Statement No.: 2019/05
To the International Proletariat, the Oppressed People, the International Communist Movements and the Fraternal Communist Parties!
WITH THE PARTY TO THE REVOLUTION, GLORY TO OUR 1st CONGRESS!
Our Party TKP-ML, the organised vanguard and the leading contingent of the international proletariat in Turkey, has held its 1st Congress, 47 years after its foundation in April 1972.
The 1st Congress is of historical importance as it restores the authority and ensures the unity of the action of our Party against the attacks, repression and arrests by the international bourgeoisie and the Turkish ruling classes. The Congress further countered the right opportunist, splitist and liquidationist coup attempts against our Party that was launched soon after the 2015 attacks against our central cadres.
Our 1st Congress has analysed the last ten years since our 8th Conference in the context of the political developments in Turkey and across the world and reviewed our Party line in this process. Our 1st Congress has synthesised these analyses into revolutionary results. Our 1st Congress assessing the changes in Turkey and the rest of the world and has re-established the Party Program, that had been neglected since its founding. Moreover, it has updated its statutes by taking actual experiences into account. Our 1st Congress also made various decisions about international activities which had also been mentioned by our founder leader İbrahim Kaypakkaya, in his criticism against the revisionist line. The first Congress approved the general line of our Party about the international activities, formulated as: “Advance the revolution in our country to serve the world revolution!”
Our Congress pointed out the dual focus of the international activity; to realise the revolution in one’s own country and to generate and extend solidarity with revolutions in other countries through exchange of information and transfer of experiences. By defining the international activity as one of the primary responsibilities of our Party, our Congress has put this important task before the Party to fulfil.
To the International Communist Movements and the Fraternal Communist Parties!
Comrades,
Our 1st Congress evaluates this responsibility in the light of the developments in the past. These include the military coup in China by the capitalist roaders following the death of Chairman Mao, the issues faced by the revolutionary movements, the setbacks experienced in advancing of people’s war in certain countries and the inability of communist movements to lead the rising tide of mass mobilisations in certain countries.
Our 1st Congress is of the opinion that in an era where imperialism and its local puppets are intensifying their attacks on the working class and other oppressed masses; where the bourgeoise forces have a free reign, where reformists and Trotskyists under various disguises launch international attacks against the MLM ideology, there is a great need for an ideological centre by communist parties and organisations’. This need for such a unity of communists is an urgent issue for today not merely for the future and further that the proletariat needs an international organisation.
Following the death of Comrade Mao, the vacuum and disorientation of the International Communist Movement (ICM) have amplified, cloaked under different disguises opportunism and revisionism has continued to develop, and more importantly, the formal attempts and alliances to restore the ICM, in which our Party participates, has collapsed. In this sense, there is a state of disunity and turmoil within the ICM. Our Congress has concluded that our Party was unable to fulfil its role and duty in this area and therefore, it must reflect the effects of this self-criticism through our practice.
Our 1st Congress holds the view that the present condition of the ICM cannot be addressed in isolation from the ongoing crisis of the imperialist capitalist system. We need to consider the fact that without any changes to its essence, the imperialist capitalist system has continued to reproduce itself economically, socially, culturally, politically … and that the ICM was not able to address these developments adequately.
Our 1st Congress holds the opinion that the crisis of imperialist capitalist system has created new blocks and new changes in the balance of power amongst imperialist powers; that has brought about new alliances and that the competition for capturing markets and asserting hegemony in the different arena has intensified. Our Congress holds that failure to correctly assess this situation will inevitably take those who have claims on leadership or vanguards of the class struggle down the wrong path.
The opinion of our 1st Congress is that despite some positive steps in some countries where the effective people’s war under the leadership of the Communist Party was advanced, after the death of Chairman Mao, the defeat and setbacks in these countries were mainly the consequence of the attitudes of the leaders that led to the failure of the communist movement and their inability to confront and counteract the counter-revolutionary wave.
Although the People’s War in Peru had spread to Nepal, the result of these countries’ experiences has deepened this failure. In the present situation of the ICM, it is right to talk about a state of strategic defence and rather than strategic offensive. The defensive condition of the movements, the inability to respond to the attacks of the imperialist capitalist system and the problem of creating correct relations with the struggle of working-class has caused a degree of regress. Because of these reasons, extraordinary “solutions” were raised. The old revisionist thesis was put forward as “new solutions”. On the other hand, in the last period of our Party too, the inability to develop solutions to problems and the failure to respond to the immediate issues of the class struggle has also given rise to dogmatism, and this forms the basis of a line which replaces the objective reality with its subjective views. This situation has lead to the emergence and development of lines that attempt to damage the Party from within and to liquidate the communist parties.
Our 1st Congress holds the view that the ICM should condemn and reject both of these lines. If the MLM science is a guide to action, it would mean that neither revising the basic concepts of the MLM science nor dogmatic defence of these concepts would not help develop solutions to immediate problems and to be able to respond to the issues of the class struggle.
Comrades,
As we have noted above, there is no change in the essence of the imperialist capitalist system. This system has had no significant change, and its crisis today grows exponentially. Its imposed policies under the guise of overcoming the crisis should not be misleading. While the attacks and plans implemented by the imperialist capitalist system may include some innovations, the issue to note is that these innovations have still the same essence.
Communists act based on the real truth in things. We sum up with the concise statement by of Karl Marx: “All science would be superfluous if the outward appearance and the essence of things directly coincided.” Therefore, the line that we must follow and strictly adhere to is the science of the proletariat, MLM. This is the way to analyse the changes that take place these days, the way to respond to the attacks of the imperialist capitalist system and to relate to the struggle of the working class and oppressed people correctly. If the MLM is a science – which is undisputedly true – then the main issue is not to question the truths of this science, which on many occasions were proven to be correct in practice. The main point is to put this science properly into action and develop tactical policies based on general principles to solve the current problems. If this is not done or could not be applied, it is inevitable to have doubts and to start discussions about the principles of this science. It also follows that without being able to resist the attacks merely parroting or repeating the general truths of science in the name of the “solution” can only lead us into dogmatism.
Indeed, the problem is not merely the correct analysis of the concrete situation and the changes we experience. The main objective is to transform the world. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) under the leadership of Lenin won victory not by only considering Marxism as a scientific ideology. Similarly, the Communist Party of China (CPC) under the leadership of Mao won victory not by only considering Marxism-Leninism as a scientific ideology. It was because they applied this scientific ideology to the particular objective conditions. Mere acceptance of the science of MLM or understanding it is not enough to solve the existing problems of today. If it were, our duty would be straightforward. In this sense, it is not enough to merely interiorize the MLM ideology. The opinion of our Congress is that it is necessary to use the MLM in the class struggle, in the People’s Wars in various countries or the action of the masses such as the “Arab Spring”, the “Gezi Park Rebellion” or the “Yellow Vests” and further to enrich our existing accumulated experiences and develop solutions to new problems.
Our 1st congress advocates that acting in all condition in compliance with the universal laws of the MLM, combining this science with the concrete revolutionary practices of our own country, and enriching and reproducing it, constitutes the basis of our general political line.
Our 1st Congress salutes the struggle of the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the world and reiterates our determination to continue the struggle in Turkey and Turkey-Kurdistan as our prudent contribution to this international struggle.
Glory to our 1st Congress!
Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
Long Live Proletarian Internationalism!
TKP-ML Central Committee Politburo
April 2019