Speech of the KI on the 35th Prague Theoretic-Political Conference in Prague of the KSCM
Dear Comrades,
I’ve been sent by the Communist initiative in Germany to report to you who we are, how the situation in our country is and how we, the Communists in Germany, can participate in our common struggle against imperialism and war.
The communist movement in Germany is deeply divided. Today, there are about 30 different organizations who call themselves communists. 1990, when the counter-revolution in the socialistGerman Democratic Republic had wiped out the first socialist state on German ground, many comrades of this part of Germany were taken to the new “reunified” Greater German Republic that we know until present. Complete with their own parties, structures and their own traditions following their experiences made in the socialist part of Germany. It’s save to say that this situation is very difficult and somehow confusing for outsiders who are not aware of the very mixed German history, to say the least. The Communist Initiative in Germany was founded in 2008. We unified hundreds of communists to start talks for a united communist party in Germany. Comrades in various organizations and parties like the KPD, DKP, SPD, Die Linke, small groups and comrades who are not yet or not anymore organized, agreed that a new communist party only deserves to exist on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. Immediately, we were exposed to many hostilities. The most damaging was done by the leadership of the DKP. This party is still considered to have the most members in Germany. They forced upon their members a so called “incompatibility decision”. That means whoever is openly involved with us, the Communist Initiative in Germany, will be purged out of the DKP. In practice this means it doesn’t matter if you insult anti-imperialist leaders or apply to petty-bourgeois theories. But if you strive to unite all communists on the basis of Marxism-Leninism you will be excluded. After several attempts to draw away our comrades, initiating inner conflicts and trying to slander us as the “splitters” of the communist movement, the Communist Initiative has won its place. Although our goal of unity of the communists did not work in the short term, but what we are certainly doing successfully is connecting communists or to be exactly, Marxist-Leninists, in many different organizations! So we have come here today to discuss the perspective of the struggle against imperialism. We have come to consult with you and other comrades in Europe and to exchange our ideas. We like to add our solidarity and congratulations to the Communist Union of Youth (KSM) that was banned for being loyal to Marxism.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough preparation time to complete our contribution to every topic in a satisfying, scientific manner. That is why we have shortened some of the topics and ask for your understanding!
Short description of the process of imperialism and the dangers posed to the working class:
At the supposed end of the confrontation between socialism and capitalism in the late 1980s, many believed the widespread Social Democratic lie that imperialism could be peaceful. This fatal miscalculation widely opened bourgeois forces the floodgates to socialist countries and nheavily prepared the counterrevolution. 1990 has shown how aggressive the German imperialism really is. It annexed the German Democratic Republic, destroyed all its values created in its 40 years of existence, ripped down many social achievements, maximized the exploitation of the working class, particularly the unemployed by the law which is called “Hartz IV”. They split up the Yugoslav nation into small pieces and reactivated the hatred among the peoples of Yugoslavia for their interests. They suppress and murder in Africa, Afghanistan and other nations on this planet. In December 2013 our government has given us a little taste of what it could be capable of in the future when the reign of the capitalists could be threatened for real. 50,000 inhabitants of Hamburg were placed under a “danger zone”. The last civil liberties and rights were abolished during this 2 weeks. Police units committed arbitrary house searches, protective custody, total supervision of everyone who entered the “danger zone” and the beating down of defenseless civilians.
But this, dear comrades, are no “missteps” or “errors”. It is the essence of imperialism, capitalism itself! Repression at home, aggression abroad! The rate of profit is so small as never before in the history of capitalism! The world again is almost completely divided among the imperialist powers! The working class in Germany is moaning under the pressure of being forced to achieve maximum profit. Capitalism is at the end! There are only a few options left for the capitalists. War is one of their solutions and they are currently preparing it with all their strength! At the present day there are five major imperialist powers and some other smaller, armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons to let the working class get slaughtered in a third great world war!
The character of the present epoch:
As Lenin wrote the five elemental points of imperialism are:
(1) the concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life;
(2) the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this “finance capital”, of a financial oligarchy;
(3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance
(4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves, and
(5) the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed. Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.
(Lenin: Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism)
These aspects are in no way obsolete, they are more relevant than ever before! So Germany is for example “export world champion” (or at least the second). Almost nobody exports as many goods to other countries as German imperialism does, thus destroying the national economies of other continents, particularly in Africa and South America! Germany sent Armed Forces “to secure” raw materials, markets and access roads their into following countries: Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Mali, Kongo.
Think about the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the G8, the World Bank or the European Union and so on. Those are only a few of the international monopolist capitalist associations which prove Lenin to be right.
There is a very famous quotation by the German chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany which she said on behalf of the German state: “We must win back the confidence of the financial markets.” It perfectly proves how powerful the financial oligarchy is and even how in state-monopoly capitalism it subordinates the bourgeois state to itself for its purposes.
This has come clear especially in the so called world wide financial crisis of 2008. The banks have been bailed out by the state at the cost of the working class. But we as Marxist-Leninists clearly turn against the phantasies of the petty-bourgeois or the opportunists, like the European Left in the European parliament. The crisis of 2008 and everything following to it until the present day like state bankruptcy or the famous “aid packages” (Rettungsschirme) has just been a traditional crisis of overproduction. Of course, this traditional crisis of overproduction has been controlled and directed by all the instruments that state-monopoly capitalism has to offer. Considering the already for quite some time executed merging of bank and industrial capital and their complete dependence on each other and thus as a logical step the emergence of a financial oligarchy, it is impossible to separate them in any way, shape or form. Like for example in productive or speculative investments. But still, the opportunists try to fool the working class into thinking that the crisis was triggered by the “greed of the managers”, that we must get back to a “regulated capitalism”.
As if this small minded garbage isn’t enough, they also try to convince the working class that the European Union, one of Lenin’s “international monopolist capitalist associations” could be a “progressive project”. The new social-chauvinists andKautskyites already call themselves “proud Europeans” or in the case of the Kautsky-centralists they at least do nothing to reveal the real class character of the European Union.
The characteristic of this time
A special feature of this period is the opportunism in the labor movement of Germany and other European movements, as much as never before! Bourgeois ideas about a reformable capitalism, a reformable EU, a socialism of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat – all these ideas are dominant in opportunist parties! Moralism replaced the class struggle. This is especially visible in Germany. Early 2013 and early 2014, we published a report on all the important left and communist parties in Germany. The result was not very nice. Revisionism dominated everywhere, although we left detailed questions beside. Detailed questions of strategy and tactics as well were completely ignored in the report. Our criterias were only the recognition of the exploitation of surplus value by the capitalists, the question of bourgeois state power and thus the revolution and the struggle against imperialism and the honoring of the German Democratic Republic as the greatest achievement of the German working class! Judging the 30 parties and organizations who call themselves communist in Germany by this, the communist movement is very weak! Following the lack of revolutionary theory there is also little revolutionary practice. In contrast, in other countries in which the scientific communism has been maintained, as in Greece, Portugal and also in some other European countries, there the workers’ movement is strong! Therefore, in our opinion, is the unique feature to combine at this time the struggle against imperialism with the struggle against opportunism again! Just as Lenin once said:
“The most dangerous of all in this respect are those who do not wish to understand that the fight against imperialism is a sham and humbug unless it is inseparably bound up with the fight against opportunism.”
(Lenin: Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism)
The German imperialism likes to present itself to foreign countries as a “neutral” judge who above everybody has to judge others. Economically the German imperialism uses the European Union to increase its market territories, to flood the other countries of the European Union with its products. The NATO serves the same purpose in a military way. It hasn’t been much different before 1989. So the ideology of the “Common European Home” by Mikhail Gorbachev, which got dominant in all European socialist states, also opened the door for the European Union which is dominated by the German imperialism! What can this house be in which the dictatorship of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie can live together? Such a thing cannot exist! There can be no overwhelming human interest, unless the proletariat gives up its own class interest! So it was not just an external aggression that destroyed the socialist countries, but also the ideological softening, the disarming of the working class in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1992 NATO was able to spread because the due to the counterrevolution newly emerged Russian imperialism was weakened. But now the Russian imperialism has once more a “strong man” at its leadership and pursues its own imperialist interests, for example in the Ukraine. But we must not forget that there is no dominance of one imperialist power over the others any more! A war between Russia and NATO is just as possible as a war between Germany and the USA! Alliances among imperialist powers never sustain forever. The rivalry among them – even when they pledge a “great friendship among their peoples” – never dies out. Those “holy alliances” only depend on their calculated victory over the spoils of war. This is the criterion for an alliance of imperialistic nations. This is why the NATO is also a very fragile alliance! At the present day the German dominated European Union and the US dominated NATO depend on each other, but this is certainly not for eternity. The role of NATO will therefore be aligned according to where the interests of German, UK, France and the USA imperialism temporarily meet! So the NATO seemed to be beneficial for the imperialists in the war against Syria. Thus it could be claimed that the Turkish-Syrian border is not secure and therefore various mercenaries were sent to this border. Thus, a role that NATO will continue to play some time.
Conclusion concerning struggle of ICWM against imperialist war policies.
The Communist initiative is not a member of the ICWM. We can therefore say little about it. But what we want to say are a few basic points that make this alliance, makes every communist alliance in our opinion stronger. The struggle of a communist alliance needs to use many ways. So one part is the struggle for the youth, interested parties and allied partners to show them the ideological power of Marxism-Leninism, to teach our communist science. This will make communism strong again! Only then the working class get to know of its historical task and let socialism win again! Another important aspect is not to forget the international character of our struggle. There are already dozens of anti-imperialist nations that fight in an ideologically and militarily way against imperialism. These nations and movements need our solidarity, our support! We must overcome the unacceptable petty-bourgeois, opportunist standpoint of equidistance that judge those anti-imperialist nations by bourgeois morality and abstract bourgeois rights. We must refocus on the self -determination of nations as a powerful bulwark against imperialism and powerful ally of world’s proletariat to weaken imperialism as the main antagonist of all proletarians! We must overcome the cowardice and hypocritical morality of those opportunists who judge those anti-imperialist nations in the same way the bourgeoisie does itself! These are the two main aspects that can lead us out of the current phase of defeat to the phase of the counter-attack!
Revisionism always breaks the back of a communist movement and therefore in our common struggle against imperialism and war, we must shout:
Clarity before unity!