Resolutions
of the Fifth Conference of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist
Parties and Organisations - October 1996
In October 1996
the Fifth Conference of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist
(ICML) Parties and Organisations was held. One of the results of
this Conference was the adoption of a series of Resolutions reprinted
below. The evaluations of the Committee of Revolutionary Internationalist
Movement precede this article.
Note: The Fifth Conference was held in October 1996 with
the participation of 20 Marxist-Leninist parties and organisations.
It approved four main resolutions and adopted a special resolution
on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the martyrdom of Comrade Charu
Majumdar.
Parties in attendance were the following: Marxist-Leninist Organisation
of Afghanistan; Revolutionary Communist Party, Argentina; Workers'
Party of Bangladesh; Marxist-Leninist Communist Organisation Revolutionary
Way, France; Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany; Communist Party
of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti; Communist Party of India
(Marxist-Leninist) New Democracy; Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
People's War; Japan Communist League; Communist Organisation of
Luxembourg; Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninists);
Marxist-Leninist Group (Red Dawn), Netherlands; Workers' Communist
Party, Norway; Communist Party of the Philippines; Communist Unification
of Spain; Pan Africanist Congress, South Africa; ChingKang Mountains
Institute, Taiwan; Revolutionary Communist Party, Uruguay; a revolutionary
organisation from Zaire; and another revolutionary organisation
that has opted to remain unnamed.
Resolution 1: The Economic and Political Developments in the
World as Basic Circumstances for Revolutionary Work
1. The Sharpening
General Crisis of Capitalism
The collapse of the bureaucrat-capitalist regimes in the former
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was a deep crisis of modern revisionism.
It did not constitute a defeat of socialism but is a vindication
of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought.
A unified capitalist world market has been fully restored. However,
objective reality has exposed the myth of a crisis-free capitalism
and of an almighty imperialist system, propagated throughout the
world with the aid of modern anti-communism. The capitalist world
system is characterised by general destabilisation.
The crisis of the imperialist world system is the result of the
contradiction of the productive forces and the relations of production.
It is aggravated by the use of high technology.
The internationalisation of production in the current period has
led to the centralisation of capital in a few industrial capitalist
countries. The same process is taking place in a few big cities
in countries dependent on imperialism. On the one hand, such centralisation
advances the material preconditions for socialism. On the other
hand, it leads to the destruction of a large part of the productive
forces on a global scale. Thus, the development of the world capitalist
system has become more uneven than ever before. This rapidly worsening
crisis of the capitalist system has enormously aggravated the neo-colonial
plunder of the masses in the countries of oppressed nations and
peoples and of the proletariat and peoples in the imperialist countries.
Under these conditions, the fundamental contradictions between the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat, between the imperialists and the
oppressed nations and peoples, and among the imperialists, are becoming
sharper.
1.1. The Situation in the Imperialist Countries
International production is dominated by only 100 multinational
companies, which in 1993 commanded 60 per cent of world capital
investments. The international monopolies fight to liquidate each
other. This is linked to the so-called lean production process in
industrial capitalist countries and the intensification of exploitation
in the world. Mass unemployment has become a permanent phenomenon.
The crisis programmes adopted by the anti-people governments erode
the social gains of the working people. In many countries, the monopoly
capitalists' state is increasingly losing its ability to blunt class
contradictions and has itself become the target of growing mass
discontent manifested in latent and open political crises and in
an upswing of mass struggles and protests. The biggest mass strikes
up to now were those in France of December 1995. In many countries,
new youth movements imbued with internationalism and militant women's
movements have developed. Nevertheless, the influence of reformism
and revisionism on the masses must be overcome. This situation demands
from Marxist-Leninists painstaking revolutionary work and support
for the self-organising efforts of the masses.
1.2. The Situation in the Neo-colonies and Dependent Countries
in Africa, Latin America and Asia
Africa is the continent most devastated economically by old colonialism
and by neo-colonial methods of imperialist and social-imperialist
exploitation and oppression. African society is imploding once again.
It has plunged all the people into generalised distress and undermined
the conditions of life for future generations. Thirty-three of the
50 poorest countries of the Third World are here. The global overproduction
of raw materials, deteriorating terms of trade with the imperialist
countries and heavy foreign indebtedness since the late 1970s have
plunged the African countries, which depend on the export of agricultural
and mineral products, into a state of depression. Worse, massive
displacement of people and massacres are being perpetrated in the
African continent. The objective conditions there cry out for revolutionary
work.
In Latin America, the imperialists and reactionary governments have
imposed on the people the IMF policy of structural adjustment program,
which means privatisation, economic liberalisation, heavy indebtedness
and reactionary reforms in the state, in the educational and the
social security systems.
Unemployment is increasing in the cities and among the landless
peasants. The landlords and the finance capitalists are profiting
from this situation. The contention for markets among the monopolies
is sharpening. All these have led to a new upswing in the people's
struggles. Armed struggle is being launched in Chiapas and Guerrero
(Mexico), persisting in Peru and developing in Colombia. The strikes
being conducted by the proletariat in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay
are growing in significance. In Brazil and Paraguay, the struggle
of the poor peasants for land is developing to a higher level, with
occupations that rely on self-defence. There are also uprisings
of students, women and pensioners. Political crises are brewing.
In the Middle East, imperialist oppression and exploitation is very
intense because this region is strategically important.
The Kurds and Palestinians are in the forefront of the struggle
for national liberation and social and democratic rights.
In South Asia, the semi-feudal economies are in grave crisis.
The huge Indian economy, with its heavy and basic industries, has
been undermined by increasing compradorisation and tighter integration
with the world capitalist system since the late '80s. Militant mass
movements and/or armed struggles in varying degrees are on the rise
in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
The Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries
in South-east Asia suffer from the same economic ills as Mexico.
The promise of industrialisation remains false in the face of endless
foreign trade deficits and dependence on foreign loans and speculative
investments. In the Philippines, protracted people's war is being
waged under the leadership of a proletarian revolutionary party,
while in Indonesia democratic mass protests have broken out against
the Suharto regime.
In the current period, the struggle between armed revolution and
armed counter-revolution is focused on the countries of the oppressed
nations and peoples.
1.3. The Situation in the Former Soviet Union and in Eastern
Europe
The collapse of bureaucrat capitalism and integration into the
new international capitalist division of labour have led to a decline
in industrial production in these countries. The openly anti-communist
governments that replaced the revisionist regimes have been rapidly
discredited as a result of the general economic and social devastation
as well as of their subservience to western imperialism. Hence,
many big revisionist or "Left" reformist parties won elections
by peddling a mixture of nationalist, social-democratic and neo-liberal
slogans. Rival cliques are locked in civil wars, with various forms
of Russian imperialist intervention. These developments have resulted
in the impoverishment of large sections of the people and has sharpened
class contradictions. This has led to the first mass struggles in
Russia, Poland and other countries. However, in these countries
no proletarian revolutionary party has developed to the extent of
being able to make thoroughgoing and fundamental criticism of modern
revisionism and capitalist restoration.
1.4. The Intensification of the Contradictions among the Imperialists
The contradictions among various monopoly capitalist groupings and
among the imperialist states are sharpening. Since the collapse
of the former Soviet Union, the United States has been trying to
play the role of a world policeman in striving for a new imperialist
world order. So far the United States has not succeeded in solving
its economic problems caused by enormous budget and trade deficits.
The centres of the imperialist world economy are the United States,
Japan and the European Union, of which the strongest are Germany
and France. In Russia, the remaining state sector of the economy
as well as the private monopolies are making efforts at co-operating,
even as they compete with western multinational groups. Russia continues
to be an imperialist power.
The imperialists today use various organisations such as the United
Nations, IMF, World Bank (WB), World Trade Organisation (WTO) and
the Group of Seven (G-7) to exploit and oppress the world's peoples.
Japan and the Federal Republic of Germany have joined in the building
of imperialist intervention forces and strive for permanent seats
in the UN Security Council to expand their political power. Inter-imperialist
rivalry sharpens the general danger of war. The imperialist policy
of pacification has failed in such areas as Palestine, Central America,
Latin America, Eastern Europe and Russia.
2. Perspective of the World Proletarian Revolution
The scientific basis for the optimism of the revolutionary forces
of socialism and anti-imperialism is to be found in the accelerated
contradiction between the capitalist forces and relations of production.
However, there is neither an automatic collapse of imperialism nor
an unhindered and limitless industrial capitalist growth. There
is enough disorder and instability to stimulate the emergence and
development of revolutionary forces which have to be vigilant against
the enemy's capacity to do damage to the masses and the revolutionary
forces. The ground is fertile for Marxist-Leninists to build proletarian
parties and international solidarity in order to raise the level
of the anti-imperialist and socialist movements to a new and higher
level than ever before in the struggle against imperialism, the
common enemy of the international proletariat and peoples of the
world.
Signatories: Marxist-Leninist Organisation of Afghanistan; Revolutionary
Communist Party, Argentina; Workers' Party of Bangladesh; Marxist-Leninist
Communist Organisation, Revolutionary Way, France; Marxist-Leninist
Party of Germany; Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist); New
Democracy Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist); People's
War Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist); Provisional Central
Committee Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist); Red Flag
Communist Organisation of Luxembourg; Communist Party of Nepal (Unified
Marxist-Leninists): (excluding first paragraph and point 3 of part
1) Marxist-Leninist Group (Red Dawn), Netherlands; Workers' Communist
Party, Norway; Communist Party of the Philippines; Communist Unification
of Spain; Pan Africanist Congress, South Africa; Chingkang Mountains
Institute, Taiwan; Revolutionary Communist Party, Uruguay
Resolution 2: Tasks and Perspectives of the Marxist-Leninist
and Working-class Movement
1. We are in the epoch of imperialism and proletarian revolution.
The international proletariat struggles in unity with the oppressed
peoples and nations against imperialism and for socialism. The struggle
for national liberation and democracy is part of the world proletarian
revolution.
2. It is necessary to continue promoting the unity of parties which
are guided by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought and with those
parties which have a positive attitude towards Mao in order to confront
and defeat revisionism with which we can have no ideological unity
but without negating the broad political unity of all anti-imperialist
forces.
3. We reaffirm and advance the line of proletarian internationalism
whose first principal task is solidarity with all the struggles
of the working class throughout the world.
We call on the world's proletariat to militant concerted actions
against mass unemployment and deteriorating terms of employment
and for the defence of workers' rights. Let us fight the policies
of the IMF, WB and WTO and measures of labour flexibility and of
withdrawing other social gains all being pushed by the monopoly
capitalists globally.
4. The historic mission of the working class is to end the exploitation
of man by man by overthrowing the capitalist system and building
socialism in transition to communism. To this end, it is necessary
to destroy the reactionary states through armed revolution. The
proletarian party must learn to use all forms of struggle in accumulating
strength necessary for the seizure of political power.
5. We give all-out support to the struggles of the oppressed peoples
who with arms in hand confront their oppressors in the Philippines,
Cambodia, India, Kurdistan, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and others. We
also support the peoples' struggles of North Ireland against British
imperialism, Chechnya against Russian imperialism, Palestine against
Zionism and other peoples' struggle for self-determination.
6. It is necessary to promote and help the resistance of the peoples
and nations of the Third World against imperialist economic plunder,
and oppose imperialist intervention be it under the UN banner or
not, as in the cases of Cuba, North Korea, Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda,
Somalia, Haiti and others.
7. We act in solidarity with peoples suffering human rights violations
against the genocide instigated by imperialist powers and local
reactionaries, as in Africa, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia.
We demand freedom and democratic rights for thousands upon thousands
of revolutionary fighters and leaders such as Abimael Guzman and
Jose Maria Sison.
8. Every party integrates Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought with
its country's concrete conditions in determining its form of struggle
and each tactics in the struggle for the strategic objectives.
Revolutions can be carried out and advanced and the people's democratic
dictatorship and the proletarian dictatorship can be established
only in specific countries by the proletarian masses led by their
revolutionary parties.
9. In the capitalist countries, the character of the revolution
is socialist.
In countries of the oppressed peoples and nations, be they semi-colonial
or dependent, the character of the revolution is new-democratic
(agrarian) and anti-imperialist. The revolutionary proletariat struggles
to advance the revolution continuously towards socialism and communism.
In former and current revisionist-ruled societies, efforts must
be exerted to encourage the proletarian revolutionaries and revolutionary
mass movements for socialism.
10. History shows us that no revolution has triumphed without the
leading role of a vanguard party with a revolutionary theory.
It is not by mere self-proclamation that determines whether one
is the vanguard or not. That is determined in class struggle. First,
the party has to be the vanguard of the revolutionary proletariat.
Second, the revolutionary proletariat has to be the vanguard of
the broad masses of the people.
11. The working class should forge a united front with all oppressed
classes and forces interested in revolution, according to the conditions
in each country, in order to defeat the reactionary clique of each
country. In the backward countries, the worker-peasant alliance
is the foundation of any united front.
12. It is necessary to promote unity and co-operation of the parties
guided by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought with the working people,
anti-imperialist forces and revolutionary movements in the struggle
against imperialism and reaction in order to advance the cause of
national independence, democracy and socialism.
Signatories: Marxist-Leninist Organisation of Afghanistan; Revolutionary
Communist Party, Argentina; Workers' Party of Bangladesh; Marxist-Leninist
Party of Germany; Marxist-Leninist Organisation, Proletarian Way,
France; Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist); Janashakti
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist); New Democracy Communist
Party of India (Marxist-Leninist); People's War Communist Party
of India (Marxist-Leninist); Provisional Central Committee Communist
Party of India (Marxist-Leninist); Red Flag Communist Organisation
of Luxembourg; Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninists):
(excluding nos. 2, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12) Marxist-Leninist Group (Red
Dawn), Netherlands; Workers' Communist Party, Norway; Communist
Party of the Philippines; Communist Unification of Spain Pan; Africanist
Congress, South Africa; ChingKang Mountains Institute, Taiwan; Revolutionary
Communist Party, Uruguay; Revolutionary Organisation of Zaire.
Resolution 3: Development of the Marxist-Leninist and Working-class
Movement in the Struggle against Revisionism
1. We must fight against revisionism of every variety. It is the
most dangerous form through which bourgeois ideology exerts its
corrosive influence on the working class. Thus the proletarian ideology
must struggle against all varieties of the revisionist ideology.
Without overcoming the influence of revisionism within the working-class
movement, there can be no new upswing in the struggle for socialism
nor victory for the proletarian revolution.
2. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was not the defeat of
socialism. Khrushchov's modern revisionism had betrayed socialism
at the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU in 1956. From then on,
capitalism was restored and the Soviet Union evolved into a social-imperialist
superpower.
3. Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the Communist Party of China
resolutely denounced and fought Khrushchovite and later Brezhnevite
modern revisionism. It exposed the modern revisionists as the capitalist
roaders within the party. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
was launched to prevent the restoration of capitalism in China and
defend the dictatorship of the proletariat. It was a historic achievement.
4. The collapse of the Soviet Union was also a decisive practical
defeat, which led to the weakening of modern revisionism. However,
this did not automatically solve the problem of revisionism. The
struggle against revisionism will have to be carried out for as
long as there is class struggle between the proletariat and the
bourgeoisie. The revisionists deny the Leninist theory of the state
and thus the necessity of revolutionary violence and the dictatorship
of the proletariat. In addition to long-standing ones, various neo-revisionist
tendencies have emerged. The neo-revisionists wish to whitewash
modern revisionism and conceal the betrayal of socialism. Thus,
they also express some criticisms of the Soviet development. However,
such criticisms do not touch the essentials because the revisionists
deny the restoration of capitalism. Neo-revisionism blurs the distinction
between Marxism-Leninism and modern revisionism. The neo-revisionists
attack Mao Zedong and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,
in particular, supposedly as "Left" sectarian. They slander
revolutionary parties that adhere to Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong
Thought as splittists. All parties present condemn the attacks on
Mao Zedong as well as the attempt to collide Marxism-Leninism with
Mao Zedong Thought.
5. In the past, the Communist Party of China fought against modern
revisionism. Today, the modern revisionism of the Communist Party
of China has to be combated. The People's Republic of China is no
longer a socialist country and the Communist Party of China is no
longer a Marxist-Leninist party. After the death of Mao Zedong,
the dictatorship of the proletariat was destroyed and under the
leadership of Deng Xiaoping capitalism was restored. Deng's reforms
are not socialist but are capitalist. It is the task of the Marxist-Leninist
parties to expose this revisionist swindle and help Marxism-Leninism
and Mao Zedong Thought gain new esteem among the working class and
the working people.
Signatories: Marxist-Leninist Organisation of Afghanistan; Revolutionary
Communist Party, Argentina; Workers' Party of Bangladesh: (excluding
point 5); Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany; Communist Party of
India (Marxist-Leninist); Janashakti Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist);
National Democracy Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist);
People's War Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist); Provisional
Central Committee Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist); Red
Flag Communist Organisation of Luxembourg; Marxist-Leninist Group
(Red Dawn), Netherlands; Communist Party of the Philippines; Communist
Unification of Spain: (excluding point 5); ChingKang Mountains Institute,
Taiwan; Revolutionary Communist Party, Uruguay; Revolutionary Organisation
of Zaire.
Resolution 4: On Continuing the International Conference
1. The Fifth Conference resolves to prepare and hold a Sixth Conference
within a period of two to three years in order to continue, step
by step, the process of reaching ideological and political unity
in the Marxist-Leninist and working-class movement internationally.
2. The Fifth Conference was very successful. Twenty organisations
and parties from four continents participated. Aside from the progress
made in the ideological, political and practical exchange on questions
regarding economic and political developments and the theory and
practice of class struggle, which are expressed in the various resolutions,
the conference was marked by a pronounced proletarian, democratic,
open and broad debate carried out on a principled basis. This success
runs counter to the questioning from outside about the character
of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and
Organisations. Mutual respect and equality of rights, a strictly
objective discussion and comradely treatment of each other characterised
the efforts of all participants for unity and progress of this forum
of revolutionary parties and organisations, which met on the basis
of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought in the struggle against
revisionism.
3. The participants of the Fifth Conference recognise and affirm
the work of the Joint Co-ordinating Group (JCG) as indispensable
for the preparation and holding of this meeting.
The JCG's method of work was distinguished by a systematic dissemination
of information among the participants, by efforts towards a democratic
exchange of views and by the multilateral co-operation in carrying
out the conference. It unanimously approved the report of the JCG
on the preparation of this conference as the JCG strictly adhered
to the principles set forth by the Fourth Conference, as amended
and readopted by the Fifth Conference.
Co-operation among Marxist-Leninist organisations internationally
is based on the following principles:
a. Independence and equality, mutual respect, mutual support and
co-operation.
b. Non-interference in internal affairs as well as in bilateral
or regional relations of any party or organisation with other parties
and organisations.
c. Consensus and unanimity in decision-making.
d. Achievement of unity step by step through principled debate and
co-operation among parties/organisations, with no party making public
attacks on other parties/organisations.
4. To prepare the Sixth Conference, a new Joint Co-ordinating Group
shall be formed.
5. The Fifth Conference shall exert all efforts to call on all Marxist-Leninist
parties and organisations to participate in the preparation and
realisation of the Sixth Conference. It is open for criticism, suggestions
and active participation on the basis of the following three main
criteria:
a. Adherence to Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought,
b. Struggle against modern revisionism and a positive attitude towards
Stalin and Mao, and
c. Acceptance of the Rules of the Conference.
Signatories: Marxist-Leninist Organisation of Afghanistan; Revolutionary
Communist Party, Argentina; Workers' Party of Bangladesh; Marxist-Leninist
Party of Germany; Communist Organisation Marxist-Leninist, Proletarian
Way, France; Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist); Communist
Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti; Communist Party of
India (Marxist-Leninist) New Democracy; Communist Party of India
(Marxist-Leninist) People's War; Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
Provisional Central Committee; Communist Organisation of Luxembourg;
Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninists): (excluding
nos. 2, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12); Marxist-Leninist Group (Red Dawn), Netherlands;
Workers' Communist Party, Norway; Communist Party of the Philippines;
Communist Unification of Spain; Pan Africanist Congress, South Africa;
ChingKang Mountains Institute, Taiwan; Revolutionary Communist Party,
Uruguay; Revolutionary Organisation of Zaire.