Norway: Red Front – To the streets on the 1st of May!
Hereby we publish an unofficial translation of a statement on the occasion of the 1st of May that we have found here.
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
TO THE STREETS ON THE 1st OF MAY!
The international proletariat celebrate its day of struggle on 1 May, together with all oppressed peoples of the world. This year we celebrate this day in a time characterized by war and crisis. Imperialism is sinking deeper and deeper into decay, but everything reactionary is the same – if you don’t strike it, it won’t fall. The oppressed peoples of the world combat and resist every day, just as the heroic Palestinian people continue their justified struggle in the midst of genocide. In this way, they follow the logic of all the oppressed: to rise again and again to fight. But to be victorious, the proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the world must seize power through people’s war, under the leadership of their Party and guided by Maoism.
With this May Day statement, we address all communists and revolutionaries in this country with a strong call to break with all individualism, to break with the comfortable petty-bourgeois life in an imperialist country and to break with all revisionism and opportunism, to unite even more under Maoism and to contribute to the struggle to reconstitute the Communist Party of Norway as part of the international communist movement.
The situation today
The Palestinian armed national resistance movement launched a powerful counter-offensive against the Zionist State on 7th of October 2023. Israel was shaken to its foundations when Palestinian fighters and masses broke out of Gaza – a small area of land that the Zionists had turned into a concentration camp for 2 million Palestinians. The resistance movement, consisting of a number of different organizations, overran military bases and defeated soldiers and security forces. They attacked on the ground, from the air and from the sea. This counter-offensive was a great military and moral victory.
Since then, Israel has hammered away in brutal and barbaric fury against the Palestinian people for six months. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Enormous destruction and suffering is again inflicted on the Palestinian people. Israel is the lackey of Yankee imperialism – committing genocide under the wings of its supreme protector, and with the support of all Western imperialist powers, including Norway. On the other hand, the heroic resistance and opposition to the genocide has generated a worldwide popular protest movement, which continues to draw new participants. The people of the world have taken a stand in favor of Palestine, and this shows that in perspective, Israel is doomed to lose.
At the same time, the war rages on in Ukraine, where Russian imperialism occupies a fifth of the country, and the Ukrainian nation continues to resist. Both the war in Palestine and in Ukraine are expressions of the main contradiction in our imperialist world: the imperialists on one side against the oppressed nations on the other. The heroic struggle of resistance shows once again that the main current of the world proletarian revolution is the national and democratic movement in the oppressed nations – a current among the overwhelming majority of the world’s peoples.
At the transition to the 1980s, the Proletarian World Revolution, a process that began with the Paris Commune in 1871, went into its phase of strategic offensive. Within this phase, we are now entering a new period of revolutions. The counter-offensive against Israel is an expression of this development. Again we see that it is the masses themselves who turn the world on its head. It is the peoples’ masses that change the world when they rise to combat and resist. Marxism consists of thousands of truths, but they all boil down to one: “It is right to rebel!”
Sweep away all opportunism and revisionism!
With this statement, we will address not only to our comrades and friends, but to all individuals and groups of revolutionary mind, who have not yet united with the revolutionary movement. We also approach those who still work in opportunistic parties and organizations, even though they see themselves as communists and revolutionaries.
First, we emphasize that communists seek unity. We want to unite those who can be united, in the common struggle for the interests of the proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the world. We uphold the necessity of the Front. We therefore stretch out a hand to anyone who can and want to work with us. Secondly, this is not enough. If there is to be any revolution, the Maoist Communist Party is needed. The proletariat must be united under one ideology and under one leadership. There is no half-way solution that can realize socialism and communism. Furthermore, there is only one way to the liberation of the proletariat and the peoples of the World: revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. All other roads, all variants of opportunism, only lead to new temporary defeats and new betrayals. There is nothing to be gained in the parliamentary path, other than corrupting positions and privileges from the bourgeoisie.
In an imperialist country such as Norway, the petty bourgeoisie and worker aristocracy can live materially good lives, compared to the masses in the Third World. This is always a tempting alternative for many individuals who in words join the proletariat, but do not take the step fully in practice. Honest communists and revolutionaries must smash their bourgeois ego, smash individualism, and unite under Maoism in the revolutionary movement.
Opportunism and revisionism are closely linked to imperialism. Through their agents in the labor movement, the bourgeoisie corrupt leaders and activists. These are lulled into a false notion of legalism and reformism as a viable path. Through universities and media, the bourgeoisie sow division instead of unity, idealism instead of materialism, individualism instead of collectivism, reformism instead of revolution.
Communists and revolutionaries must be merciless in eradicating all bourgeois ideological influence within themselves. It can be comfortable to work to change the opportunistic parties from the inside, to continue the sectarian circles, or to sit at home and practice “internet activism”, but it does not serve the proletariat and the peoples of the world. If you really want to contribute to change the world, you have to break with these old habits and join the revolutionary movement.
Put internationalism in command!
Chairman Mao states that internationalism is the spirit of communism. The proletariat is an international class and the proletariat has no fatherland. These Marxist truths are basic principles that must guide the communists in one and all. On the basis of these principles, it is the duty of communists to combat all forms of nationalism. Revisionism and opportunism degenerate with necessity into social chauvinism: “socialism” in words, chauvinism in action. Therefore, the party Red puts “Norway first” to “defend Norwegian interests”. This is alien from Marxism.
Lenin states that “Marxists resolutely oppose nationalism in all its forms” and that the successful fight against exploitation “requires that the proletariat be free of nationalism, and be absolutely neutral, so to speak, in the fight for supremacy that is going on among the bourgeoisie of the various nations”. Communists and revolutionaries in Norway therefore do not take a position in the struggles between Norwegian imperialism and foreign imperialists. This is in contrast to the opportunists who supports their “own” bourgeoisie, and thus end up as supporters of Norwegian imperialism.
Under the slogan “Unite under Maoism!” the International Communist League (ICL) was founded in 2022. This was a great political, organizational and moral victory for our class and for all communists and revolutionaries. Over the course of barely a year the ICL has established itself as a strong driving for the continuing unification of the communists of the world under Maoism. To unite under the banner of the ICL is to put internationalism in command and take up the fight against imperialism, reaction and revisionism on a world level.
Chairman Mao 130 years – long live Maoism!
On December 26th 2023, it was 130 years since the birth of Chairman Mao. Through his leadership of the Chinese Revolution, the great proletarian cultural revolution and the worldwide struggle against modern revisionism, Chairman Mao became the renowned great leader of the international proletariat and the International Communist Movement. Chairman Mao raised, through his theoretical and practical work in the midst of these enormous struggles, the ideology of the proletariat to a new stage: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Chairman Mao further developed the ideology within his three constituent parts: philosophy, political economy and scientific socialism. With Chairman Mao we are gifted great contributions to our theory. In perspective, the cultural revolution is his main contribution, because this is the solution to the question of how to develop society from socialism to communism, but here and now, the most important contribution of Chairman Mao is the military theory of the proletariat: People’s War.
Chairman Mao shows that power can only be conquered through revolutionary war, and that the proletariat and the oppressed nations cannot wage war in the same way as the bourgeoisie. The People’s War is the war of the masses, under the leadership of the Maoism and the Communist Party, which is conducted by step by step establishing the new power of the proletariat. New power must be established by destroying the enemy’s forces in a particular area, creating a power vacuum and mobilizing the masses.
To wage People’s War, Chairman Mao states, the proletariat need their three revolutionary instruments: the Party, the People’s Army and the United Front. The People’s War is the only way to liberate all the exploited and oppressed of the world. Accepting this has a number of consequences for how the communists must work and organize themselves; it leads to the necessary demarcation against all forms of legalism and reformism, and the boycott of the bourgeois elections.
Chairman Gonzalo says: “Maoism is the elevation of Marxism-Leninism to a new, third, and superior stage”. Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is an all-round doctrine, it is the sole ideology of the proletariat. Without the guidance of Maoism, it is impossible to conquer, defend and develop the power of the proletariat. Without Maoism, it is impossible for the proletariat to lead democratic revolutions, socialist revolutions and cultural revolutions, to end exploitation and oppression throughout the world, and lead humanity to communism. Therefore, the Communists must make Maoism their command and guidance. We must unite under Maoism.
Reconstitute the Communist Party of Norway! Join the Red Front!
Lenin writes: “Give us an organisation of revolutionaries, and we will overturn Russia!”, Lenin gives the proletariat the theory of a party of a new type: the Communist Party, a party completely different from all other parties. Chairman Mao says: “If there is to be revolution, there must be a revolutionary party. Without a revolutionary party, without a party built on the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory and in the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary style, it is impossible to lead the working class and the broad masses of the people in defeating imperialism and its running dogs.” And further: “With the birth of revolutionary parties of this type, the face of the world revolution has changed.” The international proletariat constituted its party of a new type in Norway on the 4th of November 1923: the Communist Party of Norway, Norwegian section of the Communist International. This was a great milestone in the struggle of our class in Norway.
The Communist Party of Norway (NKP) has a heroic history, especially during World War II. After this war, the party leadership was taken over by modern revisionism, which liquidated the party at the beginning of the 1970s. Revolutionaries and communists continued their work in the so-called «ML movement», but did not raise the necessary task: to reconstitute the Communist Party of Norway. Only under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism, with the contributions of universal validity from Chairman Gonzalo, the Communists have defined this task correctly. Our party has already been constituted, therefore the task is not to found «a communist party», but to reconstitute the NKP as a Maoist party. The sole task of the Communists is to lead the proletariat and the broad masses of the people to victory, to communism, which is only possible if the masses are mobilized, politicized, organized and armed under one single leadership: the Communist Party.
The victory of the proletariat is a historical necessity. Capitalism will be replaced by socialism, and humanity will march forward towards its common bright future: communism. But it does not happen by itself, it requires decisive action, organization and leadership. Under our red banner with the golden hammer and sickle, we promise to do everything we can to make this happen as quickly as possible. The hell that imperialism and Zionism are creating in Gaza calls us to redouble our efforts! We know that imperialism will continue to create hell for the oppressed peoples of the world – not only in Palestine but also in Ukraine, Sudan, Ethiopia and so on – until it is swept away forever by the Proletarian World Revolution, and until the proletariat has swept away all remnants of bourgeois rule in every nook and cranny of the earth, through cultural revolutions all the way to communism.
As long as there are classes, there will be exploitation and oppression, poverty and war. Only the classless society of communism gives an end to these monstrosities. Communism is a historical necessity, but imperialism must be swept away – it will not fall by itself, no matter how rotten it becomes. Imperialism must be swept away by the proletariat and the masses, and it must be swept away in every country. Every contribution, every progress in every country, flows together with the contributions made by millions of people around the world in a mighty and unstoppable flood.
The Red Front is a part of the revolutionary movement in Norway. We wholeheartedly support the work to reconstitute the Communist Party of Norway and the struggle for socialist revolution in this country, as part of and in the service of the Proletarian World Revolution. Get in touch with us, join us, and be certain that any contribution, big or small, is needed and appreciated. Join the Red Front!
Long live Maoism!
Long live the International Communist League!
Reconstitute the Communist Party of Norway!
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
Red Front
April 2024
