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