We have preliminarily formed some basic judgements after a long period of discussion. Of course, there are still many major questions to be further discussed and resolved. This article summarizes and organizes the basic judgements that have been formed and the questions that need to be further discussed as follows for reference of comrades in discussions.
Basic judgements:
One. Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is the science that guides the proletarian revolution and aims at the realization of communism throughout the world. MLM is a unified and coherent whole, and the theoretical achievement of practical experience of International Communist Movement for more than 100 years. Marxism, Leninism and Maoism are the three milestones in the scientific development of proletarian revolution, they constitute a unified scientific system, and have universal guiding significance for the proletarian revolutionary movement around the world. We must oppose any theory that attempts to split MLM resolutely. We must fight resolutely against erroneous trends among the “Pan-Leftist” such as “exalting Maoism over Marxism”, “exalting Marxism over Maoism”, and “creating one’s own theoretical system”.
Two. The basic contents of MLM: materialist dialectics, materialist conception of history (the core of it is the point of view of classes and class struggle), theories of surplus value, the theory of dictatorship of the proletariat, the theory of imperialism[1], the theory of the New Democratic Revolution; the theory of People’s War; and the theory on Continuing the Revolution under the Proletarian Dictatorship.
Three. The nature of Chinese society is second-rate imperialism (monopoly capital has been dominant. It’s weaker than the old imperialist countries in terms of power, and has a certain dependence on the USA, Europe and Japan. However, at the same time, it’s also oppressing and plundering the Third World[2], competing with the imperialist powers for international market and spheres of influence, and is in a relationship of competition and collusion with other imperialism while the aspect of competition is growing day by day). Therefore, the main social contradiction is class contradiction but not national contradiction, and the nature of the revolution which we are facing is the proletarian socialist revolution. We must resolutely criticize the bourgeois nationalism and the erroneous trends of embracement of nationalism among the “Pan-Leftist”, and uphold the class stand and the class point of view.
Four. The great significance of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the great achievement of the proletarian revolutionaries led by Chairman Mao and represented by Com. Zhang Chunqiao and Com. Jiang Qing must be fully endorsed. The future socialist revolution and construction must be based on the practice of the cultural revolution and continue to advance along the road opened up by it. We oppose any utopian dream of the “perfect new social solutions” behind closed doors that are deviated from the experience of the Cultural Revolution.
Five. Socialism constitutes the transition stage from capitalism to communism. Socialist society covers a fairly long historical stage. In this stage, classes, class contradictions and class struggle consistently continue, the struggle between the socialist road and the capitalist road consistently continues, the danger of capitalist restoration consistently remains and the threat of subversion and aggression by imperialism consistently remains. The socialist system (from the economic base to the superstructure) must still retain capitalist remnants for a long period of time, and this must lead to the emergence of the new bourgeoisie and the emergence of political forces which want to restore capitalism. The core of them is the bourgeoisie within the party (including the bureaucrat clique[3] and the capitalist roader clique). Therefore, only by continuing the revolution, by conducting the class struggle against the new bourgeoisie and by conducting the bottom-up revolutionary mass struggle under the leadership of the correct line of the proletarian revolutionary party can the proletariat gradually eliminate the remnants of capitalism and eventually complete transition to communism.
Questions to be discussed:
One. The characteristics of present-day worldwide capitalist system and the situation and strategy of the world revolution
Two. The division of various classes in contemporary capitalist society (particularly in the second-rate imperialist country), the characteristics of each class, and the position of each class in the revolution
Three. Stands and strategies in future political upheavals
Four. Stands and strategies on national questions (including Taiwan)
Five. Stands and strategies on various progressive movements (women’s rights, environmental protection, etc.)
Six. Long-term strategies of the revolution
Seven. The questions of construction and combating and preventing revisionism in revolutionary movements
Eight. The summary of the experience and lessons of proletarian dictatorship in the past, and the basic conception of proletarian dictatorship, socialist system and continuing revolution in the future
However, these theoretical discussions will not be useful if they are not tested by revolutionary practice. As the great leader Chairman Mao taught us: “If you want knowledge, you must take part in the practice of changing reality. If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. If you want to know the structure and properties of the atom, you must make physical and chemical experiments to change the state of the atom. If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.”
Notes:
[1]In Chinese, “the theory of imperialism” is usually used to refer to the book titled “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism”, which is written by Lenin.
[2]We think that the “Three Worlds” is a strategy in Chairman Mao’s diplomatic policies and is the development of the “Intermediate Zone”. It was vulgarized by Hua Guofeng later, and it has seldom been used since the revisionist Deng clique. We only support the “Three Worlds” strategy in the Mao era, and will continue to use relevant expressions.
[3]Trotskyists often use so-called “bureaucratic clique” (bureaucratic is an adjective), it’s an expression which above classes. To show the distinction, we use “bureaucrat clique”, the same usage can be found in Ka Joma‘s Selected Readings (p.342): https://foreignlanguages.press/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/B07-Selected-Readings-of-Jose-Maria-Sison-4th-Printing.pdf , “the big comprador-landlord-bureaucrat clique”.