade unions and political leaders on
behalf the coup d´etat made easier the isolation and
division of the worker and popular movements.
Isabel Peron´s government, by nature, adopted
measures in favor of national interests as the
nationalization of the ITT and of the gas stations
owned by Shell and Esso. She did not agree with
the IMF and did not ratify agreements signed by
Gelbard with the Soviet Union in Moscow that
were heading to an “economic complement” with
that former superpower. Also she made
concessions to the workers as the Law of Labour
Agreement, collective agreements. She granted
special credit lines for median and poor peasants.
On the other hand, she relied on reactionary sectors
International Newsletter No. 31
taking repressive measure (estimulated by those
who were plotting) against the working class and
the people and that contributed to her isolation and
discredit.
Juan Perón has led the government during last
months of his life ( he died on July 1st, 1974) and
he was fought by the pro- socialimperialist forces
that used to be his allies – in a complex process of
unity and struggle – when he wanted to return to
the country. Pro- socialimperialist sectors became
hegemonic during Lanusse´s dictatorship in 1971.
Argentine working class has made very important
advances since 1969 up to March 1976. They
wanted to advance more but with Peron´s
leadership. They thought this was the way to save
themselves from suffering and bloodshed.
Working class had illusions on Peron, but most of
all they were clutched to Peron and peronism- that
kept being the main electoral, trade unionist and
political force in the country- in order to avoid a
violent path. “ If Peron does not work for this
country, nobody will do it” many workers used to
think. They wanted to go further than Peron did,
especially since the great combat in 1969, but they
did not dare to advance without him yet.
After his dead and with Isabel Peron as president
pro-soviet sectors tried to surround and to imprison
her attacking Lopez Rega, that was the person that
Peron has used to make the dirty works.(1). Isabel
and a part of Peronism resisted and the plans for a
“bordaberrizacion” (2) and the institutional (
placing Luder (3) as president) coup d´etat failed
so they started to prepare the open coup d´etat
where in a wide Front pro-sovietic, pro-yankis,
pro-european and domestic fascist sectors
converged. Pro-sovietic oligarchic forces were
hegemonic in this dictatorial front in a very tough
dispute with their rivals. Despite their policy of
dividing the dictatorial front in “toughs” and
“softs”, pro-sovietics headed the bloody repression
against the sectors that had been used for the coup.
In different moments of the battle within the
dictatorial front, the hegemonic sector was hardly
hit as in the case of the Griver scandal by the end
of 1976, beginning of 1977 and with Viola´s
removal 1981 due to the economic crisis.
Ruling classes overthrew Isabel Peron´s
constitutional government because it was an
obstacle for their projects.
The coup d´etat had as objective to set in blood and
fire the process of the revolutionary peak of the
masses that was opened in 1969 with the
Cordobazo where working class was in the core.
During t previous months, newspapers as La
Prensa and others warned on the “danger” of the
“soviets” in the factories. Their fear for the
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31st of July 2006
strengthening of delegates councils among urban
and rural workers grew . A very important day for
the class-consciousness movement was January 12,
1976 when a workers assembly was made at the
Renault factory, in Santa Isabel (Cordoba), with
the presence of Cordoba’s Minister of Domestic
Affairs. Workers criticized the 3rd Army Corp
because they have not assisted to a meeting in the
plant as it was required to explain the arrest of the
SMATA Córdoba leaders and the arrest warrant
for Rene Salamanca and other fellow workers.
Among the 30.000 missing- imprisoned cowardly
murdered by the dictatorship there are thousands
and thousands of worker representatives, delegates,
peasants, barrio and students leaders, also artists,
journalist, intellectuals and others. Many other
thousands were savagely tortured and suffered long
years of imprisonment as hostages of the
dictatorship.
Magnitude and depth of the fascist terror is useful
in order to measure the extend and profundity of
the revolutionary movement that has developed
between 1969 and 1976. In an editorial article on
the 30th Anniversary of the coup d´etat, La
Nacion re-estates that “ we can not forget the
“anarchy” and “vacant power” that the country was
suffering”. They call “vacant power” and
“anarchy” the danger that the revolutionary peak of
masses and the development of worker delegates
councils represented to the oligarchy and
imperialism.
Working class and people paid with their blood
their lack of unity and mainly their lack of a
powerful revolutionary party that could had
stopped fascist coup. The RCP was young and
weak. Socialist mask of the soviet social-
imperialism brought confusion to many fighters
and to the masses. There were left wing sectors
that worked for the coup d´etat. “ But this is only
one aspect of the problem. The other one is that
ruling classes could not keep ruling with their old
methods and they have to turn to an open fascist
terror in order to restrain the masses.”
What the dictatorship accomplished in social-
economic grounds clearly shows what was the real
purpose of the coup d´etat.
Between 1976 and 1983 our foreign debt grew
seven times. But the GDP (Gross Domestic
Product) became stagnant: based in1970 constant
figures, in 1976 reached 26.741 millions dollars
and in 1982 was of 26.738 millions dollars. The
GDP per inhabitant decreased 10%: always based
on 1970 constant figures, in 1976 was of 1.028
dollars and 1982 diminished to 923 dollars per
capita. Just before her overthrowing, Isabel Peron
warned that the coup intended to “destroy the
factories and will try to go back to the Argentine of
International Newsletter No. 31
cattle”. In fact, during dictatorship industrial
production retreated 17,9%. The sector of the
assalariates in the distribution of national income
suffered a brutal diminishing from 50% before the
coup to 30% in 1982-1983. Country’s main
production were cereals and Russia became
oligarchy’s main associate. When social-
imperialism invaded Afghanistan our country
became main food supplier of the occupying army.
Moscow’s governors underlined that “ Argentina is
the most important associate of the Soviet Union
among the emergent countries”. (6) In 1981, with
Viola and Cavallo, the process of converting
private foreign debt into state foreign debt started
and brought huge benefits for big monopolist
groups of Russians front men. Meanwhile, interest
payments were twelve times higher, from 468
million dollars in 1976 to 5.419 million dollars in
1983. Dictatorship deepened financial and
technological dependency from the United States
and Western Europe but most of all it drove back
our country to depend more and more on its
agricultural exports and these begun to depend on
the Soviet Union.
It is very obvious that dictatorships horrible mass
crimes and savage repression against working class
and popular movement were the necessary
conditions for imposing a social-economic policy
that produced such a big disaster and that was only
in the benefit of a handful of imperialists and
oligarchs.
Why the coup d´etat succeeded
Imperialists, landlords and compradora bourgeoisie
are main perpetrators of the coup d´etat and of the
fascist dictatorship imposed.
Now that we have clarified this basic issue, we
have to think over and debate within the popular
field about what has happened. Peronism accepted
a conditioned government. Its program that
pretended to re-build the country and then to
liberate it, failed. It tried only to restrict
imperialism and landlord through reforms. The
impotence of this policy for accomplishing the
alliance with the median peasantry and urban petit-
bourgeoisie was demonstrated . So an important
part of these popular sectors was gained in ideas or
neutralized by coup perpetrators. It was shown
again that without breaking the yoke and
dominance from imperialism and oligarchy it is
impossible to re-build the country on behalf the
people and the nation. At the same time, a part of
the Radical Party supported the coup and
collaborated with the dictatorship, speculating with
the weakening of their electoral opponent.
But the real responsibility for the coup d´etat in the
popular ground belongs to the pro-soviet sectors,
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31st of July 2006
or those that were influenced by them, because
they spread the idea that in order to liberate our
country from Yankee imperialism we had to lean
on the Russians. These sectors called themselves
Marxists and brought all kind of revisionist
formulations as “ liberation in transit towards
socialism”, “non capitalist road of development”,
that contained an essential theoretic contraband:
they did not formulate the need of revolutionary
destruction of the imperialist-oligarchy state.
Today, in different regional and national
conditions, this issue is still the core of a
controversy.
Since the Cordobazo class-consciousness forces
were strongly developed but they were divided by
the contradiction between those pro-coup d´etat
and the anti coup d etat.
In his letter to the Fellow Workers, in August,
1975, René Salamanca asserted what he has posed
in his letter known in December, 1974. “ As in all
decisive moments- he wrote – (as in 1930, 1945,
1944, 1966 and 1969) we have two choices. Either
dependence from imperialism, from the power of
the monopolies and landlords and deepening of
popular overexploitation or liberation,
revolutionary march of the people headed by the
workers deepens. The first road is the road of the
coup d´etat against the Peronist government of the
President, coup d´etat that could be pro-Yankee or
pro-Russian because both superpowers are plotting
and trying to dominate us. The second way is the
way of the anti- coup d´etat struggle in order to
smash both conspiracies and to advance in the
patriotic unity and liberation tasks” And he
asserted that “ true class-consciousness imposes
that the workers should lead the struggle for a
national and democratic revolution in its way
towards socialism... Real class-consciousness
places in the lead the anti- coup d´etat, anti-
imperialist and patriotic policy and beats without
truce the headquarters of the economist and trade
unionist revisionism”. In order the proletariat place
itself in the core of the anti- coup d´etat struggle
for the defense and further advance of its rights ,
our party made an intense work.
The RCP struggled for the unity of all patriotic and
democratic forces against the coup. It promoted the
fight for democratic rights and other working and
popular masses’ social and political claims Our
party proposed a government of a united anti-coup
front with an emergency program. The claim of
arming the people in order to fight and defeat the
coup de´etat was posed. We denounced the
imperialist and oligarchic plans for the coup and
fought against them. Particularly we denounced the
real nature of the Soviet social-imperialism and its
role in our country and this fact cost the life of
International Newsletter No. 31
heroic militants of our party. Bonds of blood were
tied between Peronist and revolutionary
communists during this big anti-imperialist
combat.
The coup succeeded because the enemies based on
the Armed and Security Forces, stroke together
while the people was divided and unarmed.
Working class movement was isolated and many
confused popular sectors supported the coup d´etat.
The dictatorship and the “cold war”
It is said, and it is true, that “cold war” took part in
the repression against popular sectors and in Latin
American coups d´etat of the 60´s and 70´s.
Yankees superpower, in name of “democracy” and
“free world”, under the pretext of “restraining”
Soviet activities, inspired and manipulated military
coups and all kind of repressive measures and
atrocities against our peoples. But when many
politician analyzes certain countries, as ours, “cold
war”, or the dispute between the two superpowers
is let aside and they speak only of the imperialist
activity of only one superpower, the United States.
But Gorbachov himself, when he visited our
country on December, 1992, had to publically
admit that the Soviet Union had supported the
dictatorship. “ What happened in Argentina in the
70´s is an example... of the cold war... The USA
supported some dictatorial regimes and this was
enough for the Soviet Union in order to support
others. It was a blocs policy” (8). While denounced
the crimes of Pinochet in Chile, Moscow vetoed
any project that condemned Videla in Argentina.
This is widely known by mass media and political
leaders but with very few exceptions is still hidden,
including the presence of the pro-Russians in the
coup and in the dictatorship and of course their
hegemony. And it still been not mentioned that
since 1974, the revolutionary communists have
been denouncing pro-yankis and pro-Russians
coup plans, that we fought against them and since
the first day we promoted the anti-dictatorial
resistance and due to this fact we have many
martyrs.
The pro- coup and pro-dictatorship political line of
the CP (Communist Party) was not due to a “
reformist deviation” as they stated in their XVI
Congress, it was due to their subordination to the
social-imperialism. Social-imperialism used the
services of Lanusse, Videla, Viola and company,
the force of their powerful monopolic group of
front men and intermediaries and the association
with big landlords in order to advance and
consolidate their positions in South America as a
part of their strategic device in the dispute with
Yankee imperialism for the control of the world.
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31st of July 2006
“ We make part – said the general Secretary of the
CP- of the social force that has been, with no
doubt, the soul of the qualitative changes that has
been produced...Some negative facts (sic) of the
Videla group should not disorientate us if we have
well assimilated our political line”.
Their next General Secretary and one of their main
leaders today, Athos Fava, congratulated himself in
1980 because “ the appointment of General Viola
as future President of the Nation was a contrast for
the reactionary sectors of the Armed Forces”. Two
years before he had traveled to the United States
with Fernando Nadra where they defended Videla
in order to avoid “ a cut (sic) in the military and
economic aid to our country” They attacked
Carter’s campaign because it was “led to support
the anti-videlist groups under the pretext of human
rights.”
The resistance
Working class and popular resistance to the
dictatorship is well hidden. They try to make
people believe that excepting the heroic Mothers of
the Plaza de Mayo, “ we are all responsible” of
what happened. They praise those who left the
country and go to the exile but they say nothing of
those who worked in secrecy and among the
masses in order to organize and untie the anti-
dictatorial struggle.
When the coup triumphed, working class had to
retreat. A protracted period of ebb tide was opened
in mass movement.
But gradually, the beginnings of resistance started
to develop. Partial struggles were emerging “ that
allowed to accumulate experience in the combat
against a ferocious and unknown enemy” (14). On
October-November 1976 the struggle of the Luz y
Fuerza workers took place and it lasted several
weeks despite the kidnapping of their General
Secretary- Smith- and several delegates and despite
the dismissals and threatens of the militaries. In
Santa Isabel, Cordoba, despite the kidnapping and
disappearance of Rene Salamanca, the same March
24th and although their leadership was either
imprisoned or persecuted a struggle headed by a
committee of 18 workers for salary increase was
fought and won. In Peugeot there was a
demonstration of 4000 workers within the plant.
The police arrested six workers and all the rest of
the workers left that plant and surrounded the
police. When they threatened the workers, they sit
in the place and generated big confusion among the
police and military forces. When the order to shoot
the workers was given only few soldiers shoot
aiming the air. Some other put their guns down.
Some workers harangued the soldiers. Afterwards
International Newsletter No. 31
a helicopter of the 7th Regiment landed and they
talked with the workers. Finally those arrested
were liberated and later on they got the increase in
the salaries. Many struggles were waged in other
big companies as Ford, General Motors (Barracas),
Mercedes Benz, Standard Electric, La Cantabrica.
On April 30th, 1977 Madres de Plaza de Mayo´s
movement started. It begun with a handful of
mothers that walked around the Pyramid one day a
week, and it grew until they were hundreds.
Dictatorship was brutal with them and kidnapped
several mothers but could not stopped them. The
Mothers became the core of the denouncement of
the fascist terror and reach great prestige by the
end of 1977. List of arrested-disappeared were
made. These lists became true acts of national and
international accusation of the crimes. The
movement spread to the Great Buenos Aires and to
different cities in the country.
In October, 1977 was held the great National
Railroad strike that was a milestone of a new
moment in the resistance.
Since the end of 1977 and during 1978 the
dictatorship developed an intense prop campaing
and made big warmonger preparations for a
fratricide war with Chile around the conflict of the
Beagle Channel. Dictatorship used World Football
Championship that was held in our country in
1978 in order to accelerate its warmonger path. For
1978 Christmas holidays we were on the verge of a
war with Chile.
But repudiation to this war started openly to be
expressed during August and September 1978,
specially among the most exploited sectors of the
proletariat. During the last months of that year
huge demonstrations for peace with Chile were
held. They were called by the Catholic Church
with very important participation of youth and
women. These facts strongly conditioned videlist
dictatorship and were very important factors for
the frustration of their warmonger plans. A new
advance of the resistance started.
This new phase was openly demonstrated in the
general strike of April 27, 1979 that was preceded
by the railroad workers of April 5 and 6 that was
organized and called by the National Movement of
Railroad Workers. Working class made its first
general strike to the dictatorship despite the terror,
their collaborationist leaders and the activities of
the fifth columnists. The dictatorship stated that
60% of the workers of the Buenos Aires industrial
area went on strike and 30% in the whole country.
During September 1979, Argentina was shocked
by the presence of a delegation of the
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31st of July 2006
Interamerican Committee of Human Rights, that
was used by the resistance in order to unfold a
wide campaign denouncing the crimes of
dictatorship at national and international level.
After the national strike more struggles were
developed. It was very important the long strike of
30 days waged by the workers of the Swift meat
cold storing plant against the dictatorship and
despite repression and betrayal of the
collaborationist leaders. Peasants movement also
was in action with big demonstrations in the Valle
de Uco (Mendoza), Santa Fe y Córdoba..
Advances of the resistance and sharpening of the
inter-imperialist and inter-oligarchic clash in the
middle of an intense economic crisis weakened
Videla - Viola´s sector of the dictatorship and they
were replaced by Galtieri as president and there
were other changes in the command of the Navy
and Army.
A big mass demonstration called by the CGT
(Worker’s Federation) was held in Plaza de Mayo
on March 30th, 1982. It was strongly repressed.
This was not obstacle for those masses to
demonstrate in the same Plaza on April 2nd,
supporting the recovering of the Malvina Islands
that had been usurped by English colonialist
imperialism. This fact produced a big patriotic and
anti-imperialist shock.
Above the tyranic government and their intend of
using a national war for “whitening” 30 thousands
detained-kidnapped peoples in order to perpetuate
themselves in power, working class and the people
knew that the barbarian English aggression
supported by the United States has imposed us a
national war and that the main contradiction was to
defeat English enemy.
The government did the opposite of what is
required in a national war. The population was not
mobilized, militarily speaking. From Bahia Blanca
up to the north of the country, people had follow
the war through the radio or TV. They not only
tried to make people believe in their false
“triunphalism” but also instigated them “to mind
their own business”. They did not use the Foreign
Debt, specially what we owed to England, and they
did not even talked of expropriating the huge
longstate land properties and monopolies in hands
of Englishmen. They had some illusions on getting
some help from Russians and “blackmailing” the
Yankees with that alleged “help”. They did not
look for the “real” help from Latin American and
Third World countries. They did not organized
thousands and thousands of volunteers with
military experience in combat. On one hand, this
was due to their line of treason were the pro-
International Newsletter No. 31
imperialist sectors (pro-English, pro-yankis and
pro-Russians) that predominated in the
dictatorship and, on the other hand, the hesitating
line of the nationalist sector that supported the
recovering of our islands but did not dare – due to
its class nature- to wage a national and popular
war.
Was opened then, and is still unfolding a great
debate on the war. The political line of the pro-
imperialist sectors that have been dominants in
the State and in the governments that followed
the dictatorship since 1983 on, is what we call
“desmalvinizacion”, that is not to think or
support any thing about recovering the Malvina
Islands. They intend to make us believe that is
“irrational” for a “peripheral” country as ours to
act without the permission of the superpowers (
the so called “international community “).
The outcome of war produced a big division
within the Armed Forces. Pro-soviet oligarchic
sectors took advantages of the defeat in order to
recover positions in the top of the dictatorship
with Bignone. But they could not take away
from people the freedom reached with the vast
patriotic mobilization developed between April
2nd and June 14th, 1982.
But although the dictatorship was harassed by
popular struggle and undermined by its own
contradictions, it could imposed the conditions
for its retreat and negotiated it with the two main
bourgeoisie parties.
Thirty years after the coup d´etat
On March 24th, this year, gigantic mass
demonstrations against the coup d´etat and the
genocide dictatorship, were held throughout the
country, demanding the end of pass and present
impunity and repression. In most of the
demonstrations government’s policy was
strongly criticized.
Their plan to use the demonstration in Plaza de
Mayo in support of Kirchner´s government and
his re-election failed. Government intended to
compensate this failure using a handful of
instigators and spokesmen led from the
Government in order to split the demonstrators
and spread confusion through the media. But
they did not get their objective, they could not
blur the huge popular demonstration or discredit
the unitary statement signed by 342
organizations and the slogans agreed by all the
organizers. As several years before, this
-8-
31st of July 2006
demonstrations was called by the collective
“Memory, truth and justice.”
Today’s impunity is represented by hundred of
dictatorial torturers and murderess that are still
free and enjoying wages paid by the State, that
means by the people. Perpetrators of 34
murdered during the glorious journeys of the
Argentinaz have not yet being taken to trial or
convicted (December 2001). Political instigators
of the bloody repression against the
unemployees on June, 2002, where Kosteki and
Santillan were murdered, are still without a trial
or conviction. The same for the political
instigators of the assassination of Cuellar and
Ibañez in Libertador General San Martin(jujuy).
“Easy treagger” police are still shooting youths
and causing sorrow and death everywhere.
National government sends hundreds of
Gendarmes that brutally repressed oil workers in
Las Heras (Santa Cruz province). Oligarchic-
imperialist State repressive apparatus remains
untouched. In some previous articles we
analyzed governments” double speech”. As Otto
Vargas said in his speech on March 16, that
Kirchner´s policy could be defined with the
famous sentence of the Gatopardo, the Prince of
Lampedussa:”let something change in order to
keep everything the same.”
It is a very complex political situation. But
favorable conditions are rising, specially in Latin
America. Kirchner´s government has not been
able to withdraw popular fighters from the street
and roads. He could not overcome the disbelief
of the big popular masses on bourgeoisie
institutions and politicians of this oppressive
State. Government has failed in its attempts to
make ashes of live coals of the Argentinazo as
the struggles for Cromañon massacre, road
blockades in Entre Rios, oil workers, uprisings
in Misiones, and Buenos Aires province,
teachers in Neuquen, and are still alive practices
as non delegation and direct mass democracy.
Are still alive hard methods of struggle, that
sweep off traitors leaders in trade unions. In one
word: live coals of the Argentinazo are still
burning although reality is not the same than in
2001.
It is necessary to regroup popular forces based
on pushing social and political struggle, deepen
the road opened by the Argentinazo in order to
overcome governments policies of hunger and
surrendering of the national wealth, as
precondition for the advance towards revolution.
#
International Newsletter No. 31
Mao’s Legacy in China’s
Current Development
Pao Yu Ching, published in
Asia Weekly (Vol. 18, no.20, May 16, 2004).
A Chinese worker said, ”This is not socialism
with Chinese characteristics as Deng Xiaoping
told us. Instead, what we have here is
capitalism with Chinese characteristics.”
A Chinese peasant said, ”When Chairman
Mao warned us about the restoration of
capitalism, we really did not understand what
he was talking about. Now we do.”
In China & Socialism -- Market Reforms and
Class Strugglei, Martin Hart-Landsberg and
Paul Burkett argued successfully why the so-
called ”market socialism” in China is in fact
the restoration of capitalism, and that China’s
economic Reform of the past twenty-five years
can not serve as a socialist model of
development for other less developed
countries. Hart-Landsberg and Burkett’s
research on this topic in current literature (in
English) [Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul
Burkett, China & Socialism -- Market Reforms
and Class Struggle, Monthly Review Press,
2005, first published in Monthly Review, July-
August 2004] is very thorough and includes
perspectives from the Left liberals and some
progressives, who had mistaken China’s
economic development since the Reform as
socialist. Hart-Landsberg and Burkett also give
a detailed and accurate account of the Reform
itself from 1979 to the present.
Hart-Landsberg and Burkett give
credible reports on how the capitalist
restoration in China has dismantled the social
welfare system and other protections the
working population enjoyed before the
Reform, and thus resulting their tremendous
hardships and sufferings. They also report how
workers and peasants in China have resisted
the Reform, and the different ways by which
they have fought back.
Hart-Landsberg and Burkett’s book
and other studies listed in their references give
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31st July 2006
us an overview on the West’s (mostly the US)
current debates on China’s Reform. These
debates are timely, because workers, peasants,
and intellectuals in China have themselves
been actively engaging in similar debates.
However, I do not agree with Hart-
Landsberg and Burkett on their view expressed
in the ”Historical Context for Post-Mao
Economic Reform” (27-30); this view is
inaccurate and is inconsistent with the rest of
their analysis. The reasons Hart-Landsberg and
Burkett state in the ”historical context” for the
post-Mao Reform, are the very same excuses
that Deng and his supporters used to embark
on their capitalist restoration. If we were to
agree with Hart-Landsberg and Burkett’s
negative evaluation of the socialist period
(1949-1979), why would it even matter to
those on the Left, whether the current
development in China is socialist or capitalist?
And more importantly, why would workers
and peasants in China fight so heroically in the
last twenty-five years against the Reform that
is designed to deconstruct socialism?
Capitalism, as it has developed in
China in the two and half decades, has its
distinguished characteristics and is a product
of China’s past: – the long feudal history, over
a century of foreign domination that
condemned China to a semi-feudal and semi-
colonial status - and the 1949 revolution. The
radical changes in post-revolution society and
the legacy of Mao stand out as the most
important factors affecting China’s current
development. It was the suffering endured and
struggle engaged by the Chinese people from
1840 on that made the revolution of 1949 a
reality. It is the legacy of those years between
1949 and 1979 that has played a determinate
role in shaping China’s current development.
Without an understanding of this time period
International Newsletter No. 31
and the legacy it has left, it would be difficult,
if not impossible, to understand the current
class struggle taking place in China. China’s
socialist past and Mao’s legacy makes its
current situation different from other less
developed countries, and I believe it will
continue to have a dominant influence on its
future development. While Hart-Landsberg
and Burkett contribute much to our
understanding of China’s development in the
past two and half decades, I believe they are
mistaken in their evaluation of China’s past. In
response, this essay will discuss the following:
I) the origin of Deng’s Reform-using labor
reform as an example, II) Mao’s legacy, and
III) the relevance of China from the Left
perspective.
I) The Origin of Deng’s Reform –
the Case of Labor Reform
Deng Xiaoping seized power after
Mao’s death and formally began his Reform
after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh
Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in
December of 1978. When Hart-Landsberg and
Burkett explain how Deng began the Reform
and how the capitalist restoration has
continued for the past twenty-five years, they
searched for reasons beyond personal greed
and explained that the capitalist restoration,
once started, generated ”structural
contradictions” that have kept it going. We, of
course, have to look for reasons other than
personal greed to explain the political,
economic, and social development in China or
in any other countries; however, Hart-
Landsberg and Burkett seemed to imply that
the Reformers did not have a clear idea about
their Reform programs and that they indeed
have been ”crossing the river by touching the
stones” – a famous saying of Deng Xiaoping
and – and once the Reform got started it
seemed to generate enough contradictions to
keep it going.
However, if we look into the history of
struggle in China, we would reach a very
different conclusion. Deng’s Reform
programs--the dismantling of the Commune,
the privatizing of state-owned enterprises, the
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31st July 2006
Labor Reform, the opening up of the economy
to foreign investment, and many others--all
have their origins long before 1979. Deng and
his predecessor and mentor, Liu Shaoqi, tried
repeatedly to institute these programs since the
1950’s. Therefore, contrary to what Deng
openly said, the Reform that began in 1979 not
only had a clear direction but also a well-
planned road map. One example of this plan is
the history of the post 1979 Labor Reform that
Hart-Landsberg and Burkett documented.
Contract Labor instituted in 1986 was part of
the overall Labor Reform that abolished the
permanent employment system in State-owned
enterprises, and it has its origin in the 1950’s.
My co-author and I wrote the following in
”Labor Reform - Mao vs. Liu – Deng” in
1993:
… The Labor Contract System, implemented
since the beginning of the Reform, did not
originate with the current reformers. As early as
the 1950's Liu Shaoqi began advocating the
advantages of the Contract Labor System. An
essay from the recently published Labor
Contract System Handbook revealed the history
of Liu's attempts to institute temporary contract
workers in state owned factories” 1)
The essay stated that in 1956, Liu sent a team to
the Soviet Union to study their labor system.
Upon its return, the team proposed the adoption
of the Contract Labor System modeled after what
the Soviet Union had adopted. However, when
the changes were about to take place, the Great
Leap Forward started, thus interrupting its
implementation. The essay continued in stating
that in the early 1960's Liu again attempted to
change the permanent employment status by
adopting a "two-track system," enterprises were
to employ more temporary and fewer permanent
workers, and the mines were to employ peasants
as temporary workers. Then, in 1965, the State
Council announced a new regulation on the
employment of temporary woers, indicating that,
instead of permanent workers, more temporary
workers should be hired. The regulation also
gave individual enterprises the authority to use
allocated wage funds to replace permanent
workers with temporary workers. Again,
according to the author of this essay, the
Cultural Revolution interrupted Liu's effort to
International Newsletter No. 31
reform the labor system, and, in 1971, large
numbers of temporary workers were given
permanent status. Although Liu could not fully
implement his labor reform, he had
"experimental projects" going on here and there,
and before the Cultural Revolution began, large
numbers of temporary workers had been hired.
[ D. Y. Hsu and P. Y. Ching, ”Labor Reform : Mao
vs. Liu-Deng,” in Mao Zedong Thought Lives, Vol. I,
Center for Social Studies & New Road Publications,
1995, pp. 189-190/ The Thoughts of Mao Tsetung
Lives, Essen 1996 Verlag Neuer Weg, p. 256 ff].
The author of Labor Contract System
Handbook expressed his regrets that these
earlier efforts to institute labor reform failed,
and he stated that if there had not been the
Great Leap Forward and the Cultural
Revolution, it would have been possible to
carry out these Labor Reform long before the
current time.
In fact, Liu-Deng and their allies had a
plan to develop capitalism in China since the
1950’s. The afore-mentioned Labor Reform
was only one of the many projects they
prepared to carry out. Their plan to develop
capitalism in China before 1979 consisted of
projects to be implemented in every economic,
political, social, and cultural sphere. This short
essay only allows a brief discussion of one of
many projects. The purpose of this discussion
is to show the current class struggle in China
so carefully documented by Hart-Landsberg
and Burkett has its origin. From what to be
discussed below, it is not difficult to
understand from this one example of Labor
Reform how Deng’s Reform was diametrically
opposed to that of Mao’s. That was and is the
precise reason for the past and current class
struggles in China.
II. Mao’s Legacy
As Deng and his supporters began
their 1979 Reform, they denounced China’s
mass movements in general and the Cultural
Revolution in particular. The Reformers
attributed, though not openly, what they called
the ”calamity” of the Cultural Revolution to
Mao’s declining years, implying that the aging
Mao could no longer think clearly. At that
time, they were not yet questioning Mao’s
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31st July 2006
many other contributions before 1966. As the
Reform gathered steam in the 1980s, Deng and
his supporters began attacking the Great Leap
Forward, the formation of Communes, as well
as the 1956 transfer of ownership of the means
of production in industries to the State. Their
attacks also included the permanent
employment system in State-owned
enterprises. For awhile, the attack, though not
openly, went as far back as the Land Reform
(1949-1953); therefore, limiting Mao’s
contribution solely to his role in winning the
Chinese Revolution in 1949. [Some pro Reform
scholars in the West quickly supported this unofficial
view held by the Reformers One good example is:
Chinese Village, Socialist State,(Yale University
Press, 1991) written by Edward Friedman, Paul
Pickowicz, Mark Seldon and Kay Johnson]
What has been most interesting, however, is
that while denouncing all the major
achievements during the socialist period, and
eagerly demonstrating how they had hurt
China’s economic development, to this day,
the Reformer have never been able to publicly
denounce Mao. The reason is that those who
have hold power in China since the Reform
fully realize the prestige and admiration Mao
has among the broad masses, so they put him
up on a pedestal while denounce everything he
represents. Mao’s portrait still hangs in the
most prominent place in Tiananmen Square, in
all public offices, factories and schools. On the
other hand, workers and peasants have shown
their genuine love and respect for Mao by
hanging Mao’s portrait in their homes.
Recently, more and more people, including
some lower level government officials, are
wearing Mao’s button to show their allegiance
to Mao. [Taxi drivers have for a long time
have displayed Mao’s photo on their rear view
mirrors as good luck charms. The more recent
wearing Mao’s button seems to be more
political indicating that people want to show
that they are taking a pro Mao stand. In
addition, revolutionary songs and films
including the ones from the period of the
Cultural Revolution have also become
popular.]
So what exactly is Mao’s legacy, and
why has Mao become more popular today
International Newsletter No. 31
after two and half decades of Reform? Why
have the Reformers been so eager to denounce
all mass movements, particularly the Cultural
Revolution?
These questions can be answered by
going back to examine how class struggles
played out in China before 1979. In the
example shown above, Liu’s Labor Reform
was blocked more than once by the mass
movements. In addition to mass movements,
there were also other positive steps taken to
resist Liu’s effort to institute changes in
employment policies of State enterprises.
Positive steps taken to reform the labor system
in State enterprises aimed at phasing out wage
labor as the long-term goal when eventually
labor power would cease to be a commodity.
Here again, in ”Labor Reform - Mao vs. Liu –
Deng”:
As opposed to Liu's attempts to institute contract
labor, the Anshan Constitution was the most
serious attempt made to change the organization
of work and the labor process in the work place.
The workers of the Anshan Metallurgical
Combine took the initiative to lay out new rules
to change the existing operation of their work
place. On March 22, 1960, Mao proclaimed that
these new rules should be used as guidelines for
the operation of state enterprises, and named
them the Anshan Constitution. The Anshan
Constitution contains the most fundamental
elements as well as concrete steps in
revolutionizing work organization and the labor
process of state owned enterprises. There are
five principles in the Anshan Constitution:
(1) put politics in command,
(2) strengthen the party leadership,
(3) launch vigorous mass movement,
(4) systematically promote the participation of
cadres in productive labor and of workers
in management, and (5) reform any
unreasonable rules, assure close
cooperation among workers, cadres, and
technicians, and energetically promote
technical revolution.ii
The principles in the Anshan Constitution
represent a spirit, which lead toward the
direction of eventually phasing out the wage
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31st July 2006
labor. [ D. Y. Hsu and P.Y. Ching, ”Labor Reform:
Mao vs. Liu-Deng,” in Mao Zedong Thought Lives,
Vol. I, Center for Social Studies & New Road
Publications, 1995, p. 190 .]
In the essay, we went on to say that
before the Cultural Revolution began, factories
only paid lip service to the Anshan
Constitution. Management in State-owned
factories did not see any need to change and
workers were rather passive; they were content
with their State endowed privileges and
benefits and assumed that the conditions of
their employment were there to stay. In
addition, we stated that the political struggle
within the Chinese Communist Party during
this period over the direction of the transition
was reflected in the factory by changes in
wage and employment policies: At times,
policies issued from above pushed the
implementation of the piece wage rate and
expanded the employment of temporary
workers. Then, often during mass movements,
these policies were criticized and reversed.
Before the Cultural Revolution, however,
workers did not comprehend the reasons
behind these reversals of policies. They were
not aware that Liu had made numerous
attempts to abolish permanent employment
status. Without the Great Leap Forward and
the Cultural Revolution, Liu and his supporters
might have succeeded in their attempts to
repeal the laws that protected the state
employees. If that had been the case,
permanent employment status and other
benefits endowed to state employees might
have become history decades ago. When
workers participated in the mass movements in
the 1950's and 60's, their class consciousness
was gradually raised; but workers did not
realize, until the Cultural Revolution, that class
struggle continued after the judicial transfer of
the ownership of the means of production to
the state. It was during the Cultural Revolution
-- a period of intensive political struggle in the
factory and in society at large - that many
crucial issues were raised. [Ibid., p.191].
End of part 1
International Newsletter No. 31
What the Elections in 2006 are All About
Shambuyi Kalala Kabwa Kanranda
CPL, Congo
Now that, following several futile
transitional phases, the political celebration
of the general elections in the Congo is
nearing, Nyota ya Afrika had a talk with
57-year-old Shambuyi KALALA KABWA
KANRANDA. Among those active in the
revolutionary and democratic struggles in
the DR of the Congo, he is very well known.
35 years of active participation in the
liberation struggle of the Congolese people
lend him a special ability to judge the facts
of the current situation, which many find
confusing or complicated. This interview is
very important, because the majority of the
Congolese people are looking for something
to hold on to in these times when aspirations
are high.
Nyota ya Afrika (NyA): Would you please
tell us in a few words since when you have
been political engaged?
Shambuyi Kalala (SK): I have been active in
the struggle since the end of high school in
1967. At that time, I began as an activist at the
grassroots of UGEC, the General Students
Association in the Congo. In the 1960s, the
Congolese youth, like the movements in
Africa and in the entire world, was influenced
by the liberation movement. After that I
became a union activist in the tire factory
”Goodyear- Zaire”, before I became a cadre in
revolutionary organizations which were
leading a merciless struggle against the
neocolonial dictatorship. This is why we
belonged to those who led the negotiations of
the agreements of Lusaka and Sun City. I think
the struggle must continue until the Congolese
people are able to live in dignity on the earth
of its ancestors.
NyT: The elections of 2006 are finally
becoming reality. What do you think about the
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31st July 2006
heated election campaign that can be
expected?
SK: I think we have to remain positive. It
really must be avoided that the election
campaign gives the opportunity to further split
our people or to claim the lives of our fellow
countrymen. In the face of the low degree of
maturity of many of our personalities or
political constructs, it is foreseeable that the
level of the campaign will be too low. The
danger seriously exists that the people will not
learn anything about their basic problems and
about possible alternatives. Now the
responsibility lies in the hands of the
progressive and democratic forces to improve
the level of the campaign and to make it easier
to build up a democratic movement in the
Congo. If something positive is to follow from
the elections, the existence of such a
movement would be decisive, in my opinion,
and not counting on the elected leaders.
NyK: Before we come to the question of what
contents a responsible election campaign
could have - are you satisfied with the results
of this transitional phase?
SK: The results of the transitional phase
remain varied. There are positive aspects,
mainly the stop of the military clashes, which
has already been lasting for a longer time. In
reality this transitional phase is the
prolongation of the ceasefire of Lusaka. At
least we can observe that the Congo no longer
has to serve as a battlefield for about 10
regular armies and 20 armed groups. Thus the
transitional phase gave the Congolese a
tentative new beginning on a national level;
they can travel through the entire country, and
they have a single center of power in
Kinshasa. However, there are many obstacles
to be overcome before state life will be
International Newsletter No. 31
restored. The negative aspects should also not
be underestimated, the most important of
which is the lack of inner dynamics, which
could have put the Congolese people in a
position to make the entire peace and
democratization process to their own affair at
the end of the transitional phase. It must be
said that under the transitional government, a
lot of things actually came into effect under
the pressure of international opinion, with the
consequence that the international powers will
continue to be dominating our country for a
long time. In spite of some progress
concerning violence having been made, the
Congolese people are still not clear of trouble.
Do I have to remind you that a dependant
society always remains to be in a state of
crisis? The other negative aspect is that the
transitional government is not clearly
conscious of the catastrophe which is getting
spreading more and more and increasing the
poverty and hardship of the great majority of
the people. Of course, this is the consequence
of the great political weakness of the groups,
of state power, of the ”components” or
”corporations” or whatever they are being
called respectively. They have been unable to
mobilize the entire nation to tackle the
problematic nature of the catastrophe.
NyA: Do you believe that the elections are
being conducted according to expectations?
SK: The organization of the elections is
almost a crying shame. Facing the political
issues and problems which are linked to the
disastrous conditions of the country, we can
realize at once that the duration of the
transition has been underestimated. This
underestimation can be seen, for example,
when the country’s leading figures have not
been appointed efficiently. Above all, it has
even been refused to put oneself in a position
to recognize and employ them. The
organizational scheme being applied in the
Congo did not really take the deteriorated state
of the basic infrastructure and the public
services into account. They acted as if they
were in a country which is merely
experiencing a political crisis; i.e. a country in
- 14 -
31st July 2006
which, in particular, the administration does
not work; and the huge dimensions of the
country seem to be ignored. The concept of
how to organize the elections remained totally
bureaucratic. In the organization of the
elections, the people with all their possibilities
and abilities have been ignored. Everything is
reduced to the investors together with a
handful of experts. The consequence is that
many of the Congolese people have the feeling
that they are being excluded from the process
of the elections. The registration of the voters
has not been carried out properly everywhere.
The discussion within the institutions is a
botch. Thus, hair-rising mistakes concerning
laws and the schedule occur. Instead of a
constructive debate about the constitution and
the electoral law with which one could think
over the Congolese society, a cult of
formalism is being practiced, which results in
a whole string of intrigues and in biased self-
interest.
NyA: Why has it gone this far?
S.K.: In this situation of dependence, the
question of finances is often raised. You only
need to follow the figures to understand the
influences. Those powers giving the most
money are influencing the drafting and passing
of the laws through pressure and threats. The
independent election commission has only
been an intensifier of the investors; its
personnel was beyond the control of the
Congolese people. It would have been very
interesting, if the Congolese people had been
the main organizers of the elections. They
would have made many important experiences.
And they really would have learned from their
mistakes and would be able to correct them in
the future. I am convinced that they will fall
back to the international mechanisms for the
next elections again, and the same procedure
will start once more.
NyA: Which objectives do the progressive
forces and the democrats have for these
elections?
International Newsletter No. 31
SK: In my opinion, the progressive forces and
democrats are people who care about the
problems concerning the improvement of
quality of people’s lives, as well as about their
being jeopardized. This means the progressive
forces and democrats have to be newly
evaluated, depending on the era and the issues
to be dealt with. So, somebody who fought
against the colonial power could have changed
sides during the struggle against the
dictatorship. Consequently, today you have to
define the criteria to evaluate the progressive
forces and democrats more exactly. In my
opinion, the progressive forces and democrats
have to be distinguished according to the
positions they are taking in the present election
campaign; these are serving as the points of
reference after the overthrow of the
neocolonial dictatorship.
At the moment, the progressive forces and the
democrats recognize the collapse of the state
that had been established according to the
colonial model, and they are spreading the idea
of building up a modern democratic state, i.e.
a state under the control of the social
movements. The progressive forces also have
to fight for the government of the republic
declaring the Congo to be a destroyed
country. Not recognizing the destruction is
doing enormous injustice to the Congolese
people, because they are not able to stand up
vigorously, united and in solidarity against the
opposition to overcome the general crisis. This
catastrophe did not come with one single blow.
It is developing like a dangerous illness which
is hidden and resists an appropriate treatment.
It is like a Tsunami which does not say what it
is. We think we need a concept clearly
differentiated from the wishy-washy picture
which is being elaborately composed,
making rich people out of those who are
actually the victims of a catastrophe. We
have to put an end to points of view which
feed the reflexes of dependence and promote
the already legendary individualism of the
Congolese politicians.
NyA: How do you want to raise the level of
this election campaign?
- 15 -
31st July 2006
S.K.: Listen, you can predict that the
campaign will be led miserably, because
certain individuals only think of themselves.
The progressive forces must join together and
help to formulate clear demands and to find
out their representatives. It is an immediate
task to help the people to get well organized,
in order to prevent the poisoning and division
of the people. Raising the level of the election
campaign means to enable the appearance of
demanding social movements to improve the
quality of life for the masses of people. With
that I mean that every time public money is
embezzled, corruption or nepotism is
practiced, there must be enough power to bring
the scandal into public. Today this is not the
case.
NyA: Does the election law make it possible
for every citizen to make use of his
constitutional right to stand for election?
S.K.: The participation in the elections should
not be the privilege of those people who have
filled their pockets with money by
dishonorable means. We belong to those who
do not agree with the law concerning the
political parties and with the election law.
These laws erected so many obstacles that
making policy is only left up to a few
individuals. To register as a party in a
destroyed country requires at least 8,000
dollars, which is more than for establishing a
firm. Thus the workers and peasants are
excluded from making policy. This makes no
sense. They forbid the union of non-party
organizations which want to canvass for their
demands, but meanwhile they accept the non-
organized independents.
In the Congo, democracy is synonymous with
money, to the extent that one replaces the
necessary signatures for the eligibility to stand
for elections with a financial deposit and, in
this way, one pays for the agreement to the
candidature by the election commission.
Once again - we are against all regulations
which hinder the Congolese to organize
themselves and to express their demands.
International Newsletter No. 31 31st July 2006

NyA: What do you predict will be the
outcome of this whole process, both in the
short term and on a medium term basis?
S.K.: There is cause for concern. We think
that we need a positive approach and we are
promoting that people become involved in
the correct direction. We have to achieve
that the interventions from outside are
limited and that we take care of ourselves. In
any case, if we build up a big democratic
movement, then the first and the biggest step
will have been taken. We have a lot of
potential, so we can turn the course of
history within the framework of our
possibilities. The progressive forces have to
go to the women, to the youth and to the
workers, who have to become a sword
within the democratic movement of the DR
Congo.
The interview was conducted by M.A.

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- 16 -
International Newsletter No. 31
The Government on the Defensive:
Workers’ Offensive against Precarious Existence
OCML Voie prolétarienne, France
A new great struggle is just beginning! It is a
real popular movement that - starting from
the students – has set itself in motion and has
shaken the government. At the moment, the
movement is winning new workers, despite
repression. The working class has to
strengthen these struggles on a massive scale
so that it can make a new leap forward.
Let us remember that we are experiencing
the 4th largest social crisis within one single
year since the majority vote of NO to the
European constitution: The strike of the
seamen of SNCM, the rebellion of the youth
in the working class suburbs and the pupils’
movement against the Fillon law.
Precarious existence – this is not only the
CPE (First Employment Contract)
The present movement is bringing a burning
problem to light that marks the entire
society: the growingly precarious existence
of the workers. The CPE is part of the ”law
for equal opportunities”. This law, that had
been passed after the revolts of the youth in
the suburbs, attacks the youth for whom it
provides uncertain working conditions from
the age of 14 or dismissals without giving
reasons during the first two years. After the
CNE, which applies to older employees in
small enterprises, and the CPE, the
government – on the instruction of the
employers – aims at a ”single contract” with
a trial period of two years for everybody.
The employers’ association MEDEF
supports the law in order to go even further.
In view of the struggles up to now, the
employers association MEDEF supports the
- 17 -
31st July 2006
”courageous” prime minister Villepin, but it
demands a global reform. For the MEDEF
”the employment contract, the calling into
question of the unemployment insurance and
the public services for employment
constitute only a part of a whole.”
Further threats are being made against us …
The residence permits for foreigners are also
being restricted more and more. The next
law, CESEDA (”law for the entry and
residence of foreigners and asylum
seekers”), is an instrument for creating
illegal persons and for rendering all
immigrants more vulnerable and their
existence more precarious. It also calls into
question the 10-year residence card.
Why the government is not giving in
All this makes clear why the government is
trying to remain tough:
• to directly support the demands of the
capitalists and create precarious
conditions as required by the
international economic war
• in order not to encourage further social
struggles, which would surely experience
an upswing in case of a defeat of the
government
What does the left, which seemingly
follows the anti-CPE movement,
suggest? It merely offers the elections in
2007 as the only way out. However,
what did it do differently when it was in
power than further driving forward
flexibilization, precarious conditions and
only repression!
International Newsletter No. 31 31st July 2006

Let us go on the offensive!

As we can see the workers have all the
trump cards to go on the offensive!
In order to strike back effectively we suggest
that the workers massively participate in all
struggles against precarious conditions. This
would be a hard strike just where it hurts - in
the enterprises and against profits!
The youth demand the presence, power and
help of the workers!
They turn to the enterprises, wait for the
trade unions and the working class. Let us
build a militant opposition against the anti-
social policy.
A struggle against the evils of capitalism can
only be victorious, if it aims at a societal
alternative. The various governments have
proven their incapability to solve the social
problems.
They are only administrators of a system that
directly stands in the way of our interests,
that is incapable of providing a future for the
youth or guaranteeing the improvement of
our living conditions.
Let us take matters in our own hands and
fight for another society, for a genuine
alternative to capitalism. This struggle
requires a communist organization. We call
on you to build it up together with us.
Down with CPE, CNE and the entire
“law for equal opportunities”!
Down with the CESEDA law!
Down with the Villepin-Sarkozy
government!
General strike!
Workers of all countries, unite!

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- 18 -
International Newsletter No. 31
The Significance of Building up an
International United Front for Saving the
Environment from the Greed for Profit
The transition to a global environmental crisis has already
begun and is a challenge for the struggle of the masses
Marxist-Leninist Party Germany (MLPD)
According to the Report on Worldwide
Catastrophes, a great increase in extreme
occurrences took place from 1994 to 2003. The
largest part of the total of 5,677 catastrophes
were due to drastic changes in climate. 673,070
people died, 2.58 billion suffered losses and
approximately 691 billion US dollars in material
damages show that a considerable part of the
world’s population is already directly affected
by the results of massive environmental
destruction and changes in climate. In the
year 2005, damages caused by the developing
climate catastrophe reached a record high of
more than 200 billion US dollars. The change
into a global environmental catastrophe has
accelerated and is already affecting the
essential foundations of the human life in
agriculture, the use of the oceans, the forests, the
gradual poisoning through chemicals and soot,
as well as the increasing masses of waste. The
most important factor for the environmental
catastrophe are the beginning drastic changes
in climate resulting from the increasing
emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon
dioxide, nitrogen oxide and methane. Within the
next few years, an irreversible development of
the global environmental catastrophe is
threatening which could irretrievably destroy the
foundations of human life. US imperialism as
the world’s greatest environmental criminal is
already preparing for the implementation of
“mini nukes” against the expected gigantic
waves of “ecological refugees”. This situation is
a challenge to the masses worldwide to develop
active resistance against the imperialist
environmental crimes and for building up an
international militant environmental
movement as a mass movement spanning
countries and continents. This is a challenge for
the Marxist-Leninists worldwide to lead the
environmental struggle in connection with the
economic and
- 19 -
31st of July 2006
political struggle of the masses and to make it a
part of the preparation of the international
proletarian revolution. The challenge to the
international Marxist-Leninist and working-class
movement has never been as great as it is today:
to take over the responsibility for the struggle for
preserving and protecting the natural foundations
of life.
1. Under the dictatorship of the
international monopolies the
reorganization of international
production leads to a transition to a
global environmental crisis.
„We refer to a global environmental catastrophe
when the destruction of the natural metabolism
existing between soil, water, air, flora and fauna
has reached such dimensions that human
existence and production are destroyed. Today
we must emphasize that the signs of a beginning
change into this environmental catastrophe have
increased since the beginning of the 1990s."
(Klaus Arnecke/Stefan Engel, „Neocolonialism
and the Changes in the National Liberation
Struggle", pp. 219-220)
As a whole, with the internationalization of
production, capitalist overexploitation of the
natural environment has taken on global
dimensions and been systematized to an extent
that is unprecedented. The destruction of the
natural environment has taken on worldwide
dimensions. In the course of their battle of
mutual annihilation, the international oil, energy
and chemical monopolies merged with finance
capital, destroyed huge areas of land and sea and
the world climate for the sake of their maximum
profits. They dominated and manipulated
international treaties, organizations and
governments and systematically suppressed all
environmentally compatible technological
alternatives which endangered their extortionate
profits. They have subjugated every corner of the
International Newsletter No. 31
earth, including the oceans and the polar regions,
to their greedy exploitation of the natural
environment and its resources.
The global environmental crisis has four main
features:
1. The unnatural greenhouse effect,
2. The “ozone hole“,
3. The destruction of the tropical rain
forests and
4. regional environmental catastrophes
The unnatural (anthropogenic) greenhouse
effect:
In the past century the average yearly
temperature rose by 0.6 degrees Celsius. The
1990s were the warmest decade of the past
century and various models for the climate of the
present century calculate a rise in temperature of
up to 11 degrees, based on the doubling of the
carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere from
what was originally 280 ppm. In the meantime,
these values have already reached 390ppm
which is an historically singular value for the
entire globe. The deceit of the Kyoto Treaty can
be seen, for example, in the fact that instead of
the ridiculous goal of saving 5.2% of all carbon
dioxide emissions from 1990 to 2005, an
increase of 11 percent has actually taken place.
When the presently remaining CO-2 buffer
systems break down (emission of CO-2
contained in the masses of ice, the oceans and
the perma-frost as a result of the warming/over-
acidity of the oceans) a rapid and erratic process
will begin, the results of which no one can
oversee today. The USA alone are responsible
for a quarter of the worldwide greenhouse gas
emissions. Together, the leading imperialist
states produce almost two thirds of all CO-2
emissions, compared to only the 2 percent
produced by the poorest fifth of the world’s
population (facts from the German edition of
Fischer World Almanac 2002, column 1259).
The „ozone hole“:
Despite the „Montreal Protocol“ (international
treaty for ozone protection), the destruction of
ozone has slowed down to only a small extent in
the 1990s. The increased hard ultraviolet
radiation due to the ozone hole damages grain
and harvests and leads to serious ailments among
human beings like the black skin cancer
(malignant melanoma) and to an increase in the
levels of toxic irritant gas near the ground.
The destruction of the tropical rain forests:
- 20 -
31st of July 2006
Not much has happened to protect the tropical
rain forests since the conference in Rio. Today
an international agreement on the protection of
the global forests is still lacking. On the
contrary: The overexploitation of the tropical
rain forests could continue almost unabated
in the 1990s. According to estimates of the FAO
(Food and Agricultural Organization of the
United Nations), almost 15 million hectares of
rainforest are being destroyed every year in the
entire world (more than the combined area of
Austria and Switzerland) – that amounts to about
one percent of the total tropical forest area. The
largest losses of tropical rain forest were in
Brazil and Indonesia (Aktuell 2000, p. 484.).
Nearly half of the forests that used to cover the
globe have already disappeared.
Regional environmental catastrophes:
The number of major natural catastrophes
increased sharply in the last decades. Careful
estimates for the year 2050 foresee damages
amounting to 2 trillion dollars, which is about 10
percent of today’s worldwide social product, a
figure which still underestimates the real extent
of the damages. Millions of deaths and economic
losses hit the poorest countries hardest which are
completely dependent on and oppressed by
imperialism. In the 1990s, a number of new
dangers appeared which must be attributed to
the global environmental crisis. For one thing,
genetically manipulated organisms can
endanger humans and habitats. In addition,
epidemics of old, as well as new epidemics and
diseases in the world like AIDS, Ebola,
tuberculosis, BSE or foot-and-mouth disease.
This manifestation partly has a close connection
to the reorganization of international production
and climate warming.
2. The global environmental crisis is an
accompanying manifestation of
capitalism
Overexploitation of nature did not first begin
with capitalism. It was first with the transition to
the capitalist mode of production and the
application of the rapidly-growing knowledge of
the laws of nature to large-scale machine
production that the relationship of man and
nature underwent a fundamental change. With
the development of the capitalist mode of
production, the exchange of matter between man
and nature assumed, for the first time, a form
International Newsletter No. 31
which carries with it the possibility of the
destruction of the unity of man and nature. Karl
Marx refers to this in Volume One of “Capital”:
“…Capitalist production, therefore, only
develops the techniques and the degree of
combination of the social process of production
by simultaneously undermining the original
sources of all wealth – the soil and the worker.”
(Karl Marx, “Capital”, Pelican Books, London
1976, Vol.1, p.637/638)
„However, before the contradiction between
man and nature could assume the nature of an
open antagonism, i.e., of an environmental
crisis, profit as a motive force first had to drive
capital all around the world to plunder raw
materials, create a world market, flood it with
products, and completely penetrate all countries
with the capitalist mode of production. The
transition of capitalism of free competition into
monopoly capitalism an imperialism initiated
this process... The pillaging and destruction of
nature began to assume a world-wide
character....
However, state monopoly capitalism has not
only altered the environment and brought on the
threat of an environmental catastrophe.
Simultaneously, with the development of the
productive forces to a high level, and the
achievements of science and technology, it has
created all the material conditions for re-
establishing the unity of man and nature…To
achieve this, the productive forces must be
freed from the fetters of the capitalist mode of
production and become fully developed under
socialism. Only the socialist society will be able
to utilize nature responsibly, and care for it as
the foundation of life for the present and
following generations…Imperialism, as the
highest stage of capitalism, is dying
capitalism…Is it not a sign of the decay of this
capitalist system when, out of the greed for
profit, nothing effective is undertaken to halt the
rapid spreading destruction of the environment?
The environmental crisis is an accompanying
manifestation of the general crisis of
capitalism. It does not operate according to
economic laws of capitalism and can be
eradicated by actively fighting monopoly
politics as long as there is still a chance of
rescuing nature. The threat of nuclear death
and the continued destruction of the environment
must be prevented through active resistance by
the masses.
- 21 -
31st of July 2006
(Revolutionärer Weg Nr. 23, „Crises and Class
Struggle“, pp. 155- 166).
3. International finance capital develops
imperialist environmentalism and
prevents effective measures against
environmental destruction
„An international environmental movement
had developed in the 1970s and 1980s against
the worldwide destruction of the natural
foundations of life. Despite its mainly petty-
bourgeois mold, to a large extent it was
sincerely determined to actively resist the
progressing destruction of the environment.
However, under the influence of imperialist
environmentalism, this petty-bourgeois
movement was almost completely corroded and
won over to the side of international monopoly
capital. A book by the former US Vice President,
Al Gore, “Earth in the Balance – Ecology and
the Human Spirit”, became the international
manifesto of imperialist environmentalism. Gore
called for coordinated activities of the
imperialist states to save the ecological global
system.
… The whole attention of activists of the
environmental movement was oriented towards
UN environmental conferences, starting with the
‘UN conference on Environment and
Development’ that took place in 1992 in Rio de
Janeiro. Their main purpose was, and still is, to
divert attention away from the monopolies’
striving for profit as the principal cause of the
global environmental problems. To achieve this,
the impression was to be given that the
governments would take care of this problem of
mankind in the interest of the survival of the
human race. The petty-bourgeois environmental
movement actually did recede internationally as
a result. (Stefan Engel, ‚Twilight of the Gods -
Götterdämmerung over the >New World
Order<’, pp.244-246)
The height of favor-currying by the petty-
bourgeois environmental movement with
those responsible for the environmental
catastrophe up to now took place in 2002 in
Johannesburg with the largest UN-summit of all
time. Organizations like Greenpeace or WWF
propagated „joint round tables with industry"
and worked out joint declarations with the
„World Business Council for Sustainable
Development" (WBCSD) of which 160
international monopolies are members, among
them some of the biggest environmental
International Newsletter No. 31 31st of July 2006

criminals. This was continued until the latest organizations and further 100 individuals have
worldwide environmental conference in signed the call. It signifies an important step for
Montreal which has even been celebrated by developing a worldwide militant front for saving
bourgeois and petty-bourgeois environmental the global climate and against the imperialist
organizations as a “success” because it adhered road to the environmental catastrophe brought
to the lie of Kyoto. These organizations maintain about by finance capital.
that even the cynical trade with shares for
“pollution certificates” is a contribution to
Militant actions and also mass struggles have
climate protection. In their contempt for the
taken and are taking place in a new
masses and poisoned by modern anti-
environmental movement in many countries.
communism, they cannot imagine anything else
Whether against the expulsion of millions of
than to begging the monopolies to save us from
people and the flooding of their land through
the environmental catastrophe. In the 1980s, in
destructive dam projects in India and China,
numerous imperialist countries petty-bourgeois
whether in the struggle against the privatisation
“Green parties” came onto the parliamentary
of drinking water, as in Bolivia or in the struggle
stage of deceit, some even with government
against the massive clearing of the tropical rain
participation. They became monopoly parties
forests by wood barons lacking any conscience,
and betrayed the interests of the environmental
as in Brazil or in the Philippines, these mass
struggle. The old environmental movement
struggles, which even include regional armed
has subjugated or adapted itself in one way or
uprisings, are developing. Through the massive
another to imperialist environmentalism.
privatisation of drinking water, electricity,
Many of its activists have given up in the
waste disposal and municipal services in the
meantime or retreated to local projects,
hands of the leading international monopolies,
developing the slogan “Think globally, act
these struggles are being led more and more by
locally”. They, as well as many new
the masses directly against the international
environmental activists, must be helped to come
monopolies. The so-called “Renaissance of
to grips with the betrayal of the Greens and
nuclear energy”, an international nuclear
the petty-bourgeois mode of thinking also
program of the monopolies and imperialist
existing in the environmental struggle, to
governments, is a challenge to the masses in the
develop an uncompromising struggle against the
entire world to combine the struggle against
monopolies, their imperialist environmentalism
atomic death with the struggle to maintain world
and their governments and to develop it into
peace. However there is a great discrepancy in
massive international active resistance.
the world between the necessary international
4. A new transnational environmental mass movement, its coordination, network-
movement is arising which must be building and its strong support in the working
developed into an international united class and the Marxist-Leninist parties and the
front for saving the environment from actual state. Within the MLPD and among the
the greed for profit. masses, a conscious struggle must be led
against overlying the environmental issue with
In connection with the apparent failure of
the pressing social and day-to-day issues. The
imperialist climate policy, a new environmental
tendency to displace and underestimate the
movement is arising which is spanning the globe
environmental issue is an important topic for the
and closely combining forces with other
international Marxist-Leninist and working-class
movements. In October 2004, representatives of
movement. This affords dealing critically with
about 20 environmental and popular movements
the idea that establishing socialism is identical
and individuals met in Durban, South Africa.
with solving the environmental crisis. This point
Under the motto “Climate Justice– Now! A Call
of view not only negates the conscious efforts
for Mass Action against Climate Change” they
necessary to prevent a global environmental
call for building a grass-roots movement against
crisis in a mass struggle against the greed for
climate change which spans the globe. The
profit of the monopolies, even within capitalism,
declaration opposes the privatisation of the air
but also fails to recognize the complicated and
and demands a drastic reduction of worldwide
long-lasting damages which have already been
investments in fossil energy. They call upon the
done, the extent of the uneven development in
masses of people to take the climate issue into
the world and the fact that the environmental
their own hands. In the meantime, more than 100

- 22 -
International Newsletter No. 31
issue will also be the subject of an intensive
class struggle in socialism. In socialist China
the ideological struggle that - from the
proletarian point of view- there is no such thing
as waste, there are only raw materials, played an
important role, as well as the practical debate
that a comprehensive all-out cycle economy
based on the initiative of the masses must be
built up against the pragmatic direction “tons are
the main thing”.
In connection with the struggle against the
highly poisonous waste incineration, as well as
against the plundering, poisoning and nuclear
endangering of people caused by the
international energy monopolies, not only a
number of regional movements have emerged in
Germany, but also a nationwide popular
movement for all-out cycle economy and
Kryo recycling, a technically revolutionary
method for completely sorting and regaining
plastics, tires and electronic wastes which, in
combination with biological-mechanical plants
and all-out cycle economy, makes waste
incineration completely superfluous.
This popular movement undertakes important
steps to coordinate various forces in a new
environmental movement beyond national
borders. Its activities are supported by numerous
alternative municipal electoral alliances and are
developing increasing influence among
scientists, engineers, doctors, petty-bourgeois
parties, as well as individual representatives of
bourgeois parties. All of them have increasing
contradictions to the suppression of scientific-
technical progress because of the monopolies’
greed for profit. The popular movement was
initiated by the miners’ movement “Miners for
AUF” and has close ties to the working-class
and trade union movement. In connection with
the rapid spreading of regenerative energy
sources which is closely tied to the concept of
all-out cycle economy, the reduction of CO2 by
80 percent within the next 15 years, which is
necessary to prevent a global environmental
catastrophe, can be achieved by means of mass
struggle. Although this movement is young and
- 23 -
31st of July 2006
small in number and although many people have
never heard of it because of the censorship of the
bourgeois mass media, it meets with great
popular support there where it is made known
resolutely. The MLPD supports and promotes
an ueberparteilich (non-party affiliated)
movement for all-out cycle economy. It is an
important task to combine the struggle against
imperialist plundering with the struggle for a
worldwide all-out cycle economy. In this way,
the international environmental movement will
also be a school of the international revolution
for the masses.
A stabile unity of mankind and nature can first
be re-established and the conservation of
resources first be achieved in socialism. That
also includes the production of long-lasting
products and the general implementation of
sustainable methods of production which are
compatible with the environment. This is
absolutely contrary to the capitalist mentality
with its rapacious greed for profit. It is very
important to push through the interests of
mankind against the interests of the
monopolies.
But this is not possible without a
revolutionary change in society as a whole.
The Marxist-Leninists must increase their efforts
to establish the universal connections among
science, research and class struggle in order to
avoid mistakes. An important source of
environmental crime is the division and
separation of science in its individual segments
and the failure to take note of other aspects.
The struggle to save the environment from
the greed for profit and the building of an
international environmental movement is an
indispensable part of the strategy and tactics
of the Marxist-Leninists for preparing the
international socialist revolution. #
International Newsletter No. 31 31st of July 2006

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- 24 -
 International Newsletter No. 31
The Publication of Cartoons on
Prophet Mohammed
Communist Party of India (Marxist – Leninist)
Central Committee, 19th February 2006
The publication of cartoons on Prophet
Mohammed by the Danish paper Jylland
Posten, its republication in dozens of
publications in Europe and even an Italian
minister appearing in a TV programme with a
T-shirt sporting one of these cartoons are not
accidental. These are conscious provocative
actions by the imperialist camp and its
propagandists including the monopoly media
to hurt the religious sentiments of the Islamic
people in order to divert them from anti-
imperialist actions.
Denmark was known for a liberal democrat
approach for long. But as in France, Germany
and so many other European countries, in
Denmark also religious chauvinism has come
to the foreground and the ultra right-wing
Danish People’s Party is gaining strength day
by day with its racist slogans. As is well
known, in all the imperialist countries in
Europe and North America even after
introducing neo-liberal policies after the
1970s in order to overcome the crisis
expressed through formulations like
”stagflation” the economic situation is
degenerating continuously. Once, that is after
the second World War, the cheap labour from
West Asia and North Africa were welcomed
for speeding up the economic boom of those
decades. But even after neo-liberal policies,
when the stagnation is becoming rampant
with spiralling unemployment as a result of
policies of jobless growth, this very same
cheap labour with Muslims constituting a
major section is considered a burden. These
imperialist Governments and the chauvinist
propagandists there are trying to depict the
migrants especially the Muslims as the
reasons for the economic ills affecting them.
Thus new scapegoats are found to save the
imperialist system and its barbarous policies
which are responsible for these ills. It is in
- 25 -
31st July 2006
this context the racists are promoted and neo-
fascist parties are gaining strength in these
countries. The question of the Danish
cartoons should be seen in this background.
It is ridiculous to argue that what has
happened through publication of these
cartoons is only ”freedom of the press” or
”freedom of expression”. It is reported that
the same paper had turned down cartoons of
Christ three years ago on the grounds that
they could be offensive to readers. Cartoons
and hurting sentiments are not the methods
for creating radical thinking. Religious
chauvinism or fanaticism or fundamentalism
can be fought only on a long term basis
putting forward democratic secular positions
and scientific temper. Instead if, as the
defenders of the Danish cartoons propagate,
the religious sentiments of any section is hurt,
it will only strengthen the very same religious
fanaticism or fundamentalism. This is proved
repeatedly in history. The Danish editor who
published the cartoons cannot be considered
as ignorant of these basic facts.
What he has done is a deliberate provocation.
For the cultural editor claims to have invited
the cartoons ostensibly to test whether
Muslim fundamentalists had begun affecting
the freedom of expression in Denmark. This
is a racist and provocative test. Further the
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh
Rasmussen has stated, ”freedom of speech
should be used to provoke and criticise
political or religious authoritarians.” A
Member of the European Parliament,
Morgens Camre dared to declare, ”It is 2005
and there is no reason whatsoever to respect
foolish superstition in any form.” One would
like to ask these imperialist spokespersons
whether they will apply the same yardstick to
fight superstitions linked to Christianity. The
 International Newsletter No. 31
matter is very clear. It is nothing but the
bogus theory of ”the clash of civilisations”
being put into practice for provoking a new
crusade to advance the neo-colonial designs
of the imperialist camp. In this way as in the
1930s, according to the present situation the
neo-fascist forces like the Danish Peoples’
Party are promoted in a naked form. It is not
surprising to read that the Peoples’ Party
received almost 17 times more applications
for membership after the publications of these
cartoons and the debate which is being
whipped up around it.
The imperialist forces are working according
to a definite game plan. They were sure that
once such a provocation is made, the Muslim
fundamentalists will respond and slowly it
will take a violent turn deviating the Muslim
toiling masses from the anti-imperialist
movement. It will divide the anti-imperialist
movement also on a religious basis. At a time
when US imperialism and its European allies
are getting increasingly hated all over the
world, and when in spite of it Bush and
company are conspiring to expand the
aggression to Iran, Syria, Palestine and other
countries; when the atrocities in Guantanamo,
Abu Ghraib, etc. are being condemned by
world public opinion, such a ”divide and
dominate” policy is necessary for the
imperialist designs. It is the very same policy
being practised in occupied Iraq and
Afghanistan where the people are already
divided on racist and communal lines to
perpetuate the US domination. Similarly,
when the Palestine people have powerfully
rebuffed the US-Israel axis by electing Hamas
overwhelmingly in a UN supervised election,
and when anti-imperialist sentiments and
actions are spreading in the Arab countries as
well as in North African countries, the
publication of the cartoons and its provocative
repetition is a very conscious move to divert
the Muslim toiling masses from the path of
anti-imperialist movement.
The Danish Government has steadfastly
refused to take action against the Jylland
Posten. This is clearly not in keeping with the
sections 140 and 266B of the Danish Criminal
Code. Section 140 of the Criminal Code
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31st July 2006
prohibits disturbing public order by publicly
ridiculing or insulting the dogmas of worship
of any lawfully existing religious community
in Denmark. Section 266b criminalizes insult,
threat or degradation of natural persons, by
publicly and with ill intent attacking their
race, colour of skin, national or ethnical roots,
belief or sexual orientation. It may be true that
such laws have been seldom used in the past
but it is also true that a 2004 report by the
European Network Against Racism concluded
that a disproportionate amount of editorial
space is devoted to negative reporting on
ethnic minorities. The current controversy
must also be seen in the context of the recent
unrest in France. It is clear that globalisation
and neo-liberalism is creating a more insular
and racist society in the Western world with
the increasing burdens of the economic crisis
being thrust upon the poor, the ethnic
minorities and the marginalized in society.
The CPI (ML) condemns the publication of
the cartoons as a deliberate provocative act on
the part of the imperialists as a part of an
ongoing campaign against the Muslims and
minorities. We also strongly condemn the
conscious move of the imperialist forces to
spread such spurious and reactionary
ideologies like the ”clash of civilisations.” We
appeal to the working class and all oppressed
masses in Europe and elsewhere to recognise
the imperialist designs and not to get swayed
by the propaganda of the imperialist masters
of their countries. We also appeal to the
Muslim masses to fight such imperialist
campaigns and not to get provoked by them
so as to build a powerful broad-based anti-
imperialist movement of the working class
and all oppressed masses around the world in
order to overthrow the imperialist system led
by US imperialism. #
Notice
the new email address
of CPI(ML) India:
Email:
international@cpiml.in
International Newsletter No. 31 31st July 2006

Revolutionary Greetings to Heroic People

Making Anti-Bush Protest Action
A Great Success
Press Statement
General Secretary of CPI (ML), 2nd March 2006

The progressive, democratic people all over India have fully expressed their strong anti-
imperialist patriotic feelings against the international terrorist Bush and his Indian agents by
positively responding to the Bharat Bandh call of CPI (ML) from 1st March midnight to 2nd
March 6 PM and organizing massive demonstrations and effigy burning at thousands of places.
There are reports about arrests of hundreds of comrades in many areas. The Central Committee of
CPI (ML) salute the heroic people how are making the Bharat Bandh and all other anti-Bush
protest actions a massive success.

While there is a total Bandh in Kerala and Karnataka and Bandh in many parts of Andhra
Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand and
elsewhere, anti-Bush demonstrations and effigy burning are still continuing in all states. In
continuation to the massive rally at Delhi and numerous demonstrations on 1st March itself, from
the midnight the Bharat Bandh started with the slogan: Imperialist Warmonger Bush Go Back,
with massive people’s participation. All Communist Revolutionary, left, democratic, patriotic,
minority forces in their own way are contributing to make the anti-Bush campaign historic. The
rallies in all states with the participation of millions of people, like the ones still continuing at
Azad Maidan, Mumbai and elsewhere reflect the extent of people’s anger against Bush and his
evil kingdom.

It is a shame when vast majority of people hate and oppose Bush and are in the streets to
express their feelings, the UPA Government is prostrating before this international criminal at
people’s expense. Similarly it is a great treachery that while the CPI (M)-led parties continue to
prop up this government of treason, they organize anti-Bush demonstration to hoodwink the
masses. The still continuing mighty anti-Bush protest action are a great rebuff to these imperialist
agents and their lackeys. The patriotic people shall not pardon these traitors for surrendering the
country’s sovereignty and people’s interests to the imperialist chieftain Bush.

Once again we congratulate all patriotic forces who are continuing the anti-Bush agitation and
appeal to them to continue the anti-imperialist movement more vigorously. #

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International Newsletter No. 31
On International Working Women’s Day
Ideological Moorings of Women’s
Liberation Movement
CPI(ML) New Democracy
8th March is always an appropriate time to
discuss what are the ideological moorings
necessary for any women’s organization
working for women’s liberation. There are
strong reasons for discussing and debating this
repeatedly. The forces of status quo in our
society, as all over the world, used to seek to
and continue to seek to disarm the
revolutionary leaders of such organizations
with doubts about the capacity of
revolutionary Marxism to provide answers to
”issues of the women’s movement.” They
raise the doubt whether the revolutions led by
working class parties are necessary and
provide the sole substratum needed on which a
society truly equal in gender outlook will be
built. Questions of dictatorships of classes led
by parties being actually dictatorships of men,
of Marxism being ‘outdated’ to answer
questions being thrown up by modern
movements, of why women of previously
socialist countries did not fight back to
preserve their gains if they really had gained
anything, and many other such questions are
raised. They are engaged even today in
proving that the question of women’s
liberation has nothing to do with class
divisions and class struggle. Rather women’s
main struggle must be directed at their status
becoming equal to or better than the men in
society, and to draw attention to the class
differences between women is unnecessary.
This has been the feminist understanding. But
today other methods are also in use.
Appropriating the phrases of Marxism, ‘gender
phraseology’ is introduced in them to make it
‘woman oriented’ i.e. revolutionary Marxism
is not woman oriented in its content. What this
actually achieves is to rob it of its class
content. For example, struggles against
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31st July 2006
patriarchal values and society are appropriated
but they name the feudal mode of production
as a ‘patriarchal mode’ of production! For
these reasons some preoccupation is there
among new activists coming to women’s
movements especially from educated sections,
of whether they should be socialist feminists
or Marxist feminists or whether all women
who fight for women’s rights have to be
feminists and to be only Marxist-Leninist is to
be somewhat inadequate, outdated, old
schoolish and irrelevant. Much of this
confusion springs also from conveniently
changing definitions of ‘feminism’, of course
always presented as an ‘evolution’ of concept.
Many issues raised by the all the debates on
‘isms’ may be correct, may be raising new
issues, providing new insights into old
production relations and their gender biases
etc. The heart of the matter may be better
reached and a lot of needless heartburning
avoided if we can decide what is the position
of any organization or activist on the central
question- is it necessary for a social
transformation, a revolution led by the
working class, to establish the basis of a
society where women will be genuinely
liberated? Is it impossible for at least 70% of
women of India (or the vast majority of
women world over) to even imagine liberation
without this pre-requisite? How we name
ourselves or how such activists do, can be
decided later.
The imperialist offensive against working
class ideology and socialism gained stridency
and shrillness from Gorbachov’s Perestroika
and has only just petered out to an extent in the
face of the harsh realities of the world of
exploiters. The collapse of Soviet social
imperialism and the aid from Deng's China of
International Newsletter No. 31
restored gender inequities has been
accompanied by rising attacks of post-
modernists. Post modernists hold that
modernism (i.e. capitalism and the ideologies
of its time) is over and today is the era of the
market. They hold that status quo alone will
continue and some reforms alone can be tried
for in this. They hold that different issues, for
example women's issues, issues of tribals etc.
are independent and separate questions
(deconstruction ideologies). They are not
issues linked to class struggle and these
exploitation have no links with class
exploitation. For women, post-modernists
glorify domesticity, talk about the rights she is
entitled to within four walls. If the premise of
all this is true, Lenin must move over, "If we
do not draw women into public activity, into
the militia, into political life; if we do not tear
women away from the deadening atmosphere
of household and kitchen, then it is impossible
to secure real freedom, it is impossible to build
democracy, let alone socialism." (Letters from
Afar, III rd Letter)
The ideological attack of imperialism on the
ideology of the working class and on socialism
was strengthened by Gorbachov's Perestroika.
On one side it depicted the down fall of social
imperialism as "the fall of socialism", on the
other hand, it talked about the degeneration of
society in USSR, fall in moral values of youth
and linked these with the absence of women
from the home. It glorified the homemaker
status of woman and stressed the need to
return her there. And Germaine Greer, the
militant feminist of the 1960s, in the new note
of post-modernism, wrote about the joys of
domesticity and motherhood but never
admitted that the earlier precepts of the
feminist movement were wrong. No one even
stops to say that it is Marxism alone that
strives to lighten the burdens associated with
motherhood but does not denigrate or deny
that status to women, while it seeks to make
the individual domestic burdens into services
of society. This allows women to continue
their activities outside the home. Fuelled by
post-modernism NGO activists work in grass
root organizations eroding movements for and
ideologies of revolutionary transformation.
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31st July 2006
Even anti-govt. struggles are sabotaged in the
name of fighting patriarchy, self-action,
community relying on its own strength and so
on.
It is interesting to note in passing how status
quoist ideologies have always tried to remove
women from the work force, where she finds
her strength in organized working class
movements. The First International under
Marx and Engels defended women’s right to
work against demands to ban women labour;
Gorbachov, postmodernists, all want to lure
her back into the home and out of public
industry.
Naturally there would have been inadequacies
in advancing the consciousness of women or
in the rights achieved in the socialist societies.
The question also needs to be addressed with
equal aggressiveness that after being around
for over a century, what social model those
who propose to remodel gender relations
without revolutionary change have made?
Whilst several reforms can and should be
fought for in the present framework by all
women’s organizations and groups and
activists, the harsh reality remains that most
come into effect only to the extent of depth of
struggle and consciousness of those leading it.
The Science of Marxism
The modern women’s movements, whether
bourgeois movements or those led by
revolutionaries, began in Europe rooted in the
establishment of capitalism. The strong
assertions for women’s equality from women
came from within great mass movements and
struggles of which women were a part. The
French Revolution of 1789 where women and
men fought shoulder to shoulder for Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity also resulted in the
Declaration of the Rights of Women and the
Citizeness, where fighting women raised the
issue of equality in family, society and state.
”When a woman has the right to mount the
guillotine, she must equally have the right to
mount the speaker’s platform,” stated Olympe
de Gouges, authoress of the Declaration. Mary
Wollenstonecraft of England in 1792 made an
impassioned case for women to be reckoned as
International Newsletter No. 31
equals and as human beings, and drew on class
domination to drive home the point, ”The
many have always been enthralled by the few
and monsters, who scarcely have shown any
discernment of human excellence, have
tyrannized over thousands of their fellow
creatures …. For is it not universally
acknowledged that kings, viewed collectively,
have ever been inferior to abilities and virtues
to the same number of men from the common
mass of mankind- yet have they not and are
they still not treated with a degree of reverence
which is an insult to reason. … Brutal force
has hitherto governed the world …. as sound
politics diffuse liberty, mankind, including
women will become more wise and virtuous.”
(Vindication of Rights of Woman)
The eighteenth century marked entry of
women into social sphere of production on a
big scale- into the factories, the mines. They
like men faced long hours of work,
exploitation, poor wages and turned towards
trade union formations in defense. Women
were part and parcel of working class
movements to regulate working hours; several
all women trade unions were organized as
well. As female labour held an edge in textile
industries- women unionized slowly, had
lighter fingers, etc.- there arose in the 1800s a
demand to ban female labour.
Capitalist society brought with it Parliaments
and the issue of right to vote. It also put on
agenda women’s rights in family and society-
in marriage, property rights. Demands to
extend right to vote in England brought the
1832 laws into existence and fuelled the
Chartist movement. Though women
participated in it significantly, the demand for
universal franchise was actually a demand for
franchise for all men irrespective of property
holding.
The Communist Manifesto released in 1848
exposed the way bourgeois society viewed
women as a possession and gave her no social
rights. Marxism clearly elucidated how the
secondary position of women in society was
linked to the advent of private property and
how the abolishing of private property alone
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31st July 2006
could set women really free. The First
International led by Marx and Engels rejected
the demand for ban on women’s employment,
and upheld collective class struggle. The
General Council included a woman member;
several trade unions of women were affiliated
to it. In 1871 the Paris Commune had its share
of women defenders and martyrs and upheld
the rule of the working class and equality of all
working people.
With the coming to the fore of working class
movement, and capitalism form its energetic,
developing phase towards imperialism, the
bourgeois women's movement demarcated its
class positions retreated to them. From the mid
nineteenth and early twentieth century sprung
up bourgeois women’s organizations (mostly
early 1900s) calling for the women’s vote- but
restricting it to propertied women- propertied
white women in the case of America. In
contrast, the Second International saw Clara
Zetkin defend women’s equality at its
Founding Congress in 1889; in 1893 its
Congress at Zurich took a stand against partial
franchise for women. The First Congress of
the Third International (March 1919) adopted
an unanimous resolution, acknowledged the
total equality of women and recognized their
significance as an indispensable force of the
revolution.
In 1907, communist women organized the
First Women’s Socialist International attended
by 59 women from 15 countries which upheld
women’s equality and universal suffrage. Here
differences were there on the attitude to be
adopted for universal suffrage with women
from England, France, etc. stating it was more
practical to fight for limited suffrage. However
Marxist views won the day. A resolution of
this Conference also noted that ”socialist
parties of all countries have a duty to struggle
energetically for the introduction of universal
suffrage for women.” March 1908, New York
saw the demonstration which the 2nd
Women’s Socialist International immortalized
as working women’s day- a march organized
by socialist women for suffrage for all women
as opposed to the movement of feminists for
voting rights for white, propertied women.
International Newsletter No. 31
Today the universal celebration of 8th March
as ‘women’s day’ obliterates this history and
its lessons by appropriating the day but
robbing it of its content.
The proletarian revolution of 1917 drove all
bourgeois movements into a flurry. For at one
stroke, the Soviet government announced
universal suffrage for all men and women,
only denying the exploiters. Women had
unequivocal right for divorce, the right of
maintenance and there was to be no difference
between children born out of wedlock or
within it. The last had the status of a decree of
the Soviet state. Side by side Lenin was
forthright – it was ”not a matter of law alone”
(1918) but the situation would have to be
actually changed in the countryside. The
Soviet state gave the framework for gender
equality in which this exploitation would be
fought out. ”We say the emancipation of
workers must be brought about by the workers
themselves. And similarly, the emancipation
of women workers must be brought about by
the women workers themselves” (1919) Lenin
stated while discussing the women’s question
with Clara Zetkin. Right to vote to all women
was given in all other countries only after the
proletarian state did so. The fledgling state
also set out to implement all other Marxist
convictions. Convinced that ”petty menial
housework chains and debilitates her”,
community kitchens, laundries, canteens and
creches were set up to free women from
household labour, as she came forward to
participate in the building of the new society.
There were struggles, there were setbacks.
There are several documentation’s of even
western writers including that of Anna Louis
Strong who wrote about how the manager of a
state factory employing women explained how
his establishment helped the women – in an
area where it was socially compulsory for
women to be veiled, unveiling became the rule
as the factory forbade the veil. It was not only
the facilities extended by the state, side by side
was the continual propaganda for women to
cast aside their chains and to participate. Year
Books of the Soviet Union of the years of
Khruschev and after quote the figures of Lenin
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31st July 2006
and Stalin years of creches and nurseries etc.
inadvertently while describing their current
state, and are an interesting source of proof of
how much was done by the proletarian state
(for which Khruschev onwards no love was
there). The process continued in the building
of socialism under Stalin. Women became
tractor drivers, labour heroines, shock brigade
managers, scientists – entered all walks of life.
Through the Soviets in all areas they
participated in the political process of ruling
the country. All discussions on five-year plans,
on work figures were taken down below to the
Soviets for opinion before being finalized.
Women were leaders of Soviets, leaders of
Party Committees – and not in the way they
lead panchayats in our country i.e., as
substitutes of their husbands.
Similar and even more earthshaking were the
experiences of women in China under Mao
because of the strong feudal oppression they
fought and overthrew before coming forward
to build a new society. Mao insisted that in
liberated areas, first women must be organized
to demand ban on concubinage before it was
prohibited, recognizing the need for women to
be developed to fight their own exploitation.
Equality was not mechanically implemented.
Work point allocations were different for
pregnant and lactating women, for same
benefits as others. Women nursing children
worked less hours for the same wage (Socialist
Upsurge in China’s countryside). Post Mao,
one of the early faces of capitalist China was
the photograph of a woman standing at dawn
outside the gate of Peking, holding her
newborn baby in her arms – thrown out for
bearing a baby girl in Deng’s China where the
‘great iron pot’ was broken, families could
own private land, getting rich was glorious and
a one child policy spelt nemesis for the baby
girl and her hapless mother.
Those cynics, those genuinely concerned
women, those bourgeois propagandists who
ask why did it all finish if it was all so glorious
should be answered with confidence. They
scarcely seem to realize the size of the
transformation – lives transformed for millions
International Newsletter No. 31 31st July 2006

of ordinary women. When the working class is
ideologically disarmed and also rendered
leaderless, then movements and sections
whose lives changed dependent on it, also
reverse. It is further proof of how long and
arduous are the periods of social
transformations, and how desperate the tussle
between the old and the new, and how
consciously the new has to be defended. Mao
explained the restoration.
In a nutshell, the important question which
these societies clarified and also raised was
whether the new society itself will do away
with all gender exploitation. They clearly
showed up how class slavery propagates and
aggravates gender slavery. They clearly
brought out the Marxist percept that such a
centuries old exploitation will need
thoroughgoing revolutions in social attitudes
and values which have to be fought out in the
new society. The new society gives a
framework of equality and stands by the
women in their struggle. But it is equally true
that the complete liberation of women would
only be possible under Communism, when all
private property is done away with.
World over movements breaking out under the
leadership of revolutionary communists,
however small, are seen by imperialists and
the reactionary governments as foes which
need to be crushed because they are embryos
of another society. We see this in our own
country, as also in other countries. Marxism is
a science and we should remain convinced that
it will help us tackle the challenges before
movements led by revolutionary women in our
country. No other class has a blue print for
equality for the vast masses of women. All
forces of status quo – whether they are post-
modernists, or feminists or anyone, end up
standing for the current imperialist dominated
modern world which is based on exploitation
of the labour of the vast majority of the
world’s women, and a culture which
commercializes and degrades women. As
Clara Zetkin placed before her Party’s
Congress in Gotha in 1896 ”The woman of the
working class has achieved her economic
independence but neither as a person nor as a
woman or wife does she have the possibility of
living a full life as an individual. For her work
as wife and mother she gets only the crumbs
that are dropped from the table by capitalist
production. Consequently, the liberation
struggle of the working class women cannot be
– as it is for the bourgeois woman, a struggle
against the men of her class …”.#

Let the Communists of Imperialists

Countries Unite their Forces for the Rebirth
of Communist Movement!
Resolution approved by the fourth reunion of
Preparatory Commission (CP), Italy
(from La Voce n. 12, November 2002)

Proletarian of all the world, unite! No more
than 150 years ago the founders of the
communist movement as a conscious and
organized movement launched this appeal with
the Communist party’s Manifesto. In spite of
all the changes since then till now, it remains
entirely valid and it shows the condition for
working class and popular masses’ victory
against the imperialist bourgeoisie. Exactly
100 years ago Lenin, the leader of the first
victorious proletarian revolution, showed in
his work What must we do? the general
characteristics of the communist parties that
the working class needed to begin the socialist
era. Founding on these precedents the
Preparatory Commission (CP) of the

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International Newsletter No. 31
foundation congress of the (new) Italian
Communist Party addresses the communist
parties, the communist organizations, the not
yet organized communists and the
organizations that struggle for setting up
socialism (that is all the Subjective Forces of
the Socialist Revolution) of the imperialist
countries. The CP addresses all these forces so
that they mobilize and unite their own forces
so as working class and popular masses could
have soon a communist party which fully can
make use of the experience of the first wave of
proletarian revolution, a party which can be up
to the communists’ tasks during the second
general crisis of capitalism and the consequent
revolutionary situation in development.
The CP exposes and summarily justifies its
conceptions and its purposes in order to this
internationalist task. The CP is born in order to
convoke the congress of the (new) Italian
Communist Party’s foundation. This is the
work that we want to conclude. The work to
realize this aim shows more and more clearly
step by step that the rebirth of the communist
movement in our country is closely linked to
the rebirth of the communist movement in the
rest of the world, particularly to the rebirth in
the imperialist countries and especially in
those European imperialist countries which
our country is strictly tied to. We think that it
is a wrong nationalist conception to believe
that the rebirth of the communist movement
can advance unlimitedly only in a single
country if it does not advance in some
proportion also in other countries. We does not
address the communists of the other countries
for presumptuousness or for lack of regard or
esteem of their experience and of their present
work. On the contrary we want to present to
the communists of other countries our
conceptions and our purposes for establishing
with them connections founded on criticism
and self-criticism so that everybody could
better and faster realize its aims. Everyone’s
advancing is conditioned by others’ advancing.
This shapes and defines a field of common
work, and this confirms the international
feature of the transformation to which we
work: the victory of proletarian revolution, the
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31st July 2006
establishment of socialism and the march
towards communism.
Crisis of capitalism and popular masses’
resistance
Day after day in oppressed countries and
also in imperialist countries the contradictions
between imperialist bourgeoisie and popular
masses are increasing. The contradictions of
imperialist groups and their States among
themselves are contemporaneously increasing.
The contradiction between the collective
character reached by men’s material and
spiritual productive forces, on one side, and on
the other side the surviving of capitalist
relation of production is becoming more and
more antagonist. All this is shown on more
and more large levels (the devastation of
habitat and the risk for the existence of the
human race itself are examples) and in a more
and more stronger way.
The surviving of capitalist relations of
production takes an increasingly heavy tall of
victims among the popular masses also in
imperialist countries and moreover it causes
the popular masses of oppressed countries and
of ex socialist countries to collapse in a chasm
without bottom.
At the beginning of the Seventies the period
of recovery of the capital accumulation and of
development of economic activity followed to
the Second World War came to its end, and the
second general crisis of capitalism began. The
crisis of communist movement driven by
modern revisionism prevailing led to the
collapse of socialist field, to the liquidation of
most of the parties created within the first
Communist International and to the
disappearance of most of the institutions
(States, parties, mass organizations) created by
the first wave of world proletary revolution.
The decay of old communist movement
permitted to capitalism to unfold once again
freely in every field and in every side of the
world in conformity with its true nature. This
decay has returned on the front level the
reactionary, anti popular and destructive
character of capitalism in its imperialist phase.
The result is that since the beginning of the
Nineties the general crisis of capitalism goes
International Newsletter No. 31
on faster, on a large scale and on a world level,
in confirmation that capitalism is historically
out of date.
This induces imperialist bourgeoisie to
increase the extermination war that it actually
carries out against the popular masses of
imperialist countries and of oppressed
countries in order to create conditions of
exploitation adequate to the increase in value
of the accumulated capital mass.
At the same time imperialist groups and
States are driven to a new imperialist war by
the need of valorization of capital. Particularly
the European imperialist groups can strengthen
their economic and political positions against
the robbery and arrogance of US imperialist
groups only setting up themselves as political
and military powers opposing to USA. The
imperialist groups must settle their accounts
among themselves as a more and more urgent
matter of life or death. In capitalism there is
not other way to assert oneself. European
Union can survive and develop only walking
on this way. This is the unavoidably and
spontaneously way followed by imperialist
bourgeoisie and therefore it must lead the
popular masses and even the working class to
march close to itself, with good or bad
manners.
The development of socialist revolution in
imperialist countries consists in transforming
the extermination war today suffered by
popular masses in a war fought by them in a
organized manner, taking the initiative in their
hands with strategy and tactics adequate to
lead it to victory. Only the development of
socialist revolution in imperialist countries can
prevent a new imperialist war or transform it
in revolutionary war. Therefore the rebirth of
the communist movement is a necessity.
The resistance opposed by popular masses to
the advancement of general crisis of capitalism
since many years has developed not only in
oppressed countries and in ex socialist
countries, but also in imperialist countries. But
till now and most of all in imperialist countries
that resistance acts only marginally as
communism school, because it is not guided
by the working class through its communists
parties. On the contrary it has developed in
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31st July 2006
spontaneous way and open order. The single
proletarians and popular masses’ persons
”struggle against bourgeoisie one by one”.
Their resistance flows and scatters in
individualist rebellism, in individual
brutalization, in attempts to individually save
themselves and to open some way out, in
generically antisocial behaviors of individuals
or little groups, in attacks and vandalism with
no class distinction, in generic anarchic and
individualist criminality copying the
capitalists’ behavior, in subversive activities of
individuals or little groups untied among them.
The workers ”of a particular category in a
particular place struggle against that single
capitalist who directly exploits them”, their
resistance remains confined to trade-unionist
and vindicating struggles, and remains steeped
in reformist illusions and deviations to
spontaneous and adventurist activism. In many
cases the resistance develops under direction
of organizations submitted to imperialist
bourgeoisie, of regime trade unions or of
residual mass organizations of the old
communist movement now dominated by
bourgeoisie or even by it manipulated. In other
cases the workers, instead of struggling against
the bourgeois relations of production and
against the class which by force imposes their
maintenance, struggle against other workers.
As a matter of fact it happens that imperialist
bourgeoisie transforms the contradiction
between itself and the popular masses in a
thousand contradictions among parts of
popular masses. Then the popular masses’
resistance to the advancement of the crisis
develops under control of openly reactionaries,
fascist and racist forces. All these things are
not new: the founders of the communist
movement already described them in
Communist Party’s Manifesto of 1848
(Chapter 1), because they are typical of
periods when communist movement as
conscious and organized movement is weak.
But today they present theirs elves on a higher
level and with new guises, so a lot of us do not
recognize them. Revolutionary mobilization
and reactionary mobilization get mixed up and
the imperialist bourgeoisie prevails in the
muddle because it has power, experience,
International Newsletter No. 31
organization and tested practices and
institutions of preventive counterrevolution. It
is right and necessary that us communists,
particularly us communists of imperialists
countries, ask ourselves why in imperialist
countries the rebirth of the communist
movement, that we think it is already free from
the tumor of modern revisionism, goes on so
slowly. We must ask ourselves why the
communist movement has yet such a limited
influence on working class and on popular
masses, even if the popular masses’ resistance
to the advancement of the crisis develops on a
great scale. In many imperialist countries
communist parties yet do not even exist. Even
in those countries where since years parties
self calling Marxist – Leninist, or even Marxist
– Leninist – Maoist are existing, there are
scarce or no advances in accumulation of
revolutionary forces. Some comrades, most of
all in parties of the oppressed countries but
also in parties of the imperialist countries, go
as far as to assert that today the accumulation
of revolutionary forces is impossible in
imperialist countries, that proletary revolution
must before develop in a great scale on
oppressed countries, that the communists of
imperialist countries cannot do anything but
resist as little groups waiting for more
favorable situations, that sooner or later will be
created by the development of the revolution
in the oppressed countries and by the
increasing of contradictions of the imperialist
groups and States among themselves and
between them and the popular masses. But this
is a wrong conception. It means to delegate
responsibility to the popular masses’
movement led by the events, to overestimate
the role of their spontaneous movement (after
all it is a mistake of spontaneism), to justify
the imperialist countries communist
movement’s backwardness of which these
comrades do not recognize the causes, and to
resign themselves to it.
Experience not only shows that socialism
can consolidate on a world level only if
socialist revolution wins also in the more
important imperialist countries, although in the
context of a revolutionary situation on a world
level the socialist revolution can begin in
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31st July 2006
every country. Experience also shows that on a
world level the communist movement does not
develops beyond some limits without a strong
communist movement in the imperialist
countries, and then without strong communist
parties in the imperialist countries,. Neither the
Cultural Proletarian Revolution launched in
1966 by Chinese Communist Party under the
direction of Mao Tse – tung succeeded in
reversing the communist movement’s decay.
Neither the great victories of proletary
revolution yet in the Seventies conquered in
some oppressed countries (Vietnam, Laos,
Cambodia, South Yemen, Nicaragua, Angola,
Mozambique, Ethiopia) succeeded in it. In the
oppressed countries where the popular masses’
resistance to imperialism is more diffuse and
stronger, it is more and more often led by
reactionary forces. This reproposes the strange
contrast between the heroism shown by the
fighting popular masses and the reactionary
character of the political forces which lead
them. This is a fact already shown in the past
where the influence of the world communist
movement as a conscious and organized
movement was weaker. The communist
movement’s weakness restrains and limits also
the communist movement’s development in
the countries oppressed by imperialism. This
has its reasons inside the imperialist countries’
communist movement and it will not be
automatically healed neither by the increasing
of contradictions nor by a possible greater
communist movement’s development in the
oppressed countries. Surely this development
is giving an important contribution to the
communist movement’s rebirth in the
imperialist countries (we have only to think at
the role performed by Peruvian Communist
Party in the near past), but this is not the
decisive force. It is up to us communists to
remove the causes that stop ourselves from
leading the resistance opposed by the popular
masses o the development of the capitalism
crisis in imperialist countries.
Where do the difficulties in the revolutionary
forces’ accumulation met by us communists of
the imperialist countries come from?
International Newsletter No. 31
Mistakes of dialectics
Somebody answers that these difficulties
come from economical, political and cultural
bourgeoisie’s strength, and from the fierceness
and the lack of scruples of the preventive
counterrevolution systems by bourgeoisie
worked out and improved before, during and
after the first wave of proletarian revolution
(1900 – 1950). But it is clear that all these
elements exist and will continue to exist until
the revolutionary forces will prevail. They
aren’t the obstacle to the revolutionary forces’
development, but the target that those forces
must pull down. When and where did the
communists succeeds in revolutionary forces’
accumulation because the dominant class
easily yielded them the field? Which would be
the communists’ task if dominant class
wouldn’t oppose the most ruthless, cynical and
fierce resistance to the socialism
advancement? On the contrary the founder of
communist movement taught us that
revolution open its road making arise a
powerful counterrevolution, and the party
gains the true revolutionary party’s maturity
only fighting against it (K. Marx, Class
struggles in France since 1848 to 1850). Some
decades later Stalin indicated us that
experience confirmed Marx’s teachment: the
more the proletary revolution goes on the more
class struggle becomes acute. The strength, the
cynicism and the fierceness of
counterrevolution are only a signal that
imperialist bourgeoisie has increasing
difficulties in making survive its power and
therefore they are a signal and a confirmation
of the great potentialities of development and
success for the communist movement.
Somebody else answers that the of
communist movement’s present difficulties in
the imperialist countries come from the
diffusion of opportunism. Opportunism is the
resignation to bourgeoisie’s domination, the
agreement with bourgeoisie and the subjection
to it for it could satisfy the immediate needs of
individual, little groups or some categories.
Opportunism is to find with bourgeoisie
arrangements preserving its power, to nurture
illusions about bourgeoisie, to hesitate or to
stagger in the struggle against bourgeoisie. But
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31st July 2006
we can remove opportunism only in the course
of revolution’s development. We cannot do it
as a premise for revolution. In fact
opportunism is mainly fed by two sources.
One source is the influence (ideological
influence, blackmail and corruption) exercised
by imperialist bourgeoisie among revolutiona-
ries’ lines: it is an influence that we can not
eliminate until we will have eliminate the
bourgeoisie itself. The other source is the
influence that bourgeoisie structurally has, as
old dominating class, upon the popular masses
yet not mobilized or only weakly mobilized
towards the revolutionary struggle. The more
the communist movement involves the popular
masses the more we can remove this influence.
Then it is clear that the diffusion of opportu-
nism is not the source of our difficulties, but it
is a manifestation, an aspect of them.
The main obstacle to the rebirth of the
communist movement in the imperialist
countries is inside that movement and then its
removal is entirely in the hands of us
communists of imperialist countries. The main
obstacle is the dogmatism of those who
declare themselves communists and sincerely
try to act as communists. This obstacle is the
scant dialectical conception which leads them
and the scant dialectical method with which
they know the world and with which they try
to change it.
Dogmatism hinders both the construction of
communist parties and their strengthening. We
communist do not sufficiently adhere to the
peculiar laws of practical movement that
changes the present state of things, that is to
say to the laws of communism as it was
formerly defined by Marx and Engels in The
German ideology (1846). Therefore we cannot
lead it. Some people even denies that a
practical movement changing the present state
of things is existing and they reduce it to what
they produce, they reduce the practical
movement to the conscious and organized
movement. It is a idealistic position according
to which the conscious and organized
movement creates the practical movement.
Coherently developed this bring to the
conclusion that for being communists there is
not anything more to know and this supports
International Newsletter No. 31
the indifference for enquiry and for experience
elaboration which actually permeates so many
communists. As a matter of fact a practical
movement changing the state of things exists:
the communists’ task is to understand its laws
and direct him. Perhaps is it passivity to follow
the peculiar laws of the practical movement
that changes the world? No, it is not! Passivity
is to follow the masses yet influenced by
bourgeoisie, that is to say indirectly to undergo
the bourgeoisie’s influence. The practical
movement transforms the present society and
it drives it towards communism. We as
communists must understand the laws of this
transformation, we must become conscious of
the necessity inherent in things and active
promoters of the transformation. The
transformation of the capitalist society in
communist society by its nature is a passage
from a movement that men undergo out of
necessity and that they do without being
conscious, to a conscious and planned
movement.
Already in the Communist Party’s Manifesto
of 1848 Marx and Engels taught us that
communists’ role towards the remaining
workers’ mass consists in knowing the
conditions, the course and the general results
of the proletary movement, and in being the
most resolved part of the proletariat, that one
that ever drives forward (chapter 2). The
transformation of the capitalist society in
communist society is an objective and
necessary movement that can complete only
becoming also a subjective and conscious
movement. Without conscience and direction
it loses itself in thousand ways, stagnates and
sometimes and for some time it even changes
to his contrary. Without revolutionary theory
the revolutionary movement can not develop
beyond an elementary and spontaneous level,
and it is in many forms exposed to the
manipulations of the experienced dominant
class that influences, permeates, deviates and
withdraws it from its course, envelops it with
inextricable contradictions, exhausts it, breaks
it up, disperses it and opposes one part of the
practical movement to another. Particularly
imperialist bourgeoisie systematically
transforms, even spontaneously as well as
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31st July 2006
consciously, the contradictions between itself
and the popular masses in contradictions
between parts of the popular masses and so
prolongs its existence, makes the popular
masses’ state miserable and morally and
intellectually brutalizes them. So the popular
masses’ mobilization against the advancement
of the capitalism’s general crisis does not
become revolutionary mobilization, but
becomes reactionary mobilization, a
mobilization led by imperialist bourgeoisie.
The main obstacle to the rebirth of
communist movement consists in this: the
communists sincerely dedicated to the cause of
revolution have a conception of the world and
a method of work which not sufficiently
considers the bourgeois society’s
transformations nor the experience of the first
wave of proletarian revolution. According to
the programs of the main part of the
imperialist countries’ communist parties and
groups they analyze the economic, political
and cultural movement of the present society
as if the first wave of proletarian revolution,
which shook the world from top to bottom,
would have passed without leaving any mark,
and this only because the States, the parties
and the mass organizations by it created are
fallen. Really communism is dead and deleted
from history, also in these programs! This is
still bourgeoisie’s ideological influence, these
are bourgeoisie’s illusions and exorcisms.
Reality is quite different.
To break with dogmatism which makes
sterile our efforts, to elaborate a revolutionary
theory reflecting the reality of transformation
towards communism, the transformation that
founding on it we must direct and give
revolutionary solutions to the proletary
revolution tasks: all this is summarized in the
thesis that new communist parties must be
founded on Marxism – Leninism – Maoism.
We explain into details this our thesis in the
following seven points.
1. The imperialist social-economic
formations
Today many honest communists have a
conception about the economic and political
International Newsletter No. 31
movement of imperialist societies that is a
combination 1) of some marxism – Leninism’s
formulas repeated without the enrichment and
the specification requested by the
developments of reality and therefore reduced
to empty formulas, and 2) of the analysis
settled by the Soviet revisionists who,
subordinated to the imperialist bourgeoisie in
the fields of politics, of direction of society
and of culture, for a long time have left survive
a mummified sector of ideology repeating and
adapting marxism - leninism in an
opportunistic way, and therefore very well this
served them as a covering: the most elder
people well remember Suslov and his empty
speechs. The truth of this statement is
demonstrated studying the present programs of
the communist parties of imperialist countries,
or studying the conception of the world
implied in their political analysis.
The imperialist societies show important
features formed owing to 1) the advancing of
productive forces’ collective character, 2) the
formation by the imperialist bourgeoisie itself
of a series of Antithetical Forces of Social
Unity (AFSU), 3) the first wave of the
proletarian revolution (where the socialist
revolutions and the new democracy
revolutions combine themselves) with the
constitution of the first socialist countries and
the formation all over the world of a strong
communist movement as a conscious and
organized movement.
In the bourgeois society a series of AFSU have
formed: institutes, procedures and institutions
with which bourgeoisie tries to face up to the
collective character assumed by the productive
forces but staying within the productive and
social bourgeois relations that denies it. The
AFSU are the fiduciary money which since
more than 50 years has served the economic
movement on a world level, and has
materialized the great part of the ”social
power” of each individual, the economical
public politics, the collective negotiation of the
conditions of wage and of labour on the level
of category, of country and of world, the
welfare institutes and the public services, the
demographic politics and the politics of job
training, the communication networks unified
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31st July 2006
on the world level, the public housing
facilities, the politics for habitat and
infrastructures, all the other institutes
summarized in the expression ”welfare State”
and intended to promote or to maintain the
”social cohesion” and to avoid the paralysis
and the chaos which the ”free market and the
unrestrained search of profit”, that is to say the
capitalist way of production, would quickly
conduct to. In short they are all the institutes,
the procedures and the institutions with which
bourgeoisie tries to govern the economic
movement of society and all the social life
even though maintaining the capitalist
relations of production. Surely the bourgeoisie
with the AFSU do not get to govern the
economic movement and to address him
according to a plan and towards determinate
goals. The relations of capitalist groups among
themselves and the relations between
bourgeoisie and working class remain
essentially antagonistic and exclude the
government of society’s economic movement.
As it does not govern the economic movement,
the imperialist bourgeoisie does not govern
either the political and cultural society’s
movement, and ”things slip from their
fingers”. But we can not understand the
present forms of economic, political and
cultural movement’s development without
considering those transformations above-
mentioned.
The substance of capitalist way of production
showed by Marx persists along all the
capitalist era, but it never exists in a pure state.
It has existed only in concrete economic –
social formations which have deeply changed
in the course of capitalist era, just because the
capitalist society must flow into the
communist society. This one does not springs
out suddenly, but forms through capitalist
society decomposition. The capitalist society is
restrained till it breaks in revolutions or in
world wars. The capitalism’s substance
expresses itself in differents forms according
to the capitalization degree of society, to the
level reached by the formal and by the real
consumption in capitalism of human activities,
to the survival in each concrete country of
forms and institutions of precapitalist society
International Newsletter No. 31
with which the capitalist way of production
has combined transforming them, to the forms
and institutions of the communist movement in
every country, to the AFSU concretely
realized by the ruling class.
The economic – social formations of the
capitalist era, and particularly those of the
imperialist era after the first wave of the
proletary revolution, have specific
characteristics and we must consider them in
order to lead their transformation.
The capitalism has taken possession and has
subsumed new activities. They are activities
that always have been done by every person or
group as their own ”natural” activities. The
capitalism has transformed all those
spontaneous and widespread activities in
commercial activities: the cooking, the
tailoring and the upkeep of clothes, the body
and mind cure, the sexual relations, the
procreation, the children’s education and
custody, the education, the sickness treatment,
the old men’s aid, the dead men’s burial, the
recreative activities, etc.. The capitalism has
taken possession of these and other activities,
has thought them in a new way and has
restructured them for its own nature. The
capitalism has broken out the old activities in
differents commercial activities setting up
each of them in new productive sectors. It has
deeply distinguished knowledge, planning,
organization and direction from execution, it
has done everyone of these activities a
separate one (a separate sector of economic
activity), and deeply changed and enriched
them. The development of urbanization, of
social relations and civilization has required
new activities. The working of capitalism
itself, with its financial, commercial, insurance
and advertising activities has generated
separate commercial activities and productive
sectors. All this has made arise a quantitatively
enormous working class, but with
characteristics differents from those liked by
dogmatics, whose class analysis are remained
behind at the old times memories. Marx
clearly taught us since the first pages of The
capital that commodities can be goods or
services, that their material nature is
secondary, although Marx in his exposition
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31st July 2006
made reference as examples mainly to goods,
according to characteristics of his time society,
150 years ago. But dogmatics stay behind at
historical examples already updated and close
their eyes in front of the fact yet clear that
today the majority of the commodities
produced by capitalists, whose production is
the medium and the support of the process of
capital exploitation, especially in the
imperialist societies, is constituted by services,
and so it will be more and more from now on.
They ignore a great part of the real working
class of our countries. And it is exactly what
the soviet revisionists taught: yet at the end of
the Eighties they recorded as production only
the ”material production”.
We shall succeed in opening the road towards
socialist revolution only sufficiently studying
and understanding the mechanisms of
imperialist economic – social formations as
they presently are.
It has been realized a combination between
economic and political movement of society.
On one side this combination is, as Lenin said,
the socialism antechamber, but on the other
side it impresses in economy, in politics and in
each other field of the society movement
characteristics that the communists must
carefully and necessarily consider if they want
to accumulate revolutionary forces, to
mobilize the working class to take the
direction of society eliminating the imperialist
bourgeoisie’s direction and so leading the
society to march most consciously and steadily
towards communism.
If we consider the programmatic writings of
the greater part of imperialist countries
communists parties and groups we see that
they swing from 1) marxism caricatures which
pretend to make derive every political and
cultural enterprise from the immediate
economic interest of its promoters, and to 2)
the factual abandonment of marxism,
expressing itself in a stereotyped and therefore
unreal description of the economic movement
and in a description of the political and
cultural movement mainly due to the influence
of bourgeois culture fashionable categories.
End of part 1#
International Newsletter No. 31
A Torrent of Liberation
is Opening its Way Through and
Unity is an Imperative for the Victory!
Partido Comunista del Perú (Marxista Leninista)
Comisión Política, Sebastián Liviapoma, Secretario General,
Lima, Enero del 2006
1. An anti-imperialist hurricane is
sweeping up the soil of our subcontinent
and in his core has the rejection to neo-
liberal policies applied by different cipayo
governments; it pursues to end with
poverty, starvation and over-exploitation
and to let peoples enjoy welfare, liberty
and progress to which they have real right,
although the untruthful statistics of
imperialist bourgeoisie, even the CEPAL
itself recognizes the worsening of life
conditions of peoples in Latin America. In
its report Social Situation in Latina
America 2004 it states: ”...poors have
increased in population, from 205 to 216
millions of people. Although, inequality in
distribution of the national income has
been aggravated... the Gini rate in the
area is 52, while in industrialized
countries of the OCDE is 33.2 ; Asian
countries are 40 and the Gini for Africa is
48. Please note that the rate for inequality
is different from the rate of poverty. Africa
is poorer than A. Latina but less
unequal.”. This peak in the anti-imperialist
struggle picks up the aspirations of peoples
for shaking neo-colonial domination off
from their backs and for recuperating their
sovereignty, natural resources, identity and
dignity as peoples and nations that are
being smashed today by monopolies and
transnationals. This hurricane terrifies the
oligarchies of our countries that for
decades have been riding on the backs of
millions of workers and peasants.
2. Peru can not be let aside, out of this turning
point of history. Just because Ollanta Humala
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31st July 2006
met Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, the
reactionary forces of the Church and the
conservative forces : big economically
powerful groups of the Confiep, the pathetic
Toledo government and the different small
political groups that represent them, started
from different media groups a furious anti-
Communist campaign of political and
economic terrorism that was led to spread
confusion and panic and to ”tear to pieces
Ollanta Humala´s candidacy.”
3. Consequencies could not have been more
the opposite. Ollanta Humala, more than for
his virtues, mainly due to the awkwardness
and stupidity of the reactionary bourgeoisie,
has grown in the polls heading them. But the
most important lesson taught by this political
circus is that workers and the people of Peru
are not willing to be deceived or terrified by
the great fuss that the reaction and imperialism
make.
4. Ollanta Humala´s appeal to unity of the left
wing, trade unions and popular organizations,
to the small, micro and median entrepreneurs
to fight together, although it was a little late , it
was a positive one. But this appeal and his
”nationalist” assertion are not enough. You
can not be a consequent nationalist if you do
not denounce in a firm and accurate way the
neocolonial domination. If you do not state the
decision to invalidate the agreements signed
by the past dictatorship with the imperialist
monopolies and transnational companies and
kept by Toledo´s government, that surrendered
our national wealth to them. Also, if you do
International Newsletter No. 31
not anulate the shameful and corrupt
auctioning of government enterprises; if you
do not plainly declare the resolution of
requesting the condonation of the foreign debt
that has been increased by the government in
more than 7 thousand millions of dollars. You
have to plainly declare your rejection of the
FTT signed by the treacherous regime and to
be ready for working for the pursuing of the
political and economic integration of Latin
America;
Is not enough to declare himself as anti-
neoliberal if you do not attempt to apply an
international policy that is strange to the
dictates of the imperialism, monopolies and
their puppet governments ; if you do not try to
have plain solidarity with nations and peoples
as Cuba and Venezuela that defend their
sovereignty and the right of their people to
freely decide about their present and future. If
you do not openly proclaim your decision of
applying an economic program that in its core
has to rely on our own resources, in the
strengthening of domestic market, to increase
the purchasing power of the people, protection
and real support to agriculture and peasants, to
national industry, little and median. To accept
and make good use of foreign investments
when they are not opposed to an independent
development, to people welfare or to the laws
of the nation. To make of the State not only a
mere regulating agent or arbiter on behalf of
monopolies and big capitalist’s profits as it is
now, but also a powerful planning and
economic agent, specially having strategic
enterprises in its hands (as energy,
communications, finances, etc) in order to
assure progress, independent development of
the country and security and people’s welfare.
The decision of ending with the Servis and the
reestablishment of total rights for workers
(labour stability, decent work and salary)
should be clearly stated ; National Budget
should be reoriented and restructured, its main
orientation should be towards health,
education, work and enough financial
resources for the local and regional
governments and in this way to assure a real
decentralization with economic, political and
administrative autonomy. To make a thorough
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31st July 2006
tax reform based on direct taxes so those who
owns more will pay more. It is not enough to
proclaim oneself as a democratic candidate if
a deep state reform is not intended. A reform
that allows people to have a direct
participation in government and power . If you
do not proclaim the elimination of
discrimination and the enforcement of equal
rights for the ethnias, nationalities, women,
minorities. If you do not drastically eliminate
corruption and establish severe punishment for
corrupters. If you do not plainly respect human
and democratic rights, punishment for
torturers, genocides and declare Not to
impunity; immediate freedom for political
prisoners unjustly accused of terrorism and for
social fighters. All these points should be
written in a new, patriotic, democratic, popular
and decentralized Constitution approved in a
Constituent Assembly and supported by
people in a popular referendum. Ollanta
Humala and his movement, now has to take
the stand.
5. History of Peruvian people is full of
frustrations to its willingness of liberty and
social justice. Political chiefs, as Sanchez
Cerro in the past, and Fujimori and Toledo
now, who made thousands of promises to
people and enjoyed popular support for a
while, have ended deceiving them and
becoming murderers, tyrants and oppressors
and followers of the imperialism and its
partners, great capitalists and landlords. The
people and workers should not believe in lies
again . It is very important that Ollanta
Humala makes clear, in a transparent way, the
relationship of some of his collaborators and
allies with some opportunists, adventurers and
politicians that has been prosecuted and that
are offering to the masses all sort of things and
try to get on the buss of the elections. He has
to clean his movement of all that sort of
persons. An old popular saying states: tell me
whom you walk with and I shall tell who you
are.
6. Ollanta Humala´s appeal on behalf the unity
of the left forces has been answered by
revisionists and neo-revisionist ”old saurian”
International Newsletter No. 31
that pull the strings and lead different left
sectors. They have answered, as usual, with
their political clumsiness and parliamentary
cretinism. With their sectarism and need of
starring. Particularly pathetic was the conduct
of Alberto Moreno Rojas and his well known
claque: they rejected the Ollanta´s appeal and
the possibility of unity saying that it was too
late, that they have no places in the lists,
forgetting that Ollanta was their candidate
(because they have very few leaders who can
make it) and many times they broke the rules
of the United Front trying to impose him to the
Wide Front in all the events and as they
usually do, they tried to manipulate and use
him. But Ollanta did not let them to do so and
sent them to hell. Finally, plainly showing
what was the real problem they denounced that
Ollanta offered them very few places in the list
of candidates to parliament. But they did not
say one word about Ollanta´s program or
about people’s claim for unity or on recent
bitter experiences of divisionism and
fragmentation’s.. They did not say one word
about seeking unit in other fields of the
struggle that are beyond the elections.
Elections were for them the main point as the
eagerness of enjoying again the delicacies and
pleasures of the system .Those who have been
incapable of taking only one step for their own
unity, it is ridiculous that now they want to
clean themselves blaming Ollanta of
divisionism (and he has an amount of guilt on
it). Helplessly, now they see how their files
and ranks are thinner everyday and they only
can sing the son of the Devil of The
Andes:”Oh, these hairs mom, they are
blowing in the air, one by one”.
7. Polarization takes the stand in the country.
Today it is obvious in the elections but this is
only the ” top of the iceberg” of a deeper
economic and social polarization. It is the one
that confronts those who own little or nothing,
who have suffered humiliations for decades,
that suffered hanger and poverty and that
represents the huge majority of the country,
against a selfish, rich, luxurious minority that
owns every-thing as a result of plundering,
abuse, robbery and crime and that makes a
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31st July 2006
show off with their wealth. This polarization
has only one way to transform itself in
independence, democracy, welfare, prosperity,
equality for millions of human beings
excluded, relegated and oppressed since the
Colonial era: the radical and deep change of
social-economic structures and of the political
system that is the cause of oppression, poverty
and humiliation of people. A social revolution,
a revolution of New Democracy whose
scenarios and performers are beyond
bourgeoisie democracy and its elections.
8. Unity of left forces is essential in order to
advance and accomplish the triumph.
Regrettably, different sectors and trends of left
wing have not been able to overcome their
identity crisis and the dispersion in which they
sunk after the catastrophic defeat in the 90´s.
Leaderships and bureaucracies not only has
not been able to make a critic and self-critic
review in order to find the real causes of those
defeats and failures but also they have not
been able to point out responsibilities for those
failures. Without this outcome it is not
possible to come out from the crisis in a
correct and long-lasting way. Specially those
who proclaimed themselves as Marxists and
have dedicated time to flatter ruling classes
and the dictatorship in order to get a diploma
of ”good guys” and they shamelessly have
abjured of principles, doctrine and programs
sinking themselves in the stinking pond of
revisionism and opportunism. Being set in
enjoying the delicacies of the system they
clutch themselves to their jobs as government
officials, deny and obstruct the promotion of
new young cadres and leaders. This left wing
has not only became a part of the system but
also is a very important support of it. Workers
and people see and feel them in this way and
so they are rejected. Today, this left wing,
moaning and complaining, hypocritically
”weeps its disgrace”. So the Marxist
revolutionaries, young and pure sectors of
thise left wing have to assume the need of
rebuilding the Peruvian left, its unity and to
re-establish ties and bond with workers an
people.
International Newsletter No. 31 31st July 2006

9. The Communist Party of Peru (Marxist- the democratic, progressive, anti-imperialist

Leninist) is a detachment that works for re- and revolutionary forces.. to unite in order to
building the Marxist-Leninist Party of Peru, struggle together , in all grounds, including
and re-states its political stand that was the electoral political struggle...and in this
expressed in the December Pronouncement: way black dictates of imperialism and its
associates and accomplices (reactionary
” Under these difficult and complicated bourgeoisie and Alejandro Toledo´s
circumstances where the future of Peru as an treacherous government) will fail...
independent nation with prosperity and Communist Party of Peru (ML) is willing to
welfare for its people has been challenged, support in a resolute and honest way.. an
there is an ethic and political responsibility for effort for unity of such nature”.

Let´s Strengthen
Balkanian Movement of Struggle
Against NATO Ocupation!
PARTIJA RADA , Serbien-Montenegro
July 2005

Roads over the Serbia are this days even officially given to the NATO troops. Few days earlier,
on June 16th, on the Day of the Army of SCG, it was hold military drill »Partnership for the
Peace – antiterrorist struggle«. Population already know that there are preparations within Army
of SCG for sending of their units in Afghanistan, or other locations which will be decided by
dictate and necessity of NATO. Position of Partija Rada are is that these mercenaries are
legitimate target of guerilla movements whose are fightening for freedom of their countries from
Imperialist occupation.

With the intervention of NATO on locations in former Yugoslavia it was stopped war and
crushed power of militant nationalism. But it is fully clear, that motives of Imperialists neither in
one moment was by humanitarian nature, and that their actions was motivated by interests of
capital. The presence of NATO on territory of former Yugoslavie represents act of occupation.
Balkanian peoples need to build strong anti-imperialist movement. Struggle for withdraw of
NATO from Balkans must to be a priority of that movement.

PARTIJA RADA, Serbien-Montenegro

Tel: 063/7389-773
E-mail: prada@beotel.yu
Web: http://www.partijarada.org.yu

- 43 -
International Newsletter No. 31
Fight to Hasten the Ouster of Arroyo Regime
and Strengthen the Revolutionary Movement!
Excerpts from the Message of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP) to the Party Cadres, Red Commanders and
Fighters of the New People’s Army (NPA) on the
37th Anniversary of the NPA, 29 March 2006
The CPP Central Committee starts with
congratulating the Party cadres, Red
commanders and fighters for the victories in
pursuing the Filipino people’s democratic
revolution through protracted people’s war. It
pays the highest tribute to the revolutionary
martyrs for their heroism, hard work and
self-sacrifice.
The message then elaborates on the
rottenness and isolation of the crisis-stricken
regime. Then it speaks of the accumulated
victories and basis for advance. It ends with
the guidelines for accelerating the offensives.
These excerpts present the portion on
”Accumulated Victories and Basis for
Advance”. The whole statement can be
accessed at the website:
www.philippinerevolution.org
ACCUMULATED VICTORIES AND BASIS
FOR ADVANCE
Under the absolute leadership of the Party, the
New People's Army has accumulated victories
in the last 37 years and has won brilliant
victories in the past year. It has put
revolutionary politics in command of all its
actions. It has learned well from the Second
Great Rectification Movement and has
performed with conscious iron discipline the
political, military, productive, organizational,
cultural and other tasks set forth by the Party.
The NPA carries out the revolutionary armed
struggle, land reform and mass base-building
as integral components of the democratic
revolution. It wages armed struggle to build
itself as a fighting organization and destroy the
enemy forces. It undertakes land reform in
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31st July 2006
order to realize the democratic content of the
revolution and mobilize the peasant masses as
the closest allies of the working class. It
encourages and supports the organs of political
power and the mass organizations of workers,
peasants, women, youth, children and cultural
activists. This organized mass base is the
reliable source of Red commanders and
fighters.
The NPA has grown as the main organization
of the Party. In turn, the Party has grown as the
core of political leadership within the NPA.
The Party cadres, Red commanders and
fighters are constantly within definite units and
under definite commands. Thus, they can
maintain Party life on a daily basis and can
easily recruit and train new Party members.
The Party cadres, the Red commanders and
fighters cooperate in organizing the masses
and the Party in the localities.
The NPA is operating in more than 120
guerrilla fronts, which cover 800
municipalities in 70 out of 79 Philippine
provinces. Each guerrilla front has an optimal
total strength of a company with highpowered
rifles, divisible into one platoon as the center
of gravity or as the main guerrilla unit and two
other platoons as secondary guerilla units,
further divisible into squads and teams for
mass work on a wider scale.
The NPA is capable of concentrating platoons,
oversized platoons and full companies for
tactical offensives and law enforcement
according to the varied levels of development
of the guerrilla fronts and the ability of the
command at the level of the guerrilla front,
province or region. The NPA is still in the
International Newsletter No. 31
phase of multiplying platoons for combat by
way of approaching and developing the middle
phase of the strategic defensive and also by
way of carrying out extensive and intensive
guerrilla warfare on a nationwide scale.
The nationwide strength of the NPA full-time
fighters is in the thousands. It is augmented by
the people's militia as the police force in the
localities and the self-defense units based in
the mass organizations. The people's militia
and self-defense units are auxiliaries and
reserves of the NPA. They are far more
numerous than the full-time fighters in the
NPA. They are sources of recruits for the NPA
as soon as arms and the concomitant politico-
military training are provided. The NPA can
readily expand upon the seizure of arms from
the enemy troops through ambushes, raids and
arrest operations.
Defense officials and military officers of the
enemy keep on guessing that the total rifle
strength of the NPA is anywhere between
7,000 to 12,000. At the same time, they boast
that through Lambat Bitag (Net for
Entrapment) I, II and III they succeeded in
bringing down the armed strength of the NPA
from the level of 25,000 to 6,000 from the late
part of the 1980s to the early 1990s. This is not
true. In 1986, the NPA had only 6,100 high-
powered rifles, without any strict accounting
of those that were lost in the Kampanyang
Ahos in 1985 and 1986. Furthermore, the
development of the militia and self-defense
units was neglected.
The tactics of concentration and gradual
constriction of Lambat Bitag became
successful in destroying a large part of the
revolutionary mass base only because those
who carried out the wrong line of premature
large formations and premature regularization
played into the hands of the enemy by
engaging in self-constriction, Great
Rectification Movement has corrected the
error by requiring a widening and deepening
mass base for extensive and intensive guerrilla
warfare.
- 45 -
31st July 2006
Since September 11, 2001, the Arroyo regime
has been under US diktat to escalate military
campaigns of suppression against the NPA and
the people in accordance with the US policy of
"war on terror" and making the Philippines the
"second front" of such war. In 2002, the
regime formally launched Bantay Laya
(Guarding Freedom), patterned after Lambat
Bitag, to concentrate enemy military forces on
selected areas or guerrilla fronts for a strategic
war of quick decision and deployment of
platoon-size special operations teams (SOT)
for the purpose of gradual constriction against
the NPA through combat, psywar and
intelligence within said areas.
The concentrated military and police forces
and death squads can inflict serious harm to
the people wherever they focus and sustain
their operations. But they simply do not have
enough strength to cover all the barrios of the
country. The reactionary armed forces have
only 120,000 troops and the national police
have 130,000 members to cover a population
of 85 million within an area of 300,000 square
kilometers. The enemy force structure is top-
heavy and can deploy only 25 percent of
personnel for field maneuvers at every given
time. The police force structure is also top-
heavy and the personnel on the ground are
divisible into three 8-hour work shifts.
The total deployable forces of the enemy
armed forces can cover only a few hundreds of
barrios nationwide at every given time. Oplan
Bantay Laya aims to concentrate enemy armed
forces in six regions and in a total of 600
barrios or a general average of 100 barrios per
region for sustained military operations until
the destruction of the armed revolutionary
movement. But actually the enemy armed
forces can deploy troops only on less than 300
barrios at every given time. They leave free
thousands upon thousands of barrios where the
NPA can operate and grow in strength.
The enemy armed forces have their own way
of augmenting their strength by coordinating
with the police and private security agencies,
organizing paramilitary units like the civilian
International Newsletter No. 31
auxiliary forces geographical unit (CAFGU),
civilian volunteers organization (CVO), the
barangay intelligence network (BIN) and
pseudoreligious fanatical cults and hiring
renegades who fled from their criminal
liabilities in the revolutionary movement. But
these entities are spread out thinly and are
vulnerable to the political and military
offensives of the NPA.
The insoluble problem for the enemy is that
the current regime and the entire ruling system
are rotten and crisis-stricken and are hated by
the people. The officers and personnel of the
reactionary armed forces and police are
themselves discontented with their low salaries
and inadequate supplies for their personal
needs and, worse, the corruption and other
criminal activities of many of their highest
officers. The violent and bitter contradictions
among reactionary political factions competing
for wealth and power have already resulted in
splits and rifts within the armed forces and
police.
In heeding the wishes of the people, the NPA
has created so many guerrilla fronts and is
expanding, consolidating and increasing them.
Available to the NPA are flexible guerrilla
tactics of concentration to attack so many
weak points of the enemy forces, dispersal to
do mass work and shifting to avoid being
cornered by a superior enemy force. At the
tactical level, the NPA has been able to
concentrate force and use the element of
surprise on weak points of the enemy forces.
The enemy forces are strategically superior in
military strength but lack mass support and are
thus rendered blind and deaf.
In the years 2002 to 2004, the people and the
revolutionary forces went through difficulties
in guerrilla fronts where the enemy forces
concentrated under Oplan Bantay Laya. But
even in these guerrilla fronts, they started to
counter the attacks of the enemy. From the
latter part of 2004 to 2005, the number of
guerrilla fronts stabilized above the level of
120. Since then, these have increased. The
objective of Bantay Laya to destroy some 10
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31st July 2006
to 15 guerrilla fronts at every given time and
move on to destroy a similar number has
utterly failed.
Oplan Lambat Bitag appeared to have
succeeded in destroying large chunks of the
revolutionary mass base and stopping the
growth of the people's army from the late
1980s to the early 1990s. But in fact the "Left"
opportunists played into the hands of the
enemy, with such erroneous lines as the
"strategic counteroffensive" and the "RAWA
strategy". The NPA today has learned lessons
and benefited from the Second Great
Rectification Movement and has won
resounding success in frustrating and defeating
Bantay Laya.
The expansion of the revolutionary mass base
has allowed us to undertake major steps to
seize the initiative in fighting the enemy. We
have been able to direct the commands at the
levels of the guerrilla front, province and
region to undertake politico-military work
seriously, shake off conservatism and the
roving rebel tendency or mentality and deliver
lethal blows to the enemy forces. We have
been able to prove that our revolutionary
strategy and tactics and the unity of the NPA
with the people through the organized mass
base can defeat the enemy military and police
forces despite their far larger size, more
resources, more training and latest gadgetry
from the imperialists.
Since the middle of September last year, the
NPA has launched nationally coordinated
tactical offensives under general guidelines in
order to seize the initiative from the enemy
forces, to accelerate the seizure of arms and
thus the expansion of the NPA and to hasten
the downfall of the Arroyo regime. On the
basis of experience and strength gained so far,
the nationwide tactical offensives can continue
vigorously and move up to a new and higher
level.
The intensified contradictions among the
reactionaries help the NPA to intensify its
nationwide tactical offensives. The Arroyo
regime is drawing military and police forces to
International Newsletter No. 31
the national capital region in order to preempt
and counter the prospect of being overthrown
by a people's uprising cum withdrawal of
military and police support, impeachment and
trial by the legislature or by a coup d'etat.
Some military and police officers have
expressed their desire for truce, alliance and
cooperation with the revolutionary movement
against the regime. And the NPA has
welcomed their good intention. The Party has
assigned cadres to do clandestine
revolutionary work within the reactionary
armed forces and police. A special bureau is in
charge of the work. The Crispin Tagamolila
Movement has been revived to encourage
enemy officers and personnel to shift to the
side of the people. It is also expected that
among the military and police personnel they
can undertake their own open democratic
movement to defend and promote their rights
and legitimate interests against the rotten
ruling system.
The broad united front of anti-Arroyo forces
and the mass movement have developed
rapidly through peaceful and militant mass
actions to oust the Arroyo regime. But the
regime has reacted by usurping martial law
powers under the guise of Proclamation 1017
declaring a state of national emergency and
has used brute force to disperse mass actions,
arrest progressive leaders without judicial
warrant, raid newspaper offices and threaten to
take over enterprises owned by anti-Arroyo
businessmen.
The Arroyo regime has justified Proclamation
1017 and the continuing policy of state
terrorism by inventing the story of a
communist-military coup conspiracy that it
claims to have foiled on February 24. It is
whipping up anticommunist hysteria in order
to justify repressive measures for keeping
itself in power. It has converted into an arrest
list the list of NDFP negotiators, consultants,
staffers and other duly authorized personnel
under the GRP-NDFP Joint Agreement on
Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and
has completely ended the peace negotiations
- 47 -
31st July 2006
between the Government of the Republic of
the Philippines and the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines. These can no longer
be resumed unless a new government in
Manila arises to propose resumption to the
NDFP.
Under the increasing conditions of repression,
the broad masses of the people are eager to
join and support the armed revolution. The
united front for armed struggle is developing
rapidly. Leaders and activists of the mass
movement are being forced by the Arroyo
regime to go underground and join the armed
revolutionary movement. Allies are offering
their cooperation with the NPA so that it can
deliver more effective blows on the enemy.
The Arroyo regime is panicking about the
prospect of a majority of military and police
officers being opposed to it and ready to
withdraw support from it as soon as a big mass
uprising occurs either at Edsa or around the
presidential palace. It is conducting a
witchhunt within the armed forces and police
and trumping up charges of coup plotting
against officers suspected of being
sympathetic to the opposition. These officers
are being subjected to arbitrary arrest,
restriction to quarters, floating status,
demotion or dismissal.
We are aware that the anti-Arroyo currents
within the armed forces and police are
becoming stronger than ever. But these
currents are being pent up and anti-Arroyo
groups are considering how to fight back.
Most groups continue to bide their time and
wait for the occasion to withdraw support from
the regime. Other groups are considering
military strikes to demonstrate the inability of
the regime to rule or to capture the usurper of
presidential authority through electoral fraud
or stage a coup against it.
Aside from the anti-Arroyo groups in the
military and police, there are fringe armed
groups in Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon that
similarly wish to undertake sabotage actions
against the installations and facilities of the
Arroyo regime and their foreign and local
International Newsletter No. 31 31st July 2006

corporate supporters. We admonish all armed undertake military actions that harm solely or
groups opposed to the Arroyo regime not to mainly the civilian population or the
environment. Otherwise, they cannot be way possible, to protect and promote the
regarded as acting in the interest of the people. national and democratic rights and interests of
the people and to accumulate political,
As far as it is concerned, the NPA follows the military, socioeconomic and cultural victories
constant policy and line of the Party to deal for the forward march and ultimate victory of
lethal blows on the enemy in the most precise the people's democratic revolution.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Solidarity with the Struggle for
Liberation in the Philippines!
The participants at the event of the MLPD “Solidarity with the struggle for liberation of the
people of the Philippines” with Luis Jalandoni, chairperson of the negotiating panel of the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), Coni Ledesma (NDFP) and Stefan Engel,
Chairman of the MLPD, which took place in Gelsenkirchen on March 29, 2006, unanimously
passed the following solidarity and protest resolution:

We strongly protest against the persecution, threats and murders of revolutionaries, trade unionists,
progressive parliamentarians, student representatives and other progressive forces in the Philippines.
The lifting of the state of emergency by President Arroyo, after massive protests taking place within
the country and internationally, is supposed to conceal the fact that the state apparatus and death
squadrons are continuing their oppression in the most brutal manner.
Crispin Beltran, for many years Chairman of the trade union umbrella organization KMU and
representative in parliament, is being illegally detained in spite of severe illness and contrary to a
court decision.
Marxists-Leninists like Jose Maria Sisón, Founding Chairman of the CPP, are being searched with
”wanted” posters and their lives are directly threatened.
This expresses the fear of the ruling powers that the revolutionary liberation struggle under the
leadership of the working class could not only overthrow the hated government, but also that it could
liberate the country from neocolonial exploitation and oppression through the international
monopolies and imperialist powers, especially the USA.
The German government and the bourgeois press remain silent about the state terror of the Arroyo
Regime. Persecuted Filipinos, especially those with a Marxist-Leninist background, are refused
political asylum. The EU places revolutionary forces of the liberation struggle, like the NPA and J.M.
Sisón, on the so-called anti-terror list, so intending to also criminalize international solidarity.
We will not allow that to happen!
We demand:
Put an end to the presecution and threats of murder against Marxist-Leninists, trade unionists,
progressive parliamentarians, student representatives and other progressive forces!
Free Crispin Beltran!
Unrestricted right of political asylum for José Maria Sisón, José Luneta and other persecuted
revolutionaries and democrats!

Long live international solidarity!

Workers of all countries, unite !
Gelsenkirchen, March 29, 2006

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International Newsletter No. 31
Conference of Communist and Workers’
Parties of the Balkans
Announcement from 26th of July 2005
The ”Conference of Communist and
Workers’ Parties of the Balkans”
condemns the murderous attack of the army
of the fascist Turkish regime against the
comrades of the Maoist Communist Party
of Turkey – N. Kurdistan (MCP) and
condemns the fascist regime of Turkey,
towards the working masses and the youth
of the Balkan countries.
On June 16 the Special Forces and the air
force, with a criminal attack of unbelievable
monstrosity, cold bloodily murdered 17
militants of the MCP in a mountainous area
of Dercim.
Among them a cadre of MCP who actively
participated in the first meeting of the
Balkan conference of Communist and
Workers’ parties and organizations, in
Greece on the 23-24 of April.
The Turkish state, once more showing its
fascist character, made this massacre a topic
on the Turkish media that congratulated on
the great ”success”, that is the mass
annihilation and dismantlement of dozens
of citizens, according to the example of the
annihilation of entire peoples from the army
of the USA and its allies for years now.
This new murderous attack is a part of the
imperialists ”Anti-terrorist” war. All those
who fight against the imperialist policies –
organizations, movements and even entire
peoples – should be annihilated by every
means and beyond all sense of international
and internal legitimacy. At the same time
they show off their crimes, aiming to terrify
the movements, the peoples and whoever is
- 49 -
31st July 2006
resisting in every corner of the planet.
After the annihilation of the Kurdish
people, the white cells and the death of
hundreds of militants from hunger strike,
under the blessings of the European
Union, this mass murder shows with the
most definite way the deeply fascist
character of the regime of Turkey. The
USA and the EU try to cover up and
encourage this character by covering its
crimes, in expense of the people and the
left, while at the same time they brag
about the fake ”liberalization” of the
fascist Turkish regime.
The ”Conference of Communist and
Workers’ Parties of the Balkans”, at this
hard time, expresses its deep sorrow and
its complete support towards the
comrades of the MCP, towards the
friends and relatives of the dead.
The organizations and the parties that
participate in the Balkan Conference are
expressing their solidarity to the
struggling peoples of Turkey and their
opposition to imperialist and fascist
plans and will do whatever is possible to
make this crime known to all the people
of the Balkans.
Honor to the militants of the MCP
who sacrificed themselves for a world
free from oppression and exploitation!
Solidarity to the struggles of the
peoples in Turkey and Kurdistan. The
struggle goes on!
Down with fascism and imperialism!
International Newsletter No. 31
Joint Declaration
5th Meeting of Revolutionary and Anti-imperialist
Parties, Movements and Organizations
in South America
1) The situation in South America is
distinguished by an upswing of the struggles
of the masses of workers, peasants, indigenous
people, students, women, youth, professionals,
artists and intellectuals.
Since the uprising in Caracas in 1989, three
people’s uprisings have taken place in South
America (all of them in Ecuador), which
overthrew the constitutional governments. The
indigenous people marched to Quito and
joined with the workers and student
movements and with a part of the FFAA.
The March-uprising took place in Paraguay.
In December 2001, the Argentinazo took
place. The putsch in Venezuela was put to an
end. In Peru the popular uprisings in Puno and
Ilavi had special importance.
The great struggles of the peasants and those
of the people of Paraguay continued. For some
time, Bolivia became the main source of
concern for the imperialists and the domestic
ruling class.
After the battle over water in Cochabamba, the
protests in the public sector took on forms of a
revolt. The working class continues the
struggle for its rights, for wages and against
the flexibilization of work. The struggle for
wages is a fundamental struggle, which
exposes the plans for redistribution and is
currently mobilizing the working class in
various countries of the continent.
Furthermore, the masses are increasingly
rejecting the so-called indisputable truths of
so-called neoliberalism: freedom and the
deregulation of the market, the advantages of
privatization and of being a partner of the EU
states, etc.
These anti-imperialist, anti-oligarchic,
democratic, revolutionary struggles lead South
- 50 -
31st July 2006
America to be one of the weakest links in the
chain of imperialism. That shows that it is
possible to defy imperialism and the enemies
of the people.
2) In Argentina the Argentinazo was the
result of an objectively revolutionary situation
following a long period of upswing of the
struggles. It brought the experience of popular
assemblies that were attended by various
sectors of the people and were an exercise in
direct democracy. They were initiated by
workers in their factories and in the continuing
struggles of the unemployed. The embers of
the Argentinazo are still glowing, in spite of
the attempts of the ruling class to extinguish it.
Today the working class also plays the main
role in the most important struggles opposing
the government and the treacherous trade
union leaders.
In Bolivia the workers, peasants, indigenous
people and other parts of the population are in
struggle against the imperialists and finance
capital and for the nationalization of fossil
energy.
The victory of the people will lead to the
defeat of the social democrats and
opportunists, who are the main support of the
current government. One of the first
movements of this dimension achieved its first
victory by driving out the government of
Sanchez de Lozada and is now shortly before
driving out his successor Carlos Mesa.
In Ecuador the workers, the people and the
youth are protagonists of a great movement for
their rights, for freedom, democracy and
sovereignty. They rose up repeatedly in
militant action and were able to overthrow
International Newsletter No. 31
three governments. They are drawing up a plan
for liberation which encompasses the working
class, the Indian peoples and other sections of
the population and takes on the struggle for a
”New Fatherland” (PATRIA NUEVA).
Brazil. Since the victory of the PT of Lula, a
new era has begun in Brazil. They came into
government in order to take over the business
of the former state. Important workers’ and
popular struggles against the flexibilization of
work and against the reform of the social
welfare system are taking place. Especially the
poor landless peasants are stalwart in their
struggle against the landlords and for agrarian
reform.
In Paraguay the advance of the peasants’
struggle will lead to revolutionary political
overthrow including the direct confrontation
with the financial rule of the big landlords and
their pro-imperialist government. In spite of all
their attempts to subdue it, the struggle
continues to grow with popular assemblies, a
form of the direct participation of the people.
In this way, the working class is advancing
along with other parts of the population and
will expose the character of the pro-imperialist
state government of finance capital and show
that the only way out of these deep political
and social problems is to oppose these policies
with uprisings, occupations of the farms of the
big landlords and to strengthen the means of
the direct organized participation of the
people.
In Uruguay important working-class, student
and popular struggles have developed,
especially on the issue of wages and against
privatization. In 2004, attempts to privatize
water supply and health care were defeated.
In last year’s elections on 31 October, the
traditional parties were clearly defeated.
Although the Frente Amplio (Broad Front)
has an opportunist nature, its success expresses
the desire of the majority of the people for far-
reaching changes.
3) These struggles in South America are being
inspired by the opposition against the US
- 51 -
31st July 2006
invasion of Iraq. The increasing heroic
resistance of the Iraqi people has led to the
liberation of certain cities, in face of the
unequal means of the imperialists. This
resistance has enlivened the anti-imperialist
struggle and the emotions of the people in the
entire world and has prevented the aggression
from spreading immediately to other countries.
It seemed that the aggressive course of North
American imperialism, which was unleashed
after the attack of 11 September 2001, and
which invaded and occupied Afghanistan and
then Iraq, could not be defeated. In spite of
this, the heroic resistance of the Iraqi people
has let the coalition of aggressors to fail and,
in connection with the struggle of the Palestine
people, has turned the Near East into a center
of the storm where the main struggle against
imperialism is developing today.
4) Bush’s policies aimed at war from the very
beginning and led to a number of
contradictions with the other powers.
After his re-election, Bush extended to his list
of countries he threatened with preventative
war. He now argues in the name of
”democracy” and ”freedom from the tyrants”,
threatening Cuba, White Russia, Iran, Syria,
Burma, North Korea, Zimbabwe and also
Venezuela.
The Bush administration is trying to solve its
acute economic crisis by means of war. Their
most important goal is to take advantage of its
position as the sole superpower in order to
accelerate the redistribution of the spheres of
influence in the entire world. This will enable
them to control the worldwide oil reserves.
They can so keep Europe and Japan in check
and take influence on China within the
framework of their possibilities. However,
their financial situation is extremely bad,
something which the other imperialists have
also observed and that has alarmed them in the
past months.
5) The various crises which are developing in
all of South America are spreading more and
more. The entire system is being called into
International Newsletter No. 31
question – the capitalist imperialist system of
exploitation, plunder and subjugation of the
working class, the people and the nations of
the world. Its victims are millions of people
suffering from hunger and lack of work. And
that does not only characterize the economy of
individual countries. In all South American
countries the foreign debt, one of the main
forms of imperialist exploitation and
oppression, has increased tremendously. The
workers are suffering under unemployment,
low wages, and the flexibilization of working
time. The ownership of large estates by
landlords has increased and the situation of the
peasants has deteriorated due to the
extortionate practice of paying low prices for
their goods. Thousands were driven from their
land.
6) The policies of US imperialism toward
Latin America have military, as well as
economic aspects. The blockade, threats and
provocations against Cuba, the Columbia Plan,
the setting up of military bases in the various
countries of the continent, the attempted
putsch in Venezuela, joint military
manoeuvres, the agreements with the Bolivian
military forces are all a part of the military
aspect; whereas ALCA, the TLC (Free-Trade
Agreements) and the foreign debt are the most
important economic aspects. With the
Columbia Plan and the PATRIOTA Plan, they
actively intervene in the struggle against
insurgents in Columbia. There have been
attempts to extend this influence with the call
for the Initiative of the Andes Region. This has
the goal of including the other countries of the
region in a possible military intervention in
Columbia. The repressive policies in Ecuador,
Peru, Argentina and Bolivia are being
promoted under the pretext of the struggle
against smuggling by way of sea. Under the
pretext of the struggle against terrorism, they
threaten to intervene in the region where three
countries meet, an area of strategic
importance. The blockade of Cuba, a criminal
act, is being continued and is promoting
condemnation by the UN. There are attempts
to set up further military bases in different
countries, like those in Alcántara in Brazil and
- 52 -
31st July 2006
one in Patagonia. Joint military exercises on
land and sea are being conducted in various
regions of the continent.
In competition with other imperialist countries,
they are attempting to gain control over areas
rich in natural resources, biological diversity
and freshwater reserves, such as the Amazons,
the Chaparé in Bolivia and the freshwater
areas of Guarini, under the pretext of
environmental protection. They are also
conducting manoeuvres to gain control of
Patagonia and are trying to transfer
environmentally destructive production such
as that of cellulose to our countries.
The intervention through the IWF and the
USA have become more direct and overt. They
are imposing their policies of ”adoptive
measures” for debt payments, privatisation, the
opening of the economy and are demanding
backward laws, like the restrictions of the
Public Banks in Paraguay, Uruguay,
Argentina, etc.
In Bolivia, the North American embassy is
intervening directly to rescue a government
which serves its interests.
However, North American imperialism is
encountering growing problems in South
America for implementing its plans; primarily
because of the struggle of the people and
secondly, because of the inter-imperialist
rivalry in this region.
Cuba has resisted the blockade and continuous
aggression through US imperialism for more
than 40 years.
In Venezuela a social and political process
encompassing millions of people is
developing. The Chávez government is
attacking the interests of imperialism and
finance capital. They are aggravating the
weakening reactionary forces, which are
making use of the media, the demonstrations,
lock-outs and the military putsch. They are
threatening with mass murder. We extend our
solidarity to the people of Venezuela and the
Chávez government.
International Newsletter No. 31
In competition with the ALCA, treaties
between the Mercosur and Europe were
concluded. In its more than 10 years of
existence, the Mercosur is far from being an
instrument to integrate the people and develop
the countries. It has served exclusively the
imperialist monopolies and has effected the
economies of Uruguay and Paraguay in
particular.
The South American community of nations
was founded. This is a project of agreements
and efforts with North American imperialism,
under the leadership of Brazil, which has the
goal of reaching agreements with South
Africa, the Arabian countries and India in the
future. They are also trying to make deals with
the European, Russian or Chinese monopoly
bourgeoisie.
7) The question is, therefore, how the working
class will be able to lead these struggles. For
the anti -imperialist struggle and the struggle
against finance capital, on the basis of the
alliance between the workers and the peasants,
for working-class rule based on the proletarian
line and for the independence of the
revolutionary people’s struggle from the
struggle between the imperialists, without
fearing to take advantage of the contradictions
between them.
The economic crisis also creates the objective
conditions which allow the political parties of
the proletariat and the revolutionaries to set the
gigantic mass movements already developing
into motion and to make all attempts to direct
and lead them to liberation.
There are reformist, revisionist and opportunist
forces, who maintain that under the present
conditions in South America and the world, as
it exists today, there are no alternatives for
left-wing politics. For this reason, they support
governments like those of Kirchner or Lula,
which conduct new policies aimed at a certain
industrial development, without abolishing
hunger, extreme exploitation and ownership of
big estates by landlords.
A further argument in the attempt to curb the
struggles is ”to become conscious of the main
- 53 -
31st July 2006
enemy” and to so attempt to diminish the
strength of North American imperialism and
come to agreements with European, Russian
and Chinese interests. These are powers which
either ally or struggle with North American
imperialism, according to their own interests
and not according to those of the oppressed
nations. This line is different from the one of
taking advantage of the contradictions between
these powers.
The power of imperialist finance capital in our
countries cannot be overcome by peaceful
means. The historical experience has shown us
that for the victory of the revolution it is
necessary to develop a strong mass movement,
a genuine, real and militant avant-garde of the
proletariat and an instrument capable of
guaranteeing that the masses can exercise
revolutionary violence in response to the
violence unleashed by the ruling classes.
Without this, we cannot succeed in reaching
our strategic goals.
The social revolution is the product of the
masses and in this movement, the working
class fulfills its role as the avant-garde.
However, this must include other classes and
groups of the population and a policy of unity
must be developed accordingly.
In the recent past, the anti-imperialist and
revolutionary forces in our countries have been
growing, and in some countries the Marxist-
Leninist forces are gaining respect. In order to
strengthen them, lessons must be drawn from
the great popular struggles. This is decisive for
the upswing of struggles being able to march
down the path to a revolutionary way out, for
the victory of the revolution of liberation,
onward to the victory of socialism.
Asunción, May 2005
Revolutionary Communist Party of Argentina
Communist Marxist- Leninist Party
of Bolivia
Brazilian Center for Solidarity with the
Peoples
Communist Marxist Leninist Party
of Ecuador
Revolutionary People’s Movement of
Paraguay Pyahura
Communist Revolutionary Party of Uruguay .
International Newsletter No. 31
Tabare and Hernandarias II
Partito Comunista Revolucionary del Uruguay
March 2006
Carlos Maggi a well known reactionary
intellectual recently said that the new role of
Uruguay in the international division of
labor imposed by imperialism is the most
important one since the introduction of cattle
by Hernandarias four centuries ago. The
monoculture of the Eucalyptus tree which
was introduced fifteen years ago as a supply
base for cellulose processing plants now
covers 700 000 hectares of land. In a short
span of time it grew by 500 000 hectares to
supply the processing plants, which were in
the process of being set-up in the towns of
Botnia and Ence.
In Uruguay, there are various cellulose
processing plants in existence, 6 or7 and a
paper processing factory in Durazno and
Stora Enso whose supply base of Eucalyptus
trees can grow to cover 3 million hectares in
the medium term. This in a country with an
area of 16 million hectares of arable land
where the predominant rural economy is
based on cattle raising. Landownership is
basically latifudio based (huge areas of land
owned by a few families). The latifundios
cover 14 million hectares of arable land.
Tabare and his Frente Amplio government
are being unmasked each day as continuist
pro-imperialist economic implementors
subject of the dictates of the IMF and the
need to pay the external debt. They seek to
deliver us more and more to the Yankees
(who have used their being the biggest
buyers of our meat products to force the
signing of a Treaty of Investment and are
now negotiating a Free trade agreement).
Tabare implies that Uruguay is being
blockaded by Argentina for its opposition to
the construction of the cellulose plants. And
this blockade is like the blockade of the USA
- 54 -
31st July 2006
towards Cuba. Uruguay is the aggressor in
this case, because the cellulose plants it is
building will contaminate the environment,
affect the health of the surrounding
population, impact on an important
biologically diverse region, cause the
economic dislocation of thousands of jobs in
both countries, hand over control of a large
part of our country to the Europeans and
Yankees which seek to reap maximum
benefits from free trade areas, private ports
and give them free rein to superexploit the
agricultural salaried workers. Tabare has the
gall to compare its being blockaded by
Argentines and in particular the enterrianos
in their just struggle against the cellulose
plants to the blockade launched by the
world's worst enemy towards Cuba.
Tabare has reached this point because he
shamelessly defends the investment of
thousands of millions of dollars certain
imperialist countries, the World Bank and
superprofits that are to be made in the next
30 to 40 years. He opposes land reform and
any confrontation with imperialism.
The action that Tabare agreed with Kichner
in Chile to suspend the blockades and halt
the construction of the cellulose plants did
not last long as do many things that the
government says. The traditional parties of
the right, the bureaucratized and corrupt
leadership of the construction and
metallurgical unions, social democrats, ex-
Partido Comunista de Uruguay (PCU)
members, the revisionist PCU, renewalists
have all join the debate in favor of the
cellulose plants and cause confusion among
the backward sectors of labor beset by
unemployment and misery.
International Newsletter No. 31
On March 13 they organized a march in
sponsored by business and the municipalities
of Rio Negro and Soriano that are controlled
by the Partido Nacional. The Partido
Nacional together with Lacalle are
committed to the forestation project of
Eucalyptus trees. Thousands participated in
the march and the municipal council l of Rio
Negro decreed a suspension of commercial
activities that day.
The struggle against the plants in Uruguay
has recently began to organize itself.
Politically it counts on the radical, class
based and consequent left forces that have
no parliamentary expression. Since a few
years ago a serious and consequent work has
started in Guayubira and other
environmental groups and it counts on the
support of intellectuals and scientists at the
service of the people. It has also form
linkages with some unions and as created the
Coordinadora Contra las Plantas de
Celulosa, Por la Soberania y un Pais
Productivo. The group has conducted
propaganda work and barrio level mass
actions even though it has limited resources.
Notice:
Please notice the Website of
PCR Uruguay, where so often
is placed a lot of information’s
and other materials.
www.pcru.freeservers.com ,
Recently the well-known
Polemics about the
International General-Line
is put on our Website in
Spanish.
- 55 -
31st July 2006
favor of the cellulose plants in Fray Bentos
In this struggle the sugar cane workers, the
inhabitants of Bella Union and the workers
of Copcograf have joined in. The Copcograf
union is one of the most important ones in
the country. The factory was abandoned by
its owner with a debt of 5 million dollars.
The workers took over the factory and have
occupied and run it successfully for 5
months now and have gained advance
experiences of class struggle at the cost of
having 63 of its members charged judicially
and three of them currently in jail for daring
to confront the Oligarchic and Bourgeoisie
State and its justice system which has
criminalized their struggle.
In these months there have been dozens of
worker occupations and struggles with
regard to wage agreements, lay-offs and the
right to form unions and hardly have these
struggles just started when already there are
lessons gained from that experience. With
much effort the female comrades of the
Taller por la Liberacion de la Mujer together
with other organizations have been able to
advance an 8th of March in Struggle and
have returned to the streets.#
International Newsletter No. 31
The 8th Congress of the Bolshevik Party (Northern Kurdistan/Turkey):
BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTIONS AND SOCIALISM
OR DECLINE INTO IMPERIALIST BARBARISM !
Workers, peasants, oppressed and exploited
people of all nationalities in Northern
Kurdistan and Turkey …
workers and oppressed peoples of the entire
world ...
Our message is for you: We turn to you on a
29 January. At this date, 85 years ago, on 29
January 1921, the Kemalist Turkish
bourgeoisie barbarously attacked the
communists. At that time Turkey was engaged
in a war of liberation against the imperialist
occupation, which strove for the direct
colonialization of Turkey. The communist
pursued the goal of accomplishing the national
liberation by the social liberation. 15 leading
founding members of the newly formed
Communist Party of Turkey (TKP – from the
outset member of the Communist
International) which was at the beginning of
its construction had been bloodthirstily
murdered by the Kemalist Turkish
bourgeoisie. The fighters who had espoused
the cause of the motto: ”Only the Red
Revolution can rescue Turkey! Down with the
black forces which oppose it”, the fighters who
had fought for ”the government and for the
republic of the workers’, peasants’, soldiers’
soviets” in Turkey were mowed down by the
”black forces” and lowered in the dark depth
of the Black Sea on 29 January 1921. Their
murderers supposed that they also had buried
the fight for socialism and communism at the
sea bottom. The were mistaken. The young,
inexperienced organized force of communism
in Turkey was indeed severely hurt and
suffered a defeat. However, the struggle for
socialism and communism could not be
stopped. The successor fighters of comrade
MUSTAFA SUPHI and his 14 comrades have
carried on their struggle:
”We engraved the names of the fifteen
In a bloody, red marble.
Our eyes are a mirror of steal,
- 56 -
31st July 2006
For those who want to see the images of the
fifteen.”
This struggle had been continued incessantly
under further heavy blows of the bourgeoisie,
with little success, however, despite all that
until the early fifties of the 20th century. Some
inconstant people could not stand up to the
attacks and pressure and changed the front,
and the fighters for socialism and communism
also committed quite a few mistakes. In
parallel with the revisionist degeneration of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the
fifties also the TKP became revisionist. In
1972, together with the founding of our
forerunner organization TKP/ML (Communist
Party of Turkey/ML) under the leadership of
comrade IBRAHIM KAYPAKKAYA, the
red flag the TKP of Mustafa Suphi and his
comrades was raised again. As against
comrade Mustafa Suphi the bourgeoisie also
opened a witch-hunt of annihilation against
comrade Ibo Kaypakkaya. On another 29
January, the 29 January 1973, comrade
Igrahim Kaypakkaya was severely wounded
and captured by the blood-hounds of the
Kemalist fascist dictatorship. Comrade
Kaypakkaya was unspeakably tortured for
three months in the fascist prisons of
Diyarbakir/Amed. The fascist torturers
wanted, as many other revolutionaries they
could capture, to make him speak and break
him. However, with this communist they
banged their heads against a brick wall. He did
not speak even under the most severe torture,
he defended the revolution, socialism and
communism with every word. On 18 May the
torturers brutally assasinated Ibo. In his last
record in his notebook Ibrahim had noted,
following a popular song:
”We extract iron and coal, eh,
We sow wheat and millet, eh,
We are a bloody sword against fascism, eh,
One day we will settle the score, eh.”
International Newsletter No. 31
His assasins as well hoped that with this
murder the struggle for socialism and
communism would be stopped. They again
were mistaken. With the date of 18 May in
their hearts the succeeding comrades-in-arms
have continued his struggle without
interruption. In the TKP/ML founded by
comrade Kaypakkaya a two-line-struggle was
going on in the end of the 1970-ies and the
beginning of the 1980-ies. The communists
absolutely wanted to base the party
organizationally on the working class and
factory units and Bolshevize it. In 1981 they
separated themselves from the Menshevik
wing, the main feature of which was the
systematization of the mistakes of the
TKP/ML, and they formed the Bolshevik
party. Since 25 years Marxism-Leninism and
the red flag of comrade Mustafa Suphi and
comrade Ibo Kaypakkaya has been held up in
Northern Kurdistan and Turkey by the
Bolshevik party. Despite all the attacks of the
bourgeoisie and despite all the betrayal the
cause of socialism and communism is living
on in the struggle of our Bolshevik party.
Today, on another 29 January in the year 2006,
we declare that our 8th party congress has been
concluded successfully. At the same time this
is the proof of the impossibility to prevent the
cause of communism!
The bourgeoisie can kill the communists and
can draw to its side some inconstant elements.
It is possible that there are some people who
do not have the necessary great staying power
and who withdraw themselves in view of the
difficult tasks, who even offer their service to
the bourgeoisie; people who propose
compromises with the bourgeoisie on behalf of
the defense of communism etc. The
bourgeoisie can achieve temporary victories.
However, until ”The face of the earth becomes
the face of love” the struggle for communism
will be continued incessantly. This is the
message of the 8th congress of our party, too.
Nevertheless: We were, we are and we will be!
Until the rule of the exploiters will vanish
from the earth, until the exploitation of
working people by the exploiters will be
ended! Until the communist society will be
established in which everybody contributes
- 57 -
31st July 2006
according to his/her abilities to the social
production/wealth and everybody will take
from the social wealth according to his/her
needs without any pressure from outside.
The 8th congress of our party underlined this
goal once more in a militant way.
SOCIALISM IS THE ONLY WAY OUT
FOR THE WORKING CLASS AND
FOR THE OPPRESSED PEOPLES !
Our 8th congress confirms:
Noble goals about which the bourgeoisie talks
so much like peace, democracy, human rights,
freedom, equality and friendship of the
peoples, the end of the sexist oppression of
women, liberty of opinion, the end of the
destruction of the natural living conditions, are
in a system that is based on exploitation
doomed to remain only written on paper. In a
system of exploitation all this exists for the
great majority of the population, for the
working people, only as long as the
foundations of the system are not called into
question.
There will be real freedom, real democracy,
human rights, liberty of opinion for the
working people only in a system, in which the
exploitation of man by man will be ended, in
which the workers and working people
themselves will rule. The system of
exploitation divides the nations into ruling
ones and oppressed ones, it is playing off and
stirring up the various nationalities and
peoples of various nationalities against each
other. It is being maintained on the basis of
bred hostility and division of the peoples. In
this system equality and friendship of the
peoples is a fairy tale.
”Once start talking with your fellow
Men, you'll soon be of one mind.”
Total equality of nationalities and friendship
of peoples is only possible on the basis of the
smashing of the system of exploitation.
Also the sexist oppression and discrimination
of women is part of the system of exploitation.
To cut through these fetters is only possibly in
a system without exploitation.
The economic law of maximum profit prevails
in the existing capitalist-imperialist system.
The main driving force of this society is the
goal to achieve maximum profits within the
International Newsletter No. 31
shortest period of time. The destruction of the
natural living conditions is inherent in the
system. This system irrevocably exploits and
destroys the natural resources, destroys the
balance in nature and produces every year
greater ”natural” disasters. Capitalism and
sustainable production are in antagonistic
opposition. In order to guarantee a natural,
sustainable production we have to smash
capitalism. The only way out, the only solution
for the working class and the oppressed
peoples of the world is the rule of the workers,
the working people, is socialism!
SOCIALISM WILL BE WON BY THE
BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION !
Our 8th congress emphasizes:
Socialism is no unattainable utopia, but the
only real alternative of ”great mankind”, the
working people. The immense revolutionary
changes within the short period of the
dictatorship of the proletariat in the Soviet
Union under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin
have shown what is possible under the
conditions of socialism. The later return of the
former socialist Soviet Union to capitalism can
neither undo the successes and merits of
socialism nor diminish them. The socialist
Soviet Union and all revolutions of the 20th
century teach us: For the rule of the workers
and working people the Bolshevik revolutions
under the leadership of Bolshevik parties are
an indispensable precondition. Bolshevik
revolutions are revolutions in which the
masses of workers and working people are
taking their matters into their own hands under
the leadership of Bolshevik parties. Bolshevik
revolutions are precursors of socialism.
Everywhere in the world it is the primary and
urgent task for the working people to unite and
organize for Bolshevik revolutions under the
leadership of Bolshevik parties armed with the
science of Marxism-Leninism.
The Alternative of Mankind also in the 21th
Century:
Socialism or Decline into Barbarism!
Mankind has seen both in the 20th century:
The first great attempt of the construction of
socialism in the Soviet Union under the
leadership of Lenin and Stalin and the great
victories achieved with it for the working
- 58 -
31st July 2006
people, and also the imperialist barbarism of
Nazi fascism, which led to the so-called
Second World War. Mankind saw and
experienced the barbarism of the system of
exploitation in the genocide of the Armenians,
the holocaust and the innumerable genocides
in Africa.
In Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia as well as in
many other countries where the peoples took
up arms against the imperialists, mankind saw
and experienced how barbarously the
imperialists take action against the peoples. In
the Chinese revolution mankind saw and
experienced what the rule of the working
people is capable of. Mankind saw and
experienced, and experiences every day, how
the system of exploitation on the basis of
maximum profits is destroying nature and
undermining the natural living conditions.
All developments show again and again only
one thing: socialism or end in barbarism!
These are the only real alternatives which we
can choose. To mention this fact does not
mean to announce bad news; it is rather a call
on the workers and working people, an
enlightenment about the real conditions and a
call for the struggle for socialism! It is our task
to prevent imperialist barbarism by
revolutions. It is our task to build a new world,
a world without exploiters and exploitation!
Sooner or later we will accomplish this task!
Workers, working people … join the
Bolshevik ranks!
Our Bolshevik parties, the Bolshevik Party of
Northern Kurdistan and the Bolshevik Party of
Turkey, are carriers of this truth in our
countries. Our 8th congress has set the task for
our parties to make the greatest efforts so that
our parties firmly organize themselves on the
basis of factory units and thus take deep roots
in the working class. Our parties will realize
this task in the practice of class struggle.
Workers, working people,
the Bolshevik party is the most important
instrument, your most important weapon in
your struggle for your rule, in the struggle for
socialism. Arm yourself. Play your part in the
struggle for the Bolshevik revolution!
Unite in the Bolshevik ranks!
29 January 2006 CC of the BP (NK/T) #
International Newsletter No. 31 31st July 2006

The Iraqi National Liberation Movement

and the World Proletarian Revolution
by Ray O. Light, USA
August 2005

”Formerly, the proletarian revolution was regarded exclusively as the result of the internal
development of a given country. Now, this point of view is no longer adequate. Now the
proletarian revolution must be regarded primarily as the result of the development of the
contradictions within the world system of imperialism, as the result of the breaking of the chain
of the world imperialist front in one country or another.” (Stalin, Foundations of Leninism,
1924)

********************************

The heroic national liberation struggle of the
Iraqi people against the US imperialist led
occupiers of their country is today on the
frontline of the worldwide struggle of the
international proletariat against international
capital. The Iraqi Resistance has not only
exposed the bestial, aggressive character of
US imperialism militarily, but it has also
exposed the economic greed, the drive to
maintain and extend economic hegemony
and US Empire that motivated the
unprovoked invasion and occupation.
Furthermore, the Iraqi Resistance has
revealed the murderous oil politics of US
imperialism that include efforts to create
warfare between and among the Sunni and
Shiite Muslim and the Kurdish populations
that make up the overwhelming majority of
the people of Iraq. (For this nefarious
purpose US imperialism even resorts to fake
”suicide bombers” to incite these peoples to
fight each other instead of uniting to fight
US imperialism.) Finally, this popular
resistance movement is daily inflicting
mortal blows on the military machine of the
main enemy of humanity, imperialism,
headed by US imperialism.
The heroic Iraqi Resistance has provided the
rest of the oppressed nations and peoples of
the world and the international working class
with new opportunities to fight for national
democratic and socialist revolution, for state
power, against a weakened and preoccupied
imperialist superpower; likewise, it has
emboldened the imperialist and powerful
bourgeois rival/partners of US imperialism
to challenge US hegemony economically,
politically, socially, and ultimately to also
challenge militarily.
In the context of the growing world capitalist
economic crisis, Bush-led US imperialism
continues to expand its already overextended
military commitments in the cause of
expansion of its global economic empire.
Under the same impetus, its imperialist
rival/partners use every sign of weakness of
US imperialism to challenge its hegemony.
Nowhere are all these phenomena more
clearly at work than in Latin America. On
the one hand are the bold initiatives of Hugo
Chavez and the masses of people in
Venezuela, anchored by the support of Fidel
Castro and the Cuban people. These
economic and political initiatives have
resonated with the peoples throughout the
continent. Especially in the Andean Region -
-- from Argentina, to Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador
and Colombia --- with the increasing

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International Newsletter No. 31
militancy of the Brazilian people, Latin
America is standing up to beleaguered US
imperialism. This uprising has been
conditioned by the heroic liberation
movement of the Iraqi people. On the other
hand, US imperialism has kidnapped
Aristide in Haiti and toppled his
government. It is now sending US troops to
Paraguay for ”joint military exercises”,
trying desperately to maintain its control of
this continent, its vast resources and its
people. At the same time, taking advantage
of this intensification of the contradiction
between US imperialism and the oppressed
Latin American peoples, imperialist
Germany, Spain and other European
imperialist powers have accelerated their
penetration of Latin America.
In Asia, Philippine President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, is on the verge of being
driven from office amidst all kinds of
corruption charges. No doubt the successes
of the Iraqi resistance movement and her
role as George W. Bush’s most loyal Asian
supporter on Iraq (which has been exposed
well by the mass organizations led by the
Communist Party of the Philippines) have
exacerbated the political crisis that she faces.
And because of the success of the Iraqi
Resistance, US imperialism is in a very weak
position to come to her political-military
rescue.
China and India, the two most populous
countries on earth, are rapidly asserting
themselves economically while US
imperialism is limited in its ability to counter
the challenge to its hegemony. And the one-
third of humanity that lives in these two
countries are also rising against their own
bourgeois rulers.
In Nepal, the Peoples Liberation Army of the
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which
has been waging People’s War since 1996,
might actually soon seize power, according
to a February 2005 CounterPunch article by
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31st July 2006
Gary Leupp. And, thanks to the Iraqi
Resistance, US imperialism is in no position
to concentrate its military forces there. Its
junior partner and rival, the powerful Indian
federal government, is facing armed
struggle, in parts of South India including
Andhra Pradesh as well as throughout most
of the northeast Indian states near Nepal
(Nagaland, Assam, etc.), inspired by the
successes of the Nepalese comrades; and
Indian intervention there could lead to the
national liberation of these states from India.
In Uzbekistan, there is a new effort to oust
US troops from a key military base. And in
Afghanistan, the people have never accepted
the US-led military occupation that preceded
the invasion of Iraq. The US puppet regime
there is confined to a small perimeter around
Kabul. The Afghani people, encouraged by
the Iraqi Resistance, are waging a national
liberation struggle against US imperialism
and its NATO allies occupying their country;
though not yet on the scale of the revolt in
Iraq and evidently not yet coordinated with
it. US military planner Rand Corporation
projects that the current eight thousand US
troops in Afghanistan will have to be
augmented there to eighteen thousand for the
foreseeable future.
Even in African countries that have
remained under the domination of French
imperialism, US weakness in Iraq emboldens
French imperialism to take more aggressive
positions while the Iraqi example of heroic
national liberation struggle provides an
inspiring example for the revolutionary
movements in these countries.
In Europe, two of George W. Bush’s most
loyal and openly reactionary supporters,
Aznar in Spain and Berlusconi in Italy have
lost whatever mass appeal they previously
possessed, under the pressure of the Iraqi
Resistance. In Italy, there is massive popular
pressure for Berlusconi to break with Bush
and bring the Italian troops home from Iraq
International Newsletter No. 31
in the aftermath of the murder of an Italian
intelligence officer by US soldiers in Iraq. In
Spain, the Madrid train bombings just before
the 2004 presidential election not only failed
to rally support for the reactionary Aznar but
his Social Democratic opponent was elected
on the promise to withdraw Spain from the
US-led coalition occupying Iraq. And the
Spanish people held him to his promise.
Both the Italian and Spanish revolutionary
working class movements have been
strengthened in this process.
In Britain, as in the USA, the principal
candidate for both major parties, was
criminally pro-war. Thus, Blair was
reinstalled as British Prime Minister, despite
his criminal collaboration with the criminal
Bush Regime. Nevertheless, the Downing
Street Memo and other scandals around the
Iraq war, brought to light under the pressure
of the successful Iraqi Resistance, have
weakened Blair’s position and strengthened
the anti-globalization movement that
protested so strongly the G-8 Summit until
the ”mysterious” London bombings
occurred.
In the USA itself, under the pressure of the
growing Iraqi popular Resistance, a much-
heralded BET/CBS News poll before the
2004 presidential election found that 90% of
Afro-Americans answered ”no” when asked
whether they felt ”the war with Iraq was
worth the loss of American life and other
costs of attacking Iraq.” By late March of
2005, a Boston Globe column by Boston
University professor and author, Andrew
Bacevich, described how the all-volunteer
US military was unraveling ”under the stress
of a protracted war.” The key, according to
Bacevich, is that ”African-Americans have
begun to opt out.” He cited the following:
”Whereas in fiscal year 2000, 23.5 percent
of Army first-term enlistees were black, by
2004 that figure had dropped to 15.6 percent.
Over the first four months of the current
fiscal year, it stands at 13.9 percent ... Since
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31st July 2006
2001 black enrollment in ROTC has dropped
by 36 percent.” (”Uncle Sam Wants You”,
3-28-05) And this has occurred despite the
unprecedented use of Black individuals
(Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice) in the
highest US foreign policy ranks!
Within the post two weeks, the AFL-CIO
held its National Convention in Chicago.
Only 8% of private-sector workers are union
members now as compared with three times
as many 25 years ago. Moreover, the
strategy of funding and backing bourgeois
politicians (mostly Democrats) has helped to
place the AFL-CIO in this precarious
position. With its back to the wall, two of the
largest unions in the AFL-CIO (the SEIU
and the Teamsters) announced their exit
from the union federation even before the
Convention began and at least two more
large unions were expected to closely
follow. The division of the main
organization of workers in the USA into two
federations in the face of the anti-labor Bush
Regime on the surface appears to weaken the
position of the US working class. However,
the shake-up of this reliable social prop of
US imperialism has within it the possibility
for new opportunities for working class
organization of a more militant character to
emerge. Indeed, among the exiting
organizations, especially Stern’s SEIU, some
small amount of real organizing of the
unorganized has taken place over the past
decade.
Neither the John Sweeney-led AFL-CIO nor
the Andrew Stern-led Change to Win (CTW)
Coalition made the position on the Iraqi War
a line of demarcation between them.
Nevertheless, the fact that Sweeney had led
the AFL-CIO in giving all-out support to
Bush’s ”War on Terror” helped to keep Bush
in the Presidency and bring this crisis in
leadership to a head. Now, in the wake of the
massive defections by CTW unions, the
AFL-CIO Convention for the first time in its
fifty year history passed a resolution
International Newsletter No. 31
somewhat opposing a current foreign policy
of US imperialism when it resolved that the
US military should ”rapidly” withdraw from
Iraq.*
Because it is the working class and the
oppressed youth of US society which join
the US military and fight its wars, the half-
hearted resolution by the labor federation
(which has previously been referred to
deservedly as the AFL-CIA) calling for the
rapid withdrawal of the US military from
Iraq has much political significance. This is
in conformity with the organization of US
Military Families against the war, the
challenge to Bush by Gold Star parents (who
have lost a child in the US military service in
Iraq), the difficulties in meeting US military
recruitment goals, and the growing numbers
of US military deserters.
It is true that Bush, Cheney et al., with the
aid and collaboration of the Democrats in
Congress who have barely even whispered
the word ”impeachment”, have weathered all
the scandals that have tarnished this criminal
regime. Nevertheless, the developments
among the Afro-American people in relation
the US military and the increasing
opposition of the US working class in
general, and specifically within the AFL-
CIO and within the US military community
itself, represent a sharpening political crisis
in the USA that has already aggravated the
strategic military overreach of US
imperialism in the world and has great
potential for the emergence of a serious
social revolution in the USA in the long run.
There is probably no arena of class struggle
in the world that has been untouched by the
Iraqi Resistance to US imperialism. All of
the above indicates that the international
communist and workers movement is not
doing the Iraqis a favor by supporting their
Resistance movement. On the contrary, they
have been and are doing us the favor ---
being in the front ranks of the global struggle
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31st July 2006
against the main enemy, imperialism, headed
by US imperialism.
Given this fact, we drew the following
conclusion in our March 2005 newsletter,
”proletarian revolutionaries, communists,
socialists, and anti-imperialists of all stripes
and in all countries today have an
internationalist obligation to demonstrate
their solidarity with the Iraqi national
liberation movement as a priority of their
own struggles. For progressive and
revolutionary forces in the USA, this anti-
imperialist obligation must be their primary
duty.” (”The US Sponsored Election in Iraq
and the Iraq National Liberation
Movement”)
Yet, we have encountered great opposition
to placing such real emphasis on the Iraqi
national liberation movement among many
genuine and not so genuine non-Iraqi
revolutionaries. First and foremost, this is a
manifestation of bourgeois nationalism and
reformism. It is a throwback to the period
before the emergence of imperialism, before
the development of Leninism, when, as
Stalin expressed it, ”the proletarian
revolution was regarded exclusively as the
result of the internal development of a given
country.” As Stalin added over eighty years
ago, ”now, this point of view if no longer
adequate.”
Veteran Bengali Communist, Moni Guha,
observed the following:
”… the post-Stalin developments took a
different turn. The proletarian movement
fragmented badly andcould present no anti-
imperialist front. Anti-imperialist wars were
indeed fought and fought valiantly and
covered themselves with glory and triumph.
But alas there was no single front to oppose
imperialism. The link between the world
proletarian revolution and national
liberation struggles was lost. They were not
seen as reserves, as parts of a whole, part of
International Newsletter No. 31
a single world front of socialism. The whole
question was posed abstractly, from the
point of view of formal democracy, as one of
abstract rights. No wonder then that the
national liberation movements stopped short
in their tracks and did not go over to
socialism for there was no world front of
socialism, no effort to build a world
dictatorship of the proletariat. Victories
turned into defeats and advantages into
disadvantages. If today imperialism gloats
over its triumph of being smuggled back into
formerly liberated countries it is in no small
measure due to the failure of the various
communist contingents in their
internationalist duties.” (”The National
Liberation Movements and the World
Proletarian Revolution”, Proletarian Path,
New Series Volume I, Number 5, September
1994.)
Elsewhere, in analyzing the ”spate of
international seminars” occurring in the mid
1990’s, comrade Guha, stated, ”One thought
that the fight of the proletariat was a world-
historic one. That is, a fight that wasn’t
discrete and local. But the seminars do not
deal with subjects world-historically. …
Today, we behave like the despicable leaders
of the Second International, like Titos; for us
the national communist movements are
supposed to have platonic relations with the
world socialist revolution. As one surveys
the focus of most seminars … Description of
discrete movements and pretty resolutions
are what we are served at the end.”
(”International Marxist-Leninist Seminars”,
Proletarian Path, New Series, Volume II,
Number 1, December 1995)
Ray O. Light Group has repeatedly
expressed our high regard for the
International Conference of Marxist-Leninist
Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO) and for
this reason readily agreed to serve on the
Joint Coordinating Group (JCG) following
the 8th International Conference. Yet we
believe that Comrade Guha’s criticism
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31st July 2006
applies not only to revisionist-dominated
conferences but to our own conference as
well. Specifically, Resolution No. 5 ”To All
Workers and Peoples of the World”, our
declaration on Iraq, that was signed by
twenty-three organizations (including us), is
an example of an approach to the Iraqi
national liberation movement from a
”discrete and local” perspective, from the
point of view of abstract rights, instead of a
proletarian internationalist one. The only
positive revolutionary implications of the
Iraqi Resistance that Resolution 5 points out
are for the struggles in Palestine and
Afghanistan. The rest of us are called on to
increase support for the Iraqi struggle on the
basis of voluntary good will, out of the
goodness of our hearts. As this article has
demonstrated, this is an undialectical,
bourgeois nationalist presentation of the
question. It does not even rise to the level of
mutual benefit.
And, as Moni Guha reminds us, ”Our
internationalism is not for ‘mutual benefit’
but the very pre-condition of our movement -
-- communism is a world-historical goal.”
ON THE PATH TO A COMMUNIST
FUTURE FOR HUMANITY:
• WORKERS OF THE WORLD AND
OPPRESSED PEOPLES UNITE!
• FOR VICTORY FOR THE IRAQI
RESISTANCE OVER US LED
IMPERIALISM!
_______________________________
FOOTNOTE [*Since the Bush Regime is
now floating the idea of early withdrawal
from Iraq, the AFL-CIO Resolution is not in
direct opposition to Bush and US
imperialism. Recent articles in Newsweek
and other bourgeois publications point up
growing US government recognition that
they cannot defeat the Iraqi Resistance
militarily and are therefore looking for other
means to keep their control over Iraq.]
 International Newsletter No. 31 31st July 2006

Newly Released Book!!!!!

THE BUSH LED GLOBAL

IMPERIALIST WAR

From 9-11 to the Present

Writings in Opposition to the US Imperialist Led

Global War of Terror and on Our Tasks

A Ray O. Light Publication

(354 pages, illustrated)
Please send copies of ”The Bush Led Global Imperialist War”.
(Donation: $10/copy, 3 or more: $8/copy)

Name: __________________________________________________

Address: ________________________________________________

To order book and/or obtain a full Publications List write to:

Boxholder DLD-354, 58 Batterymarch St., Boston, MA 02110, USA

- 64 -
International Newsletter No. 31 31st July 2006

7th Women's Political Counsel

October 13-15, 2006
Heinrich Heine University,
Düsseldorf / Germany

What is the Women's Political Counsel?

It is
• an international, women's political and cultural platform on which women's projects,
groups, organizations and parties as well as individual women can share their
experience.
It is characterized by
• an open exchange of experiences and position with equal rights
• mutual interest and respect for each other
• democratic culture of debate on the basis of openness in terms
of world outlook.
It is
• no fixed organization. It is organized and financed by the participating women
themselves. All those can join who accept the guidelines of the Counsel.
If you are interested:
Frauenpolitischer Ratschlag
Ringstr. 71
45876 Gelsenkirchen
Postfach 100809
fp-ratschlagweb.de

5th International
Automotive Workers’ Counsel
To all blue- and white-collar workers and their families in the automotive
industry and its suppliers near and far!
We are looking again forward to discussing with you the many aspects of the
current development and the many new questions arising from it. We therefore
propose that we now prepare and conduct the
5thAutomotive Workers’ Counsel
18-20 May 2007
in Stuttgart, Germany
Phone ##0209/361 64 86, Fax ##0209/361 67 68,
E- Mail info@automobilarbeiterratschlag.de,

www.automobilarbeiterratschlag.de

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International Newsletter No. 31 31st July 2006

Call for the Support

of the INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
of MARXIST- LENINIST PARTIES and ORGANIZATIONS (ICMLPO)

The internationalization of production and the globalization of the fundamental problems of

mankind in the entire world lead to the internationalization of the class struggle and therefore
also demand increased and systematic cooperation among Marxist-Leninists.

For this reason we call upon all progressive, democratic and anti-imperialist people in the entire
world to support the cooperation among the Marxist-Leninists for the emancipation of the
international working class and the national and social liberation of the people and to make the
convening of the INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE possible.

Donate to fund the 9th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF MARXIST-LENINIST

PARTIES AND ORGANIZATIONS (ICMLPO).
Treasurer of the International Conference

International Donation Account:

T. SCHELLER, Account No. DE 45 6005 0101 000 76 38 578
Bank code: 6000 501 01, Landesbank Baden-Würtemberg

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