Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 10:45:35 +0200 (MET DST)
From: rolf.martens-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se (Rolf Martens)
Subject: Brief party history in Germany


After I was recently attacked, i.a. on this list,
by my ex-comrades of the KPD/ML(NEUE EINHEIT) of
Germany, some people have mistakenly referred to that
organization as the "KPD/ML".

In fact, the names of several of those organizations
which arose in the late 1960:s and early 1970:s in
Germany and which stated their adherence to Mao Zedong
Thought were confusingly similar.

And the name of the important one, the party that, during
a long time, really represented the interests of the
proletariat, practically nobody outside of it has ever
been able to spell correctly, not in Germany itself either.

So perhaps it's suitable that I very briefly explain things
in this respect, as far as I know them, which I think I do
in the main.

For a more detailed history of the fight for a real
Marxist-Leninist party in Germany in the late '60:s and
early '70:s, and the struggle of the correct one with the
two most important reactionary phoneys up until the mid-'70:s, 
I refer readers to my posting in 6 parts on 08.07.96:

"UNITE! Info #12en: China - NE (Germany), '75-'77".

This contained a translation of a 1979 pamphlet by the
KPD/ML(NEUE EINHEIT)- the correct party I referred to. 
	
The name of that party should be spelled as above. The
bracket with "NEUE EINHEIT" in it should be included.
All letters should be capital.

Even I, who in 1974 met representatives of that party
who were in exile here in Malmoe, Sweden, and became an
adherent of its line (the one also of Mao Zedong in China),
at first couldn't spell its name correctly. This shows you 
just how difficult that is. But, with some careful reading 
and some training perhaps, others might manage it too.

Incidentially, it's only because of me that this party still
has that name. In 1990, it was all set to change it. I then
told its chairman, Klaus Sender, that "this would have that
advantage that the masses would clearly see that our group's
basis today is questionable", at which he was quite displeased.

(I in fact, because of certain considerations at the time, was
a member of it, though a Swede and living and working here
in Sweden, between January 1987 and April 1990, when I left
it and in the next minute was "excluded" too - one of several
farsical things in connection with that party's sad 
degeneration.) The party's name in 1990 was *not* changed.

That party's chairman was and is Klaus Sender. And the NE
itself - a more or less official abbreviation has long been
"NE" - several years ago publicly communicated the information
that that name is a pseudonym for Hartmut Dicke. The recent
attack on me, when mailed to me, was signed "Klas Ber". Since I
never heard of such a person, I suppose this is a new
pseudonym for the same. The party's e-mail address is 
<klasber-AT-aol.com> (Klasber). In last April-May, it posted a 
couple of things as <weklu-AT-aol.com>.

The NE in the early years had a paper called "Die Revolutionaere
Stimme", which soon came to be published only as Extrablaetter,
flyers. Its theoretical organ was and is "NEUE EINHEIT", of
which Extrablaetter are also published, No. 27 being the
abovementioned attack on me.

You shouldn't make the mistake of believing, when reading the
partly chest-beating, partly whiningly complaining NE Extrablatt
No. 27, that that party did not once upon a time come out with
things that hit the reactionionaries, in Germany and on the 
international level too, really very hard.

Now for some notes on various phoneys in Germany:

The NE derives from the KPD/ML, which was founded on 31.12.1968.
In 1970, there was a complicated split in that party. There
emerged from it: 

1) The NE, which was the rightful continuer
of the KPD/ML. 

2) An organization that - unrightfully - continued to call 
itself  by the name "KPD/ML". That party's paper was called 
"Roter Morgen", and it was by that name the NE called that 
organization. Its chairman was Ernst Aust. When the big blow 
fell against the 4-Gang in China, in October 1976, the "Roter 
Morgen" openly supported the 4-Gang, just as Hodxa's Albanian 
Party of Labour did and, in the USA, the so-called "RCP" did. 
And in 1978, the "Roter Morgen" cut off Mao Zedong's head from 
the image of "the five classics" on the front page of its paper, 
and quite openly supported the revisionism of Hodxa. I believe
that, today, this organization has vanished completely. But it
was, internationally, much better known than the NE, not least
because the 4-Gang and some other reactionaries and agents
in China, even during Mao Zedong's time, systematically supported
it (and another phoney on which below) against the NE. (Precisely
on this was the  NE pamphlet I posted this year as "Info #12en".)

3) Yet another organiszation, the "ZB" ("Zentralbuereau") which 
likewise called itself the "KPD/ML". But this result of the 1970 
split soon vanished.

A more important phoney was the "KPD". It was created, by in
reality bourgeois forces, on 28.02.1970 - thus in the middle
of the struggle in the KPD/ML. Its paper was called "Rote Fahne",
and the name of its chairman was Schierer. That was the other
one of those two phoneys which the 4-Gang and the other 
reactionaries in China supported against the NE. In the early
1980:s, it was dissolved and in practice became part of the
reactionary "Greens".

The old Marxist-Leninist party in Germany, the one of the
1930:s, was also called the "KPD". But it went under, and
was after the war also forbidden, in 1954. It should not be
confused with the later phoney of the '70:s that took the same
name An openly pro-Soviet revisionist party was later created 
in West Germany, the "DKP". The ruling party in the DDR, i.e. 
East Germany, was called the "SEW". 

After "KPD" of the 1970:s had vanished, in the early '80:s, the
bourgeoisie launched another phoney, the "MLPD". It today
hangs together with the "MIM", USA.

The "RIM" forces also created a small agent organization in
Germany, the "Revolutionaere Kommunisten (BRD)". At least
>from 1 May 1987 on, it has held demonstrations in Berlin(West),
respectively, in Berlin - without the NE publicly commenting
even on its existence. Those very infamous "RIMlers", as they 
are generally called, have or had a newspaper called "Aufstand!",
of which I've seen an undated issue probably from 1991. They
pretend to support the PCP in Peru and are particularly infamous 
because of their unjustified physically violent attacks on
other demonstrators.

(The real nastiness of that CIA agent construction the "RIM", for 
which both the PCP and the NE carry a heavy co-responsiblity,
since the PCP has endorsed it and to this day still is endorsing
it and since the NE has been completely silent about it, comes
out very clearly when you look at the creation of the "RIM" in
Germany and in Berlin, those "RIMlers", who are just about the 
dirtiest discrediters of Mao Zedong Thought you can imagine.
This is something which those supporters of the PCP, for instance,
who know about these things, by no means can keep silent about.)

With the above, I think I've just about covered the earlier
and present "party situation" in Germany. It wasn't all that
"brief", as I promised, but the above is a minimum you can write.

Well, another thing: There recently has been formed a so-called
"Krisis-Gruppe", which says that it supports Marxism-Leninism.
Its programme however appears to be rather vague and not much
more that that of "bringing information from various directions".   
It's not really a party-type organization.

Rolf M.

 






     --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---