Marxism-Leninism Mao Zedong Thought
has been the ideological banner of the ALO ever since its formation in
1973. The ALO understands Marxism-Leninism Mao Zedong Thought to be the
ideology of the working class against all deviationist, eclectic and anticommunist
ideological and political currents. Despite the extreme persecution and
hardships imposed by world imperialism and regional reaction on the revolutionary
movement in Afghanistan and despite the fatal blows the movement has suffered
with the martyrdom of its leaders and the decimation of large numbers of
its cadres and members both during and after the War of Resistance, the
ALO has staunchly and consistently defended its ideological banner and
has striven to adapt the principles of its ideology to the specific characteristics
and circumstances of our revolution. We have not flinched from any trial
or tribulation and steadfastly intend to pursue our course to the ultimate
victory of our toiling masses.
With the collapse of the defunct Soviet
Union and its community of satellite states, the capitalist world and its
vassal countries broke into wild jubilation in celebration of the hammering-in
of the "last nail in the coffin of communism". In chorus with
US and European imperialists, Islamic fundamentalists and reactionaries
in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and in other Islamic countries ecstatically
shouted themselves hoarse with their mediaeval anticommunist taunts and
propaganda, thus baring the fundamental truth that imperialism and Islamic
fundamentalist reaction are shameless bedfellows.
But it did not take long for the hypocritical
slogans of peace, democracy, human rights, etc., brought forward by the
imperialists to deceive the exploited peoples of the world to once again
expose themselves as the scandalous farce they are. Not only oppression
and exploitation have not disappeared from the post-Soviet countries of
the former Soviet Union and its satellites but these countries and their
peoples have themselves come under the yoke of imperialism, with only the
oppression and exploitation they were labouring under taking on a new form
and sheen.
The inhumane and aggressionist policies
of the imperialists keep the flames of regional, nationalistic and religious
conflicts ablaze in all corners of the world. Asia, Africa and Latin America
are nodal points in the inter-imperialist conflict of economic interests,
in which each imperialist power strives to maintain and expand its zone
of political and economic influence and outfox its other imperialist rivals.
Afghanistan is one of the countries
where the deadly rivalry between imperialist powers and their regional
lapdogs is most apparent. The imperialists’ indigenous bloodhounds are
consequently grouped in antagonistic packs according to their parochial
interests and the criminal interests of the foreign networks to whom they
are chained. After the ignominious retreat of Russian occupationist forces
these Islamic fundamentalist bloodhounds of the Ikhwani and Taliban brands
fell on the people of Afghanistan and with the passage of each day are
hacking away at the roots of the country and the people’s material and
spiritual integrity and very existence.
With due analysis of the contradictions and the antagonistic inter-relationships
of different imperialist powers, regional reaction and their indigenous
chained dogs in Afghanistan, the ALO is waging its patriotic and revolutionary
struggle with the conviction that no power or ideology other than a true
communist party and the ideology of the working class can save our people
or other peoples of the world from imperialist and reactionary butchers.
Historical experience has shown that vacillation and irresolution is an
inherent class characteristic of the petty bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia
and the national bourgeoisie, who invariably succumb to the lure of compromise
and capitulation in the course of socio-political struggle. Imperialism
can very easily seduce non-proletarian social classes and strata and manipulate
them into serving its predatory policies. The suffering non-proletarian
classes (peasants, the petty bourgeoisie) are myopic in their cognisance
of imperialism and its covert machinations and Machiavellian policies.
Their ideology is allied to that of the exploiters; they do not believe
in revolting against "their betters" and raising anti-imperialist
slogans. The petty and the national bourgeoisie support the revolution
for a time in pursuance of their particular class interests but immediately
upon attaining their objectives they betray the revolution through succumbing
to capitalist seduction or corruption. Whenever and wherever the petty
and the national bourgeoisie come into power they turn against the higher
interests of the toiling masses and out of fear of popular revolt enter
into collusion with the imperialists and consequently fall into their laps.
Most governments and ruling cliques in underdeveloped countries are in
one way or another subservient to imperialist powers and wallow in their
patrons’ good graces.
The ALO which upholds Marxism-Leninism Mao Zedong Thought as its guiding
theory believes that a proletarian party, a people’s army and a united
national front are the indispensable means by which the masses in semi-colonial
semi-feudal countries can bring their anti-imperialist and anti-feudal
revolution to victory. We have found out through the experience of communist
parties and the shedding of the blood of millions of revolutionaries around
the world that without these three implements of a progressive revolution
it is not possible to take any meaningful step towards remedying fundamental
social ailments and drastically changing the economic and political status
of the oppressed classes.
THE
PROLETARIAN PARTY:
The proletarian
party is a means in the hands of communists for leading and organising
the masses. Without a working class party the victory of an anti-imperialist
and anti-feudal revolution is not possible. All popular revolutions which
have taken place without the guiding hand of a proletarian party have ultimately
ended in defeat and failure.
The outlook of the ALO in regard to the ways and means of forming such
a party is clear: adapting theory to the specific exigencies of our country
and thereby forming inseverable bonds with the people, imparting socio-political
awareness to them and organising their struggles for emancipation from
the yokes of feudalism and imperialism. The ALO is well aware that in order
to be able to bring about changes and transmutations in the interests of
the oppressed masses, theory should be rooted in material matrices. Forming
an artificial material matrix for the party through use of cash, documents,
international relations and other resources (without revolutionary theory
and organisation) is building on sand, and reminds one strongly of the
tragic experience of the revisionist Communist Party of the Soviet Union
and its client parties in all parts of the world.
Regarding the issue of cohesion and
unity within the ranks of the communist movement in our country (a cohesion
and unity which would move on towards the founding of a communist party),
our own experience and the experience of other communist movements tell
us that in order to be effective such cohesion and unification of communist
entities must emerge from co-ordinated practical co-operation and participation
in mass struggles according to pre-defined programmes and allotment of
assignments. Concomitant with ideological struggle, such a process can
highlight our mutual weaknesses and shortcomings and with lessons drawn
from shared experiences it will be possible to raise the Marxist consciousness
of all involved. Such shall be the guarantee for achieving and strengthening
organisational unity.
We very well know a large number of
former comrades who were closely allied with our organisation before the
War of Resistance and who hotly advocated revolutionary work and struggle
in words, but with the soaring of risk factors after the radical change
in the socio-political atmosphere (the coming to power of Soviet puppet
regimes and commencement of ruthless persecutions, abductions, torture
and executions of communists) they bade farewell to their revolutionary
zeal and fled to Europe or America to save their skins. Conditions for
revolutionary work and struggle are immensely more difficult now that Ikhwani
fundamentalist and Taliban ultra-reactionary and ultra-fundamentalist hooliganism
is reigning supreme in Afghanistan and acting as uncouth ruffians of imperialism.
Confusion in ideology, politics and organisational set-up is rife amongst
revolutionary groupings. It is only through tenacious and unambiguous Marxist
stances, active and positive participation in the movement of the masses
and continuous constructive feedback from such interaction that a true
working class party can be formed.
ARMED STRUGGLE:
In countries with pronounced class
antagonisms the armed violence of counter-revolutionary class enemies cannot
be countered with only pens and pamphlets, therefore the class struggle
must be elevated to its highest form which is none other than armed revolutionary
insurrection. In order to bury the old styles of production and the old
culture, the organised and conscious masses need to become armed under
the leadership of a communist party to embark upon armed confrontation
with their exploiters. In countries such as ours, divorcing revolution
from guns means falling into the pitfall of right opportunism.
The situation in the world at large indicates that imperialism is striving
mightily and with diverse means to equate advocacy of revolutionary use
of force with terrorism and to counter it with their prescription of bourgeois
democracy as a panacea for all social ills. The imperialists and their
indigenous lapdogs understand full well that if the downtrodden masses
in underdeveloped countries get organised and become armed their nefarious
existence will be doomed. For this reason the enemies of communist and
revolutionary movements resort to force and violence against popular anti-capitalist
insurrections. It devolves upon true communist parties to prepare for the
ultimate showdown with the bourgeoisie by according strategic priority
to the formation of the nucleus of a people’s army. A revolutionary party
which renounces armed revolution and the formation of a people’s army is
quite acceptable to the bourgeoisie and the imperialists. Due to the particular
situation of underdeveloped countries, only those parties who prepare for
armed insurrection have the right to call themselves revolutionary.
With the betrayal of communism by Soviet
social-imperialists on a global scale and the disgrace of the Soviet revisionists’
Khalqi and Parchami myrmidons in Afghanistan, communism and communist ideals
have become extremely vilified in our country. With due regard to the cultural
backwardness and extremely low political consciousness of the masses, and
also in view of the exigencies of the present counter-revolutionary war,
the ALO has formulated its policies and tactics to be in accord with the
circumstances obtaining in our country. For this reason it places high
priority on democratic and political work amongst the masses. Depreciation
of ideology in the course of overt democratic work carries the risk of
exposing revolutionaries to the lure of corruption and bourgeois flaccidity.
The ALO stresses revolutionary struggle and socialistic intra-organisational
work as the guarantee of continued commitment to reaching a classless society.
PROLETARIAN
INTERNATIONALISM:
Proletarian internationalism is a key
component of the ALO’s basic principles. Revolutionary political parties
and organisations need to learn from each other’s experiences in order
to prevent a repetition of the bitter experience of the revisionist Communist
Party of the Soviet Union.
Internationalism means mutual ties, co-operation and respect between revolutionary
parties and organisations. Proletarian internationalism renounces dicktat
and intervention in the internal affairs of others, as policies and views
imposed from the outside by a more powerful (in terms of means and resources)
and "experienced" political entity can in no way answer the needs
of a particular party or country and more often than not results in misguided
socio-political outcomes. Every revolutionary political party and organisation
knows its own particular circumstances better. It is the duty of communists
of different countries to adapt Marxism, through correct policies and practice,
to the particular needs and conditions of the revolution in their respective
countries.
Proletarian internationalism can better be served only when each and every
revolutionary party and organisation succeeds in gaining the trust and
respect of the people within the context of its own particular circumstances
and thus serving as an example to be emulated by fraternal parties and
organisations. Proletarian internationalism can be more meaningful, more
effective and more practical only when communists parties and organisations
are strong and vigorous in their own right.
Political intercourse between communist
parties and organisations for exchange of views and experiences is indispensable.
The ALO is committed to serious and comradely ties with parties and organisations
sharing our Marxist-Leninist principles. The ALO believes that self-reliance
is the guarantee of a revolutionary party or organisation’s survival and
growth. We are proud of our organisation’s revolutionary tradition of steadfast
independence and self-reliance throughout the storms and stresses of the
War of Resistance up till now.
WOMEN:
Economic backwardness and the dominance
of mediaeval culture has given the exploiting classes the power and the
means of depriving our women from their basic social and political rights
in the name of God, religion and tradition. They are effectively barred
from equal participation in production and social and cultural life.
The ALO firmly believes that the chains of bondage from the hands and feet
of women can be broken only when they firstly attain political and class
consciousness and secondly become organised and participate actively in
the anti-feudal and anti-imperialist revolutionary struggle under the leadership
of the proletariat. No other power can emancipate the women of our society
from political and class oppression, and "no revolution is victorious
without the participation of women". The political and social inequality
of women and of the exploited classes is rooted in the inequality of ownership
and distribution of material wealth. The victory of the political revolution
assigned by history to the proletariat and its revolutionary vanguard party
shall be assured only when one half of society (women’s movement) unites
with its other half (men’s movement) and stages a concerted assault on
the bastions of feudalism and its patron, imperialism. Equal rights of
men and women can be realised and assured only with complete democratisation
of society. Struggling for women’s rights is an integral part of the struggle
for true democracy and none but the proletariat and its political party
can be the true champions of true democracy. It was with staunch belief
in this principle that the ALO from the very outset focused on women’s
revolutionary suffragist movement by undertaking to raise its Marxist awareness
and assisting in its political organisation. Under the circumstances, we
can claim remarkable achievements.
THE ISLAMISTS
AND THE TALIBAN:
Spontaneous popular insurrections erupted
after the sanguinary coup d’état of April 1978 and the subsequent
invasion and direct occupation of Afghanistan by Soviet troops in the closing
days of 1979. Taking full advantage of the explosive religious indignation
of the people of Afghanistan, US imperialism and regional reaction (Pakistan,
Iran and Saudi Arabia) rushed to the scene to foist their paid agents onto
the leadership of the people’s insurrection.
Billions of dollars were poured into the successful campaign to hijack
the popular national liberation war of resistance to a proxy war of imperialism
and reaction against social-imperialism. No effort was spared by world
capitalism and its lackey feudal reactionaries to portray the proxy war
as a war of Islam against communism. The choice of Islamic fundamentalists
as the most trustworthy mercenaries of the CIA and of its implementing
partner, the Zia-ul-Haq regime in Pakistan, was not fortuitous. The barefoot
masses who had taken up the gun in defence of their independence and their
homeland were politically disorganised and devoid of resources. Under such
favourable circumstances, Islamic fundamentalists became armed and different
Jihadi tanzims (organisations) mushroomed in Pakistan and Iran. A widespread
campaign to choke out national and democratic progressive forces was initiated
and jointly waged by Afghan Islamic fundamentalist tanzims with the connivance
and active support of Pakistan and Iran. Progressive elements, leftists
and revolutionaries were ruthlessly and systematically persecuted and decimated
from the right (Islamic fundamentalists and their patrons) and the left
(the Kabul puppet regime). Such fascist brutality from all sides resulted
in thousands of true patriots being physically annihilated during and after
the War of Resistance. Despite all constraints and hardships, the ALO and
other leftist revolutionary organisations actively participated in the
War of Resistance. Most of the revolutionary movement’s leaders and a great
number of prominent cadres were martyred in the course of armed confrontation
with the enemy. The revolutionary movement thus proved through trial of
fire and blood that an unbridgeable abyss separates true communists from
sold-out lackeys of the then Soviet Union and mercenaries in the pay of
western imperialism and regional reaction.
The ignominious retreat of the Russian
occupationist forces from Afghanistan and the collapse of the butcher Najibullah
regime (April 1992) whipped up the fundamentalist tanzims’ scrimmage for
power. The United States and Pakistan had made the best use of Afghan Islamic
fundamentalists in the war against the Russians. They now sought to reward
the more "moderate" and acquiescent tanzims by propping them
up as the legitimate government of liberated Afghanistan. The disappointed
leadership of the more refractory tanzims did not accede to this arrangement
and therefore turned to alternative patrons. European powers, Iran, India,
post-Soviet Russia, Turkey and other countries became embroiled in the
Afghan imbroglio. In order to assert the strategic interests of US imperialism,
the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Arab Gulf states deployed
their reserve forces, the Taliban ultra-fundamentalists, who had been bred
and trained surreptitiously in religious seminaries in Pakistan with Arab
petrodollars. The emergence of the Taliban and the rival anti-Taliban alliance
composed of fundamentalists and remnants of the defunct Soviet puppet regime
is reflective of the contradictions in the camp of the imperialists and
their regional chained dogs.
Fundamentalists of all shades and colours
are the political representatives of reactionary classes and decrepit feudal
relations. It is the mission of the communist movement in our homeland
to direct the class struggle in its multifarious forms against these agents
of reaction and mediaevalism and to mobilise the masses for the final cleansing
of our society and history of these suppurating wounds through a New Democratic
revolution under the leadership of the proletarian party. Emancipation
from the blood-soaked dominance of ultra-fundamentalist Taliban and fundamentalist
Islamists means emancipation from the burden of hundreds of years of tyranny
and despotism and decades of imperialist policies. History has chosen the
proletariat and its party as the agent for such emancipation.
THE IRANIAN
REGIME AND ITS LACKEYS:
The Iranian Revolution which was carried
to victory by the Iranian masses with the active participation of revolutionary
organisations and intellectuals broke the chains of bondage to US imperialism.
There were soaring hopes that this revolution would carry out its heavy
socio-political mandate but due to the impotence of revolutionary forces
and the absence of a communist party the leadership of the revolution was
hijacked by the national and the petty bourgeoisie and the revolution was
led astray. The Russians took advantage of the antagonism of the Khomeini
regime with the United States and increased its influence in Iran with
the help of the traitorous Tudeh party. The aspirations of the Iranian
masses for the establishment of democracy and social justice in Iran were
shattered. The assault of the arrogant clergy against revolutionaries and
revolutionary values reached its apex and the Iranian Revolution metamorphosed
into its antithesis. The Khomeini regime became the bastion of militant
Islamism and virulent reaction and began to "export revolution"
abroad.
The Hizb-i-Wahdat, a bastard offspring
of the Iranian regime in Afghanistan, is a typical example of rabid Khomeinist
fundamentalism in our country. This party which represents Afghans Shiite
fundamentalists is the watchdog of the interests of the Iranian regime
against the interests of US imperialism and its lackey, Pakistan. The Hezb-i-Wahdat,
whose raison d’étre is providing espionage and agent provocateur
services to the Iranian regime, excels in fanning up ethnic hatred under
the name of defending the rights of national minorities. The deadly antagonism
between the Taliban and the Hezb-i-Wahdat is the manifestation of confrontation
between Iranian interests in Afghanistan on the one hand and US interests,
represented by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, on the other. Peace and security
in Afghanistan shall ever remain elusive until such opposing fifth-column
mercenary groupings are played against each other on the Afghan stage by
their masters.
The Hezb-i-Wahdat, the political representative
of ethnic Hazara chiefs, is camouflaged in religious colours and, like
its Iranian patron regime, relies on the barrels of its guns for "legitimacy"
and for tyrannising the people. Marxist revolutionaries of the Hazara ethnic
group, apart from struggling against class enemies and against national
divisions, are duty bound to struggle to expose and isolate the Hezb-i-Wahdat
as a contraption of the Iranian regime against the interests and unity
of the people of Afghanistan.
Only with the victory of a New Democratic revolution under the leadership
of a communist party can the toiling masses of different ethnic groupings
become masters of their destiny and live in unity and fraternity on their
march towards the attainment of a society devoid of exploitation and class
oppression.
CHINA:
The victory of the anti-feudal and
anti-imperialist Chinese revolution which under the dictatorship of the
proletariat opened the way towards socialism and the transformation of
China from a backward society to a developed country with a new economy
and culture is the fruit of the heroic struggles of China’s revolutionary
masses and the Chinese Communist Party. The inspiring revolutionary theory
that gave awareness to the Chinese masses was Marxism Leninism Mao Zedong
Thought. Under the sagacious leadership of Comrade Mao Zedong the Communist
Party of China rendered great services both in defending the revolution
and in defence of Marxism on a world scale against Soviet revisionism and
world imperialism.
The ALO believes that the services
rendered by Comrade Mao Zedong were paramount and his mistakes subordinate,
but the demise of Comrade Mao Zedong marked the beginning of the mutation
of the Communist Party of China into its antithesis. Economic reforms,
attraction of foreign capital, the opening up of China to imperialist commodities
with imperialist decadency and corrupt culture as their inevitable accessories,
disparity between urban and rural living and between mental and physical
labour, corruption in the party and in the administrative apparatus, misappropriation,
bribery, smuggling, prostitution and finally the deletion of the word ‘imperialism’
from the propaganda vocabulary of the Chinese Communist Party and the government
of the People’s Republic of China are all indicative of the mutation of
the Chinese revolutionary party and government. Concomitantly, emasculation
of the dictatorship of the proletariat, disparagement of Marxist training
and character-building and fostering degeneration of the revolutionary
essence of the Chinese state and communists party continue to be the leitmotif
of the policies implemented by the incumbent ruling clique in the Communist
Party of China.
Complete renunciation (reflective of
the Chinese Communist Party’s revolutionary retrogression) of proletarian
internationalism, world revolution and support to national liberation movements
have debased the Chinese party and state into an anticommunist entity far
more adverse to the cause of communism than the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union after the death of Comrade Stalin.
The concessionary and conservative
policies of the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party vis-à-vis
the United States and other imperialist powers is part and parcel of its
ideological corruption. The Communist Party of China and the government
of the People’s Republic of China adopted a marked counter-revolutionary
attitude during the years of our War of Resistance against Soviet aggression
and instead of lending succour to revolutionary Afghan groupings they extended
unqualified support, according to the dictates of their economic and political
interests, to Afghan fundamentalist counter-revolutionaries through the
reactionary Zia-ul-Haq regime. Instead of providing friendship and support
to revolutionary parties and governments, the Chinese communist state and
government cultivate friendship and amicable ties with many of the world’s
most reactionary, most fascist and most vassal governments.
The communist criterion for the earnestness
of a communist party is defending proletarian ideology and promoting class
struggle both at home and on a world level. For us Afghan communists, targeted
as we are from around the compass by enemy fire, evaluation of the Communist
Party of China or of any other communist party cannot be divorced from
the party’s adherence to the principles of proletarian internationalism
in its inter-relationship with other parties and organisations. A meticulous
study of the performance of the Communist Party of China in different arenas
has brought the ALO to the well-pondered and solemn conclusion that the
Communist Party of China is gradually and very calculatedly withdrawing
from proletarian positions and has set foot on the road to capitalism.
The bourgeois coterie within the Communist Party of China has usurped the
leadership of the party and the state and are wreaking havoc with the proud
gains and achievement of the glorious Chinese revolution, obtained with
so much toil and travail of the broad masses.
In our present appraisal of the Communist
Party of China we endorse and affirm the following proposition expressed
by former leaders of China:
"If some day China changes
her political hue and becomes a superpower, if she assumes the role of
a world tyrant and bullies, violates and exploits other countries and peoples,
then we call on the peoples of the world to label her as social-imperialist,
expose her, oppose her and together with the people of China, bring her
down."
The ALO believes that by betraying
proletarian internationalism and falling into the quagmire of revisionism,
China is in the process of becoming an exploiter and a superpower aggressor.
|