The electoral farce of 23rd July in the context of the international and national class struggle: Elections, No! Boycott, Yes! People’s War is the only path!
Photo of the protests of 15M. Protesters surrounding the Catalan Parliament. Source: El País
We are happy to share this text that we have received from comrades in Spain
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
The electoral farce of 23rd July in the context of the international and national class struggle: Elections, No! Boycott, Yes! People’s War is the only path!
The Maoist Communist Party (PCm), addresses the proletariat, the masses and the whole people, to the oppressed nations and peoples inside the Spanish State to release their political statement about the General Elections the next 23 of July, where a new Parliament will be elected – Senate and House of Representatives – after the dissolution of the last one. Elections inside a bourgeois State, the bourgeois democracy, does not have any other objective than to legitimate the government on call.
Karl Marx stated: “The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them!”.
Engels continued pointing out the difference between the State and the government that manage it: “The executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie (…) the State is nothing but an instrument of oppression of one class by another – no less so in a democratic republic than in a monarchy”.
The experience of the International Communist Movement was summarize by the Communist Party of China in 1971: “Violent revolution is the universal principle of proletarian revolution (…) Historical experience shows that the seizure of political power by the proletariat and the oppressed people of a country and the seizure of victory in their revolution are accomplished invariably by the power of the gun; they are accomplished under the leadership of a proletarian party, by acting in accordance with that country’s specific conditions, by gradually building up the people’s armed forces and fighting a people’s war on the basis of arousing the broad masses to action, and by waging repeated struggles against the imperialists and reactionaries. This is true of the Russian revolution, the Chinese revolution, and the revolutions of Albania, Vietnam, Korea and other countries, and there is no exception (…) In the past decades, many Communist Parties have participated in elections and parliaments, but none has set up a dictatorship of the proletariat by such means. Even if a Communist Party should win a majority in parliament or participate in the government, this would not mean any change in the character of bourgeois political power, still less the smashing of the old state machine. The reactionary ruling classes can proclaim the election null and void, dissolve the parliament or directly use violence to kick out the Communist Party. If a proletarian party does no mass work, rejects armed struggle and makes a fetish of parliamentary elections, it will only lull the masses and corrupt itself. The proletariat must use the gun to seize political power and must use the gun to defend it.” (Long live the victory of the dictatorship of the proletariat!, number 12 of Peking Review).
So, it is clear that 1) we call it electoral farce because nothing is chosen, the bourgeois State, the dominance of the capitalist, is not questioned; 2) to participate in the electoral farce, direct or indirectly, is to legitimize the bourgeois State; 3) to participate in the electoral farce, direct or indirectly, has never triumphed for communist in any country all over the history, and every revolution has been done using the revolutionary war.
As every electoral farce, this happens in a concrete context of the class struggle. Every national class struggle is always enclosed and developed inside the context of the international class struggle. We must keep this in mind when dealing with the issue of the electoral farce of 23rd July.
About the INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT, the elections on 23rd July are carried out in the context of strategic offensive of the process of the world proletarian revolution, where imperialism is in crisis and its decomposition advances in leaps and bounds, confirming that the revolution has become the historically and politically principal tendency in the current world.
Imperialism, mainly Yankee imperialism (as the sole hegemonic superpower that it is) in constant collusion and struggles with other imperialist powers, they increase their military budgets, they spread militarism, they continue their wars of plunder and imperialist aggression, etc. But as Chairman Mao said, imperialism is a paper tiger with feet of clay (strong tactically but weak strategically) that cannot face the fury, the rebellion and the explosiveness of the masses. Moreover, bureaucratic capitalism is in a severe crisis, specially in Latin America, where multiple coup d’état are taking place every few years (the Peruvian case is an example) and the armed struggle blossoms from north to south, highlighting Brazil, where peasant’s struggles are having an extraordinary development.
All of this, in addition to the luminous people’s wars in Peru, India, Turkey and the Philippines, wars of national resistance in the nations oppressed by imperialism, and the foundation of the International Communist League (ICL) after the celebration of the Unified Maoist International Conference (UMIC) with the aim “to impose Maoism as the sole command and guide of the World Proletariat Revolution, serving the constitution or reconstitution of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist communist parties (the delayed strategic task) and serving to start, develop and coordinate People’s Wars in the world towards the reconstitution of the Communist International” (Political declaration and the principles of the International Communist League)
This facts mark that, therefore, we are immersed in the New Great Wave of the World Proletarian Revolution, marked inside the period of “50 to 100 years” pointed out by Chairman Mao and highlighted by Chairman Gonzalo. Maoism proceeds to command the New Great Wave of World Proletarian Revolution. This is how Chairman Gonzalo clarified it in his historical speech on 24th September 1992:
“Finally now, listen to this. As we see in the world, maoism is marching unstoppably to lead the new wave of proletarian world revolution. Listen well and understand! Those who have ears, use them. Those who have understanding — and we all have it — use it! Enough of this nonsense. Enough of these obscurities! Let us understand that! What is unfolding in the world? What do we need? We need maoism to be embodied, and it is being embodied, and by generating Communist Parties to drive and direct this new great wave of the proletarian world revolution that is coming”
About the NATIONAL CONTEXT, the elections on 23rd July are taking place in the context of the development of Spanish imperialism (extraordinary profits of the monopolies, increase of the military budget, advances in the plans of militarization of the State) and the deepening of the crisis of social democracy.
Spanish imperialism, as with the financial capital exportation as with the sending of military in “humanitarian missions” of the UN or the EU, plunders and exploit the oppressed nations of Latin America and Africa. Spanish imperialism is in constant collusion and content with its imperialist rivals to improve its position, even though it cannot compete against Yankee imperialism, that is the sole hegemonic superpower, it has taken advantage that Yankee imperialism is now concentrated on the war of aggression of Russian imperialism in Ukraine and taking advantage of their puppet government, to close some agreements as well as improve its position.
We can see how the BBVA has improved its position in Mexico thanks to investing important amounts with the complacency of Yankee capital. We can also see how Yankee imperialism has recognized that in fact it will not interfere politically – at least, for now – in what happens in Morocco, and that while this does not disturb the inversions, it will let Spanish imperialism maneuver. The Spanish State has sold the Saharawi people to the Alawite reactionary monarchy. It uses it as a bargaining chip of Spanish imperialism to its loyal dog, Mohamed VI, so he accepts every Spanish migratory policy at the borders of Ceuta, Melilla and the Strait of Gibraltar. Other imperialist projects, as the “Meca’s train”, have also the complacency of Yankee imperialism. On the other side, Spain has agreed on every decision of Yankee imperialism in NATO, what concerns about the war of aggression of Russian imperialism in Ukraine, and about transforming the Canary Island to a military base of the NATO and to have the possibility of having more bases in the Spanish territory.
All this development of Spanish imperialism could be possible thanks to the plunder and oppression of the masses of the oppressed nations as well as the proletariat that reside in the Spanish State itself. The government falsely named the “progressive coalition” of the PSOE and Unidas Podemos has been the perfect agent of the financial oligarchy.
Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) and Yolanda Díaz (Unidas Podemos), and also the opportunists Enrique Santiago and Alberto Garzon (from the false PCE snatched by revisionism), has protected the monopolies and sealed their profits (specially those of banking and construction monopoly, the energy-electrical and the food one); they have increase the military budget and agreed about every NATO plan; they have sealed the Gag Law, they have continued the policy of revenge against political prisoners and have given immunity to anti-occupation companies and other pseudo-paramilitary fascists at the service of the financial capital; they have not changed the Immigration Law and they continue applying the prison policy of concentration camps in CIE (Centros de Internamiento de Extranjeros – Detention Centers for Foreigners); they have betrayed the Saharawui people selling them to Alawite monarchy and they have applied policies of genocide against African masses, capturing it visually – but not unique – in the Melilla’s massacre; they have done a labor reform fortifying the last one from the PP and hiding the unemployment data so the numbers pretend an improvement that is rarely false; they have broken up the union movement buying the labor aristocracy and the leaders of the main unions, and so on.
They have been forced to practice a policy of charity to reproduce the labor force of millions in front of the massive increasing of poverty because of the maintenance of high rates of unemployment and because the the increase of the living cost, mainly because of food prices. Minimum Living Income (Ingreso Mínimo Vital – IMV), mortgage rescue, social bonus for electricity or for rent, and, in general, every policy that is part of the so-called “universal income” are expressions of this charity policy. We repeat: those are not victories of the working class, as the social democracy spreads inside the union movement, those are forced leftovers from financial oligarchy to prevent that their own labor force dies of hunger.
The management of the imperialist State has lead into an obvious wear of social democracy,, which has been plummeting since 2021 and has sunk its reputation in front of the masses.You cannot be that hypocritical.
The municipalities electoral results of the 28th May show that the majority of the deepest and broadest masses of our country do not trust neither social democracy, nor bourgeois democracy. More than 12 and a half millions of people (36% of electors) rejected going to vote on the 28th of May, believing that putting a vote in a ballot box will solve absolutely none of their problems. Therefore, if we analyze the 5 biggest metropolitan areas (Madrid, Barcelona, València, Sevilla, Málaga) we can see how the 36% percentage grows until the 40-45% in the majority of the proletarian neighborhoods.
Approaching the deepest and broadest masses is fundamental in the process of reconstitution of the Communist Party of Spain. Let’s remember its importance:
“Developing the world proletarian revolution requires more People’s Wars. It is necessary to constitute or reconstitute communist parties – according to each case – in each country,
by applying the teachings of Lenin “go further into the deepest masses” , “educate them in the practice of revolutionary violence”, and “sweep away the colossal heap of garbage relentlessly fighting opportunism and revisionism.” (Political declaration and the principles of the International Communist League)
Therefore, keeping in mind the international and national context, we consider THREE ISSUES:
1) The Spanish State is an imperialist State, a dictatorship of the financial oligarchy against the proletariat. In front of that, it corresponds to reconstitute the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) to dispose a tool to lead the seizure of the political power by the proletariat, build a proletarian State, a proletarian dictatorship against the bourgeois.
2) The Spanish Sate, as every State, is held, defended and developed using violence against the people, and also advances in its plan of militarization. In front of that, it corresponds to educate the masses in the legitimate and justified practice of revolutionary violence against the bourgeois State (in contrast of the violence against people) against the bourgeois State, against bourgeois democracy and its institutions; it corresponds to discredit the bourgeois State and all its institutions.
3) The Spanish State, as every State, can use the electoral farce to legitimate itself. A high electoral rate is synonymous of a “strong State”; a bourgeois leader legitimated is synonymous of a leader with lots of votes. Voting only serves to legitimate the next bourgeois leader; history and practice proves that. Elections can be used as propaganda, but precisely in the form of boycott, to discredit them.
According to Lenin, active boycott is “As we have already said, “an active boycott” means agitation, recruiting, organising revolutionary forces on a larger scale, with redoubled energy, and bringing redoubled pressure to bear. Such work, however, is unthinkable without a clear, precise, and immediate slogan. Only an armed uprising can be that slogan.” (The Boycott of the Bulygin Duma and Insurrection).
Revisionists protect themselves in the distortion of “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder to participate in the electoral farce. We talk about PCTE, PCPE, PCE (m-l), and the false PCE of Enrique Santiago, all of them defend that we have to run in the elections because the contrary is left-wing, as supposedly Lenin said. They forget that Lenin, in this same work, also says: “ Tactics must be based on a sober and strictly objective appraisal (…) as well as of the experience of revolutionary movements (…) It is entirely a matter of knowing how to apply these tactics in order to raise—not lower—the general level of proletarian class-consciousness, revolutionary spirit, and ability to fight and win.”
So, which is the sober and strictly objective appraisal? That the deepest and broadest masses rejects the electoral participation. Which is the experience of the revolutionary movements? That nothing, absolutely nothing, has triumphed by parliamentary and pacifistic methods, and that the participation of Bolsheviks in elections was something new and never done before by them. And that, in addition, they have always seen it as something tactical.
Does this contribute to raising or lowering revolutionary and struggle consciousness and spirit? Not putting faith in boycott in front of a mass of 12 and a half millions of people that do not vote because of mistrusting the bourgeois democracy is lowering the level and the struggle consciousness!
The position of the PCm is the active boycott. To educate the masses unifying them under the slogan Elections, no! Boycott, yes! People’s War is the only path! Obviously, the path will be long and difficult, as difficult as the task of reconstituting the Party, but if we mistrust the masses and do not combat revisionism, we would have done nothing.
In SYNTHESIS, we find ourselves in an international situation of strategic offensive of the world revolution where imperialism is in severe decomposition; Spanish imperialism wins positions thanks to the exploitation of the proletariat and the oppressed nations; social democracy deepens its crisis because of the wear of having managed the imperialist State and lying shamelessly to the masses; 36% of masses that could vote on 28th May did not do it, a percentage even bigger in the proletarian neighborhoods, showing that the deepest and broadest masses do not have any hope in the improvement of their lives under the bourgeois democracy. In this situation, our position is active boycott because it is what corresponds according to the current historical moment. The class demands leadership!
Elections, no! Boycott, yes!
People’s War is the only path!
Long live the International Communist League (ICL)!
Unite under Maoism!
Maoist Communist Party (PCm)
Spanish State
July 2023
