We document this inofficial english translation of the May Day 2017 Declaration of austrian comrades:
Proletarians of all countries and oppressed peoples, unite!
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun!
Long live proletarian internationalism!
Everything is illusory except power!
May Day 2017 Declaration
Chairman Mao Zedong noted that "in the coming 50 to 100 years, the world will pass through great upheavals" and the Communists will have to prepare for rough battles. In the political report of the 9th Congress of the CP of China held in the midst of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, he made the correct analysis and determination that "we live in the epoch in which imperialism meets its total collapse and socialism is marching towards its worldwide triumph" Today, in the era of the strategic offensive of the proletarian world revolution, it is clear to all who are determined to the proletarian class stand point that these statements were not “ misinterpretation” "and not a “pipe dream", but express the international situation, t he reality of class struggle and its historically determined movement towards the dictatorship of the proletariat.
That it is the masses alone, which constitute the driving force of world history, can be seen by taking a look at some great moments of this side of history last year. In the countries of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, millions are still fighting for the justified aims of the movement of the so-called "Arab Spring" and against imperialism. The fact that the imperialists, together with the native reaction, had to use to the colonial fascist card of the "fundamentalist" religious forces to temporarily gain the upper hand, shows only that they are at their wits' end, t hat they are weak, because they are charming ghosts that they won’t get rid of and will carry imperialist war in form of terror back to the imperialist strongholds. Nevertheless, the masses continue their work in rebellion, see the previous deficiencies of their movements and struggle to bring about leadership. In Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the strongest storm for years of uprising and massive rebellion has been blowing. In a number of countries successive protests ensue, the striving of the proletariat and of the masses for the destruction of the old imperialist rule, the sweeping of the lackeys of imperialism in this region, and the irresistible will for the new. The fact that some of these mass movements are reactionary shows that it is up to the Communists to give the masses the leadership they demand. The struggle against the imperialist EU alliance is of great importance in this world region, and the Communists, especially in imperialist countries like Austria, which is one of the main imperialists, are faced with the great tasks of their internationalist duty, that they have to grasp with all their strength and decisiveness in the following year. In Asia, the masses are pressing for revolution as well. The growing difficulties in which the imperialist China and Japan get, in contradiction with the masses of Asia, or the urge of the Philippine masses for revolution, which the (especially Chinese) imperialism wants to confuse, intercept and redirect with its creature Duterte, show this very clearly. In Latin America, where the revolutionary impulses of the peoples have to develop even more clearly than anywhere else in the world directly against the only international hegemonic super power, the main enemy of the peoples of the world, the mass struggles last year made great developments that also have a very positive effect on the development of the red leadership of the class struggle.
All this adds up optimistic and has to encourage all revolutionaries and communists to be confident about the development of the proletarian world revolution. But without leadership, without a general staff, the proletariat and the peoples will not be able to bear the victory over imperialism and reaction through their struggles. Without constituting or reconstituting the Communist Party respectively, the heroic struggles of the masses will be able to make numerous strikes against imperialism, but at the same time there will be no new power, no construction of new democracy and socialism. To disturb and try to prevent this formation process of the avant-garde is the task of opportunism and revisionism. They raise "the red flag, only to throw it into the dirt". They mask themselves as "revolutionaries", as "communists", but they are sworn enemies of revolution and communism, which will be achieved by the People's War, the dictatorship of the proletariat and several proletarian cultural revolutions.
An important example of this is the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM). Its founding in 1984 corresponded to the urgent need of the strategic offensive of the world revolution to internationally take a political step forward in the question of leadership. Therefore, its foundation was important. RIM made an important advance when, in 1993, it accepted the declaration "Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism". This declaration, on the other hand, contained numerous eclectic and opportunistic errors, but at the same time it was a positive result of a protracted two line struggle which the red fraction in the RIM, led by the Communist Party of Peru, succeeded against the black line of opportunists. Alarmed by the advance of the red line, opportunism began to rage more decisively. The opportunists and revisionists had to take a clearer position, and they began to deny Maoism more openly after the 1993 declaration, which they had to accept as a concession of the essence is the compromise. The Red forces in the RIM, especially the Communist Party of Peru and its chairman Gonzalo, were attacked by them more and more hysterically. But the red faction went on, spreading and deepening their correct positions far beyond the compromise of the 1993 Declaration, internationally as well. Another positive result of this process was the "Millennium Declaration" of RIM, which was directed against the opportunists' plans and could not be prevented by them. The two line struggle in the RIM thus helped create the red fraction of the International Communist Movement and showed the true face of opportunism. The opportunists and revisionists who negated RIM by taking advantage of intermittent weaknesses of the red factionin fear of the red line, especially the US-American RCP and its pope Bob Avakian, are now found in liberal positions and developed their revisionism into an open defence of imperialist decadence. We see that the RIM has made some important progress, which is the merit of its red faction. But today the RIM does not exist any more, to mourn after it, to "rebuild it" or to "re-establish" on its basis can not serve today's needs of the international proletariat. The negation of the international alliance must be ideologically and politically negated at a higher level, and the international unity of the communist forces must therefore take place on a higher level, on the basis of the line of the red fraction in the international communist movement.
For this reason we welcome with full force, in the spirit of proletarian internationalism, the V. Conference of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Parties and Organisations of Latin America and the first-ever meeting of the same organisations in Europe in 2017, the 100st year of the Great Socialist October Revolution. These meetings are important contributions to the hard way of the new international formation of the communists, and at the same time it is proof of the miserability of opportunism and its senseless chatter, as well as the strength and radiance of Maoism!
Part of this positive development is also that it is noticeable that the campaign to defend the life of Chairman Gonzalo has received new impulse. This is of particular importance as Chairman Gonzalo is the greatest living Marxist-Leninist-Maoist in the world and the reaction continues to follow the plan of his assassination. It receives support through revisionists through relative and direct attacks on the chairman Gonzalo. Comrade Gonzalo has "managed to use Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in his entire work to solve the problems of national and international class struggle" (Declaration on the 30th anniversary of the Day of Heroism), which gives the subject in the 26th year of his captivity in isolation is a certain weight. On the basis of these comprehensive contributions, President Gonzalo is a symbol of proletarian internationalism, which consists not only of learning and supporting each other politically, but primarily base on the most advanced experiences and developments of the international proletariat, take them up and use them as ideological starting point for the development of ones own work. Nothing else communists are taught by Comrade Lenin, leader of the Great Socialist October Revolution, and creator of the Bolshevik Party. In this context, it seems to be important to note that in the passed year, the People's War in Peru again found increased actions and expressions, which also gained international recognition. This is a very important development and shows that the People's War in Peru is progressing despite the difficult circumstances.
In many respects, the strongest and most comprehensive of the current popular wars, the one in India, led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist), CPI (Maoist), remains a beacon for all truly revolutionary and communist forces worldwide. Like the proletarian world revolution as a whole, it evolves in waves and uneven, especially under the concrete conditions that this national war finds in a country which is a subcontinent of its own, and in view of the fact that this popular war is attacked by a broad alliance of imperialists and reactionaries with extreme brutality and bloodthirstyness. These conditions underline the heroism of the comrades of the CPI (maoist) and the masses they lead in a special way. From this point of view, action should also be taken on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the great Naxalbai insurrection, which took place in May 1967, and thus the present-day People's War in India was propagated with all its might. From a firm proletarian-internationalist standpoint, we decidedly condemn not only the open opportunists and petty-bourgeois laggards, who are beginning to turn their backs on the popular war in India, that great impulse of the proletarian world revolution, as soon as problems arise, but we also firmly condemn those forces that exploit the international prestige of the Indian comrades to haggle over it for their own cause. They want to hide their own backwardness and perplexity by losing many words about the People's War, but their plan will fail. One of the first teachings given to us by the CPI (maoist) by the People’s War is the fact that it is essential to apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism scientifically to the conditions in its own country. Another lesson is that the solidarity with the People's War in India must arise among the Communists from proletarian internationalism, which means that we must support the Indian comrades above all by reconciling the Communist Party in their own country and thus continue to implement the slogan "Unite under Maoism!".
As always, parliamentary Cretinism is one of the most important aspects on which revisionism and opportunism are trying to establish themselves and which they use as a gateway. We saw this in Austria last year, when these forces called to choose Van der Bellen as the "minor evil" to prevent the open fascist Hofer. We see the election in Ecuador, where these forces are cheering for a "left" candidate of imperialism, and the referendum in Turkey, where opportunism and revisionism by parliamentary cretinism have been taken by Erdogan's plans, and we see the situation in the USA where Trump leads to hysteria among the revisionists, opportunists and liberals worldwide and they all define the previously condemned Obama as supposedly "non-Fascist" counterpart. And this while the Declaration “On the 100 th anniversary of the Paris Commune” already teaches: “In the past nearly a hundred years, many Communist parties have participated in elections and parliament, but in this way no single party has been able to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. (. . . ) If a proletarian party does not work under the masses, does not lead an armed struggle, but raves about the parliament, it can only put the masses to sleep and corrupt themselves." Who wants to prevent the most open reactionary impulse of the bourgeoisie by the means of the bourgeoisie (such as bourgeois elections) inevitably involves a bad alliance with their "liberal" masked parts and goes under their hegemony. But the fight against the open as well as against the "democratically" masked fascism can not be led under the perspective of the "return to bourgeois democracy". Bourgeois democracy is the dominant form of the dictatorship of capital in the superstructure of a bygone era of capitalism, who introduces it as a bulwark against fascism, is an already failed attempt to turn back the wheel of history. For this very reason, revisionism and opportunism use parliamentary cretinism to divert attention from the doctrine of the great Lenin who left the international proletariat the call "Everything is illusory except power!".
This slogan must be maintained because it serves us as a lighthouse on the road to struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat because it is an ideological guide for the struggle of the masses for its economic and political rights, a battlefield against the corporatism of fascist imperialism, that must never be abandoned, and in the course of the past year, many great mass risings have been developed around the world. This task requires a lot of clairvoyance and vigilance from the Communists, it requires a deep connection with the masses and a broad understanding of their reality, their needs, and the necessaries. It requires that the Communists never separate from the masses, but live in their midst, fight with them all their struggles, work with them, patiently and long, always following the Marxist method "develop from small to big ". Only in this way will our political work in the service of the proletarian world revolution be developed. Opportunism and revisionism, on the other hand, demand that we forget that all that is done must serve the reconciliation of the party, and thus the conquest of political power, so they demand that we cease to be communists, that we dissolve in the masses amoeboid, lower our level and do not give a red leadership any more. But Comrade Lenin's ideological directive, "Everything is illusory except power!" is clear and leaves no doubt in our tasks. Convinced of the fluctuating and insecurity, and help them to new confidence, sweep away all the incorruptible elements from your ranks, who want to assert something else, and thereby distract from the iron steps of the international proletariat on its way to political power and communism. Remember that Comrade Mao said, "where the broom does not reach, the dust never vanishes of itself. "
The reaction tries to counteract the tendency within the masses to revolution with all its force, so opportunism and revisionism lead angry attacks on the ideology of the proletariat, on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism.
Attacks on proletarian feminism, which is part of Maoism and not an independent ideology, must be emphasized here, and this also includes its systematic neglect, since the question of women's movement is concerned with the question of a large part of the lowest layer of the proletariat. The attacks on proletarian feminism are attacks on Maoism, and vice versa. They are intended to separate the most progressive masses of the women's movement from red positions. This is why it was important to hold many battles in this field last year, which gave us a deeper understanding of some ideological questions and developed our political positions on this issue. This is confirmed by our assessments in the statements made on 1 May from the last two years, which clearly point to the coming struggles in the women's movement.
Through attacks by chauvinism and nationalism, the bourgeoisie is increasingly trying to split the masses more aggressively and gather around the imperialist flag, or to exploit the masses for imperialist interests. Liberal positions are no less harmful to the struggle of the proletariat than the open reactionaries mentioned. In order to disrupt the political plans of the bourgeoisie against the masses on this issue, it is imperative that the Communists and truly revolutionary forces put their proletarian internationalism at the head of their agitation and propaganda with total commitment. The Communists must take proletarian internationalism as a starting point of their views and work, and in their red position they can not slip into an opportunistic position against anti-imperialist positions. Compared to the proletariat and peoples of the whole world, the Communists in the imperialist countries have a special responsibility and must decisively fight the imperialist nation. There can be no transfiguration or a liberal attitude to the imperialist nation. If this happens, it is an attack on proletarian internationalism. The proletarian class standpoint must be firm and clear, not only in the contradiction between imperialism and oppressed peoples and nations, but also in the question of inter-imperialist contradictions. Communists can not be intimidated when they see the intensification of these contradictions and recognize the urge of imperialism for a new world war. They are mobilizing for the defeat of the imperialists brought about by the peoples of the world, supporting the struggles against imperialism, and developing their work as part of the World People’s War against the imperialist world war and the reaction. They are firmly based on the universal validity of the necessity of the reconstitution of the Communist Party and the initiation of the People's War.
An important and great expression of the upholding and defense of Maoism in Austria were the numerous activities that took place around the 50th year of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the death of Chairman Mao Zedong. They represent a clear expression of the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in Austria. These activities have created new forces which assert themselves in the class struggle with all their strength, which provide everything for the struggle and the reconstitution of the party and rose the red flag in the masses for an important part. These were very important progresses. These good developments took place in the service of the aims of proletarianisation and militarisation of reconstitution and leadership. Their shortcomings based on the development of ideological application, regarding initiative and creativity, which is required in practical and theoretical terms, as well as establishing firm and clear positions, which nevertheless need to retain a high degree of flexibility. This contradictory reality must be seen and understood to make future ideological struggles more powerful and dynamic in order to meet the historical tasks and to develop leadership better. This is a powerful occasion in the coming year, because it is the 100th year of the Great Socialist October Revolution.
We call for strong and creative initiatives to be developed on this great and historical occasion, and to spare no effort to spread the teachings of the great Lenin in the light of the third, highest and final stage of proletarian ideology, Maoism, and develop actions of every type, which meet the historical mission of the proletariat and the role of communists. The Bolsheviks with Lenin at the head opened a new era by smashing the old bourgeois imperialist state machinery and building the socialism that had been defended by Comrade Stalin after the death of Lenin. They did so based on the masses, with a firm proletarian combat party as a general staff and a tool. The Bolshevik revolution shows us the greatness and necessity of the Communist Party, the proletarian's fighting machine. The subsequent construction of socialism developed a force and dynamic which the world had not yet known in the history of mankind. The development of socialist construction in the Soviet Union continues to show that the masses are the true heroes of history and have an unlimited creative power. All revolutionaries and communists should also be inspired by this, they themselves and all sympathizers must see that they can only perceive and fulfil their own strength, their own possibilities in the class struggle, if they are based on the solid foundation of the only scientific proletarian Ideology, Maoism, smashing the bourgeois ego, as part of an ongoing combat machine, take up their responsibilities against the international proletariat, against the proletarian world revolution!
Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
Long live the 100th year of the Great Socialist October Revolution! Long live the Proletarian World Revolution!
Always put Proletarian Internationalism first!
Everything is illusory except power!
Committees for the founding of the (Maoist) Communist Party, April 2017
