1- The global economic crisis has hit hard on the lives of the workers and peasants around the world. Poor people are loosing their homes, meager productive resources, their subsistence livelihood and are being deprived of their right to life. Many migrant workers are losing their jobs and are returning to their home countries which have further threatened the survival of their families. On the other hand, global wealth has been accumulated by a handful multi-national corporations (MNCs) creating gaps of astronomical proportions between the have’s and have-not’s. This has created an extra-ordinary revolutionary situation at a global scale, as was predicted by Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto in 1848.
2- As Marx had predicted, global capitalism (ie imperialism) is going to destroy the productive forces and will impose new wars on the proletariat in the near future in order to overcome the current crisis. But, at this critical moment, the would-be ‘vanguards’ of the proletariat are, divided between the throat-cut rival camps (Maoists Vs Trotskyists) giving free hand to imperialism to further exploit the workers and peasants and to destroy the productive forces created by them.
3- When Comrade Lenin had arrived to Russia from exile in February 1917, he found that the comrades in the Bolshevik Party were confused what to do next. Similarly, the current global crisis has taken both Maoists and Trotskyists by ‘surprise’ as they have become onlookers rather than being proactive to capture the essence of the revolutionary situation for decisive action.
4- The greatest contradiction in Marxist theory is that, from one hand, it is a concentrated expression of all the human knowledge accumulated over centuries; on the other hand, this theory has to be internalized, practiced and mastered by a class that is most backward in terms of awareness, organisation and intellectual capacity. This contradiction led to the formation of rival camps in the international working class movement: a) the Stalinist camp that later became Maoist; and b) the Trotskyist camp.
5- The Maoist Camp advocates the possibility of ‘revolution in a single country’ and adopted a strategy of long-term ‘peoples war’. The Trotskyist camp rejected the possibility of ‘socialism in a single country’ and advocated for October Revolution type peoples insurrection supported by international solidarity of working class.
6- As the productive forces have out-grown the limits set by the capitalist relations of production, decisive confrontation between labour and capital is inevitable. Therefore, there is a historical need for both Maoists and Trotskyists, to sort out their past differences and agree on a common platform to give a death-blow to imperialism during the period of its acute crisis.
7- Both the Trotskyists and Maoists seem to agree on the basic principles of revolutionary Marxism, the only difference is in the field of strategy to achieve the goals. Maoists believe that revolution is possible in a single country, and for this, they believe that the strategy of ‘protracted peoples war’. Trotskyists, on the other hand believe that, under imperialism, where the law of value operates at a global scale, revolution is not possible in a single country and the proletariat must be organized for popular insurrection supported by an international movement/network of workers’ parties. Though, both of these strategies contain some rational grains, but these strategies, implemented in isolation, were not effective to achieve the envisioned goals. This has led to a need for revision of the strategies of both the ‘rival’ camps and develop a new strategy for proletarian revolution for the 21st century.
8- In order to unite the revolutionary workers and peasants globally in their fight against imperialism, Maoists and Trotskyists need to urgently sit together and workout a common strategy and platform for action. Imperialism has developed a thousand strategies to maintain its global exploitative structures and to destroy the struggle of the working class. In this context, the working class also needs to confront imperialism by developing a combination of new, multi-dimensional strategies: popular insurrection, people’s war, formation of the 5th International, using the global media, peace talks and diplomatic maneuvers, boycotting the goods of MNCs, capturing the factories and agricultural products of MNCs, and so on as demanded by the specific context.
9- As the workers and peasants in the south are in a backward situation and don’t have access to education and information, one important strategy could be exchange of revolutionary volunteers to provide conceptual and practical support and exchange information and learning.
10- As Maoists and Trotskyists are fighting imperialism in isolation, imperialism has been successful to defeat both the camps one by one (take example of the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Columbia, Turkey and so on). If both of these revolutionary camps get united, imperialism could be defeated within a decade.
11- As the objective situation for the overthrow of imperialist exploitation has long been matured, the Maoists and Trotskyists need to understand that their major hurdle is internal: division between the revolutionary forces. When the revolutionary forces reorganize themselves and clarify their strategy, the proletariat will be capable to capture power at a global scale. United, Maoists and Trotskyists have a world to win. If Maoists and Trotskyists remain divided and allow imperialism to escape ‘un-hurt’ from the current global crisis, it will be a historical crime towards the cause of the proletariat. Global proletariat wants to understand two things from the Maoists and Trotskyists:
a) why imperialists of all nations and cultures can work together to exploit labour (for example, G-8, G-20, NATO, ASEAN, SAARC, NAFTA, SAFTA, WTO, etc) and;
b) why the vanguard of the proletariat cannot do the same to overthrow imperialism with an united front?
12- Taking advantage of the backwardness of Russia, Comrade Lenin’s prolonged illness and the policy differences within the Bolshevik Party (Kamenev – Zinoviev – Bukharin Vs. Leon Trotsky) during the early 1920s, Stalin’s criminal gang captured power in Russia and eliminated not only the best leaders and activists of international working class, but also destroyed the very revolutionary heart of Marxism and Leninism. Global capitalism greatly benefited from Koba’s fratricidal and criminal practices (purges) that contributed to the demoralization of working class around the world. Time has come for both Maoists and Trotskyists to sort out the policy issues of the past and build a truly Global Revolutionary (5th) International by unifying RIM, IMT and the 4th International.
Workers of all nations unite!
Long Live Marxism, Leninism and Permanent Revolution!
Develop a global strategy to fight imperialism!
Down with petty-bourgeois charlatanism and burocratic nomenklatura in working class movement!
Down with the policies of class-cooperation!
