Proposals for the Unification of the International Communist Movement

by Ludo Martens

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the introduction of a naked capitalism in that country and in Eastern Europe, as a consequence of the counter- revolutionary policy of Gorbachov and Yeltsin, represent a turning point in the international situation. It is a victory for imperialism and reaction.

These counter-revolutionary events exacerbated all basic contradictions in the world: the contradiction between socialist countries and imperialism, the contradiction between oppressed people in Asia, Africa, Latin-America and imperialism, the contradictions between monopolies and imperialist powers and the contradiction between the working class and the bourgeoisie. The forces of reaction, racism, fascism and war have started their offensive on a world scale.

In this situation, parties and organisations, that stay loyal to the revolutionary principles of marxism-leninism, are trying to draw the lessons from the counter-revolutionary processes which destroyed socialism in the Soviet Union. Faced with the offensive unleashed by the reactionaries, they feel the need to unite for a counter-offensive in favour of the oppressed and exploited masses, in order to keep high the flag of socialism and communism and to restore confidence in the socialist future of mankind for all those who are fighting against capitalism and imperialism.

We have drawn up a minimal common framework allowing marxist-leninist organisations of different tendencies to meet, to exchange experiences and analysis and to take common initiatives.

This minimal common framework, stated in this document, will allow us to discuss frankly and openmindedly the important ideological and theoretical divergences and to tackle the current issues of policies and tactics. That minimal common framework will allow us to start a process of theoretical and political unification.

7 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Ludo Martens was a Belgian historian noted for his work on francophone Africa and the Soviet Union. He was also the chairman of the Workers' Party of Belgium.
In 1968 he founded the Maoist group "Alle macht aan de arbeiders" (All Power to the Workers), which in 1979 became the Workers' Party of Belgium.
Martens wrote on the political history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he has lived and traveled extensively.
In 1994, Martens published Another View of Stalin, a history of the Soviet Union under Stalin that challenges in particular the dominant view of collectivization in the USSR and the Great Purge. He explained his motivation for writing the book in the introduction: "Defending Stalin's work, essentially defending Marxism-Leninism, is an important, urgent task in preparing ourselves for class struggle under the New World Order."
Martens wrote primarily in French; however, his books, especially Another View of Stalin, have been translated into Dutch, English, and numerous other languages. He was a leading Marxist theorist within the anti-revisionist movement, and is therefore perceived as a "Stalin apologist".
Within the International Communist Movement, he is noted for having proposed the unification of the four main tendencies of the Marxist-Leninist movement. These are the pro-Soviet groups, the pro-Chinese, the pro-Albanian, and pro-Cuban. In addition there are "independents." Martens has put forward that while at a certain time these separations were important and based on principle, they can now be overcome and the movement can be united on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. In order to develop this unification process, the Workers Party of Belgium hosts the International Communist Seminar in Brussels, which is attended by 150 organizations around the world.