«The next 50, 100 years will be an epic period of radical changes
in the world social system; they will be an era of quakes and overthrowings,
an era that will not be comparable with no other era in history. In order
to live this era, we must be prepared to face big struggles which, from
many aspects, will be different from the big struggles of the previous
eras.»
(Mao, 1970)
1. During the 10th Plenum of the CC of the Communist Party of China
(CPC), which took place in 1962, Chairman Mao Tsetung spoke about the necessity
to discover the objective law of the class struggle's development in our
era, speaking of course for the conditions of the socialist construction.
Through this suggestion, Chairman Mao was putting the communists the world
over in front of new and complex duties. The detection of the objective
law of the class struggle's development in China –and all over the world–
in the mid 60's was a necessity, since all the terms and conditions of
the international situation had been modified. The revolution should deepen
her objectives in the countries where the political power had been conquered;
the fight against modern revisionism (which had gained considerable ground)
should be reinforced; and, of course, the anti-imperialist struggle should
be reinforced as well, especially since imperialism and revisionism had
formed a common front on international level in order to suppress the revolutionary
storm.
The launching of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution by Mao Tsetung
and the Chinese communists was, practically, a titanic effort to answer
the necessity of the detection of the objective law of the class struggle's
development. The exhortation of Mao about the necessity to discover this
law and his practical activity in order to resolve this problem are extremely
instructive and timely for the communists all over the world, which are
struggling in new conditions and in the context of a new, modified situation.
The actual conditions are imposing the strengthening of the coordination
of the struggles against the «New World Order», but also of
the efforts for the revival of the Communist Movement. The actual conditions
are pressing for a substantial assessment of the experience of the International
Communist Movement, as well as for the analysis of the strategies and the
tactics of the marxist-leninist movement all over the world.
Today we are not struggling under conditions similar to those that faced
the labor and socialist movement during the second part of the last century.
We are not struggling, moreover, under the conditions prevailing in the
first half of our century, a period marked by the existence of a socialist
motherland, the USSR, which inspired and gave hopes to all the revolutionary
working peoples. We are not even struggling in a period of a serious confrontation
in the bosom of the Communist Movement, as it happened in the mid 60's,
when the existence and the positions uphold by the CPC and Mao Tsetung
composed a considerable factor for the international correlation of power.
Nevertheless, from this situation that we are actually living, and through
an asymmetric way (as it always had happened in the past), there will be
reinforced the prerequisites for the detection of the objective law of
the class struggle's development in conditions of retreat of the Communist
Movement, of temporary domination of the counter-revolution, of compulsory
reorganization of the International Communist Movement.
2. Lenin made a breakthrough both in the way of explaining the then
new era in which entered the capitalism (the era of imperialism), and in
the conclusions extracted from two momentous events: the French bourgeois
revolution and mainly the Paris Commune. Being able to summarize those
conclusions in an ensemble of duties for the Communist Movement, he laid
the foundations for the detection of the objective law of the class struggle's
development in this era, in a way that permitted to the Communist Movement
not to march blindly. Leninism armed the proletariat's movement with a
revolutionary theory and shaped the organization and the alliances that
made possible the opening of new roads in the history of the humanity.
The theory on imperialism, the national question, the agrarian question
and the workers'-peasants' alliance, the hegemony of the working class
even in the frame of the bourgeois democratic revolution, the preparation
of the masses for the revolution, the attitude in front of the 1st World
War: all those positions, together with the moving of the revolution's
centre of gravity towards Russia (the weakest link of the imperialist chain),
led to the victory of the revolution. The revolutionary dictatorship of
the proletariat, the workers'-peasants' alliance, the deepening of the
revolution and the formation of an international proletarian army (the
Third International) opened new ways for the class struggle on international
level, and led to the awakening of the East and of the anti-imperialist
movement. The course of the world, the destiny of the revolution, would
not be decided in the West, where the revolutionary wave of 1917-23 had
retreated, but in the revolted East.
3. History is not advancing according to typical schemes, academic ideas
and formal plans. Moreover, it is not consisted by the repetition of certain
examples, no matter how important they can be. In China of the 20's and
30's took place stirring and decisive events, and in this period the foundations
were laid for what followed later. In a few words, there took place developments
that concerned the international correlation of power on all the levels.
How can be described the then situation? Several imperialist fractions
were in acute antagonism. Another main element was that "In China the armed
revolution is fighting against the armed counter-revolution. This is one
of the characteristics and one of the advantages of the Chinese Revolution."
(Stalin, The perspectives of the Revolution in China). There were taking
place civil wars, annihilation campaigns, national fronts, etc. It was
under such torrid conditions that Mao Tsetung (based on the experience
of the Chinese Revolution, deeply studying the concrete conditions of China
and applying marxism-leninism in them) conceived the peculiarities of the
Chinese Revolution. The revolution in China will not march through the
road of the October Revolution. The working class will always be the leading
force, the peasantry will be the chief support of the revolution, its gravity
centre will be the countryside which will encircle the cities, and the
revolution will have two distinctive stages. The specific road leading
to the advance of the revolution will pass through the Protracted People's
War, this kind of "unusual war", "a special form of war of liberation waged
by a semi-colonial country in the 1930's and the 1940's", "a war, which
has no precedent in the history of the East, and which will go down as
a great war in world history too" (On Protracted War, 1938, points 56,
1, 56).
From this procedure will come out the discovery of the objective law
of class struggle's development in a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country.
The path of People's War and its combination with the anti-imperialist
new democratic revolution will prove its correctness in a series of the
storm zone's regions. Several guerrilla movements, national liberation
fronts and revolutions will follow the guerrilla warfare and the maoist
teachings for its conduct.
4. Mao, in all his work, is repeating again and again:
a) We are waging war in order to end the wars forever. "We are advocates
of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished
through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take
up the gun." (Problems of War and Strategy, 1938). "War, this monster of
mutual slaughter among men, will be finally eliminated by the progress
of human society, and in the not too distant future too. But there is only
one way to eliminate it and that is to oppose war with war, to oppose counter-revolutionary
war with revolutionary war, to oppose national counter-revolutionary war
with national revolutionary war, and to oppose counter-revolutionary class
war with revolutionary class war." (Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary
War, 1936). "The revolutionary wars that have already begun are part of
the war for perpetual peace." (On Protracted War, 1938, point 57).
b) But we are waging war in a completely different way than the bourgeoisie.
The People's Army is completely different from the classic bourgeois army.
Born and bred of the oppressed classes, the People's Army is deeply interconnected
with them, swims among them like the fish in the water, serves the people,
participates in the production. "We will not take from the people one single
seed of wheat without paying for it; we must make political work with the
prisoners", etc. The dominating factor is the masses and the links with
them. The People's War cannot be waged without such links, without serving
those links, without paying attention to the general situation and the
specific duties."The revolutionary war is a war of the masses; it can be
waged only by mobilizing the masses and relying on them." (Be concerned
with the well-being of the masses, pay attention to methods of work, 1934).
"The Red Army fights not merely for the sake of fighting, but in order
to conduct propaganda among the masses, organize them, arm them, and help
them to establish revolutionary political power. Without these objectives,
fighting loses its meaning and the Red Army loses the reason for its existence."
(On correcting mistaken ideas in the Party, 1929). "Our three major principles
for the army's political work are: first, unity between officers and men;
second, unity between the army and the people; and third, the disintegration
of the enemy forces. To apply these principles effectively, we must start
with this basic attitude of respect for the soldiers and the people, and
of respect for the human dignity of prisoners of war once they have laid
down their arms. Those who take all this as a technical matter and not
as one of basic attitude are indeed wrong, and they should correct their
view." (On Protracted War, 1938, point 115).
5. In the Conference of Chiu-ni (1935) the line of Mao dominates in
the CPC, and since then starts a new great era for the Chinese Revolution.
But the conception of Mao has already been formed from 1926, and it has
already been tested practically during the civil wars in China. Mao Tsetung
not only dredged up the objective law of the class struggle's development
in China; he also defined with exceptional clarity the specific laws and
characteristics of the Revolutionary People's War. We find those specific
laws and characteristics in every genuine effort to develop the People's
War in several regions of the world.
The definition of the three stages of People's War (strategic defense,
strategic equilibrium, strategic counter-attack) and the specific characteristics
of each one are demonstrating the course of change in the correlation of
power between the two opposed camps, and they are determining the strategies
and tactics in each phase: the combination and the relation of the war
of jig-saw pattern with the guerilla warfare (as the two arms of one person),
the relation of the war of jig-saw pattern and guerilla warfare with the
war of position; the relation between the defense and the attack and the
primary role of the attack during the whole People's War, but also the
preconditions that assure the attack in each one of the three stages; the
importance of the base areas and the relations with the guerilla zones,
the way of confronting the campaigns of encirclement and annihilation,
as well as the holding of anti-encirclement moves.
Mao characterized the People's War as a war of inter-penetration in
the economic, military, political and cultural fields. He reminded that
a series of just wars in the past had this characteristic, but he insisted
on the detection of the modern characteristics of the inter-penetration:
1. The existence of exterior and interior lines: "But as far as the relation
between the main forces and the guerrilla units is concerned, the former
are on the interior lines while the latter are on the exterior lines, presenting
a remarkable spectacle of pincers around the enemy." (On Protracted War,
1938). 2. Possession and non-possession of a rear area. 3. Encirclement
and counter-encirclement. 4. Big areas and little areas.
The People's War presupposes a great degree of agility in a very wide
theatre of operations. The forces of the People's Army must have the capability
to advance rapidly, and the same rapidly to retreat; they must be able
to concentrate rapidly, and to disperse in an equally rapid way.
Since the People's War is the war of the masses, it is impossible to
conduct it without a great mobilization of the masses. "This move is crucial;
it is indeed of primary importance, while our inferiority in weapons and
other things is only secondary. The mobilization of the common people throughout
the country will create a vast sea in which to drown the enemy, create
the conditions that will make up for our inferiority in arms and other
things, and create the prerequisites for overcoming every difficulty in
the war.". The political mobilization "means telling the army and the people
about the political aim of the war"; and, because this is not enough, "the
steps and policies for its attainment must also be given, that is, there
must be a political program". "Without a clear-cut, concrete political
program it is impossible to mobilize all the armed forces and the whole
people to carry the war". The political mobilization "is a matter of immense
importance, on which our victory in the war primarily depends".
6. The People's War does not stand for its self. It owes to be a part
of a general line and to serve a strategic orientation. Mao always expressed
himself on this issue with the greatest clarity. He gave all his battles
(both in the frame of the Party against the right and "left" deviations,
and against the dogmatic adherence to the soviet model, which imposed the
primary role of the cities) in the name of a general line, based on a concrete
analysis of the classes and of the change of the correlation of power between
them through the passage from one stage to the next one. The Protracted
People's War was the summary of the experience of the Chinese Revolution
and the condensation of the conclusions extracted from the study of the
correlation of power, of the necessary alliances in the Chinese society,
etc. It was the specific road that the communists should follow in order
to realize the new democratic revolution in China.
The Protracted People's War in China resulted from the examination of
the fundamental and mutually contradictory particular characteristics of
the warring camps. The particular characteristics of the two sides must
always be studied and deeply examined. "Know the enemy and know yourself,
and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat." (Problems
of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War, 1936). "The above are the basic,
mutually contradictory characteristics… They have determined and are determining
all the political policies and military strategies and tactics of the two
sides. The antagonism among the particular characteristics determines the
character of the war." (On Protracted War, 1938, point 12).
The mechanical transfer of the Protracted People's War in other countries,
without connection with a general line and strategy, without a concrete
analysis of the concrete situation, as well as the elevation of the Protracted
People's War itself as the general line for one country and for the International
Communist Movement, would not be at all a contribution neither to the development
of the movement in one country nor to the reinforcement of maoism on international
level.
As far as we know, in the text of the "25 points" the CPC formulates
a general line that is not the People's War. Of course, the extensive references
of this important text to the "zones of the revolutionary storms" reveal
that the People's China had a positive attitude towards the waging of a
series of People's Wars in this region, which would bring imperialism to
its knees.
Later there was a generalization on behalf of Lin Piao, who promoted
as a general line the encirclement of the imperialist metropolis from the
world countryside. This was an oversimplification of the modern contradictions
and a transformation of one complex situation in a caricature. The observation
of Armando Liwanag, Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines,
is correct: "As Lin Piao had erroneously extrapolated that the fate of
the world was one-sidely to be decided by the countryside of the world,
there were those who extrapolated that the fate of the world was to be
one-sidely decided by the metropolis of the world." (Red salute to the
New People's Army, Persevere in Protracted People's War, Rebolusyon nr
2 – April/June 1994).
During a recent period a series of problems appeared in one of the most
important and glorious examples of revolutionary movement, the one of the
Philippines. Their roots were located in the cutting-off from the strategies
of the Protracted People's War and from the perspective of the national
democratic revolution. The experience proved that we were in front of the
unification of right and "left" deviationist elements against the general
line of the Communist Party of the Philippines. This contest of the general
line, in the beginning, didn't start with an open rejection of the People's
War, but with the dispute of the principle of the cities' encirclement
by the countryside; this contest was accompanied by theories about the
radical change of the social stratification in the Philippines' society.
From the one side, the supporters of the "left" deviation were praising
the revolt in the cities and, following certain international examples
(like Nicaragua), they transferred the gravity centre of the activity in
the urban areas, formed large military units, neglected the mass work and
were speaking for an almost imminent victory during the next few years.
From the other side, the right deviationists had a positive attitude towards
those changes and favored the transfer of the activity in the urban areas,
underlining at the same time the "possibilities for a protracted legal
activity" and trying to modify the program of the National Democratic Front.
Both the right and the "left" had abandoned the general line of the Communist
Party of the Philippines and they were sailing in other seas. They estimated
erroneously both the internal and the international conditions, and this
mistaken position was expressed through a certain conciliatory attitude
towards the revisionist camp. Only after the launching of the Great Second
Rectification Movement it became possible to win again the lost space,
which (as the Philippine comrades are declaring) was not insignificant.
7. The People's War is the specific form that the revolutionary struggle
can take in a series of semi-feudal, semi-colonial, depended by the imperialism
countries, after the third decade of the 20th century. The Protracted People's
War made his historic appearance after a certain degree of composition
and historical experience on international level had been achieved by the
forces of the working class. We are referring to the existence of
the Communist Party in each such country, as well as to the existence of
revolutionary traditions and experiences, which can lead the masses and
be a school for them. Without the existence of the Communist Party, and
without the examination of the international conditions and duties that
come out in each turn of history, it is impossible to lead victoriously
a revolutionary war in the contemporary period. This truth has been confirmed
both in a positive and in a negative way. We have no few examples of development
of national liberation movement which were not led by a Communist Party
and, despite the fact that they adopted in this or the other extent the
principles of People's War, they didn't succeed to obtain and consolidate
the victory of the people's forces.
The relation between the Communist Party and the duties emanating by
the conduct of the People's War, the relation between the Party and the
gun, is something that could not escape the attention of Chairman Mao Tsetung.
He said: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" (Problems of
War and Strategy, 1938), and "Without a people's army the people have nothing"
(On Coalition Government, 1945) – but no matter how correct are those phrases-teachings
of Mao, it is also a fact that the relation between the Party (the highest
form of proletariat's organization), and the People's Army (which, despite
its difference from the bourgeois army, remains a specific mechanism of
armed forces), may become problematic. That's why Chairman Mao Tsetung
underlined: "Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the
gun must never be allowed to command the Party" (Problems of War and Strategy,
1938).
Many times, within the frame of revolutionary movements, break out a
series of deviations from this principle. The "coup d'etat" mentality,
the mentality of wandering groups, the militarist spirit, the overvaluation
of the military aspect in relation with the political aspect, all these
are expressions of a situation where the gun predominates over the Party.
Mao, in one article written back in 1929, strongly criticizes those attitudes.
It is important to pay all the attention both to the reasons of the appearance
of such tendencies, and the way proposed by Mao in order to overcome them:
"The sources of the purely military viewpoint are: 1. A low political
level. From this flows the failure to recognize the role of political leadership
in the army and to recognize that the Red Army and the White army are fundamentally
different. 2. The mentality of mercenaries. Many prisoners captured in
past battles have joined the Red Army, and such elements bring with them
a markedly mercenary outlook, thereby providing a basis in the lower ranks
for the purely military viewpoint. 3. From the two preceding causes there
arises a third, over-confidence in military strength and absence of confidence
in the strength of the masses of the people. 4. The Party's failure actively
to attend to and discuss military work is also a reason for the emergence
of the purely military viewpoint among a number of comrades.
The methods of correction are as follows: 1. Raise the political level
in the Party by means of education, destroy the theoretical roots of the
purely military viewpoint, and be clear on the fundamental difference between
the Red Army and the White army. At the same time, eliminate the remnants
of opportunism and putschism and break down the selfish departmentalism
of the Fourth Army. 2. Intensify the political training of officers and
men and especially the education of ex-prisoners. At the same time, as
far as possible let the local governments select workers and peasants experienced
in struggle to join the Red Army, thus organizationally weakening or even
eradicating the purely military viewpoint. 3. Arouse the local Party organizations
to criticize the Party organizations in the Red Army and the organs of
mass political power to criticize the Red Army itself, in order to influence
the Party organizations and the officers and men of the Red Army. 4. The
Party must actively attend to and discuss military work. All the work must
be discussed and decided upon by the Party before being carried out by
the rank and file. 5. Draw up Red Army rules and regulations which clearly
define its tasks, the relationship between its military and its political
apparatus, the relationship between the Red Army and the masses of the
people, and the powers and functions of the soldiers' committees and their
relationship with the military and political organizations." (On correcting
mistaken ideas in the Party, 1929).
In the present conditions, we do not think correct to downgrade maoism
to People's War. An eventual equation of the style "maoism = People's War"
is not valid. Such a conception is erroneous, it is an oversimplification
and "pauperization" of maoism; and of course it will lead in a deviation
where, while the People's War will be acclaimed as the general line, the
duties of general mobilization of the people will be underestimated, the
basic and mutually contradictory characteristics of the two sides will
not be examined, we will not know well enough neither ourselves nor the
enemy.
8. Historic experience has showed another aspect that requires our attention.
Mao was not claiming by chance that we should count only on our own forces.
Especially in the case of conducting the People's War, the principle
of self-reliance is of greatest importance. And, basically, it is so because
it ensures the independence of the revolutionary movement and prevents
its dependence by various powers.
The Chinese Revolution can, from this aspect, be the guiding light and
an inspirational spring for all the revolutionaries all over the world.
Without ever forgetting any of its internationalist duties, it had the
transparency, the wisdom and the calm to go forward and adopt a strategies
different to the one suggested by the then international centre of the
Communist Movement. It succeeded, indeed, to overcome in practice the mistrust
demonstrated towards it by the Soviet leaders for a number of years, without
ever making public any disagreements and always putting the accent on the
elements of unity in the common cause, and without ever ignoring the important
help that the USSR objectively offered to the cause of the Chinese Revolution.
It showed an exemplary application of the united national front (a line
in agreement with the line of the Communist International after 1935) during
the Anti-japanese War, and this passed mainly through the formula ''not
everything will be decided and done through the common front'' – that is,
the Communist Party would keep its independence and would defend all the
conquests of the people. After the end of the war, Mao made clear that
the Chinese communists will not abandon the principle "rely only on our
own forces" and that they will keep serving the revolution in China, without
committing themselves to any eventual decisions taken in the summit. His
position is characteristic: "Such compromise between the United States,
Britain and France and the Soviet Union can be the outcome only of resolute,
effective struggles by all the democratic forces of the world against the
reactionary forces of the United States, Britain and France. Such compromise
does not require the people in the countries of the capitalist world to
follow suit and make compromises at home. The people in those countries
will continue to wage different struggles in accordance with their different
conditions. The principle of the reactionary forces in dealing with the
democratic forces of the people is definitely to destroy all they can and
to prepare to destroy later whatever they cannot destroy now. Face to face
with this situation, the democratic forces of the people should likewise
apply the same principle to the reactionary forces." (Some points in appraisal
of the present international situation, 1946).
Unfortunately, especially in the western european countries and in Greece,
this line was not followed by the Communist Movement – and the causes cannot
be sought only on the factor of opportunism (which of course clearly did
exist in the communist parties of those countries), but also on the then
appreciation of the CPSU.
And here we come to the core of a very important problem, this of the
"etatism": the attitude to give priority on the interests of a state and
its particular planifications in relation to the real possibilities of
the movement in several parts of the world; the subordination of the movements
to the needs and demands of the country-centre; the non-normal situation
in the relations among the communist parties through the privileged treatment
of some at the expense of others, etc., etc. – and the stress on administrative
methods instead of persuasion and extensive discussion. This situation
appeared already when the Soviet Union had not ''changed colour'', and
this did have strong consequences on the International Communist Movement
– and it made more easy for the revisionist powers to conquest from the
interior the Communist Movement, making "etatism" the supreme guide of
all their actions.
During the following decades (60's, 70's and 80's) we became the witnesses
of subordination of a number of national liberation movements to reactionary
forces, to revisionism or imperialism. That was made possible because,
instead of applying the principle "rely on our own forces", there was adopted
a pragmatism by a series of movements; in reality, those movements became
depended from this or the other power, they became their pawns.
The Soviet social-imperialism, after having co-operated with the American
imperialists in an effort to suppress a series of revolutionary movements
all over the world, it went on and tried to win over and make dependent,
both financially and militarily, a certain number of national liberation
movements, and to place a number of socialist countries in the orbit of
its policy.
The Chinese revisionism, with the ''three worlds' theory'', in reality
followed a policy of co-operation with the American imperialism against
the other superpower, thus leaving exposed a number of national liberation
movements and revolutionary powers.
The conclusion is that the revolutionary forces should, more than ever
before, rely on their own forces. "Etatism", by what has been stated above,
played a very negative role to the course of the Communist Movement and
the cause of the peoples' liberation.
People's War cannot, under today's conditions, look forward to the help
of a state entity. The relations of revolutionary movements with various
states based on the doubtful principle ''my enemy's enemy is my friend''
can bring, in the long run, only catastrophic results. The experience of
the movements in the Arabic world demonstrates it very clearly, the experience
of the Kurdish people shows it equally, the situation in Congo proves it
as well – just to mention only the most recent examples.
9. In Greece, during the fifth decade of the 20th century, we had two
big revolutionary wars. The
national liberation war against the German, Italian and Bulgarian invaders
(1941-1944), and the anti-imperialist civil war against the monarchist-fascist
forces, the British imperialism and later the US imperialism that replaced
the British (1946-1949).
Those two glorious revolutionary wars, although they do not exactly
belong to the strategies of the People's War as described by Mao Tsetung,
nevertheless they include many of its elements and they came very near
to the victory – without tasting it.
The national liberation war against the hitlerite-fascist occupators
belongs to the strategies of the united national front and, therefore,
in the unity of all the forces in order to throw off the yoke and to create
the conditions that will allow the Greek people to freely decide about
his conditions of life. With the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) as vanguard,
there was developed an unprecedented movement, so much in the cities as
well as in the countryside. The guerrilla brought a series of heavy blows
to the occupators, created a legend among the people's masses and more
globally it gave an exceptional impulse to the struggle. Towards the end
of 1944, in reality there existed a number of liberated regions and the
majority of the people belonged to and supported the progressive forces.
Still, this victorious revolution was wasted! The reason was that
the struggle's leadership had not a clear and correct understanding of
the role played by the British imperialism, had not a correct appreciation
of the anti-hitlerite alliance and of the role played by the Greek movement.
In that way, we were brought to a line of compromises and concessions towards
the British imperialism, that bound hand and foot the popular movement.
So, in spite of all the favourable conditions for a victorious outcome
of the revolution in Greece, the lack of a decisive and well-prepared leadership
provoked the defeat and involved enormous losses for the Greek people.
In December 1944, while the Second World War was not over yet and the
anti-hitlerite alliance still existed (and, since October 1944, Athens
had been liberated), an armed intervention is carried out in both Athens
and Piraeus by the British imperialists. For a whole month the people of
Athens fights a brave battle against the mighty armed allies, who do not
hesitate to bomb relentlessly Athens, a thing that not even Hitler's army
had dared. The leadership of the movement keeps the essential forces of
ELAS (Greek People's Liberation Army) far from Athens…
With the Varkiza agreement (beginning of 1945), the revolutionary armed
forces hand down their arms. This was one of the biggest treasons inflicted
on the people's movement – immediately afterwards, one of the biggest terrorist
pogroms against the Greek democratic citizens was launched by the reaction.
That's the reason why, every time we hear that a revolutionary movement
hands down the arms (and it still happens nowadays), our heart gives a
start.
Anyway, the people's movement received a blow but it had not been defeated.
The reaction tried to get reorganized, to set up an embryonic, rudimentary
state and repressive mechanism; it also tried to create armed forces, so
as to be able to venture out of Athens. With the direct interference of
the imperialist forces, paramilitary gangs and death squads were organized
all over the country and there started the hunting down and the summary
executions of the progressive militants. During the same time, the persecuted
militants who had gone underground reached the number of a hundred thousand
people. Relatively soon, within a year after the Varkiza agreement, the
people's movement regrouped its forces and had all the means to crash the
reaction – but the leadership remained attached to the line of "pressure
of the reaction in order to oblige it to accept the national reconciliation".
The first guerrilla actions, undertaken by groups of persecuted militants,
did not fall within a line of a quick and surprise launching of the second
guerrilla, but were incorporated in the line of the "pressure for reconciliation".
Another year will go by, during which the reaction will take the opportunity
to cut down all the roads leading from the cities to the countryside. In
the cities massive arrests will take place, and hundreds of thousands of
democratic citizens will be sent to exile and concentration camps; the
military courts, at the same time, were overcrowded and executions were
carried out after summary procedures. Nonetheless, the Democratic Army
of Greece fought a heroic battle against the monarchism-fascism, occasioning
heavy losses to the reactionaries – even more, towards the end of 1948,
monarchism-fascism was terrorized and ready to collapse, seeing that it
cannot cope with the revolutionary movement. At this moment, the new and
freshly arrived US imperialism got into action, and played a leading role
in all the mopping-up operations. It was in Greece that the anti-guerrilla
methods were tested for the first time (emptying of villages and the countryside
in general, concentration/"reformation" camps, massive use of napalm bombs,
building of roads for immediate access to all regions where there might
be guerrilla activities, etc.). Those methods will be used later in many
other cases.
In August 1949, the Democratic Army of Greece was military defeated
and obliged to retreat the main body of its forces into the socialist countries.
The causes of the defeat of the 1946-1949 struggle cannot simply be
taxed on the mistakes of the leadership of the Communist Party of Greece;
the attitude of the International Communist Movement towards the
second revolution in Greece must also be taken into consideration. First
of all, there was no aid to that struggle, not even political support.
Especially during the period that the specific weight of the Communist
Party of Yugoslavia was very important in the Balkans, the people's movement
in Greece suffered under the grand-serbian nationalism, which had made
already its appearance. After the rupture between the International Communist
Movement and Tito, and when he co-operated with the Greek monarchists-fascists,
allowing them to flankattack the Greek guerrillas, the conditions for a
defeat strengthened more and more. The international centre of the revolution
at the period did not estimate that a victory was possible in Greece, starting
by the assumption that whatever had be won the previous years had to be
stabilized and time had to be gained in order to confront imperialism's
new attack; at the same time, the international centre was using the existence
of the second guerrilla in Greece as a harassment to the imperialists,
as a kind of diversion, which though should not get over certain limits
(which, if exceeded, could lead to a confrontation in the region). This
is the only way to explain the instability and the confused line of the
leadership of the Greek Communist Movement at the time. Our conclusions
are that one cannot play with the revolution and the fate of a whole
people, when all aspects lead to a decisive conflict. Our conclusions are
that the conditions to win and stabilize positions in Greece existed if,
since 1946 and 1947, elementary steps and measures had been taken and the
International Communist Movement had shown political support (an example
of total lack of even political support is that no country belonging to
the –still under shape– socialist camp recognized the Provisional Government
formed by the Democratic Army of Greece in the liberated areas).
All the same, the revolutionary movement of Greece assumed fully its
internationalist duty. It did not haul down the flag of the struggle. For
three years, it fought courageously against imperialism, it gave its utmost
and engaged in the battle considerable forces of the imperialism. In this
way and by the blood of its best sons and daughters, it contributed to
the victory of the Chinese Revolution, regardless of the great distance
separating the two countries!
10. The timeliness of the People's War can be proved through a number
of facts and arguments:
– The Protracted People's War was the way followed in many historic
examples (i.e. Vietnam, Cambodia, etc.). Although many changes have taken
place in international relations and in spite of the realignments
in the imperialist block, the flames of the People's War are burning in
many regions of the world, and this fact shows how important was the path
traced by the Chinese communists, and Mao Tsetung himself.
– In a number of regions today (Philippines, Peru, India, Turkey, etc.),
under the leadership of the communists, enormous progress has been made
in the domain of promoting the People's War. In those regions the flag
of revolution was raised high during the difficult years of the eighties
and till today, that there are many signs showing that the movement is
going uphill.
– Like in the past, today also in the same way a number of revolutionary
movements bear the influence of the People's War. In some cases more openly
while in others more under cover, those general guiding lines are followed.
With exceptional pleasure we see that, under the nose of the US
imperialism, in Mexico, the resistance of the Mexican people is being
developed methodically on the basis of the Protracted People's War. Mexico's
example is of great importance, for the very reason that it is not a case
of semi-feudal, semi-colonial country like China was in the third decade
of the 20th century. Mexico is a country dependent on imperialism, which
at the same time has made its bourgeois revolution. A country with rich
revolutionary traditions, with an unequal development, both economic and
political, as well as with areas completely underdeveloped and downgraded.
Mexico is a big country with alternation of the geophysical characteristics
(deserts, mountains, jungles, coastlines, etc.), with long borderlines
with the US imperialism, but equally with a big number of Mexican natives
and immigrant workers in the USA territory. No matter that the most well
known (to the West in particular and all over the world in general) is
the Zapatist army, we very well know the existence of revolutionary forces
and the Revolutionary People's Army (EPR), which is guided by the Revolutionary
People's Democratic Party (PDPR) and clearly refers to the strategies of
the Protracted People's War in Mexico.
– In a number of regions where open imperialist interventions have taken
place or reactionary wars
have been launched, by means of adoption of local nationalist cliques
by the imperialists, the conditions for the mobilization of the masses
are increasing, as well as the conditions for the confrontation of the
reactionary war by promoting the just war. Such examples exist so much
both in the large zone of the storms, and (and this is new) in countries
of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The violent re-colonization of these
regions advances through national parcelling, partition of countries, the
launching of local and regional wars and the direct intervention of the
imperialist multinational forces, that drive the peoples of those countries,
through an extremely difficult and winding path, in the perspective of
the Protracted People's War. A precondition for the achievement of such
a goal is the construction and strengthening of genuine communist forces
in this area.
11. Greece is a country dependent on imperialism, and especially the
US and European imperialism. Its dependence is economic, political and
military, and the country is situated in a neuralgic point. It is not a
semi-colonial, semi-feudal country, but a country with a medium level of
capitalist development. During the 60's the industrial production exceeded
the agricultural one. Today, as a result of many changes during the post-war
years and a series of restructuring, under the auspices of foreign monopolistic
capital, several important changes have taken place. More than 65% of the
population is concentrated in the cities, while agriculture occupies only
18% of the economically active population and the tendency is to shrink
further (following EU policies) to 8% in a few years. At the same moment,
the middle strata (old and new petit bourgeois strata, middle bourgeoisie)
have increased considerably. All these factors should be taken into consideration
when coming to strategic planification in Greece and, with a first glance,
it seems that the conditions do not allow the strategies of a Protracted
People's War. In spite of the above, the conditions prevailing in Greece
are not exactly the same as Mao described them concerning the developed
capitalist countries. "Internally, the capitalist countries practise bourgeois
democracy (not feudalism) when they are not fascist or not in a war; in
their external relations, they are not oppressed by, but themselves oppress,
other nations. Because of these characteristics, it is the task of the
Party of the proletariat in the capitalist countries to educate the workers
and build up strength through a long period of legal struggle, and thus
prepare for the final overthrow of capitalism. In these countries, the
question is one of a long legal struggle, of utilizing parliament as a
platform, of economic and political strikes, of organizing trade unions
and educating the workers. There the form of organization is legal and
the form of struggle bloodless (non-military). On the issue of war, the
Communist Parties in the capitalist countries oppose the imperialist wars
waged by their own countries; if such wars occur, the policy of these Parties
is to bring about the defeat of the reactionary governments of their own
countries. The one war they want to fight is the civil war for which they
are preparing. But this insurrection and war should not be launched until
the bourgeoisie becomes really helpless, until the majority of the proletariat
are determined to rise in arms and fight, and until the rural masses are
giving willing help to the proletariat. And when the time comes to launch
such an insurrection and war, the first step will be to seize the cities,
and then advance into the countryside, and not the other way about. All
this has been done by Communist Parties in capitalist countries, and it
has been proved correct by the October Revolution in Russia." (Problems
of war and strategy, 1938).
The conditions are not such as described, since the element of imperialist
dependence creates a series of circumstances that escape the model described
by Chairman Mao. From a strategic point of view, the question of war in
a country like Greece is not put in the same way as for an imperialist
country. As a dependent country, it is subject to lots of blackmails and
is obliged to take directions that are against its own interests, and its
rivalry with Turkey is a case in point, always under the tutelage of the
USA. At the same moment, the flames of the Balkans war, for the precise
reason the imperialists in their antagonistic games provoke the explosion
of whole regions, are very near and it's very easy to embark Greece in
various adventurisms, with unexpected consequences for the peoples of the
region. In other words, what we 've been trying to do here is to demonstrate
the complexity of the problems and the duties that result.
Therefore, the imperialist interventions and the several frictions is
one permanent and lasting decisive point for the evolution of all kinds
of relations (economic, political, military and between states) in
the region. And the anti-imperialist struggle is not possible to be carried
out with self-delusions. In case a war is launched, a possibility not very
unlikely to happen in an agitated region that presents big historic and
other various forms of interventions and frictions, the position to adopt
is one and only one – and again it is based on the teachings of Mao: "The
way to oppose a war of this kind is to do everything possible to prevent
it before it breaks out and, once it breaks out, to oppose war with war,
to oppose unjust war with just war, whenever possible." (On Protracted
War, 1938, point 58).
12. Today we are facing the imperialist "New Order" and the biggest
attack ever launched against the working class, the peoples and the oppressed
nations all over the world. It is imperative that we formulate a new general
line of the Communist Movement, which will take into consideration all
the transformations and will identify all the changes that have taken place.
Equally necessary is the
construction of a united world front against the New Order's attack.
In 1964, in the "25 points", the Chinese communists were describing
the general line of the Communist Movement as following:
''(…) Workers of all countries, unite; workers of the world, unite with
the oppressed peoples and oppressed nations; oppose imperialism and reaction
in all countries; strive for world peace, national liberation, people's
democracy and socialism; consolidate and expand the socialist camp; bring
the proletarian world revolution step by step to complete victory; and
establish a new world without imperialism, without capitalism and without
the exploitation of man by man.
This, in our view, is the general line of the international communist
movement at the present stage.
This general line proceeds from the actual world situation taken as
a whole and from a class analysis of the fundamental contradictions in
the contemporary world, and is directed against the counter-revolutionary
global strategy of U.S. imperialism.
This general line is one of forming a broad united front, with the socialist
camp and the international proletariat as its nucleus, to oppose the imperialists
and reactionaries headed by the United States; it is a line of boldly arousing
the masses, expanding the revolutionary forces, winning over the middle
forces and isolating the reactionary forces.
This general line is one of resolute revolutionary struggle by the people
of all countries and of carrying the proletarian world revolution forward
to the end; it is the line that most effectively combats imperialism and
defends world peace.
If the general line of the international communist movement is onesidedly
reduced to "peaceful coexistence", "peaceful competition" and "peaceful
transition", this is to violate the revolutionary principles of the 1957
Declaration and the 1960 Statement, to discard the historical mission of
proletarian world revolution, and to depart from the revolutionary teachings
of Marxism-Leninism.
The general line of the international communist movement should reflect
the general law of development of world history. The revolutionary struggles
of the proletariat and the people in various countries go through different
stages and they all have their own characteristics, but they will not transcend
the general law of development of world history. The general line should
point out the basic direction for the revolutionary struggles of the proletariat
and people of all countries.
While working out its specific line and policies, it is most important
for each Communist or Workers' Party to adhere to the principle of integrating
the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of revolution
and construction in its own country.
In defining the general line of the international communist movement,
the starting point is the concrete class analysis of world politics and
economics as a whole and of actual world conditions, that is to say, of
the fundamental contradictions in the contemporary world.
If one avoids a concrete class analysis, seizes at random on certain
superficial phenomena, and draws subjective and groundless conclusions,
one cannot possibly reach correct conclusions with regard to the general
line of the international communist movement but will inevitably slide
on to a track entirely different from that of Marxism-Leninism.''
(A Proposal concerning the General Line of the International Communist
Movement, Letter of the CC of the CPC, 14 June 1963).
The above paragraphs –that form points 2 and 3 and part of point 4 of
the ''25 points''– are of great importance, not only as a formulation
but equally as a context. At the same time, they urge us to wonder what
would be or how would be formulated a general line for the Communist Movement
in our days.
The formulation of the general line by the CPC (point 2) is brief and
precise. It concerns the general line at ''its present stage''. That is,
all the relations and contradictions of the present world are taken into
consideration, there is an inclusion of the wider correlation of power,
the subjective factor is present everywhere (having as a core the socialist
camp and the international proletariat). The isolation of the main power
of the counter-revolution, the US imperialism, is one basic objective and
such a line has to allow the massive and daring mobilization
of the masses, to develop the revolutionary forces, to conquer the intermediary
forces and isolate the reactionary ones. The general line leads the proletarian
revolution to the achievement of the final goal, but at the same time it
fights effectively against imperialism and, thus, it defends peace. Although
the revolutionary movement in each country may present its own particularities,
it cannot nevertheless "transgress" the bounds set by the ''present stage''
of the revolution in an international level. It is deterministic to ponder
those duties, since they cannot be ignored, and "easy" solutions cannot
be searched. For example, during the 60's the following double duty was
set: deepening the revolution in the countries which were on the way of
constructing socialism, on the one hand, and wage a decisive confrontation
with imperialism, and especially US imperialism, on the other. No movement
in any country could ignore those two duties of such historic importance,
and get involved in something else. It is evident why and how the smash
of the US imperialism preoccupied the whole world. Even in countries where
the US imperialism had no direct interference, the duty of taking immediate
action against it was raised, as well as the duty of solidarity to the
people fighting it. The duty of deepening of socialism was related to coping
with the modern revisionist current, so much in the countries constructing
socialism, as well as in the countries dominated by capitalism –
against its liquidationist influence and its open co-operation with imperialism.
It's possible that we will be asked: why such a long parenthesis? Simply
because we want to consolidate even more the link between the determination
of the specific goals and the political line in a given country and region,
with the problem of the general line, of the general law of evolution of
world history.
At the ''present stage'' the duties are: the confrontation of the "New
World Order"; the promotion of the International Community of the Peoples;
the revival of the Communist Movement. It is not possible to make any steps
without the construction of a ''new consciousness'' which will be able
to explain why we are at the ''present stage'', which will have the capacity
to understand the changes that have taken place in the post-industrial
imperialism, which will place in the focal point of every small or
big effort made the answer of contemporary challenges, which will unify
and aggregate the struggle.
Thus, the general line of the contemporary Communist Movement could
be formulated somehow like that: ''Let's resist the New World Order, the
humanity's biggest enemy, let's crash the holocaust prepared by the imperialist
directorate and its lackeys; let's modify on world level, through struggles
and movements, the correlation of power in favour of the progress'
forces, by promoting the International Community of the Peoples, that is,
the large front of the fighting classes and strata against the New World
Order and the dual society; and, step by step, let's reconstruct the Communist
Movement, i.e. the necessary and decisive force that can unite and give
perspective to the struggles; let's construct the communist program, throwing
to the trash anything rusty, old-fashioned and anachronistic was created
by the domination of revisionism for more than thirty years; let's propagate
the position of the timeliness of socialism and communism as the only positive
way out from the capitalist barbarity.''
It's about a general line that takes seriously into consideration ''the
present stage'' and gives a clear perspective.
13. The restructuring of the imperialist/capitalist system, as an attempt
to meet with its prolonged general crisis, brought a series of turmoils
in all sectors. On social level, the most important of them are the following:
(a) Its tendency to negate the living labor and to reject it from the
productive process, on levels unforeseen up today in the history of capitalism.
This means that the reserve industrial army of labor takes gigantic dimensions.
(b) Nevertheless the dualisation (the negation, the rejection of the
living labor, and the attempt to impose a new model of society, without
rights for the big majority of the people) has other aspects as well: political,
social, cultural. The dualisation develops both in the interior of each
country and on international level - i.e. in both a vertical and horizontal
way. In the interior of each country, the strata of the population that
are rejected and thrown in a total misery become larger and larger. The
labor force is squeezed in extreme level. The flexibility of labor relations
is promoted, provoking an unprecedented suppression of conquests and rights
of the working masses, won in the past by them during long and bloody struggles.
In the interior of each country, there is a large section of the population
living under the poverty level, unemployed or underemployed, reduced to
absolute misery and with no perspective for work. Many bourgeois analysts
are speaking for the "society of the 2/3 (two thirds)", meaning that it
is the 1/3 that is rejected and "excommuniated" from the first society
(which is supposed to be composed by the other 2/3). The reality is much
worse, because the absolute and relative poverty concerns more than 1/3
of the population. But even if this number would be correct, it is in any
way a huge proportion. What kind of system is capitalism, if it is unable
to give the slightest perspective to the one third of its societies? But
capitalism is magnanimous: it simply stops counting this excluded 1/3.
It is an invisible part of the society: it exists, but capitalism doesn't
give a damn about it. Or, to be more correct, it cares; as far as this
concerns its advertising "philanthropist" campaigns.
(c) The horizontal dualisation (called by many as antagonism and gap
between the developed North and the undeveloped South) shows another aspect,
equally important: The most rich fifth (20%) of the world population enjoys
82,7% of the world income. The poorest fifth of the world population "enjoys"
just the 1,4% of the world income. This gap shows that the rest 3/5 of
the world population must be satisfied with 15,9% of the world income.
If we examine those 3/5, we 'll see that 1/5 gets 11,7% of the world income,
1/5 gets 2,3% and 1/5 gets 1,9%. Consequently, we can see that the three
fifths of the world population, according to the data of the UNProgram
for Development, are "living" with 5,6% of the world income! This is about
an inconceivable concentration of inequality on the earth, which never
existed before, in no other system and even in no other period of capitalism.
(d) This situation and all the restructuring process brought more consequences:
we are in front of a wide proletarianization, which is not advancing exclusively
because of the huge depopulation of the
world countryside. The proletarianization is also advancing because
of the destruction of medium strata, especially the intelligentsia. Such
strata are grinding, particularly in the metropolitan centres, because
of the massive use of the "intangible" in the production and the services.
(e) The depopulation of the world countryside aims at the domination
of the agricultural-food supplying filiere of the multinational corporations
and at the coping with the agricultural crisis of overproduction. The devastation
of the countryside condemns huge populations in famine, destroys all forms
of natural economy, and blows up the agricultural production of whole countries
in order to oblige them to import food from the rich countries. Those procedures,
together with the raking up of ethnic and tribal confrontations (which
are always stired up by the multinational corporations), have provoked
a huge coercive agricultural exodus. This exodus can be compared and has
many similarities with the procedures of primary accumulation described
by Marx in "The Capital". In the eastern world the destruction of the cooperative
structures and the privatization of the land accelerate this process. In
China the provision of labor force, particularly in the zones that have
been conceded in the foreign capital, is made through the internal immigration
and the expropriation of the cooperatives and communes existing in the
chinese countryside (those were the "four modernizations"...).
(f) All this move provoked big migratory currents, the bigger that have
been witnessed in capitalism's history. Some calculations show that the
migratory current of the recent years concerns 650 millions of people.
The previous migratory currents, during the beginning of our century and
the early 60's, came in a period of rising of the cycle and they had been
"easily" absorbed in the reception countries. The so-called "miracles"
of the economic development have their base exactly on this relatively
cheap labor force, which has been used in the most difficult and dirty
jobs. On the contrary, the actual migratory current, the biggest in modern
history, is a moving gigantic reserve labor army. There is no the slightest
possibility for its absorption. That's why the main form of existence it
has is to be stowed in the megacities, which are spreading in several regions
of the world. The megacities in the entire world have been multiplied and
the phenomens of "savage" urbanization are characteristic of this process.
(g) Under the direction of the monopolistic capital, a "periphery of
the world" is created, in which a series of industrial activities are emigrating
and where is used a cheap labor force. In the shantytowns and the slums
of this periphery are stowed millions and millions of people uprooted from
the countryside; and farther on extends the countryside of the world, condemned
in desertation. Every now and then, "Irrational" wars draw the attention
for certain regions of this forgotten countryside. What happens? The struggle
for raw materials, for deposits of strategic materials, activates the "interest"
but also the fierce antagonism of the imperialists. The same happens as
far as the control of passages and routes of transport and communication
(even the space) are concerned.
Still, this description is not complete. The monopolistic capital took
care to create "free zones" in the periphery of the world, where no legislation
applies and the capital is free to "officiate" without any constraints.
How many such "free zones" exist all over the world? More than 500. But
we have no data concerning the volume of the labor force exploited in them.
The bourgeois statistics is suffering from strabismus in this field as
well…
All those changes (accompanied by many political changes and modifications,
and imposing the activation of a series of manipulating and repressive
mechanisms) have brought up many new situations. The marxist-leninist movement
must study them, must detect what is genuinely new, and what is to be concluded
on the level of strategies and tactics. While it is necessary to resolutely
oppose all the deviations promoting the abandon of the strategies of the
Protracted People's War in a series of countries where the very history
proves that this is the strategies to be followed (and such deviations
develop in the name of some new phenomena, which are real or have been
exagerated), it is at the same time necessary to grasp the conclusions
of all those changes on world level.
14. In other words, we have to give all our forces and co-ordinate our
steps so as the phase of passive defence, in which we actually are on an
international level (and which is expressed by the spontaneous, non co-ordinated,
without common objectives, resistance of the masses), will give its place
to the active resistance. The active resistance will be characterised by
the existence and action of important people's movements, capable to provoke
ruptures and damages to imperialism and all the reactionaries, and indeed
from another level of conscience, action and co-operation between peoples'
movements on a local, regional and international level.
This passage from the passive defence to the active resistance must
be, in our opinion, the strategic aim of the International Communist Movement
at the present stage. We call this objective the International Community
of the Peoples, which will line up against the "international community"
of the imperialists.
We fully understand that the advances and the progress from region to
region or from country to country will be in an asymmetric and not uniform
way. All the same, the existence of advanced positions or situations in
a region or a country cannot imply by itself that the present actual stage
has been surmounted. Today, for example, there exists a number of people's
movements fighting gun in hand, but this fact by itself alone does not
overrule the general picture of the passive resistance on international
level, as defined above.
Let's contemplate for a while the following words of Mao, when he makes
an appreciation about the military experience of the communist movement
in 1938: "There are only three armies in the whole world which belong to
the proletariat and the labouring people, the armies led by the Communist
Parties of the Soviet Union, of China and of Spain, and as yet Communist
Parties in other countries have had no military experience; hence our army
and our military experience are all the more precious." (Problems of War
and Strategy, 1938).
In a few years since then many Parties acquired a very important experience
and led people's armies. This is the one side that we should never forget.
The other side, that we should equally not forget, is the regression that
happened the last thirty years; this is the result of the liquidation brought
by the modern revisionism. The international proletariat is far off the
situation in 1938 and has to cover this distance.
On the way towards the active resistance lots of new phenomena will
come to existence and new, unforeseen situations will develop; the
communists must have the perspicacity to grasp them, estimate their importance
and evaluate them. The future will in no way be a repetition of the past.
It never was; it won't be now either. Here fit in, perfectly well, Mao's
words: "expensive things are not won at a cheap price" (On Protracted War,
1938, point 49).
In this battle it is clear that the most advanced detachments of the
international proletariat, the ones that open the way, the ones that have
liberated regions, those who act in guerrilla zones and bring significant
blows to the enemy, those who in deed follow the Peoples' War and associate
it to the general line that corresponds to the present stage, play and
will continue to play the role of vanguards. The wide mobilization of the
masses in order to bring support and reinforcement to those movements is
very important for their victory and for the attainment of the strategic
objective, as defined.
Through those trials, on an international level, under different circumstances
and by facing unprecedented situations, the new world vanguard, the International
Communist Movement, will be steeled, and from its lines the objective law
of the class struggle's development in the contemporary period will be
discovered.
The flames of the international resistance, of the international Protracted
People's War against the New World Order, are already more and more visible
in the horizon. The International Community of the Peoples will become
a reality, no matter the difficulties and the obstacles, and this will
happen in a not so distant future. The New World Order, being an "unjust
cause", "finds meagre support" (On Protracted War, 1938, point 10). The
peoples all over the world will be paying a tribute to all the communists
who during this century fought to open the ways for the happiness of the
masses. They will restore, to the place they rightly merit, Lenin, Stalin,
Mao, them being the embodiment of a titanic international struggle, on
different levels and with great successes.
The peoples all over the world will always remember the following words
of Comrade Mao:
«Marxists are not fortune-tellers. They can, and indeed this is
what they do, only indicate the general direction of the future developments
and changes; they should not and cannot fix the day and the hour in a mechanistic
way. But when I say that there will soon come a high tide of revolution
in China, I am emphatically not speaking for something which, in the words
of some people, is possibly something illusory, unattainable and devoid
of significance. It is like a ship far out at sea whose mast-head can already
be seen from the shore; it is like the morning sun in the east whose rays
are visible from a high mountain top; it is like a child that will be born
soon and it is moving restlessly in its mother's womb.»
(A single spark can start a prairie fire)