Firstly, we would like to stress that we are not very knowledgeable about the situation in Austria, but we do know that Austria, unlike Nepal, is an advanced capitalist-imperialist country with a bourgeois dictatorship; the working-class make up the majority of the population. The task before the proletariat in countries like Austria is the proletarian socialist revolution. Even in these countries the political party of the proletariat must strive to unite all the other class forces that can be united to oppose, struggle and defeat the principal enemy, that is, the state representing and leading the monopoly bourgeoisie. Even in such countries the working-class and the other toiling masses cannot win political power without a revolution, that is, without a revolutionary (necessarily violent) overthrow of the prevailing social relations followed by a revolutionary civil-war. Overall, the road of the Bolshevik Revolution or the October Revolution in Russia, 1917 is most instructive for revolutionaries in countries like Austria
The Communist Action (M-L) declares itself "Marxist-Leninist." At present
there are many parties calling themselves M-L, but we think a great deal of
changes and transformations involving dramatic events have taken place in the
world since Lenin's time, when he contributed enormously to the treasure-house
of Marxism. There have been many events and developments in the international
communist movement (ICM) which make us rejoice, yet there have also been many
things in the movement which should cause us to grieve. Learning from these
would contribute to the advancement of the science of proletarian revolution,
our ideology, Marxism.
Why does the oppressed class necessarily require a political party, Marx has
clearly explained, "In its struggle against the united power of the owning
classes the proletariat cannot act as a class unless it constitutes itself
into a political Party distinct and opposed to all the old political parties
created by the owning classes." Comrade Mao has clearly enunciated, "If
there has to be revolution, there must be a revolutionary party." So,
building up of a vanguard party of the proletariat is a vital question to make
revolution.
For a new communist
organisation, we think it is necessary to delve into many of these great events
and developments so as to recognise our weaknesses as well as our strengths
and learn from them. In our view, some of the most outstanding developments
that further advanced the proletarian ideology took place in the course of
the Chinese Revolution, both the New Democratic Revolution and the Socialist
Revolution, especially in the course of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
These were led by Mao Tsetung, who while proceeding from the vantage point
of Marxism-Leninism, was also able to make important summations and draw invaluable
conclusions and lessons, thus tremendously enriching the proletarian ideology,
so much so that they have indeed become indispensable for any revolution in
the world today. Thus we hold that failure to recognise, uphold, defend and
apply the body of new contributions to Marxism by Mao greatly handicaps "Marxist-Leninist" parties/organisations.
We hold that Mao's contributions, in totality, can be referred to as Maoism,
which represents a new, higher and the third stage of Marxism. In sum, Mao's
contributions are in no way less than Lenin's. That is the primary reason why
the CPN (Maoist) insists that the ideological position taken by the Revolutionary
Internationalist Movement (RIM) is correct, even in imperialist countries.
We hold that Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is universal and thus, we humbly request
that your organisation as a whole study the Declaration of the RIM so that
healthy ideological and political discussions and debates could take place
among revolutionary communists. This is extremely vital
We fully agree with KOMAK-ML that we live in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution; that the world is dominated by imperialism and that through monopoly-capitalist companies, banks most economies and societies world-wide are controlled. But they are also controlled through powerful organisations like the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, controlled by mainly US imperialism. We also think that there is no socialist country in the world today. There is also need for proletarian revolution in revisionist countries (China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba).
While imperialism
as a whole is united in preserving the present social order and international
relations based on exploitation of the many (the poor generally) by the few
(the rich); this is the underlying fundamental contradiction, there is also
competition and rivalry among themselves. The great split in the UN Security
Council in the run-up to the war on Iraq is an expression of the contention
for power, spheres of influence and hegemony among the imperialist powers.
In our view, the above is a growing and important contradiction, but it is
not the principal contradiction in the world today. The principal contradiction
is still the oppressed nations and peoples on one hand and imperialism on the
other. Thus the proletarian parties must support the oppressed nations and
peoples in their struggle against imperialism. These struggles might take the
form of struggle for national self-determination against national oppression
or defending the national sovereignty and independence, which the European
as well as the American) imperialists do not recognize. This can be seen clearer
and clearer every day. Thus we have a duty to support oppressed nations (against
imperialism) even if the rulers (like Sadam) in these nations are themselves
very reactionary.
We think in building a political party of the proletariat, the most essential
task is to develop an ideological-political line as the basis of unity of the
party. The political line of the proletarian party in an imperialist country
must seek the destruction of the state machinery. This is a cardinal teaching
of Lenin. Right from the beginning, even before the party organisation has
been built, there must be clarity on the general political line, that is, seizure
of power by armed-force. It can take the form of insurrection followed by civil-war
as in imperialist countries. A communist organisation must always have its
eyes on the prize, that is, the conquest of state power. "Without political
power all is illusion" (Lenin).
We do not say that this can be done without preparations, especially preparation
of public opinion.
Without developing and establishing a basis of unity - the general political
line - if the revolutionaries proceed to construct a party organisation they
will meet great difficulties and setbacks later - splits take place and the
many great efforts might be wasted.
Chairman Mao Tsetung taught that for the proletariat to win political power
there must be three instruments of class-struggle or what he called the three "magic
weapons" of the revolution. They are the political party of the proletariat,
the people's army and a united front (UF) of various class forces that can
be united in building up a movement for the revolutionary overthrow of the
old society.
Of the three, the party is principal - following Lenin' insistence that without
a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement, Mao argued and
demonstrated that without a revolutionary party of the proletariat there can
be no revolution for the working class and other exploited and oppressed classes
and social strata.
The united front
of different class forces is extremely important so that the revolutionary
movement becomes the movement of the broad masses of the people and not just
one class standing in isolation from the others, only then can social change
become truly people's movement for broad and deep-going social transformation.
The revolutionary united front (UF) is thus absolutely essential to give this
weight, depth and broadness and power to enable the revolution to isolate (politically)
and destroy the counter-revolution. Yet the UF must be guided and led by the
vanguard of the proletariat, that is the proletarian revolutionary party, armed
and guided by the science of revolution (MLM), otherwise the UF will become
too dispersed and even fall under the leadership of other class forces which
might be non-revolutionary, reformist or even counter-revolutionary. This is
true for imperialist countries as well as for "third world" countries oppressed
by imperialism and feudalism/ semi-feudalism. But in imperialist countries
the Party will have to build, help build or encourage the building of pro-people,
anti-exploitation, anti-oppression mass-organisations in order to build the
UF. The party organisations must thus actively participate in struggles involving
not only workers of all strata, but also youth, students, women and people
of other social classes and strata like the petty-bourgeoisie, middle-bourgeoisie
and working people like the semi-proletariat and in different social movements
such as the environmental and the peace or anti-war movements and also movements
of migrant workers experiencing super-exploitation, racism and discrimination.
The building of such mass-organisations, unlike in oppressed nations, takes place well before the organisation of armed-detachments (or the future people's army). In oppressed nations, on the other hand, the building of the people's army takes place in the course of building the UF; the people's army is forged through the course of revolutionary people's war out of armed-detachments or armed-squads initiated and led by the Party. "Without a People's Army, the people have nothing" Mao. The people's army is the indispensable third instrument of class struggle and a weapon for the seizure of state-power (the Party and the UF are the other two). It (the people's army) learns warfare (how to fight) through warfare, through waging revolutionary war of the masses. In a revolutionary war, the people and the fighters are decisive and not the weapons, machinery or equipments. It is humans and not other material things that decide the outcome (victory or defeat) of the war.
The proletarian Communist Party must be the leader of both the people's army
and the United Front as the Party is guided by the most advanced and only scientific
ideology, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM) and a political line (basing on the
social-economic and political conditions of the society) out of which it could
draft and develop a program for the revolution.
At all times politics must guide the gun and never allow the gun to dominate
politics. Politics is the life-blood of the party and hence the two-line struggle
is the motive force (or motor) that propels or drives the party forward. The
communist party of the proletariat therefore is not afraid of differences of
opinions and debates within the party. Indeed, the proletarian party, if it
is truly revolutionary, welcomes inner party struggles so as to practice democratic
centralism.
We think that understanding the above points is vital in forging a general
political line for any proletarian party.
Nutan Sharma, Anti-Imperialist Revolutionary Forum, Nepal
You can read our answer here.
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