Main resolution of the 2nd perspective conference of the Communist Initiative (KI)

Central political document of the Communist Initiative of Germany

“Unity is a big thing and a great task! But the workers’ movement needs unity within the Marxist, not unity with the opponents and falsifiers of Marxism.”

(Vladimir I. Lenin, Selected Works Volume 20, p 228)

A first part of our way has been covered!

“The first step has been done”, said the headline of the appeal “Create the Communist Initiative in Germany!” from autumn of 2008, in which communists from various parties, organizations and movements as well as non-organised ones called on all communists in Germany in order to start a process of unification with the medium-term goal of creating a unified Marxist-Leninist Communist party. Now, almost two and a half years later, we can say: A first part of that way has been covered.

This appeal was preceded by numerous talks, careful analyses and various reflections about the question by which means and methods, on which way we can overcome the permanent political and organisational splitting and fragmentation of the communists in Germany. The decision to address an appeal for the founding of a Communist Initiative to the communists of Germany was encouraged by the findings that we had no success (and also no prospects of it) in unifying the already existing communist parties and organisations under the banner of Marxism-Leninism. The main obstacle has been and still is the permanent dominance of revisionist positions in most of these parties and organisations. This explains, among other things, the refusal of their leaders and many of their functionaries to place back their own party interests to the benefit of a unification process.

For that reason, those communists aware of the political neccessity to found a unified, Marxist-Leninist party and willing to take practical measures addressed the appeal “Create the Communist Initiative in Germany!” to all like-minded people, no matter if or where they are organised, in order to work together for this unity. They were aware of the fact that without this unity, communists will not be able to overcome their political and organisational flaws, to take to political lead in the fight of the working class against imperialism and capitalist exploitation and repression, though the intensification of the general crisis of capitalism more and more demands the communist party to fulfill these tasks. In view of the current social development and the current state of the communist movement, they agreed that a communist party strictly based on Marxism-Leninism is deliberately missing.

Unity on the basis of Marxism-Leninism

It is one of the commonly worked out principles in the appeal for the creation of the Communist Initiative that unity can only be realised on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. Reaching this clarity is an essential condition for the creation of unity. For that reason, the authors of the appeal agreed on some essential political principles, on whose basis the Communist Initiative has to be founded, built and developed. If the process of unification is intended to be successful and to end with the creation of a unified, Marxist-Leninist party, they have to be irrevocable. Among them are:

– the recognition of ALL scientific of Marxism-Leninism, especially of the validity of Lenin’s theses about imperialism, state, revolution and party, of the proletarian internationalism as well as the heroic history of the communist movement as a neccessary reply to the reformist decline of social democracy and their betrayal of the working class;

– the recognition of the role of the socialist countries, especially of the Soviet Union and the GDR as the greatest achievement of the German workers’ movement. The socialism we are fighting for in imperialist Germany will be charaterized by the revolutionary heritage of the GDR, the first workers’ and peasants’ state on German soil. Therefore, the clear and unmistakeable commitment to the GDR becomes the touchstone for every German communist, especially today!

– the recognition of the neccessity of the Communist party’s fight against every kind of revisionism and reformism, as revisionism has been and still ist he main reason for the temporarily victory of the counter revolution in Europe, for the splitting, fragmentation and weakening of the communist movement.

Those three criterions are quoted from the appeal for the creation of the Communist Initiative from autumn of 2008. We adhere to them and likewise link to them!

Since the appeal, the Communist Initiative has developed successfully under very difficult conditions and on new paths! It appeared that the decision was right not to try to reach unity by contacting the leaders and officials of the single organisations, as it was often tried without any success during the last years. Aditionally, this would again exclude non-organised communists. For that reason, the initiators addressed the appeal for the creation of a Communist Initiative (KI) right from the start to all communist, regardless of their party membership, to who unity on the foundation of Marxism-Leninism is near and dear. By that way, it was possible for communists from the German Communist party (DKP), from the party “Die Linke”, from the KPD(B), from the KPD, from youth organisations, from social groups and associations, and last but not least for no more or never before organised communists to unite. It is especially delightful that among them are many young people.

The KI is growing

Meanwhile, the Communist Initiative has formed several regional organisation that not only actively participate in the KI’s development, but also do regional political work. With its homepage http://kommunistische-initiative.de, with “KI-Info” (published regularly via mail), “KI-TV”, the “Schwarzer Kanal” (Black Channel, called after a former GDR TV show for political education) and last but not least by numerous personal talks, the KI has developed an intense outreach work; additional stepps are in progress. In defiance of our enemy’s hopes, the KI is alive, working and developing.

Right from the start, we knew that this way would be difficult and could not be gone without own mistakes and weaks or various attacks on the Communist Initiative. A proof for the strength the KI already has is that it has been able to notice and solve inner problems again and again. One try to break the Communist Initiative away from the 2008 appeal’s principles and to submit it to the dominance of revisionism could successfully be defended, and the supporters and initiators of this attempts to lead the KI away from ist principles failed. Those who tried this appeared of a small group of dividers themselves.

Striking an interim balance

More than two years have passed since the appeal for the creation of the Communist Initiative, so now it is time to strike an interim balance. Doing so, we have to explain in which social relations, in which social era we are living. Which possible perspectives of development result from this? What is the current situation of the communist and anti-imperialist movement worldwide and especially in the FRG? Which state of development has the KI reached so far, and how does the Communist Initiative react on this situation enqueue. Which strategy and which tactics are we going to use in the further prosess of creating a unified Marxist-Leninist party? How are the questions of common actions with all other anti-monopolist, democratic and anti-imperialist forces to be solved? Which possibilities are there for an alliance policy? How does the KI view ist relation towards other communist organisations, towards the trade unions, other social movements etc? How does the KI interfere in the daily class struggle? We have to be able to answer the questions what we precisely understand by a unified Marxist-Leninist party that has to be created on a long-term basis. Which form of organisation and, above all, which programmatic, idelogical and political foundations is it to have resp. to hold? And last but not least – especially in view of the defeat of socialism by counterrevolution – we have to answer the question: How and what exactly should this future socialism be like? Under the circumstances of permanent counterrevolution, permanent anti-communist agitation, dominance of revisionism within the communist and worker’s movement, many peoples’ scepticism regarding the “possibility” of socialism, these are all very difficult tasks that nevertheless we have to solve urgently.

The character of the epoch and the current social development

Since the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia in 1917, human society has entered a new epoch – the epoch of transition from capitalism to communism, or precisely, from imperialism to socialism. Even the temporary defeat of socialism through counterrevolution in 1989/1990 can not change that. Since Marx and Engels discovered the laws of development of human society and proved them right with scientific thouroughness, we know that the history of human civilisation is the history of class societies and class struggle, which regularity it is that on every social order necessarily follows a new and higher one. We also know that this is not a straight-lined process, but that these regularities prevail in tendency. In this process, the old order will not give up its power relations without a fight, and in this fight between revolution and counterrevolution temporarily setbacks, temporarily success for the counterrevolution is possible. Even the capitalist society could not prevail in its first revolutionary attempt. After only a few decades, at first the great bourgeois French Revolution of 1789 ended with its defeat and a lengthy counter-revolutionary feudal restoration in Europe, until renewed bourgeois revolutions helped to historically defeat the already dying feudalism definitely.

Today, we are still being in a counter-revolutionary stage, which nevertheless can not Stopp the victory of socialism. While the transition from feudalism to capitalism led to one exploiters’ class replacing the other one, the transition from capitalism to communism will lead to the development of a social order of a totally new type for the first time ever – a society free from exploitation end repression, in which, in an economy based on public property in the means of production, production as well as acquisition and distribution will be made societally. Society will be organised planned economy to the benefit of every single member. Therefore, however, the overcoming of the current capitalist society is neccessary.

Society will be organised planned economy to the benefit of all members of society. However, this requires the overcoming of the current capitalist society. And there is a crucial difference to all former revolutionary changes: On the one hand, capitalism has created the modernest methods of production and produced an unprecedented amount of good and high developed technologies; but on the other hand, it also created an economic, military, ecologic and social potential of destruction for the first time in history of mankind. If we do not call a halt to it, the predatory exploitation of all ressources, motivated by sheer greed for profit, will lead both mankind and nature beyond the edge of its possibility of existence into ruin and barbarism. Capitalism in its highest and last stage of development – imperialism – has proved with both world wars provoked by it that it is prepared to sacrifice whole peoples and murder trillions of human beings just for power and profit. In that process, fascism turned out to be the most reactionary and most dangerous result of the finance and monopoly bourgeoisie’s power that reject all human rights and norms.

Fascism – this is not only an “accident of history” caused by “a single maniac’s insanity”, as bourgeois ideologists try to make us believe. Fascism is characteristic for imperialism, fascism is the political base of the most reactionary, most chauvinist and most aggressive wing of finance and monopoly capital. Hence it is the most brutal form of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and likewise a form of bourgeois governance.

Fascism uses unlimited rascism and excessive baiting of other peoples in order to disguise ist real causes and intentions. German fascism called “the Jew” the root of all evil and the destruction of “Jewish bolschewism” to the “struggle for survival of the German people” in order to disguise its real intentions to gain global hegemony by means of war and therefore to suppress every kind of resistance by ruthless violence. In fact, the potential of aggression and destruction of German Nazi fascism above all turned on the working class and its organisations, especially the communists. That was the reason why the bourgeoisie handed out state power to the Nazis.

Nowadays, imperialism has found a new scapegoat: It is “Islam” and “Islamist terrorists”. Not only are the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan or the covered operations of militaries and secret services in many countries of the world justified and even new wars, as for example against Iran, prepared in the name of “defence against terror”; the “struggle against Islamist terror” also has to serve as justification for the massive reduction of civil rights and the extension of the imperialist surveillance and repressive apparatus. Additionally, migrants are presented as further “threat” and declared enemies. This goes along with unprecedented cuts in social services – the rich become even more rich, and the poor become even more poor.

The Bundeswehr is already being used worldwide. Its class mission is the securing of markets, strategical raw materials and geopolitical positions for the imperialism of the Federal Republic of Germany! This is one of the reasons why nationalist and chauvinist sentiments are being fueled.

This is the background of the attempts currenty forced on every level to remodel the FRG’s society and its political superstructure in a massively reactionary and authoritarian way with the help of a “new” political force. It needs no explanation that fascist tendencies increase and Nazi forces grow. The womb it crawled from is still going strong …

Imperialism means war

War and capitalism belong together. With the amount of weapons of mass destruction being available nowadays, imperialism could easily exterminate the whole mankind. The danger of imperialism being tempted to take the whole human civilisation into the abyss with it when faced with the decline of its society can only be prevented when the organised working class, led by strong, revolutionary Communist Parties and allied with all democratic, anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist forces, forcefully and timely put a stop on its game.

Our estimation that the general crisis of capitalism will further intensify and, in combination with its cyclical crises, will lead to more and more sharpening social conflicts has proven true in the every-day life. The current financial and economic crisis is not yet over, and capital and its capitalist governments could only cheat their way through the crisis by burdening the men in the street, especially the working class, the workless and the poor, with the results of the crisis and adding further trillions of debt to the still existing debt mountains. The next crisis lawfully can not be avoided anyway, as crisis and capitalism inseparably belong together, but what the imperialist governments call, will only intensify it. It is like putting out a blaze with petrol.

Once again Lenin’s theory of the different pace of development of capitalist countries and centres proves true. While the USA are getting more and more into economical difficulties and losing more and more influence as “superpower”, their imperialist rivals, especially the FRG, are gaining in importance. New big powers such as China, Russia, India and Brazil are gaining economic and thereby political influence, partially in a meteoric pace. It can only initially be confusing that China still calls itself socialist, as the verifiable main tendency of the country in a meteoric pace is capitalist.

The European Union (EU) is economically and thereby also politically in a crisis. The EU already is and increasingly tries to become an imperialist main rival of the gutted superpower USA. Within this imperialist entity EU, FRG imperialism has an outstanding position. The economical developments in the recent past have compelled the rulers to massively remodel the EU. It is not yet possible to forecast how this imperialist construct will look like in near or remote future. However, it is a fact that the imperialist character of the EU will not change and that the rivalry with other imperialist camps, especially with the USA, will intensify. For the peoples of Europa this will mean aggravated exploitation and enslavement by the strongest imperialist powers of Europa, especially by FRG imperialism. In an international sphere, the European imperialist interventions will intensify and extend. The threat of war is growing …

At the same time, imperialism more and more blatantly threatens those states with martial violence who do not wish to bow down to its hegemony or who are not prepared to let the transnational banks and companies get their ressources out of them just for peanuts. Countries such as Iran, Venezuela (as well as all ALBA states), the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or Cuba currently are especially threatened.

Parasitic, decaying imperialism

One typical sign of all downgoing formations of society is the decline in all parts of society, a general decadence that is reflected not only by a decline in economy and politics, but also by a decline in culture, education, ethics and moral. The mass media decayed to a level leading the stupefaction of the people, that is common and purposed in capitalism, to new “heights”. What a decay from the cultural performance of the era of Enlightenment, when the bourgeoisie was an up-and-coming and progressive class, to the cesspool of a mass culture totally bereft of content.

These are all signs for a downgoing society. The bourgeoisie fulfilled ist historic task long ago. By establishing capitalism, it changed from a revolutionary to a reactionary class. Just as it was the historic task of the bourgeoisie to overcome feudalism abd replace it by its society, capitalism, in the current class struggle it is the historic task of the working class to overcome the capitalist system and replace it by the dictatorship of the proletariat, the socialist social order.

In order to get aware of this task, the working class needs what we call class conciousness. In order to develop this conciousness, the working class needs its class organisations and especially for the political leadership of its struggle it needs its own proletarian party that can only be a Marxist-Leninist party. Among other reasons, it has to be a Marxist-Leninist party because with its scientific worldview, Marxism-Leninism, only such a party is able to recognize the social processes correctly and thoroughly in their nature and their correlation and to draw the right conclusions regarding strategy and tactic fort he political struggle.

On the situation of communist movement and the tendencies of its development

Following the counterrevolution of 1989/1990, the Communist Parties plunged into a crisis as well. The former ruling parties in the socialist states collapsed like a house of cards, their members left the organisation in shoals, while their leaders either took actively part in the counterrevolution or just watched it passively. Those parties who were not dissolved usually turned into social democratic ones. Only a tiny minority of firm Marxists-Leninists was prepared to carry on the struggle. In many cases they became prosecuted and repressed especially by their former “comrades”; this development culminated in the ban of Communist Parties in Eastern Europe, accompanied and confirmed by massive and primitive anti-communist campaigns …

Even though it was unthinkable in Lenin’s and Stalin’s times and many did not want to recognize it even in the eleventh hour – it was right the Communist party of the Soviet Union, who once proudly held the banner of Marxism-Leninism, led the revolution to victory and built the first socialist workers’ and farmers’ state in the world, who with “de-Stalinization” entrenched revisionism in the party and thereby promoted and supported its influence in all other Communist Parties. The way of ndecline led from Khrushchev through Brezhnev to the alleged “renewer” Gorbachev, who at first eliminated the last peaces of Leninist policy from the CPSU, disguised with the mendacious slogan “back to Lenin”, and finally frankly proceeded to the counterrevolution, to the destruction of the Soviet Union that was accomplished by Yeltsin with the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union, now again fallen into individual states. Same cause, same result: The counterrevolutionary destruction of the whole socialist camp in Europe went on in a very similar way. Of course not only the former leaders of CPSU, from Khrushchev to Yeltsin, but also the particular leaders of the Communist Parties in the other socialist states who took the same path are responsible for it. Sure enough revisionism was not the only reason and driving force for the counterrevolution, as right from the beginning, the imperialists from the outside as well as the remnants of the bourgeoisie from the inside fought against socialism by all means. Nevertheless it is a fect that socialism withstand all attacks and was built successfully as long as it developed on the foundation of Marxism-Leninism. The ideological softening of the scientific worldview of the proletariat finally led to the temporary win of the counterrevolution, as many communists left the Marxist-Leninist party and therefore revisionism, opportunism and reformism could spread. Without the revisonist-reformist deformation of socialism the door into the socialist camp would have remained closed for the counterrevolution; and therefore it is right to explain that revisionism is the main cause of the defeat of socialism from 1989/1990.

The results have had a devastating impact on the communist movement, even today. Of course the reasons for this are to be found a lot earlier than 1989/1990. Since the communist movement and its scientific worldview started organising and for the first entered the stage of history programmatically, political-ideologically summed up in the “Manifesto of the Communist party” by Marx and Engels, one of the main tasks of the Communist party has been the struggle against left and right deviations and especially against revisionism and opportunism. In several works and articles, Marx and Engels spoke about the indispensability and neccessity of fighting revisionism and opportunism and warned against the neglect of this dispute. A good example for the importance of the statement “unity yields to clarity” is the history of the unification of several different currents of the developing workers’ movement in Germany into the SPD. In that process, in the end, unity yielded to clarity. Of course none of the comrades acting at that time could have thought that their once so proud Marxist party would go to the First World War in a “jingoistic” way alongside the German Empire and “their own” bourgeoisie. How could that happen? Fostered by the neglect of the struggle against revisionist and opportunist currents within the German Social Democracy to the benefit of unity, the Marxist forces have been put in the defensive, and opportunist forces got in a dominating situation. And of course this development had devastating results – from the suppression of the German Revolution in 1918/1919 by a SPD-led government through the division of the workers’ movement into SPD and KPD and the refusal of the SPD to form a anti-fascist unity front with the KPD up to the maintenance of imperialism in the Western sectors that would later become the FRG after 1945, during which the SPD leaders supported FRG-imperialism based on aggressive anti-communism. And not to forget the new imperialist strategy of “change through rapprochement”, that was very influenced by the Social Democrats and fostered the revisionist forces within the Communist Parties.

In the light of these experiences: unity yields to clarity!

After all these experiences, nobody can seriously claim that the hazardousness of revisionism could not be seen. And those who in these days, after 1989/1990, still denies or downplays the hazardousness of revisionism seem to be unable to learn anything and objectively encourages anti-communism and division. Those who nowadays recommend the same revisionist “concepts” for the communist movement that verifiably led to the destruction of the former Communist Parties and therefore to the dismantling of socialism in the Soviet Union, the GDR and other countries therefore objectively acts anti-communist and pursuant to the class enemy. Therefore, fighting revisionism of all types is an indispensable and neccessary element of the political work of a true Marxist-Leninist party. At the same time, this means that every Marxist-Leninist party has to organisationally separate from revisionist currents if neccessary. There can not be any kind of unity between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism. It is clear as well that the struggle against revisionism can not be separated from the struggle against “anti-Stalinism”. Without “anti-Stalinism” revisionism could not have prevailed within the Communist Parties, and no type of anti-communist propaganda is more effective than those positions spread by “communists” themselves.

The communist movement in Germany has still been in a crisis. In its majority it is revisionist-dominated, organisationally as well as politically divided and fragmented. This means that the working class in Germany has no unified Marxist-Leninist party. The Marxist-Leninist potential, that is quite low anyway, is spread over different parties and organisations, where the Marxists-Leninist as good as always are the minority.

In light of the current social situation and the development that can be expected, this is an unsustainable state, as without a strong Marxist-Leninist party the working class in Germany will not have a revolutionary leadership and with that big handicap given, it is confronted with the well-organised bourgeoisie, its repressive aparatus and its demagogic media. Therefore, the existence of a unified Marxist-Leninist party is an indispensable requirement for the working class being able to fight an organised and successful fight against capitalist exploitation and repression and finally to fulfill its historic mission to build up the socialist society. The communist movement’s weakness also has an impact on the trade unions. Most of them are led by opportunists most of who feel closer to the economic leaders’ tailcoat than to the workers’ working suit. The lack of fighting capacity is also reflected by the tendency that the level of organisation within the workers is becoming worse. The non-existence of a unified Marxist-Leninist Communist party in the FRG still is a heavy burden for all democratic, anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist movements and initiatives.

Greece is a very good example for the fact that a strong Communist party has a positive influence on the trade union movement. The strong and organised resistance of the Greek working class led by the KKE and strong left-wing trade unions is really encouraging for all communist and trade unionists.

The neccessity to create a unified Marxist-Leninist party

When there is no Marxist-Leninist party, it has to be created. That, however, is not just an organisational act, and it is especially difficult regarding the r conditions given in the FRG. The ban of the KPD in the FRG, the dismantling of the SED including the whole GDR and many factors connected to those led to the given state of the communist movement in Germany. It was understandable that the KPD was re-established in 1990, still in the GDR, but as it happened isolated and not coordinated with the other communist forces in Germany, there was no sustained success. Of course the fact that the DKP did not try to find a common solution together with the communists left in the former SED, but only expanded eastwards itself (and even that only with limited success), also made its contribution. The SED itself changed step by step through SED-PDS and PDS to the current “Die Linke” (The Left Party) that basically is a social democratic party, considering its programme as well as they way it behaves. Even the so called “Communist Platform” in this party can not change that fact, as its role is merely that of a figleaf for the party’s more and more social democratic formation. The insisting of some Communist Parties in Germany in a de-facto sole representation after 1990 and the permanent hegemony of revisionist positions led to the fact that the subject of unity is approved at least in words by all of them, but that there is nothing done practically in order to achieve it.

In light of that, a new approach has to be found. This new approach, the appeal to create a Communist Initiative, was published in autumn 2008. In opposite to former trials it was not directed to the leaderships and structures of the already existing communist parties and movements, but to all communists, regardless of where or if they are organised, who agree to the aim to overcome the division and starting a process that longer-term will lead to the creation of a unified Marxist-Leninist party. For that purpose, after many talks and responsible pondering communists from different parties as well as non-organised ones came together in autumn 2008 and then published the appeal “Create the Communist Initative in Germany”. Doing so, almost two decades after the counterrevolution a promising process has been started to overcome the division and fragmentation of the Marxist-Leninist forces in Germany. More than two years after the appeal we can state that it was able to break the otherwise still continuing tendency of decline within the communist movement in Germany. In spite of all difficulties, weaks and problems that had to be solved, that are to be solved and that will to be solved – all in all, the Communist Initiave has done very well so far, and so the approach not to try to unite different organisations, but looking for unity with all communists striving for this unity on a Marxist-Leninist base was proven right.

The current level of the Communist Initiative’s development and its further tasks

Actually the Communist Initiative started as an open project without a firm organisational structure, as the first goal was to make the Communist Initiative popular, to get supporters and to come into contact with interested people. The political guidelines were the principles rooted in the appeal. A provisional organising committee handled the task to coordinate this process and to further develop the Communist Initiative.

So the Communist Initiative tried out a new way; in opposite to a newly founded party having a at its disposal, the KI in many ways had to improvise and to contract out tasks on call in some cases. Therefore, our work was based only on voluntary agreements, whereas usually organisational-politically subjects are scheduled by a statute. The scientific conference in Berlin on 10 and 11 October 2009 in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the GDR was an important peak of the Communist Initiative’s work. It was the most important event in Germany that was held in celebration of this anniversary. Organised by the Marxist-Leninist magazine “offen-siv” and actively supported by the Communist Initiative, it became a proof for the capability of the Communist Initiative. Aditionally, this conference was an important forum fort he Communist Initiative to introduce itself to interested persons.

The interest in the Communist Initiative was really immense: Aditionally to a group of active supporters and provisonally appointed functionaries, an interested group amounting to about 100 persons has developed. So it soon became apparent that the quality of work of the provisional organising committee and the subsequent organising committee could not follow the pace of the development in quantity as well as of the new political and organisational policy requirements resulting from the need to lead and to coordinate the work with the gradually developing regional groups of the Communist Initiative. The preparatory team, appointed by the organising committee, has taken some of the responsibilites, especially in respect of the preparation of the 2nd perspective conference of the Communist Initiative.

Questions regarding cadres have gained importance. After analysing the organising committee’s work, the Communist Initiative came to the conclusion that it was not able to fulfill the upcoming tasks anymore. Furthemore it appeared that some members of the organising committee increasingly have held positions that are contradictory to the principles commonly agreed on in the appeal for the creation of the Communist Initiative from autumn 2008. For that reason, in a joint consultation of preparatory team for the 2nd perspective conference, with coordinators and members of the organising committee participating, resolutions were adopted unanimously or at least by a vast majority in order to overcome the state of the work that was insufficient and not meeting the current challenges anymore. According to this resolutions, the preparatory team, consisting of several especially experienced and active supporters, took some further tasks and competencies, and quite soon it turned out that both the organisatory and contentual work of the Communist Initiative has improved since. The resolutions turned out to have been the right measure. Furthermore the dynamic development of the Communist Initiative caused by this resolutions forced a few members of the Communist Initiative to show their colours, to document increasingly frankly that they tried to force the Communist Initative on a different way – as more and more appeared, on a right, opportunist way. Now their action game has been restricted by these resolutions. This members were only a small minority. Their trials to involve such members who are especially active and faithful to the principles of the appeal into personal conflicts and to illegitimise the regularly adopted resolutions regarding the work of the preparatory team failed. The vast majority of KI supporters followed the resolutions regarding the future work of the Communist Initiative and the preparatory team’s responsibilites adopted on 14 July 2010. Instead of accepting an invitation to an objective discussion and to further participation in the Communist Initiative, this small group rather decided to split from the Communist Initative. Instead of discussing on content, they decided to use the old method: “If you can not an idea, those who represent it.”

However, the Communist Initiative will not be pulled down onto such a level of discussion. Instead it will continue its work concentrated and objectively. Right from the start it was very clear that the Communist Initative would be attacked, and it is clear that further attacks will follow. The KI is prepared to this and will be able to defend the current as well as future attacks.

Some examples for the Communist Initiative’s successful work are the creation of several new regional groups, the continually growing interest in the initiative’s work that can be seen for example in the growing amount of incoming queries and of readers of “KI-Info”. Along with the positive development – regarding content as well as design – of the KI’s homepage, www.kommunistische-initiative.de, even regional organisations of the KI have begun to create their own websites. There also is quite big interest in media as KI-TV or the newly established “Schwarze Kanal” (Black Channel), that was deliberately modelled on the former TV show in the GDR. An expanding of the and a further spread of publications will follow.

Cadre education and Marxist-Leninist education is another very important element of the Communist Initiative’s work.

The daily work of course consists in talking to all communists prepared to such talks, to trade unions, to progressive artists, to all who are searching an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist alternative to the current capitalist society in order to patiently convince them that the principles and goals of the Communist Initative are the right path.

However, a much more active and visible participation of the Communist Initiative in the current political fights against cuts in social services, unemployment and wage dumping, against racism and fascism, against armament and war, against a policy of redistribution to the benefit of the rich and the charge of the poor is even more important. Wherever it is possible the supporters of the Communist Initiative have to show their colours at demonstrations, actions of protests etc. – in the double sense of the word! The new supporters of the Communist Initiative have to be quickly included in the already existing and new created groups. On the basis of the 2nd perspective conference’s analyses, conclusions and resolutions the work of the Communist Initiative has to reach a higher level of quality in regards of content, structure and personell. An important part of this is above all the creation of a printed central organ as collective propagandist, agitator and organiser. Furthermore, the KI does not have a theoretical magazine yet. These are all requirements for the next part of the way to the creation of a unified Marxist-Leninist party in the longer term to be covered successfully.

After more than two years of the Communist Initiative’s existance, the accusation of the revisionists, who claim that the KI wanted to found a new party “on the quick”, was proven wrong and absurd. Also, the accusations of several revisionist forces that the KI tried to entice away members from other organisations turned out to be totally without foundation. This is neither the goal nor the strategy of the KI. Even now, the Communist Initiative will not take the fourth step on the way to the creation of a unified Marxist-Leninist party before the third. It neither will drive that goal forward artificially and hastily, nor defer it to the Greek Calends.

Our goal is a unified Marxist-Leninist party – on which principles does it have to be created?

The frequent abuse of words like “communist”, “Marxist” or “Marxist-Leninist”, often used as figleaf for revisionist-reformist currents in order to disguise their real contents and goals, makes it necessary to explain what we understand by a Marxist-Leninist party. The core of the character of such a party has already been defined in the “Manifesto of the Communist party” by Marx and Engels. This theories, together with the principles advanced by Lenin, are indispensable and still valid principles for the Communist Initiative. Accordingly, a Marxist-Leninist party is the conscious and organised vanguard of the working class and its natural allies. The necessity of its existence results from the dividance of the capitalist society in classes, so that the working class, surpressed by the bourgeoisie, needs a political force fighting for its interests. As it is the historical mission of the working class to overcome the capitalist system and to build up the socialist society, such a political force has to be able to scientifically understand and to recognise the laws of development and motion of human society in order to deduce from it its strategy and tactic for leading the working class successfully in class struggle and during accomplishing its historical mission. The only science imparting these cognitions and insights in the reasons and the nature of historical development and social relations is Marxism-Leninism. Subsequently, the party of the working class can only be a Marxist-Leninist one. It is the organisation and the political leader of the working class in the daily class struggle under the circumstances of capitalism, it leads the working class through the revolutionary process of transforming the current capitalist state into the socialist society, and it will have the leading part during the building of socialism. It acknowledges Marxism-Leninism as a whole and therefore in all its elements as foundation of its ideology and its practical work. It manifests its political principles and goals in a party programme.

Of course it has to be built on the principles of democratic centralism, what is laid down in the party’s statute. Among other things, this means that the working procedure and resolutions of the party are to be suggested and discussed collectively by all members of the party, from the basic organisations up to the leadership. The then adopted resolutions are mandatory for all members. Obeying and implementing them is an essential part of the rigid organisation and discipline within a Marxist-Leninist party. As the working class, in opposite to the bourgeoisie, does not have any instruments of power within the state, the unity, cohesion and disciple within its party is of particular importance. It is connected with the principle of frank and honest criticism and self-criticism in order to recognise, discover and draw the right conclusions and measures from deficits, undesirable developments and misbehaviour.

A Marxist-Leninist party is the class organisation of both the national and international working class. Therefore it is internationalistic and solidary to all anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements in the world.

One of the indispensable political missions is the fight against revisionist currents of all kind, against sectarianism, radicalism and anarchism. The historical experiences, not least the counterrevolutionary defeat of socialism in 1989/1990, have tought the communist movement that in the fight against revisionism no compromises and no negligences can be tolerated.

In the class struggle, the Marxist-Leninist party is prepared to cooperate and to engage in an alliance with other workers’ parties, trade unions and anti-imperialist forces if it is to the benefit of the working people and those oppressed by imperialism. It always stands in for the political and organisational unity of all Marxists-Leninists. So, for example, in the highly developed imperialist states in Europe the creation of a broad, democratic, anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist front led by the working class as a necessary requirement for the proletarian, socialist revolution is one of the central tasks of the Communist party.

So ist zum Beispiel in den hoch entwickelten imperialistischen Staaten Europas der Aufbau einer breiten, demokratischen, anti-monopolistischen und anti-imperialistischen Front unter Führung der Arbeiterklasse als notwendige Voraussetzung für die proletarische, sozialistische Revolution eine der zentralen Aufgaben der Kommunistischen Partei.

Putting theory and practice of building socialism back on its feet

Since the communist idea entered the stage of history, it has been fought against by anti-communists of all kind and falsified by revisionists and opportunists. Without doubt the defeat of socialism by the counterrevolution has fostered anti-communist propaganda. They use the – as we know, temporary – defeat of socialism to “proove” that socialism was a “wrong idea” that would never work. The revisionists however claim that not socialism, but the Marxist-Leninist theory had failed, and therefore it had to be “revised”, examined on “more useful elements” and the path of a new, “democratic socialism” was to be taken. Leaving apart the fact that every “democratic socialism” in all party programmes of social democratic parties never went beyond capitalism and in all socialist states where it entered the ideology of communist parties and became dominant it only led to a backlash into capitalism, in fact some work on theory and practice of building socialism is urgently required. It has to be put back on its feet again by cleaning it from revisionist-reformist falsifications and leading it back on the foundation of science, of Marxism-Leninism. So we have to make clear that socialism can not be built without the party’s leading role as well as without the political rule of the working class and the socialisation of the central means of production. Socialism, this means planned economy. The fairy tales of “socialist market economy”, as well as the one of “social market economy”, is nothing but a fraudulent labeling in order to disguise capitalism. Even the permanent abuse of the (by the way limited temporarily and in its extent) New Economic Policy in the early Soviet Union or of the New Economic System established by Comrade Walter Ulbricht in the GDR by the supporters of “socialist market economy” as a “proof” for the “necessity” of “market economy” in socialism can not change the simple facts: One can not produce capitalist and govern socialist, as well as one can not produce socialist and govern capitalist. These are antagonistic contradictions. In addition to the restoration of Marxist-Leninist philosophy it is a mission of similar importance to restore the original Marxist-Leninist political economy. The textbooks of socialist economy published during the further development of the revisionist hegemony within the communist parties are only good for explaining how it is not be done. Above all, we need again such textbooks that explain how to run socialist economy in a correct way – socialism without rivalry, without striving for profit. But this is not possible, they say. Rivalry and striving for profit, that is what we do not want and do not need. Socialism has its own driving forces, among others developed by socialist competition and the principle of perfomance.

The apologists of capitalism and the revisionists act very similar to each other: They ignore or insult those periods of socialism in which it developed successfully and stood up to all counterrevolutionary attacks. It is one of our most important tasks to clean these positive experiences from the rubble of forgetting, insultance and lies and make it available for everyone again [vielleicht etwas zu wörtlich, aber ich fand keinen idiomatischen Ausdruck – R.].

Many people who are quite open for the idea of socialism ask if a new socialism would be possible at all or just a beautiful utopia. Some other questions are for example: How should it be like, how should it work, your new socialism? How do you want to run the economy, how do you want to distribute the goods? What will your socialist democracy look like, what kind of state do you want, what kind of laws will you make? How will the people live? What about education, the health care system?

Though one can not forecast each and everything, we can answer the questions regarding the principles of economy, politics, state and social cohabition. We can use the valueable experiences from the decades of successful building of socialism in the USSR, in the GDR and other countries for this. It is a rich experience, that is as important for our work as for communist agitation and propaganda and not least fort he building of future socialism!

The Communist Initiative will have to cover a further part of they way to the longer-term creation of a unified Marxist-Leninist party that we want to cover together with all communists conscious of responsibility and striving for unity. The mentioned tasks we have to fulfill are immense. It is hard and difficult work that has to be done in order to clear we way into the socialist future. All true communists and class-conscious working people, those who have been cheated of their youth by capitalist society, all those who are looking for a possibility to overcome capitalist exploitation and repression, war and imperialism and to build a new socialist society are encouraged to fight collectively for these goals together with us in the Communist Initiative and in a future unified Marxist-Leninist party!

Socialism or barbarism!