Communist Party of India (Maoist) - Hold High the Bright Red Banner of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!

Hold high the bright red banner of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!

FOREWORD

The present draft document has been finalized by Joint CC of the erstwhile CPI (ML)[PW] and the MCCI in September 2004 after extensive discussions. Five draft documents were prepared after intense discussions in a series of bilateral meetings held between the high-level delegations of the two erstwhile parties between February 2003 and September 2004. The Joint CC meeting deeply studied these five draft documents, freely exchanged the rich experiences acquired through the revolutionary practice during the past three decades and more, and arrived at a common understanding on several vexed questions confronting the Indian revolution in the backdrop of the international developments.

The present document Hold High the Brigtht Red Banner of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is the synthesis of all the positive points in the documents of the two erstwhile parties, as well as their experiences in the course of waging the peoples war, fighting against revisionism, and right and left opportunist trends in the Indian and international communist movement, and building a stable and consistent revolutionary movement in various parts of our country. We are placing the present document before the entire rank and file of our new Unified Party for immediate guidance and implementation.

At the same time, it should be borne in mind that this is a draft for the forthcoming Congress of the Unified Party. Hence, it has to be enriched further by the participation of all the Party members and suggesting amendments where necessary. Thus it should become an effective weapon in the hands of the Party for solving the fundamental problems of the Indian revolution and to advance it towards victory.

Central Committee (P) 21-9-2004 Communist Party of India (Maoist)

INTRODUCTION

During the uproarious decade of 60s that shook the entire world, the genuine communist revolutionaries in India too began their struggle against the entrenched revisionists inspired by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought. The Great Debate, initiated and carried out by the then CPC led by Mao Tse-tung against modern revisionism in the International Communist Movement, clearly marked this new beginning in the Communist Movement in India.

It is in this context that many genuine and staunch communist revolutionary forces along with many outstanding and front-ranking leaders like comrades CM and KC started emerging on the scene in the fight against revisionism. This fight was reflected in the 7th Congress of the CPM held in 1964 in the form of two diametrically opposite roads-the road of parliamentarism and the road of protracted peoples war. Thereafter, the earth-shaking events of the GPCR further surcharged the political atmosphere in India.

The clarion call of the great Naxalbari movement led by Com. CM proved to be a Spring Thunder over India as graphically described by CPC. It greatly unmasked the ugly face of the revisionist leadership of the CPI, CPI (M) brand. The powerful slogans like Chinas Path is Our Path and Mao Tsetung Thought is Our Thought spread to the four corners of India and even other parts of the Sub-Continent. Naxalbari thus marked a qualitative rupture with age-old revisionism in the Indian communist movement and firmly established the universal truth of MLM Thought in India.

From then on, MLM-Thought had become a demarcating line between revisionists and genuine revolutionaries in India. Thus Naxalbari path, the only path became an ever-resounding slogan. This movement further inspired and attracted a completely new generation of revolutionary communist forces from among the masses of workers, peasants, students, youth, women and intellectuals towards the ideology of MLM Thought.

The tumultuous events of the 60s starting with the Great Debate and culminating in the GPCR brought forth a new polarisation among the ML forces all over the globe. New Marxist-Leninist parties began to emerge by taking MLM Thought as their guiding ideology. Although later the revolutionary movement suffered a setback for the time being, the bright red banner of MLM Thought and the flames of Naxalbari continue to shine in various parts of the country. In fact the seeds of MLM Thought were sown very deep in the Indian landscape. The history of the emergence and development of our two Parties is inseparably linked with this stormy period. During the last 30 years and more of history we not only continue to uphold the shining red banner of MLM Thought, but also continue to apply it in our revolutionary practice in the concrete conditions of India. During this practice we have forged and developed a revolutionary line by analyzing and synthesizing the positive and negative experiences of our movements no doubt on the basis of MLM Thought.

In this light we have achieved many remarkable successes in continuing and developing the protracted peoples war through developing agrarian revolutionary guerilla struggle in the countryside by mobilizing and relying on the peasant masses, especially the poor and landless peasants. We continued this struggle by resisting the continuous severe repression and many suppression campaigns unleashed by the reactionary ruling classes. We have succeeded in developing several guerilla zones and guerrilla army-the PLGA-directed towards establishing full-fledged PLA and Base Areas in the vast countryside of Andhra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Dandakaranya and the adjoining parts of these states.

This protracted peoples war led by our two Parties is directed towards completing the New Democratic Revolution through the strategy of encircling the cities from the countryside. The content of this revolution is agrarian revolution. During the course of this protracted peoples war and fighting against various Left and Right Opportunist tendencies that emerged from within or outside apart from the revisionism of CPI and CPI (M), we have learnt that any attempt to belittle the importance of MLM Thought and its concrete application to the concrete conditions will prove to be very disastrous.

All these tendencies undermined the Maoist conception that in all the backward countries dominated by imperialism and feudalism the objective condition for initiating and developing protracted peoples war from the very beginning are already mature. In the very light of our bitter experience of the last 30 years achieved at the cost of heavy bloodshed along with the experiences of the International Communist Movement, our understanding regarding our ideology has deepened further.

It is in this overall context, when the modern revisionists and those claiming to be followers of Mao Thought have been undermining the universal significance and application of Maos contributions and thereby refusing to accept it as a higher stage of Marxism-Leninism that our unified Party is bringing out this document. As the focus of this document is on Maoism, the basic tenets of Marxism and Leninism are dealt here briefly as introduction to show the Marxist-Leninist foundations. Comrade Mao Tse-tung not only firmly based on this foundation but also inherited, defended and developed

it to a new, third and qualitatively higher stage. Hence MLM is the continuity of thought of our great Marxist teachers, and is also an integrated whole. Though in our understanding there is no distinction between MLM Thought and MLM and no Chinese Wall can separate the two, we have adopted Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as a new, third and qualitatively higher stage because it is more scientific and appropriate.

It should be borne in mind that the present document is an outline of the guiding principles of MLM. Taking this into consideration, we have to refer to the classical writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Tse-tung and creatively apply them to the concrete practice of the Indian revolution to solve the multifarious problems of our revolution. As Com. Lenin said, The role of vanguard fighter can be fulfilled only by a party that is guided by the most advanced theory. And this most advanced theory is the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.