Editorial Staff of Class Position in the international meeting in Paris about 68’s rebellions

in the name of the Editorial Staff of Class Position we welcome this seminary on occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the struggles in 1968. We salute the efforts of the maoist Communist Party of France and proletari communisti to organize this activity and warmly extend our revolutionary greetings to the various international delegations.

50 years ago, turmoil that swept over Europe sparking fierce mass struggles and, later on, a raising of the level in the application of revolutionary violence. For it is an important discussion within the International Communist Movement and we were particularly asked to do so, our contribution is aimed to elaborate on the question of revolutionary violence in its highest form, that is to say People’s War. The struggle to uphold defend and apply marxism-leninism-maoism on this matter in the FRG has recently advanced, as a lengthy document on this matter was published by the Editorial Staff of Class Position to develop critics towards hoxhaist misconceptions within the revolutionary movement. We consider it of utmost importance to impose Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, as the sole guidance and command of the International Communist Movement on the path of the Proletarian World Revolution. Any doubts or revisionist deviations aimed at distorting the nature of People’s War must be exposed and firmly cast aside.

The founders of our Ideology, Marx and Engels, analysed that since the emergence of class society violence has been “the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one.” and that “The working classes would have to conquer the right to emancipate themselves on the battlefield” And Engels further stated that “The emancipation of the proletariat, too, will have its particular military expression, it will give rise to a specific, new method of warfare. Cela est clair.” the omnipotence of revolutionary violence is crystal clear as Chairman Mao states that Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

No Communist Party in an imperialist country has ever waged People’s War. For those who are planning to initiate People’s War in an imperialist country, we have to first grasp, what we are actually talking about. There can be made no advance in the application of the People’s War if there remains uncertainty about its aspects and principles. In the end, if you do not establish what People’s War is, how will you apply it? Hence, to develop a cohesive comprehension of this matter, we base ourself on the experience and developments of the Communist Party of Peru, who contributed in systematising and clarifying the universality of People’s War. The People’s War is the military theory of the international proletariat; in it are summarized, for the first time in a systematic and complete form, the theoretical and practical experience of the struggles, military actions, and liberation wars waged by the proletariat, and the prolonged experience of the people’s armed struggle and especially of the incessant wars in China. It is waged to gain victory in the new-democratic, socialist and cultural revolution; for the conquest of power. It is lead by the vanguard of the proletariat, the militarized Communist Party based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism in the respective country.

We have to concretize that, that means developing approaches to a military line, what, above all, has to be driven by the reconstituted Communist Party in this country. The military line is the law that determines People’s War for the conquest and the maintenance of power. It consists of three elements:

1. The People‘s War, which in our specific case isn’t a unified People‘s War, because the New Power will only be built in the cities, while at the countryside only operational points will happen.

2. The construction of the revolutionary armed forces, which in our specific case is a Red Guerrilla Army, with the special feature of the incorporation of the militias to advance to the sea of armed masses.

3. The strategy and tactics expressed by the enemy’s encircling and extermination campaigns and our counter-operations of encirclement and annihilation, which must be specified by the application of political and military plans. Those have political strategy and military strategy, they concretize in campaigns with specific content.

Many a time we heard that People’s War would not be applicable in the imperialist countries for one reason or another. But no evidence for this has yet been presented. Instead, a look at the four fundamental aspects of People’s War and their concretization for the Peruvian reality made by the CPP shows that they are also very valid for the reality in the imperialist countries, if one not attempts to mechanically copy them.

The Communist Party of Peru writes:

1) The ideology of the proletariat, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism that must be specified in a guiding thought—therefore we base ourselves on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought, primarily the latter;

2) The need for the Communist Party of Peru that leads the People’s War;

3) The Pe0ple’s War is specified as a peasant war that follows the road of surrounding the cities from the countryside; and

4) Support Bases or the New Power, the construction of the Support Bases, which is the essence of the path of surrounding the cities from the countryside.

1. Apply Maoism! The need for a creative application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, (today with the contributions of the Chairman Gonzalo, Gonzalo Thought) on the specific conditions, developing specific ideas for a specific country.

2. The leadership of the Communist Party, a militarized Communist Party.

3. People‘s War is war of the masses.

4. Establishment of the New Power. The main aspect of the revolutionary war. We have to destroy the enemy to create the new. Generate solutions to the problems that change reality.

1. Hence, to understand the universal character of People’s War, the questions of the Ideology, the Party, the role of the masses and the New Power must be further discussed.

The question of ideology ranks first, because only through the consistent application of the ideology of our class the way to victory of the proletarian revolution is secured. Thereby, the important thing is the application to the existing conditions of the respective country. While for the parties in the oppressed nations the democratic revolution is on the agenda, for us in the imperialist countries it is the socialist revolution. But that doesn’t imply that there is an ideology for the oppressed nations and one for the imperialist. The proletariat is a worldwide class and therefore has only one ideology.

By applying our ideology to the class struggle in a specific, a guiding thought that systematizes the laws of the class struggle of the country, is evolved. We can see in history that even if the Communists had a program and a general political line and excellent conditions for the development of the revolution, they failed to live up to their responsibility to the proletariat and peoples of the world, because they didn’t solve the specific problems of the revolution in the respective country by going beyond the general forms. There is a very significant example in Germany, where the leadership of the — by that time – second largest Communist Party in the world, with its own clandestine and highly developed military apparatus, didn’t go beyond the genera guidelines of the Communist International and didn’t creatively use Marxism to solve new problems. So it failed to initiate and maintain the revolutionary armed struggle.

2. The question of the party is the question of the organization of our class. It unites the best children of our class. The party must always carry the rifles, never repent, otherwise the revolution gets lost. Every member of the Communist Party must be a combatant and must be able to lead the revolutionary war in practice and theory.

When talking about a militarized Communist Party we also have to understand the meaning of the concept of militarization. The militarization of the party describes the amount of all adjustments and accommodations that must be made in order to be able to lead the People’s War under all conditions. In this regard, “the concentric construction of the three instruments of the Party and in synthesis it is summarized in what Chairman Gonzalo teaches: “The Party is the axis of everything, it leads the three instruments in an all-round way, its own construction, it absolutely leads the army and the new State as a joint dictatorship aiming toward the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Before the initiation of the People’s War, everything serves to initiate it, and when it is initiated, everything serves to develop it. Likewise, in the imperialist nations. The Marxist-Leninist-Maoists in the imperialist nations do not wait for the People‘s War in the oppressed nations. The Marxist- Leninist-Maoists develop revolutionary practice in perspective of the People‘s War in their Country, putting proletarian internationalism always in the first place to serve the world revolution.

3. People‘s War is a war of the masses and there are masses in the imperialist countries, too. In the oppressed nations, mainly poor peasants under the leadership of the proletariat, are the main force of the revolution. In our situation in the imperialist countries, this is the proletariat, and especially its deepest and widest masses, being the main force of the revolution, on which we must rely. It’s not the question of encircling the cities from the country here, but of urban work, while paying attention to the difference between large, medium and small cities.

In the People’s War the popular masses are the decisive factor and if there are comrades armed with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, then the problem of weapons can be solved quite simply. “The Masses are the Makers of History” isn’t an empty mantra, in the revolutionary war it very clearly becomes reality. The question of whether or not the revolutionary war can exist in the imperialist countries is a question of the politicization, mobilization, organization and arming of the masses. Only with the support of the masses will the army, led by the Party, be able to wage and perpetuate the revolutionary war. There is enough evidence and experience of the international proletariat and peoples of the world, proving that it’s possible to conduct revolutionary war in the imperialist and urban areas, that it’s possible to carry out armed actions in cities for a long time.

The rich and numerous experiences of the partisans during the Second World War especially in France and Italy, with the struggles developed for example by the Groups of Patriot Action under the leadership of the Communist Party of Italy, show how armed actions in cities can be developed for a long time.

So the question is, how do the masses win, how do the masses organize? This leads us to the problem of the „three with“. This means that the communists must live, work and fight with the deepest and broadest masses. Every communist must have the opportunity at their home area to connect with the masses, to participate in their struggles and to provide to their struggles with orientation, to show direction. Everywhere they have to promote the initiative of the masses. To realize the „three with“ means to actually apply the principle of dedicating the whole life of the Revolution. Who really implements the „three with“, knows that the deepest and widest masses are much more the single mothers on the outskirts than the young men with pit bull in the neighborhood. \/Vho really implements the „three with“ knows that building a proletarian feminist mass organization is much more important than a rap video with masculine poses. Who really implements the „three with“, builds no youth gang, but the party, the army and the front. For the masses, the communists must be normal. It must be normal for the masses to see the red flag wave and the hammer and sickle glint.

Each class has always brought forth its own form of waging war, and its own strategy. And always, the superior strategy has defeated the inferior strategy, and the new class always has the superior strategy and that’s what people’s war is. There is evidence to prove this. There are military analysts who put it like this: communists, when they have applied their principles, have never lost a war; they have only lost wars when they have not applied their principles.

4. Areas of the New Power or base areas aren’t synonymous with a „liberated area“ in the sense that the reaction is no longer able to enter these areas. It’s the question of the fluidity of the People‘s War, it’s not about conquering and holding territories, but about establishing forms of the New Power, so to regulate the lives of the people.

During the People’s War, the revolutionary forces destroy the living power of the enemy following the basic principal to preserve one‘s own forces and destroy the enemy forces. Where the enemy was decisively defeated, the New Power is built with the revolutionary army as its backbone to destroy the old power.

You can’t destroy the enemy without building your own strength out of inferiority and building the New Power. In the contradiction of construction (with its core, the new power) and destruction (of the old state) the construction is the main issue! The construction of the New Power is therefore the heart of the People‘s War. If one handles this contradiction correctly, then the People‘s War is invincible, because the objective conditions are on the side of the people.

In the imperialist countries it can be assumed that, above all, this work must concentrate on the proletarian neighbourhoods of the cities. If in such a neighborhood the work has developed so far that one begins to regulate the life in the quarter and to make the life of the masses as good as possible, that does not mean that the old state was smashed. Here it is necessary to mobilize the masses and to create a movement. Otherwise there is the danger of becoming a complement to the old state and developing social work.

There is one important limitation in our article. We do not expand more specifically upon our investigation and analysis of the armed struggle in Germany and the armed struggles in Europe.

And this, of cause, is a strong limitation for the article. We will let all the comrades know through the proper channels what we have advanced in this regard.

Unite under Maoism!

Death to revisionisml

Alé nuveaux partisan! / Forward the New Partisans!

Editorial Staff of Class Position

June 2018

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