Fly the reddish flag of the Paris Commune as a weapon of combat

Common International Declaration:

Posted on the site of Communist Party of Ecuador - Red Sun:

To see the declaration in Spanish click here.

Today, March 18, the international proletariat and the peoples of the world celebrate the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the heroic Paris Commune. It is the first attempt of the proletariat to storm the skies, it gave rise to the first workers' republic in history. Ten days after the popular uprising, the new revolutionary government declared the independence of the Commune from the old bourgeois power based in Versailles.

It is the heroism of the commoners who, holding power in the hands of the proletarian masses for 71 days in Paris, made known to humanity a new form of State: the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Karl Marx, on May 30, 1871, two days after the last fighters of the Commune succumbed to the superiority of the enemy's forces, pointed out the universal-historical scope of the experience of the Commune, thus: that “ the Commune was ... . the political form finally discovered to carry out within it the economic emancipation of work ”(The civil war in France, work by Marx read on May 30, 1871 before the General Council of the International Workers Association - AIT) .

This practical experience with its antecedent of the February Revolution of 1848, meant a leap in the understanding of the laws of the revolution, which Marx defined with these words: “ The Commune has shown, above all, that` the working class cannot simply take possession of the existing state machine and set it in motion for your own ends' ”(Marx and (Friedrich ) Engels Foreword to the German Edition of the Communist Party Manifesto published in 1872).

The work of the Commune, according to Engels, “it was to blow up the old state power and replace it with a new and truly democratic one… In reality, the state is nothing more than a machine for the oppression of one class by another, the same in the democratic republic as under the monarchy; and in the best of cases, it is an evil that is transmitted hereditarily to the triumphant proletariat in its struggle for class domination. The victorious proletariat, just as the Commune did, cannot but immediately amputate the worst sides of this evil, while a future generation, educated in new and free social conditions, can get rid of all this old junk of the State. Lately, the words "dictatorship of the proletariat" have once again plunged the Social Democratic Philistine into holy horror. Well then, gentlemen, Do you want to know what face this dictatorship presents? Look at the Paris Commune: here is the dictatorship of the proletariat!” (F. Engels, Introduction to Marx's“ The Civil War in France ”, London on the twentieth anniversary of the Paris Commune, March 18, 1891).

Despite the glorious and implacable struggle of the Parisian proletariat to defend proletarian power, they were defeated by the forces of Versailles reaction at the service of the bourgeoisie, the landlords, the owners and all the thieves, all the parasites that the old society keeps in its bosom. The genocidal barbarism of the bourgeoisie would be revealed in broad daylight during the "bloody week" (May 21-28, 1871).

The end of the Paris Commune in May 1871, far from signifying a simple defeat of the working class, was a historical event of great significance, "the glorious herald of the new society", which forever marked the struggle of the international proletariat. . The Paris Commune is the first great event in the process of the World Proletarian Revolution, the first time that the proletariat took power and therefore, the position adopted on it and its just balance, separates Marxism from revisionism.

We must not only celebrate this great event, we must study it in the light of the all-powerful ideology of the proletariat, all-powerful because it is true, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism. We must start from the imperishable work of the great Titan Karl Marx, “The Civil War in France”, with the numerous theoretical and practical contributions, mainly practical, that since 1871 have continuously developed our ideology, politics and communist organization. The contributions of the other titans, (VI) Lenin and Chairman Mao (Tsetung), but also Great Engels, Comrade (Joseph) Stalin and Chairman Gonzalo, allow us to place the Paris Commune in the burning news of the new era and the third moment of the process of the revolution. world proletarian,

This epoch, marked by the collapse of imperialism, which generates tensions and riots throughout the world, is the moment of the strategic offensive of the world proletarian revolution. Chairman Gonzalo proposes that the process of world revolution to wipe imperialism and reaction from the face of the earth has three moments: 1st strategic defensive; 2nd strategic balance; and 3rd strategic offensive of the world revolution. The Commune opened the first moment of the strategic defense of the revolution, which, applying the law of contradiction to everything, has as its counterpart the offensive of the counterrevolution.

Karl Marx considers that the main merit of the commoners is that they tried for the first time in history to create a proletarian state. It brilliantly establishes that the working class cannot simply seize the existing state machine and set it in motion for its own needs, but must dismantle it. Lenin pointed out that the Commune was a brilliant example of how the proletariat " knows how to unanimously fulfill the democratic tasks that the bourgeoisie only knew how to proclaim " (Lenin, Teachings of the Commune). In analyzing the social and economic measures taken by the Parisian workers in "The Civil War in France", Marx emphasized the idea that, however timid these measures were, their main tendency was the expropriation of the expropriators.

It was taking Marx's teachings on the Paris Commune that the Russian proletariat, under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party and Lenin, triumphed with the Great Socialist Revolution of October 1917, building the Soviet Power, the dictatorship of the proletariat, as the true continuation of the Commune. The Soviets were the highest form of organization, through which the dictatorship of the proletariat led by Great Lenin and Comrade Stalin was erected, based on the worker-peasant alliance, uniting the most backward and dispersed working and exploited masses. , thereby ensuring the uninterrupted passage from the bourgeois-democratic revolution to the socialist revolution.

When the masses, led by Chairman Mao Tsetung and under the leadership of the Communist Party, seized power in China in 1949, it was the experience of the Commune synthesized by Marx and developed by Lenin that served as the basis for the immediate development of the socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat with the People's Republic of China.

And later, during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GRCP), the great and highest milestone of the world proletarian revolution, were the Revolutionary Committees of the Three in One, the new organs of Power that were constituted as the continuators of the experience. of the Commune.

The Three-in-One Revolutionary Committees, originated in the tenacious struggle initiated and led by Chairman Mao Tsetung against capitalist restoration, were an indispensable instrument of the (GRCP), through which millions of masses took over the affairs of the State., the political, military, cultural, production problems, etc., and overthrew the representatives of the bourgeoisie who had entrenched themselves in the Party, the People's Liberation Army and the State, preventing capitalist restoration in China for 10 years.

During the Commune we have the armed confrontation between two states of radically different types, expressions of the new and the old world. This is the heart of Power, of all Power, weapons. The Commune affirmed the need for revolutionary violence and showed the force of civil war, establishing the practical test of the Marxist principle, which would be developed by Chairman Mao, according to which " power is born from the rifle " and that " without an army popular, the people will have nothing . The "specter that haunts Europe" has become a real threat. Marx points out that “ Paris in arms was the only serious obstacle in the way of the counterrevolutionary conspiracy. Therefore, it was necessary to disarm Paris ”  (Marx, The Civil War in France ). N or only power was conquered by arms, but it was also maintained by revolutionary violence. This first experience showed that we can only conjure up capitalist restoration through violence, which today is people's war and if the class has lost power, it is appropriate to apply the people's war to counter-restore.

Never hand over the cannons of the National Guard, that's what the Communards scream 150 years later!

What does the experience of the Commune tell us about the question of Party leadership? In this regard, in his exchange of correspondence with Kugelmann on April 12, 1871, Marx points out the fatal errors of the commoners: 1) The offensive against Versailles should have been launched immediately, when the enemy was in panic and had not had time to concentrate. your forces. This opportunity was wasted; 2) The Central Committee was too quick to renounce its powers to make way for the Commune.

Marx raises the need for the proletariat to have a unified Party capable of leading it in the tumults of the class struggle. The prevarication of the comuneros divided into various "parties" was fatal for the Commune. Only a unified Party, practicing democratic-centralism, guided by the ideology of the proletariat, has the capacity to wage war fairly and win.

Following the teaching of the Commune, Maoism establishes: that Power is fundamental. A “ power based on an armed force led by the Communist Party, conquered and defended through the people's war! ”  (PCP, On Marxism-Leninism-Maoism) The experience of the Commune, analyzed by Marx, has already confirmed this need, nothing more! Who can deny that the Maoists are the faithful followers of the heroic Communards, except the revisionists and those who disguise Marxism. This need raised by the Commune is expressed daily in our just and unshakable will to reconstitute / constitute the Communist Parties and to prepare / start the people's war. And, in the specific case, of the difficult and complex problems that the People's War in Peru is still going through, to get out of that situation, what corresponds is to reorganize the Party in and for the People's War by crushing the miserable rats the opportunist line of the right, revisionist and capitulationist (LOD). Rats of the LOD, that following the plan of imperialism and reaction, they call for "reconciliation" and implore the forgiveness of the reaction, pretending to make us believe that the "people's war has ended in defeat." Chairman Gonzalo has taught that only one communist will remain, he has the obligation to do it all over again and continue the path of invincible people's war.

" The Civil War in France", a very important political document of the International, armed the proletariat of the entire world with the experience of the Commune and was a brilliant demonstration of the ideological victory of Marxism over all variants of pre-Marxist socialism. " At the end of the first period (1848-1871), a period of storms and revolutions, pre-Marxist socialism dies " (Lenin, Historical vicissitudes of the doctrine of Karl Marx). This brilliant synthesis of the experience of the Commune had special importance in the struggle against the ideologues of the petty bourgeoisie who denied the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

In "The Civil War in France", Marx defined with acute clarity the role of these opportunist elements in the labor movement, showing that the revolutionary labor movement, in its contradictory development and as a direct result of its action, accumulates what Engels will call a "colossal pile of garbage". Every crisis, every moment in which the class struggle deepens, is the moment when we can and must sweep away revisionism and opportunism.

The current gigantic crisis that shakes the world is one of those great moments in which the truth triumphs. Even more so at this time when the crisis of imperialism and bureaucratic capitalism is getting worse all over the world, all the contradictions are becoming more acute and the revolutionary situation is further developing in unequal development around the world, of great activity of the masses, its explosiveness makes shake all reactionaries and their revisionist servants; this is manifested everywhere marching in great explosions never seen before. An objective situation towards which the development of the subjective factor is marching steadily, mainly the process of the Communist Parties, such as Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties, mainly Maoists of a new type, militarized to start the new people's wars. Thus opening a new moment or period of revolutions as part of the new great wave of world proletarian revolution, within the period of "50 to 100 years" in which the strategic offensive of the world revolution is inscribed. Showing that revolution is the main historical and political trend in the world today. This situation determines the tasks, strategy and tactics of the Communist Parties throughout the world.

A reactionary election in the United States would suffice for the false defenders of "true" Maoism, such as Bob Avakian and other leaders, to show their true face to the world proletariat, defending the victory of the reactionary imperialist (Joe) Biden.

From these crises the truth emerges, the "colossal pile of garbage" will be swept away by the action of the proletariat.

Revisionists and opportunists do not want to see that nothing is linear, that everything develops unevenly and that you have to fall to learn to walk. Those who do not accept the immense contribution of the experience of the people's war in Peru, repeating without foundation what the imperialism-reaction-ROL propagates that "the people's war ended in defeat", would have undoubtedly spit on the experience of the Commune. Despite the defeat of the Commune, Marx said that " The working-class Paris, with its Commune, will forever be celebrated as the glorious herald of a new society." Their martyrs will lock themselves in the great heart of the working class ”(Marx, The civil war in France).

As Lenin pointed out in The State and the Revolution: “ Although the revolutionary movement of the masses failed in its goal, Marx saw in it a historical experience of enormous importance, a step forward in the universal proletarian revolution, a practical effort more important than hundreds of programs and arguments. Analyzing this experience, drawing lessons in tactics from it, and putting his theory to the test - this is the task that Marx set himself. "

We true Marxists learn from every experience and affirm that the People's War in Peru is the first act of the strategic offensive of the world proletarian revolution. Let the imperialists, reactionaries and their servants of the ROL continue with their dreams of hyenas, of the hoax of "the peace letters"; because neither Chairman Gonzalo, nor the PCP, nor the true communists, nor the PLA fighters, nor the masses of the New Power never surrendered their arms, nor did they accept the CIA-Yankee “peace accords”. Like the comuneros, they persist in the people's war.  The demoralization of the working class in the latter case would have been a much greater disgrace than the undoing of any number of "leaders."

The complex and difficult problems that the people's war entered Peru were mainly due to the betrayal of the revisionist and capitulationist rats of the ROL, who with the help of the reaction infiltrated the party committees and resorted to launching bases against the leadership, to surrender the leaders who persisted, given the failure of their call to surrender their arms and end the people's war. The ROL plotted all of the above in exchange for the forgiveness of the exploiters and oppressors, the executioners of the revolution, denying Maoism, Chairman Gonzalo, Gonzalo Thought and the People's War. Ridiculous characters who, in the hands of the reaction, surrendered body and soul to it, pretended the story that they were negotiating with the reaction. What could they negotiate? Nothing!

Maoism, defined by Chairman Gonzalo, has been validated by facts and fire since the beginning of the People's War in Peru, just as Marxism was validated by the blood of the commoners. Both the Peruvian communists and the comuneros demonstrated their historical initiatives and the self-denial of which Marx speaks in "The Civil War in France." At present, the communists in Peru firmly holding on to the Headquarters of Chairman Gonzalo and Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought persist in the task of the general reorganization of the Party to overcome the situation in which the People's War for the arrest of Chairman Gonzalo, in absolute isolation since 1992, and the betrayal of the LOD that was structured in the prisons with the help of the CIA-reaction.

Another principle of the Commune that we must firmly grasp at a time when the reaction tries to mobilize the masses for its imperialist war plans is internationalism. As Marx said, the " flag of the Commune is the flag of the World Republic " is neither more nor less. By appointing a German labor minister and a Pole as head of the defense of Paris, the Commune affirmed to the world that the proletarians of all countries must unite to defeat their enemies.

Chairman Mao said it very well, internationalism is the spirit of communism! From the organizational point of view, the experience of concrete and active support for the Commune by the International Workers' Association (1st International) has sharpened the fight against the anarchist vision of the AIT. Marx and Engels affirmed from the post-Commune IWA congress that the General Council is not a simple information office as the anarchists want, but a true staff of the proletariat. Starting from the Commune, the bourgeoisie takes note of the danger posed by internationally organized workers. This irrational fear will turn to terror after the creation of the Third International after the victorious Great Revolution of October 1917.

In this way, in the present situation, the call of the Communist Parties and Maoist Organizations for the realization of the First International Maoist Unified Conference (CIMU) and give birth to the New International Organization of the Proletariat (NOIP).

The Commune is part of this " epic of the class struggle, " as  President Gonzalo said. It is the proof that " only the class struggle can generate our ideology " and only " the class struggle whose center is politics as the conquest and defense of power for the collapsed class of other powers, only as a research practice, could the class, generating titans of thought and action “.

Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism, shows in daily life its vividness as a continuation of the heroic epic of the proletariat for the emancipation of the human race. It shows even more its full validity in the relentless struggle that the Maoists are waging throughout the world to develop the people's wars in India, Peru, Turkey and the Philippines, start new ones, reconstitute the Communist Parties and launch anew to conquer the heavens.

Today we need to take the initiative, dare to fight, not be afraid to give our blood for the great cause of the world proletarian revolution. Doubt, prevarication, is a fault when the new great wave of the revolution is developing and a new period of revolutions is announced as the positive aspect of the gigantic crisis of imperialism and its son bureaucratic capitalism with the explosions of the masses. We have to live in a time of great storms and great transformations throughout the world. Smash revisionism, unmask opportunism, strengthen ourselves ideologically, because the advance of the RPM means the need to clean up the “garbage heaps”! Report and confront the imperialist wars of prey with people's war. Make the new democratic revolution and the socialist revolution with people's war, as the best way to be prepared in the event of an imperialist world war. To transform, like the Commune, the imperialist war into a civil war of the oppressed classes against their oppressors, into a war for the expropriation of the capitalist class, for the conquest of political power by the proletariat, for the realization of socialism.

Let us be exemplary like the glorious Communards, let us raise the red flag of the world proletarian revolution to Communism with People's War! Let us be faithful to the heroic Communards, uplifting, defending and applying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism!

“ The Paris of the workers, with its Commune, will be eternally exalted as the glorious herald of a new society. Its martyrs have their sanctuary in the great heart of the working class. And history has already nailed its exterminators to an eternal pillory, from which all the prayers of its clergy will not be able to redeem them ”. (Marx, The Civil War in France)

Today only the Maoists fly the red flag of the Commune as a weapon of combat!

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