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Mao Tsetung Centenary
Celebrated
The celebration of
the Centenary of Mao Tsetung marked the year 1993, especially on
December 26, Mao's date of birth. It has been an event that sowed
the seeds of revolution in many different corners of the world.
By looking at the life and teachings of Mao Tsetung, a new generation
who themselves never witnessed the dramatic changes wrought in revolutionary
China could begin to understand that the poor and oppressed could
indeed rise up and transform the world through revolution; that
the imperialists' declarations that "communism is dead" reflect
their hatred and fear of the very class of proletarians that can
and will do away with them forever; and that to move forward to
all the way liberation, the understanding forged by Mao Tsetung
in the Chinese revolution and summed up as Marxism-Leninism-Maoism
is the indispensable weapon for victory.
The celebrations of
the Mao Tsetung Centenary have been carried on as battles against
imperialism and revisionism. Even the very way the Centenary was
initiated reflected that this would be a celebration of slaves determined
to do away with their masters. For it was from one of the enemy's
darkest dungeons that the initial call came for the Centenary. A
fortnight after his capture, on 24 September 1992, Chairman Gonzalo
of the Communist Party of Peru, in a prison cage surrounded by dozens
of armed thugs, defiantly called for the People's War to go forward
and for the Maoists of the world to celebrate the Centenary in an
unforgettable way.
It is fitting then
that the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the international
organized centre of Maoists, uniting Maoist parties and organizations
worldwide, including the PCP, launched its celebration of the Centenary
by announcing on December 26th that RIM had taken an important leap
forward in its unity and revolutionary understanding by adopting
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as its ideology. RIM's adoption of MLM was
presented in a document that has already been translated into many
languages and spread around the world: Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
[reproduced in this issue].
Today, the myth of
the imperialists' New World Order is breaking down, the clash of
arms is sounding in nearly every corner of the planet, and currents
of rebellion are swirling beneath the surface and increasingly bursting
forth. The adoption of MLM by the parties and organizations of RIM
signals the mounting strength and ability of the world's revolutionaries
to seize the opportunities and hasten the day when the oppressed
will arise, guns in hand, and do away with imperialism forever.
Such a leap is timely, for the collapse of the revisionists and
the worldwide battle to defend the life of Chairman Gonzalo have
tended to leave the Maoists occupying a more central position in
the face of the imperialists. This is challenging the revolutionaries
to assume their responsibilities and lead the masses forward. As
Mao himself wrote,
"So many deeds cry
out to be done,
And always urgently;
The world rolls
on, time presses;
Ten thousand years
are too long,
Seize the day, seize
the hour!"
The Mao Centenary was
celebrated in a great variety of ways, including armed attacks,
village meetings, video showings in urban ghettos, and discussions
in venerable academic institutions. There was also enthusiastic
support for the plan announced by RIM to publish a new edition of
Mao's famous Red Book, with new chapters of quotations from
the Cultural Revolution period. Though some funds have been raised,
more are quickly needed to publish this important weapon.
1994 also marked the
Tenth Anniversary of RIM and the deepening crisis of the world
imperialist system and the increasing revolutionary prospects prove
that it was most timely and correct to found RIM and to strengthen
this precious centre of the world's revolutionaries. Today Maoist
parties and organizations exist on every continent. The relative
isolation that characterized the Maoist movement in the wake of
the loss of proletarian power in China and the subsequent crisis
in the ICM is being transformed step by step by adhering firmly
to MLM and applying it with boldness and dogged determination. Strengthening
RIM means strengthening a Movement that enables the world's revolutionaries
to deepen their understanding of the experience of the international
communist movement, to learn from advanced experience such as the
People's War in Peru, to compare notes on how they are carrying
out revolutionary struggle and making preparations to launch people's
war, and to learn to act as one class, with one goal, worldwide
communism.
Celebrations
of the Mao Centenary have been held in every corner of the globe
by the parties and organizations in RIM and by other revolutionaries,
and word about some of these has yet to arrive. But what is known
already shows the depth of the respect that millions have for this
great leader of the world proletariat, of the struggle he led against
the imperialists and reactionaries and for the immortal contributions
he made to our understanding of how to wage revolution and advance
towards communism. The Mao Centenary also sharply marked the celebration
of May First 1994, as did the celebration of the Tenth Anniversary
of RIM.
Maoists from
Australia report that May Day activities involved revolutionaries
from several countries; leaflets were distributed broadly there,
entitled Who Will Bury This System?; posters saying Celebrate
the Mao Centenary were put up and funds collected from many
people for RIM. A Mao Tsetung Centenary meeting included the showing
of a video entitled Mao: The Greatest Revolutionary of Our Time,
and statements were made by a Maori speaker from New Zealand, and
by people from Turkey, the Philippines, Greece and elsewhere. Money
was raised, including for AWTW's project for printing a new
edition of Quotations from Mao Tsetung. Following the meeting,
red flags were unfurled and several dozen people defiantly marched
through the streets.
In Dhaka, the capital
of Bangladesh, the Centenary was launched in December 1993 by a
march and mass gathering organized by the Committee for the Celebration
of the Birth Centenary of Mao Tsetung. A thousand people, including
more than a hundred garment workers and many homeless children,
gathered in front of the National Press Club in downtown Dhaka at
about noon, and then set off with hundreds of fluttering red flags
with the hammer and sickle, banners, festoons, posters and photos
of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and numerous photos of Mao Tsetung,
some of them life-size. The march wound for two and a half hours
through key parts of the city, including a garment district and
bazaar areas. As the red-hot sun blazed overhead, the marchers surged
forward under banners proclaiming, "Forward Along the Path Charted
by Mao Tsetung", and "Celebrate Mao Tsetung Birth Centenary". The
Mao Centenary was also strongly present in the minds of revolutionaries
on May Day, where hundreds again took to the streets of Dhaka under
the leading banner, "Build Up Revolutionary Struggle in Order to
Seize Our Own Power Along the Maoist Ideology".
In Germany, supporters
of the Turkish Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist, Maoist Party Centre)
(TKP/ML, MPC) and the Revolutionary Communists of Germany (RK) issued
the call, "Revolution is the only solution here and around the world",
and broadly distributed a leaflet addressing proletarians and new
revolutionary forces in Berlin. Many individuals and groups came
forward to support this call and to carry forward the tradition
of Red May Day, even while certain forces who were formerly active
on May Day are now capitulating in the face of the anti-communist
offensive. Many masses came forward as they saw red flags flying
and May Day activities stepping off. There was great jubilation,
and at its peak as many as 4,000 people were present. Another significant
change in this year's celebration was the presence of proletarians
from Poland, youth from Palestine, immigrants from Romania, Kurdistan,
and Yugoslavia, and many people formerly crushed by the East Bloc.
Proletarian immigrants along with "nothing to lose" youth of Germany
stepped forward and carried the banner of May Day. Although the
police viciously attacked 8 or 10 times, they failed miserably to
stop the demonstration or dampen the spirit of the people. There
were many injuries, but people persevered. Pictures of Mao and slogans
on the Centenary of Mao's Birth and RIM's 10th Anniversary characterized
this Red May Day, and the entire city of Berlin was well decorated.
In Denmark, the Mao
Centenary infused the May Day 1994 rally, which was held by a group
of Danish people, supporters of PCP and other revolutionary immigrants.
1500 copies of the poster issued for the founding of RIM were put
up all over the Copenhagen area in honour of the RIM's Tenth Anniversary,
where many still remain, and many people took part in discussions
with the revolutionaries.
The Communist
Party of Bolivia (Marxist-Leninist) issued a poster proclaiming,
"A Spectre is Haunting the Andes, the Spectre of Maoism" and "Celebrate
the Centenary of the Birth of Chairman Mao!" A meeting was held
in the Paraninfo University, with music and speeches by several
professors on Mao's contributions.
In the state of Punjab,
the RCCI(ML) held May First street theatre, torchlight processions,
small factory meetings and public meetings in over a half dozen
cities and rural towns in which nearly two thousand people participated.
Long speeches detailed the collapse of phoney communism, the advance
of real communism, including through the people's war in Peru, the
need to defend the life of Chairman Gonzalo, and the need for the
international communist movement to advance its unity around MLM.
The RIM Committee's May Day leaflet and several thousand copies
of a poster hailing the Tenth Anniversary were put up in many small
towns and villages around Punjab. Many factory workers from small
towns attended, as did some women, day labourers, and peasants who
had just finished the season's wheat harvest.
The Mao Tsetung Centenary
has also inspired many other diverse kinds of activities worldwide.
A magazine in West Bengal, India, raised the support necessary to
publish and distribute a thousand copies of the original Little
Red Book (the Quotations of Mao Tsetung) in Bengali.
Elsewhere
in India, a coalition including various pro-Mao forces that have
their roots in the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) of
Charu Mazumdar, held a massive rally in Calcutta, attended by tens
of thousands of people.
An international meeting
in honour of the Mao Centenary was held near Düsseldorf, Germany,
in November 1993, attended by hundreds of people from many countries.
Among the organizers were some forces stepping forward to reclaim
the banner of Mao, such as the Communist Party of Philippines, which
is undergoing a rectification campaign to struggle against deviations
that arose over the past period. They are looking to Mao Tsetung's
teachings as a key weapon to carry this battle through and help
advance the revolutionary war there. Many others at the meeting
were, however, from a hodgepodge of reformist and revisionist groups,
including the notorious Patria Roja group from Peru, who have supported
the Peruvian government's genocidal war against the PCP-led People's
War.
RIM forces attended,
and Maoist theoretician Raymond Lotta from the US spoke about Mao
Tsetung's Last Great Battle. His support for Mao's comrades-in-arms
Chiang Ching and Chang Chun-chao and his denunciation of Chou En-lai
as the patron of Deng Xiao-ping caused controversy, as did his identification
of the key source of capitalist restoration as the new bourgeoisie
under socialism, the capitalist-roaders headquartered in the party
and state apparatus.
Mao and Maoism were
also celebrated right in the belly of the world's biggest imperialist
beast, the United States. A special issue of the Revolutionary
Worker, voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, was
released on December 26th, containing the two new RIM documents
and articles about Mao Tsetung. Programs were held at Columbia University
in New York and at revolutionary bookstores in New York, Berkeley,
and other cities, and a demonstration was organized in San Francisco's
Chinatown. A programme was held in Los Angeles not long after the
Chiapas rebellion. People also commemorated Mao Tsetung in a variety
of other ways, utilizing video showings in housing projects in the
ghettos and barrios, study and correspondence circles in prisons,
and exhibits and classroom discussions in high schools.
150 attended the programme
in New York, including people from Haiti, the Dominican Republic,
Central and South America, the former Soviet Union, and China, as
well as homeless activists, supporters of the revolution in Peru,
artists, Vietnam vets, youths, and others of all nationalities.
Statements were given by spokespeople from the RCP, USA; the Committee
To Support the Revolution in Peru; the December 12th Movement (a
Black revolutionary nationalist organization); the Haiti World Autonomous
Cultural Movement; the Movimiento Popular Dominicano, Marxist-Leninist;
and the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, as well as by one
of the Attica Brothers who participated in the prisoners' takeover
in 1971, activists in the anti-intervention and Native American
movements, and others.
In Spain, lively meetings
were held in streets dotted with posters and banners proclaiming
"Long Live Red First of May! Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
Celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the Revolutionary Internationalist
Movement!"
TOP RIGHT: Posters
in Kurdish hailing the adoption of MLM by RIM.
RIGHT: Durban, South
Africa
In Peru the Centenary
was marked by a wave of attacks that came to a crescendo during
the week beginning December 26th. Several attacks were carried out
on army units and outposts in the countryside, and in the capital
of Lima, revolutionary fighters launched the Centenary week by targeting
a military barracks. For the rest of the week attacks followed daily
in Lima, hitting numerous banks, a telecommunications centre, and
police and military facilities, including the headquarters of the
notorious DINCOTE secret police, where heavy damage was done and
13 secret police wounded. On December 31st, near midnight, the Centenary
attacks culminated in the blowing up of electrical pylons feeding
the Lima metropolitan area power supply. As the city was plunged
into darkness, the flames of a huge hammer and sickle suddenly lit
up the skies from a hillside overlooking one of the vast shantytowns,
not far from the city centre. The wave of attacks was carried out
despite repeated announcements by the government of increased security
preparations in anticipation that the PCP would mark the Mao Centenary.
The ability of the Maoist revolutionaries in the PCP to mark the
Centenary in such a powerful way, despite the enemy's preparations,
dashed any remaining hopes of the imperialists and reactionaries
that their capture of Chairman Gonzalo had dealt the PCP and the
People's War a mortal blow. The supporters of the PCP abroad actively
took the Maoist message to the revolutionary and rebellious masses
in various European countries.
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