It is with enthusiasm that on this first of May 2022, we salute the international proletariat and the communist vanguards who, armed with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, are opening the way to the world revolution, which will put an end to the exploitation and oppression throughout the planet, making the popular masses triumph.

We reaffirm our belief in the triumph of the new over the old, in the need for revolutionary change on a global scale, as inter-imperialist contradictions grow in the world, spreading death, nationalism, hate, anxiety, fear, pessimism, denial of reality, nihilism.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia more than two months ago, which basis is the confrontation between NATO led by the American imperialist superpower on the one hand, Russia with China in the background on the other, corresponds to a historical situation where the rush forward of each country to try to tear itself away from its own slump, from the historical cul-de-sac in which it finds itself, takes on an increasingly acute.

This is why we have been witnessing since the war in Ukraine a political, economic and military escalation, with a pile of shipments of military equipment, of militarist diplomatic initiatives, ofpsychological propaganda, ofdestabilization operations. This is not just rivalry going wrong, or « geopolitical » friction: this is a competition in a life-and-death struggle. The background of the war in Ukraine is the battle for the repartition of the world.

The pandemic that began in 2020 has indeed slowed down capitalism, and capitalism by definition cannot be slowed down: it relies on an ever faster, ever wider accumulation of capital.

It is therefore a question of catching up the lost time – by imperialist war. This is why we speak of a situation of general crisis of capitalism, the second after the one that emerged with the First World War and the October 1917 revolution in Russia. The pandemic ended an entire period of large-scale capitalist growth, which began in 1989 with the collapse of the Soviet social-imperialist bloc and the integration of China into the world market that had become capitalist.

And the war in Ukraine corresponds to a blocked situation, where each country positions itself to try to snatch its share of the loot in the redistribution of the world. This is indeed the meaning of the initiatives of the bourgeoisies of Belgium and France, which are part of a bloc, that of NATO, led by the American imperialist superpower, which confronts another bloc, that of Russia and China.

So, in accordance with the teachings of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, we affirm as such that in these two countries, the enemy is in its own country, and that thus, the general watchword on a world scale is « War to imperialist war !”, the one more specifically related to this situation is « War on NATO! ».

In semi-feudal semi-colonial countries, like Ukraine, the watchword remains « War on imperialist war! », but these countries are themselves the loot of the redistribution of the world. They must fight for their national independence, refuting all imperialisms.

All the semi-feudal semi-colonial countries also experience internal unrest due to imperialist pressures on them, such as Bangladesh, where bureaucratic capitalism developed, but only to get more bogged down.

We would like to emphasize that this is a dramatic time and one must be aware of the immense gap between one’s own personal life and what is happening on a general scale. The pace of events is very different, the scope is not the same, which means that it is not easy to identify world news, general trends, historical requirements.

For this reason, it is necessary to have a real hindsight, of a scientific type, and this is what Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels have provided us with dialectical materialism and its application in the field of history, historical materialism. Without dialectical materialism as a vision of the world, it is not possible to have a sufficient analysis of the course of things, of historical events, of the very meaning of History.

This is why we affirm the need for a Party that upholds it, defends it and applies it. Without dialectical materialism, without the Party, the popular masses have no point of orientation, no historical roots, no leadership to give their movement the strategic and tactical choices to win.

Only the Party can ensure that the masses, mobilizing themselves in their assimilation and practice of dialectical materialism, triumph over reactionary forces, which despite their appearance of power, are historically doomed. Mao Zedong expressed the substance of this historical reading of the course of events fully correctly :

“Now U.S. imperialism is quite powerful, but in reality it isn’t. It is very weak politically because it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disliked by everybody and by the American people too. In appearance it is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe the United States is nothing but a paper tiger.

History as a whole, the history of class society for thousands of years, has proved this point: the strong must give way to the weak. This holds true for the Americas as well.

Only when imperialism is eliminated can peace prevail. The day will come when the paper tigers will be wiped out.

But they won’t become extinct of their own accord, they need to be battered by the wind and the rain.”

We need wind and rain, that is, revolution with the masses forming an armed ocean constituting a new state, to set up a new society, to achieve Socialism and go to Communism at the global scale. Tactically, the reactionary forces are restless and dangerous, murderous, yet the masses constitute an inexhaustible resource for the revolution, if one understands the protracted nature of the revolutionary process, its winding course.

It is up to the communists, armed with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, forming the vanguard of the popular masses, to be up to the immense challenges of the time, which brings with it revolutionary changes like none before. never been seen, as Mao Zedong announced in the 1960s, speaking of the « fifty to one hundred years » of world upheaval like never before seen.

Long live May Day, International Day of the Proletariat! Long live the popular masses!
War to the imperialist war!
People’s War to Communism!

First of May 2022
Marxist Leninist Maoist Center of Belgium
Communist Party of France (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist)