[From The Worker, #1, February 1993.]
RIM: HOW AND WHY?
After the death of Com. Mao in September 1976 and counter-revolution in China shortly after, communist revolutionaries are waging or are preparing to wage People’s War against domestic and foreign enemies in a specific situation when there is no leader of the caliber and capacity of Com. Mao and no socialist base left out in the world. How can we fulfill this task in this particular juncture of history? Can we fulfill this task by fighting separately in our own way? Perhaps not. In this particular juncture of history Communist Parties and organizations of the whole globe have been assigned to fulfill this responsibility by consolidating their force, by making unity among themselves and by collective effort. It should not only be expressed in words but also in deeds, not only in theory but also in practice. We should understand the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) as an outcome of this historical necessity.
RIM came into being on March 1984, when delegates and observers of various Marxist-Leninist Parties and organizations held the second international conference and adopted a document, "Declaration", and formed the RIM. At the beginning, RIM was not considered as a significant force and thus it did not attract much attention during the early days. But at present RIM is considered a significant force of international importance and has been taken up seriously. New communist forces are eagerly watching and listening to the RIM and we think it is desirable to mention some new developments achieved by it during the span of the last eight and a half years so that they may be able to understand it more deeply. During the Second International Conference, Communist Party of Peru (CPP), which is waging People’s War in Peru since 1980 achieving one victory after another and spearheading to a countrywide victory, had participated in the Conference not at the level of a delegate but simply as an observer. But now the CPP is playing a very active and valuable role within the RIM. This active participation of CPP in the RIM has added a new dimension to it and raised its reputation. Since there was no unanimity in some important international issues such as world principal contradiction, main trend at the word level, etc., and some compromises had been made during the Conference, keeping in mind that unity among the communist forces be preserved, the declaration could not resolutely uphold a particular position regarding these issues. Thus one may feel confused while going through the Declaration. But the RIM has now achieved unanimity on these questions and the differences have been eliminated, which is a significant development within the RIM.
RIM has helped revolutionaries advance their ideological and political level through the ideo-political magazine A World To Win and get acquainted with revolutionary developments taking place the world over.
The 'Mao campaign’ initiated by the RIM has contributed a lot for raising consciousness about Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and was appreciated widely as a positive step, not only by the organizations affiliated to the RIM but also by other revolutionary forces outside of it.
The Peru campaign introduced and propagated by the RIM was appreciated as a significant campaign, which was able to give fresh information about the on-going People’s War in Peru, consequently creating thousands of supporters of Peruvian New Democratic revolution throughout the world, and in turn giving moral boost to the People’s War and the brave fighting people of Peru.
After the capture of Com. Gonzalo (Dr. Abimael Guzman) on September 12, 1992 in Lima, RIM launched a very impressive and massive campaign at the international level successfully mobilizing communists as well as other progressive prominent people, thus creating a world wide pressure over the reactionary, genocidal and American puppet regime of Peru.
RIM has sought to achieve more advancement and clarity in the field of using proper terminology in Marxist doctrine by prefering to use 'Marxism-Leninism-Maoism' as the guiding principle of the communists, thus ending the confusion regarding the use of the terminology 'Mao Tse-tung Thought' or 'Maoism'.
In order to achieve the objectives as mentioned above some points have been suggested here keeping in mind that it may be helpful to make the RIM more efficient:
1. What RIM has been doing in support of Peruvian revolution is praiseworthy, no doubt. According to the documents and reliable statements of the PCP and the RIM People’s War in Peru has now reached to its second stage, i.e. the state of strategic stalemate. It means our class is going to regain our power again in Peru, a small country of Latin America. If the Shining Path gains its final victory in the ongoing People’s War and becomes able to capture state power all over Peru, then the world situation will undergo a drastic change. This new change will evolve new possibilities of revolutions in some more countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa. Hence, communist revolutionaries of the world should devote as much as they can in order to ensure the final victory of our class in Peru.
2. There may be some communist parties and organizations which are not within the RIM but whom we must try to cooperate with. For example, two communist parties in India - Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (People’s War) and Maoist Communist Centre have already initiated guerilla war in India and are advancing in their own way. Unity talks between them are continuing and most probably unification of the two parties is going to take place shortly, paving the way for a consolidated unified revolutionary communist party in India. It is necessary to develop closer relations with them and work in cooperation. If other such forces are working and advancing in their own way in other places they should also be treated similarly, so that RIM may be able to make its scope more broader.
3. RIM has to revaluate those participating organizations which have no role to play or which are not playing any significant role in the revolutionary movements of their respective countries, even though they had become participants in the Conference. There are also some participating organizations which have virtually ceased to exist.
4. When new formations do take place because of regrouping of parties & organizations, such as in Nepal, or when there are new participants in the RIM, they should be acknowledged in time and propagated through the AWTW.
5. We should reaffirm the consensus of the Second Conference that the RIM should function as an international coordinating body of Communist parties and organizations, which will not impose anything from above. Every participating member should be independent in formulating its own political line except on the questions of basic theory & principle.
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…… I declare that the next attempt of the French Revolution will be no longer, as before, to transfer the bureaucratic-military machine from one hand to another, but to smash it, and this is the precondition for every real people's revolution on the continent.
- Karl Marx (1871)