Date: Mon, 8 Jul 1996 08:41:34 +0200 (MET DST) From: rolf.martens-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se (Rolf Martens) Subject: UNITE! Info #12en: 2/6 China - NE (Germany), '75-'77 UNITE! Info #12en: 2/6 China - NE (Germany), '75-'77 [Sent: 08.07.96] [Continued from part 1/6] II. The representatives of the 'KPD' sometimes try to justify themselves by pointing at the 'Roter Morgen'. They in this however on purpose are overlooking its conflict with the KPD/ML (NEUE EINHEIT) and the entire two-line struggle that took place within the KPD/ML. This struggle was carried out relatively thoroughly, and the so-called 'KPD' with its "party idea" precisely thrust into that conflict concerning the Party. Such an inner-Party struggle was absolutely necessary and should, if possible, have been fought out within the domain of such a party. A grouping such as the 'KPD' cannot draw any justification from the fact of the degeneration of the 'Roter Morgen', even if it also has stated some correct things in relation to the 'Roter Morgen', because it at the same time itself was very active in taking part in the suppression of the correct line in the KPD/ML and at certain points of time even distinguished itself as a prominent perpetrator of this suppression, tolerated splittists and bad elements in its ranks and considered the isolating of the correct representatives of Marxism-Leninism to be a quite particularly important part of its activity. (Note 1.) [Note 1, p. 28:] The refutation of the 'Roter Morgen' was not, for instance, something for which the 'KPD' should be given the credit. The 'Roter Morgen' was at an early stage and on matters of principle criticized by forces within the KPD/ML and within the Rote Garde. Our Party precisely in the early stage of the Party carried out a basic and deep-going struggle with the 'Roter Morgen', as can be seen on the hand of various documents and analyses (for instance "Die linkssektiererische Linie in der KPD/ML" ["The 'Left' Secterian Line in the KPD/ML"] of the summer of 1970 or the article "UEber die Hinterlistige Falle, die die Roter-Morgen-Clique, ergaentzt durch die Rote Fahne- Clique, dem Marxismus-Leninismus in Deutschland stellt" ["On the Crafty Trap Which the Roter Morgen Clique, Complemented with the Rote Fahne Clique, Is Posing to Marxism-Leninism in Germany"] of the autumn of 1972, which the 'Roter Morgen' has never been able to refute), and also on the hand of a series of further, later, documents. [Note 1, ctd:] "The 'KPD', on the contrary, not seldom has protected the 'Roter Morgen' against our criticism, and also did the 'Roter Morgen' very often make concessions to the 'KPD' and went together with it against the KPD/ML (NEUE EINHEIT). "Unity" debates there, characterisically, existed only between those two organizations, but never with our Party. [End of Note] Also the so-called 'RAF' campaign of the bourgeoisie is in the last instance, if you look at its kernel and at its real perpetrators, a reflection of the striving of the bourgeoisie to get at the Marxist- Leninist movement. The Marxists had, on the basis of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, on the basis of the thorough criticism of revisionism, weapons in their hand which, on principle, made access to the masses possible for them. This is an important fact of principle. This movement was an unwritten leaf; it was, from this aspect, not much touched by social-democratism. It had the radicalism of the youth and student movement and attacked with extreme toughness the bourgeois society. It was, to put it briefly, characterized by the 'most radical break', had, in the last instance, the 'Communist Manifesto' by Marx and Engels as its foundation and also, once more, linked itself up with their work. It wrote on its banners the liberation of the entire mankind from exploitation and oppression and was also able to present such a thing as a - first, diffuse and later, more exact - general plan. This movement was not of little importance. This movement's breaking out marked and caused, on the part of the bourgeoisie, a considerable lifting-up of a portion of the German workers, the importation, increased by leaps and bounds, of foreign workers and the preparation for what later was carried out on a large scale, the relocation of production into foreign countries and the "shunting-off" of German workers - in its essence, an economic "flight forwards" by the bourgeoisie in order to escape from the revolutionary movement. The youth and student movement (which the bourgeois propaganda and the phoney"Marxists" are trying to lie away or to demote to the role as solely a perpetrator of a certain change of government) was the heralding of a general revolutionary agitation in society. What was unique with this movement was that it arose on a developed capitalist basis and did not, at least not in the main, emerge from social-democratism. It had >from its very beginning clear elements of demarcation against revisionism, namely, the criticism of the exploitation of the oppressed peoples and nations and the critcism of that comparative parasitism which is connected with this and which emerges in these countries. It developed a completely new radicalism, which permitted Marxism to be adopted very quickly and on a mass scale. If you were to reduce the struggle with the 'KPD' t its kernel, you could also say that the 'KPD' during the its whole existence has strived to contain once more this 'radicalism', while we are seeking in all circumstances to keep it and to make it go further. These facts no 'KPD' nor any 'Roter Morgen' clique can whisk away. The 'KPD' has no right, in order, in the last instance, to conceal its own evil role, to denigrate the entire struggle of that time as unimportant and to shove it aside. * This basic differentiation you cannot disregard when making considerations concerning the essence of the Party. Are these points concerning the history of the Party correct or false? You cannot say that this today doesn't matter any more. Of course it matters what point of deparure a party has taken, also because in the development, this differentiation likewise has made itself felt in important international questions and has decided, who stood where in them. III. ON THE QUESTION OF THE CLASS DIFFERENTIATION AND THE "THEORY OF THE THREE WORLDS" The basic class differentiation between these parties all the time remained in existence. The KPD/ML(NEUE EINHEIT) waged a relatively extensive struggle with the 'Roter Morgen' concerning basic ideological questions, and in this struggle, comlpletely new forces of Marxism-Leninism managed to carry the day against people who themselves don't know how on principle to apply Marxism-Leninism and who are utilizing the masses and the actual representatives of Marxism-Leninism for their own purposes. The political line of the KDP/ML(NEUE EINHEIT) above all also therefore was Marxist, because it succeeded in making a Marxist analysis of the situation and in particular completely to comprehend the importance and the role of labour aristocracy and various historical movements, such as the repudiation of Nazi fascism and the struggle against Soviet revisionism. This from the very beginning was on the agenda in connection with the formation of the KPD/ML(NEUE EINHEIT). In this, Klaus Sender played a particularly important role. The KPD/ML(NEUE EINHEIT) from the very beginning wrote the connection with the masses on its banner and worked concretely on carrying this out, on various points and to the extent that this was possible. The basic idea from the beginning on was, as self-dependent party to wake to life once more the experience of Marxism-Leninism, that of our own workers' movement and that of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, of Mao Zedong Thought, and, by defeating revisionism, make it possible once more to anchor Marxism among the masses. In this, the various attempts by the opportunists absolutely to 'integrate' our Party again, by any means however questionable, constituted an important part of the struggle with opportunism during the first two years of the Party and in the struggle for the Party. The KPD/ML(NEUE EINHEIT) on various points refuted the 'KPD' and the 'Roter Morgen'. Never did they in any serious manner go into the questions of these refutations, but they very visibly, in a manner unmistakable for anyone who followed these things, adapted themselves to the criticism, and indeed took it up themselves, in part literally, and presented it as their own. Plagiarianism is a basic element of these parties. The salient point with these people from the very beginning has consisted in their trying, supporting themselves on the bourgeoisie, to force the Party on to its knees, to utilize the advantage resulting from the bribery and the bourgeois propaganda in order to get the upper hand and to incorporate the genuine causes and driving forces of that movement, on which they in reality are floating, into themselves, something which is the most basic interest of all of opportunism also in general. The KPD/ML(NEUE EINHEIT), therefore, necessarily carried out a propaganda relying on its own forces. It proceeded from the principle that, if it developed the propaganda itself, to the extent that it was able to do this by itself and with the correct leadership (i.e., that those people who develop this propaganda also have the actual leadership) carrying these organisatorical conditions to the masses, then it would inexorably carry through also against these forces. That means, the testing in practice of what is correct and what is false. And this was carried out in this manner too. And step by step, our Party succeeded in gaining groud, is spite of the fact of its organizational disadvantage in relation to these other parties, in spite of the fact that its existence was limited to only one city. The KPD/ML(NEUE EINHEIT) accordingly developed a theory and a knowledge of the entire role of the bribery and of that social revolution which was taking place within the working class. And this was no wonder, since of course it became confronted with all these problems at the very moment in which each of them started to have effect. It also corresponds to all this experience that today the KPD/ML (NEUE EINHEIT) has at its disposal a fairly surveyable, clear and correct economic analysis. *This drove the KPD/ML(NEUE EINHEIT) further and further with the objective of enforcing an open ideological struggle*, and in this, it came to be confronted by the most violent counter- reaction. The "RAF" campaign, which the bourgeoisie developed, precisely parallell in time to the conflict within the Marxist-Leninist movement, clearly and unmistakably has the Marxist-Leninist movement as its object of attack, which has in some places in the public propaganda been stated directly too, again and again. All this had relatively little effect. Finally, the KPD/ML(NEUE EINHEIT) was subjected to a regular siege by a mass of spies and agents; the suppression of 1 May 1972 consituted a climax. [See later note on this. - RM] That practical revolutionary work, however, which was undertaken, the propaganda and the firmness in Marxism, prevented an actual breakdown and made it possible for our Party to achieve an analysis of the international connections of things, *based on those experiences which we ourselves had made in our country*, of course based on the analyses by the People's Republic of China but also based on our own analysis of the international connections and on the observations of the events in detail, so that our Party finally came to the same conclusions on the international level as Chairman Mao in China and developed almost an identical concrete policy, relying on our own forces. As early as in the Grosser Maiaufruf (Grand May Call) of 1972 there are clear elements which were more or less identical to that political line developed by Chairman Mao and that particularly sharp differentiation as against social-imperialism which was necessary at that time, only from another, but at least equally important, side, from the situation in the centre of Europe, in which the various contradictions are tying themselves together into a knot. The development and the standpoint of the "Theory of the Three Worlds" make sense only if you consider class struggle to be the key, only if you yourself stand firm on the line of the dictatorship of the proletariat; if you don't, it's pure swindle. In the final instance, for instance, the contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed peoples and nations is a contradiction derived from the one between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, even if in practice four basic contradictions dominate in the international situation and are considered to be on an equal level to each other. In the last instance, the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat is the *most basic* contradiction of all, which is *propelling history forwards*. The whole construction made up of such ideological views as "Theory of the Three Worlds", differentiation into intermidary zones etc, exists only as a superstructure on top of the theory of Marxism and is a constituent part of it, is a certain expansion of it for a quite particular situation, as are many other analyses. So it's the stand taken as to the dictatorship of the proletariat, the stand taken as to labour aristocratism (of course for the repudiation of it) and as to the entire internationalism of the proletariat, that is basic for the correct view of the international situation. Only in this way can you understand the entire international situation. If you pass these things over, then you'll also go wrong on the whole international situation, respectively, then a certain image, a certain taking over of certain elements of foreign policy, is a pure swindle which serves to confound the principal aspect with secondary aspects and to suppress the correct theory. The KPD/ML(NEUE EINHEIT) developed a basically correct standpoint concerning the international class struggle, as has been put forward in the publication "Die internationale Lage, Europa und die Stellung der marxistisch-leninistischen Parteien" but also in other writings of the years '73 and '74 and also in later years. [This important article referred to was written by Klaus Sender here in Malmoe, Sweden, and published as "NEUE EINHEIT" No. 1 /1973. A Swedish translation, made by me and a German comrade, was published by me in 1974 and an English translation, made by me in cooperation with others in 1975, was eventually published in 1976, as more or less the only document in English from that party at that time, under the title "The International Situation, Europe and the Position of the Marxist-Leninist Parties". I intend to post it at some later date. - RM] These publications supported the struggle of the Third World, they supported the element of differentiation into Three Worlds, respectively, into intermidary zones, they supported the struggles of the medium-sized and small countries, they supported the general movement in the direction of democracy on the international level, which was a result of the revolutionary class struggles of the peoples, including those of the Marxist-Leninst parties in our countries, including those of the youth and student movement, which precisely had made preparations for this movement and which has the considerable merit of having contributed to the formation of this situation. [Continued in part 3/6] --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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