We publish here the text of a speech that was sent to us:

 

Speech of the Editorial Board of Klassenstandpunkt Magazine presented at the International Symposium held in Vienna on the 27^th and the 28^th of May 2023

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

 

Dear comrades and friends,

 

Full of pride and revolutionary fervor we greet the comrades of Partizan that have taken the initiative of organizing this important International Symposium that definitively will have a longstanding impact on the development of the International Communist Movement (ICM) in general and the Communist Movement in Europe in particular, an excellent tribute to comrade Ibrahim Kaypakkaya, the founder of the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist – the glorious TKP/ML – and the heroic TIKKO, who personally led the initiation of the People’s War in his native land, the outstanding communist leader whose name is the same of the line, the path, of the revolution in Turkey.

 

We also greet all the other comrades from the different Parties and Organizations present, who have come from far and wide to pay tribute to comrade Kaypakkaya and give important contributions to the ongoing struggle for the unity of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoists of the world, for the unity of the communists of today. Very particularly we salute the International Communist League, a true leap in the struggle for the reconstitution of the Communist International, that we so badly need as a war machine of the international proletariat, which supports this initiative of the comrades of Partizan and has rallied so many comrades here. We are deeply honored of having this possibility to address you and we hope that we will not stress your patience.

 

Comrades and friends,

 

Before we proceed, we want to use this tribune to express our admiration and recognition of the firm, determined and relentless communist stance of the Central Committee of the TKP/ML which has shown before the international proletariat in general and the proletariat in Turkey in particular, once again, that it is the true heir of comrade Kaypakkaya by fighting of the vicious attacks of the Right Liquidators, persisting in the People's War.

There is a saying that goes “tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are”.

 

The Right Liquidators do not hesitate to unite with the pariahswho are the rats of the revisionist and capitulationist Right Opportunist Line, the traitors and renegades of the Peruvian revolution, and other revisionist scum all over the world. They even go so fartoaffiliate themselveswith the fascist Kemalists, trying to lead the masses astray to the road of parliamentary cretinism. It is no wonder that in Germany they are cattle of the notorious anti-Maoist MLPD – infamous for its collaboration with the Police and never ending attacks on the revolutionary movement in the country and the world.

 

The CC of the TKP/ML stands firmly with their comrades in arms in the People's Wars in Peru, India and the Philippines. The comrades stand shoulder to shoulder with the fighting detachments of the international proletariat, be it in Brazil or France or wherever. The comrades have developed an important boycott campaign against the reactionary elections, defended the independence of the Communist Party and insist in developing the People's War in Turkey. And it is deeply moving to see, once again, the banner of Kaypakkaya flying high, side by side, in the midst of the struggle, with the banner of the proletarian vanguard in formation in Germany.

 

There is no doubt who is who:

Down with the Right Liquidators!

Long Live the Party of comrade Kaypakkaya, long live the TKP/ML and its Central Committee!

 

Comrades and friends,

 

To persist on the road of Kaypakkaya is to be guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, is to raise the slogans of “Guerrillas do not die, long live the People's War!” and “People’s War for Red Power!”. Without Maoism there is no People's War, without People's War there is no Maoism.

 

The revisionists and opportunists of all kinds, including those who proclaim to be Maoists, oppose the People's War in all possible ways. Some state that “there are no conditions”, “the masses do not want to fight” and accordingly it is supposedly “necessary to gather strength” by legal, peaceful and parliamentarian means. Others declare the war of the masses to be “obsolete” and that it is not possible to conquer New Power, they seek alliances with the imperialists and replace the strategic guerrilla warfare with “special forces”. These positions are the absolute negation of the line of comrade Kaypakkaya.

 

When comrade Kaypakkaya struggled against the revisionists he made his famous statement: “The revisionist says the Prairie is not dry, might be, but it is dry in some places and the fire we will lite there will dry out the whole Prairie”. This statement is a strategic orientation of deep meaning and decisive importance, because it is the embodiment of the principle established by Chairman Mao: “Yes, we are advocates of the omnipotence of revolutionary war; that is good, not bad, it is Marxist.”ⁱ. Anyone who takes a sober look at the current world situation can see that all over the world the masses are arising – be it in Peru where the recent uprising has shaken the Old State, be it in the struggles of the French proletariat or be it in the recent uprisings in China where the great image of Chairman Mao was held high by the working class in its struggle against the fascistic revisionist rulers – clamoring for their rebellion to be organized and led. The problem does not rest with the masses but in the insufficient development of the subjective forces of the revolution, in the lack of Communist Parties able to take up their responsibility in a proper way. And if someone still claims that there are “no conditions”, we answer them, with Kaypakkaya, that through armed struggle, with People's War, we will generate all conditions needed. Chairman Gonzalo and the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) summed this up in what the Peruvian communists call “the law of the incorporation of the masses through the People's War”, which says that the incorporation of the masses is “through leaps and progressing; the more People's War the more incorporation of the masses, because the People's War is a political fact, that hammers ideas into minds of humans with powerful actions, who understand their sole and true path step by step, developing their political conscience; People's War calls together all revolutionaries and when it develops it opens up its own path”ⁱⁱ.

 

This, comrades, must be the stand of every Marxist-Leninist-Maoist. We must reject all those who doubt the masses, all those who deny the omnipotence of the revolutionary war, the People's War.

 

Those who preach that it is “necessary to gather strength”, or “accumulate forces” are fundamentally opposed to the line of comrade Kaypakkaya. He founded the Party and the revolutionary Army, he initiated the People's War. When did he bother “accumulating forces” by legal and peaceful means? Never.

 

Is it notso, that in the more than fifty years ofits existence, the TKP/ML is a rock solid proof that for growing deep roots among the masses and to persist on the road of revolution, the Communist Party needs a doctrine, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism – a Program, the ideology applied to the specific conditions of the country – and rifles, the revolutionary Army? Of course it is so!

 

Is it not so that the TKP/ML is deeply rooted among the workers, peasants and laboring masses of Turkey and Turkey/Kurdistan? Of course it is so!

Is it not so that this is because of the correct line of comrade Kaypakkaya and the armed struggle along his path? Of course it is so!

 

The road of the Maoists is the road of the armed struggle, the road of the People's War. The road of legal and peaceful “accumulation of forces” is the road of treason, of capitulation. It is the road of the renegades of Kaypakkaya.

 

“Halt, stop!” cry the “mature” ones, “that is adventurism!”. Well, even if the “mature” ones are not “mature” but overdue, that is rotten, they have a point. Without the leadership of the Communist Party the armed struggle is doomed to fail. The problem hence is to understand what the proletarian Party really is.

 

For us, the Marxist-Leninist-Maoists, the Communist Party, a Party of New Type, has as its purpose to conquer the State Power and to defend it, and since the Dictatorship of the Proletariat – or the Dictatorship of all the revolutionary classes under the leadership of the proletariat, according to the character of the revolution – can only be established through revolutionary violence, this is a most basic law of Marxism, the Party is inseparably linked to armed struggle, the People's War. Just as the Party of Ibrahim Kaypakkaya.

 

In the most countries of the world, including Germany, such a Party does not exist – due to the sinister role played by revisionism – and hence the most urgent task of the proletarian vanguard in formation, the communists in formation, is to struggle relentlessly for its reconstitution. To do so correctly the contradiction, which takes the form of two-line-struggle and in its core is a struggle against revisionism, must be understood as the driving force of the development of the Party, and that the struggle for the reconstitution goes through different moments in which changes and developments occur and the forms of struggle and organization must be adopted accordingly. Chairman Mao taught us that before the initiation of the revolutionary war everything has to be done to prepare it and once it has begun, everything must be done for its victory. The only true Communist Party can therefore only be reconstituted with this as its North Star, the Party must be built for waging revolutionary war, otherwise it has no purpose other than to be a breeding ground for parasites and charlatans – and then it is not the Party of the Proletariat, the Communist Party, but a revisionist miscarriage.

 

Comrade Kaypakkayas example is a reaffirmation of how to proceed in the struggle for the reconstitution of the Party. Only by going to the deepest and broadest masses and living, working and struggling with them, just as he did with the workers and peasants of his country before founding the Party and initiating the People's War, you can unite firmly with the masses and grow deep roots in among them. Only this way you can apply correctly the universal truth of Maoism to the specific conditions of class-struggle in a country, be it in Turkey or in Germany or wherever. Only this way can, through the struggle for the reconstitution of the Communist Party, with the rock-steady strategic orientation of the initiation of the armed struggle, the People's War, the specific line for the revolution in a country be established, which, with the leap to the highest form of struggle, will be confirmed as the guiding thought of the revolution by proving in fire that it gives the correct solution to the particular problems in the specific context, especially that of how to construct the New Power.

 

This basic orientation is a key to stay firm on the road of the proletarian revolution. No wonder that the road of the People's War, the road held high by comrade Kaypakkaya, is negated bythose who seek “deals” with the imperialist.

 

Some, as Murat Karayilan of the Central Headquarters of the so-called “People's Defense Forces”, go so far as to state that they have found a “… new path and method of resistance for all of humanity”! (Excuse us in advance for quoting Mr. Karayilan at length, but), according to him "Space exploration has advanced and the Global Positioning System (GPS) ... The missile system aimed at a specific coordinate, inventions such as unmanned aerial vehicles, the advanced use of laser beam technology and thermal technology in warfare and the level reached by the massively developing means of communication have radically changed our world in every respect“and therefore “...warfare has reached a level where it is conducted on the basis of intelligence. ... Normal classical wars have now been overcome. Normal classical weapons and armies no longer play a major role… the human factor is still the most important factor in war, and the decisive factor in war is still the human factor… human will, human intellect and human capabilities have become increasingly decisive" which is supposed to “proof” that “… the new period had to change most of the war tactics established by Mao Zedong in China” and, as a consequence, his organization has made a “project aimed at the framework that we call professional guerrilla ... which is based on self-discipline, conspiracy and camouflage” This fellow thinks that “the role of organized violence is not everything. It is about finding a position that takes into account the increasing importance of social forces and the power of public opinion. Here, the guerrilla as a defensive force ... that gives confidence to society... It plays a vanguard role as a force that gives courage and strength to society and intervenes when there is a blockage” and to sum the whole mambo-jumbo up, the supposed “solution” is “Three pillars of the revolution...The first...is the organized mass of people, i.e. organized society. We see this today; in Iraq, for example, organized power can change everything. So, the power of society is essential; it comes first. The second is the guerrilla as an organized, armed and professional defense unit. … The third is self-defense, which is half civilian and half military and is organized secretly within society, a kind of secret army. ... What is important here is that the guerrilla of the modern era no longer operates with large troops as in the past, but with teams based on expertise. We call this coordinated team warfare. Depending on the need, the teams act alone or simultaneously. Guerrilla teams based on conspiracy, stealth and discipline are almost like ghosts, appearing wherever they want and never being found."

 

Excuse us once again for quoting Mr. Karayilan at lengthⁱⁱⁱ, but here we have a condensed bourgeois military line, a line of national and class capitulation, that gives old answers to new problems. It is the complete negation of the line of comrade Kaypakkaya, the road of the People's War, and due to the impact of the forces which this fellow represents, who do not make any secret of the fact that they consider their “invention” to be a “new path... for all of humanity”, this line must be rejected by all Maoists in every country.

 

It is true that the development of new weapons and technologies pose new challenges, but that is nothing new in history and every new offensive weapon has always generated the corresponding defensive one: the spear generated the shield, the tank the ATM and the helicopter the SAM-missile and so on, and as Maoists we know that with the strategy of People's War we can, and will, defeat even atomic warfare. If the communists face difficulties they trust Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the Party and the Masses; by applying our ideology the Communist Party can overcome all problems and unfold the immense and endless creativity of the masses to find the necessary solutions.

 

The talk of conventional armies and weapons being “obsolete” is being proven as a slur every day in Ukraine, and not only there, but everywhere where armed conflict occurs. Even if lip-service is being payed to “the human factor”, what Karayilan speaks about is not the “human” as a part of a class, of the masses, but as an individual, “human” in singular, as a “super soldier”, a “Rambo”, as part of the “Special Forces of the revolution”. The so-called “professional guerrilla” is nothing else but a wannabe copy of such elite forces of Yankee-imperialism as “the SEALs”. “Coordinated team warfare” is a term that can be heard at any reactionary Military Academy in the world. As Maoist we know that the People's War is the war of the masses, who are the true heroes who make history, and not of a small group of “super soldiers”. Our bastion is the armed people and our answer to any new technological development is to go deeper among the masses, our armor is the masses and by relying on them we will be capable of every wonder. The masses can and know everything, we do not base ourselves on military experts like the bourgeoisie. The Maoist guerrillas move “as a fish in the water” among the masses because they serve the people and are a part of it, representing its most deeply felt aspirations and ambitions. The “stealth” of the “professional guerrilla” is based on “expertise”. Could anyone seriously state that strength of Kaypakkaya and his comrades when they initiated the People's War in their country was their “expertise” in military affairs and not there iron strong connection to the masses? No, of course not. Those alleged “followers of Kaypakkaya” who follow the bourgeois military line, that Karayilan represents, in fact negatethe mass line which comrade Kaypakkaya himself applied.

 

The very concept of the “three pillars of the revolution” is nothing else as the same line applied by the renegades of Irish Republicanism, the line of Adams and Co. The so-called “organized society” is nothing else but a term for justifying parliamentary cretinism, a front with a faction of the Bureaucratic Bourgeoisie and the reliance on the so-called NGOs. The “professional guerrilla” is only a tool of the “organized society”, that is in practice the parliamentary political Party, and it should “intervene when there is a blockage” in the “peace-negotiations”, and so the aim of the armed struggle is not the destruction of the Old State but, at most, armed reformism. Crowning the whole construct is the fact that the masses in a “half civilian and half military” way must copealone with the vicious attacks of the enemy. If this line some day will succeed, the only thing that will be accomplished is “better conditions” of capitulation and in no way the defeat of imperialism and the Old State. Just as in the occupied Six Counties of Ireland it will only mean an evolution of the imperialist domination – and of course well payed cozy positions in the Old State for the Adamites.

 

As Maoists we can, should and must, insist on the strategic role of guerrilla warfare, as a key element of the People's War, and in the midst of the armed struggle advance in the construction of the three instruments of revolution: the Communist Party, the revolutionary Army and the Front/the New State as a specification of the United Front of all the revolutionary classes under the all-around leadership of the proletariat through its Party. The main aspect of the revolutionary war, the People's War, is the construction of the New, based on the destruction of the Old. The guerrilla warfare must be developed to accomplish our long-term war aims and must never be reduced to a simple question of tactics. That is the only way, and that is the line established in Turkey and Turkey/Kurdistan by comrade Ibrahim Kaypakkaya.

 

Because of all that was said we are fully convinced that the comrades of the TKP/ML are very correct when theyaffirm with precision: “Concentrating on the problems of the revolution and grasping the main link of the complex process is only possible by firmly opposing the ideological stance that describes reformism as revolutionism, reactionism as progressiveness, elections as liberation, class collaboration as revolutionary tactics, and its weakness as shedding the scientific.”^iv

 

Comrades and friends,

 

While firmly rejecting revisionism and opportunism we should not hesitate to also speak about those matters where there might be a need for discussion among us. On the contrary the only correct way among comrades must be putting the issues on the table and sort them out through correct and principled two-line-struggle.

 

In this sense we consider that the central task in the ideological struggle in the International Communist Movement still is toadvance the general understanding of Maoism as the new, third and higher stage of the development of the ideology of the international proletariat and that being a Marxist today means being a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, principally Maoist.

 

Many still consider the emphasis on Maoism, as a higher stage and hence the specification “principally Maoist”, to be “unnecessary”, since “Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is an integral whole”. Curiously, with a few exceptions, these are the same ones who deny the universal validity of the military theory of the international proletariat, elaborated by Chairman Mao, the People’s War, who argue for a long period of “accumulation of forces” and the necessity of participation in elections, who consider “peace negotiations” to be good tactics and who in general strongly insist on the supposed advantage of using “legal” ways of struggle.

 

It is not a coincidence that the renegade of Maoism, Bob, the Guru of the church of Avkianism, and his so very “Revolutionary Communist Party”, ended up calling for the election of Biden. It is not a coincidence that Prachanda, with his “communism of the 21^st Century” ended up as an arch-traitor. It is not a coincidence that the Right Liquidators, who tried to usurp the Party of Kaypakayya, now affiliate themselves with people who support the kemalist fascist Kiliçdaroğlu and his CHP-gang.

 

If one refuses the light one will end up in the darkness. If one refuse to grasp Maoism as the new, third and higher stage of Marxism, one will lose orientation.

 

We understand Maoism as the elevation of Marxism-Leninism to a new, third and higher stage, because Chairman Mao has developed the three integral parts of Marxism, bringing forth a huge qualitative leap in all of them. This leap, as every dialectical one, implies reaching a superior level, a higher truth, as Lenin would have put it.^v

 

We do not think this understanding is alien to the tradition of the International Communist Movement but mainly a development of the same position as comrade Stalin and the Bolsheviks held regarding Leninism. This position implies grasping that, as Comrade Stalin puts it:

 

“Mastering the Marxist-Leninist theory does not at all mean learning all its formulas and conclusions by heart and clinging to their every letter. To master the Marxist-Leninist theory we must first of all learn to distinguish between its letter and substance.

Mastering the Marxist-Leninist theory means assimilating the substance of this theory and learning to use it in the solution of the practical problems of the revolutionary movement under the varying conditions of the class struggle of the proletariat.

Mastering the Marxist-Leninist theory means being able to enrich this theory with the new experience of the revolutionary movement, with new propositions and conclusions, it means being able to develop it and advance it without hesitating to replace – in accordance with the substance of the theory – such of its propositions and conclusions as have become antiquated by new ones corresponding to the new historical situation.”

“Opportunism does not always mean a direct denial of the Marxist theory or of any of its propositions and conclusions. Opportunism is sometimes expressed in the attempt to cling to certain of the propositions of Marxism that have already become antiquated and to convert them into a dogma, so as to retard the further development of Marxism, and, consequently, to retard the development of the revolutionary movement of the proletariat.”

 

and

 

“The Bolshevik Party could not have won in October 1917 if its foremost men had not mastered the theory of Marxism, if they had not learned to regard this theory as a guide to action, if they had not learned to advance the Marxist theory by enriching it with the new experience of the class struggle of the proletariat.”^vi

 

Excuse us, comrades, for the long quotation, but we are not able to express it in anyway better. The crux of the matter is to grasp the essence of our ideology and not only its letters. To understand that the development of our ideology, with the leap to a higher level, demands a break with what has become old and firmly uphold and apply the new. That is why we must understand Maoism, the (today) highest stage of development of our ideology, to be our main guide at every moment.

 

This is what we want to state on this matter on this occasion. Now, at last, we will make some final comments.

 

Comrades and friends,

 

We are fully convinced that the founding of the International Communist League (ICL) constitutes a landmark in the struggle for unity of the communists in the world. Now we have a powerful tool for sowing Marxism-Leninism-Maoism all over the globe, a common instrument for unifying the dispersed forces that exist in all countries. The ICL is still very young, it has just been born and hence it is still fragile and needs to grow and develop on all levels. But its perspective is magnificent. In the current new period of revolutions and wars of all types, we can and must advance with audacity while laying solid foundations.

 

This important Symposium in itself is a proof of what we can and must do. We must strive to unite, not only those Parties and Organizations that already are members of the ICL, but all true Maoists on the basis of principles and develop joint efforts to overcome prejudices and sectarian criteria. The ones who want unity without principles, who run away from the two-line-struggle and even go so far as proclaiming their desire to “combat the ICL” can not be considered honest and sincere elements. Inside the International Communist Movement still for some time there will be a lot of discrepancy and many issues must and will be subject to painstaking and prolonged debates, this is only normal and no communist should be terrified by this. The foundation of the ICL implies a leap in generating the proper conditions for overcoming this situation, to develop the struggle for unity. The existence of an organized, disciplined and unified structure as the ICL, that promotes the debate and fair exchange between the communists of the world, that takes the initiative for common international campaigns in support of the most advanced detachments of the international proletariat in the storm centers of the world proletarian revolution and supports the struggles for the reconstitution of the Communist Parties all over the world – which honest and sincere communist or revolutionary in the world can see such a thing as bad? Of course no one, except those whose petty-minded ambitions have been betrayed by their own impotence, but these characters are nothing but caricatures of communists.

 

The campaign to celebrate the 130^th anniversary of the birth of Chairman Mao has been initiated by the ICL and we hope and believe that it is a great opportunity for the Marxist-Leninist-Maoists to come together internationally and develop joint activities. The comrades of the ICL have called upon us all to take part and we are sure that the campaign will develop strongly in the upcoming months and its culmination at the end of the year most certainly will be a very dignified celebration of the life and work of Chairman Mao – of Maoism. We, on our behalf, pledge to give all for this purpose and are sure that many, many, others will do the same.

 

Comrades and friends,

 

We know that we have spoken a lot, still there is much more to be said, but for today it is enough and we do not want to abuse your patience, so we conclude by saying:

 

Long live comrade Kaypakkaya and his Party the TKP/ML!

Long live the International Communist League!

Unite under Maoism!

Guerrillas do not die, long live the People's War!

People’s War for Red Power!

 

Editorial Staff, Klassenstandpunkt Magazine

May 2023