The People’s Wars are the Axis of the World Revolution

By a commentator for Tjen Folket Media.

Originally published July 27, 2020.

 This is an debate article. Analysis and viewpoints belongs to the author.

We live in the epoch of the proletarian world revolution. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels demonstrated in The Communist Manifesto and in their entire life’s work that capitalism is a historical period with a beginning and an end, and that it is the proletariat’s historical task to abolish it through its class struggle and its revolution. In our time, the people’s wars, the masses’ wars under the leadership of the Communist Parties, are the axis in the world revolution.

Through the Paris Commune of 1871, the proletariat concretely showed for the first time what the new state would look like. Through the Russian Revolution, with its highlight in 1917, the proletariat’s state power was for the first time legitimized for a prolonged period of time in an entire country. In China, in 1949, the proletariat established a new democratic people’s republic through people’s war, and in this way showed the particular way in which the proletarian world revolution will come to expression in the third world, where the revolution’s primary task is to smash feudalism and imperialism that continues to dominate those countries.

The new democratic revolution in China thereafter went directly over to socialist revolution. In 1966, it went over to cultural revolution, and in this way showed the way forward to communism.

The International Communist Movement has shown that in the proletarian world revolution, there are two currents: the socialist and the democratic. The democratic revolution is on the agenda today in the third world, but it is a part of the proletarian world revolution.

World revolution does not happen at the same time in every country. It develops itself unevenly and within the frameworks of each individual country. The revolutions in Russia and China were particular expressions of the same revolution. World revolution is a revolution of revolutions. It develops itself unevenly, in particular countries, and with its own characteristics specific to each revolution, but all the same as one and the same global process.

The Communist Party of Peru writes:

“The victory of the October Revolution in 1917 marked an extraordinary milestone in world history, the end of the bourgeois revolution and the beginning of the world proletarian revolution.”

Furthermore, the movement has shown that the axis of the world revolution is the people’s wars. Today, there are four ongoing proclaimed people’s wars under the leadership of communist parties and under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

In Peru, the people’s war continues under the leadership of the Communist Party of Peru. This was initiated on May 17 in 1980 under the great leadership of Chairman Gonzalo, and continues today, despite the bends in the road and the problems it has faced. In recent years, there has also been actions carried out in the capital of Lima. The party fights for its general reorganization and has made a great leap in development in this task as of 2019, which was officially announced in conjunction with the 30^th anniversary of the conclusion of the party’s first congress in 1989.

In the Philippines, the people’s war is being waged under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which leads the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front. This people’s war was initiated in 1969, and has also faced many bends and twists, but an armed struggle across almost the entirety of the Philippines is ongoing, and on almost all of the largest and medium-sized islands in the country.

In Turkey, the people’s war that was initiated by the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist under the leadership of Ibrrahim Kaypakkaya when the party was established in 1972, continues today. The people’s war is primarily waged by the guerrilla army TIKKO (Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey). Despite splits, sabotage, and persecution, the people’s war continues to develop itself, and it has recently carried out armed actions in the capital of Istanbul and in the last few years, the party has had many new martyrs.

In India, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) leads the people’s war, which is in particular being waged in the so-called “red corridor” that comprises an enormous area with millions of people. Maoists are defined as the greatest internal threat to the state’s security, even though India is a prison of nations and there are countless armed groups and liberation movements, for instance in Kashmir, and among the Tamils in the country. The party is the result of a Unity Congress held in 2004, where two Marxist-Leninist parties united. They had their roots in CPI(M-L), which was established in 1969, was directly inspired by the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and Chairman Mao’s struggle against modern revisionism, and in the midst of the Naxalbari rebellion, where millions of Indian peasants rose up in armed struggle.

The four people’s wars have been declared “defeated” by various reactionaries many times. Some right opportunists, as well as earnestly confused comrades, spread the same portrayal. They claim that the Communist Party of Peru has been dissolved, they claim that the people’s war in the Philippines will end with peace talks, and they ignore the people’s war in Turkey and exaggerate the temporary setbacks suffered in one country or another. The fact is that none of the people’s wars have stopped for even a second. The fact is that the parties that lead the people’s wars have never laid down their arms or lowered the banner. The fact is that they are actually existing revolutions under communist leadership that are being developed to this day.

Nor are the revolutions being developed as marginal phenomena either, but among millions of masses. Armed actions are being ceaselessly carried out in these four countries. New power is being built in the form of People’s Committees and on the basis of mass organizations under the direct leadership of the Communist Parties. They are all openly and officially being guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Where can one find other revolutions? What other than these revolutions can be the axis that the world revolution develops around?

Moreover, nothing can split the proletariat’s parties and organizations, divide the International Communist Movement, or weaken the deep class solidarity that each and every revolutionary feels with each and every one of the people’s wars, with the masses that fight and the martyrs that have given their blood, and who give their lives each and every day in these four people’s wars. The two-line struggle in the International Communist Movement can never harm this solidarity—on the contrary, it will strengthen unity and the permanent and unbreakable support for the people’s wars.

We see that the center of the world revolution is the third world, but we also see that it is being developed all over the world, in four different countries in different regions of the world. And we see that they inspire parties and organizations on all continents and in all parts of the world. The proletarian world revolution is under development, and the people’s wars show the way for all of the world’s countries without exception. The people’s war is the proletariat’s military theory and we learn this by applying and understanding Maoism as a third and higher stage of the proletariat’s ideology, the way we have learned from Chairman Gonzalo and the Communist Party of Peru.

Read More:

Banned or Suppressed Publications & Ideas in India (Banned Thought)

New Epoch Media (International revolutionary platform)

Bandera Roja (Documents and statements from Peru)

Philippine Revolution Web Central (News from the revolution in the Philippines)

Worker Peasant Liberation (News from the revolution in Turkey)