Unity & Struggle No 10

UNITY & STRUGGLE no.10

Autumn-Winter 2003

Workers of all countries, unite!

Unity & Struggle Organ of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations

Unity & Struggle Journal of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations. Published in English, Spanish, Turkish and Portuguese in the responsibility of the Coordinating Committee of the International Conference. Any opinions expressed in this journal belong to the contributors.

This version was created in August 2009 by the “Movement for the Reorganisation of the KKE 191855” with use of the texts found in the web page of TDKP (Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey).

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CONTENTS The participants and the resolutions of the Conference International Conference of the Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations Proposition of the PCOF for the discussion at the International Conference Workers' Communist Party of France Final statement of the 6th international seminar: Problems of the Revolution in Latin America On the developments in our region (The Middle East and the Balkans) Marxist Leninist Organisation of Greece, Party of Labour of Iran -Toufan, Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey The real aims of imperialist wars Revolutionary Communist Party of Brazil A short history The Communist Party of Chile (Proletarian Action) Uribe's referendum: more corruption, political games and anti-democracy Communist Party of Colombia -ML The capitalist system in recession and the urgency of strengthening the communist parties and organisations Communist Party of Labour of the Dominican Republic Yes, it is possible to change this world Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador Latin America and the proletarian revolution Communist Party of Mexico (ML) A central international organism - the key to new steps forward for the International Communist (Marxist-Leninist) movement Marxist-Leninist Organisation Revolusjon of Norway Proletarian internationalism Communist Organisation October of Spain On the situation in Kurdistan, the Kurdish question and some questions of rebuilding the party Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey

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THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF MARXIST-LENINIST PARTIES AND ORGANISATIONS October 2002, Denmark The International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations was held in Denmark in October 2002. Following parties and organisations participated in the conference: Communist Party of Benin (PCB) Revolutionary Communist Party of Brazil (PCR) Communist Party of Colombia (M-L) Workers' Communist Party of Denmark (APK) Communist Party of Labour of the Dominican Republic (PCT) Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador (PCMLE) Workers' Communist Party of France (PCOF) Communist Party of Germany (KPD) Marxist-Leninist Organisation of Greece Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) Organisation for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy Communist Party of Mexico-ML (PCM-ML) Marxist-Leninist Organisation Revolution of Norway (MLO Revolusjon) Communist Organisation October of Spain (OC Octubre) Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (TDKP) Red Flag Party of Venezuela (Bandera Roja) Revolutionary Communist Party of Volta (PCRV)

CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS

1- Stop a new imperialist war against Iraq! Stop the endless wars proclaimed by Bush! The American president Bush has ordered his huge military machine to be ready for a second Gulf war against Iraq to install a regime obedient to the interests of US imperialism. Such a war will be a naked and criminal war of aggression. Under the hypocritical pretext of destroying weapons of mass destruction and creating "democracy" the United States intends to grasp hold of the huge oil reserves of Iraq and get complete military, political and economic control of this strategically important zone. The American plans are conducted with the assistance of its key allies Tony Blair of England and the butcher of the Palestinian people Ariel Sharon. They seem set to unleash this war that is condemned by the peoples all over the world as well as the majority of the states. This war is not only a deadly threat to the long suffering people of Iraq, but also poses acute dangers of new grave crimes against the Palestinian people, who a fighting a just fight for a independent State of Palestine. More than a million Iraqis, and more than half a million Iraqi children have already died as a consequence of the unjust and genocidal sanctions imposed by the US and the UN. A new war will ad immensely to the suffering. Only a worldwide mobilisation of the peoples against this war can stop it, before it begins. 7

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THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF MARXIST-LENINIST PARTIES AND ORGANISATIONS support the call for worldwide mobilisations against the war on Iraq and works actively to develop the global mass movement against this war and the endless "war against terrorism" proclaimed by the Bush-administration. The Bush - doctrine embodied in the "National Security Strategy" openly calls for the global hegemony of US imperialism, the only superpower in the world today. The US grants itself the right to attack any nation, any people and any movement, which acts against its interests. Under the pretext of "pre-emptive strikes" it will start a series of wars without end that does not preclude even the use of nuclear weapons. The war against Afghanistan was the first in this so-called "war on terrorism", that has been extended to the Philippines, Colombia and other countries and regions of the world. The Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations call on the working class and the peoples of the world to rise in a massive and revolutionary manner against this criminal imperial endeavour of the US and its allies, that aims to perpetuate an intensify the global system of exploitation and repression. STOP THE NEW WAR FOR OIL! NO BLOOD FOR OIL! FOR AN INDEPENDENT STATE OF PALESTINE!

2- No to the Europe of the Monopolies! No to the Imperialist European Union! During the Danish presidency of the European Union, a presidency that finishes at the end of 2002, the European Union will decide on the incorporation of ten new member countries. This extension of the European Union is an inseparable part of its efforts to create a "United States of Europe" and to establish an imperialist superpower, collaborating and competing with U.S. imperialism. For the interests of the monopolies and the larger European powers, headed by Germany, the process of unification of Europe is occurring at the expense of the workers, the peoples and the small nations of Europe. The creation of an imperialist superpower with its own state, military, economic and political institutions, and with its own currency, aims at intensifying the imperialist globalization and the exploitation of the peoples of the whole world. The European Union has declared itself an ally of the United States of America in its socalled "war against terrorism," and its member countries have approved a series of reactionary laws limiting the democratic rights of the workers and peoples, including the right to political protest. The European Union is a reactionary formation in the hands of the monopolies. The International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations calls on the workers and peoples of Europe and the rest of the world to support and participate in the demonstrations and protests against the Europe of capital, globalization and the imperialist war during the summit of the European Union that will be held from December 12 to 14 in Copenhagen.

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3- No to the FTAA! No to the Annexation of Latin America by the U.S. Our objective with the FTAA is to guarantee American businesses control of a territory that stretches from the Arctic to the Antarctic, with free access, without difficulties of any kind, for our products, services, technology and capital throughout the hemisphere." This statement of General Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State, makes clear the intentions of U.S. imperialism to annex an enormous market of 34 countries, all of Latin America and the Caribbean, with the exception of Cuba. This represents the largest captive market in the world, the largest free trade area, with 800 million inhabitants and a Net Internal Product of 11 trillion dollars. This is an economic area that will favour the large U.S. monopolies, which can count on facilities to extract cheap raw materials and to exploit the ever more impoverished workers of the region. To confront the rapacious character of these policies of U.S. imperialism, we call on the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, their working class, all the working people, the intellectuals, the progressive men and women, to confront this Yankee endeavour, to form committees against the FTAA that will take various initiatives, street actions, hold seminars, forums with the aim of raising the consciousness of its nature and consequences and to accumulate the necessary popular forces to stop this offensive of imperialism. We add our voices and contingents to the forces of the workers and peoples that were expressed in Quito, Ecuador, in the continent-wide day of struggle against the FTAA. Yankee Claws Out of Latin America and the Caribbean! Long Live the Unity of the Workers and Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean!

4- Defend the democratic rights of Jose Maria Sison! Stop the persecution of progressive and revolutionaries under the pretext of "antiterrorism"! Jose Maria Sison, Founding Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines and currently Chief Political Consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, has been put on the list of "terrorists" by the US and Dutch governments. Since 1987, Sison has resided in the Netherlands where he is seeking asylum as a political refugee. Invoking the "terrorist" label, the Dutch government has withdrawn all social benefits Sison is entitled to as an asylum seeker. Jose Maria Sison has a long history as a prominent fighter for the independence and sovereignty of the Philippines and the social progress of his people and country. By labelling him a "terrorist" the US and Dutch governments reveal their efforts to combat progressive, revolutionary and liberation movements of the peoples under the pretext of combating "terrorism". Jose Maria Sison is a freedom fighter, not a terrorist. Jose Maria Sison has since 1987 asked the Dutch government to grant him political asylum. In 2002 he faces the risk of being extradited to the US and persecuted there, risking a death sentence. 9

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THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF MARXIST-LENINIST PARTIES AND ORGANISATIONS declares its consistent support for the defence of the democratic rights of Jose Maria Sison and joins the world wide campaign for the reinstatement of all his rights. The persecution of progressive and revolutionaries under the pretext of "antiterrorism" must be stopped. The Conference calls on the Dutch government to remove his name from the terrorist list, to reinstate his full rights as an asylum seeker and to refuse any demand for his extradition.

5- Resolution on Plan Colombia 1. The Yankee imperialists have contrived a devastating plan for the peoples of the Andean region and especially for Colombia to maintain an iron military, economic and political control, to continue to plunder the area. They have set up a smokescreen, a supposed fight against drug trafficking, while they are the ones who allow this and encourage this. 2. The Andean Regional Initiative or Plan Colombia, foresees the establishment of U.S. bases in Colombia and the neighbouring countries, the utilization of the civil and military infrastructure and logistics, the formation of a multinational army. 3. In the struggle of the different imperialist powers for control of Latin America, Plan Colombia, while it represents the most urgent interests of all the imperialists, emphasizes the Yankee predominance in the region, to keep Latin America as its back yard. 4. In our Latin America and especially in Colombia the structures of imperialist domination have deteriorated to such a point that, without escalating the reactionary war, they will not be able to defeat the popular insurgency and they will not be able to control the masses. 5. In Latin America one can feel with great force the aspirations of the struggle of the peoples, and their hatred for the growing control, exploitation and oppression by the imperialist of all stripes. 6. Imperialism has developed very close links with the local bourgeoisies in order to maintain its control and conceal its work of causing confusion and plotting intrigues to divert the revolutionary struggle from its strategic objectives. 7. The plans of the Colombian government are nothing more than an adaptation of the Yankee dictates to national conditions. Our Conference denounces these plans, which only serve the interests of the financial oligarchy and imperialism, and which attack the interests of the working class and Colombian people. 8. The workers and peoples of the countries that imperialism has involved in Plan Colombia should reinforce their actions to oppose the utilization of their countries, their material resources and national armies in the total war against Colombia and its people that U.S. imperialism is preparing. 9. Our Conference expresses its solidarity with the Colombian people and calls on them to struggle against imperialism and the bourgeoisie, to develop the class struggle for a free and democratic Colombia. 10. We salute the struggle of the working class and people of Colombia, of the guerrilla movement of the FARC, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the ELN, Army of National Liberation, and the EPL, Peoples Liberation Army; the work of the left-wing and revolutionary 10

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political parties and organizations and in particular the work of the comrades of the Communist Party of Colombia (Marxist-Leninist).

6- Resolution on Venezuela The International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations has dedicated a great part of its work to an analysis of the political situation in Venezuela. On the basis of its anti-imperialist, democratic and revolutionary principles, the conference denounces the serious death threats against the leaders of the Red Flag Party and calls on the working class and people of Venezuela to unite in the struggle against imperialism and the oligarchy, the only way to avoid a reactionary civil war of which they will be the principle victims.

7- To Comrade Francisco Caraballo Dear comrade: The International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations sends you its revolutionary and fraternal greetings. At this moment, when imperialism and reaction are intensifying their aggression against the peoples everywhere; when Yankee imperialism is trying to reinforce its hegemony in the world and is preparing new wars of pillage, we communists are seeking to mobilize the peoples, in the first place the working class, to confront imperialism, reaction and the bourgeoisie in each country. Our tasks and struggles are difficult and complex, but we face them with enthusiasm and optimism as is the habit of communists. Comrade, we know that even in the difficult conditions that you are in, you are following our struggle closely and, to the degree that you can, you are taking part in them. We want you to know that your example is always present at our meetings, which encourages us and gives us strength. Although we know that it is not necessary, we encourage you to continue in the struggle, we know that your spirit does not weaken and that you are holding firm to our principles. All our Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations send you fraternal greetings and assure you of our solidarity. We are sure that it will not be long before you will be physically present among us in the common struggle for the liberation of the peoples and the revolution. Greetings, Comrade! Fraternally, International Conference of Marxist-Leninists Parties and Organisations 11

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FRANCE

Proposition of the PCOF for the discussion at the International Conference When the international conference of Marxist Leninist parties and organizations will hold its session, one year will have passed since the terror attacks of the 11th of September, which hit the symbols of the power of the North American imperialism. At the moment of writing of this text, the preparation of the war decided by US imperialism against Iraq has begun. The conference of Mexico which took place some time after these events, has issued a first evaluation about these terror attacks and has immediately condemned “the plans of war of US imperialism and its allies, which, in the name of a so-called “unlimited justice” are launching a crusade against the people of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other countries. They also attack the patriots, the anti imperialists and revolutionaries of all over the world, which they want to present as terrorists in order to criminalize their struggle and to suppress them. This makes more necessary then aver to forge the great anti imperialist unity.” The evolution of the US imperialism has largely proved the rightness of this general appreciation. If we have proposed to dedicate a large part of this conference to the discussion about the situation that developed after the 11th of September (more than about the events of the 11th themselves), it is because we think it important that the parties and organizations of the conference deepen together the analysis of the actual policy of imperialism, of its possible evolution: that they evaluate objectively the level of the struggle of the labour class and of the peoples; that they exchange their experience in the political work, and their organizational labour, that they learn from their common work in order to develop the anti imperialist unity, the solidarity with the struggles of the working class and the peoples and to play their leading role. Each member of the conference has developed its analyse in its press, its public positions, of the general situation and of the particular aspects linked to its country and region in which he is struggling. The points of unity are important and numerous. We do not know all these positions, especially because we have not the possibility to translate them or simply because they have not been transmitted to us. We think that it is important to discuss and deepen some questions of the analyse. These questions have to do with the evaluation of the reinforcement of worldwide hegemony of US imperialism, its consequences on the contradictions between imperialist powers and the question of the resistance of the working class and the people towards this policy of hegemony of US imperialism. Plan: A) the reinforcement of worldwide hegemony of US imperialism 1) from the collapse of the block dominated by social imperialism to Bush’s crusade 2) “the crusade against terrorism” B) The fight back of the working class and the peoples. 12

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A) The reinforcement of worldwide hegemony of US imperialism

1) From the collapse of the block dominated by social imperialism to Bush’s crusade. The strategy of US imperialism has always ambitioned to reach the greatest hegemony possible, in all fields ; first of all in the economical field, but also in the military, diplomatic, cultural one, etc. Each imperialist war has meant its reinforcement, at the disadvantage of other imperialist powers. One can say that so far as the collapse of the block dominated by social imperialism (at the end of the eighties, beginning of the nineties), the struggle for worldwide hegemony was principally directed against this block. It was question in those times of a “bipolar” world, a notion invented by bourgeoisie which was inclined to analyse everything through this prism, ignoring at the same time the others contradictions of imperialist system. All the struggles for liberation were automatically analysed and “treated” as the mere expression of the rivalry between USSR and USA and the inter imperialist contradictions were almost ignored, or, on the contrary, overemphasized, as did the Maoist “three worlds theory”. If imperialist powers such as Japan, France, Germany, etc. were fundamentally in the camp of US imperialism, this did not mean that there are no contradictions and no rivalry with US imperialism. Japan, and its “sphere of co-prosperity” could, at a moment, as the more serious opponent to US imperialism, at least on the economical level. It has even been accused of trying to penetrate in the “backyard” of US imperialism, namely Latin America, through Peru (and the Japanese community living here). The coalition of imperialist powers and capitalist states of Europe, with the German imperialism as dominating and leading power among that alliance, was engaged in a process of economical, political and military unification, (even if this process in the military field is still at an embryonic state). This process has accelerated at the moment of collapse of the eastern block and the German re unification. In this so called “united Europe”, French imperialism hoped to maintain and extend its domination on a great part of Africa, with its “exclusive” zone, its old colonies, and the German imperialism hoped to reinforce itself by absorbing the old peripheral republics of the USSR and to establish a partnership with Russia. Russia, deeply weakened, hit by a total economical, social, military an political chaos, was confronted with a multiplication of wars and national conflicts (the wars of Chechnya being one example among tens of others) fuelled more or less openly by USA and others. The Chinese bourgeoisie was expecting to have time and to benefit some foreign capitals, maintaining at the same time its system of political system, in order to develop itself in all fields, becoming a serious candidate for the worldwide domination. In a longer future, the Indian bourgeoisie can nourish same ambitions. The first imperialist war against Iraq is the first war for a new international partition after the collapse of the eastern block. It states the volition of US imperialism to gain and settle its worldwide hegemony, without partnership. At that moment, it tried to cover this war with the legitimacy of UN and the war coalition is supposed to apply the resolutions of the UN. After that, the war of Balkans has taken place, with the partition of the “weak point” that was Yugoslavia. If it is the German imperialism which has first precipitated the process of disintegration 13

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(war of Bosnia), the US imperialism intervened with brutality, militarily, to stop the ambitions of German imperialism. As we said in the text ; “the war of Yugoslavia, product and manifestation of the sharpening of the crisis of imperialism in Europe (x) : “the intervention, decided by the US imperialism, marks its decision to settle its worldwide leadership on the economical and military levels and to hinder the expansion of German imperialism in the Balkans and in central Europe (page 23 of number 6 of the French edition of Unity and struggle). In this second war, the role of the UN is merely formal and it is the Nato which becomes its “armed hand” (xx). These two wars have both been conducted under the pretext of the “defence of human rights”, “defence of minorities” (the Kurds, Kosovars, and so on.) 2) Bush’s crusade against terrorism Its features are well known, we shape them roughly. In a few months, a huge military display of US imperialism has taken place, even in regions in which it was not present as far as now. This display went along with a process of militarisation at large scale of US economy and of the society in general. In the USA, the concept of fascisization finds its more obvious expression: - reinforcement of the more aggressive monopolies, especially those which are linked to weaponry which are growing more powerful : -

The budget of security has been highly increased, bypassing largely the budgets of security of the others imperialist powers. Four big companies are partaking these commands, thus reinforcing their weight on the international level (they trust the markets of weapons of the states belonging to the Nato.)

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The representatives of these monopolies occupy the decisive charges of the institutions, as it can be seen in the overwhelming presence of militaries of high rank surrounding Bush. Questioning of the democratic rights. If the first victims ate groups and communities singled out as potential supports to terrorists reds, it is the whole US population that is concerned (massive dispositions for spying the population, ideological and hysterical campaign of chauvinism, etc.) Laws and measures of exception, giving to the instruments of repression huge powers, escaping to all kind of “democratic” control.

The rapidity and the amplitude of this display let think of a vast plan elaborated by the militaryindustrial lobby before the terrorist attacks. These attacks (xxx) have obviously served as a pretext to the accomplishment of this plan. They also contributed to legitimise Bush’s team, which encountered dome difficulties to impose itself (remind the episode of Bush’s election, designed at the end as president by a court), a team which imposed itself brutally, in a atmosphere of dramatization (for hours, Bush had been totally in the hands of the military command, which became, from this moment, omnipresent). Another component of this team is formed by the men of the oil companies, directly interested in the regions rich with oil and gas, or the regions strategic as for the transport of these products (it is the case of Afghanistan); 14

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US imperialism does not hide its objective to reinforce and extend its control over the resources of energy, with the oil resources in first plan, but also some strategic minerals, the huge reserves of potable water (to insure especially the provision of its ally Israel with water). The question of oil is the background of the war against Afghanistan, it is also the background of the war, US imperialism wants to fight against Iraq. He wants to take over the control of the oil of Iraq (which means the liquidation of Saddam’s regime and its substitution with a regime subdued to US imperialism), in order to provoke a new distribution of the oil market in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, accused to support Bin Laden’s reds losing its “weight”) for a better control of the Middle East oil (divide to rule), along with a policy of diversification of the sources, with the oil of Russia and the Caucasian oil (which explains also the closer links with Putin) and the oil of the African continent (the reserves of Chad, Angola, of the basin of the Congo river, etc.) So, we can say that these terrorist attacks have permitted to these lobbies to take under control the whole affairs of US imperialism. This is the true “change” which occurred the 11th of September. The US imperialism alone defines who is an “enemy”. States, groups and organisations that compete for their hegemony in one way or another are on the black list and menaced with war. The international instances are ignored; US imperialism does not even try to maintain a fiction of international law. The ideological justification of this crusade is formulated in plain terms: it is a crusade between the “good” and the “evil”, between the “emancipating values of occident” and the backward ones of “Islamic integrism”. When Bush speaks of “islamic integrism”, he speaks in fact of the Muslim world and every body knows it. This speech hides all the contradictions (between imperialism and the peoples, and more generally the class contradictions) in favour of a contradiction mixing religion and culture. It is the “shock of civilizations”, a theory elaborated by US intellectuals (the same way that, some years ago, Fukuyama has theorized the universal hegemony of capitalism and more precisely its “liberal” US version, just after the collapse of the block headed by social imperialism). This speech fuels, in return another religious speech, especially in the Muslim countries. In this crusade, the alliance with Israel has reinforced and there is a strategic “axis”; USA-IsraelTurkey in order to warrant the control of this region. Us imperialism has a worldwide strategy which declines itself on the economical and military fields; this last one imposing the interests of the big US monopolies. The businessmen accompany the soldiers: it is the alliance between the “neo-liberalism” and the flying bomb. This strategy hurts the interests of its allies and seeks to impeach any concurrent to emerge and to dispute its hegemony. Its favourite arm is the division of its concurrents, the exacerbation of the tensions between them, the manipulation of the unsolved national questions for destabilizing, etc. For example, the actual alliance with Russia seeks to impeach the alliance between Russia and Germany. The protectionist measures against some European products seek also to exacerbate the tensions amid the European Union (especially between France and Germany). Japan is used to contain the expansion of China and reverse. The inert-imperialist contradictions do not smooth, on the contrary, they cannot but exacerbate themselves. But the balance of forces is so much in favour of US imperialism that no single imperialist power, or an alliance of imperialist powers is able in a short future to contest militarily this hegemony. This does not mean the end of the contradictions between the imperialist powers (neither the other contradictions). US imperialism will continue to use the 15

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military aggression, the provocations, the subversion, directly or through one or a group of other countries, in order to maintain its domination, weaken, divide and surround or contain its potential concurrents, among which China is obviously an important one. This means that the principal responsible for imperialist wars is the US imperialism; provoking instability in huge regions. It is the way it provokes a new definition of the markets and zones of influence. This policy of being everywhere and mixing in all the affairs of the world is also a weak point. He is obliged to intervene everywhere, disseminating its forces and, more than everything, he concentrates against himself more and more forces, of all hues, with their own and conflicting interests: imperialist bourgeoisies, bourgeoisies of dependent countries, peoples and oppressed nations. The weak links are multiplying and with them grows the objective possibility of rupture of the imperialist chain. The objective and subjective factors which permit us to define these “weak links” are known. It would be useful to precise what are today these potential weak links.

B) How the working class and the people fight back The brutality of the US military offensive, the barbarian war against the miserable population of Afghanistan, the amplitude of the deployment of US forces in the world, the hysteria of Bush’s speech and its open policy of two weights, two measures, especially in he case of Palestine, have rapidly provoked the opposition of the peoples. The anti-US sentiment has increased all over the world. In the imperialist countries, the movement against the imperialist globalisation has not ceased, in spite of the operation of criminalizing it (it has been accused to play for the “terrorists”) and the policy of terror of the states (cf. the killing of the demonstrator in Genoa). Of course, there are big illusions about the possibility to moralize the system, about the possibility of relying on the European Union in order to oppose US hegemony, illusions widespread by the different reformist currents. But this movement has a potential of criticizing the system and of mobilizing of large sectors of the populations of the imperialist countries, especially among the youth and the workers. It facilitates the junction between the workers movement, especially its trade union component, the peasants movement and the movement of struggle of the dominated peoples of Africa, America and Asia. The national struggle of the Palestinian people meets a large current of sympathy. The solidarity goes far beyond the political circles traditionally mobilized by this cause. The “missions of civilians” are a manifestation of it. The open support of US imperialism to the savage war of the Zionist government, their common will to inscribe this war in the “crusade against terrorism” have as result the fact that the resistance of the Palestinian people and its national demands are part of the general struggle against the policy of US imperialism. It also nourish the contestation of the Arab peoples against “their” regimes, which, because of their class interests, collaborate in fact with the policy of US imperialism. It is also a factor of internal contestation in Israel itself. The Israeli forces which struggle for the true recognition of the Palestinian rights continue their combat, in spite of the repression and the intense Zionist propaganda. Some work has been engaged in order to come closer to organizations of the Palestinian resistance who defend the more correct political positions. The struggle of the Palestinian people has become (or again become) a symbol for the peoples. But the purely military option imposed by Israel and the fact that some Palestinian organizations put also the main weight on a military solution, are limiting the field of action of the masses. Combining the military action with the political activity, relying on the potential of the Palestinian people, on the solidarity movement in Israel and internationally, will break the vice imposed by Israel. 16

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The movement against the war has developed in several countries of Europe, in the USA, in Asia, in spite of the repression, the manoeuvres of the social democracy and the revisionists in order to maintain it at the lowest political level, putting on he same level the aggressor and the aggressed. An intense political battle is traversing it in which the anti imperialist consequent forces, the Marxist Leninist parties and organizations have played and continue to play an important role. Embryos of anti-war fronts have been created in several countries, they denounce the imperialist war waged by US imperialism and the support and following of the other imperialist powers, especially the European ones. In these mobilizations, the advanced elements of the working class play an important role and the youth is getting more and more politically involved. There are possibilities to coordinate more these initiatives on a regional level, especially at the European level, or even on a broader scale. This dimension must be present in the mobilizations against the war announced against Iraq. The questioning of the democratic rights, is a phenomenon which concerns all the states of the international coalition. It provokes the opposition of sectors of the little bourgeoisie which could have been confused by the imperialist propaganda on the necessity of “preventing” themselves from the terrorist manoeuvres. The popular struggles against the policy of imperialist domination, especially the US domination, over Latin and central America and the Caribbean have developed in the last months. The “crusade against terrorism” is directed against the organizations of guerrilla, especially in Colombia. It means also a greater military presence of US troops all over the continent, especially in the countries around Colombia. A series of economical plans have been applied to reinforce the control and the domination of US imperialism in what it considers as its “backyard”. Entire countries have been transformed in laboratories at great scale for these economical policies, with their tremendous fiasco which have impoverished the broad masses, sectors of the petite bourgeoisie and middle bourgeoisie and even some sectors of the bourgeoisie. Strong popular movements have developed, in as in Argentina and the neighbour states. We must have this context in mind when we analyse particular situations, as for example, the situation in Venezuela. We must discuss it openly and deeply in this conference, also because the brother party of Venezuela is in the forefront in the actual political battle in hi country. The resistance of the people of the continent against US domination is an old one and it takes different forms. The fact that the policy of war of US imperialism is more and more denounced, in other latitudes is a positive aspect and makes it easer to work for making these struggles converge. US imperialism is also interested in the mineral and oil reserves of the African continent. The British-American interests are old in South Africa, but it has extended its influence over the region of the “great lakes”, as far as the Atlantic coast (especially the Zaire). But it wants to expand more and it is combating the domination of French imperialism in its “exclusive zone”. In order to maintain itself, French imperialism relies on all the dictators who support him, a policy which provokes a growing anger of the people and reinforce them in their determination to get rid of these dictators and their master. US imperialism which tries to hide behind the “defence of democracy” is assimilated to the IMF and its policy of misery. The rivalry between the imperialists, especially the French and the US, is the background of the conflicts which drench several countries in blood. All the countries are concerned with these wars, the instability is everywhere. This points the importance to develop the solidarity with the struggles of the Marxist Leninist parties and the anti imperialist, democratic, forces in Africa which often face both imperialist powers, even concurrent, but both responsible for the wars and misery. 17

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Dear comrades, These are some of our reflections that we wanted to transmit you in order to contribute to the work of the next conference.

Paris, 10th of September 2002 Workers’ Communist Party of France

Notes (x) Text presented by the Communist Organisation October of Spain and the Workers’ Communist Party of France, January 2000, issued in the 6th French edition of Unity & Struggle. (xx) Before, the military expeditions decided by the UN were international coalitions with national detachments. With the war of Kosovo, it is directly the NATO which conducts the different military detachments engaged. (xxx) According to the information given by the US secret services, it appears that these attacks were not a “surprise” for everybody, but this does not mean that they have been executed by US secret services themselves.

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Problems of the Revolution in Latin America

Final statement of the 6th international seminar: Imperialism has unleashed a new political-military offensive against the peoples of the globe, in their eagerness to take maximum advantage of the wealth created by the peoples and to consolidate their world domination; however, the workers and peoples are struggling in all regions to confront the effects of the crisis, to break the chains of domination and win their independence and freedom. This is the way we see the world today, the political organizations and parties taking part in the Sixth International Seminar Problems of the Revolution in Latin America, held in Quito, Ecuador, July 15-19, 2002. The events of September 11 last year, which showed the vulnerability of U.S. imperialism in its own territory, allowed it, backed by the rest of the capitalist powers and the ruling classes of the various countries, under the pretext of fighting terrorism, to declare war on all those who oppose its designs, confirming its aggressive nature and the fact that it is a source of reactionary violence and war. This behaviour reveals its decadence and not its vitality, the many economic difficulties which it engenders and carries within it, confirming the Leninist thesis that this is the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution. The deep political and economic crisis that affects the capitalist-imperialist system causes imperialism to wage war as an escape valve and solution to its difficulties. But this, today, is a war against the peoples and is taking place in specific areas of the planet. Of course, the eventuality of a new general conflagration exists, although not immediately. The regions of the Middle East and Central Asia on the one hand, and Latin America on the other, constitute two main arenas of imperialist intervention. The barbaric invasion of Afghanistan, planned before September 11, 2001, forms part of its strategy to control the oil and gas wealth of the Middle East and the Caspian Sea, to strengthen its influence in this strategic area and to advance in the formation of a military presence that dominates the region and puts pressure on China, Russia and India. Iraq would be the next objective, followed by the other countries of what Bush has called the axis of evil: Iran and north Korea. Therefore it continues to concentrate troops in the bases that it has in the region and it has installed new ones in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kirgizistan. The war-like escalation of the United States is also aimed at the Philippines, with the return of thousands of Yankee soldiers and the threats of invasion. The U.S. military presence in the world has increased 20% since the attacks of September 11. About 300 thousand soldiers, dispersed over more than 140 countries, guard the interests of Yankee imperialism. The war of the Zionist State of Israel against the Palestinian people is creating new victims, the majority of whom are children and young people. The United States is financing this genocide, providing $1.8 billion in military aid each year. Nevertheless, the Palestinian people are continuing their heroic war of national liberation and are winning the sympathy and support of the peoples of the world. The decision of the Bush administration to recognize the government of the Palestine National Authority does not imply a change of attitude in regard to this conflict; it is trying to reduce the tensions in the Arab countries in order to proceed with the invasion of Iraq. In Latin America, the imperialist intervention combines its wish to control the energy resources and the biodiversity of the Amazon region, on the one hand, and to stop the advance of the struggle of the peoples on the other. The Plan Colombia has taken on a greater significance with the Andean Regional Initiative, whose aim is not to combat drug trafficking, but to put end to the Colombian insurgency and the struggle of masses that is developing, with certain speed, in various countries. To this must be added the wish to establish new Military Bases in various parts of the continent. It is preparing dictatorial solutions such as the reactionary coup that it tried and is trying to impose on Venezuela. To secure its domination, regional and sub-regional agreements are under way such as the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas and the Plan Puebla -Panama.

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All this shows us the aggressiveness of imperialism and the violence that it unleashes. This is terrorism, as are the economic adjustment policies that are forced on the dependent countries and that have brought misery to millions of workers; its permanent and sophisticated forms of aggression, utilizing all kinds of weapons, to force the peoples into subjection – these are terrorism. Terrorism is the inhuman blockade imposed for years on Cuba, Iraq, Libya and North Korea, an act that we condemn. We are experiencing a new stage in the struggle and dispute among the imperialist powers which are trying to gain new zones of influence and control, a new division of markets and the world. Although U.S. imperialism commands the politics of domination and subjection, there is a group of imperialist powers which are also contesting its influence and are forming alliances and blocs for this purpose, since they are not prepared to "yield" what they consider their sphere. U.S. imperialism, depending on its military power, seeks to affirm its hegemony and in fact today constitutes the strongest power, but not the only one. Though the events of September 11 mark a new point in international politics, the essence of the world phenomena remain. The imperialist powers oppress the semi-colonial, neo-colonial, and dependent countries and together with the local ruling classes exploit and oppress the peoples; they persist in inter-monopoly and inter-imperialist fights; the working class and the peoples are organizing and struggling against intervention and the politics of war, and for independence, democracy and social revolution. The fight of the workers and the peoples has not weakened; on the contrary, it has recovered and developed. Actions are more frequent and have grown in breadth and depth. The awakening of the peoples is evident on all continents and in their struggles the working class is gaining ground and also uniting new social sectors around it. The winds of revolution are blowing throughout the world, and it is not a dream, but a certain reality! The uprising in Argentina of last December, which raised the struggle of the masses to a higher level, creating a new situation that put on the agenda the question of popular power, was a clarion call to the peoples; in Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador there have been large and victorious mobilizations against privatisation and the neo-liberal model in general; in Colombia the people and the insurgency are resisting a greater process of militarisation, fascisation and affirmation of State terrorism; the Venezuelan people are confronting the U.S. intervention and are raising the banners of sovereignty and democracy; Europe has felt the struggle of the working class in several partial and general strikes. In short, the planet is stirring and the dawn of freedom of the peoples is approaching. In Latin America there are favourable conditions for the revolutionary struggle, for the action of those of us who want to bring radical socio-economic transformations to victory. The effects generated by the crisis of capitalism are creating better conditions than before for the struggle, for the organization and consciousness of the working class and the peoples in their aim to win independence, popular power and socialism. With that objective, let us raise the struggle for the material and spiritual demands of the masses, for their political and democratic rights. This is a task for the present generations. We workers and peoples want peace, but we understand that to win it we must defeat those who live on war. In our struggle to win national and social liberation, today we are faced with the danger of a new imperialist war. We will not lay down our banners nor will we shut ourselves behind walls of a reactionary nationalism. If the imperialists bring the world to a new world conflagration, the peoples should respond with revolutionary war, with the struggle of the masses to put an end to this system, to win a new world, one of the workers, socialism and communism, as the only form of winning true peace. Historic experience has shown us that for the triumph of the revolution it is necessary to count on a strong mass movement, a powerful proletarian vanguard and an adequate instrument which guarantees the exercise of the revolutionary violence of the masses in response to the violence unleashed by the ruling classes. Without these one cannot succeed in the strategic objectives that inspire us. We revolutionaries work in the present phase by accumulating forces for the revolution. The social revolution is the work of the masses, and in such movement the working class plays the vanguard role. But it must bring in other popular classes and sectors, putting forth a correct policy of unity, which

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guarantees its political and ideological leadership. In the fight against imperialism it seeks to form a broad anti-imperialist front, which will develop in action, in the struggles in each of our trenches and in the coordinated activities that the peoples are unfolding on a regional and international level. The revolutionary organizations should take particular interest in the youth, in order to integrate them into the anti-imperialist, democratic and revolutionary struggle and incorporate more of them into our ranks. We, the below-named organizations, reiterate our internationalist conviction, our commitment to the working class of our countries and to the international proletariat. We have come to agreement on these positions in the framework of the 6th International Seminar Problems of the Revolution in Latin America, the scene of frank and open discussion with mutual respect. This will take place again next year.

Quito, July 19, 2002 Marxist Leninist Party of Germany Revolutionary Communist Party, Argentina Workers Party of Belgium Revolutionary Communist Party, Brazil Communist Party of Colombia – Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Labour, Dominican Republic Ray O. Light Organization of the United States Communist Party of Peru – Red Fatherland Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador Democratic Popular Movement Revolutionary Youth of Ecuador

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ON THE DEVELOPMENTS IN OUR REGION (THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE BALKANS) The September 11 events and the imperialist aggression in Afghanistan have been the main developments in the region that took place since the previous regional meeting of our parties and organisations, causing significant changes in the lives of our peoples. It is an undeniable fact that these developments mean the intensification and increase of the imperialist threats and tyranny and of military intervention and attacks on the part of the peoples of the world. Another equally important fact is that the period following the September 11 is characterised by an expansion of reactionary forces, restriction on democratic rights and freedoms, militarisation of economies, and an increase and intensification of imperialist terror, aggression and arrogance. This has unmasked the real relations of the imperialist capitalist world and accelerated the process of revelation of its real face. I. Just like all the peoples of the world, the peoples of the Balkans, Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia are faced with the unbridled attacks and persistence of the world reactionary forces led by US imperialism. As is known, one of the characteristics that differentiate this region that our countries are a part is the fact that about three quarters of the world’s total reserve of raw materials and especially the oil and natural gas routes to the West are situated in this strategic region. Having these characteristics and the fact that it is situated in a passageway between three continents give our region a particular strategic importance in the military sense as well. Subsequently, it is not a coincidence that all imperialist forces, mainly the US which holds 3 per cent of the total world population while using 26 per cent of existing natural resources, intensify at present their provocations and blackmail, their military might and aggression in this region. The formation of a collaborationist government in Afghanistan and the so-called restoration of social life, which is in fact an attempt to establish a centralised state apparatus, are being presented by the bourgeois propaganda centres as a justification of the imperialist interventions. However, the fact that cannot be ignored is this: since the disintegration of the USSR and the Eastern Bloc all imperialist interventions that have taken place in this strategically important region, which is also known as “Eurasia”, had different excuses such as “the eradication of the weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, “prevention of a humanitarian tragedy” in Yugoslavia, or “obliteration of terrorist cells” in Afghanistan, but they all have caused profound destruction in their economic-social lives, increased their misery, and reduced those regional countries which had been subjected to the “aid of international community” to being needy of the de facto administration and presence of the imperialist countries in every area. What is important for imperialism, mainly the US, is the continuation of the instability in the region, incitement of tensions between the peoples and the countries, and consequently the amplification of the “need” for their military and political presence and intervention as an “order restorer”. In other words, the fact that needs to be seen in the present period is that imperialism imposes on dependent countries and the oppressed nations a no-way-out situation in every field, but the necessity of its economic, political and military presence in the region. For our region this strategy has this evident meaning that we will see the menacing activities of imperialist countries, mainly the US, expanding in the region; the number of their military bases and deployments increasing; new “crisis regions” being added to the existing ones; new civil wars being provoked; and the peoples of the region fighting each other. II. Despite this general common strategy of the imperialist states against the peoples of the region, there continues to exist a sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry and friction over the well-known reserves of natural resources, strategic transport routes and the spheres of influence in the region. The so-called “international coalition against terrorism” formed with the pretext of “fight against the terrorist cells”, a significant proportion of which is the creation of the intelligence services of imperialist countries, is nothing more than a despicable demagogy on which the imperialist states join their forces to keep the oppressed peoples under their yoke.

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Contrary to the announcements made to the public, US activities such as starting a new armament process using the events of September 11 to strengthen its military domination; speeding up the initiatives for the expansion of NATO towards the East in order to, among other things, sabotage the formation of a European Army; setting up new military bases in Central Asia (Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan); initiating a self-regulated “terrorist hunt” in Georgia and the Southeast Asia; persisting on its plans to topple the existing regime and establishing a US collaborating government in Iraq, it being a component of the “axis of evil”, etc. these all disturb deeply the rival imperialist states, mainly Russia, Germany and France. These powers have the same objectives in terms of the world hegemony and try to create political obstacles to hold back the US in its ambition to gain new positions one after another, and to gain time to prepare themselves for more extensive frictions for which they are not ready yet. (1)

All “regional problems” that have created enmity among the peoples and distracted their common struggle against imperialism have the finger of this or that imperialist power in its emergence or becoming a chronic problem. Despite the fact that each has its historical background, all “regional problems” including the Kashmir, Cyprus, Palestine and the Kurdish questions had and continue to have the fingers of the imperialist states and their collaborating forces and regimes in the region in their emergence in the first place and then turning into a chronic and unsolvable problem. Different imperialist powers and their collaborators have used these problems against their rivals. For instance, for the USA the “Palestinian question” is not a question of an oppressed people driven out of their land getting their freedom back, but, on the contrary, a problem that needs to be “rid off” without jeopardising its long term plans for the Middle East (having a direct control of extracting and marketing the oil reserves in the region) and in a way that would not weaken its most important ally, Israel. For the EU, on the other hand, it is a problem that they can use to gain positions and prestige in the region and sabotage the US plans. However, on the part of our parties and organisations, the solution to the “Palestinian question” does not lie in a “solution” designed by the imperialist states, such as a “Plan for the Palestinians” by Bush or a “Fischer Plan” discussed in the EU. A true solution requires the Israeli people to raise their struggle to put an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territories and to be the most resolute defenders of the right of the Palestinian people to establish their own state by repulsing the Zionist reactionary forces who do not recognise this right. It also demands the Palestinian people to follow a path that would get the support of the Israeli people for their just struggle and resistance rather than that of the imperialist forces and that would show their acceptance of the co-existence of the two peoples and two independent states. In the present conditions, our parties and organisations consider it as one of their fundamental tasks to warn our peoples against the anti-working people practices and plans of the world reactionary forces and the imperialist states in our region; to expose the collaborating regimes and the exploiting classes who see different imperialist powers as the only way for the development of our countries; to propagate antiimperialist and popular solutions to “regional problems” incited and deepened by imperialism; and to raise the level of organisation and consciousness of the workers and working masses who will fulfil all these.

There is no doubt that these all are urgent tasks not only because of the dangerous trend of imperialist frictions and impositions in our region, but also because of the anti-popular policies of the ruling classes in our countries. Even though they talk of “peace in the region” or “good neighbouring relations”, the actual course of events is at opposite direction. For instance, Turkey’s relations with its neighbours are completely different from the picture drawn by the news items on this subject. Undoubtedly, the reactionary forces in Turkey want to use its geo-strategic position as a tramp card in the frictions between the USA, EU and Russia in the region. However, the absolute limits of this desire being put into practice have been determined by its dependence on the US and its mission of being an outpost of the US in the region –a mission whose characteristics have become more evident following the latest developments. Its space of manoeuvre is very narrow in this field and it would be naïve to expect serious and lasting outcomes for peace and stability in the region. (2) It is obvious that Turkey’s ruling classes, who have consolidated Turkey’s position as a station of the US after having signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Israel and who, by having taken over the commandment

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of the ISAF forces in Afghanistan, have proven once again that they are more than ready to play the role given to them, are far from implementing independent policies in favour of the country and of its people in spite of imperialism. Same thing applies in terms of the US plans to attack Iraq. At present, what is being discussed is not a question of if but when this attack would take place. (3) Yet, just like all the peoples of the region, the peoples of our countries are opposed to such an aggression, and rightly do not see any benefit of helping and hosting the massacre of the neighbouring Iraqi people. There is no doubt that our parties and organisations are for the development of the neighbouring relations between our countries and for the establishment of close and friendly relations between the peoples of the region. We believe that the development of the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, between Turkey and Armenia, between Iran and Azerbaijan, and between Turkey and Greece would be for the benefit of the peoples of the region. However, we also know that the “Kurdish question” is not a question of the US but of Turkey; that the “Armenian question” can be solved not by the parliaments of the imperialist countries but by the peoples of Turkey and Armenia; that the “Cyprus question” is one that can be resolved not by the US, Britain or EU but only by the free will of the people of the island. III. At present, as the oppressive, aggressive and plundering position of imperialism and individual imperialist states against the peoples of the world, including the working people in their own countries, is becoming more and more evident, the process of realisation of this truth by the peoples of the world is accelerating. Among the peoples of our region, the reaction against and anger towards the US and British imperialism is on the rise. (4) Nevertheless, this reaction, which Russia and some European imperialist states try to use in their favour, is not yet at a stage to condemn all imperialist powers without differentiation or to see the real face of the dishonouring policies of the collaborating states in the region based on dependence on different imperialist powers. It must be emphasised that especially the EU has a very sly and hypocritical position. As the US imperialism adopts a more arrogant stance in the region, the EU imperialists give a particular importance to present themselves to the peoples of the region as defenders and representatives of peace and democracy, and of economic growth and social prosperity. It is observed that they have a certain success in this. Not only the ruling classes of Turkey who desperately want to join the EU, but also the reactionary regime in Iran try to make use of this demagogic propaganda in the areas of domestic and foreign policy. However, the economic and social conditions of the workers and working people of Greece, which is in our region, and their general strikes and mass protests against the impositions of the EU are concrete proofs of the fact that this propaganda of the EU imperialists are nothing more than a dirty lie. Human rights, democracy, economic and social prosperity are the demagogies used by the EU imperialists to give false hope to those peoples who are deprived of these rights in order to get them onto their side, and to expand their influence in the countries of the region. They use these demagogies especially in the TurkeyGreece relations and in the process of Turkey’s full membership into the EU. The questions of Cyprus, the Aegean islands, corporate punishment in Turkey, the Kurdish question, etc. are the ones often being used by the EU. Therefore, our parties and organisations give particular importance to exposing the cunning initiatives of the EU, as well as the US, in our region, supporting and propagating popular and anti-imperialist solutions to these problems as well as others, solutions which rule out the intervention of the EU and which are based on the free will of the concerned peoples. Finally, we would like to emphasise the fact that as imperialism tightens the chains of its yoke, it leads to the emergence of new weak links and increases the possibility of the existing ones breaking. We are aware that the key question depends on whether our parties and organisations develop the capacity, energy and effort to fulfil the tasks required by this particular period.

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1) Bush’s offer of “partnership” to Russia in his latest visit to Europe and the formation of the NatoRussia Council are part of the US effort to use Russia against the Europeans. However, these are also the outcome of the Russian strategy to get on well with its greatest rival who has reached as far as its “backyard” for a certain period of time, until at least it completes the process of restoring its power. 2) Recent trend of Turkey-Iran relations is maybe one of the most striking examples of the fact that our countries relations with each other and with the neighbouring countries are not determined by the interests of our countries and the peoples of the region. Turkey-Iran relations have been characterised, especially since mid-80s, by instability and crisis, an example of which can be seen in the trade between the two countries. Yet, both the Iranian bourgeoisie and the collaborating bourgeoisie of Turkey desperately want to utilise the “Iranian market”. However, it does not mainly depend on the Turkish bourgeoisie to improve bilateral relations in every field of trade. For this reason, efforts like setting up of the “Turkish-Iranian Business Council” last year to make bilateral relations more “stable”, or the President Sezer’s latest visit to Iran to the same end will not produce any efficient outcome in terms of the transformation and stability of the relation between the two countries. 3) As the military preparations of US imperialism are taking place full speed, the main problem is focused on overcoming various “political obstacles”. Among the “political scenarios” deliberately spread in the meantime we see both the so-called “promise of Kerkuk oil” to the Kurds (obviously, with this empty promise the US imperialism manipulates Kurdish people’s right to self determination and the Kurdish reactionary forces become a tool of it) and plans for giving a “guarantee” to the collaborating ruling classes in Turkey in an attempt to cease their paranoia of “the establishment of a Kurdish state”. The ruling classes of Turkey have serious concerns about this possibility on the one hand, but on the other, they expect to benefit from the crumbs of the oil reserves in Musul and Kerkuk. 4) This anger and reaction has been manifested in the demonstrations participated by hundreds of thousands of people in many countries in our region, especially in Greece and Iran, protesting the imperialist aggression in Afghanistan and the tyranny and brutality against the people of Palestine. In Turkey, trade union platforms organised protest demonstrations as well as campaigns in solidarity with Palestine. It needs to be emphasised that the so-called “clash of civilisations” suggested by the ideologues of imperialism has been invalidated not only by the protests of the people of Greece but also by hundreds of thousands of strong demonstrations organised in almost all Western countries. The religious reactionary forces in our region have been trying to make use of this demagogic propaganda. However, these attempts have not diverted the process of weakening that they are suffering in general. Undoubtedly, among other things, the protests of the workers and working masses in Western countries against the imperialist propaganda and aggression have played a positive role in this.

June 2002 ML Organisation of Greece Labour Party of Iran (Toufan) Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey

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BRAZIL

The real aims of imperialist wars ‘There are wars and wars. Revolutionary wars are also possible. Therefore it is necessary to make it clear that in this case we are dealing precisely with an imperialist war. This is obvious, but to avoid false interpretations, so that one is not misunderstood, one must say it openly and clearly’. (Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 34). The imperialist countries make war in order to control the oil, gold, copper, water, in short, the natural and mineral wealth of the peoples, the raw materials, and in order to dominate the markets. Let us examine the reasons for the imperialist wars of recent years.

Asia’s oil is the main objective of the imperialist war against Afghanistan To get hold of the uranium, gas and oil of Afghanistan is one of the objectives that U.S. and English imperialism is carrying out with the war against Afghanistan. Therefore, one of the objectives of that war of aggression is to seize the wealth of that country. In fact, the world’s biggest oil companies, U.S. and English (Shell, Exxon-Mobil, Texaco, etc.), who own almost all the oil in the world, have always wanted to control Asia’s oil. Even though it is a poor country, Afghanistan possesses various kinds of mineral wealth, immense fields of natural gas, uranium and even oil, which have not yet been exploited. Besides, Afghanistan is in a strategic region of Central Asia. The countries there have huge quantities of oil underground. There are five countries in the Caspian Sea basin (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia and Turkmenistan). To get an idea of the wealth of those countries, one should note that the Caspian Sea basin has reserves calculated at 200 billion barrels of oil and that Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan alone have more oil and gas than all the countries of the Persian Gulf. Some of the U.S. companies have multimillion-dollar agreements with those countries to exploit their reserves. Furthermore: war is the quickest way for the capitalists to shore up the seriously shaken world economy, particularly the U.S. economy. In the era of imperialism, war is the most efficient way of getting the capitalist economies out of crisis. That is why there are so many wars in the world, with bourgeois governments always finding pretexts to declare new ones. In the war against Yugoslavia alone, the U.S. government has spent more than US $12 billion; those who profited were the military-industrial complexes of the big powers. That is, the magnates of the arms industry gained billions of dollars from the devastation of Yugoslavia. As soon as the war against Afghanistan began, the value of the shares of various U.S. arms manufacturers (such as Lockheed, Northrop, General Dynamics, etc.) rose quickly in the stock market. Thus, 29 days after the bombardment of the people of Afghanistan began, the value of the stocks of those companies rose an average of 41.69% in the New York Stock Exchange. The demand for durable goods rose 12.8% in October of 2001, driven by the purchase of products related to the arms industry. This was its greatest increase since 1992. The big U.S. companies that benefited from the imperialist wars include Raytheon, manufacturer of the Tomahawk missile; Lockheed Martin, which developed the Patriot missile system; Boeing North American, which specializes in target detection; Northrop Grumman, airplane manufacturer; Atlantic Research, which manufactures rocket motors; Honeywell, installer of 26

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tracking systems; Motorola, which manufactures resistors; and UDS, which fits out and reequips military vessels. Besides that, the U.S. military budget, before the war began, was US $291.2 billion. After the attacks on the WTC it jumped to US $329 billion and, in April of 2002, it exceeded US $379 billion. Thus, in a few months, the military budget had grown by US $90 billion, all for a war against a country in which half the population goes hungry. In conclusion: the monopolies of the U.S. war industry were the greatest beneficiaries of the attacks of September 2001 in the U.S.

Why is there an imperialist war against the Palestinian and Iraqi peoples? In the struggles for control of the sources of the raw material, the most important is the struggle for oil. The Persian Gulf region contains nearly half of the world’s oil reserves; Iraq alone possesses about 10% of these. Of the total oil consumed in the U.S., nearly 10% comes from the Persian Gulf region. To subjugate Iraq is to control reserves estimated at 200 billion barrels of oil. Therefore, the reason that the U.S. is undertaking the war against Iraq is simply to seize the oil reserves of that country, to satisfy the interests of its monopolies. This is happening in the Middle East and Central Asia, where the world’s greatest deposits of oil are found and the U.S. wants to maintain control of the flow of oil coming from that region. The main reason for the war against the Palestinian people is that Israel is located in the most important geo-strategic area of the world for the interests of U.S. capitalism. Besides, the State of Israel has been continually entrusted by the USA to teach the most advanced torture techniques and train the death squads of various repressive governments, as it did in Latin America in the ’70s and ’80s, and – as everything indicates – it is doing it again. In fact, Israel would never have been able to colonize and subjugate Palestine if it did not have the unconditional support of the biggest military power on the planet, the U.S., and of the other imperialist countries. In fact, Israel receives more financial and military aid from the U.S. than any other country, getting three billion dollars a year. But it is not only that: Germany and France are, after the U.S., the two countries that export the most war material to Israel.

Imperialist terrorism against the peoples of Latin America For a long time, the U.S. has been planning, financing and carrying out interventions and coups in the Americas. Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico and Brazil are, without a doubt, the victims that suffered most from the open intervention of the U.S. in recent years. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) stated that the U.S. presence in Colombia is currently larger than what it had been in El Salvador in 1980. The Colombian army, for example, received US $70 million from the U.S. in 2000, and in 2001 that figure jumped to US $519.2 million. Three large transnationals, BP, OXY and Total, have invested huge amounts of dollars in Colombia. BP hired 500 soldiers and 50 officers of the Colombian army to protect its oil installations (Resumen, March/April 2001). In this way, Plan Colombia was initiated by a lobby of U.S. businessmen interested in the Colombian oil reserves. Between 1984 and 1992, 512 soldiers were sent from Mexico to the U.S. for training. Since 1996 the U.S. has already held classes for 4,000 Mexicans soldiers. It is important to remember that the School of the Americas, formed to train officers of the Latin American armies to fight against the revolution, was reopened and renamed the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation. 27

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All this is taking place at the same time as they are building military bases in our continent, such as in Manta, Ecuador, and in Alcântara, in northeast Brazil, and they are organizing military coups in Venezuela and Argentina. The military presence and military expenses of the U.S. in Latin America have grown in the last years, in the provision of weapons, equipment, technical assistance in the field of intelligence and training in all our countries. Officially 5,400 troops were trained in 1988 in various countries (the U.S. has military bases in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Europe; in south Korea and Japan alone there are nearly 100 thousand U.S. soldiers). The truth is that, whether due to the sharpening of the anti-imperialist contradictions, or due to its fantastic natural and mineral wealth and its huge market, Latin America today is one of the main regions that the imperialist countries desire to control. Thus, the monstrous Plan Colombia is far more than just about U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of Colombia. It is a matter of a strategy set in motion to establish the total and complete domination of Latin America by the U.S. monopoly capitalists. And part of that strategy is the creation of new military bases to guarantee the viability of the FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas) as well as the attempt to annihilate the advance and growth of the revolutionary struggle of the Colombian people. The pro-imperialist coup d’etat in Venezuela last April, financed and directed by the U.S., has made clear the policy of U.S. imperialism to guarantee and deepen its domination in Latin America. This is being done by the installation, once again, of open military dictatorships to guarantee its interests in the region. To reinforce the policy of installation of military dictatorships, in June of 1999, the World Bank, after carrying out a 'survey' in 80 countries, divulged a report in which one of the conclusions was that 'there is no evidence that democracy helps the poor more.' Not just that. The report also shows that the real role of the communications media in our countries is to serve as propaganda for the international bourgeoisie and the big national bourgeoisie against the people and the national interests. Therefore, only the popular and workers’ struggles in the streets can really defeat the bourgeoisie and win socialism.

The imperialist war against Yugoslavia The U.S., Germany, France, England, Italy and 14 other countries, led by U.S. imperialism, bombed the people of Yugoslavia for more than two months, under the pretext of defending the rights of the Albanian people of Kosovo. The real interests that they defended in that war were, in the first place, the interests of the war industry monopolies of the imperialist countries, and in second place, the economic and political interests of the imperialist countries, in particular the U.S. and Germany, to extend their control over the Balkans. Previously, that region was made up of socialist countries that formed the Warsaw Pact, which was opposed to the capitalist countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The real interest of imperialism, therefore, was not to defend the population of Kosovo, but to seize the wealth that exists there. The Balkans are rich in oil and have large deposits of chromium, nickel, copper, gold and platinum. What the U.S., Germany and other imperialist countries want is to seize that wealth and exploit it in accord with their interests. To carry out this objective, they need to install a puppet government in Yugoslavia, one submissive to the monopolies and the international banks. In other words, the imperialist governments and countries of England, France, Germany, Italy and the U.S. carried out the war against the Yugoslav people to satisfy their interests of pillage. Another objective of the imperialist war against Yugoslavia was to extend the limits of NATO to the borders of Russia in order to later subjugate her totally. It is no longer news that the U.S. wants to exercise still greater control over the whole European continent. Thus what is behind that 28

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geo-politics of imperialism is the hegemonic control of the Mediterranean Sea, of the straits region (the Bosphorus, Sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles Straits) and of the Black Sea, within the perspective of a Third World War. Apparently Germany and the U.S. have made a pact to delineate their respective spheres of influence in a civilized manner and decide who colonizes what in the Balkan region. But those who think that such a pact will last forever and that the U.S. and Germany will respect it ‘until death, are mistaken. The intense participation of Germany in that region since the Bosnian war makes clear what the interests of German imperialism are in the Balkans. In fact imperialism, in its highest and final stage, is characterized, as Lenin said, by reaction all along the line. In that sense, violence and war are inseparable from capitalism in this epoch. Furthermore: under the conditions of the general crisis of capitalism, the imperialist circles are trying to resolve the fall in the rate of profit, the reduction of markets and the shortage of raw materials by increasing the slavery of the dependent peoples and the ferocious exploitation of the workers. Therefore, they constantly need to further militarise their States, that is, they need fascism. In fact, as Dimitrov defined it very well, ‘fascism is the most open, most imperialist, terrorist dictatorship of finance capital’ (Dimitrov, Workers Unity Against Fascism). Therefore we are witnessing, in a series of countries (France, Italy, Germany, the U.S., Holland, Austria, among many other), the appearance of increasingly fascistic governments. It is important to emphasize, however, the role of shock troops of world fascism that the U.S. dictator, George W. Bush, is playing. In fact, by enormously increasing military expenses, financing and carrying out military coups, intervening in various countries and unleashing imperialist wars all over the planet, the United States dictator is at the head of the greatest reaction in capitalism, in world terrorism.

Modern imperialist war is for the control of oil and the sources of strategic raw materials It is not for no reason that U.S. imperialism has such an interest in oil, the main raw material for the operation of the world economy. The U.S., Europe and Japan consume 52% of the oil extracted on the planet, although they make up barely 13% of the world’s population. The United States alone consumes 25.5% of the world’s oil production. Moreover: the U.S. has reserves sufficient for only another ten years, and its production has fallen since 1999 (Review of World Energy). However, what is even more serious is that if the present rate of consumption of oil is maintained, it is predicted that, in 2020, two-thirds of the reserves of the world’s fossil fuels will be exhausted. In an economy where various sectors – airline companies, automobile industries and fertilizers – depend on generators of electric energy (in the U.S. the main source of energy is fossil fuels) – it is imperative to lower the price of oil in order to get the country out of recession. Also, it is important to remember that Venezuela is the world’s fourth largest producer of oil and that 75% of the refining and trade in this product is in the hands of three monopoly enterprises, Exxon-Mobil (U.S.), BP Amoco (English-U.S.) and Shell (English-Dutch). There, then, is the real reason for the voracity of the large oil companies and the imperialist countries: the domination of countries to take possession of the sources of that raw material which is of strategic importance for the world economy.

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With the capitalist economy becoming continually more dependent and subordinated to the arms industry, wars have been growing in number and intensity all over the planet. In the last decade of the 20th century alone two million children died in armed conflicts, five million became invalids and another 12 million lost their homes. Every month, more than two thousand people die or become invalids due to mine explosions. The wars are presented as ‘humanitarian’ wars when in reality they are wars for economic and strategic interests, they are imperialist wars. Surprisingly, even the World Bank, after analysing 47 wars that have taken place in the world since 1965, came to the conclusion that when one of the main sources of wealth of a country is the export of a raw material, the risk of conflict is the greatest (El País, June 16, 2000). These, then, are the real reasons for the imperialist wars that are taking place in the world today. These are the reasons that the powerful and lying bourgeois media try to conceal in their disinformation news. The more wars that break out, the more bombardments that occur, the greater will be the profits of the monopolies. It does not matter, as it has never mattered to the capitalists and their governments, if children die, if schools are bombed, if a whole people is destroyed. The capitalist owners of the arms industries, just like vampires, are cruel, bloodthirsty, cold and calculating murderers; they are the real terrorists with suits and ties.

Capitalist imperialism and socialist revolution ‘The furious struggle among capitalist groups is the cause of imperialist wars, that is to say, of wars for conquest of foreign territories, and this leads to their mutual weakening’ (Stalin, Foundations of Leninism). As the history of the humanity over last five centuries has shown, the capitalists have always violently defended their ‘right’ to continue exploiting the people. Imperialism is waging a permanent war against the peoples who rise up against that domination, to prevent them from freeing themselves. To pretend, therefore, that the bourgeoisie will peacefully give up power and the means of production under its control is a vain illusion. Surely there is no other road to put an end to exploitation and to defend the interests of the workers against the exploiters, than to carry out a revolution. Therefore, every day it becomes more evident to the workers that is impossible to free themselves from their ferocious and brutal exploitation without a determined struggle and without carrying out a revolution against the base which has generated and given birth to the world system of financial slavery, capitalism. Therefore Lenin, summing up in one sentence his whole analysis of the epoch of imperialism, declared: ‘Imperialism is the eve of the social revolution of the proletariat. In fact, the contradictions of capitalism, and particularly the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, make socialism the only alternative to solve the crisis and save humanity. Therefore, it is also necessary to build a vanguard detachment of the working class, a party that marches forward, that is steeled in the fire of the class struggle and that revives the true revolutionary doctrine of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. A party that conducts its work so that the working class and the popular masses become conscious of the need for the revolution and the seizure of power. Comrades,

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As continuers and heirs of the Paris Commune of 1871, of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917, which established the first victorious State of workers and peasants in the world, of the heroic Cuban Revolution of 1959 and of the Popular Uprising of 1935 in Brazil, we are called upon to employ our force to the maximum in carrying forward the struggles for the liberation of the Brazilian people and for the establishment of true democracy in our country, socialism. Surely, it is this role that each of the members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, the party founded by the hero of the workers, Manoel Lisboa de Moura, will fulfil.

Communism lives! Long live communism! CC of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Brazil (PCR)

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CHILE

A Short History The Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action) CP (PA) has raised to new levels the historic struggle of revolutionary organizations and movements that understood that the only way to put an end to the exploitation of man by man is by the creation of an organization ready to deepen the class struggle. Our ideological basis, of course, is in Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin; moreover we are reviving the work carried out in Chile by Luis Emilio Recabarren, Elías Laferte and Ricardo Fonseca, outstanding communist leaders for both their theoretical and practical struggles in defense of Marxism-Leninism. Later on there were important contributions in times of ideological confusion, carried out by the "Marxist Revolutionary Vanguard" organization. This group united various tendencies opposed to the infamous "peaceful road to power," launched at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under the leadership of the traitor Nikita Khrushchev. This marked the abandonment by many Communist Parties of their real revolutionary work, confining themselves to reforms and economist struggles. They lost every sense of the need to educate and organize the masses for the profound transformations required. Besides the Marxist Revolutionary Vanguard, various tendencies arose that revived Marxism-Leninism in general terms and opposed revisionism. Among these was the Revolutionary Communist Party PCR, which was harshly repressed during the first years of the fascist military dictatorship in Chile.

Founding of the Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action) CP (PA) A few months after the formation of the Proletarian Action Movement, it was understood that the construction of the real Communist Party would not be realized either by mandate or decree, but by the historic need of the masses. When the organization itself, the General Staff of the class struggle, the real motive force of the social revolutions is lacking, the most conscious masses are given the task of the formation of this General Staff. November 8, 1979, the day of the formation of the Proletarian Action Movement (at the 1st National Conference), is considered the date of the foundation of the Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action) CP (PA).

The CP(PA) and its struggles against the Fascist Military Dictatorship In our beginnings as a Party, we faced the most varied struggles, both in ideology as well as in daily practice. We had to confront the military dictatorship, not as a developed and powerful organization, as others that already existed, but as a small organization that was born under the worst repression organized by the Chilean bourgeoisie and Yankee imperialism. In these extremely harsh conditions, the existence of our Party was not easy. We struggled on the one hand against the fascism of the government, which persecuted, arrested, exiled and assassinated, provoking generalized insecurity. On the other hand, we fought as well against those who from the comfort of exile made absurd suggestions about what to do, in a reality that they did not know. They (particularly the revisionists) tried by all means to ignore our existence, accusing us more than once of practically being agents of the security services, or even of working for the C.I.A. (Yankee security agency). Against all these attempts to sabotage our development we came out with our heads held high. 32

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We can give many examples of our main opposition, but the truth and time itself have put them in their proper place: from accusers they became defendants, from supposed fighters they became traitors, from progressives they became people who have openly fallen into reaction. Our work in the resistance of the Chilean people to the military dictatorship was constant. We participated actively in the national protests and strikes, though with a vision critical of their bourgeois and petty bourgeois leadership. Some forms of struggle, particularly the uprising of the communal strikes, that often allowed the dictatorship to concentrate its repression on specific sectors, facilitating the arrest and assassination of the social fighters who took part in them, were criticized by the Party. But we never stayed apart from the struggles that the people took up with valor and determination; on the contrary we were in the front ranks. Our propaganda work by way of wall murals were seen around the world and they actualized our slogans of great dimensions, which afterward were taken up by all the other political forces without exception. Our propaganda never caused confusion, on the contrary, it called for the defeat of the fascists by the struggle of the people, without creating false illusions in the siren songs of organizations that only sought the support of the masses to be able to negotiate behind the back of the people, with total impunity, a compromising and sold out solution within the limits of the dictates of Yankee imperialism.

The formation of social organizations is our constant work. The C.P. (P.A.) has never denied the need for the broadest unity, but we understand that this unity must be understood in deed, and not only in word. Unity and Struggle, with constructive criticism and self-criticism, open to debate but with solid, clear and serious arguments. Thus we have contributed and been founders of innumerable unitary initiatives, of which we name some examples that will serve both to refresh the memory of those who have forgotten, and as information for those who do not know it. - Coordinator of Revolutionary Organizations (C.O.R.) - Broad Front of Liberation (F.A.L.) - Unitary Roundtable of the Left (M.U.I.) - Front for a Democratic Chile - Movement of the Pro-Allende Democratic Left (M.I.D.A.) - Assembly for Democracy and Social Justice - Committees against impunity - Coordinator of Human Rights - Anti-imperialist Coordinator. Within this broad work, the latest period finds us dealing with the development of the United Venceremos Front, in which are united the Rodriguist Identity, the Alternative Socialist Party, the Movement of the Revolutionary Left and our Communist Party (Proletarian Action). Those who do not know us erroneously accuse us of dogmatism and sectarianism. However, all our actions show a unitary work open to the popular masses and their struggles. Our actions also show, corresponding to our proletarian character, firmness in defense of Marxist-Leninist principles, which are now and always will be present, since as principles we neither deny them nor hide them.

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Our Internationalist Tasks In the International field we always seek to fulfill in the best possible way the Internationalist tasks that correspond to us as Communists. In this manner we have developed strong ties with other communist organizations in the world. At various times a delegation of our Party visited Albania at the invitation of the former Party of Labor of Albania (PTA). The ex Peoples Republic of Albania was a country that took up at its time an important ideological struggle against modern revisionism which had taken power in the ex USSR, as well as in the defense of Joseph Stalin and his important ideological work. The Internationalist tasks of the CP (PA) have led us to participate, at various times, in the Seminars on the "Problems of the Revolution in Latin America," organized by our fraternal Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador, among other activities. Thus also, we have been together with the comrades of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Argentina, giving them our support and solidarity, and denouncing the repression to which they are being subjected. We are, besides, part of the International Communist Movement I.C.M., of the Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations. With our articles we have made our contribution to the international journal "Unity and Struggle." We understand that all forms of cooperation and coordination are necessary to strengthen each of our fraternal Parties, and moreover we will do all in our power to deepen the urgent internationalist tasks that we have before us. The internal conditions of the C.P. (P.A.) have not always facilitated our Internationalist tasks, but we are conscious of our responsibilities. We support and will support every people and nation that is fighting against imperialism of whatever kind (English, Japanese, Yankee, Russian, etc).

The Press and Ideological Discussion Since its beginnings, the Party has sought adequate methods to educate the popular masses of our country, to orient and provide tools for the political cadres. Thus our bulletins, newspapers, pamphlets, books, journals and display panels, are examples of the enormous capacity that we have to produce, publish and propagandize Marxist-Leninist ideology. We mention only some of our materials dedicated to political, theoretical and practical education. "Proletarian Action", published by the Central Committee "Trade Union Unity and Struggle" published by the Committee of Trade Union Solidarity "Mochila," published by the Youth Collective Mochila "ArrojaTE" (Get Involved), published by the Committee of Trade Union Solidarity, Educational and Cultural Workers' Section. During our history as a Party, we have also published: The newspaper Adelante (Forward), The Assemblyperson, Workers Pen, Workers World, Force of Women, Our Truth, Red Star, and a series of educational pamphlets such as, "Reformism, Gateway to Fascism," "Biography of Che," "Return to the Future," Nos. 1 and 2 of the International journal "Unity and Struggle," etc. We are proud to have been the only ones to have published (during the 34

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height of the military dictatorship, when the fascists burned Marxist literature) an edition of the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" by K. Marx and F. Engels. Our agitation and propaganda of the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin has been constant by the reproduction of articles, books and pamphlets; we know that all this has an incalculable value for the development of Marxist-Leninist ideas. The present possibilities are better today in material terms. Therefore, the whole Party must seek to take advantage of the necessary conditions to reproduce and copy all materials that enable us to enrich our understanding. The work of propagation of Marxism-Leninism and its ideological discussion makes it possible to consider carrying out initiatives for greater and better leaps along this road; an example of this is the recent brief course in Marxism-Leninism conducted by the Party to the youths of the "Mochila." In the 23 years since the foundation of our Party, the C.P. (P.A.), we can affirm that we have shown the MOST ABJECT FAILURE IN CHILE OF THE REVISIONIST, SECTARIAN, DOGMATIC POSITIONS, ALL CLOSE RELATIVES OF CAPITALISM. We will continue to carry out our most sincere and honest efforts to advance in the construction, strengthening and development of the Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action); this and nothing else is the commitment of true communists, since with it we will really advance in the destruction of capitalism and in the construction of the new socialist and proletarian society. Communist Party of Chile (Proletarian Action)

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COLOMBIA

Uribe's Referendum More Corruption, political games and anti-democracy The Uribe's Referendum is more than anything else a way of supporting the Government through the polling stations, even if it is only a small 25% of citizens with the political rights to do it. Which is a little over the six million people, a small minority, who elected him. The Oligarchy need to get a plebiscite in favour of Uribe Velez which serves to "inflate" his leadership so that he can continue with his vicious campaign of neoliberal ideas, his fascism and total war or state terrorism. At the same time the Referendum will help to legitimise his policies, carried out under the command of Washington. It will also deceive the poor by pretending to cut some of the tax concessions and high salaries of civil servants and MPs while poverty increases and the financial parasite Oligarchy, both national and foreign, increase their privileges and profits. Alvaro Uribe Velez (AUV) knows that his plan to change the regime or "Community State", neoliberal and fascist, disguising his demagogic ideas under slogans or promises like: "Fight against political games and corruption"- demands organising a social support beyond the nodding approvals of the Oligarchy Trade Unions' meetings and the international forums of the imperialism; of the fabricated opinion polls, the reinsertion of paramilitaries, the "the million friends" or informers and the peasant soldiers who increase paramilitary groups like CONVIVIR which legalise and extend the number of paramilitaries. Reality however has been clearing these affirmations. As the anti-popular laws and policies of Uribe start appearing, his public image start suffering. As time goes by Uribe's supporters worry more and more and some already are beginning to wonder if it would be better not to have a Referendum, so as not to "damage his image". Instead they believe they should adopt legal and political tricks to help Alvaro Uribe Velez demonstrate the seriousness and effort to fulfil his campaign promises, so in that way the won't be defeated.

Fraudulent contents This Referendum is a fraud to democracy. One dishonest point is the question geared to support the Government: "Do you agree with all the Articles in the Referendum?". Another trick is to do an unnecessary Referendum with high spending costs (about 250 thousand million of Colombian pesos). In general this Referendum has the trick of linking, apparently "positive things" with anti-democratic poison, full of corruption and political games. This is a Referendum that will impoverish more the workers with a low level increase in their pensions, the freezing of pay rises and the social spending by the State. While on the other hand it will increase the spending on paying the public debt (national and international) and the war against the people. It will also create more unemployment and instability for workers. This Referendum will also strengthen the authoritarian President, the political games and corruption involved in the management of public spending, therefore affecting the local budgets while 36

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allocating more resources to the Executive Power (President and Chancellor), also pretending to extend the service period of Mayors, Councillors, Governors and Representatives, almost all of which disapproved by the majority of people because of their corruptive and inefficient practices. In the name of saving from the national budget they will turn from Uribe's " Community State" towards a Totalitarian State. With the elimination of official bodies in charge of Treasury and local departments of the exchequer, there is no political control from the Government not only on treasury matters but also on human rights. The monopolies (big generators and beneficiaries of corruption) strengthen while using the State to freeze spending and privatise the Treasury controls with public funds. The Referendum does not touch on the essentials that deny Democracy like the criminalisation of organisations, the action and participation of people in the political life of Colombia. Also absent from this Referendum are the right to petition and the right to negotiate and strike, both closely linked. As part of their reactionary task they are looking to introduce an electoral reform and also to reform the Parliament to try and "clean" some Institutions of their bad reputation as bourgeois-proimperialist State, strengthening the party politics at the service of the Establishment and violating the organizations and other political parties that struggle from the opposition to build other alternatives to this dominant system. By penalising the drug use they would make youngsters a target for the Police and the Army, making them more exploited and repressed, even if they are not using drugs they can "plant them", making their parents pay lots of money in fines and solicitors fees. Instead they should be looking into the causes of drug addiction. By criminalising it they will be increasing the huge profits made by the drug cartels and also aggravating the health issues of the addicts avoiding the responsibility of the Government towards public health, employment, education, entertainment and sports.

Abstention: A massive democratic answer It is very important to study thoroughly the debate about the contents and significance of the Referendum. According to some opinion polls Uribe abandoned a "very good idea" of his campaign: "REFERENDUM AGAINST POLITICAL GAMES AND CORRUPTION". Other people can see democracy only exists in the political games, elections and Congress. A lot of people and Organizations consider the Constitution of 91as a great democratic achievement and by defending it they are fighting Uribe. There are many wide and valid fronts trying to fight against this Referendum amongst them is the Left whose duty is to maintain the independence of political ideas, discussing and sharing its democratic convictions to destroy the bourgeois lies about true democracy and to be able to exercise the right to struggle to liberate the oppressed and have political freedom, so that the majority of people, the proletariat, who have always been excluded in the bourgeois-imperialistic order. Alvaro Uribe Velez, the Oligarchy and the imperialism know that by imposing Fascism that destroy the people, deceiving them with their demagogic socio-political measures and using terrorism to crush the rest of people who struggle for their rights. For this reason and to strengthen the Fascism process deepening the Terrorism of the State they are promoting the false "positiveness" of the Referendum.

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They are trying to maintain an image of Uribe as the "saviour", while at the same time launching a "reactivating social plan" for a year that includes low reach and for which there is only a 1/3 of the money. The great majority of politicians at the service of the System support the Referendum so that people can only vote YES, NO or BLANK. They are desperate to obtain the 25% of participation of voters as they believe that with the political games and fraud they would impose, on the small number of voters, the YES that the Government want. That is why they want to disqualify the popular opposition and create obstacles to the right to call people to abstain from voting. It is obvious that an active abstention, along with protest is the only democratic and political answer in favour of the exploited workers, teachers, intellectuals, poor peasants and small and medium owners and producers living in cities; of youngsters and women and of everyone who has been excluded by the powers of the State. Not going to the polling stations not only has the political effect of taking away the validity of the Referendum but also has the tremendous significance of disobeying the orders of the Corruptive, Stateless and cruel ruling leader. Communist Party of Colombia (M-L)

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The Capitalist System in Recession and the Urgency of Strengthening the Communist Parties and Organisations (Excerpt from the Report to the 5th National Congress of the Communist Party of Labor of the Dominican Republic)

During our previous congress we discussed the manifestations of the crisis of the capitalist system, which were then concentrated in Southeast Asia and were also shown in Argentina, Russia and some other countries. In the report to that congress these events were analyzed and explained in the light of the Marxist theory of the significance of the stock market and the rate of profit in the capitalist system but very particularly from the point of view of the fundamental contradictions of that system. At that time, the economies of the Southeast Asian countries were strongly shaken by the crises that were expressed in the precipitous fall of the stock market, the bankruptcies of large enterprises, the increase in unemployment, etc. But the U.S. economy was developing more or less well and since it is the locomotive of the world economy it could influence and avoid through globalization what was taking place in those countries being transferred to other places with the same harshness. Nevertheless, and just as was stated in the same report to the 4th Congress, the fact that many important U.S. enterprises were then reducing their profit expectations and in some cases the general consumption expressed a tendency to reduction, let many analysts realize that the period of economic prosperity that that great power had experienced during the Clinton presidency was coming to an end. What was then an opinion of a future perspective is today a reality, since not only specific areas of the capitalist economy are in crisis, but also the whole world economy is affected and even more is in recession. At the beginning of this, our 5th Congress, we stated that every day there is news about the fall, slight recovery and new and more drastic decline in stocks on Wall Street, which will transmit the same situation to other countries, by virtue of globalization and the fact that these countries practically quote the same stocks and bonds. In the United States, Japan and the countries of the European Union, which are the three big axes of imperialist economic power, their difficulties are on the order of the day. In the U.S., the main enterprises connected to technology and information are enmeshed in financial scandals and have declared bankruptcy, as we will see further on. In Japan, whose problems have been aggravated since the crisis of the late 1990s, it has been impossible to pay off credits of $360 thousand million with the expectation that that situation will last until the year 2004. In addition to this, in the first seven months of the current year, there have been a total of 11,686 business bankruptcies with the possibility that by the end of this year this number will reach 20 thousand. In Germany there have been losses in the millions in important enterprises and unemployment is growing. Siemmens, in the electronic and telecommunications sector, has already announced losses from the beginning of this year alone of slightly more than $359 million, to which it has responded by reducing its payroll by layoffs which, since the year 2000, have affected 42 thousand workers. Some four million workers have lost their jobs in the crisis-recession of recent years. 39

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France, the other most important economy in the European Union, ended in the first half of this year with a budget in the red, with a deficit of $26,100 million, almost $10 thousand million more than in the same period of 2001. The same thing is happening with the big modern technology enterprises, such as Vivendi Universal, a producer of means of communication, which ended the first half of this year with losses of $12 thousand million. A preliminary report dated this same year by the World Trade Organization, WTO, recognizes the existence "of a trend toward strong deceleration of economic growth and world trade. Last year the Gross Internal Product and world trade registered their lowest level in a decade" (...) The institution attributes this fact "to the decline in investments in information technology and in goods; besides that, consumption has declined." It emphasized that this decline is much greater than what had been expected. The estimated growth for the United States is 1% for this year; for Japan it is -2.5% and for the European Union it is also 1%. Manifestations of such crises and/or recessions in the capitalist system have been registered practically since capitalism's appearance, the most prominent one being that of 1929; in 1973, 1974, 1979, 1987, 1990, 1998-1999, and already again in 2002. This confirms the Marxist prediction of the inevitability of cyclic crises under capitalism, and also shows that the periods between the moments of recovery/boom and the appearance of new difficulties, are becoming increasingly short. It is important to emphasize the similarities between the crisis of 1929 and the present one, as well as what is different about this one, in order to get an overview of their general orientation. Like all the classic crises, which include a decline in production, a fall in trade, financial and business bankruptcies, an increase in unemployment, etc. that of 1929 followed a long period of growth and economic prosperity, and the same thing is happening now. Just as now, in 1929 there was also talk of a new economy resistant to crisis. In the period before 1929 there was a process of continual changes in technology that began in the great industrial revolution in the second half of the 19th century and reached its greatest level in industrial production in the mass production technique called Fordism. Now, under the influence of the scientific-technical revolution, it has been claimed as in the 1920s that there is a "new economy," which eliminates the possibility of crises. As in 1929, the present crisis follows the application of liberal policies. Before that crisis, in the academic world and in economic production the ideas of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, among others, predominated. The present crisis is occurring after the most determined and brutal implementation of the (neo) liberal formulas that have done everything possible to impose themselves through suppression and destruction. In both periods it was necessary to resort to the State to dynamize the economy; and in both periods it was also necessary to resort to war as one of the factors of a solution. The ideas of Keynes appeared as saviors for the problems generated by the crisis of 1929. After that came the Second World War, which was also one of its immediate results. Today, implicitly there is another attempt to resort to Keynes and to make the State a vital element in the recovery. At the same time, war, whether it be a regional war, or at least the creation of a general psychosis of war to justify a substantial increase in military expenditures, appears as a policy both to reactivate the economy as well as to reaffirm the domination of markets and the conquest of other areas for investment and trade. The events of September 11 and the war against Afghanistan, the threats against Iraq, the redesign of Plan Colombia into a Plan for the Andes; the project Puebla-Panama that seeks to exploit a wide zone in which there are still untapped and abundant natural resources; the great and unusual enthusiasm in recent months by the Bush administration for the Free Trade Agreement of the 40

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Americas, FTAA, are part of the efforts of U.S. imperialism to maintain a war environment to justify the dynamization of its military-industrial complex, to recolonize Latin America and find new areas for investment of capital.

A Fraudulent System Based on Exploitation The so-called "new economy" has demonstrated the inevitability of crises in the capitalist system, and at the same time it makes evident the fraudulent character of that system. It also makes clear the falsehood of the thesis that in the "post capitalist" era, the workers are also investors, so that, as some bourgeois theorists claim, the class differences between exploited and exploiters have disappeared. Facts show in a most forceful manner the falsehood of this view, and they confirm those characteristics of the capitalist system. On July 22 of this year, the World BBC revealed broadly that the U.S. company WorldCom, one of the most important in the field of telecommunications, had declared bankruptcy. This was a case considered to be "the most important in the history of financial insolvencies," according to the broadcast of July 22 by that news agency. A business with declared assets of some $107 thousand million could not pay debts and interests amounting to just over $30 thousand million. Last year, the energy company Enron created a scandal with worldwide repercussions when it had to admit that it had declared profits of $600 million more than it really had. After this, other business scandals came to light: Adelphi, the sixth largest Yankee cable television enterprise, declared bankruptcy in the middle of this year, due to proven fraudulent maneuvers similar to those of WorldCom and Enron; at the same time, AOL, another large media and entertainment enterprise, had to admit that it exaggerated profits from the installation of internet services, by some $49 million; Xerox, which produces and sells office equipment worldwide, admitted to boosting profits by $1,900 million over those really obtained, although in its edition of June 27, the Wall Street Journal suggested that that figure could reach $6 thousand million. In this carnival of frauds, even General Motors, symbol of U.S. industrial power, had to suspend trading on Wall Street because of suspicions by investors that it, like others, had also inflated their profits to scam possible buyers of its shares. The publicity about all these deceitful practices has affected the current chief representatives of the U.S. political power, exposing the dishonesty of the likes of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. Bush was questioned about the sale of more than 212 thousand shares at a value of $848,560 while he served as Director of the Harken Energy Corp., and less than two months later that enterprise declared losses of $23 million and the value of its shares fell by half. This led to suspicion that in order to make the sale, Bush altered the reality of the company's profits to make the sale of its shares more attractive. Meanwhile, it was proven that between 1995 and 2000, when VicePresident Cheney headed the Halliburton company, an engineering and petroleum services industry, the financial situation of the company was hidden from its investors by altering its books. The obligatory question is: "why are the profits in so many enterprises exaggerated?" It is a practice with two interrelated motivations. First, to hide the tendency of the average rate of profit to fall which, according to the investigations of Karl Marx in Capital, is a major reference point for the decision of investors as to whether or not to invest during a specific cycle. Second, to make the purchase of its shares in the stock market more attractive. This mechanism is the explanation for the so-called "bubble in the values of technology shares", which is nothing more than an over-valuation in the stock market of shares of businesses tied to communications and high technology. During the 1990s the revolution in technology and the marvels created by this became the flagship of capitalism. Even ordinary citizens in a country such as ours were dazzled by computers and could 41

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not resist the temptation of showing off an ever-smaller beeper or cell phone. Modern technology had a boom in the stock exchanges of New York, Frankfurt, London, Tokyo, Paris and other important cities. It was good business to buy shares in corporations in that sector. From 1995 to 2000 investments in information technology businesses grew at a rate of 20%. A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, showed that in 1995 50% of gross investment by businesses for the formation of fixed capital took place in the information technology sector. At the same time, during the period of prosperity in this sector, its shares rose 100%, 200% or even 1000% on the stock market. The deregulation of the movement of capital, the modernization and expansion of capital markets and the new products created by them, led to the development of pensions funds as sources of capital for enterprises, just as large numbers of workers and small savers were seduced by the possibility of making extraordinary profits by buying shares on the stock market. These events led theorists such as Peter Drucker to claim that class differences were disappearing between businessmen, who made use of the savings of their workers as sources of capital for which they paid some dividends, and those workers who benefited by receiving an extraordinary income from these dividends, which at the same time resulted from the compensation of capital in the production process. They try to hide the exploitation by claiming that in this dynamic, businessmen and workers are partners, when in reality what takes place is a crude super-exploitation. Because the businessmen convert the savings of their workers into their own capital, they acquire modern technology with which they reduce the labor time that is socially necessary to produce a commodity and in fact they increase the surplus value, which they deposit into their bank accounts. Thus the savings that are converted into capital are returned as dividends; these will be always an insignificant trifle in relation to the part that the businessmen keep for themselves. That is, if they do not declare bankruptcy. According to that logic the workers are made fools of, because they contribute their savings which the businessmen turn into capital to further exploit them. Capitalism thus exhibits the worst cynicism, but in any case, it is clear that a point has been reached at which it can and must be superceded; never before has it been so clear that production is social and that the superfluous element in the production process is the ownership by a few of the means of production. But since last year the demand for enterprises that use that technology was reduced by a half, practically at one blow and they continued to fall, generating the crisis at its present level and breadth. The declaration of bankruptcy by many enterprises, made the savings over years of hundreds of thousands of people go up in smoke, people who were deceived by the propaganda of the "new economy" which led them to believe that they were investors in the stock market. Now all that remains is to scratch their own. The integrated society of capitalists and workers postulated by the Peter Druckers as an expression of "post-capitalism" has suddenly disappeared. Even if the capitalist has declared bankruptcy, he continues to be a capitalist, because his system counts on laws and a State that will quickly run to his aid. But the worker will continue in the same conditions as ever. Things are more or less as Joan Manuel Serrat sings: "it is over, the night says that the end has arrived, for a moment one forgot what each one is..." For Latin America, the expressions of the crisis are well known and cause much suffering. Argentina began to have problems since the end of the 1990s. In that country there was a brutal process of privatizations, foreign debt and dollarization of the economy and in general of determined application of liberal policies and of the demands of the World Bank and the IMF. In the last three years, it has experienced an economic recession with consequent negative effects on employment; in 42

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this period more than half the population has lived in poverty. Since last December social tensions have grown, impacting on politics. Within months, four governments were toppled by movements of the masses who took to the streets to protest against the economic policies and to demand a change. Brazil had been accumulating problems and at this time is threatened by a recession. Uruguay too. In Ecuador the same reality prevails, the same state of mobilization and will of the masses who have toppled two governments. In general, all of South America is shaken by economic crisis, the constant growth of the popular struggles and of political choices in response to the neo-liberal orientations in the economy.

A Context of National and Social Imbalance Favorable to the Patriotic and Popular Struggle In spite of the tendency to the integration of a world market, of globalizations, the demand by the rich countries to liberalize markets and the capacity never before seen in the history of humanity to produce wealth and guarantee the general welfare of the population, there prevail situations of inequality among nations and within them that demand an urgent solution. In the majority of the countries agriculture continues to be their main source of export. The report of the year 2000 by the WTO states that "almost 50 economies in development receive more than a third of their income from exports from agriculture"; and another 40 countries are considered to be in a similar situation, 50% of their incomes also come from activities related to agriculture. And despite the fact that the rich countries demand total liberalization of the flow of commodities and capital, these countries subsidize their own agricultural products by a total of more than one thousand million dollars a day, that is, almost $400 thousand million a year; at the same time as they maintain duties on imports that are on the average four times greater than duties on industrial products. Realities such as these accentuate disadvantages in the foreign trade of these countries, in that they sell little and cheap and buy much and at least more expensive than they sell. The IMF itself had to recognize, in its report of the year 2000, that from 1982 to 1998, the balance of trade of these countries was mainly negative. The foreign debt, inseparable from those imbalances, has grown in the countries considered to be in development, becoming one of the principal mechanisms for looting by the World Bank and the rich countries of the poor countries. The report of the World Bank of last year provides some statistics that explain by themselves how our countries have been converted, by payment of the foreign debt, into exporters of capital with no benefit in return. The report says that in 1970, the total service on foreign debt of the countries considered to be in development, reached a total of $8,867 million dollars; ten years later, in 1980, it reached $75,254 million and in 2001 it had already reached $381,900 million. During this period these countries always transferred out more than they received. In 1984, they transferred out in debt payment $7,332 million more than what they received in the form of direct or indirect investment; in 1987, they transferred out $25,071 million more; in 1998, $43,753 million more and in 2001, the deficit reached $137,900 million. For countries such as ours, these realities are part of the social and national models of exploitation implemented for decades and they are causes of what Commandant Fidel Castro denounced at the Conference of the United Nations Organization held in Monterrey, Mexico this year, that 4,550 million people live under conditions of underdevelopment; 1,200 million live in poverty; 826 million suffer physical hunger; 854 million are illiterate; 325 million children do not attend school. 43

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These are conditions that present the challenge of a great and renewed effort to unite the majority of those affected in the nation into a great torrent of struggle. It continues to be a task of the highest order to win the masses and to mobilize them toward the objective of changing the wrong course along which the governments have led the country and people. There are plenty of objective interests that support this. All that is lacking is a greater creativity in the propaganda, will and disposition of each of us to go to the masses, to organize them, to educate them politically and to accompany them in their struggle. In the midst of the crisis of the system, the taking of the streets by the workers and other popular sectors is an encouraging sign of world reality. This is happening more and more often and in more places every day. The Dominican communists and revolutionaries are compelled to act in such a manner so that this takes place in the Dominican Republic. In the capitalist crisis of 1929, there was one element that is different from the present time. At that time there existed in almost all countries a movement of the workers and of communist and revolutionary parties with sufficient strength to push forward the struggle of the masses with the perspective of conquering political power. We are compelled to fill this vacuum in the shortest time possible, or else capitalism will pass from crisis to crisis, but it will still dominate. The PCT and the fraternal communist parties and organizations are called upon to fulfill this perspective. Manuel Salazar

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ECUADOR

Yes, It Is Possible to Change This World The old capitalist world The United States, after the Second World War, became the most powerful power in the world. The great development of its economy went hand in hand with the extension of the tentacles of the large U.S. monopolies to all ends of the earth and with the development of its military power. After the Second World War the Soviet Union emerged on the international stage as a great power. After the subversion of socialism by the opportunists and revisionists the USSR became an imperialist country. For several decades the world was marked by the contention and collaboration between the two superpowers, the USA and the USSR. This situation lasted until the collapse of "real socialism," the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the USSR. Despite the capitalist and imperialist character of the USSR, it appeared to many workers and peoples as "a great socialist country," as a "rear base of the revolution," therefore its fall, which took place at the climax of the anti-communist offensive, contributed significantly to the ebb in the revolutionary struggle; it was claimed by the imperialists and reactionaries to be the defeat of socialism and the revolution, the downfall of communism. In reality, what collapsed at end of the 80s of the last century was the revisionist world, social-imperialism. A new international situation existed: The single world market was reconstituted, which had been broken by the October Revolution and the colossal achievements of socialism; capitalism extended to all countries, finance capital in its parasitic and speculative forms became the axis of economic life in the world arena, and the United States was confirmed as the most powerful economic, political and military power. This situation led many bourgeois and opportunist theoreticians to speak of a unipolar world, in which U.S. imperialism was the absolute, invincible and omnipotent master. Socialism had been defeated forever; the end of the history and the extinction of ideologies had arrived. The leaders of U.S. imperialism proclaimed the birth of a "new world order" in which peace, social and economic harmony would reign, where wars would be eliminated. At the same time the Scientific-Technical Revolution took place, which meant an extraordinary development of the productive forces, mainly in the fields of robotics, computers, communications and genetic engineering which allow a huge concentration and accumulation of capital on the part of the large monopolies and the imperialist countries. What we have described above is, in simple terms, globalization. In reality, there is a new situation: capitalism has spread all over the earth, it is globalized and with this, the capitalist chains of exploitation and oppression have increased the dependence of hundreds of countries.

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But this is not a new phase in the development of society, of humanity, nor even of a new phase of capitalism. It is a new expression of imperialism. It has not changed its nature; it has only reached new heights. In reality the world without wars that they promised us does not exist at all; the harmonic development of countries and nations is a fiction. Certainly the United States continues to be the most powerful imperialist power, but other large imperialist powers are arising and claiming "a new place under the sun," the European Union, Germany, Japan, Russia and China. They accept the U.S. power, they ally with it, but they also compete for spheres of influence, geopolitical spaces, markets and natural resources; the armament industry is in full development and the preparations for a new generalized imperialist war are in motion. The logic of things shows clearly that the economic and military superiority of the U.S. is not indefinite. The imperialist system is affected by a great general crisis. The recession and unemployment are the clearest expressions of that situation. It is a situation marked by the general crisis, by a cyclic crisis that is developing step by step and by territorial spaces of a regional character, but which affects the whole system and falls mainly on the dependent countries and the shoulders of the workers. On September 11, the world could see how the economic, political and military symbols of the U.S. were destroyed by a terrorist attack. This event showed the vulnerability of the chief world power, but it also fed the war hysteria, gave support to the Bush administration and catapulted the chieftain of the terrorist hordes which, armed to the teeth, have begun a new imperialist war, first against Afghanistan and which they are threatening to extend to other countries. This is the capitalist world. It is an old and sick world, a society in decay. To paraphrase Lenin we can say: "imperialism is a colossus with feet of clay," powerful but vulnerable, which can be defeated. The gravediggers of the world of capital The capitalist imperialist system is built on the exploitation and domination of thousands of millions of workers of all countries. The huge capital accumulated by the monopolies is produced by the workers; they, despite the great development of science and technology, are the creators of the economy, they are the key to the creation of wealth, they are irreplaceable in the production process. Capitalism cannot exist without the exploitation of the workers. The history of the 20th century has shown, that the working class is the class that has the ideological, political and organizational capacity to defeat capitalism and to build an alternative, a society of the workers, socialism. Life has made clear that the bourgeoisie in establishing its power and building capitalism did it on the basis of wage slavery, but at the same time it created its own gravediggers. The great victories of the workers and peoples could not be consolidated. The new world, socialism, made great strides and extraordinary achievements in the social, economic, cultural and national order, but it was defeated. This is neither the time nor place to explain the reasons and conditions for that collapse. We emphatically state now, as at other opportunities, that this defeat is temporary. Life has shown the qualities of the workers, the revolutionaries and the communists and also their difficulties and limits. But in no way have the facts annulled the utopia of a new world and the brave role played by the 46

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proletarians; on the contrary they have shown that they made mistakes, that they committed errors, but that they will resume the "assault on heaven."

The struggle against imperialism The social peace that was proclaimed with the "new world order" did not happen. On the contrary, class struggle persists in various forms: in the ideological, political, economic, cultural and military sphere. The ebb in the revolutionary and social struggle has been left behind in almost all countries. At various levels and in various forms, the working masses, the youth and the peoples are demonstrating against the oppression of capital and the political reactionaries of the imperialist countries and the local bourgeoisies. The impact of the anti-communist offensive has had great repercussions in all countries; it has struck a blow at but could not wipe out the revolutionary proletarian formations. The ideological confusion, the political and organizational dispersion of the workers and peoples, of the revolutionary parties and organizations is being overcome by a recomposition, rejuvenation and growth of the trade union and mass organizations, of the political formations of the left. The betrayals and desertions, the pessimism and impotence are being pushed aside, into the sewer. The working class and peoples, as a result of the anti-communist offensive, had shifted to the defensive, but since the middle of the 1990s they have begun to recover. The first signs of this were the important general strikes that took place after several decades in France, Germany, Italy, Spain; the large strikes of the Russian workers and miners who rose up against the capitalism that was supposed to set them free; the extraordinary struggles of the working class in South Korea and the wave of strikes of workers and peasants that is continuing to develop in China. When these great events took place there was no lack of soothsayers who spoke of "economist strikes," of a "functional movement," of a workers' movement on the defensive. We revolutionary proletarians saw the contents and the perspectives: the mass participation, the determination, the rejection of the bureaucratic leadership of the unions; we kept in mind their limits, but we accentuated their positive aspect, their potential. Gradually, in an uneven manner, the social movement: the workers, youth, peoples expressed their rejection of the politics of imperialism and reaction, of the adjustments ordered by the International Monetary Fund, of neo-liberalism and globalization. The general crisis of the system sharpened and led to outbreaks in Mexico, Russia, the Asian Tigers, in Brazil; it shook Japan and led to a sustained recession in Germany and the rest of Europe. Later on it hit the United States. It continues, spreading across the whole planet. Most of all it hit the economy of the dependent countries, it struck blows against the workers and peoples, against the youth. In this period the so-called "new social actors" are expressing themselves at an important level and in various countries: the women who are fighting for their place in society, for gender equality and in their more advanced sectors for social transformation; the ecologists and environmentalists who are fighting the destruction of the ecosystem by the large transnational companies and the imperialist countries; the sexual minorities who are struggling for their rights. Clearly, it is not a matter of "new" social actors, they were always in the ring, but in recent years, 47

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their presence and actions have been more evident, they have more strength and they have put forth important demands. This does not mean that the contradiction between labor and capital has disappeared or that the working class does not continue to be the motive force of history. The imposition of globalization: the imperialist policies of undermining the Nation-State, of imposing free trade for the monopolies, of breaking up countries and regions to facilitate their domination, are causing a reawakening of the national movements. It is a very complex and explosive situation. The peoples, nationalities and ethnic groups are resisting oppression, they are protesting, they are rising up in arms and are fighting bravely for their independence, their selfdetermination, their cultural and national recognition, for a just multi-culturalism. The national struggle is marked by the class interests of its protagonists. When the bourgeoisie takes the leadership, it generally puts forth reactionary proposals, it colludes with one or another imperialist country; even when the petty bourgeoisie leads these actions, it is sometimes manipulated by the imperialists. In general the national struggle, despite these problems and limitations, is an important expression of the anti-imperialist movement. In this period, armed conflicts of a national character have broken out in Asia, Africa and Latin America in opposition to imperialist domination, important struggles of a national character within multinational countries such as Ecuador, Mexico, Bolivia, etc. There are also ultra-nationalist and xenophobic manifestations in which ethnic and tribal differences are manipulated by the imperialist countries to stir up armed conflicts among the peoples, especially in Africa. In response to the gigantic concentration and accumulation of capital in the large transnational enterprises, in opposition to the politics of globalization, important actions of resistance and struggle are developing that call themselves the Anti-Globalization Movement. Their ideologists are bourgeois intellectuals who are confronting globalizing imperialism from anti-monopoly positions but not anti-capitalist ones, from ethical positions but not social ones. However this movement has significant expressions and manifestations: it has made itself felt in the arena of polemics and actions, it organizes parallel events and responses to the large events of the imperialist countries: this was the case in Seattle, Davos, Prague and Genoa, it organized forums and demonstrations which included workers, youth and intellectuals who are fighting to exceed the limits of resistance and to pass on to the offensive. It is promoting the World Social Forum. In opposition to the war policies of the imperialists and particularly to the expansionist plans and actions of the USA, there is a growing public opinion opposed to the war, which it is denouncing, unmasking and fighting. This is expressed in the formation of a broad movement against the war, which is holding large demonstrations in the streets and plazas of North American and European cities. This movement contains the most varied social sectors, the intellectuals, youth and workers; it includes men and women of varying political positions. Its cause is just and for that reason it is shared by millions of human beings who are demonstrating in various ways and in different degrees against the war. At present, that movement is centered on opposition to the U.S. war against Iraq, but internally conditions exist for it to be projected against all wars of imperialist aggression. The class struggle, in recent years, has seen popular uprisings that began with the protest of the masses against the harsh material and economic blows of the neo-liberal policies of finance capital and soon reached great heights and aimed at political power, against corrupt and tyrannical governments, and ended by overthrowing them. Such events took place in 1996 in Albania when the anger of the working masses of town and country broke out against the robbery by the banks which made off with the savings of the population. On that occasion a popular revolt began in Tirana and soon spread to the whole country. 48

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A good section of the Albanian people were armed and very soon they organized militias which struck a blow against the reactionary government that had replaced the popular power. In reality events took place that threatened to lead to civil war. On the other side of the world, in Indonesia in 1998 a great popular revolt took place: the student youth and the working masses of town and country erupted into the streets of Jakarta and soon the struggle spread to the whole country. This great battle of the masses took place after more than thirty years of suffering under an odious anti-communist dictatorship, which had ousted a democratic government in 1965 and committed a real massacre of the masses and the communists. The persistent struggle of the revolutionaries, of the workers and peasants of Indonesia which had developed in secrecy, under harsh conditions, broke out and very soon destroyed the corruption and the repression of the Suharto dictatorship. Large waves of masses erupted into the streets, confronting harsh repression, disbanded the government and overthrew it. These actions overthrew a government imposed by force, which had boasted of having defeated the communists forever, which was maintained with the support of imperialism and international reaction, which was displayed to the world as a paradigm of democracy and of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. In 1997 a popular uprising took place in our country which ousted the corrupt government of Bucaram that tried to carry through neo-liberal policies: the mass revolt was centered in Quito, but developed on a large scale across the length and breadth of the country. It was an unusual event. The protests of the workers, of the indigenous people, of the youth and the democratic sectors aimed initially at the economic adjustment measures ordered by the International Monetary Fund, but very soon became darts aimed at the government and demanding its resignation. The streets, plazas, highways and countryside were the scene of angry masses who were able to see clearly the need to oust Bucaram. That action ended in a great popular victory. The analysts of the "left" and right compared the events to the great revolt of 1944 that ousted the government of Arroyo del Río. They celebrated it, but they warned that it was an isolated, extraordinary event that would not reoccur for another fifty years. Beginning in February of 1997 in Ecuador there took place, at various levels but throughout the country, important days of popular struggle: workers' strikes, peasant actions of shutting roads, intermittent but serious struggles of the student youth, teachers and neighborhood residents. The indigenous movement reached new expressions and heights, expressing its demands and problems, but also in relation to general questions, to politics. In 1999 big popular actions developed that affected the life of the whole country, that involved millions of people and made the Christian Democratic government totter. The popular movement has been on the increase ever since. In Ecuador the year 2000 began with new expressions of the popular movement: the workers and peasants, the youth and teachers, the indigenous peoples carried out actions that demanded the cessation of the functions of the President of the Republic, the National Congress and the Courts of Justice. The country was plunged into the worst economic crisis in more than 70 years. The bourgeois institutions were largely discredited. In those conditions, new actors appeared on the scene, a group of Army Colonels who proclaimed their rebellion against governmental corruption and ineptitude. They rebelled and together with the indigenous peoples they proclaimed a National Salvation Government. This event constituted a voice of order. While the plotters negotiated with the Military High Command, the popular masses launched into a struggle at new levels. In all the provincial capitals, provincial governments were formed and institutional buildings were taken over; similar actions developed in many of the municipalities. 49

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The popular movement, which had fought for several weeks in two large columns, one led by the Patriotic Front and the other by the CONAIE [National Confederation of the Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador], on January 21 merged into a single torrent, which achieved extraordinary exploits. The conciliatory attitudes of the leadership of the CONAIE made possible the imposition of the imperialist mandate of constitutional succession. The battle ended at dawn on January 22 with a readjustment of accounts among the bourgeoisie. The popular movement, which had been capable of great actions, did not have the ability to continue the struggle for its objectives that it had put forward, in the popular assemblies, in the Congress of the People and in the Parliament of the Peoples of Ecuador. The popular masses had the audacity to attempt to storm heaven, they advanced to a certain degree, but they had not obtained their objective. In the year 2000 in the Philippines the working masses of town and country, the youth led a great uprising against the measures of the International Monetary Fund, against corruption, and they demanded the resignation of the President. Once again the peoples showed their capacity for battle, the political perspectives of their struggle and they achieved an important victory, the overthrow of the government. On December 19, 2001 large contingents of men and women fought in the streets of Buenos Aires against the impact of the economic crisis that broke out over convertibility; the repressive forces were used to the fullest and they engaged in savage repression, leaving several dozens dead. The masses demanded the resignation of the President. On the evening of December 20, President De La Rúa resigned, complying with the orders of the United States State Department. Argentina was plunged into a great economic crisis and torrents of dissatisfaction of the masses of workers and peasants, the unemployed, youth, teachers and the retired accumulated. New forms of struggle, the blockading of highways and streets; new forms of organization, the picketers and committees of the unemployed, developed. The revolutionary left fought incessantly and organized the uprising which in the end took place. Millions of poor Argentines, from the city and the countryside, came out in the streets, besieged the institutions and threw out several governments in a few days. The responses of imperialism and the Argentine capitalists to the popular uprising could not make it subside. The strikes, mobilizations, seizures of supermarkets and food, the besieging of banks and other institutions took place intermittently. The struggle continues and the end is still to be determined. In all ways, the workers and their political organizations of the left are advancing, growing qualitatively. Other such demonstrations of the struggle of the masses took place in various countries of the world: in Paraguay the workers and peasants in great days of struggle had an impact on the political life of the country; in Brazil the Movement of the Landless and other sectors of the working people took part in a hard struggle against their conditions of misery and in the struggle for their rights, in Bolivia the indigenous people and peasants burst into the cities and made the bourgeois institutions totter. Similar events are taking place in Costa Rica, in various Asian countries. In Latin America, in recent years, there has been an important development of the democratic forces, of the left and revolutionaries who are participating in the electoral struggle. Alternatives proposals such as those of Chávez in Venezuela, Lula in Brazil and Gutiérrez in Ecuador won 50

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electoral victories; the forces that put forth the candidacy of Evo Morales in Bolivia the grew significantly, and the Broad Front in Uruguay is one of the most likely choices in the next electoral process. These are new situations that show the sharpening of the contradictions with the oligarchies and the advance of the democratic forces as well as of some who hold nationalist and patriotic positions. In each case, they have awakened great expectations among the masses and reactionary conspiracies by imperialism and its servants. Objectively these events show qualitative changes in the balance of forces on a regional scale.

A new revolutionary wave For several years we have said that the defeat of the revolution and socialism meant a great setback for the proletariat and the peoples, but that it in no way showed the inviability of socialism or the supremacy of capitalism. At the same time, we said that the ebb had touched bottom and that we are passing through a process of reawakening of the revolutionary movement of the workers and peoples, that it would reach a new high in the struggle of the masses and finally a new revolutionary upsurge, a new revolutionary wave. Now, faced with these events, we state emphatically that a new wave of revolutionary struggle has begun. It will unfold unevenly in different continents and countries and one day it will again break the chain of imperialist domination, at the weakest link, and the workers and peoples, the revolutionary proletarians have the ability to lead the popular torrent toward a rupture with the system.

Imperialism and capitalism are enmeshed in crisis, harassed by the struggle of the workers and peoples Globalization and neo-liberalism have weakened the revolutionary movement of the masses, but they cannot put an end to the resistance and struggle of the workers and peoples, not can they eliminate the competition among the monopolies and the imperialist countries. The "new world order" proclaimed by the U.S. imperialists, in these conditions, cannot be realized. The terrorist attack of September 11 was made into a new condition for the attempt to establish the omnipotence of U.S. imperialism. Based of the partial military victory that it won in Afghanistan, the Bush administration believed that the time had come to impose its absolute control by consensus among its allies and by force on the rest of the world. The imperialist war and State terrorism provoked by the United States with a great display of weapons and technology made them think that they were omnipotent. They boasted of their military victory over the poorest country on earth, politically isolated and badly armed. That victory has filled the U.S. imperialists with euphoria and pride and the opportunists and the weak with fear and impotence. There were many analysts who predicted that the new conditions would make the struggle against imperialism very difficult and that it would be impossible to overcome capitalism. They proclaimed the need to humanize capitalism, to oppose globalization and neo-liberalism from democratic positions. In short, all kinds of tricks to hide their pessimism in some cases, and their reactionary militancy in others. Then came the rebirth of the "new world order," this time in the hands of George Bush jr. The uprising in Argentina had the virtue of overcoming pessimism and impotence. From the South the popular masses shook up the playing field of imperialist domination. 51

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The spontaneous movement or the revolutionary movement of the masses The struggle against imperialism and capitalism registers the actors and circumstances that we have described briefly. That same content registers confrontations that are no less sharp and transcendental in the realm of theory. A great debate is unfolding among the protagonists and also among the spokespersons, among the "analysts" and theoreticians of the most varied stripes. There are also developing polemics among the revolutionaries, but they have a different content and purpose: to learn from the experiences and lessons and to find the best ways to organize and make the revolution. One thing is clear. These large swells of the popular struggle involve millions of people, they are shaking the world of capital, they are awakening great expectations, they are becoming reference points for study, examples for the workers and peoples. Certain recurring theses claim that those events put the lie to the role of the political parties of the revolutionary left and particularly to the communist party. According to those ideas, the new social actors, the indigenous masses in the case of Ecuador, the unemployed in Argentina, are the main protagonists, for some, the only ones. Those social sectors are rebelling against social injustice and corruption and they are fighting for a more just world, for sustainable development, they are opposed to the tutelage of political parties and they on no way put forward the dictatorship of the proletariat in place of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. When the course of struggle is not contaminated by the political formations of the left, when their banners are not raised, the movement grows, its advances are unstoppable. According to those points of view, the new times are leading to a confrontation and will end in a confluence of "civil society" that will open the gates to a new dawn. We will try to analyze these events in their dialectical development: they are extraordinary expressions of the organization and struggle of the masses; they are manifestations of the creative ability of the workers and peoples; they show in their development new forms of struggle and organization. They are the clearest evidence of the sharpening of the class struggle, of the fights of the workers against capitalism, of the peoples against imperialism. They are great struggles of those at the bottom who are shaking the world of capital. They are a consequence of the tenacious work of the parties and organizations of the revolutionary left, of the communists on the road to organize and make the revolution. The spontaneous character referred to as one of the qualities of these great movements is relative. Certainly significant contingents of the masses of fighters take to the streets full of anger, fed up with injustice, exploitation and poverty, and whose action is based on anger. It is also true that a good part of the popular fighters are involved in the march of events, infected by the movement, mobilized by the slogans and general calls, by the surge of fighters. On the other hand it is also true that in the midst of those battles there are various political organizations of the revolutionary left, the communist party and that their presence goes beyond their membership, it involves the social base of the revolution, the very forces of those political formations. There are also present various organizations and forms of social-democracy and opportunism, including bourgeois voices, organizations and forces that are trying to divert the movement and take advantage of it to settle their internal disputes. There are large mobilizations in which revolutionaries and democrats, patriots and rebels flow together with important mass contingents who are opposed to poverty and corruption, to tyranny and repression. This circumstance, the relatively spontaneous character of these struggles, from our point of view, instead of being virtues of the mass movement, expresses its limits. That would explain, 52

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among others things, the reason why these uprisings, despite their size, only led to the downfall of certain governments and ministers and of some neo-liberal policies. This allows imperialism and the local ruling classes to maneuver to control the movement for their own gain, even to take advantage of it to confront and sometimes to resolve their own contradictions. In Albania the popular rebellion, despite its armed contingents, since it lacked unified leadership and clarity of objectives, threw out one government, which was replaced by the social democratic party that is maintaining the same social order. In Indonesia, the dictatorship was replaced by another bourgeois government which was just as much a servant of Japanese and U.S. imperialism. Although the struggle continues, the capitalist system is a harsh reality. In the Philippines history is repeating itself, the masses only managed to oust the President, and things are continuing as ever before. In Ecuador the orders of the U.S. Embassy were imposed and the popular movement was not able to continue the struggle at the same level and even less to raise it to new levels of revolutionary violence. In Argentina the designs of imperialism to smother the flames of the rebellion of the masses are very clear, facilitating political readjustment among its servants. These are the limits of the movement that should be taken into account by the revolutionaries in order to surpass them. This does not mean, as some claim, that these budding insurrections are just functional, improvised expressions of the people's wrath, catalysts for readjusting and maintaining globalization and neo-liberalism. We subscribe to the principles of dialectical and historical materialism that the masses are the makers of history, that the liberation of the workers is the task of the workers themselves, the Leninist maxim that without revolutionary theory there cannot be a revolutionary movement; the indispensability of the existence and work of the revolutionary party of the proletariat. Life itself, the exploitation and plunder by imperialism and capitalism, teaches the workers and peoples the hard roads of subsistence, but it is revolutionary theory, Marxism-Leninism, that provides them with the arms and tools of organization and struggle, above all for the overthrow of the system and the conquest of the new society. From this perspective the big popular uprisings of which we have spoken are dress rehearsals for the armed popular insurrection that will overthrow the world of capital. For that situation (the revolution) to become a reality it is necessary that the revolutionary organizations, the MarxistLeninist communist party keep in mind that the process of the accumulation of forces that approaches the final battles of the social revolution should count on the study of these great lessons. Imperialist globalization and the great crisis that is shaking the system feed the discontent of the working masses, emphasize the important contingents of fighters, they form a setting for the work of the revolutionaries, the investigators and analysts who want to contribute to the cause of national and social emancipation, they are the crucible that will permit the growth of the organizations of the revolutionary left, the development of the consciousness of the masses.

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We revolutionaries must conduct our work according to the economic, social and political conditions of our countries, according to the development of the situation and keeping in mind the concrete problems. One of the ways to break the chain of imperialism is to transform these popular uprisings into armed insurrections of the masses that can, in some cases, win provisional revolutionary governments and/or open the gates to the revolutionary civil war, or legitimize guerrilla warfare; in any case, to give rise to new levels of the revolutionary struggle. Let us not forget that revolutionary guerrilla warfare, the people's war, is one of the roads to the conquest of power and that it has not been annulled, that it has shown its validity and power in the past, leading to the victory of various processes leading to socialism, and nowadays it is unfolding at important levels in Colombia, Nepal and the Philippines, in Mexico and Peru. Whichever of the roads that we must take to overthrow imperialism and its servants, we revolutionaries have to be clear about our tasks and responsibilities: we have to build, in the midst of the economic, political and ideological confrontation, a revolutionary movement of the masses, a people's armed force and a brave and bold Marxist-Leninist party. We must not forget the task of dismantling the repressive forces. Our analysis emphasizes these extraordinary events, to unite the different forms and levels as the struggle of the workers and peoples against capital and imperialism unfolds to overthrow them and establish a new world, the society of the workers, socialism. Therefore, for us ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE as a condition of destroying capitalism and to once again begin the march to socialism. The new world will not arise spontaneously; it will not be gift from anybody. It must be based on action, the work of the workers and peoples, the organization and struggle of the revolutionaries, an expression of proletarian revolutionary theory and the practice. From this viewpoint our proposal assumes the probability of fulfilling this task and the protagonists of that great achievement: YES IT IS POSSIBLE TO CHANGE THIS WORLD! For the millions of people who make up the working masses it is necessary to put an end to the situation of infamy and misery, for the trade unionists it is on the agenda to fight for the defense of the labor's gains and to win new rights, for the national movement it is a vital necessity to defend itself from the globalizing offensive of imperialism and to take the initiative, for the youth it is essential to raise the banners of freedom and social transformation, for the peasant masses it is urgent to fight for their demands, for the women and ecologists new goals are presented in the fights for social and national liberation, for the political formations of the left and the revolutionaries, for the Marxist-Leninist party, the new situation presents challenges to take up. Pablo Miranda Ecuador, January 2003

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MEXICO

Latin America and the Proletarian Revolution Once more it has become fashionable to talk about the Latin American Nation, about the Great Motherland and about the possibility of a State of Latin America. Old prejudices are being revived and revolutionary tactics are being buried. Our party emphasizes the great relevance of the development of correct proletarian tactics and strategy to push forward the revolution. It is necessary that communists respond to these tendencies. To talk today about everything that is Latin American, about Bolivarism, Juarism and other catchy phrases, such as “another world is possible” is not just a question of demagogy. With this the inconsistent bourgeoisie is trying once again to conceal the contradictions between the peoples and imperialism. Because of the deepening of the contradictions in our society a number of sectors of the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie are forced to somehow confront the imperialists and the most reactionary sectors of the national oligarchy. With this the former are trying to break with their political and economic dependence and to foster a plan of development based on capitalism “with a human face.” Certain layers of the bourgeoisie and especially the petty bourgeoisie are attached to this obsolete formulation with the hope of averting imperialist domination together with the inevitable demise of the present system. This reveals once more the inconsistent nature of a bourgeoisie which, over two centuries, has been formed according to the needs of the imperialists. This is a reality which many fail to accept. And naturally, within the bourgeoisie, the oligarchy defends these theses in a declarative way. Some sectors of the bourgeoisie use this phraseology to negotiate better conditions and the possibility of capitalist development. The petty bourgeoisie franticly supports these trends with the intention of keeping its social status, and possibly to improve it.

The formation of Latin America Regarding the historical aspect of the formation of Latin America, we believe that during the time of the anti-colonial struggle against big European monarchies (Portugal, France and Spain) there indeed existed objective and subjective conditions for the creation of a Latin American nation with a centralized State. This possibility was due to a number of conditions: 1. The economic development of the local bourgeoisie and feudal aristocracy. 2. A similar state of oppression and exploitation, which were inflicted upon the indigenous peoples, and upon Black and Asian slaves. 3. Among the descendents of colonizers, those with stronger political, economic and cultural backgrounds enjoyed a common origin and national character. 4. The masses hated the centers of European domination. A common psychology flourished. 5. A common language for broad economic and social relations was used in the territories dominated by the Spanish crown. 6. Some economic ties between the colonies. 7. The bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie had similar plans for the development of commerce and industry. 55

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8. The development of liberal, secessionist and Pan American ideas (Bolivar, Morelos, San Martin).

Reasons for the failure of the Latin American nation Why the formation of a Latin American nation and state never came into effect? 1. Latin America was deprived of a strong bourgeois commercial nucleus capable of developing a sustained effort to establish solid political and economic ties. 2. The absence of economic ties between different regions. 3. Prevalence of forms of pre-capitalist production, which were backward and unproductive. 4. Production was predominantly agricultural and backward. 5. The adoption of autarchic measures in large areas. 6. Lack of a common army, or even of coordinated military actions against the colonial powers. 7. The landlords and some sectors of the bourgeoisie and their leaders had a global local of the historical process. 8. Lack of extensive means of communication and of initiatives to develop them quickly. 9. The commercial bourgeoisie had neither the economic capacity nor the will to suppress barriers between territories, which would have been necessary to create such a nation. 10. Lack of sufficient accumulation of capital as a result of the policies of colonialism and the wasteful attitude of the local bourgeoisie and aristocracy. 11. The peoples were isolated from one another (as a result of longstanding issues such as castes, racism, slavery, serfdom and isolation). 12. The indigenous peoples were denied as such within the struggle for independence. 13. The level of national conscience (on the level of Latin America) never went beyond this embryonic stage due to the character of much of the relations of production, the reactionary influence of the Catholic Church, as well as unresolved issues such as the problem of castes, which overwhelmed the peoples of Latin America and would have taken decades to overcome. 14. The feudal aristocracy had greater weight than the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie. Hence, regionalism and narrow-mindedness prevailed. Besides this, the feudal aristocracy was too tied to the Spanish monarchy, which helped the first to preserve its power. 15. The local bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie involved in the struggle lacked the capital and the political and military abilities to carry out radical reforms: to dominate the landlords by means of expropriation and the abolition of slavery and serfdom and to prevent the colonial powers from entering ports or collecting taxes. The bourgeoisie was too cautious in assessing the extent of the risks involved in the struggle against the European monarchies. 16. Most of the leaders and the petty bourgeoisie saw mainly the local implications of the victories achieved. 17. The participation of the popular masses was not sufficient in some places. This depended on how radical the demands of the insurrection were. 18. Lack of a clear centralized economic program to be applied in the first liberated regions, which would ultimately lead to a final victory. 19. Looting, pillage, anarchy and destruction of forces of production were not prevented by the leadership and the bourgeoisie. 20. Communication and economic ties between liberated territories were not fostered. 21. The struggle against colonialism was not swift enough. Ultimately, the bourgeoisie preferred to unite with the landlords and together with them to form reactionary oligarchies, which proved incapable of projecting unity. 22. The English and North Americans threatened intervention. This proved a serious obstacle to the pretensions of the Latin American national bourgeoisies. 56

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23. The bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie did not take full advantage of the benefits brought by the conquests of large territories, such as Mexico-Central America, the Great Colombia (Venezuela, Colombia, including Panama, and Ecuador)-Bolivia, Argentina-Chile, BrazilUruguay-Paraguay. These tasks were too demanding for the strength and capabilities of the struggle for independence lead by the national bourgeoisies.

The Character of Latin America Of course, this false Pan Americanism includes within itself a new manifestation of oppression of the toiling masses. Let us remember that as a result of this struggle a number of nations and states were formed with a reduced level of their mission, under the leadership of the classes who own the means of production. This “Hispanic” façade which appears together with the Latin-American feeling, was initially called Hispano-American and later some tried to rename it “Indian-Latin-American.” These are circumstances which in the beginning assisted movements of segregation, in the end favored the local bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie, who were most interested in the independence movement to exploit the peoples. As a result of its historical development these features symbolize the general character of the peoples of Latin America. The term “Latin America” should not be rejected on linguistic grounds because “it conceals the domination of the Indigenous peoples and their specific historical formation,” or because “the French-speaking part of Canada is not part of this ensemble.” This term is related to a historical formation of peoples, ethnic groups and nations with common features. Whatever is “confusing” or “unilateral” in this term today is not a point of discussion. If in the beginning this term had a unilateral or dominant orientation, today we should acknowledge it as a symbol, the same way as we today use the term European or indigenous. We accept their essence without chauvinist narrow-mindedness. The Latin American nation does not exist, not to mention a Latin-American State. Instead, a number of nationalities exist, which have a number of common features, but have followed different historical paths despite constant interconnections. The term “Latin America” applies to a group of nation-States with common features. Those common features which, despite different historical paths taken by these nations, are most relevant to the revolutionary prospects of the proletariat and its internationalism, are: 1. The conditions of economic, political, religious and ideological domination are in general, in form and content very much alike. These are under the coordination of the same imperialist programs (Southern Command, Northern Command, OAS, FTAA, CAFTA, ALADI, APEC, Mercosur and others). 2. Their mixture of peoples is the same, although they preserve their own ethnic groups. 3. Some aspects of the national character and psychology are common. 4. The indigenous peoples are similarly oppressed. 5. The model of dependent capitalist development is part of the same chain of domination. 6. The historical relations of proletarian internationalism. 7. The proletarian and peasants’ struggles have the same roots and interests. 8. Poverty is common to the toiling masses of these countries. Also, the forms of social explosions are similar. 57

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9. The same attitude (although at different times) of the Latin American regimes towards suppressing and liquidating the struggle of the masses. Latin America is a category that goes beyond nations. It applies to all that is common among the indigenous, mestizo, black, white and other peoples who established themselves in our countries. These people today form the masses of workers, peasants, and middles classes whose interests are antagonistic to those of the bourgeoisie. Latin America is an group of nations with a common language, a similar history, with many common features of imperialist oppression, with very distinct forms of class struggle, in which the ruling classes cling to power in a similar way, with psychologies which developed in parallel under similar conditions, with similar forms of economic development and economic relations, with economic relations controlled by the great financial centers. The peoples of Latin America are linked historically by a set of common material conditions and are impelled to wage a consistent struggle, under the leadership of the proletariat, to liberate themselves from the chains imposed by capitalism-imperialism, which will lead to the proletarian revolution.

The bourgeoisies and the petty bourgeoisies of today are incapable of promoting unity because they are too weak economically with respect to the oligarchies, which are directly tied to the imperialists, and because they are unable to create international economic ties outside of those already existing. They lack internal unity and they suffer from the disease of capitalist accumulation, which will inevitably disintegrate their best economic institutions, thus forcing them to follow the leadership of the imperialists even when they promote changes. The attitude of the national bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie It has been proven by the history of Latin America that once independence was achieved, only the petty bourgeoisie and certain sectors of the bourgeoisie, who had little influence on the bourgeois State, were the only sectors that supported the ideas of a unified bourgeois Latin America. In the course of the revolutionisation and radicalization of the petty bourgeoisie many have voiced (and continue to voice) their support for a unified Latin American nation-State, or at least for something more realistic, a brotherhood of independent states of Latin America. This is through the bourgeois Bolivarian idealism, by means of appealing to bourgeois dreams of harmony, democracy, republicanism, a unified market and the “struggle” against imperialism, to compete with the latter over the exploitation of the proletarian and peasant masses. This petty bourgeois radicalism usually merges with nationalist trends of certain sectors of the bourgeoisie, who struggle to take control of the state apparatus and to revive the national economies (obviously, despite their program for development and diversification, based on even greater exploitation of the toiling masses without foreign interference). Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Lucio Gutierrez in Ecuador and Lula in Brazil are trying their best to redefine their relationship with imperialism, as has been done by various democratic regimes more or less successfully for more than a hundred years. They are also trying to redefine their ties with the rest of the bourgeoisies of Latin America. This political ideal has been inherent to the Latin American bourgeoisies since the first Latin American States were established. This represents one of the long-standing contradictions between bourgeoisies, which has triggered a number of secessionist, nationalist and populist trends.

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This contradiction and its interpretation have created a lot of confusion for almost two centuries of the history of the continent, regarding the exploitive and oppressive nature of the bourgeoisie, the role of the bourgeoisie in the history of capitalism. They try to conceal the class struggle by blaming everything on imperialism. The contradictions between the national bourgeoisies and imperialism are prominent. These struggles are over control of the country, the surplus value extracted from the masses, the orientation of the economy and the politics of the State, generally, over ownership of capital. However, the imperialists have recruited the local oligarchies and political agents to secure its rule. This does not alleviate the contradiction, but establishes a complex system of nepotism in economic relations, economic contracts, investments, access to credits and capital in the imperialist countries, participation in the allocation of state resources, and control over the government and State. This does not prove that the struggles for national liberation are obsolete. However, these need to be conducted by revolutionary forces, leading to the masses seizing power and the proletarian revolution. Otherwise these struggles will most certainly be defeated. These classes want to materialize a “second independence” and, therefore, they wish to revive their putative fathers of the epoch of pre-monopoly capitalism, and concretely, of the times of the anticolonialist struggles. They plan a new path of capitalist development and even envision an imperialist Latin America capable of suppressing US imperialism’s domination. The Latin American oligarchies scorn the liberal bourgeoisie (like Allende, who pretended to be a socialist, or Arbenz, who was accused of being a communist) who advocate the democratization of the social and political life of the countries and propose more economic programs to speed up the process of capitalist production (transportation, communication, infrastructure and industrialization). This needs to be understood in the context of the reactionary character of the national oligarchies, their role in the economy, the fact that they serve the imperialists. The national oligarchies resort to any means, including brutal ones, to secure the growth of their capital without anyone questioning their behavior as long as they have the blessing of the imperialists and dictators. In fact, a number of liberal fractions within the big bourgeoisie, followed en masse by the petty bourgeoisie, frequently disagree with this state of affairs, and because of certain economic interests they clash with imperialism and even with other sectors of the oligarchy of their own country. But because they fear imperialism and other sectors of the oligarchy as well as the working people, and eventually due to their inability to perform independently, their resistance is easily suppressed and is strongly dependent upon the sacred laws of capitalism. Sometimes these initiatives help capitalist development, which strengthens the position of these oligarchies; however they meet furious resistance from the great monopolies and reactionary sectors of the oligarchy, who are incapable of taking advantage of this economic “development.” The confrontation of imperialism with the government of Hugo Chavez is just one example of how imperialism is unwilling to give up its interests. In doing so imperialism resorts to all kinds of sabotage, extortion, provocations, attempts at coups, vicious propaganda and whatever other means they may have at their disposal. The imperialists may call Hugo Chavez a communist, as they did with Allende, Arbenz and other representatives of the national bourgeoisie. Nevertheless, he is a bourgeois; let us remember that anyone who threatens the interests of the imperialists is called a communist, regardless of their background, and must be annihilated.

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Some may argue that these bourgeois ideas brought “development;” we do not cast doubt on that, however… wherever they were applied things ended up the same way: the consolidation of a powerful oligarchy, tied up with the imperialists more than ever (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina). Undoubtedly, there have existed in Latin America governments committed to economic development, with agrarian reforms in favor of the peasantry, with public education, with the struggle against cultural backwardness, against the most brutal forms of oppression and exploitation, against transnational oil companies, at times against the United Fruits, against Anaconda, etc… nobody puts that into question. Some could argue that we communists are too simplistic, that we do not value the contribution of this type of regime (present or past), that we only pay attention to the economy and that we are not brave or tactful enough to acknowledge the merits earned by these governments. We communists reject these accusations as calumnies. The communists acknowledge the courage, honesty and “good will” of many of those governments, as they eventually confronted imperialism and the oligarchies of their countries. The core of the problem is that despite the enthusiasm involved in their stand, these attempts could not create a higher order and never went beyond issuing a number of nationalist measures, which could only perpetuate the laws of capitalism. There is no doubt that these forms of regimes foster a great deal of illusions among the masses and may be become very popular. But what they ultimately want is to call upon the masses to defend them in order to use them to promote the market economy and the interests of the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie. The proliferation of this form of bourgeois democratic regime is the result of political crises within the oligarchy, a manifestation that the popular masses do not agree with the current state of affairs, even though they are not in a position to change their conditions. Thus, the masses support the populists, social democrats and anyone who promises reforms and pushes a nationalist line. Do we need capitalism before we destroy it? We have seen this too many times, the popular masses have suffered enough already.

Bourgeois nationalism in Latin America Latin America plays a role in the development of capitalism-imperialism, in the international division of this system, it is an area of oppression and exploitation of cheap labor power, of scattered production controlled by great industrial centers, a market of waste products and financial speculation under the control of the IMF (International Monetary Fund – note of translator), the World Bank, the great banks based in the US and other powers, as well as Wall Street, a vast region of neo-colonial and colonial oppression subjected to the great international corporations. The role played by its oligarchies is consistent with these economic and political conditions, and not even those sectors of the oligarchies which rebelled against this state of affairs ever managed to introduce fundamental changes. At most, they have advocated archaic independentism practiced in the pre-monopoly epoch. Once again, their libertarian dreams and fantasies fail to come true, as imperialism is not a “bad’ or “mafia” country, as they like to call it, but a historical epoch which embraces the entire world. Nationalism in Latin America has shown that the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie always betray the most fundamental interests of the proletarian and peasant masses. The bourgeoisie only pursues its own interests: where they gave land to the peasants, they did this in order to remove the landlords from power and to extend the sphere or action of the market economy, which ultimately imposed on the peasantry a new form of oppression, to make possible the accumulation of capital, which brought nothing but misery to the popular masses, the proletarization 60

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or complete subordination to the agriculture monopolies. What country of Latin America is not a witness to all this? Whenever the bourgeoisie promoted or supported the union movement, the struggle for collective contracts and other social conquests of the working class, it was meant to reorganize capitalist labor, to free the proletariat from a number of feudal restrictions, which hinder capitalist exploitation. But by no means has the bourgeoisie ever meant to liberate the working class or undermine the foundations of capitalism. Can we draw any other conclusions from these circumstances, which push the proletariat to line up with the interests of the bourgeoisie and its State? The most nationalist bourgeoisies have been the most oppressive against the working class, the peasantry and other layers of the toiling masses. The bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie promise that their nationalism has a great future. Chavez, Lula, Gutierrez (like Cardenas, Peron, Allende, Cardoso and others in the past) look like as if they were saints. However, the refuse to break up with the system, they adjust themselves to the democratic legal framework imposed by the bourgeoisie, they stay faithful to the preservation and “progress” of capitalist laws and institutions. This is what the organizers and participants of the World Social Forum dream about. Those who work hard to win the toiling masses to their side in Bolivia, Mexico and the rest of Latin America are no different. Leading representatives of the bourgeoisie may call upon the toiling masses with the appeal to LatinAmericanism and to the great national interests. However, this is not a gain for the toiling masses. We should never forget that populism, by pushing the masses towards actions, pursues clear objectives, definitely not in the interests of the latter. Desperation and misery should not impel the toiling masses to engage in economist struggles, tailing the bourgeoisie, as we have seen many times in the history of Latin America. Unfortunately, this false struggle was supported by those communist parties, which were corrupted by revisionism and, hence, fell under the leadership ideologically and organizationally of the petty bourgeoisie and its intellectuals. Something similar, which has characterized the antagonism between opportunism and MarxismLeninism, is inferred in the polemics between Victor Raul Haya de la Torre and Jose Antonio Mariategui. This debate concerns the dividing line between bourgeois nationalism and proletarian internationalism, between tailing the national bourgeoisies and embarking on the struggle for the proletarian revolution, between strengthening the bourgeoisie by turning the toiling masses into a fifth column and raising the class struggle.

Our Position: to develop the class struggle towards the revolution Our line should exclude all expressions of opportunism and bourgeois and petty bourgeois nationalism, which are concealed in slogans like “national unity” or “Latin America”. The proletarian thinking shakes the petty bourgeois thinking. The masses do not need to be surprised: capitalism and the banners of bourgeois nationalism must give way to the red banner of proletarian internationalism. If bourgeois nationalism in Latin America has a certain success within the masses, this is due, among other things, to the fact that we communists have done little to elevate the level of consciousness, of understanding of the role and historical interests of the masses. Little has been done to develop a revolutionary line. We have displayed a number of weaknesses, organizationally, ideologically and politically. Our tactics have not been very efficient, and also we have sometimes taken too seriously false illusions about certain bourgeois democrats because the latter have proclaimed themselves antiimperialists or have supported a program for economic development. Lenin in his work, “Two Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution” exposed opportunism, which preferred to tail the liberal bourgeoisie. He showed that any step taken in the 61

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course of the bourgeois revolution should be firm and should not make concessions to the bourgeoisie. The proletariat, in alliance with the peasantry, should fight all forms of reaction by taking leadership in politics and economics. As we pointed out earlier, a number of communist parties degenerated to revisionism when the petty bourgeoisie took them over. These fostered the same type of alliances subordinated to the national bourgeoisie, thus weakening the foundations and nature of popular fronts. The popular fronts should lead the masses of workers, peasants and middle classes towards the democratization of political life in their own countries by deepening the contradictions of the system and taking advantage of contradictions among the bourgeoisie (including alliances with the middle bourgeoisie). At the same time they needed to bear in mind that, as the political struggle progressed, the bourgeoisie would turn against the proletariat in order to gain political leadership over the middle classes and the peasantry. The struggle of the popular fronts were defeated by treason because the political lines were not clear and the leadership of the parties were left in the hands of the petty bourgeoisie, which soon adapted itself to legalism and the worst opportunism ever seen. The tactics of the Popular Fronts should always bear in mind the risks and the potential of alliances, with a clear perspective of mobilizing the mass struggle. The communists, while appreciating the revolutionary potential of the peasantry and the poorest layers of the petty bourgeoisie, should always see as their guide the interests and ideology of the proletariat, the internationalist and consistent struggle. We communists oppose pacifism, even when practiced by the masses, and the leadership of democratic governments over the masses. We support the fighting mobilization and organization of the masses, free of the burden imposed by the bourgeois legal system, reformism and the illusions of a just society led by the bourgeoisie and its intellectuals. Poverty and desperation should not make us falter in front of the bourgeoisie. The lack of proletarian leadership for the revolutionary struggle of the masses should not lead us to give up and to conciliate with the class enemy. We communists have our own tasks; we should support our communist parties in the struggle to gain the confidence of the masses, to raise the consciousness and level of struggle. We should develop and build our parties in the spirit of Marxism-Leninism by fighting without letup against bourgeois ideologies and any forms opportunist and reformist trends by putting forward the issue of the revolution and the question of power. And in those countries where communist parties do not yet exist we must place on the agenda as a first priority the need for the building of a communist party. On the other hand, the working class in Latin America has to wage a common struggle against imperialism and their national bourgeoisies. This struggle, although it presents itself in the form of a national struggle, is internationalist in content. Therefore the Latin American proletariat should strive for ideological unity and should also unite with the struggle of their class brothers in the heart of the US. The US and Canadian proletariats together with the working class and peasantry of the countries of Latin America will be the gravediggers of capitalism, imperialist domination, the financial oligarchy and, in conclusion an entire epoch of exploitation and oppression of man by man. Communist Party of Mexico (M-L)

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NORWAY

A central international organism – the key to new steps forward for the International Communist (Marxist-Leninist) movement Imperialism has long since established its international organisms to crush the revolutions, the peoples' struggles and to intensify exploitation. The efficiency of global or regional imperialist structures like the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, NATO etc. is only limited by the rivalry between the imperialists themselves. The old revisionists and Trotskyites, too, are trying very hard to re-establish effective international instruments, in order to mislead the struggles. However, the opportunist nature of these organizations is making it hard for them to reach agreement on a general line of any credibility.

The workers and the struggling peoples of the world are fighting every day against imperialism and against the unholy “internationals” of the world bourgeoisie, but they are still in lack of their own international guidance and organizer. This is where the International Conference of ML parties and organizations has its opportunity as well as its obligation. Already in the time of Marx and Lenin, when means of communications were backward and imperialism not yet developed, the communists worldwide managed to organize themselves at a high level internationally. If the communist parties and organizations of today are not able to organize as one, hitting organism on an international scale, how will they be able to organize the workers of the world and ensure the construction of socialist society? One might, of course, say that this is an inappropriate question. Nevertheless, this is the question which class conscious workers with every right would put forward. Are we able to look them straight in the eye and present a credible answer? Within the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations there exists a functioning cooperation, with a high degree of ideological unity. But the Conference is yet not a real Communist International with a single general line and a central organism. If the construction of a central international organism was put in first place on the order of the day, this would force us to find and develop methods that combine democracy and centralism on an international level. A Communist International would, through its very existence, raise the credibility and the authority of the Marxist-Leninist in the eyes of the working class worldwide. It would be able to help develop and build parties in countries where the Marxist-Leninists forces are weak. It would ensure a more speedy and efficient exchange of ideas and analyses, and would rapidly give the Communist’s international response to burning political issues. It is said that the experiences from the Comintern, and later on, the experiences related to that of the Khruschevite betrayal, have proven that at “world party” or a “mother party” is laid with great dangers and hampers the independent thinking and development within each party. 63

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This is both true and untrue. It is a fact that the Communist world movement has never, not before nor since, expanded at such a speed and with such force as in the period of the Third International (Comintern) from 1919 until 1943. Furthermore, it is a fact that the Soviet party had a decisive voice in the Comintern, which was underlined by the headquarters being located to Moscow. Finally, it is a fact that Khruschev could exploit and misuse, not only the prestige and authority of the CPSU(B), but also the other parties “tail-wagging” to the CPSU, to undermine and ruin the international communist movement. The “Comintern-tradition” is by Maoist and other currents emphasized as an important reason, even as the ultimate reason, to explain how the Khruschevite advance to power could take place without countering more opposition within the international Marxist-Leninist movement than it actually did. But the Khruschevite betrayal took place 13-14 years after the Comintern was dissolved as a world party. Can we not with equal right raise the question of the possibility that the destructive actions of Khruschev might have been, if not prevented, then at least restricted, by a Comintern which adhered to internationalist Marxist-Leninist principles? The Comintern was dissolved during the Second World War. After the war, the Information Bureau (Cominform) became a sort of limited replacement, as a cooperation between all the parties in power (with exception of the Albanian party) and the largest parties of Western Europe. Here, the parties in reality were split into a level A and a level B. In the epoch of the Comintern there was at least a formal equality between the communist parties of the world. The CPSU had a position and authority deriving from the living example of the Soviet Union. This position and influence was a logical and objective necessity, and it was historically well-deserved. This role, this authority, would have had to come to expression irrespective of whether or not the Comintern was in existence. It is obvious that a great party with solid rooting in the working class of its country, not to speak of a party where the working class already has established its revolutionary dictatorship under the guidance of the party, will have unquestionable authority within the international Marxist-Leninist movement, too. Ideas may easily spread that a party able to present such magnificent results, never can make mistakes, even when signs appear indicating that the party in question in fact is acting contrary to the principles of Marxism-Leninism. The reason for our stressing this issue, is to show that the possible danger that stronger and wellrespected parties might misuse their authority, and in the worst case help to legitimate revisionist positions and lines within the Marxist-Leninist movement, is not a valid argument for denouncing the need of a new International – i.e. a central organism for the whole Marxist-Leninist movement. In fact, a proper International with a functioning, representative and acknowledged executive committee, could be the best means to protect the international Marxist-Leninist movement and prevent influential parties from moving “along their own road”, contrary to or without taking into account the views and counterarguments from the other parties and organizations of the international movement. And, furthermore, as a means of protection against the possibility that parties that degenerate (historical experience has taught us that this can happen) might take advantage of their influence in order to undermine the international Marxist-Leninist movement as a whole. 64

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It is often stated that it is impossible, or at least unwise, to form an international organism until the International Conference of ML parties and organizations has done away with possible ideological differences and has reached common stands in almost all fields. Though perhaps logical, this point of view contains some portions of idealism. The building of a more or less ”monolithic” theoretical and political unity on the international plane, not mentioning an unanimous global strategy and tactical general line, would rapidly come to a halt if the organizational structures do not ensure adequate continuity and tempo in a process targeting a fixed ending point. In this field, too, as in every other field, dialectics are actively present. Nothing is static; views and ideas corresponding to changing material conditions are in perpetual development. The more each party is preoccupied with its "own business", the more probable be the evolvement of greater diversity in views, priorities and opinions, and the more the international perspective could fade into the background. Conversely, the probability of obtaining a common perspective and theoretical and political concordance would be greater if and when the parties concentrate their activities around the same theoretical and political main tasks. What is said above, in no way implies neglecting the national class struggle within the respective countries. The revolutionary tasks in one’s own country are always at the hub for any real ML party, in particular in a situation of sharpening class struggle. In countries where the struggle for political power is on the upsurge, the greater the need of an efficient coordination and mobilization of the international ML movement in order to give maximum and concentrated support to the country or countries where the opportunity has arisen for the imperialist chain to be broken. As Lenin stated where the organizing of the Russian communists was concerned, the main problem on the international scale is not lack of cadres, but amateurism and liberalism in our method of work. Our movement consists of small and inexperienced organisations, this is true, but also of parties and cadres with rich experiences from illegal struggle from armed struggle, and from the struggle against the Khruschevite and Maoist betrayal. We can always criticize the Comintern and problems regarding new forms of organization on an international scale. However, we should not be so engrossed with problems concerning the negative historical experiences that we let these overshadow the positive ones. Even worse; it might make us blind to the immediate need of organizing the communists internationally at a far higher level than be the situation today. It is seldom a good idea to chop off your arm just because you’ve bruised a finger. The unity among our ML parties and organizations is already far developed, and a clear attitude stating that we will and shall create an international organism, would lead to a dialectical process which obliges every party to contribute to defining a general line, where the interests and tasks of the international working class always are at the forefront. Revolusjon, September 2001

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SPAIN

Proletarian internationalism We, the Marxists, have always opposed bourgeois nationalism. We have defended international solidarity against national selfishness and have defended the struggle against the common enemy and the fraternity of people against the seeds of enmity sown by the bourgeoisie amongst the peoples. Imperialism has transformed nationalism into an ideological weapon for the achievement of the enslavement of the peoples by more powerful states, for the plunder and division of the world. Thus did this continued from the past and came to now. A look at the patriotic preachers of the 1st and 2nd World Wars, which has caused a horrifying brutality amongst the people for the defense of the interests of their own bourgeoisie, is sufficient for an understanding of this. "… if a French person, during the time of (the former French president) Clemenceau, as a socialist, says, it is my right and duty to protect my country if the enemy occupies it, he/she would be [considered as] thinking like a petty-bourgeois nationalist rather than an internationalist and revolutionary proletarian. Because, this mode of thinking, does not contain the revolutionary struggle of the working class against the capital (…) in other words, internationalism is replaced by a miserable and a hackneyed nationalism". In today's life, we do the same almost everyday and hear everyday these speeches of patriotism in the name of a so-called democracy. The bourgeoisie which has utilized the events of September the 11th, is using this nationalism as far as it drags on the people behind their governments. Patriotism, now, became the business of Bush, the butcher, who recognizes no limits and whose crimes in the struggle against 'terrorism', in other words, in fact in the struggle which has the aims of forcing the peoples into submission and capturing the riches (oil, gas, etc) the peoples have (Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, …) are known by all. And on the skirts of Bush, we observe Blair and his other colleagues including "protesters" like Schröder and Chirac, idiots like Aznar and mafia puppets like Berlusconi. Various sections of the masses of people in some countries more powerfully than others and usually spontaneously, albeit anarchistically, responded to these attacks. The Marxist party and organisations are expressing to people that it is the very existence of them that is under threat and are trying to develop this movement. Proletarian internationalism is playing a role of vital significance. Us the communists, in this not at all heart-warming period in which we are living in, should develop proletarian internationalism and should work for the understanding and application of it by our peoples. We could say that this is a matter of life and death. In order for us to influence the struggle of the masses of people, (as long as capitalism exists) in order for us to defeat hallow pacifist and democratic hopes, the idea of proletarian internationalism, with the entirety of its greatness is of vital significance. Because: "Those who promise a 'democratic' peace to people without conducting propaganda for socialist revolution (…) are deceiving the people". The complexity of our struggle may deem it not possible for us to see the entirety of its features and aspects. The concrete tactics which we need to apply to each concrete circumstance are complex. It should not also be forgotten that a tactic may remain for years or may change in a matter of a few days or even a few hours. In the ten days that shook the world, Lenin was forced to change his plans within hours. Changes of this kind are of course not easy, however if we do not achieve 66

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this and arrive in a situation in which we cannot see the forest from the tree, the reverse of what we expect might take place. We either have a policy of alliances or should have one. The alliances are inevitably made with those who have ideological or political differences with us. If these differences did not exist, there would be no need to form alliances anyway and we would be in the same party. We might be even forced to form alliances with forces which might potentially nurse hostility towards us. Nevertheless, if the conditions necessities these alliances, they are positive as long as we do not hallow out our principles and we do not abandon or forget them. "…conciliations with a fighting party are usually necessitated by conditions and it is absurd to dismiss these conciliations systematically. (…) The task of a party that is genuinely revolutionary is not to declare what is impossible and dismiss all kinds of conciliation. However, if/when it makes a conciliation as a consequence of the conditions, it is to display the ability to remain devoted to its principles, its class and its revolutionary tasks…" The communists and their parties fought side by side along with bourgeois forces including also the reactionaries in the struggle waged against the nazi fascism. This is because, the real enemy at that moment was not the French, Belgian, Italian etc bourgeoisie but the layer and sections of the bourgeoisie and its oligarchy which was working to install nazi fascism in Germany, Italy and Japan. The contradiction in between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in these countries in this period, as it was the case during the struggle given against the Francists in Spain, became into a secondary contradiction. This attitude does not imply the abandoning or a reiteration of ideological principles amongst which there also is the proletarian internationalism, but is rather an application of a concrete tactic for a concrete situation. What was valid for the situation that has emerged at this moment was necessary for the establishment of the international common front. That the Spanish, French, Italian etc parties could not have positioned accurately the fundamental contradiction in between the proleteriat and bourgeoisie in their struggles is yet another problem (On the other hand, this could be one of the reasons of opportunism and revisionism resulting with the disintegration of numerous communist parties). Proletarian internationalism should take place in all activities of the communist organisations with the purpose of enabling the unity in between the peoples through the vanguard forces as well as the unity in between the parties. This is necessary for the establishment of fraternal, harmonious, and hence efficient and easy relationships in between the parties. "It has to unite the workers of all nations willing to serve the proletariat and has to conduct a successful struggle against bourgeois nationalism including also the one against its own bourgeoisie". All these certainly do not prevent the emergence of distinctions and contradictions in views and analysis in between the communists. To claim the contrary is a plain idealism, it is to deny the law of unequal development valid amongst communist party and organisations. Contradiction and polemics were present within the international communist movement since the past. Since the period of Marx's life, the confusion created in minds by opportunism and revisionism which was able to conceal itself over an unanimity with a complete unity, from the genuine discussions in between the comrades to the period of submission to "paternal party", the clash of ideas, concepts and analysis were always present. 67

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On the other hand, the Markxist-Leninists appearing in the sixties, raised their voice against the idea of "paternal party" in order to defend values like proletarian internationalism insulted by administrative cliques like that of Santiago Carillo in Spain which has submitted to Khrushchev and his gang. The question of proletarian internationalism exposed itself from time to time firstly in the struggle waged against the Maoists and then in the struggle, which we carried out earlier amongst ourselves and then before the people, against the opportunist and bureaucrats who has captured power in the PTA (the discussion we undertook against the opportunists and bureaucrats did not take place overtly, because not all of us felt on the same scale the graveness of the revisionism which have decayed the PTA, and when we comprehended it, it was too late). However, this was a very shallow internationalism, and in actuality, it was a principle, which was accepted only verbally. Lenin said: "Real internationalism comprises of working devotedly for the development of the revolutionary movement in one's own country and the development of the revolutionary movement in general (with means of sympathy, propaganda, material support) and supporting this line, this struggle in every country without absolutely no exceptions. (…)" "…proleterian internationalism deems it necessary 1for the interests of the proletarian movement in any country to be subjected to the interests of the struggle of the proletariat in world scale 2for a nation achieving a victory against its own bourgeoisie, to be capable and prepared for making great self-sacrifices with the aim of defeating the international capital". There is no contradiction in what Lenin said. As an ideological principle, proletarian internationalism has two aspects, the first being tactic and the second, strategic. These are not immutable principles but, depending on the concrete conditions of a certain moment, it is necessary to apply one and strengthen it. Nevertheless, this principle is not always conceived in this way and polemics and differences of thinking are emerging over this issue. For example, lets consider the question how are to conceive proletarian internationalism amongst communist party and organisations which are claiming to be based upon the same principles? One of the issues which is not understood (or not willing to be understood) is that the criticism in between fraternal party and organisations should not only be considered as a positive attitude but as a necessity. A party's assessment of another party that has differences of ideas or analysis concerning a particular issue is being opposed in the name of "not intervening into the internal affairs of another party" which we assume to be well intended. To repeat, proletarian internationalism, does not forbid criticism in between the parties when the occasion arise, but completely on the contrary presupposes it. If we call ourselves internationalists, in accordance with the requirements of this, the internal affairs of other parties should concern us. The revolution, the peoples struggle that takes place all around the world, concerns not only the party of the country where this struggles takes place but should concern all of us as it is a part of the strategy of world revolution. Although it is the party of that country which is essentially responsible for the achievement of the revolutionary struggle in that country, the revolution is to the interest of all of us. 68

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What kind of an attitude should our parties assume if one of fraternal parties of any country commits a mistake or confuses the essential aims with the secondary ones? Should we remain silent or should we criticise? What should we do when our militants, sympathisers and friends expect an explanation for the erroneous tactic of this party? Should we leave their questions unanswered? Should we sponsor an erroneous tactic? Or should we overtly express what we think? The answers we give to such questions should be clear and distinct, and should leave no room for doubt. We should not conceal our views not only from our militants but also in general from the people and we should not deceive them with any excuse. If especially our attitude concerning this issue is going to cause repercussions in the country, not expressing our attitude clearly as well as weakening our credibility, it will also break our influence. These types of situations do exist and will continue to exist. The struggle of the parties just as the life itself is full of "sharp turnings" was saying Lenin. And we, the communists, should verify our friends and foes and in order to know to apply our tactic in the changing conditions we should be adequately vigilant and should have the flexibility to form alliances or conciliations without panicking on the face of concrete conditions or a change occurring in a particular phase of our struggle. Because, as Lenin puts it in "What is to be done?" "Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement. (…) what at first sight appears to be an "unimportant" error may lead to most deplorable consequences, and only short-sighted people can consider factional disputes and a strict differentiation between shades of opinion inopportune or superfluous." The error in determining my foes is a crude error with grave consequences. The consequences of confusing the main enemy with the secondary will be grave. Proletarian internationalism, for communist organisations, is not a principle which is to be remembered now and then, but rather is a fundamental principle which we should work to apply in accordance with our strength. Madrid - January 2003 R. Marco Communist Organisation October of Spain

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TURKEY

On the situation in Kurdistan, the Kurdish question and some questions of rebuilding the party It is true that the Kurdish movement have suffered a defeat. It is also true that this defeat has pushed the Kurdish capitalist and nationalist circles into the most backward position, and that this situation has pulled the Kurdish people morally and politically backward, so much that the present political situation and relations in Kurdistan are being shaped mainly by these two facts. However, this defeat has also uncovered the fact that Kurdish capital circles that talk on behalf of the Kurdish people are incapable of representing national liberation. It would be wrong to think that the Kurdish question no longer exists, or that this question can disappear as a result of a “defeat” as such. Unless the Kurdish people have the right to determine its future freely and take its part in the course of history as a free nation, no “defeat” can stop it being a fundamental question. So long as nations are divided into the oppressing and the oppressed, national question remains not only as an “existing” question, but it also becomes a component of the struggle for democracy and liberation from imperialism. Therefore, no matter what is said about it, the Kurdish question remains to exist with all its reasons, implications and consequences despite the “defeat”. Moreover, it is an undeniable fact that the Kurdish people, with all their experience, want to become a free nation more than ever. Furthermore, facts also indicate that there are greater possibilities, dynamics and conditions for the Kurdish question to get out of the hands of the forces of capital and get into the hands of the workers and labourers who will resolve it in the struggle against imperialism, capital and reactionary forces. In fact, what will determine the future are not the speculations about the “defeat”, but these dynamics. The development of capitalism in Kurdistan, the growth of the working class and its struggle, and its increasing prospects to attach the Kurdish national demands to itself; the fact that Kurdish workers and labourers have already adopted a more advanced and mature position than Kurdish bourgeois and petit bourgeois organisations, etc. all these facts, different from other circles, give aspiration to our party, which has always been internationalist, and which has reaffirmed its line and position once again when “democratic republic” came onto the agenda. Kurdish question is of vital importance for the building of our party as the party of the working class of Turkish and Kurdish people, as well as for the self-determination of the Kurdish nation. This question, which will be one of the fundamental questions of the forthcoming period as well, does not bring new burdens onto our party, but, on the contrary, it opens new possibilities and arenas to renew its dynamics and work. The process of rebuilding the party as the party of the working class of the Turkish and Kurdish nations (and, of course, of other ethnic minorities) is directly and tightly linked to the future course of the Kurdish question and to which class it will be led by.

On the social developments in Kurdistan, the working class and the future of national question One of the things that have been revealed by the developments in Kurdistan is the fact that a real and popular solution to national question can only be possible through the leadership of the working class. The Kurdish bourgeoisie have benefited greatly from the defeat that the working class and socialism has suffered internationally, as well as from the weakness of the working class in 70

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Kurdistan. However, one can now see the signs that there is a change of direction in terms of international developments, that the conditions are ripening for the growth of the working class and its struggle in Kurdistan, giving them the chance to embrace the national question. Facts prove that the present process is developing in favour of the working class movement, and that national question can only be resolved if it is linked to the struggle of the workers and labourers against the reactionary forces. In the last 15 years Kurdistan has been compelled to social change and disintegration. Without taking into consideration the social and economic facts that aggravate this disintegration and change, one cannot comment on the future course of events in terms of national and class relations, the development of national question or the direction of the movement. First of all, even though the wave of migration, which was caused by the depopulation of the villages and the terror in the countryside, was initially useful for the government, soon it has turned opposite and become one of the main reasons for the acceleration of the population shift and class change in the region. Leaving aside its consequences in western cities, “forced” migration has created a population concentration in the major Kurdish cities, a population with increasing discontent and with no intention to go back to their evacuated villages. This mass of discontented have-nots, most of whom are unemployed (but still part of the working class), are faced with living conditions, problems and demands that they were unfamiliar with in their villages, thus are forced to comply with modern social relations and class stance. There are many indications that these masses of “impermanent” people who are currently being used as “cheap labour” are becoming part of the working class of Kurdistan who will sooner or later show their desire for a different approach to national question, and for different solutions and alliances. Secondly, following the defeat of the PKK, some factors have emerged accelerating the flow of capital into the region, i.e. the increasing interest of big monopolies and some countries in Kurdistan in the form of “economic investments”, and the government’s “development plans” for the region (as the problems in the region are considered to be stemming from “economic backwardness”). Moreover, the launch of the Southeast Anatolia Project (GAP) [a big complex of redevelopment project, T.N.], the increasing importance of the region because of the new energy routes, and the concentration of cheap labour as a result of migration, all this makes it inevitable to see the increase of this flow of capital to the extent of a plunder and a leap in terms of the capitalist relations in the region. This also means that the working class of Kurdistan who, up until recently, were concentrated in certain regions and who consisted of workers mainly in disused public enterprises, “service” sector and agriculture will grow, acquiring the characteristics of a modern class and strengthening itself in the struggle. In other words, the period before us in Kurdistan will see, especially because of the two reasons given above, the advance and expansion of capitalist relations and the working class. Anyone in politics can predict what this development will lead to in terms of class relations in general and the national question. Firstly, following the growth of its number, we will also see a continuous and many-sided expansion of the struggle of the working class in Kurdistan on the basis of betterment of their living conditions. Secondly, we will witness the augmentation of national awakening, its renewal on the basis of a more populist content (the first tendency of the accelerating development of capitalism); the linking of the Turkish and Kurdish workers and labourers with the rising struggle for democracy and independence (another tendency of capitalism to surpass national boundaries and unite peoples); and finally, a general recognition of the main facts and possibilities for the workers from both nations to go beyond national boundaries and limitations in this struggle and unite fully. One does not need to be a fortuneteller to understand the fact that the forthcoming period in Kurdistan will be characterised by all these interconnected facts and developments. The acceleration of capitalist development leads to the growth of the working class masses in Kurdistan, to the expansion of the class struggle of the workers in every front, and to a direct unification of its struggle with that of the workers in the west of the country. All this in turn implies, 71

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first of all, a further restriction of the national “representation” skills of the Kurdish bourgeoisie, the Kurdish workers (and labourers) in struggle practically representing the Kurdish nation, the Kurdish question getting out of the hands of the Kurdish bourgeoisie and going into the hands of the Kurdish workers, and the working class and peoples of both nations becoming once again one of the dynamics of the struggle against imperialism and reactionary forces, for independence and democracy. In fact, having mentioned all these developments, we are trying to emphasise the fact that we are coming to the end of a fifteen-year period of the Kurdish national question having been shaped by the manipulations of the capital and reactionary forces, by conciliatory Kurdish bourgeoisie and imperialism. There is enough evidence that the future process in Kurdistan will be stamped by the class struggle of the workers, as this struggle is being consolidated by the capitalist development in the region, and there are initial signs of better living conditions as a result. The acceleration of capitalist development will inevitably change inter-class relations; and the class struggle rising on this basis will create new possibilities and will open a new direction for the solution of the Kurdish question (in a coherent, democratic and popular way). Undoubtedly, one cannot expect to see a sudden and full emergence of the facts and developments mentioned here in Kurdistan. It must be considered natural that many national and international developments, like the crisis that the country is going through, will have many-sided effects on Kurdistan, and determine the economic, social and political developments and changes in the region. However, what is required from us is to understand the direction of the course of events and organise the struggle, not to make empty predictions. In this case, the present situation in Kurdistan (in relation with Turkey), and the situation of the people in terms of inter-class relations and their positions in the eyes of the state, is of particular importance. In addition to initial signs of the process of social development that we have mentioned in relation with the working class and its struggle, it becomes obvious that the present situation in Kurdistan and the developments among the people are not in favour of the reactionary forces, and that contrary to the general idea, there is no reason to be pessimistic. First of all, despite the defeat that was suffered and the pressure of the PKK and their adverse effects, the Kurdish people have not “taken a step back” from their demand for national democracy and equality. There are many daily events and facts such as the interest shown in meetings organised for various reasons, participation and slogans put forward proving that the Kurdish people have more advanced demands than the PKK, despite the fact that they are under its influence. Secondly, the fact that the trade union/economic demands and the trade union organisation and struggle are becoming more prominent implies the development and expansion of mass struggle in open forms. We see the initial signs of this struggle which provides the most significant possibility for the development of this open mass struggle towards a political struggle and for the national question to find a new direction. Thirdly, for the last few years Kurdish workers and labourers have been directing their attention more towards the workers’ movement developing in big cities. Under the conditions where the Kurdish question is referred to the USA and to the EU, it is one of the greatest changes and developments of the past few years that the Kurdish working class and people turn their attention to the workers’ and popular movement in the big cities, and tend to unify their action with that in the “metropolis”, despite the fact that they have not been getting any significant support from them. This can only be explained by the fact that, despite their concentration mainly around HADEP (People’s Democracy Party), Kurdish people are not in favour of a nationalist confrontation, that on the contrary they have the tendency to act in a united way. Although they do not characterise the present situation in Kurdistan, these are some of the important and evident political facts. Under the present conditions when capital and reactionary forces claim loudly their “victory”, it is not difficult to understand the importance of positive changes that emerge among the people. Apart from pointing to the direction of development of mass struggle, these changes 72

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also emphasise the possibilities for the national question getting out of the hands of the capital, being tied to the workers’ programme for democracy, and becoming the subject of the struggle of the Kurdish workers and labourers for democracy and anti-imperialism. However, it is necessary to stress once again that these facts and developing tendencies related with the previously mentioned changes in Kurdistan have not yet reached their final conclusions, nor can they yet be regarded as attained gains, but they represent possibilities. These are directly linked to questions such as the extent that our party fulfils its responsibilities firstly in the west and then in Kurdistan, how the workers in the west approach the question and if the workers in the east understand their role, etc. Although voluntarism is not a determining factor, one cannot deny the importance of what our party does and does not do in both Turkey and Kurdistan. Our party is going through a period of reconstruction. What kind of consequences could the facts mentioned here and the near and mid-term (foreseeable) future hold for our party, for the “reconstruction” of our organisation in general and the Kurdistan organisation? The new period in Kurdistan implies a completely new situation for our party, our organisation and especially for our Kurdistan organisation, all of which are in a process of reconstruction. This is because the workers in Kurdistan have been forced to act like a “classless, blended mass” on a basis determined by the Kurdish bourgeoisie, which has blunted their class intuitions and senses. Turkish workers, on the other hand, have first been pushed into a position of “indifference” which was later followed by a more backward position with the excuse of “terror”. This “distancing” between the workers (especially in terms of the Turkish ones) has made the party activities in both regions very difficult, and has caused inefficiency in activities and narrowness in organising. Yet, the developments in Kurdistan that we have previously mentioned and the newly emerged conditions in Turkey have led to some positive changes in the relations of workers and labourers from different nationalities, and have created greater possibilities for faster changes and developments. Moreover, there are better grounds for the workers’ and labourers’ movement in Kurdistan to become an independently acting class and for the Turkish workers and labourers to do a more logical evaluation, reaching a level of maturity to consider the Kurdish question as their own problem and to put forward demands accordingly. The progress of the movement of the workers and other labouring strata and the emergence of favourable conditions for united action of the workers from both nationalities present a vital opportunity in terms of the activities of the workers’ parties and organisations and for their “reconstruction” process. Apart from being used to repeal the attacks of capital, only in such periods is it possible to educate the workers, to move forward their internationalist sentiments and classconsciousness in general, and to develop their broad organisation as a party. Shortly, we can say that the events in Kurdistan, the emerging conditions and the increasing attention in Turkey on the Kurdish question are all vitally important developments for our party and for the work and “reconstruction” process of our organisations, mainly of the Kurdistan organisation.

I- On Kurdish question, the working class party, and the reconstruction of the party and organisation Our party’s task in this first stage of the development of revolution is to assist the awakening, struggle and organisation of the workers who are in struggle; and to organise those leading sections of the workers as an independent, revolutionary and mass party in such a way that they can embrace and mobilise the main bulk that represent the working class. The national question in our country, which is mainly the Kurdish question, is naturally of great significance as an item of the democracy programme presented to the society by the workers’ party. However, this is not only a question of the programme for democracy; it also embraces class and organisational fields such as the progress of class struggle, the development of class consciousness of the workers from both nations and of the unity between the class and the party, etc. In other words, tasks relating to national question are not 73

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only political, but they are also related with the organic-structural formation of the party and the process of “reconstruction”. Undoubtedly, the Kurdish question is imposed by the capital and imperialism and will be resolved through the struggle of the working classes and peoples of both nations against capital and imperialism. However, it will not be wrong to suggest that this question is mainly that of the Turkish workers, in fact, in terms of communism, this is how this question must be dealt with. National question renders special tasks on the workers of the oppressing nation. These tasks not being fulfilled causes inevitable harm to the class character and internationalist nature of the party. If the workers who belong to the oppressing nation “neglect” or do not fulfil their (political-national) tasks towards the nation oppressed by their bourgeoisie and (class-organisational) tasks towards the workers and labourers of that nation, it is then impossible for that party to gain the trust of the oppressed nation and to become a genuine working class party of the workers of both Turkish and Kurdish origins. One of the weaknesses inherited especially from the last 15-20 years is the massive growth of the historically existing distrust in the mutual relations between the peoples and workers and labourers of the Turkish and Kurdish nations. It is also for this reason that the newly emerging conditions both in Kurdistan and in the west are of particular significance. The advancing struggle in both parts of the country on the basis of class, national and democratic demands, though at different levels, also implies increasing possibilities of rebuilding the mutual feelings and relations between the peoples and workers and labourers of both nations. In fact, this is nothing but the workers’ party utilising these possibilities and, as a party of the workers of both nations, undertaking the task of rebuilding the relations between them. If the party does not link itself to this task, it becomes unthinkable to unite the Kurdish and Turkish workers in a single party, in a single revolutionary organisation that has the ability to carry out daily work. Daily struggle of the workers and labourers progressing in Kurdistan and in the west must be the centre of attention when one talks about the Kurdish question too. This struggle constitutes the primary arena and condition not only for the repulsion of the attacks but also for the “reconstruction” of our party and organisation in Turkey and in Kurdistan as the party and united revolutionary organisation of the workers of the Turkish, Kurdish and other ethnic minorities. It is clear that our party’s line and position has to be shaped on the basis of the daily class struggle of the workers, with the aim of advancing this struggle, and without falling into the trap of narrow short-termism. On the other hand, it is an important fact that our party’s approach to the workers’ and the intellectual’s movement in the country is one that deals with it both separately as Turkish and Kurdish and as a single revolutionary movement without denying national specifications. However, it is also a fact that our organisations’ work and understanding suffer from some “spontaneous” weaknesses that need to be overcome, weaknesses that harm the Kurdish nation, Kurdish intellectual’s and workers’ movement, and subsequently the workers’ and the socialist movement in general. Kurdish Marxist (intellectual) movement is based on the universal heritage of Marxism-Leninism, on the political-cultural-historical accumulation of the national democratic and class struggle, and on the historical gains of our party whose qualities such as representing the common history of the Kurdish and Turkish workers and intellectuals and being the party of the working class of both nations are becoming more and more evident. The advance of this movement, its formation of a revolutionary centre and its unification with the workers movement in Kurdistan whose struggle is making a headway, and this development constituting the basis for the mass reconstruction of the Kurdistan organisation of our party… The basis for the reconstruction of our organisations in Turkey, on the other hand, being the unification of the intellectual’s movement in Turkey, naturally being on a more advanced position than that of in Kurdistan and making a certain progress, with the workers’ movement in the west, which is also progressing with its ups and downs, on the basis of the increasing support work for the process in Kurdistan… The line of the party directing these developments; the 74

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period that we are going through being shaped as a process of reconstruction of our party and organisations in Turkey and Kurdistan as a common party and organisation of the working class of both the Turkish and Kurdish nations… If our party is to become the party of the working classes of both nations (and other ethnic minorities) and if these working classes are to acquire the ability to organise and lead the nations and peoples of the country, then it becomes essential that the “reconstruction” of our party is in line with the understanding and targets of this plan. On the responsibilities towards the Kurdish nation and the question of the unity of peoples There is no doubt about our party’s stance for the unity between the workers from Kurdish and Turkish nations and for their organisation in a single party. It advocates not only the common struggle of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples but also their unity. However, this does not mean the exclusion of the right of the Kurdish nation to self-determination. On the contrary, the equality of the two nations is characterised by the recognition of the fact that it is the Kurdish nation who should decide on the unity with or separation from the Turkish people, and by the struggle for their unconditional use of this right. In other words, the unconditional defence of the right of the Kurdish people to self-determination (up to and including separation) constitutes the basis of our party’s central position as well as of its organisations in Turkey. An unconditional defence of the Kurdish nation’s right to freedom and equality and a sincere opposition to repressions on this nation, irrespective of the stance or leadership they adopt, constitutes an essential part of our party’s position on national question. The main direction of its work and action with regard to national question is based on the task of the Turkish workers and labourers’ recognition and defence of the Kurdish national rights, and the adoption of an internationalist stance by their broadest sections. As to the task of the unity between the Turkish and Kurdish peoples, under the present circumstances where the Kurdish nation is forced to an unequal “unity”, the best thing to do for the unity of the two peoples is to shape our party’s central calls and activities and the work of the organisations in Turkey in accordance with the line mentioned here. Of course, this does not mean to give no importance to the unity of the two peoples. On the contrary, for the common struggle and unity of the two peoples it is essential that the Turkish workers and labourers make (especially through our organisation) the Kurdish national demands part of the subject of their daily class struggle, and that the Kurdish workers and labourers, while claiming their national rights, expand the class struggle related to the conditions of living. Moreover, this is the most significant prospect present for the building of the common future of the peoples. In short, slogans on the question of the “unity of peoples” and “common struggle” do not always or under any condition serve the purpose, most of the times they even sound like “preconditions” to the national demands of the Kurdish people and their right to self-determination (separation). These slogans must not be considered as schemes that are correct under every condition, they must be considered in accordance with the existing political conditions and relations, evaluating what they serve and what use they are. Our organisations must rid themselves of the “propaganda” on these questions based on “general habits” and ensure that they follow the appropriate forms of action and struggle in line with the concrete central line. What is emphasised here is this point, and not that the question of unity is an “unimportant” matter. We are going through a period where we see the Kurdish working people both in Kurdistan and in Turkey being influenced by the propaganda that wrongly describes our party as a “Turkish party”, an assumption partly based on the Kurdish people’s deep feeling of oppression, and the fact that Turkish intellectuals and workers have not yet reached the maturity of supporting the Kurdish nation more or less. Therefore it is of greater importance today than ever that our party’s central position must be one that ensures that the daily activities of each one of our organisations (Turkish and Kurdish) with regard to the Kurdish question are shaped on the basis of the context expressed 75

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previously, that assesses carefully the appropriateness of slogans such as “the unity of peoples” under different conditions, that bases its calls, agitation and initiatives on concrete analysis and on the defence of the rights of the Kurdish people. When we have the correct understanding and reflexes in these subjects, it is sure that many problems will be resolved and we will have greater efficiency in our work.

II- The Kurdish question and its place in the rebuilding of the Kurdistan organisation The rise of the oppressed-nation nationalism within “Kurdish socialism” (PKK-PSK, etc.); the spread of Turkish nationalism (leaving aside the corruption of character and the exposed nationalism of the terrorist currents) amongst the currents of “Turkish socialism” (revisionist) which are based on the defeat and collapse, acquiring an impervious character especially in the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) and the Workers’ Party (ĐP): what the currents of Turkish and Kurdish “socialism” outside of our party had learnt and the knowledge they acquired from the devastation of the September 1980 coup and international disintegration, the Kurdish national struggle of fifteen years and the working class movement which has opened a new era in the mass movement of the country, and the role they played in the course of the mass movement of the country and their influence on it; all these have essentially been shaped with this form and content. It is self-evident that what characterises these currents ideologically and organisationally is their distance from the class, their alienation from the people, their reformism, and a rising nationalism as a result of all this. While the developments within the Turkish “left” in the last fifteen years have been characterised in this direction; our party did not have any diversions from the path it entered during the mid-1970s. Just like refreshing the entirety of its decisions after 1987 to unite with the class, it has also renewed its line and stance concerning the Kurdish question on the basis of a broader internationalism. The proclamation of the tactical Kurdish platform; the formation of the Kurdistan Committee; the launch of the Kurdistan publication; the persistence on giving the Kurdistan organisation a Kurdish character as well as a working class one, and on the issue of the consciousness of struggle on the part of the organisations in Turkey concerning the Kurdish question, etc… Our party’s line and stance concerning all these questions have constituted its fundamental differences from other organisations. Despite its weaknesses and shortcomings underlined in this article, the renewal and further maturing (at every turning point) in the last five-six years of the line and position of our party, which lays claim to all the gains acquired throughout the history in ideological, political and organisational fields concerning the Kurdish question, have been developments that took place before the eyes of everyone. But our party’s experience of the recent period in this way does not of course imply that the work in Turkey and Kurdistan will spontaneously proceed smoothly. Leaving aside other political and organisational negative occurrences, it is still the already completely degenerated conceptions and traditions of the nationalist Turkish and Kurdish “socialism” that condition the awakening Kurdish labourers and Turkish workers and intellectuals in terms of their responsibilities concerning the Kurdish question. In any case, the mainstream conception and tradition created by these currents constitutes a fundamental factor that distorts not only the consciousness of the advanced workers but also the work and activities of our organisation. The tradition created by the currents of Turkish “socialism”, whether they “defend” the Kurdish nation genuinely or disingenuously (including those who deny the nation as a whole), is, as is widely known, based on the understanding of “a united struggle and organisation”. Leaving aside its reformism, its denial and inconsistency in terms of the Kurdish national rights, etc., in fact as an expression of all these, this tradition is based on the “Turkification” of the Kurdish worker and youth in the bud of their revolutionisation process, and on their distancing and alienation from the people of which they are part, losing the ability to understand them and of being understood by them. And the Kurdish “socialism”s conception of revolution, the conception and tradition of work and 76

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organisation that it has formed in Kurdistan is nothing more than a mode of upper class revolutionarism in terms of practise and a tradition of militancy alienated from the people in terms of organising, just like the conception and tradition created previously by Turkish “socialism” in Kurdistan and in the whole country. It needs emphasising that all this constitutes one of the most significant factors that have caused certain destruction in the formation of the character of the revolutionary organisations and individuals from both nations, and in the understanding and energy of both peoples. Briefly, our party has to expand the historical, theoretical, political and organisational tasks of rebuilding the Kurdistan organisation (and the entirety of the party and its organisation) with regard to the Kurdish question into the political and organisational questions underlined above, which are connected with the daily needs of the class struggle of the workers. If we are to express it specifically, remaining within the boundaries of Kurdistan, the following two requirements of our Party’s reconstruction in Kurdistan are of particular importance and have the priority: first, to base on the developing working class in Kurdistan and the workers’ and labourers’ movement whose prospects are increasing; and second, to fight against the conception of class and political struggle (upper class revolutionarism) and the (out-of-class) traditions of work and organisation “school” that stem from, on the one hand, the denial of the Kurdish people and, on the other, the Kurdish nationalism provoked by this denial. It should not be forgotten that the developing working class and its movement with its increasing possibilities constitutes the basis of the reconstruction of our Kurdistan organisation. Nothing can be done without the daily struggle of the workers and the possibilities this struggle create. However, both on the general scale in terms of the needs of the class struggle, and also in terms of the reconstruction of the organisation, it is evident that the achievements of the daily class struggles will not suffice on their own. Without a large scale ideological and organisational struggle that is connected to class struggle and many-sided tasks that are related with the other aspects of national question and class struggle, it will not be possible for our party’s line to have a real achievement in Kurdistan. The central link of the reconstruction plan of our Kurdistan organisation lies in its renewal and reconstruction as an organisation of struggle, war and revolution, also, as an expression of this, as an original school with its traditions where the conception of people’s revolution and the line of the party are dominant, where a popular and original style of work (as a constituent of our party’s style of work) begins to take shape through renewal with the Kurdish form and style and with the experiences of the Kurdish labour movement, and where the Kurdish workers and youths are educated and restructured (as a section of the party militants and organ of professionals) with characteristics and idiosyncrasies which bind them to the class and the people. There is no doubt that this aim can be achieved through the struggle against the dominant conception of struggle, traditions, relationships and conventions of style of work and organising in Kurdistan, as well as with a position based on working among the Kurdish working class and people and being part of their struggle. Because of all this, although the central direction of the party is important, it is vital that the Kurdistan Committee and the professional nucleus has to take part in the planning and carrying out of the specific (theoretical, political, organisational) tasks of the reconstruction of the Kurdistan organisation (and of course of the organisation as a whole) and undertake responsibility at first hand. Otherwise, the characterisation of a renewed party line and its theoretical, political and organisational accumulation will inevitably be harmed in terms of its comprehension in Kurdistan. On the other hand, there is a need for the party line and its accumulation to be comprehensible by the Kurdish worker, and the work in Kurdistan needs to have a Kurdish character.

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The place and role of Kurdish question within the construction of organisations of Turkey In terms of the place of the Kurdish question in the construction of the organisations in Turkey, the first thing that needs to be underlined is that the original heritage and accumulation of our party concerning the construction of its historical, theoretical, political, organisational foundations (relating to Kurdistan) constitute the fundamental elements not only for our Kurdistan organisation but also for the construction of our organisations in Turkey. The theses of Marxism-Leninism on national question, and in particular on the tasks of the workers of the oppressing nation; the national democratic accumulation of the Kurdish nation, including national uprisings; the cultural heritage passed onto the present day by the historical struggle of the Kurdish working class; the gains that the working class and labourers from both nations have acquired in the personality of our party; all these have to be the constituents of the fundamental line and literature (undoubtedly together with other class-ideological constituents of our line) of the revolutionary transformation of the working class and the ideological and organisational formation of the party organisations in the west. This is necessary not only for the unity of the Kurdish workers with Turkish workers in the party, but also for them to understand and feel the problems of the oppressed nation and its labourers. It is a widely known fact that the Turkish intellectual tradition has historical weaknesses concerning the national question due to the influence of Kemalism and the distortion caused by revisionism. Leaving aside the negativities it has caused historically both in the Turkish and Kurdish popular movements, Turkish intellectual production and accumulation serves as a factor of incompletion of the characterisation of the living generations of Turkish workers and youths with regard to the national question. Moreover, it plays a significant but upsetting role in the events caused by the reaction that this situation has created within the Kurdish youth as well as in the incitement of the Kurdish national struggle by what Kurdish people consider “Turkish intellectuals” who cling to this struggle in the negative sense of the word. There is no doubt that this situation puts responsibility on our central party work, especially on our organisations in Turkey (the Turkish workers). Our party’s line concerning the reaffirmation of Marxism-Leninism, alongside its other objectives, is a line that involves a multi-frontal settling of accounts on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and the Turkish intellectual accumulation of the modern era. As part of the other aspects of the general content and objectives of this line, it is important to launch a fight for the advancement and adoption of the Marxist theses on national question and of the party line and literature relating to Kurdistan within the Turkish intellectual movement as well as our organisations in Turkey. These organisations must consider this struggle as an aspect of the fundamental task that will rebuild the historical, theoretical, political, organisational and cultural basis in terms of the education of the young generation of intellectuals and vanguard workers with an internationalist spirit. It is a necessity of our party’s line of “reestablishment” that the reconstruction of the party’s organisations in Turkey (west) is to be based on the unity, around the party line, of the new generation of intellectuals, who will distinguish themselves in the course of the struggle, with the new generation of advanced workers who are shaped and organised in the course of the mass movements in workplaces. In order for the process of reconstruction and reestablishment to be a new and mass unity of socialist (intellectual) movement with the workers’ movement on a more advanced basis, it needs to involve the Kurdistan organisation as well as the organisations in Turkey.

The tasks of the Turkish workers and organisations concerning the Kurdish nation Those who have some knowledge of our party’s line of struggle and who are aware of the weaknesses and shortcomings of our western organisations concerning the Kurdish question will recognise the fact that propaganda and education on their own do not have much meaning (otherwise these cannot be revolutionary propaganda and education). If we are to express it in terms of the 78

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organisational construction, an unconditional recognition and defence of Kurdish national rights and their right to self-determination is the most important requirement for our party and in particular its organisations of Turkey (Turkish workers) to become a party which unites the Turkish and Kurdish workers and which organises them together in a broader extent. Being the workers of the oppressing nation, it is necessary for Turkish workers to realise that so long as they remain amongst those who oppress others they will continue to be oppressed themselves and remain as slaves. It also means that the Turkish workers are pushed into a position of becoming partners of imperialism’s crime in oppressing other nations. To put it simply, the prerequisite of the unity desired with Kurdish workers is for the workers of Turkish nationality to defend unconditionally Kurdish nation’s right to free selfdetermination. Moreover, the workers of Turkish nationality cannot be contented only with the recognition of the Kurdish nation and its demands. Also, as a requirement of this, they must transform these demands into the indispensable subjects of their daily struggle. It is at this point that there lie the main responsibilities of Turkish workers and our western organisations towards Kurdish workers and our Kurdistan organisation. The propaganda and education work could only have a meaning if it is incorporated into such a daily struggle and tied to the efforts made in this direction. Our organisations having the right views politically concerning the Kurdish question does not have any meaning at all unless they struggle persistently, utilising every opportunity, to make the demands of the Kurdish people part of the demands of their daily class struggle. Our criticisms do not mean that our organisations have done nothing with regard to this question. Despite the recognised inertia, attempts to do things in terms of this question are evident, but not to a degree of utilising the necessary means, opportunities, conditions, forums, platforms and of becoming a systematic feature. Among its reasons are a traditionally distorted understanding of the Kurdish question and aspirations of Kurdish nation, various instances of unawareness and lack of attention in our organisations, as well as problems of treatment, conception and perception relating to the questions of daily practise, involvement in the daily struggle, proceeding with a tactical approach and showing the necessary reflexes. It is true that national question requires an advanced level of consciousness for its recognition by broad masses. Moreover, the decades old propaganda by the capital and reactionary forces has caused a considerable reactionary distortion amongst Turkish people. However, what is demanded at this point is not an immediate formation of a widespread mass movement (which does not depend on us either), and one cannot overlook the fact that there is a developing tendency amongst the Turks towards a more rational thinking and a more understanding approach towards the Kurds. Under the present conditions when many aspects of the Kurdish question are brought onto the agenda by the reactionary forces themselves, especially in the case of language question, it is unacceptable to remain inactive and not to think that these occurrences should increasingly bring about a more advanced level of work and struggle and calls. Our organisations of Turkey must use the means more effectively and systematically in varying forms, from scientific symposiums to panels, from press releases to workplace and local meetings, from seminar compositions to festivals, brochures, leaflets and visual materials of agitation; they must work more enthusiastically and determinedly to spread the Kurdish question and the work and actions concerning the daily demands of Kurdish nation to greater sections of Turkish intellectuals and labourers; and they must turn these demands into a subject of open mass struggle (of course, without falling into a position of divergence of sectarianism, with an appropriate method and style). When the instabilities in the Middle East are increasing systematically, with indications of the question of Iraqi Kurdistan coming forward in the near future, when cries of war and of a tougher approach are being uttered in Turkey, and when discussions about the Constitution, democracy, etc. have gained momentum -even though on a level of pretence; it is inevitable that the Kurdish demands will become more acceptable from the point of view of Turkish labourers.

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The capital and reaction’s continuous identification of the Kurdish people with terrorism for the past fifteen years has been one of the most significant factors for the increasing prejudice on the part of the Turkish people, consolidating the approach of “non-recognition” of the Kurds. For this reason, it is also very important to carry out a style of work (utilising various forms and means) that will reintroduce the Kurdish nation (Kurdish history, their historical relationship with the Turks, without forgetting their contribution to the history, culture, and arts of the country) with different aspects of their daily lives. Such activities will play an important role in breaking the prejudices and drawing the attention of the Turkish workers and labourers to key points. As well as giving support to the Kurdish nation in Kurdistan and to the work of our Kurdistan organisation, the activities of our organisations in the big cities of the west to re-explore the Kurdish people and defend their national rights would also present greater opportunities to establish links with the highly concentrated and mainly worker Kurdish population in these areas, and to unite and organise them with the Turkish workers. The work among the Turkish workers concerning the Kurdish question is a part of the responsibilities towards the Kurdish nation; but it is also a necessity and an opportunity in terms of the unity (in open struggle) of the advanced workers (party) and the labouring masses in large urban centres. The only opportunity for the renewal and reconstruction of the sentiments and relationships between the Turkish and Kurdish people depends on the steps we take to renew the necessary work for the Kurdish question and the demands of the Kurdish people to become an issue of the daily class struggle in the west, and to make visible the support of the Turkish labourers to Kurdish people in the open struggle. It is also here that there lies one of the dynamics for the renewal of the relationship between the Kurdistan organisation and the organisations in the west and for their reunification as the party of Turkish and Kurdish workers.

Conclusion The direction and characteristics of the process that Turkey is going through… The trend of the dynamics for change and development that we have emphasised previously… The problems related to the class and national character of the movement in Kurdistan and Turkey… The tasks that the present developments require from our party and the possibilities that they present for their fulfilment… The trend of the inter-class relations in the country; the problems of and the prospects for the workers’ movement; immediate tasks that are required by the problems related to the class and democracy issues, as well as the demands regarding the Kurdish question in terms of our organisations’ work and their reconstruction… These are the questions that we need to concentrate in terms of the Kurdish question, and our party organisations in Kurdistan and Turkey should never divert their attention from these areas. If our organisations, be it in Kurdistan or Turkey, are distracted from the questions such as closely observing the power relations between the fronts of capital and labour, the course of the workers’ (Turkish-Kurdish) and popular movement, its characteristics, demands, dynamics, its possibilities and weaknesses, if they stop getting their inspirations and content for daily work from these areas, it then becomes inevitable that everything said on the Kurdish question, class questions, on the reconstruction of the organisation on the basis of renewed foundations and forces, etc. will all become no more than empty words. For this reason, whilst the party centrally safeguards the action of its organisations in Kurdistan and Turkey in accordance with the understanding and plans that have been explained here, we should base ourselves on the workers’ and popular movement and its dynamics, and we should not neglect our responsibilities to make it a characteristic feature of ours to assist this movement to meet its requirements and solve its problems.

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A determined struggle in order to make the right of the Kurdish people to self-determination and its related demands the subject of the daily class struggle of the workers and labourers of both nations, and to allow this play the necessary role in the organisations of the working class and in the reconstruction of its party… To safeguard the construction of the organisations both in Turkey and Kurdistan against all kinds of nationalist and out-of-class prejudices; to reorganise and unite our organisations, which is in the process of being rebuild in Turkey and Kurdistan with new and young forces of workers and intellectuals, around the party apparatus across the country that will be renewed through revolutionary elements, and to consider this as a central and determining issue for the process of “reconstruction” of the party… All these are the tasks that our party centre must stick to tightly and determinedly.

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