The Struggle against Modern Revisionism and Liquidationism in Theory and Practice Is Part of Proletarian Class Struggle

In 1910 Lenin wrote in "The State of Affairs in the Party":

"It is no mere chance that the masses, whom the revolution drew into the sharp struggle over questions of tactics, have subsequently, in the period characterised by the absence of open struggle, shown a desire for general theoretical knowledge; that was inevitable. We must again explain the fundamentals of Marxism to these masses; the defence of Marxist theory is again on the order of the day."(133)

Today in our daily work, especially in preparing and leading struggles of the working class, we must at the same time defend Marxist-Leninist theory, including Mao Tsetung Thought, against the petty-bourgeois liquidationists with their damaging views, their slander and distortions. In this way we realize the concrete unity of theory and practice.

Modern revisionism, as it was proclaimed by Khrushchev at the 20th Congress of the CPSU (together with the slanderous secret address condemning Stalin), was accepted by most of the Communist Parties in the world and adapted to the specific national features of their respective countries. The working masses were offered a colourful spectrum of different forms of revisionism and reformism: from the West German CP (DKP) as the helping hand of the East German Party (SED) with Soviet revisionism leading both of them by the nose, to Italian revisionism, standing in the service of their own bourgeoisie led by the 'Christian Democrats', or, for instance, the revisionist Communist Party of France, which explicitly deleted the "dictatorship of the proletariat" from its program; or the Spanish revisionists who officially dropped not only Stalin, but also Lenin.

The CP of China under Mao Tsetung's leadership had resolutely taken up the struggle against modern revisionism as represented by Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Suslov, etc., and had initiated 'The Polemic on the General Line of the International Communist Movement'. On the occasion of Khrushchev's 75th birthday, the Frankfurter Rundschau (a bourgeois-liberal daily newspaper in West Germany) wrote on April 16, 1969:

"Anticipating the future, Khrushchev had realized the necessity of modernizing both Communism and its methods of rule. In an opportunist way he chose the path of least resistance by criticizing Stalin and thought this to be the best way of strengthening his position of power."

That's how a bourgeois paper describes this low-down revisionist whose secret address was distributed by the American Secret Service; he was regarded by many with contempt. In contrast, 'The Polemic on the General line', initiated by the CP of China, met with positive response all over the world. In many countries this was the impulse for founding Marxist-Leninist groups and parties, thus taking up the ideological struggle against modern revisionism. However, the majority of the members of these Marxist-Leninist movements, especially in the countries under state-monopoly capitalism, had their roots in the disintegrated student movement and were of petty-bourgeois origin. They were ideologically and politically weak and had no experience with the working class movement. Because of their petty-bourgeois impatience, lack of clarity and instability they could neither cope with the difficulties of building a party, nor with the ideological and political conflict with modern revisionism. The ideological-political debate and the administrative methods of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China often were not understood and in some cases even caused confusion and discouragement.

Only fragments of Mao Tsetung Thought were known at that time, as late as 1968 the first two volumes of Mao Tsetung's selected works were published in German. Mao Tsetung's China became the core of the ideological-political struggle against modern revisionism. The Declaration of Principles (Grundsatzerklärung) of KABD, adopted at its 1st National Congress in August 1972, expresses our stand as follows:

"Full of admiration, all true communists look up to the historical deed of the CP of China, holding up the banner of Marxism-Leninism against all assaults of revisionists. The CP of China has encouraged all Marxist-Leninist forces in the world to take up the struggle against revisionist predominance and to unfold a new revolutionary movement. The Communist Workers' League of Germany recognizes Mao Tsetung's China as the revolutionary centre of the Communist world movement."(134)

The death of the great Marxist-Leninist Mao Tsetung in 1976 opened the path for the victory of modern revisionism in China, led by the degenerate bureaucratic leadership under Hua Kuo-feng, and for the rehabilitation of Teng Hsiao-ping, the Chinese Khrushchev. A debate for or against the political line of the Chinese leadership took place all over the world, resulting in the split of many parties and groups. World-wide liquidationists of all kinds have undermined the Communist and labour movement.

All Marxist-Leninists looked up to the PLA because it had been the first to openly challenge the modern revisionists – which resulted in China's breaking off bilateral relations and stopping its aid to Albania. This conflict was brought to its climax by the repudiation and condemnation of the 'Three Worlds Theory' set up by the Chinese leadership.

In China aktuell, No. 2 (The Theory of Three Worlds as a Strategic Conception Smacks of Right-Wing Opportunism, English edition, March 1980) our organization has laid down its basic critical position on this revisionist theory as a strategic conception. This 'Three Worlds Theory' gives fresh impetus to world-wide liquidationism. We criticized that the Party of Labour of Albania waged the ideological struggle against the 'Three Worlds Theory' as anonymous criticism.

"It was the Albanian Party of Labour which first criticized the strategic conception of the 'Theory of Three Worlds', although they neglected to name the culprits. The article in the party paper Zeri i Popullit of July 7, 1977, entitled 'The Theory and Practice of Revolution', mentions neither the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party nor even China itself. In our opinion criticism and self-criticism is the criteria of the further development of a revolutionary workers' party, and must be candid, sincere and objective."(135)

A year later, Hoxha surprisingly launched his open assault without any scruples, this time not so much aimed at the Chinese leadership, but against Mao Tsetung and Mao Tsetung Thought – in complete contradiction to all previous speeches and official declarations of the PLA. This was a slap in the face of all Marxist-Leninists. Hoxha is no longer trustworthy. He slanders Mao Tsetung and condemns him, as Khrushchev slandered and condemned Stalin at the 20th Congress of the CPSU. Comparing once again Hoxha's statements, we come to the following conclusions:

Either Hoxha's speeches and the official declarations of the PLA in the past concerning Mao Tsetung and the Communist Party of China were honest, frank and correct according to Marxism-Leninism – no one in the international communist and labour movement doubted the sincerity of these words – then the statements Hoxha is making today on the Communist Party of China under the leadership of Mao Tsetung and especially against Mao Tsetung Thought and Mao Tsetung personally are vile slander, lies, distortion and unfounded claims and are a challenge to the international working class movement,
or the position Hoxha takes today against Mao Tsetung Thought and the Communist Party of China with their allegedly anti-Marxist and revisionist platform is his true opinion and was – according to the two volumes of his "diary" – the theory of Hoxha and the PLA during Mao Tsetung's lifetime. Then Hoxha's earlier speeches and the declarations of the PLA on the Communist Party of China and Mao Tsetung are nothing but a fraud, hypocrisy and slimy submissiveness, unworthy of a communist.

Whichever way it is: Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour of Albania have passed judgment on themselves! The leadership of the PLA can expect neither credibility nor recognition as Marxist-Leninists. Therefore we appeal to all Marxist-Leninists:

Raise the banner of Marxism-Leninism and defend Mao Tsetung and Mao Tsetung Thought!