I have not supported Chairman Bob
Avakian and his Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
From Maoist_Revolution:
Comrades, the
world situation as well as the situation of the region and Afghanistan
But as the
vanguard of the proletariat, the communists cannot content themselves with just
bearing witness to the situation and continue to act in the same old way with
the same old methods. The only way they can enable themselves to shoulder their
crucial tasks is to liberate themselves from opportunist and
revisionist tendencies that can destroy the communist movement from within. The
communists have a duty to rupture from those who want to drag the communist
movement into the games of nationalist and religious wars, and with dogmatist
methods inflict irrecoverable blows on it.
Comrades! The
situation of the region is critical. Its people are under tremendous pressure
and being slaughtered. For more than three decades Afghanistan
With the recent
developments in the region and the Middle East, we can see how the imperialist
powers and in particular the U.S.
The absence of
communist leadership of the people’s struggle is deeply felt. The rise of the
reactionary Islamic forces in Afghanistan
and the Middle East cannot be unrelated to the
situation of the world communist movement. This absence and the weakness of the
world communist movement is a reason why communist parties in many regions
avoid an ideological-political struggle against non-proletarian ideologies such
as nationalism and, in particular, backward religious ideologies. Instead of
trying to seize the leadership of the mass movement, they insist on tailing
non-proletarian class and religious forces and turn the masses and communists
into soldiers for these reactionaries.
The history of
the communist movement in our country is an example of such an approach. The
communist movement in our country was inspired by the revolutionary line of Mao
Tsetung in China and his struggles
against the dominant revisionist line in the Soviet Union
in the early 1960s. It grew and gained respect among the masses. However, after
the Soviet social-imperialist invasion, the vast majority of the organisations
related to the movement against it had no clear line of their own and as a
result ignored the main national and international contradictions. Under the
pretext of the invasion being the main contradiction and defending the country
being the main task they liquidated their ideological identity and aligned with
the jihadi forces to "defend the country". That approach
was never about defending the country and the people; above all, it meant the
liquidation of their own ideology and tailing the most reactionary fundamentalist
forces. Willingly or unwillingly, they fell into the trap of the Western
imperialists who were not supposed to be the “main” enemy at the time.
The Soviet
social-imperialists were defeated and left our country in ignominy, but it is
no secret that our people, despite their courage and self-sacrifice, were not
the winners. The great winners of this war were the Western imperialists and
our southern neighbour, and the jihadist and fundamentalist forces. What our
people have gone through since then is also no secret. Years of cooperation
with the jihadists did not make those "communists" who went along
with them any stronger. On the contrary, they abandoned their ideology and lost
their forces to the jihadists. Even those who remained communists and were
determined to continue their struggle were affected by Islamic ideology and its
methods and style. After the end of the Soviet invasion those forces could not
get anywhere, despite their efforts. The situation of the communist movement in
Afghanistan
The loss of
political power by the Maoists in China following the death of comrade Mao,
despite a quarter century of great advances along the path of socialism and
great practical and theoretical achievements, had a massive negative effect on
the world communist movement. Many parties followed the revisionist "three
worlds" theory or openly retreated from their communist positions. On one
side the imperialists launched a political and ideological campaign against
communism. On the other, with the growing contradiction between two imperialist
blocs, East and West, the Soviet revisionist line became stronger and in many
places replaced the real communist movement. This situation put the real
communists under pressure.
Some efforts
were made by the world's communists to overcome the crisis by the revisionist
coup following Chairman Mao’s death. These efforts, with both their positive
effects and strengths and their weaknesses, hold very important lessons for us.
The most important move in this direction was the formation of the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) in 1984.
Despite the
struggles lead by RIM and its participating parties and the efforts to overcome
the crisis, it faced obstacles and in the final analysis ran up against certain
limitations. The RIM experience showed that the unity of the participating
parties and organisations – based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and
later Marxism-Leninism-Maoism – was not at a level that could produce a united
effort. There was no united understanding of Maoism or the situation of the
communist movement, and as a result there was no united understanding about the
aims and goals of this movement. That contradiction and unevenness gave rise to
important two-line struggles within RIM. In fact, RIM's history was marked by
these two-line struggles. Though the unity of these parties and organisation
was supposedly based on the revolutionary thought of Mao Tsetung, most of these
struggles were about how to understand Maoism. For example, there was a line
that rejected Mao Tsetung Thought from the very formation of the RIM. There
were also lines that represented a nationalist or Lin Biaoist understanding of
Maoism.
Now, more than
three decades after RIM was formed and began its activities, we have
accumulated much experience. The struggles with the class enemy and also the
two-line struggles have provided us with valuable and precious experience and
documents for a better and higher understanding of the communist movement.
The present
situation of the Maoists and the communist movement as a whole and the internal
development of RIM and its parties and organisations, in parallel with
developments on the world scale and in the region, show that the damage caused
by the proletariat's loss of political power in China was far greater than what
many communists assumed. We still feel the weight of the loss of proletarian
political power and the subsequent crisis of the international communist
movement. The evidence is right before our eyes: the absence of communist
leadership in many struggles and movements in the region and the world, and the
rise of Islamic fundamentalism and backward thinking..
The necessities
presented by this situation are clearer than ever. It is also clear that to
respond to this situation and overcome the crisis, we cannot rely on the
ready-made theories of the past, on dogmatism and lazy thinking. Yet some
people are hanging onto that thinking and stubbornly opposing, as hard as they
can, those who are trying to make a breakthrough and find a way out of the
present situation. Our experience tells us that our science should be
developed. It needs a development that can improve our understanding and take
communism to a higher level, rupturing from its incorrect aspects and making a
leap in understanding, and adopting a much more correct line relative to past
thinking.
The necessity
for this was emphasized by the setback of the Maoists in Peru and Nepal
The
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA China
Bob Avakian has
made an important and precious effort to bring the revolutionary theories and
thoughts of Mao out from under the rubble of revisionism and nationalism. He
has opposed the tendency to conceive of Maoism as "communism for the third
world countries" or reduce Mao to a nationalist and military leader. He
also tried to expose those who misuse Mao’s theories to justify nationalism,
revisionism and social democracy, and the reactionary unity and alliances
so-called Maoists made with the pretext of applying Mao's united front.
The new
synthesis of Bob Avakian is necessary for making revolution and continuing the struggle
for communism. Revolutionaries and Maoist parties should take a responsible
attitude in considering this synthesis.
The need to
rupture from the dominant line in the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan
Serious
questions have been raised by the C(M)PA leadership's response to recent
developments in the communist movement, and its hasty, explicitly hostile
opposition to the idea that our science needed to further develop, and in
particular, to the new synthesis of communism by Bob Avakian. In justifying
that hostility, it exhibited an incorrect understanding of Maoism, despite its
claim of defending it. Here we will briefly refer to some points regarding that
understanding. We will examine them more thoroughly in the future.
Mao's
understanding of the class struggle under the dictatorship of the proletariat
in China
During that
period Mao grappled with real contradictions and obstacles to achieving a
communist society. It was not possible, he said, to leave the problems of
communist society to the future. To get to that society, we have to start to
deal with those contradictions now. He stood firm against lines within the
Communist Party of China that sought to make stages absolute and argued that
the democratic revolution had to be consolidated before dealing with the
problems and contradictions of socialism and the path to communism. In sum, the
lessons of the experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat, especially as
regards the path to a communist society, have important application for us at
this very moment. They are not something only for the future.
The C(M)PA's
understanding of Maoism should be examined in this light. The first question in
this regard is why such an important aspect of Maoism has been so absent from
the line, politics and even literature of this party? As if there were no Mao
or great struggles after the 1950s, or as if all that had nothing to do with
this party. Is that an accident or does it represent a certain orientation –
one that makes two sections out of Maoism and pays attention only to the part
they think is related to them while ignoring other extremely important aspects.
Or, finally, is it because they think we shouldn't concern ourselves with these
issues since the stage of revolution at the moment is
"national-democratic" – as if each stage had to be consolidated
before considering other aspects of Maoism, which we are supposed to take up
when they become "relevant" for us.
This is exactly
the same kind of outlook that Mao waged struggle against. The launching and
waging of a people’s war has everything to do with applying Mao’s achievements
in the socialist period and cannot be separated from that. Mao’s struggles
during the period of the dictatorship of proletariat are more relevant for us
now than ever. We need them to understand the world we are fighting for and
chart a more correct path to get there. That understanding of our goal will be
decisive in determining the character of our struggle today. Without that
understanding, we will become disoriented, as many others have already.
Along with some
other parties and organisations who call themselves Maoists, particularly
nationalists in the oppressed countries, the C(M)PA have presented a particular
understanding of Maoism that reduces it to people’s war. They judge all
political forces by whether they wage people's war or armed struggle – they see
the relevance of Maoism only to the stage of new democratic revolution and
people's war (National Democratic revolution and national people's and
revolutionary war according to C[M]PA)
in the oppressed countries. In their view, communism and the
communist line do not play an important role in that stage of revolution.
For example, the
C(M)PA argues that Bob Avakian's new synthesis is wrong and of no value because
he has not led a people's war or armed struggle, and therefore he should stand
behind those who have. Consequently, the C(M)PA considers the lines
of Prachanda and Gonzalo better because they have led a people's war, and it is
not that important that they presented compromising and revisionist theories.
It was only when Prachanda and Bhattarai abandoned people's war that the C(M)PA
acknowledged their deviations. The fact that the leaders of the Nepal Nepal
Their respect
for Mao and his theories was based on Mao's theories for national liberation
and military line in an oppressed country. But they never understood that his
theories served the world revolution and the goal of communism and the
emancipation of humanity from all exploitation and oppression. To separate
Mao's struggle before seizing political power from his subsequent struggles
when the proletariat held political power in China China
The reduction of
Mao's great contributions to dialectical materialism to little more than the
application of the concept of "principle contradiction” and "alliance
with non-principle enemies" is an underlying reason for that orientation.
That's why C(M)PA has been attracted to armed revisionism and particularly to
armed religious movements, in other words, jihadists and fundamentalists.
This is evident
from the fact that Mao's most important battles for communism have no place in
this party's literature and teachings.
The C(M)PA
concludes that the Manifesto of the RCP is non-Maoist or "post-MLM"
because the number of times the document uses the term Marxism-Leninism-Maoism
is less than they think required. Maoism, for them, is reduced to how many time
you say certain words. (See the resolution of the fourth plenum of the
C(M)PA central committee, 23 August 2009. Subsquent citations are from the same
source.)
When this party
calls the mention of the final goal of emancipating humanity mere bourgeois
humanism and confuses the means with the goals of emancipating humanity, that
shows how little they understand the struggle for communism
When this party
calls "the continuation of the revolution under socialism" as
"the moderation of the dictatorship of proletariat", this shows their
understanding of socialism.
When this party
assesses the new synthesis of communism as a greater danger to the Maoist
movement than Prachanda-Bhattarai revisionism, they show their lack of
understanding of the difference between communism and revisionism, or
deliberately distort it.
******
It is now timely
and necessary to sum up the experience of the communist movement over more than
a century, upholding valuable achievements and relying on the method of
dialectical materialism to deepen our understanding and take the science of
communist revolution to a higher level. This science will develop, just like
any other branch of science dealing with the laws of nature and society. But
some people react with stubborn dogmatism, turning a blind eye to a changing
and developing world and ignore the need for an advance in our ideology and
understanding. They refuse to see the importance of the new synthesis of
communism by Bob Avakian and his contribution to such an approach. This hostile
opposition to the new synthesis would mean imprisoning ourselves in a
semi-religious ideology.
We are not
surprised that those who have made a religion out of communism object to
Avakian's approach. Turning communism and Maoism into a religion and insisting
on the past mistakes means draining communism of its essence, i.e., dialectical
materialism. Such forces will not and cannot lead a real revolution in our society
because they do not understand its real goals, and, in the final analysis, will
strengthen the reactionary fundamentalists. Because of this understanding and
orientation, some so-called Maoists have been increasingly sunk into struggles
and armed struggles without a communist leadership, including struggles under
the leadership of reactionary forces. They have been increasingly influenced by
nationalism or the dominant thinking in their own region, such as Islamic
fundamentalism. Unfortunately the harm that such a line inflicts doesn't end
there. We are well aware of the history of such a line in Afghanistan
We have a duty
to take a stand against those who want to turn the essence of the teachings of
the great communist Mao Tsetung upside down and use that as a justification to
spread the seeds of nationalism and unity and alliances with fundamentalists
and reactionaries linked to the U.S.
The U.S.
In sum
The world has
undergone many changes since the revisionist coup in China Peru and Nepal Afghanistan
In such a
situation, the C(M)PA, with its stubborn insistence on dogmato-revisionism, has
taken an approach against such a development, an approach that spreads an
incorrect, bourgeois-democratic understanding of Maoism, an understanding that
reduces Maoism to armed struggle and coalitions and forming a united front with
reactionary and fundamentalist forces. This will also have a destructive effect
on its approach to the woman question and patriarchy, national oppression and
nationalism, and to bourgeois-feudal fundamentalists. It will influence
organisational questions and methods of struggle as a whole. In fact, it has
already had those effects.
Given the
differences on this issues and their ideological-political roots, the
continuation of our work with C(M)PA has become impossible. That would put us
in contradiction with our basic principles and beliefs, i.e., dialectical
materialism.
We have already
made efforts to wage principled struggle with the incorrect line of this party.
However, these efforts were stubbornly countered by the leadership, which have
deepened their deviations.
Consequently, we
are hereby announcing our split from the C(M)PA in order to continue our
struggle against the world imperialist system and its rulers, for the total
liberation from imperialism and the overthrow of the local reactionary rulers
appointed by the imperialists, as well as the fundamentalist Taliban, who are
part of the ruling class and represent the same production relations, even if
they have not yet been allowed to fully participate in political power. We are
doing so to continue the struggle for the goal of communism, a society free of
oppression and exploitation. We will continue our revolutionary activities as a
group of revolutionary communists of Afghanistan
In the last 167
years the communist movement that started with the publication of the Communist
Manifesto has achieved great things and reached great heights. Its
liberating experiences and horizons have repeatedly found a place in the heart
of the masses in all corners of the world. The communist ideology and
methodology have the power and potential to unite the broad sections of toiling
masses.
There is ground
for communism's resurgence. This is the only ideology that can put an end to
the long years of oppression and exploitation under imperialism. This is the
only ideology that can guide us to put an end to religious wars, ethnic wars
and the male chauvinist and patriarchal oppression of women in different forms,
of which the oppression of women in our country is a horrendous example. Most
importantly, only this ideology can guide us to put an end to class
exploitation and class differences and build a new world free of exploitation
and oppression. Communist ideology has that potential power because it has a
scientific basis. Inspired by the communist spirit, we have been determined to
struggle on this road and, for that end, we will fight with all that is in our
power.
- A group of
revolutionary communists of Afghanistan
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