More on the question of waging revolutionary war in the imperialist countries
“Policy is the starting-point of all the practical actions of a revolutionary party and manifests itself in the process and the end-result of that party’s actions. A revolutionary party is carrying out a policy whenever it takes any action. If it is not carrying out a correct policy, it is carrying out a wrong policy; if it is not carrying out a given policy consciously, it is doing so blindly. What we call experience is the process and the end-result of carrying out a policy. Only through the practice of the people, that is, through experience, can we verify whether a policy is correct or wrong and determine to what extent it is correct or wrong. But people’s practice, especially the practice of a revolutionary party and the revolutionary masses, cannot but be related to one policy or another. Therefore, before any action is taken, we must explain the policy, which we have formulated in the light of the given circumstances, to Party members and to the masses. Otherwise, Party members and the masses will depart from the guidance of our policy, act blindly and carry out a wrong policy.”
– Mao Zedong,
On the Policy Concerning Industry and Commerce, 1948
We are publishing these working notes that have been produced at the RCP(OC) Politburo’s request, in order to pursue the study of the protracted people’s war as a strategy for the imperialist countries. [1]
We live in a complex world. Everyday, millions of people are suffering from exploitation, oppression, poverty and hunger. Here in Canada, like in all other countries around the globe, the capitalists are collecting their share of victims. Modern imperialist countries, although they are safe havens for capitalism, are not escaping the dark side of the system.
Looking at the power of the capitalists who rule the world, the oppressed people seem to have little ways to express their justified anger, their revolt, their will for a true radical change. Still, all around the world, we see revolutionary struggles springing up again and again. They may take very different forms, but the fact is that billions of people are directly or indirectly involved in such struggles.
It is this strength that led Chairman Mao to state that “the East Wind is prevailing over the West Wind” meaning that the will for liberation and revolution prevails over exploitation and capitalism. What gives life to revolutionary struggle and the hope of a real change is precisely the concrete living conditions and the growing exploitation of the working class, as well as their growing opposition to exploitation and oppression.
Our starting point
We, at the RCP(OC), first believe that capitalism can’t be reformed, nor be placed to the service of the masses. Therefore, we must get rid of this system that causes exploitation, poverty and hunger for the vast majority of the people of the globe. Both revolution and revolutionary violence are needed if we want to radically transform Canadian society as well as the entire world.
In order to draft perspectives for the development of the revolutionary movement in our country, we must know what tactics and strategies to apply in order to face the new conditions that have appeared with the development of capitalism. In fact, since the October Revolution in Russia (1917), the revolutionary movements in the imperialist countries have not found a strong enough revolutionary political leadership, one right enough to break their chains, as the Communist Manifesto put it.
If we analyze most of these organizations’ programs as well as the work they have developed, it reveals that the main factor for the weakness of the revolutionary movement in the imperialist countries is one of a political line. We reiterate that communist revolution must be the most conscious revolution of all. For that to happen, we must know how to learn and put in practice the fruits of our learning.
Today, there is still confusion among many organizations about the path for revolution. This is why there is so little progress accomplished in the imperialist countries. Quite simply, we refuse to see that the reason for us to be so late in the revolutionary path is because of our failure to develop the right strategy to overthrow capitalism in such countries.
This fact must lead us to tightly analyze the objective and subjective conditions for revolution in the imperialist countries, in order to answer this complex question: “What strategy must we develop in a powerful imperialist country if we want to overthrow the capitalist bourgeoisie?”
With that in mind, talking about revolution and people’s war does not mean we must call right now all revolutionary forces in all countries to take arms and open fire on our enemy without preparation and without a clear understanding of the concrete conditions for it to happen.
Talking about revolution means that we must start right now to think about revolutionary war and all the questions it raises; this can be done if the making of it is on the agenda and if we prepare now its development for the future.
As the RCP(OC)’s Programme would say: “To prepare for revolution is not only a question that we must think about once in a while, between two strikes or election campaigns. Nor something that we should simply write about to finish off an article. It is not something we should start thinking about when the bourgeoisie will have clearly declared war upon us. To prepare for revolution is to make concrete preparations. It is to start to wage struggle politically and ideologically right now.“
