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May Day 1998
150 Years Since The Communists' First Call
Workers of
All Countries, Unite!
Statement by the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist
Movement
Since the Communists’ first programme, the Communist Manifesto,
was written in 1848 and literally haunted the powers of old Europe,
the science of revolution has grown by leaps and bounds into Marxism-Leninism-Maoism
(MLM) through many struggles and experiences in making revolution.
And the basic truths that Karl Marx and Frederick Engels exploded
powerfully onto the pages of this historical document remain as
true as ever:
“The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly
declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow
of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble
at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose
but their chains. They have a world to win.”
The need for the oppressed and proletarians in each country to
form a revolutionary party — a communist party — and to build
their unity in the strongest possible way politically and
organisationally worldwide against the powers of the old imperialist
world and their reactionary states is as urgent today as 150 years
ago. This is one of the key tasks of the Revolutionary Internationalist
Movement (RIM), which groups MLM parties and organisations from
around the world.
The imperialists like to talk about the globalisation of their
system, as though it were all-powerful. Their aims are still basically
the same in this modern era — the vicious pursuit to squeeze profits
from the labour of the people of the whole globe, increasingly with
the bloody signature of a “multinational”. But their crisis is also
globalised and their empire is full of cracks, many too wide to
glue together.
They strutted and crowed about the miracle economies of the Asian
Tiger countries, and how the Third World can “get rich quick” under
their control. But the true picture of what imperialist “development”
offers these countries is the shattered glass showcase of South
Korea and the plunging Asian stock markets, which are sending shivers
of panic up corporate spines from Tokyo to New York. This is real-life
Mafia drama on an imperialist scale. And after the crash, in exchange
for more “rescue” funds, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and the
Philippines must at knifepoint follow World Bank/IMF-sponsored strangulation
measures, drawing them into even greater dependency on imperialism.
As the masses in Latin America and Africa have already seen, far
from bringing economic security, this means more suffering, poverty,
unemployment and the loss of peasant land, while for the rulers
it leads to more political instability.
In Eastern Europe and Russia, the cracks in the system are more
like huge divides. In the few short years since the collapse of
the state capitalist regimes, the masses have come to learn the
daily living nightmare of Western-style capitalism.
Politically the imperialists also face growing problems in disinfecting
and shoring up their rotting social order. Why is the greatest manufacturer
and user of weapons of mass destruction, the US ruling class, talking
about bombing a small country like Iraq over weapons inspections?
Why are they preparing to attack Iraq a second time if not to tighten
their control over the Middle East and edge out their European rivals
in the pursuit of oil? Isn’t this why the US (some call it the “UN”)
has imposed sanctions? They say it is to punish Saddam Hussein,
but the “ransom” these imperialist criminals demand could be well
over the 200,000 Iraqi masses’ lives they took last time. Besides
such a vicious reminder of who gives the orders in today’s world,
these godfathers have another important mission: they say they “need
to test” their new bombs.
They think the people are stupid and passive, that we can’t see
that when they are massacring our class sisters and brothers in
the name of “defending democracy” and regional “peace” that their
rule really rests on terror. The U.S.-paid for police state of Israel
demonstrates this daily to the Palestinians. In the so-called advanced
countries, the rulers build more jails than schools, like in the
US. The German rulers have come up with a new law threatening to
expel forever any foreigners arrested at a demonstration involving
an “insult” against the state.
In addition to encouraging religious obscurantism, both in the
oppressed nations and imperialist countries, they use their democratic
laws, modern information technology and weaponry to try to intimidate
us into believing their empire is unshakable and impossible to overthrow,
into losing heart in our struggles and paralyzing us.
But all this sends a different message to millions, embittered,
wise and tempered from the experiences of generations of our class
who have heroically challenged the insufferable fate that imperialism
offers the majority of the world’s people. Reactionary terror and
ideas do create obstacles. But the social laws of “oppression
breeds resistance” and “it’s right to rebel!” coined by Mao Tse-tung
are reaffirmed everyday, with struggle flaring up again and again
— sometimes in the same places, sometimes in new places. This underscores
in red what the ruling classes try to hide: the immediate and long-range
common single interest of a single class, our class,
the international proletariat, to carry out Marx and Engels’ 150-year-old
call to wipe out exploitation and oppression from the face of the
earth.
From Chile to Indonesia, the masses are rioting against used-up
dictators. The blood of the masses spilt by gangsters like Suharto
and Pinochet runs in rivers down the arms of their imperialist masters.
The lack of a communist party in many places is denying the masses
the leadership and ability to take their struggles all the way to
liberation.
In Peru and Nepal, People’s Wars are continuing to blaze a trail
forward, reflecting Marx’s still valid point, that the bourgeoisie
will not give up power peacefully. The single most important feature
of these revolutionary wars is that they are led by Marxist-Leninist-Maoist
parties, the Communist Party of Peru and the Communist Party of
Nepal (Maoist), both participating parties of RIM. Despite many
difficulties, the PCP has pursued its 18-year-old war against the
reactionary Peruvian ruling class and their Yankee commanders. And
in Nepal, the downtrodden, including large numbers of women, have
taken up the young People’s War — now in its third year — as their
own. These People’s Wars and those being prepared for or waged by
MLM forces around the world represent the only road for the masses
that can lead to revolution.
This year, the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto
written by the founders of communism, let the call Workers
of all countries unite! ring out loudly on May 1st in the
proletarian internationalist tradition of struggle of our class.
Long Live People’s War in Peru, Nepal and around the World!
Break the Chains, Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force
for Revolution!
Build and Strengthen Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Parties United
in RIM!
Go all out to Raise Funds for RIM!
Long Live the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement!
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