# UNITE AROUND MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM!
## OUR STANDPOINT CONCERNING THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST FORUM
### OPEN LETTER TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST MOVEMENT
###### Central Committee<br>Communist Party of Switzerland
###### *June 2026*
> […] it is necessary to create a united International Communist Forum [ICF] today capable of helping to lead the struggles of the proletariat in the capitalist and imperialist countries and in the countries oppressed by imperialism by mobilizing all anti-imperialist forces, the national liberation movements, and the advanced parts of the movements against war, fascism, reaction, repression, genocide, and territorial and environmental devastation. Today, it is necessary to pass through this stage of development, in order to advance towards the reconstruction of the international communist movement and a new Communist International.^[**Source:** *Against Imperialism, Imperialist War, Reaction, Fascism, and the Exploitation, Poverty, and Oppression of the Proletariat and the People! For People’s Democratic Revolutions and Proletarian-Socialist Revolutions in Every Country Throughout the World!* (1<sup>st</sup> of May, 2026)]
The Communist Party of Switzerland [PCS-KPS] extends its warmest communist greetings and most profound proletarian-internationalist solidarity to all of the genuine communist parties and organizations that make up the international communist movement today.
This month marks the 40<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the Day of Heroism — that is, the heroic uprising of the prisoners of war of the Communist Party of Peru [PCP] and the People's Guerrilla Army [EGP] led by it in the shining trenches of El Fronton, Lurigancho, and Callao on the 19<sup>th</sup> of June, 1986, during the people’s war in Peru. It was the blood, sweat, and tears of these and other comrades, combatants, and other children of the Peruvian people that crystallized into the recognition of Maoism as the new, third, and higher stage of the ideology of the international proletariat by the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement [RIM] in 1993, and we owe our very existence as an ideological current to these comrades.
Additionally, this year marks the 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the death of Comrade Mao Zedong, the restoration of bourgeois rule in the People's Republic of China [PRC], and the attempted Shanghai Uprising to restore proletarian rule in China, which resulted in several years of heroic anti-revisionist armed struggle and gave the impetus to the reunification of the Maoist communist parties and organizations in the RIM.
It has also been 60 years since the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which represented the largest mass mobilization in human history and the peak of the proletarian world revolution so far, during which Mao Zedong’s Thought developed further and reached the peak of Maoism — that is, the new, third, and higher stage of development of the ideology of the international revolutionary proletariat.
Furthermore, it has also been 70 years since the father of modern revisionism, N.S. Hrusev, denounced Comrade Stalin, restored bourgeois rule in the Union of Socialist Council Republics [USCR] — the world’s first socialist country founded by Comrade Lenin and defended by Comrade Stalin — unleashed a worldwide anti-communist witch hunt, and split the international communist movement for the first time in modern history, thus giving rise to the successive series of splits that have weakened the subjective forces of the proletarian world revolution to such a serious extent since then.
On this tremendous occasion, all communists the world over experience both great pride and profound sorrow. Today, there are no socialist countries anywhere in the world, the first great wave of the proletarian world revolution inaugurated by the Great November Socialist Revolution in Russia has come to an end, and the international communist movement has gone through yet another split since its dispersion that resulted from the collapse of the RIM over 15 years ago.
Under these circumstances, the international communist movement has been dealt yet another serious blow in India, where the people’s war is going through one of the most difficult moments in its entire history since the heroic Naxalbari Uprising of 1967. Moreover, with the relatively recent loss of Comrades Gonzalo and Jose Maria Sison, the international communist movement has been left without some of its veteran prominent leaders, who guided and advised it for decades since the loss of Comrade Mao Zedong 50 years ago. This is indeed an extremely grave situation, and the dispersed status of the communist parties and organizations around the world without an international centre or even a platform for discussion has only added to its gravity.
Nevertheless, at the same time, there are signs that the great ebb of the proletarian world revolution that has weakened us so much since the loss of the last remaining socialist countries in 1976-80 — including the general counter-revolutionary offensive launched by imperialism, reaction, and revisionism and opportunism the world over under the leadership of US imperialism aimed at sweeping away Marxism, the communist parties, socialism, and proletarian rule, as well as anything benefiting the proletariat in the ideological, economic, political, cultural, and military spheres — is beginning to recede.
US imperialism has suffered a tremendous defeat in its war of aggression against the Iranian nation.
Zionism has been humiliated at the hands of the heroic Palestinian, Lebanese, and Yemeni resistance movements.
Hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers lie dead in the quagmire of Ukraine.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] is breaking apart at the seems, with its Anglo-American and European component blocs increasingly going their own ways.
French imperialism has been kicked out of the majority of its former colonies in West Africa.
Japanese militarism is being hammered by the sustained protests of the peace-loving Japanese people.
Finally, the Western imperialist bloc is on the verge of a new cyclical crisis of capitalist overproduction under the conditions of globalized monopoly capitalism, with a rate of profit in free fall due to increasing automation and the gaping wound being covered with the thin bandage of financialization and the bubble economy. A crash like the one in 2008 or even worse — perhaps even the worst crisis in the history of the capitalist system — appears to be increasingly unavoidable.
In other words, the objective conditions for a new revolutionary upsurge throughout the world are maturing, especially in the Global South — where local and regional revolutionary upsurges have succeeded each other ever since the Arab Spring, from Nepal to Serbia, from the Philippines to Ecuador, from Ceylon to Kenya, and from Iran to Azania — but even in certain imperialist countries, where discontent and social decay are simmering just below the surface. A worldwide economic crisis and its mismanagement by the imperialists might be all that it takes for a revolutionary situation to reemerge in many countries of the Global North for the first time since 1968, the end of the Second World War, or even earlier.
There can be no doubt about it. The falling rate of profit, the capitalist destruction of the climate and the environment, and the increasing threat of an imperialist Third World War — among countless other factors — are pushing the world towards a new great wave of the proletarian world revolution, just as Comrade Gonzalo predicted in his speech in 1992. He said:
> **Finally, listen to this. We are witnessing Maoism marching relentlessly forward around the world in its task of leading the new great wave of the proletarian world revolution.** […] **What is happening in the world? What do we need? We need Maoism to be embodied, and this is happening. We need Maoism to create new communist parties to lead this next great wave of the proletarian world revolution that is on the horizon.**^[**Source:** Gonzalo: *The Strategic Turn Is Nothing But a Bend in the Road* (24<sup>th</sup> of September, 1992)]
We cannot predict when or where this new great wave will break out; we can only say that the tendency towards it is accelerating, and that it will eventually arrive. In the words of Comrade Mao Zedong:
> […] **Marxists are not fortune tellers. They should and indeed can only indicate the general direction of future developments and changes, and they should not and indeed cannot fix the day and hour in a mechanical way. However, when I say that there will soon be a revolutionary upsurge in China, I am emphatically not speaking of something that, in the words of some people, ‹is possibly coming› — that is, something illusory, unattainable, and devoid of significance for action. No, it is like a ship far out at sea, the masthead of which can already be seen from the shore; like the morning sun in the east, the shimmering rays of which are already visible from a high mountaintop; or like a child about to be born moving restlessly in the womb.**^[**Source:** Mao Zedong: *A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire* (5<sup>th</sup> of January, 1930)]
However, when this new great wave of the proletarian world revolution does arrive, in order for it to not be wasted, as so many local and regional revolutionary upswings have been wasted before, we need to fulfil the other part of Comrade Gonzalo’s prediction. Objective conditions for a revolution alone are not enough; objective conditions alone can at most produce political revolutions — today often known as colour revolutions, in which one faction of the ruling class replaces another — but never social revolutions. Social revolutions are the result of revolutionary objective conditions being correctly and appropriately handled by the subjective forces of the revolution — that is, the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist communist parties.
In order to meet this new great wave of the proletarian world revolution — in order to transform it from possibility into reality — we must constitute, reconstitute, and build up Marxist-Leninist-Maoist communist parties in all countries of the world. These parties must neither be open debate clubs nor secret societies — rather, they must be real and vigorous vanguard detachments of the international revolutionary proletariat in each country that are actually integrated with the masses of the working and oppressed people and actually know how to utilize all possible forms of revolutionary struggle, including armed struggle. The creation of such communist parties is the other aspect of Comrade Gonzalo’s prediction, and without the fulfilment of this task, the other part of his prediction will remain a dead letter.
Moreover, in order to push forward this process of constitution, reconstitution, and construction of genuine communist parties based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in all countries, the international communist movement must overcome its present state of dispersion, which resulted from the collapse of the RIM, reckon with the fact that the movement has once again been split by the dogmatic revisionists through the formation of the so-called ‹International Communist League› [ICL], and soberly, energetically, and patiently work for its reunification in preparation for the second great wave of the proletarian world revolution that is on the horizon.
To put forward the standpoint of our Party concerning this struggle for the reunification of the international communist movement is the purpose of the present document. We hope that all comrades throughout the world will seriously study and discuss it before issuing their replies in a timely manner.
## 1. MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM IS THE IDEOLOGY OF THE INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY PROLETARIAT
Our Party holds that the only, scientific, and all-encompassing ideology of the international revolutionary proletariat is scientific communism, which today has reached the level of development of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and the contributions to the inevitable fourth stage of development of this ideology by various prominent leaders of the international revolutionary proletariat, including Comrade Gonzalo.
However, we understand that the international communist movement goes through a process of uneven development in ideological, political, organizational, and other terms. For example, our Party is much less developed politically and organizationally than other communist parties and organizations around the world, and it would not be our place to tell them what to think, say, or do. While we are willing to fight for our views, and will certainly defend them against any and all attacks, we understand that the correctness or incorrectness of these views can only be determined by revolutionary practice, and that the recognition of these views by our comrades in other countries can only take place on that basis.
Hence, we hold that <u>the ideological basis of unity of the international communist movement today is purely and simply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism</u>, since that is the relative degree of unity that has been attained through the theoretical and practical work of the various communist parties and organizations belonging to our movement.
It is otherwise with the sectarians of the so-called ‹ICL›. They have attempted to impose their own specific conception of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism on the international communist movement, and in the course of this attempt, they have formed a separate organization that it is impossible for other communist parties and organizations to join, given the present difference in their basis of unity — not to mention the fact that the ‹ICL› is a revisionist organization. Hence, the formation of this organization actually split the international communist movement into two separate and mutually opposed camps.
While we maintain our own basis of unity as a communist party, we also see ourselves as a detachment of the international revolutionary proletariat and a component part of the international communist movement, the unity of which we hold extremely dear. Therefore, we want to contribute to the struggle for the reunification of this movement in a correct and appropriate way, and it would be deeply inappropriate to act as the dogmatic revisionists have done. Hence, our only possible starting point in waging this struggle must be the already existing relative basis of unity of our movement, which is simply and purely Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
## 2. THE ADOPTION OF MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM BY THE REVOLUTIONARY INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN 1993 MARKED THE FUNDAMENTAL COMPLETION OF THE CAMPAIGN FOR MAOISM LAUNCHED BY THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism was first taken up by the PCP led by Comrade Gonzalo in the early 1980s as a result of their experience during the initiation of the people’s war in that country. On the basis of this experience, and on the basis of earlier drafts dating back to 1981, Comrade Gonzalo wrote a text in 1988, entitled *On Marxism-Leninism-Maoism*, which was adopted as a part of the basis of unity of the PCP at its First National Congress in 1988-89. Our Party holds that this document contains the most correct definition of Maoism as the new, third, and higher stage of development of Marxism, and that it laid the foundation for the great work of synthesizing the content of Maoism out of the experience of the Chinese revolution and Mao Zedong’s Thought.
