"We should get our comrades to understand that the twofold basic task of the leading bodies of the Communist Party is to know conditions and to master policy; the former means knowing the world and the latter changing the world." -Mao Zedong, 1941, Reform our Study
by Comrade Amil K. – February 2013 Introduction Despite the unprecedented mobilization of Indigenous peoples against the Canadian state under … Continue reading After #IdleNoMore: How Can We Unite the Struggle for Communism with the Indigenous National Liberation Struggles?
by Comrade Amil – 19 January 2013
In the interest of advancing a discussion on some of these questions (not an exhaustive list) in our circles, amongst those seriously engaged with Idle No More, and amongst the aware but unengaged masses of non-Indigenous exploited and oppressed people in this country, please repost to your Facebook pages, or comment directly on this page….
In a recent piece I wrote, called “Mass Work and Proletarian Revolutionaries”– where I was trying to open a discussion on where to find the “advanced masses” in Canada based on the contradictions in Canadian society – there were some points raised on the question of Indigenous anti-colonial struggles that I think we should revisit. That whole excerpt is reproduced at the end of this article.
In the context of the rising Idle No More mass movement – an unprecedented convergence and upsurge of Indigenous struggles in “Canadian” history – I would like to review some of the main points I made in that passage to open up a discussion amongst our forces and amongst revolutionaries in general that is urgently in need of elaboration. The points I bring out here reflect some of the discussions and thinking circulating within our organization on the question of the struggle of Indigenous Nations for self-determination and decolonization – thinking which has to rapidly catch up with the emergence of the Idle No More movement, and the grassroots militancy that has been released under its banner. An earlier compilation of previous passages and excerpts of ours on Indigenous liberation can be found here.
In the context of Idle No More, there are three points in the excerpt below that I’d like to highlight and build upon for the important questions that they provoke at the current conjuncture:
Revolutionary Initiative sends warm internationalist greetings to the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist on the occasion of your 7th Congress.
The CPN-M Party has been a source of great inspiration to us revolutionary communists in Canada and throughout the entire International Communist Movememnt since the launch of the People’s War in Nepal. Your bold and great example in carving out a new power for the people in Nepal stimulated the new vitality of the International Communist Movement throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, when oppressed and exploited peoples of the world were being told that communism was a failure and that capitalist was the “end of history”.
The CPN-M’s’ creative approach to Maoism, your firm basis amongst the masses, your reliance on concrete study of concrete conditions, and the very open manner in which your Party has conducted its two-line struggle has provided an invaluable examples of how revolutionaries around the world can work to break with both dogmatism and revisionism in their many forms and carry the revolution forward. We also recognize the great sacrifices that your Party has had to make and we pay homage to the great comrades and fighters that were martyred or injured during the People’s War.
We have watched for years with profound sorrow and concern as some of your former comrade leaders of the United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist capitulated to imperialism and Indian expansionism; but we were are greatly inspired by your Party’s ability to reconstitute itself on a revolutionary basis. It is our great hope that your Party will be able to emerge from the current crossroads and lead the transformation of Nepalese society and by doing so greatly advance the cause of revolution in South Asia and around the world.
by Comrade Stella B.
“We can learn what we did not know. We are not only good at destroying the old world, we are also good at building the new.” – Mao Zedong, “Report to the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China”, 1949.
In ‘Breaking the Illusion of Liberal Democracy and Building ‘Dual Power’ in the Urban Setting’ Comrade Victor Hampton raises several critical questions facing Communists today. In order to engage and expand upon the central question of dual power this article will focus on the following three questions:
It is these three critical questions I hope to address in my response to Hampton’s timely article.
If we’re to avoid getting mired in ceaseless defensive struggles and to start building a working class movement dedicated to seizing state power, transforming the relations of production, and building a people’s democratic power – what is to be done? What steps can we take now as Communists in our movement-building and mass organizing to start to raise the question of how the state could be transformed under socialism? The answers to these pivotal questions must flow from our sharpest analysis of the capitalist superstructure, as only through a critical dissection of the superstructure and the state can our strategies push us forward. Continue reading “The Institutions and Elements of Working Class Power”
Revolutionary Initiative has published the second issue of it’s previously-nameless theoretical journal, now called “Uprising. It collects articles written by … Continue reading Hey, Look: RI Published the 2nd Issue of it’s Theoretical Journal
by Joseph Mackenzie, Revolutionary Initiative
Perhaps it is true that history moves in spirals, because it seems our present looks down on the era preceding the Paris Commune. The great revolutionary arch of the late 19th and 20th centuries has ended in objective and subjective conditions somewhat similar to its beginning. Nowhere does a revolutionary Communist movement hold state power. We have no International. The working classes and oppressed around the world are restive, but the number of genuine revolutionary Parties is dwarfed by the number of opportunists. The bourgeoisie are firmly entrenched in state power, yet nervous, haunted by specters, and adopting new forms of repression. On the other hand, we are at a higher level. We have the benefit of the experience of revolutionary movements that smashed bourgeois and semi-colonial semi-feudal state powers, built socialism, and fought the restoration of capitalism and the profound revolutionary theories that emerged from those experiences. The absolute and relative size of the proletariat is much larger and their consciousness higher: almost nowhere is open colonialism or dictatorships (even so-called nationalist ones) acceptable to the people. It is a time of rebellions and Peoples’ Wars. Both nightmares and optimism are justified.
Let’s state it plainly: if we are going to make a revolution in Canada then we need a qualitative leap in our revolutionary theory and practice. We need to build a conscious revolutionary vanguard capable of functioning as the militant representative of all oppressed peoples, establish a project of universal liberation that sinks deep roots into our society, and develop the strategy and tactics necessary to shatter the existing social order.
For that it happen, we need the insights found in Maoism. It’s not that Mao was a prophet or an individual of such super human intellect that he created a perfect theory for all places and all times that we just need to take up and apply to our local conditions. It would make our jobs much easier if that were the case (“here’s the Red Book, memorize it!”) but that would be a departure from the reality of history and materialist dialectics. Rather, it’s that Maoism represents a radical development of Marxism, a vital contribution to a living science of revolution, that we need to engage with if we are to understand where we are in relation to our monumental tasks and how to move forward.
This article will not be a general overview of the historical development of Marxism or introduction to Maoism, as there is already the overall useful (if rather linear and non-contradictory) introductions from India: “Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Basic Course” and “Marxism – Leninism – Maoism Study Notes” or some of the material in RI’s How To Study, How To Think study guide. Rather, this article will focus on the certain aspects Maoism that are distinct (but not separate) from Marxism-Leninism and that are particularly important to grasp at the current stage of the Canadian revolution. Continue reading “A Single Spark Can Light a Candle: Maoism in Canada Today”
by Comrade Victor Hampton, Revolutionary Initiative
Revolutionary Initiative, as a revolutionary communist pre-Party organization has a responsibility to employ revolutionary methods in building the mass movement and the people’s resistance to capitalism and imperialism. The party also has the responsibility to contribute to the ideological and strategic debates among the mass movements as well as among the advanced elements on the Left.
Below is a brief reflection on the organizing in metropolitan, urban centres and the struggles manifesting in these spaces as the crisis in capitalism intensifies. Moreover, the struggle of people in their neighbourhoods against the policies of local governments and its agents raises the question of building ‘dual power’ structures as strategy for shattering the pretenses of bourgeois democracy and creating a further fracture between the people and the bourgeois state. Continue reading “Breaking the Illusion of Liberal Democracy and Building ‘Dual Power’ in the Urban Setting”
by Comrade Victor Hampton, Revolutionary Initiative General reflections on emerging movements Since the financial collapse of 2008, monopoly finance capital … Continue reading Spontaneity, Movementism and Leadership Methods
by Comrade Amil K. Introduction The question of what are the tasks of proletarian revolutionaries amongst the masses remains a … Continue reading Mass Work and Proletarian Revolutionaries
Want to help promote RI? Got a laser printer? Get some blank label stickers and print some off! All images … Continue reading RI Agit-Prop Stickers!
