Hooray for UMIC and the International Communist League!
I take a break now from other work to offer brief positive remarks on a document which has been shared by the journal Communist International - Internacional Comunista. This journal has been somewhat hit or miss in the past- it has recently published a quite poor statement on the situation of the US communist movement (on which I am in agreement with the critiques made by the Network group in the US: firstly that this statement shows failure to investigate, and secondly that it is not counterrevolutionary but revolutionary to denounce criminals against the people), and earlier published “The Ideological Decay of Imperialism” from Klassenstandpunkt, which article is a noxious, bigoted screed. Yet the document “Historical News of the successful Holding of the Unified Maoist International Conference: the International Communist League was founded!” is a good one, and brings news that is indeed wonderful and historic.
Efforts toward a Unified Maoist International Conference were underway for a long time; the first such conference has now occured, bringing with it excellent news of the founding of a new coordinating body of communist Parties and organizations, the ICL. A hearty red salute to this organization!
This document lays out well the historical foundations for the present state of the international communist movement in general, and of the movement toward the current international body- following after the struggles and successes and failures of the three internationals and the RIM- specifically. It also engages in a strong and positive defense of the leadership of comrade Stalin in the Comintern.
This document additionally lays out the ideological foundations for communist-led revolutionary struggle in the world today, and does so overwhelmingly correctly, establishing such foundational principles as the absolute necessity of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as the guiding ideology of the proletariat, the proletariat as the class that must lead history forward in struggle toward communism and the end of class divisions, the reality of imperialism as the defining final stage in development of capitalism in the present moment, the basic fact that the essential goal of the working class and its struggle must be the seizure of material political and economic power to usher in a new world order (a new political-ecomomic mode of production in socialism, and a New State or “New Power” of the revolutionary social order of the Democratic Dictatorship of the Proletariat, building up the power of the working-class majority to propel society toward full-stage communism), and the fundamental thesis that the building of this power for the working class and of this revolutionary new state of the proletariat must occur militantly through People’s War. This document, being at once an announcement of the ICL and an introduction to its political-economic and ideological analysis and line, is correctly in contradiction with many revisionist currents which chip away at the principles of the ICM, such as the erroneous idea that Protracted People’s War is not a universal revolutionary strategy for building up the revolutionary power of the People. It further gives correct credit to Chairman Gonzalo as a Great Leader and Teacher who led the synthesis of the guiding thought of the Chinese revolution into a new third and further-advanced universal stage of Marxist thought, Maoism, and whose leadership helped forge in struggle the guiding thought of Peru’s own revolution, which has contributed further universal lessons.
The document treats on imperialism, the current defining stage of capitalism, and the ways in which the proletarian revolution in each country and its guiding ideology of MLMism must work to resolve the contradictions of imperialist capitalism: the fundamental bourgeoisie↔️proletariat contradiction as well as the principal contradiction between the imperialist countries and the People of the (semi)colonies, and the contradictions of backward semifeudalism and bureaucrat capitalism in the (semi)colonies. In the main its treatment of these issues is good; one critique: it correctly describes the US as the sole hegemonic imperialist superpower, but I feel it could have more clearly addressed the major competing secondary powers, such as the Chinese and Russian imperialists. The analysis of imperialism given here also suggests that the concept of “imperialist blocks” working together is mistaken, because it does not understand that imperialist powers are always in competition with each other (in interimperialist contradiction, per Gonzalo) and any alliances are only temporary. I’ve not heard this idea before and don’t feel I’ve investigated enough to speak to its veracity.
I will close with this: three hearty cheers for the Unified Maoist International Conference and for the International Communist League! Onward in struggle toward socialism and communism! Reproduced below is the list of signatories to this document; they include many great organizations, including the PCP and the TKP/ML who are currently leading People’s Wars. One group, the KRF, has been recipient of some harsh critiques from the Swiss; I think there is some weight to these, and that the aforementioned bad document from Klassenstandpunkt shows some reactionary errors of the German communists, but I am hesitant to trust these accusations wholly because the Swiss CPS(RF) have increasingly acted of late as wreckers and revisionists, slandering the PCP and denying the universal validity of People’s War- and if they can slander the PCP, why not the KRF? In any case I have no doubt that the ICL will have correct lines on issues like queer rights, on which the CPS(RF) and KRF have struggled, since it also includes many other principled organizations who will struggle for correct lines.
SIGNATURES [to “Historical News of the successful Holding of the Unified Maoist International Conference: the International Communist League was founded!”, dated Dec. 26 of this year]:
Committees for the Foundation of the (Maoist) Communist Party of Austria (KG(m)KPÖ)[Austria]
Communist Party of Brazil (P.C.B.) [Brazil]
Red Fraction of the Communist Party of Chile (FRPCCh) [Chile]
Communist Party of Colombia (Red Fraction) (PCC(FR)) [Colombia]
Poder Proletário — M-L-M Party Organization Colombia (PP-OP-MLM) [Colombia]
Communist Party of Equator — Red Sun (PCE-SR) [Ecuador]
Maoist Committee in Finland (MKS) [Finland]
Maoist Communist Party (PCM) [French State]
Committee Red Flag (KRF) [Federal Republic of Germany]
Committee for the Reconstitution of the Communist Party of Mexico (CR-PCM) [Mexico]
Serve the People — Communist League of Norway [Norway]
Communist Party of Peru (PCP) [Peru]
Maoist Communist Party (PCM) [Spanish State]
Communist League of Sweden [Sweden]
Communist Party of Turkey/ Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML) [Turkey]
