Resolution on the International Communist Movement

1. From the very beginning of the communist movement, Marx and Engels had clearly stated that the development of capitalism would lead the bourgeoisie to expand "over the entire surface of the globe". Class struggle in any country is thereof closely linked to one another because of imperialism and the expansion of capitalism world wide. Whether there may be discrepancies between class struggle in one country or another depending on specific conditions, the struggle to overthrow the bourgeoisie and establish a new socialist order bears an international character. With the famous and powerful last words of the Communist Manifesto - "Workers of all countries, unite!" - that have echoed through the decades and that call for the unification of the revolutionary masses fighting capitalism and imperialism and by upholding the First International, Marx and Engels had set the framework in which the proletarian movement was going to take place.

2. After the dissolution of the International Workingmen's Association and the establishment of the Second International that Engels helped to set up, the triumph of the Russian revolution at the beginning of the 20th century strongly helped to propel the international communist movement. Witnessing the failure of the Second International that had became a tool for imperialist war, Lenin and the Bolsheviks fought with all their might on the practical as well as on the theoretical front, to build a new international organization that would truly serve the interests of the world revolution. The Third International, or Comintern, that they had put together, still symbolizes the triumph of the Russian revolution and the remarkable insight of Lenin when he stated that under the conditions of imperialism, the people's liberation movement is linked with and part of a same and single movement toward socialism and communism. Since Lenin's time the international communist movement has never ceased to play a central role in world events, entertaining the hopes and the struggles led by the proletariat and the oppressed people. The ICM wrote brilliant pages of history; huge victories swept the planet; terrible failures also marked the struggle, yet again these setbacks were quite instructive. The international communist movement has always pursued its tumultuous and courageous struggle from which we can and must learn from.

3. After Stalin's death in 1953 and the take over of state power by the Khrushchov's revisionist clique in the Soviet Union in 1956 at a time when the Communist International didn't exist any longer, some negative tendencies had cropped up in the international communist movement and became more and more prevalent, notably in North America, Yugoslavia, as well as in France and Italy, not excluding within the CPSU itself. Following the line put forth by the CP of the Soviet Union, several communist parties and organizations had espoused revisionist and pacifist theses and had betrayed the revolution. Mao and the Chinese communists were the ones who then raised the revolutionary line within the ICM. Inspiring themselves from the rich experience of China and that of the overall revolutionary movement, Mao and the Communist Party of China led a thorough ideological and political struggle against modern revisionism endorsed by Khrushchev. By supporting the struggle for the triumph of socialism in China and unleashing the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Mao and the Chinese revolutionaries inspired and led millions of proletarians and oppressed people in the great battles that shook the world all through the Sixties. The new Marxist-Leninist movement then emerged and assured a continuity with the revolutionary communist movement of the past.

4. This new movement, still young and lacking of experience, did not have the time or the capacity to develop sufficiently, whether it be on an ideological or organizational level, in order to face the new challenges that were going to arise. As Mao had anticipated, the overthrowing of the revolutionary line and the take over of state power by the new bourgeoisie represented by Deng Xiaoping in 1976 in China had a disastrous effect on the international communist movement. Along with the revolutionary coup in China, the attacks waged by the dogmatist revisionists united around the Labor Party of Albania that were sticking to some erroneous conceptions of the Third International and that refused to recognize the advancements made by Mao and the Chinese CP, led to the liquidation of most of the Marxist-Leninist organizations that had tried to follow the revolutionary path at the turn of the Eighties.

5. Only a handful of organizations, among them the RCP, USA, upheld Mao's teachings - not in a dogmatic way but as a guide to advance on the revolutionary path. In 1984, about 15 of those parties and organizations adopted a common declaration and founded the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), based on the defence of the heritage of the fight against modern revisionism and of the Cultural Revolution. At the same time, the Communist Party of Peru (CPP), reorganized under the leadership of Chairman Gonzalo, spectacularly and courageously broke off from revisionism, legalism and bourgeois pacifism in which a majority of parties and organizations were bogged down. On May 17, 1980, they launched a protracted people's war against the reactionary regime linked to US imperialism. During the last 20 years, the CPP played a central role in the reorganizing and development of the new international communist movement. The CPP demonstrated the acuteness and the feasibility of the revolutionary course and took part in the line struggle within the RIM. It also systemized the revolutionary science of the proletariat - that is Maoism - on which the movement can now rely on.

6. On this solid foundation, new communist organizations were born; others that were already existing and had accumulated a long experience in revolutionary combat, were able to reorganize and successfully undertake rectification campaigns. Currently, the most important revolutionary struggles, like the ones that are taking place in the Philippines, in Nepal, in Peru, in India and in Turkey are under the leadership of Maoist parties and organizations. They are the most advanced elements of the international communist movement. In the imperialist countries, it is also Maoist organizations, or ones inspired by Maoism, that are studying the experiences of the past and are organizing in order to develop the revolutionary struggle against the monopolist bourgeoisie that dominate the handful of rich countries, spreading terror, misery and devastation throughout the world. The RIM is already uniting several of those parties and vanguard organizations. As a group still in construction, it constitutes the embryonic center of a new Communist International. The RIM recognizes Maoism as being the third stage of the revolutionary science of the proletariat and spreads it. It upholds and supports the establishment of Maoist parties and organizations. At the same time it helps develop a genuine solidarity work with the people's wars that are currently being fought. A growing number of organizations, like the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), now consider that the initiation and the further development of people's war is the main task of all communist parties, including in the imperialist countries. In the current situation where struggles against capitalism and imperialism are taking place on a growing scale, revolutionary struggles are developing again and fundamental contradictions that characterize imperialism are sharpening, the RIM can and must play a more prominent role to unite Maoists and the international communist movement.

7. The participants at the RCP(OC)'s First Congress pledge to build with firmness and determination a Revolutionary Communist Party in Canada as a conscious and organized detachment of the international communist movement.

• We enthusiastically salute our comrades from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) who are building a red fortress and serving the world revolution in South Asia: Lal Salaam !
• We warmly salute our comrades in the Philippines who are successfully pursuing a people's war that they have embarked upon more than 30 years ago already. The Filipino comrades are now engaged in a crucial battle against the imperialist counter-offensive that is being deployed at the very heart of their country. We also demand an immediate end to the harassment and attacks against Jose Maria Sison and the Filipino revolutionary refugees in Europe.
• We reaffirm once again our solidarity with our dear comrades from the Communist Party of Peru who are still advancing protracted people's war in very difficult circumstances and despite the severe setbacks they faced in the last ten years. Long live Chairman Gonzalo and the courageous revolutionary fighters in Peru !
• We salute the organizations and parties of countries dominated by imperialism who are leading protracted people's war or are preparing for it, namely in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan.
• We salute the Maoist parties and organizations that are leading the struggle within the imperialist countries, namely in Italy, Spain and the US, and assure them of our determination to wage a revolutionary war according to the concrete conditions in which we find ourselves. Also, as has begun the shameful trial being held by the French "justice" system with the objective to extradite the activists from the Communist Party of Spain (reconstituted) captured two years ago, we demand their immediate and unconditional liberation.
• We support the efforts of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement that aims at hoisting and defending the red flag of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, as well as their help in building new Maoist parties and reinforcing the ones that already exists. We equally support their efforts to uphold and develop protracted people's war and world wide revolution, and to build a new Communist International that will lead the ultimate battle to overthrow capitalism and imperialism and assure the victory of communism world wide.
• We are engaging ourselves for the upcoming period in making progress and advancing on the path of the revolutionary people's war and by doing so in contributing to the development of the unity of the Maoist forces at the political and ideological level. Consequently, we are asking the Central Committee of the RCP(OC) to undertake what has to be done to eventually join the ranks of the RIM.

Long live proletarian internationalism !
Long live the unity of the International Communist Movement !

(paru dans the People's War Digest magazine n° 1)