The Communist Party India (Maoist) celebrates the Cultural Revolution 50th anniversary

From COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (Maoist)

CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Appeal of Central Committee

Dear comrades, friends of the Indian revolution, workers, peasants, toiling masses,

We are going to celebrate four historically significant world proletarian anniversaries within a short span of time. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) – which is completing its fiftieth anniversary this year – was an unprecedented revolutionary mass upsurge in socialist China led by Mao and the Communist Party. It aimed at bringing each and every sphere of the cultural superstructure in conformity with the country’s socialist economic base by arousing the vast working masses against bourgeois and other forms of reactionary culture. It involved a bitter class struggle against the entrenched capitalist-roaders, it was a continuation of the anti-revisionist struggle of the Great Debate and marked a new stage in the development of the Chinese Revolution.

It reinforced Mao’s teaching that many cultural revolutions will be necessary on the path to communism by building and consolidating socialism. Internationally, it provided the conditions and context for a decisive break with revisionism in the communist movements of many countries, formation of ML parties and a new wave of armed agrarian revolutionary wars. In India, the great Naxalbari peasant revolutionary armed uprising – which is going to complete its fiftieth anniversary – was influenced and inspired by the GPCR. Naxalbari was a path-breaking event under the leadership of comrade Charu Majumdar – one of the two great leaders, teachers and fore-founders of CPI(Maoist) comrades CM and KC – which marked a new beginning in the history of the country’s democratic revolution.

The centenary of the victory of the great Russian Socialist Revolution is also approaching. It smashed the political power of the Russian capitalist and the feudal classes through armed insurrection and for the first time established a new state of the working class and the toiling masses under the leadership of comrades Lenin and Stalin. It undertook the task of building socialism and laid the foundations of a socialist system, thus paving way for the transition to communism. Bolshevik Revolution was guided by the correct proletarian ideology of Marxism and a correct proletarian revolutionary party. It adopted correct strategy and tactics and carried out relentless struggle against right and ‘left’ opportunism within
the party and the country. In the course of socialist construction and struggle against domestic and international opportunism, Marxism developed into a new and higher stage – Leninism or Marxism-Leninism. The bicentenary of the birth of Karl Marx, the founder of the proletarian ideology, politics and scientific socialism and a great revolutionary philosopher who formulated an entirely new and thoroughly scientific theory and method, is also coming near. Marx showed a new path for humanity that flourished in the process of bitter class struggle and in struggle against bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideology, economics, politics and culture as well as in struggle against right and ‘left’ opportunism within the working-class movement. It marked the dawn of a new epoch for humanity that was chained to class exploitation and oppression for thousands of years.

This made the transition to a classless society – and hence to the realm of freedom – a real possibility. These anniversaries are important occasions to reaffirm the irrefutable truth that the only alternative to wage-slavery, exploitation, oppression, domination, destitution,
discrimination, disparity, devastation, crises and wars engendered by capitalism in the present world is socialism and communism. These are occasions to declare once again that in the fight against capital, its grave-diggers will bury the old decadent social relations and build new social ones in their place in the course of building socialism to progress to a classless society, thus bringing the prehistory of humanity to an end so that the real history of humanity can begin. Those who claim the permanence of capitalism and the out-datedness of communism wantonly forget that humanity has spent most of its past in a classless society, has emerged from a classless society and is destined to once again enter a classless society by passing through successive higher stages under the leadership of the proletariat – the newest, the last and the most
revolutionary class in history.

Those who point to the reversal of the Soviet and Chinese socialist societies willfully forget that the bourgeoisie too had to face innumerable defeats over several centuries before it could emerge victorious in its struggle for power against the feudal class. Ever since the Paris Commune, every defeat has brought new lessons to the proletariat. Learning from mistakes and drawing lessons from defeats, the proletariat and its party will relentlessly, doggedly and steadfastly pursue its struggle against the bourgeoisie as the vanguard of all oppressed social classes and social sections to build socialism in one country and then in several countries to finally establish socialism on a world-scale by defeating capitalism, imperialism and all reaction.

Then, after all the necessary conditions have matured, the society will finally be able to inscribe on its banner – “from each according to his/her ability, to each according to his/her want”. So let us once again assert in the course of celebrating these anniversaries that there is no alternative to Marxism/MLM! There is no alternative to proletarian party/leadership! There is no alternative to revolution and there is no alternative to socialism and communism!

Three of these anniversaries – the fiftieth anniversary of the GPCR, the centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution and the bicentenary of the birth of Karl Marx –are going to be celebrated by the proletariat in all the countries of the world. Our Party, CPI(Maoist), is a committed detachment of the international proletariat. It is guided by the scientific ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM) and creatively applies this ideology in concrete revolutionary practice. It staunchly and relentlessly fights against revisionism of all hues, be it right-opportunism or ‘left’-sectarianism. It is engaged in a widespread protracted war to successfully complete the New Democratic Revolution (NDR) in India as an inseparable part of the world
socialist revolution.

CPI(Maoist) joins the international proletariat in celebrating these important anniversaries. It is our bounden duty to celebrate these three great world proletarian revolutionary events along with all genuine Maoist parties and organizations and individuals of the world as a way of upholding, defending, following and applying MLM for advancing the NDR in our country. To celebrate these events is to grasp the revolutionary essence of Marxism, to emulate the spirit of the victorious proletarian revolutions of the past, to learn from the positive and negative experiences of the international proletariat, to draw lessons from our defeats and mistakes and to rely on our strength for boldly advancing towards completing the
NDR in our country in new social and revolutionary conditions by fighting imperialism and all reaction.

Therefore, these historic occasions should be celebrated by our Party to the best of our strength and ability in all places where we have our presence. All the party units should make preparations, put maximum efforts and issue calls to the vast masses to actively and energetically participate in these celebrations. We call upon them to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the GPCR from 16 to 22 May 2016, the fiftieth anniversary of Naxalbari from 23 to 29 May 2017, the centenary celebrations of the Bolshevik Revolution from 7 to 13 November 2017 and the birth bicentenary of Karl Marx from 5 to 11 May 2018. If for any reason it is not feasible to conduct these events on the above-mentioned dates, they can be organised in any other time of the years of these anniversaries (The CC regrets the delay in issuing the call for the fiftieth anniversary of the GPCR due to unavoidable circumstances. It should therefore be celebrated at any time for a week between May 2016 and May 2017 with the aim of taking the great significance of GPCR to the masses). These occasions should be celebrated in the form of campaigns and as Anniversary Weeks.

Comrades,

The world capitalist system is giving rise to acute economic and political crises, destruction of productive forces, intensified exploitation and oppression and predatory wars across the globe. A great majority of the countries, nations and people are subjected to the growing stranglehold of imperialism, resulting in massive resentment as well as resistance among the people. The coming social upheavals are making all reactionaries of the world and their institutions shudder. Therefore they are adopting various repressive and deceptive tactics including widespread counter revolutionary propaganda against MLM and socialist revolutions, new democratic revolutions and national liberation movements as well as all kinds of people’s democratic struggles to pacify and divert the boiling social discontent. In such a situation, our aim should be to confront the enemy on a wider plane encompassing ideological, political, military and all other spheres. The four upcoming revolutionary anniversaries should be
utilized for this task.

We should use these occasions to ideologically and politically educate the country’s workers, peasants, students, youths, intellectuals, the oppressed social sections including women, Dalits, Adivasis and oppressed nationalities and religious minorities and all other sections of the toiling masses. We should call upon them to rise to the occasion, unite and get organized strongly enough to resist the ruling-class onslaught by all possible means. We should appeal to the masses to participate in the new democratic revolution and join the people’s war in large numbers and more militantly. The message that the new democratic revolution is the only way for the liberation of the vast toiling masses should be widely propagated among them. This is all the more crucial in the present times when Brahmanical Hindu fascism in serving the interests of the Indian ruling classes and imperialism is more viciously and widely attacking communism and all progressive and democratic ideologies, movements, cultures, values, aspirations and practices openly and in the parliamentary guise as a part of its general offensive against the people.

We will have to plan two types of programmes to celebrate these anniversaries. The first type is the programmes in rural areas organised by our Party, PLGA, Revolutionary People’s Committees (RPCs) and the revolutionary mass organisations (MOs). The second type is the open and legal programmes mainly in the cities to be organised by open organisations either independently or with other revolutionary-democratic forces and individuals. Our MO leadership should take maximum initiative for organizing these events. They should take the responsibility of chalking out the plan of these programmes with other friendly forces. While the fiftieth anniversary of Naxalbari uprising has international significance, it is basically related to the ongoing protracted people’s war of our country. Pro-Maoist and radical democratic parties, organisations and individuals at all-India and state levels may be willing to come together with us for celebrating this anniversary if we make necessary efforts, take initiative and show necessary flexibility. While it is important to try to celebrate the occasion jointly with otherforces, we should not allow the dilution of the ideological-political essence and significance of Naxalbari. So it is better to unite with only those who broadly uphold Naxalbari without diluting its essence. They should generally be supportive of the ongoing revolutionary and democratic movements. Keeping the above in mind, maximum participation should be ensured. Our Central Committee appeals to the genuine proletarian parties, organisations and individuals of different countries as well as the friends, well-wishers and supporters of the Indian revolution to organise programmes celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Naxalbari in the context of the ongoing protracted people’s war in India.

Genuine Marxists as well as revisionists will uphold and celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the GPCR, the centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution and Marx’s birth bicentenary. So there is a possibility of organizing these celebrations on an even wider basis by involving many more forces than the Naxalbari anniversary. But we should unite with only those Marxist and democratic forces which uphold the core teaching of Marx – the absolute necessity of smashing the old state by applying force to build socialism under the dictatorship of the proletariat so as to proceed towards
establishing a classless society, i.e., communism. This essential teaching of Marxism– which was first put in practice in its true spirit in Russia under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin – is ignored and rejected by the revisionists and neo-revisionists of the world and in this way fight against Marxism in the name of Marxism in the interest of capitalism-imperialism.

These forces are in existence in all countries today and they try to prevent the working class from advancing on the revolutionary road.Opportunists like CPI and CPI(M) in our country too do not adhere to this fundamental teaching of Marx. So it is better to avoid uniting with them on the basis of the Party banner for these celebrations. We must not forget for a moment that it is impossible to advance in the fight against the enemy with clarity, courage and unity in the ranks of the Party and the people without a relentless and uncompromising struggle against opportunism of all hues. However, those intellectuals who uphold the essence of Marx’s teachings, Bolshevik Revolution and the GPCR even while supporting such parties can be invited to our forums and programmes.

Since the fiftieth anniversary of the GPCR, the centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution and Marx’s birth bicentenary will be celebrated internationally, efforts should be made to organize at least one international program in any of the Indian cities on a date agreeable to all participants. We can utilize the event to talk about all the four anniversaries. Likewise, Indian revolutionaries should participate in international programmes organized by genuine revolutionary forces abroad to celebrate these events.

It is to be expected that the enemy will try to create all kinds of hurdles everywhere to prevent us from organizing these anniversaries, be it in the urban or the rural areas. We should be prepared for this and make realistic and practicable plans to conduct these programmes successfully in spite of such disruptionist efforts. We should organize public meetings, hall meetings and seminars in urban areas by depending on our mass base and by mobilizing the people. All programmes should aim at taking the ideology of MLM, its relevance in the present conditions and in the future and the Party’s ideological-political line to the vast masses. MLM should be presented as the alternative to all bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideologies such as economism, reformism, parliamentarism and post-modernism, etc. The necessity of the world proletarian revolution, the unprecedented world historic achievements of the Russian and Chinese revolutions and the great advancements they made in the history of humanity in spite of later betrayals by the revisionists, renegades and capitalist-roaders emerging from the Party leadership should be highlighted. The reasons behind the collapse of the Russian, Chinese and other socialist/new democratic states along with measures to prevent similar reversals in the future should be discussed deeply and comprehensively. Our views on the scientific theory of the proletariat emerging from the struggle for production, class struggle and scientific experiment, the need for applying proletarian leadership method and style of work as well as the application of class-line and mass-line should be placed before the broad masses of the people.

In addition, the Party, PLGA, organs of people’s power/RPCs and revolutionary MOs should widely propagate the achievements of India’s revolutionary movement among the masses. All party committees from top to bottom along with primary units and Party fractions in MOs/united front forums should conduct theoretical study and political classes on MLM, Bolshevik Revolution, GPCR and the NDR of our country during these occasions. New recruitment campaigns should be taken up by the Party, militia and MOs to replenish their strength with new forces. Torchlight/armed processions, rallies, pubic meetings and group meetings etc. should be conducted in the Guerrilla Zones by following all methods of defense and secret functioning considering the likelihood of enemy attacks to disrupt our programs. Similarly, rallies, hall meetings, public meetings, seminars, etc. should be organised by the mass organisations in the cities by mobilizing like-minded forces and the people. Our Party, PLGA, RPCs and revolutionary MOs should prepare propaganda material, give interviews to the media and publish theoretical-political books and special issues of magazines in concerned languages.

Books on revolutionary theory and history should be published/republished. Propaganda material of different kinds and all other publications should in general have a simple and creative style of presentation easily understandable to the masses. Fractions in MOs should pay special attention and take initiative in this regard. Special attention should be paid to bring out books/booklets/collection of articles written in a lucid style for enhancing the understanding of MLM, Russian Revolution, GPCR and our Party history among the cadres and activists. Given the significance of the four anniversaries, attention should be paid to enhance the ideological-political level of the Party. Revolution is a festival of the workers and the toiling masses and its victories are the fruits of their heroic sacrifices. The upcoming anniversaries too are the festive occasions of the masses. So their active participation and involvement should be ensured in all our propaganda, mobilization and programmes. We must strive to involve the people to the widest possible extent so that they embrace these events as their own and enthusiastically enhance their role in the country’s ongoing evolutionary war.

Comrades,

The international proletariat shoulders the historic responsibility of guiding the vast masses in thousands of battles against the enemy through a tortuous path to establish a classless society. Wielding the invincible weapon of MLM – the present-day Marxism – it will continue to advance towards fulfilling this historic mission. Our Party as one of its detachments has achieved some significant successes in the last fifty years since the outbreak of the great Naxalbari armed agrarian uprising by passing through a thorny path with many ups and downs, twists and turns in the path
of protracted people’s war. These achievements have been won by creatively applying MLM to the concrete conditions of the country, fighting back the continuous fascist repression of the ruling classes in collusion with the imperialists and with the blood of thousands of heroic martyrs. We should utilize the upcoming anniversaries to uphold and defend these achievements and draw inspiration from them to make further advancements in the people’s war. We should equip, educate and remould the Party and the masses with MLM on these occasions and place before them the positive and negative experiences and the lessons learnt from the mistakes in our practice. We should strive to enhance the enthusiasm and fighting spirit of our Party, PLGA, RPCs, MOs, friendly forces and the masses through these anniversaries. We should try to gain the confidence of the friendly forces and the people and to win them over to our side so that they can be united vastly and strongly against the common enemy. We should make all efforts to propagate new democracy, socialism and communism as the only path of liberation from the chains of exploitation, oppression, bondage and enslavement. This is the path shown by the great international proletarian teachers Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao. This is the trail blazed by Bolshevik Revolution, Chinese Revolution and Naxalbari. On the occasion of the four upcoming anniversaries, let us renew our pledge to continue advancing on this path! We call upon all Party units and members to propagate this Call extensively among the people and successfully conduct the anniversary celebrations with their active involvement and participation.

With revolutionary greetings,
(Ganapathy)

General Secretary,
Central Committee,
CPI(Maoist)