Some Current Notes
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
Some Current Notes
On May 20, the comrades of the Communist Party of Colombia (Red Faction) issued a report available in full on the ci-ic.org-website, in these notes we want to highlight the part concerning the role of the Maoists in the current political situation in that country in the framework of the international situation. Per, let us first read their position on the international situation as far as our hill is concerned, about which the report says:
“After the rebellions in Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, the United States, France, Spain and other countries, it is now the turn of Colombia with its third major uprising during the last 3 years. With the new open period of revolutions in the world, the explosiveness of the masses has reached impressive dimensions, while the weakness of imperialism and all reactionaries has become more evident, showing that strategically they are paper tigers and that they are in their deepest crisis since the beginning of the last century. The objective conditions for the advance of the world proletarian revolution (WPR), especially in the Third World countries, have long been ripe for revolution and today more than ever are magnificent. But the main factor that radically changes the situation and differentiates it from other epochs is the unstoppable advance of Maoism and this new great wave of the WPR in which more and more Communist Parties and Organisations are decisively taking up the task of reconstituting Communist Parties where they do not exist and initiating the People’s War or developing those already underway. For this reason we echo the call made in the May Day joint statement by numerous Maoist Parties and Organisations around the world: ‘The masses all over the world are crying out for revolution. It is up to the communists to organise and lead them to express their full transformative capacity so that there will be no force in the world capable of containing them’.”
COLOMBIA: THE ROLE OF THE MAOISTS IN THE ONGOING POPULAR UPRISING
Now let us read what we particularly wanted to highlight from the report:
The role of the Maoists in the development of the class struggle in Colombia is key. As pointed out in the Report of the Communist Party of Colombia (Red Faction), On the Great Uprising of the Colombian People:
“There in the cities where the Maoists have been acting with increasing firmness and intrepidity, the face of the class struggle is rapidly changing, the masses as well as opportunism and reaction notice that a new force radically different from the others has arrived and its presence is not indifferent to anyone. In the midst of the active participation in the class struggle and the intense two-line struggle within it, a new red line has been tempering itself and making important qualitative leaps in its process, advancing the strategic and overdue task of the communists in the country to reconstitute the Communist Party of Colombia in order to initiate and develop the People’s War until the conquest of power for the proletariat and the popular masses. The successful action of the still small but firm Maoist contingent in Colombia is reflected in its increasingly broad call and mobilisation of the masses which during the present situation has aimed at sabotaging the anti-crisis plans of reaction; the valuable education it has been giving to the masses in revolutionary violence, the struggle against opportunism and the need for a protracted struggle with the enemy which will not be resolved definitively in the midst of the present mobilisations; the fierce struggle against right opportunist tendencies (electioneering, bureaucratism and pacifism) and “left” tendencies (adventurism and military caudillismo) within the mass movement; the forging of an ardent and disciplined militancy; the building of an ever broader mass base under its influence and of a solid revolutionary front; the advances in organising and leading larger and larger sections of the masses by linking the struggle for demands by demanding the most basic needs of the people with the struggle for power by educating in the revolutionary perspective as Chairman Gonzalo teaches, etc.
The great task before the true communists is to take an active part in this new wave of popular rebellion by fighting in the streets alongside the people, agitating and propagating the great revolutionary perspective more strongly among the masses, helping the masses to synthesize the lessons gained in the struggle, distinguishing their friends and their enemies as well as the road they must take to conquer their rights, and organizing them under the guidance of Maoism avupg towards the true revolutionary solution to the economic, political and social crisis that the country is going through, thus forging the force that with years of intense work among the masses will be able to confront the old power wielded by the big bourgeoisie and landowners of the country. Ultimately, the responsibility of the Maoists is that this new juncture of the class struggle in the country should serve to raise the level of consciousness of the people and strengthen their organisation, taking concrete steps in the process of building the three instruments (Party, Army and Front) which through People’s War will destroy the old state and its reactionary armed forces, building on their ashes the construction of the new power based on the worker-peasant alliance. For this the revolutionary organisation of the peasant masses under the leadership of the proletariat is fundamental, and for the development of this the communists in the country must work tirelessly.”
More than 150 democratic institutions and personalities express their support to the League of Poor Peasants of Brazil (LCP)
Support for the LCP is growing throughout the country and abroad.
Editorial staff of A Nova Democracia
24 May 2021
The most diverse expressions of solidarity with the League of Poor Peasants (LCP) and repudiation of the attacks by Bolsonaro and generals against the peasant movement are growing exponentially. More than 150 progressive and democratic entities and personalities, including renowned artists and intellectuals, have positioned themselves alongside the just struggle for land.
This striking manifestation of support comes at a time when the anti-popular and warlike actions promoted by the genocidal government are forceful, and in their most atrocious form against the LCP and the Manoel Ribeiro Camp.
This number of signatures, which is growing every day, subscribes to the manifesto Enough massacres against the peasant movement! In defence of the lives of the peasants of the Manoel Ribeiro Camp and the league of poor peasants of Rondônia, proposed by the Brazilian Centre of Solidarity with the Peoples (Cebraspo) and the Brazilian Association of People’s Lawyers (Abrapo).
Among the signatories are the Association of Judges for Democracy, the Brazilian Association for Agrarian Reform, various teachers’ associations, trade unions, teachers and democratic artists such as Vladimir Safatle, Luiz Eduardo Soares, Virgínia Fontes, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Dermeval Saviani, Peter Pál Pelbart, Carlos Latuff, Armando Babaioff, Soraya Ravenle, the renowned Indian professor and democrat Amit Bhattacharyya, and several honest intellectuals from all over the country.
“We, social movements, men and women, citizens of Brazil and other countries, have come to take a firm stand against the threats of Bolsonaro’s government and the generals to promote another massacre in the countryside,” the democrats declare. The manifesto also extends to the defence of the freedom of the four peasants who were arrested in the camp, where under the slogans “Fighting is not a crime”, “Land for those who live and work on it” and “Down with the persecution of the peasant movement”, it shows that those who sign it are on the side of the just popular struggle.
The position issued and reaffirmed by the democrats through the manifesto clearly demarcates the line that separates them from the executioners who are looking for a way to massacre the peasants in order to give the necessary support to the latifundia and seek to criminalise the popular movements.
On the other side of the dispute are the words and actions of Bolsonaro who, through recurring speeches, attacked the LCP, as happened on May 7, at the opening of the bridge over the Madeira River, when he said: “LCP, get ready, it won’t be free, cheap, what are you doing? There is no room for terrorist groups here. We have the means to get them on track and respect the law”. (sic)
Bolsonaro was not the only member of the genocidal government to speak out. Among the Armed Forces High Command (ACFA), the spokesperson for the threat to the peasants was Reserve General and Defence Minister Braga Netto, who on 15 May, during a pro-Bolsonaro rally organised by landowners in Brasilia, stated: “Agro is the strength of that country. The armed forces are there to protect you”.
Read the full article in our New Brazil section.
SHORT NOTES:
On May 17th the International Communist Movement and our class, the international proletariat, celebrated the 41st anniversary of the initiation of the People’s War in Peru by the PCP led by Chairman Gonzalo. The MPP issued a statement on the event, crushing the most evolved form of revisionism that today takes shape in form of the ROL and its parliamentarian cretinist bunch called Movadef:
“The rondero Castillo (Perú Libre), defends the programme of the big bureaucratic bourgeoisie, behind him now lines up the Frente Amplio of the priest Arana and that “New Peru” that is for the old order, of the secretary of Nadine, spouse of the genocidal Humala, who participated in the first round with “Together for Peru” (“the surrogate” of the genocidal Simons Munarro, ex-prime minister of the genocidal Alán García), but also behind Castillo is the revisionist and capitulationist ROL with its Movadef. All of them, promoting the restructuring of the old bureaucratic landlord state to “overcome the generalised crisis”, saviours of the collapse of the state through their vaunted “constituent assembly” and “new constitution”, how would it benefit the people and the nation? Obviously nothing, or have the proletariat, the mainly poor peasantry and the people in general ever benefited from the implementation of these “famous democratic proposals”? Never!”
On May 18th the ICM commemorated the 1973 murder of Ibrahim Kaypakkaya, founder and leader of the TKP/ML that leads the People’s War in Turkey, with a joint international declaration sign buy 14 (so far) parties and organisations. Therein it was stated:
“On the 48th anniversary of the murder of comrade İbrahim KAYPAKKAYA we see once again how important it is to understand and grasp the political leaders and guidance that have achieved a historical breakthrough in their lifetimes and to be inspired by them. Comrades like İbrahim KAYPAKKAYA and similar communists reflect not only the values of one country, but, furthermore, shared values of the international proletariat and are part of our common history. For exactly this reason, their teachings, their ideological positions and their political-practical audacity are considered part of the collective memory of the communists. In our persistent struggles, they continue their historical roles as guides.”
We, the editorial staff of ic-ci, were able to publish an article from the last issue of the magazin “People’s March” from India “PLGA – The ‘Life line’ of People’s State Power” in English and Spanish. This article once again clarifies:
“The situation is turning more and more in favor of world revolution. The proletarian revolutionary forces across the world are in the process of formation, consolidation and in some countries like ours and Philippines, Peru, Turkey etc. are waging people’s war and establishing organs of state power through guerilla war under the leadership of Maoist parties.”
The three articles are an expression that the international proletariat is moving forward, advancing and uniting through its parties and organisations. A fact we unreservedly applaud.
NOTES ON TWO REPORTS OF THE U.S. IMPERIALISTS ON SOCIAL-IMPERIALIST CHINA
The US imperialists are stepping up provocations over Taiwan and are pressing on all other fronts against Chinese social-imperialism in order to bring about the necessary internal changes that will bankrupt it like the revisionist former Soviet Union.
For their part, the Chinese social-imperialists in the contest over Taiwan are using a growing military threat and encirclement, which together with the internal action they are taking on the island of Taiwan, to push for a change of government in favour of talks for its “peaceful reunification”. Analysts say by applying the tactic of “surrendering the square without fighting”.
On the subject outlined in the preceding paragraphs, today, we will only briefly refer to two articles that appeared on the website of the imperialist institute “Athlantic Council”, because they bring us closer to better considering the real objectives of the US imperialists vis-à-vis their rival the Chinese social-imperialists. Soon we will deal with the correlation of forces between the single hegemonic imperialist superpower, US imperialism, and its rival, Chinese social-imperialism.
The reading of the above-mentioned articles leads us to think that the US imperialists want to increase the provocations with regard to Taiwan while maintaining pressure on all other fronts so that China agrees to negotiate the further opening up or financial liberalisation in favour of the US and other imperialist powers in collusion and struggle, which would have its implications, because the external pressure would be added to the empowerment of the reactionary demo-liberal faction, based on private monopolies, within social-imperialist China. This would increase the struggle within China between the bureaucratic fascist faction and the bourgeois-democratic faction. At a time when the bureaucratic faction has been repressing the other in view of its growing economic power, as has happened with the repression of the owner of Huawei, Ali Baba and other private internet monopolies, moreover, it is now known that all private companies must submit to the control of the Chinese revisionist party.
For their part, as we introduced at the beginning, the Chinese social-imperialists led by the revisionist Xi, in the contest over Taiwan, are using an increasing threat and military encirclement to join the internal action they are taking inside the island of Taiwan to push for political changes that will lead to a change of government in the next elections on that island in favour of talks for its “peaceful reunification”. Analysts say, applying the tactic of “surrendering the square without fighting”.
The first article of “The Athlantic Council” refers to a report of the US intelligence community, which is designed to create favourable public opinion in the USA itself and internationally in order to increase the pressure and provocations on China to take further steps in the implementation of its plan.
Publicly they claim to apply a military plan of containment against China so that it does not advance in its plan to conquer hegemony in the Western Pacific to the detriment of US allies and free navigation in the area, when in reality they have encircled China and directly threaten its defences (its so-called two defensive circles) in such a way that they are in a position to eliminate its capacity to respond, a situation that has forced China to increase its arms race. Moreover, the US is further arming Taiwan, “the rebel island”, an island of China, in order to increase military tension. Moreover, they intervene in China’s internal affairs in the case of Hong Kong.
They propagate that China has a greater military capability in the area than the USA. This is not so much the case, because the number of ships, etc. is mainly armaments bought or based on second-rate technology provided by their “allies” the Russian imperialists. Which as you can see only gives them the second class ones, not the most advanced ones, as you can read in the various self-styled “Peace Research” institutes.
Trade war and sanctions to get the Chinese revisionists to negotiate with the US imperialists and open up more to “free market” modalities, thus accelerating the trend away from the fascist modalities of the present regime to bourgeois-democratic modalities. This would imply the further financial opening of China, which would necessarily mean in the long run a loss of economic control of the bureaucracy over the economy of social-imperialist China, which would lead to a definite bankruptcy of revisionism in China as happened with the social-imperialist USSR, where revisionism went bankrupt following this path without a world war, as it did with the revisionism of the Second International.
We give an account of the two articles of “The Athlantic Council”, the first one only in summary and the second one in full because of its importance, below you can read them.
1st Article, 16 April 2021, whose English title is: Reading between the lines of the US intelligence community’s latest reports, New Atlanticist; by Mathew Burrow, where it is realised that:
“In recent days, the US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) has released two key reports: its Annual Threat Assessment (ATA) and the National Intelligence Council’s quadrennial analysis of longer-term trends and scenarios, Global Trends 2040 (GT 2040). …
This year ATA labels China as a close competitor, while GT 2040 foresees a possible military clash between the United States and China. …
This year’s ATA highlights efforts by Beijing, Moscow, Tehran and Pyongyang “to promote their interests at the expense of the United States and its allies”. The decision to lump several different countries working against the US together in the opening lines of the ATA suggests that they are engaged in some coordinated effort, although the rest of the text never really elaborates on that theme. …
There are other shortcomings in the ATA format, which is structured as a long list of threats and leaves little room to explore how the threats combine with each other. Instead, the ATA seems to be designed to let the public know the priority of the threats in the IC’s mind. … But there is little in the ATA that leans forward, and virtually nothing about US capabilities to deal with these threats. Of course, that is a matter for policymakers, including Congress.”
2nd article, by Harlan Ullman, entitled: China’s strengths should not blind us to its weaknesses, writes among other things:
“Conventional wisdom, shared by members of the US Congress of both parties and the Biden administration’s recent Interim National Security Strategic Guidance, regards China as the “pace threat” and America’s strongest competitor.
The reasons for the first review seem compelling. China’s economy can outperform the US economy. China can be at the forefront of game-changing technologies such as artificial intelligence and 5G. China has deployed a modern military with a navy on track to have 500 ships, with many patrol boats and small craft (although substantially larger than the US Navy’s fleet of approximately three hundred ships, it is not as capable). China has become more aggressive in its region in pursuit of its objectives. Questions arise about Taiwan’s future integrity as an independent state. And the Belt and Road Initiative has become a multi-trillion Renminbi programme to gain access and influence through overseas investments and loans. Taken together, these factors argue that China is poised to challenge the United States as a world leader in virtually every category.
However, is this a complete assessment of China? The answer is no because it lacks a balanced analysis and assessment of both strengths and weaknesses. Consider the following historical comparison.
This October, China will celebrate the seventy-second anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. In November 1989, approximately seventy-two years after the beginning of the Russian Revolution that led several years later to the formation of the USSR: the Berlin Wall fell, initiating the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Seventy-two years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, no one suggests that China is close to collapse. But among the most obvious examples of its growing power and influence lie unmistakable weaknesses and problems. Unless understood, given that the collapse of the Soviet Union came as a surprise, China may also be subject to enormous internal pressures and an increasingly controlling party structure that risks alienating substantial segments of the population.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under the administration of President Xi Jinping appears to have abandoned the consensus government policies of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and a high degree of economic freedom crucial to creating a modern, advanced society. Repression of hyper-rich Chinese entrepreneurs; strict adherence to Marxist-Leninist ideology; the crushing of dissent, whether in Xinjiang, Hong Kong or internally; and the purging of political rivals are not signs of a healthy political system, especially when innovation depends on an entrepreneurial spirit that cannot be dictated by the philosophies of Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin.
More than a hundred thousand large-scale protests a year have been reported in China as people demand more resources in the country and an end to rampant corruption that favours the few rather than the many. A combination of so-called social credits that rate citizens based on their loyalty and creditworthiness, through facial recognition, allows the CCP to exert greater control over Chinese society.
A domestic financial system with huge debt, shadow banking, a potential real estate bubble and the need for significant annual real economic growth to meet expectations of higher living standards pose enormous challenges for the leadership in Beijing. The one-child policy has led to an ageing population, with the ratio of retirees to workers heading in the wrong direction, and substantially more men than women in Chinese society, meaning that many men will not find spouses.
China also lacks viable allies. Still, China has managed to contain the US by reaching a trade and investment agreement with the European Union, which has yet to be ratified by the European Parliament. It has also signed the fifteen-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, strengthening its economic growth potential. China has reportedly reached another agreement with Iran involving trade, oil and investment that could circumvent sanctions imposed on Iran by the West and regional states.
The potential political cancers that could infect China are, first, the CCP’s growing autocratic control over the public, which stifles economic productivity, and, second, an indebted balance sheet that could lead to a financial crisis. The Soviets suffered from the first and then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev tried to reform what was a failed system, causing it to implode. The more China tries to control its population, the more it risks backlash.
China’s leaders understand that for centuries, peasant and other revolutions have plagued the country. The most recent was the protracted civil war that ended in 1949. A future revolution may take another form. But make no mistake: China is not an unstoppable colossus. The fact is that, like the former Soviet Union, China has an oppressive political-ideological regime that limits human ingenuity, imagination and innovation. This may prove to be the fatal flaw in China’s aspirations.
In the 1980s, Japan’s rise led to the prediction that Japan would dominate the world’s economies. The same outcome will apply to China.”
EUROPE: RIGHTEOUS PROTESTS AGAINST IMPERIALIST POLICIES OVER THE CORONA PANDEMIC
Nearly in every country of Europe workers- and peoples protests and movements arouse against the imperialist policies towards the Corona-Pandemic. From workers strikes in Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany or England, over youth rebellions in the Netherlands and Belgium up to protests of the broad masses against the demolition of democratic rights in Serbia, Bulgaria, France and many more. It is a great expression of the explosiveness of the broad masses, showing that the bourgeoisie looses more and more the control not only over the proletariat, but also increasingly over parts of the petty bourgeoisie. The explosiveness of the masses is sharpening the political crisis of the bourgeoisie, which develops on the basis of the general crisis of capitalism. In the past year 14 out of 28 minister of Health in the EU had to resign, which shows that the masses in different countries struggle more and more for similar demands. The imperialists and their puppets in the oppressed countries in Europe try to canalize the protests in many cases due to their fascist agents in a reactionary way. It is the task of the communist and revolutionary forces to unite with the broad masses in their justified demands and to develop their demands for a health system in the service of the people as well as for their democratic and social rights, AND UTMOST IMPORTANT COMBING THE DAILY DEMANDS WITH THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER. Only if the vanguard is mobilizing, organizing and politicizing the masses in the common struggle they will be able to push back the dark plans of canalizing the protests due bourgeois hegemony and develop the justified struggle in the service of the socialist and democratic revolution.
Ukraine: The imperialist aggression increases
The contradictions in the Ukraine intensifies again massively, US-imperialism as well as the imperialists of the EU (the temporarily alliance in collusion and struggle) provoke a further intensification of the war of aggression against Eastern Ukraine. For seven years already, a bloody war of aggression has been waged in the Ukraine, already more than 14.000 people have been murdered in this process. The coup carried out in 2014 (so called „Euromaidan“), by the EU and the USA, is now to find its continuation and intensification. Now plans are being prepared to attack the Donbass, Donetsk and Lugansk. After the coup in 2014 there was an uprising of the working class and the people in the Eastern Ukraine and since then there is developing a resistance war in Eastern Ukraine against the imperialist intervention and the devision of the country. But this just resistance is under the command of the other rogue, Russian imperialism, from the very first beginning, as it was the case with the former Ukrainian regime (it is obvious that Ukraine was no imperialist but oppressed nation, but severe research is needed to reveal how the process after the revisionist coup of Khrushchev developed until today), but this is not the fault of the people struggling but a lack of the communists, not having been able to reconstitute the communist party as a militarised Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party, deeply rooted within the people and especially the deepest and broadest masses, what would prevent the struggle being mounted by foreign powers.
To support the plans “Western” imperialists to attack Donetsk and Lugansk, Ukrainian President Selensky, the servant of the “Western” imperialists, demands the fastest possible accession to NATO. “NATO is the only way to end the war in the Donbas,” Selensky said, “and it would be a real signal to Russia.” Since 2015, the U.S. has provided more than $2 billion in “security assistance” to Ukraine. In total, the IMF, EU and U.S. have provided Ukraine with about $40 billion. Not unconditionally, of course. What this is intended to enforce is the even faster sell-off of the country, privatizations and expropriations of millions of small farmers. Fascist terror, poverty and misery, this is what the imperialists brought to the masses of Ukraine! The NATO accession would only be “a way to end the war” in the interest of the imperialists of the EU and USA, but immense bloody terror for the masses! Over 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers are currently stationed in the border area with the Donbass. Since March, a large-scale NATO exercise has been taking place: 20,000 U.S. soldiers, together with 17,000 soldiers from NATO member states and also from Ukraine are exercising an inter-imperialist war against Russia (what is not close at hand). Russian imperialism is already stationing its troops on the eastern and northern borders of Ukraine. The anti-fascist and democratic forces in eastern Ukraine, which have so far successfully resisted the coup and the integration of the country into the West, should now pay for their resistance with even more blood. They are the spoils, as the Third World is in general, for the imperialist plundering. This can never be acceptable for no people and the peoples of the world will reject the unjust warmongers, the Yankees. Good. But the communist have to lead, to illuminate the path, not tailing the unconscious movement. In this case, as in general, never allow to become dependent from foreign powers or the movement will turn into mercenaries of imperialism but remain self-sufficient.
