From the Uprising in the Banlieues to the Proletarian Revolution - Part 3

From the Uprising in the Banlieues to the Proletarian Revolution  

Presentation by PCm Italy at the International Meeting held in Paris, April 2006 - Part 3

 

The Communists do not turn the riots in the banlieues into a myth, but they have clear that wherever proletarian youth, the proletariat lives and works there are today the conditions for the rebellion and to transform it proletarian revolution through a protracted revolutionary war.

For those who want to make revolution in the imperialist countries, for the Communists who should be the vanguard, the revolt is rich of lessons and they should start from this.

Mao said: "Being attacked by the enemy is a good thing not a bad thing. We should support whatever the enemy fights and fight whatever the enemy supports". So, it was a fundamental dividing line to be on the side of the revolt . The way in which the State and the system has fought it was more than enough to choose a side. But to choose a side was a necessary but not sufficient condition.

Mao said: "Whoever is on the side of the revolutionary people not only with words but also with actions is a true revolutionary." Not everything in the revolt of the proletarian youth should be considered right and correct, not all the actions that realized in the clashes were the ones needed, but this has been taken as a pretext, not only by bourgeois and reformist, but also by groups of opportunists and false revolutionaries, to distance themselves from the revolt. Mao said: "The defects of the people should be criticized, but in doing so you have to be on the side of the people and our criticism must start from the burning desire to protect and educate."

Opportunists and false revolutionaries do not understand that through the experience the masses learn and are able to overcome mistakes and shortcomings and of their previous initiatives. But this can be done with the war, not instead of war. Mao said: "The revolutionary war is an antidote that not only eliminates the enemy's poison but also frees us from all impurity."

What the revolt has revived in the heart of the imperialist countries is precisely the need and relevance of revolutionary violence, the need and relevance of the revolutionary war.

As Mao said: "The revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another."

Who has distanced itself from the revolt, through a thousand distinctions, opposes this truth that is proven and its real movement.

The revolutionary war of the proletariat arises from the basic consideration, and the revolt made it very clear, that, as Mao said: "Their persecution against the revolutionary people can not but force to extend and intensify the revolutions."

The rebel youth have boldly brought on the field the Maoist slogans "it is right to rebel" and "Under no circumstance we must let the terrible look of reactionaries frighten us" . Nor the end of the revolt may be cause for pessimism. As Mao said: "All points of view that overestimate the strength of the enemy and underestimate the strength of the people are wrong."

So, the revolt of the proletarian youth leaves better conditions for the construction of the party for the revolution. Indeed, the question of the party is key ring that our meeting points out saying "From the revolt in the banlieues to the proletarian revolution."

Mao said: "If you want to make revolution there must be a revolutionary party".

The revolt gives us the task,  again as Mao said, to "give to this movement (revolutionary socialist) an active, enthusiastic and systematic guide."

The choice of building the party in function of the revolutionary war defines the task, but also the form of the party needed today in France and in the imperialist countries. The choice of being part of the uprising, of being linked to the proletarian youth who revolts, is based on the full understanding that "the revolutionary war is the war of the masses, it can be waged only by mobilizing the masses and relying on them," and that "a leadership team truly united and linked with the masses can only be formed gradually in the process of mass struggle and not separated from it."

The Communists and the revolutionary forces in France, facing the uprising, proved to be manifestly inadequate. Even those who supported and endorsed it, acted as those who Mao described: "those who in a revolutionary period can only follow old habits. They are absolutely unable to see this enthusiasm (of the masses). They  are blind, everything is black in front of them. Sometimes they confound the right with the wrong, the black with the white. Did not we see enough people of this kind? ... As soon as something new appears they disapprove and rush to oppose it. Later they have to admit their defeat and do a small self-criticism. But later, when a new thing appears, retrace the entire process. This is their typical behavior toward anything new. Such people are always passive and never advance in the critical moment. They always need a violent thrust before moving one step."

The revolt of the proletarian youth calls the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Communists to a new beginning, applying the Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the concrete reality, integrating with the proletarian masses, launching of the Revolutionary War. Mao teaches us: "Our main method is to learn how to make war making the war", "a revolutionary war is an enterprise of masses. Often it is not first to learn and then act, but, on the contrary, first act and then learn, because to act is to learn " " We must ban in our ranks every weak and sterile ideology."

The construction of the party and the transformation of the revolt in revolution requires the integration and a spirit of hard struggle in the ranks of the proletarian youth. We should help to correctly analyze the revolt, starting from the correct analysis of the nature of the enemy. Mao said: "Imperialism and all reactionaries have a dual nature, at the same time are real tigers and paper tigers. The real tigers devour men, devour them by the millions, tens of millions, but finally they turned into paper tigers. If we assess them in the essence with a forward-looking and strategic point of view, we must see them for what they are: paper tigers. On this is based our strategic thinking. On the other hand they are also living tigers, iron tigers, real tigers which can devour men. On this is based our tactical thinking ". " We should despise our enemies from the strategic point of view, but from the tactical point of view we have to consider them seriously. "

The assessment of the proletarian revolt should tie dialectically two elements stressed by Mao: "To fight, to fail, to fight again, to fail again, to fight again ... up to victory.

This is the logic of the people ... this is a Marxist law "," every just revolutionary war has an enormous strenght, it can transform many things or pave the way for their transformation. "

We need to be do together with the proletarian youth an assessment of revolt that takes into account this teaching of Mao: "in the ranks of the revolution it is necessary to make a clear distinction between right and wrong, between successes and shortcomings and also determine which of the two is in first place, which in the second. In examining the problems we must never forget to draw these two lines of demarcation, between revolution and counterrevolution, between successes and shortcomings. To do this work well well we need study and careful analysis. "

We are convinced that in France and the imperialist countries for us communists it is time, as Mao said to "face the world and defy the storm, the great world and the violent storm of mass struggle".

End of part 3 of 3