Preface
The only way out of war, crisis and the exploitation of man by man is socialist revolution. This path corresponds to the objective class interests of the working class. Communists see it as their duty to win over their class siblings for this very task. For this purpose they organize themselves in the Communist Party.
To quote Berthold Brecht’s famous poem “In Praise of Communism”: “It is the simple thing that’s hard to do.” The realization of communism in Germany and throughout the world is the ultimate goal of all our political efforts and struggles. It is the historic mission that we as the working class not only seek to, but must fulfill.
In this effort, the communist program shows the necessary path, from today’s struggles against capitalism, to socialist revolution, to the construction of socialism and the transition to communism.
The following program was adopted at the 4th Congress of “Kommunistischer Aufbau” in 2023 and lays out the organization’s program and strategy.
I. Capitalism and Socialism
1. Class Society in Germany
The economic and societal system which dominates nearly every corner of today’s world is called capitalism. Whether it wears this name openly or, as in Germany, hides behind friendlier labels such as „social market economy“ changes nothing about this fact. Nor does it matter whether the ruling capitalist class decorates its oppressive and exploitative system with the colors of a „free world order“ as in the USA or with those of „socialism“ as in China.
This social order is divided into two main classes: The capitalists and the workers. The first – a small minority – concentrates almost all societal wealth in its hands. They are the owners of factories, farming land, hospitals, department stores and banks; in short, the owners of the means of production. As exploiters, they can appropriate such a large share of social wealth that they themselves no longer need to be productive.
The second group, the workers, make up the overwhelming majority of the population in Germany. They are characterized by the fact that they neither own the means of production nor are they at their disposal. In order to survive, they are forced to sell their labor to the capitalist class day after day, year after year. This means that they create enormous wealth with the capitalist’s means of production, but receive only a small part of it as wages.
Between the capitalist class and the working class we find different petty-bourgeois societal layers. In German class society, they range from the urban and rural self-employed (i.e. small business owners) to the „modern petty bourgeoisie“ in the form of highly paid employees.
Through the private appropriation of the wealth created by the workers, a small capitalist minority exploits the vast majority of society. The capitalist class is a parasitic class through and through. Their position of power is derived from their control over the means of production, which allows them to live in incomparable luxury off the labor of others.
Women in the working class are exploited and oppressed on multiple levels. In addition to their wage labor, they are the ones who do most of the necessary domestic labor. The fact that this work is unpaid has the effect of lowering the wages of the entire working class and therefore favors the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the capitalists.
This is added to by various forms of social oppression, which in fact place women in a social position as social extensions and housekeepers of men. This system of oppression based on gender is called patriarchy. It is the oldest relationship of oppression in the history of mankind, which has remained all the way through to capitalism. It has been adapted by the ruling class to fit the needs of today’s exploitative relations in their modern developed form, and interwoven with them to form a capitalist-patriarchal system.
The relationship of the capitalists to each other is a contradictory one. On the one hand, they are bound together by their common fear of the working class. They are united by the goal of keeping the working class politically passive and depressed, as well as by their common interest in keeping average wages as low as possible.
These interests are expressed and defended by the bourgeois state, the main instrument of capitalist rule. It is tasked with maintaining capitalist class rule by all means. At the same time, in the course of capitalist development, it is increasingly becoming a mechanism for concentrating even more wealth in the hands of the ruling class through taxes, subsidies and government loans.
On the other hand, bourgeois class unity is constantly undermined by the laws of capitalist competition. Capitalists compete with each other for resources, markets, borrowed capital as well as labor.
Capitalist enterprises constantly strive to outdo their competitors, marginalize them and ultimately destroy them as independent actors through takeovers or bankruptcy. This leads to the processes of capitalist concentration and centralization: more and more capital is concentrated in the hands of a smaller and smaller number of capitalist enterprises
This process results in the formation of capitalist monopolies. Monopolies are enterprises that control such great amounts of capital and therefore dominate the market in a certain part of the social production process so strongly that they can partly render the laws of free capitalist competition ineffective. Among the capitalist class a hierarchy is formed as the biggest and mightiest monopolies subdue the smaller capitalist companies.
While the monopolies at the top of this hierarchical pyramid constantly squeeze a portion of the profits generated by the capitalists on the lower rungs and exercise ever more direct and open control over the capitalist state apparatus, the capitalist enterprises and smaller monopolies subordinate to them deteriorate more and more into their economic and political minions.
At the top of this hierarchy today are the capitalist world monopolies. They rule over entire production chains, which in turn often extend into dozens of countries. However, the tendency towards monopolization exists at all levels of the capitalist economy, and thus the world monopolies subordinate smaller capitalist enterprises to themselves, which in their branch of production may themselves hold a monopolistic position.
2. The Role of German Imperialism in the World
It is in the nature of capital to always seek to accumulate. This means it must constantly seek to set in motion more workers and means of production to sell more goods in order to ultimately generate more profits.
As early as the late 19th century, German capitalism took part in the hunt for foreign territories, conquered colonies and subjugated other countries economically. It is at this point in time that capitalism entered its imperialist stage. The resulting capital concentrated in the hands of German monopolies had grown so large that it could no longer expand without exploiting the working classes of other countries in addition to German workers. Likewise, it has since depended on seizing the natural resources and markets of other countries.
The constantly contested hierarchy of monopolies and world monopolies in the struggle for the world market and the power relations between the various imperialist states influence one another. Both the German state apparatus and the number and strength of German world monopolies make German imperialism one of the most powerful competitors for other imperialist powers in the struggle for world domination.
Germany’s economic strength lies primarily in the area of industrial production, especially heavy industry, automobile and weapons production, as well as mechanical engineering and the chemical industry. German imperialism exercises its greatest dominance in Europe, especially in Eastern Europe.
For German imperialism, the central means of exerting political influence and demonstrating its economic superiority is the European Union. It is a temporary imperialist alliance that has emerged over decades from the contradictory imperialist balance of power in Europe. Besides Germany and its imperialist competitors, it also includes dependent states, which are increasingly economically penetrated by imperialist capital and brought into political dependence by its member states.
On the capitalist world market, fierce battles are constantly raging over which monopoly can sell its products, which capital can claim a certain patch of earth, including resources and the labor force living on it, for itself. Since capitalism has long since been brought to every corner of the globe by brute force, hypocritical diplomacy, or simply the power of economic superiority, any gain influence gained by one imperialist predator under such circumstances can only ever be realized at the expense of another.
Any equilibrium achieved in this permanent contest is relative and temporary. As soon as the balance of power among the leading imperialist nations shifts, the question of the re-division of the world will sooner or later be raised once more.
In addition to haggling over economic treaties and customs unions, the enduring struggle for a position that allows to develop economically at the expense of competitors is thus fought through diplomatic dodges and, ultimately, imperialist war.
The pretense of wars between nations is today in truth always a facade. It hides a war between the capitalist classes of different nations or the ambitions of an imperialist power to restore its „order“ in a country where the exploited and oppressed masses dare to revolt against their plunder.
In this regard, German imperialism has since 1945 pursued the policy of tethering itself to NATO under the leadership of the USA. However, it is constantly striving to achieve greater independence from its allies through its own militarization and rearmament and, at the same time, to become the leading military force in Europe, all within NATO.
3. The Need for Socialist Revolution
It is plain to see that capitalism has long ceased to be a progressive social system. While the unprecedented accumulation of wealth in a few hands in the phase of its emergence was accompanied by an unprecedented technological revolution, it has long since become an obstacle to the full development of all the potentials of humanity.
In addition to the anarchic character of the capitalist economy and the accompanying inherent cyclical economic crises, the capitalist over-exploitation of nature in particular, as well as the preparations for new, even more destructive wars, are two factors that clearly underline the choice with which humanity is faced: The aggravation of misery and imperialist barbarism by the outlived relations of production under capitalism, or its the revolutionary overthrow.
Capitalism must be replaced by a socialist society in which production is no longer planned according to interests of profit, but centrally based on the actual needs of society.
In order to do so, the capitalists will be expropriated and the social wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a new socialist state. This state will not be an instrument in the hands of a small parasitic minority for the oppression of the great majority of the population. Instead, it will be the organized rule of the working class: a tool for suppressing the old ruling class and all enemies of socialism, and for the construction of the new society. This is, in essence, the core of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
It is the historical task of the German working class to eliminate German imperialism. It is the only class which has no objective interest whatsoever in preserving the capitalist system; it is therefore the most consistent revolutionary force and the only class capable of fighting for socialism in Germany.
Communists are the most politically conscious and progressive section of the working class, which has recognized this historical necessity and is imbued with the will to dedicate its own life to the liberation of the working class through revolution. Communists are the vanguard of the working class.
From this arises the task of communists to bring class consciousness into the working class, to convince it of the necessity to organize and to fight for its own interests, and to lead it – organized in a Communist Party – as the most determined and consistent part in this struggle.
4. The Character of Revolution in Germany
Capitalism cannot be eliminated by spontaneous uprisings or reforms. This fact has been historically proven time and time again. It must be overthrown in a socialist revolution and replaced by the construction of a socialist society. At the same time, the socialist revolution is not a one-time, short-lived moment of struggle for power, but a process that lasts for years. Its preparation must begin long before the final struggle to seize power.
While for the working class the revolutionary elimination of capitalism and the construction of socialism promises for the first time a life under truly humane conditions and the full development of its potentials, for the capitalist class it means the exact opposite: its destruction as a social class.
The capitalist class will therefore use all peaceful and non-peaceful, political, ideological and military means at its disposal to prevent any attempt to eliminate its rule.
This includes hundreds of thousands of police and soldiers, as well as paramilitary-trained fascists, who have been preparing for decades to play their role in defeating a revolution and building a fascist dictatorship, should it become necessary. It follows from this that at the moment of revolution the class struggle must develop into revolutionary civil war in Germany as well.
However, a situation in which such a revolutionary civil war can arise and be successfully carried out by the working class until it seizes power does not arise by chance or by a sheer force of will on the part of the communists. Such a situation is presupposed by objective and subjective conditions.
The objective side includes the extreme intensification of capitalist contradictions, from which results the rapid impoverishment of the working class and thus also a dynamic that in a few months pushes millions of people into the center of the class struggle, even if they previously stood indifferently on the margins of political life for years.
The subjective side includes a sufficiently organized and battle-hardened working class, whose leading parts are imbued with socialist consciousness and are prepared to put their lives on the line for liberation from German imperialism. This means, in particular, that a developed Communist Party must exist that is so deeply rooted in the working class that it can lead it politically and at the same time withstand severe repressive blows.
The Federal Republic of Germany is one of the most powerful imperialist countries in the world. Both this fact and historical examples such as the suppression of the Paris Commune or the Russian October Revolution necessarily lead to one conclusion: the socialist revolution in Germany will, from the very beginning, take on an international character.
The revolution in Germany must be prepared for the fact that not only the German ruling class will use its state apparatus to suppress it, but that other imperialist states will rush to the aid of the German capitalists to smother the revolution. It must therefore be able not only to assert itself in the civil war against its own bourgeoisie, but be ready to mobilize all forces to repel counterrevolutionary interventions from other countries.
Due to the close political and military cooperation as well as the mutual economic penetration, the success of revolutionary movements in other European countries and the common international struggle will be of paramount importance for the victory or defeat of the socialist revolution in Germany.
At the same time, the objective conditions for the parallel emergence of revolutionary situations in a region of the capitalist world economy have grown due to the developmental tendencies inherent to imperialism.
5. Forward to Communism
However, the socialist revolution cannot stop at the smashing of the capitalist power apparatus and the expropriation of the ruling class. The seizure of power by the working class is only an intermediate peak in the revolutionary process: the prelude to the creation of socialist relations of production and their permanent revolutionization towards communist relations of production; to a decade-long phase of hard fought social struggles between communist and capitalist elements in the form of thoughts or forms of social coexistence up to more or less firmly established political organizations of people.
Socialism, as the first phase of communism, is a transitional society with properties of the old class society. Even among the working class, including communists, remnants of bourgeois individualism, egoism, capitalist labor discipline, and patriarchal personality traits and behaviors persist.
This necessitates, among other things, a system of payment based on performance instead of providing for citizens according to their needs, and in the use of the state apparatus as an instrument of repression against consciously counterrevolutionary sections of society.
History shows that it is precisely these birth marks of the old society that can become the starting point for regressions and even the emergence of new relations of exploitation if they are not consistently combated.
The essential condition for this struggle to be successful is that the entire working class, once it has seized power, should take an increasingly active part in social life, make full use of the possibilities of socialist democracy, exercise control over the work of all state institutions, and thus take the management of socialist society into its own hands.
To the extent that this succeeds, the conditions for the withering away of the socialist state are created at the same time. However, this process can only be brought to its logical conclusion when socialism has triumphed worldwide and communist production relations have developed.
Under socialism, it becomes the essential task of the Communist Party to achieve just this. As communists work to ensure that socialist society develops towards communism, a society free of all forms of oppression, they simultaneously work to make themselves redundant as a special party of the working class.
II. The program of the socialist revolution
1. The Establishment of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Once the resistance of the counterrevolution in the revolutionary civil war is broken, either because the counterrevolutionary forces are defeated or unwilling to continue fighting, the smashing of the old state apparatus and the establishment of socialist state power must begin immediately. Moreover, the first elements of the socialist state will already be created in the course of the revolutionary struggles wherever the power of the capitalists, their institutions of repression and their capitalist administration have been displaced or smashed. The shattering of the old state apparatus hereby means that all institutions of the old state must be systematically dissolved.
The sham democracy of parliaments will be replaced by council democracy. Already in the course of the revolution, the working class will organize itself in councils and, through its actions, will increasingly challenge the power of the capitalist class. Through the seizure of power these councils will become the basis of state power. Throughout the country, the population will organize in them.
In place of a bureaucratic apparatus that elevates itself as a foreign body above the rest of society, there is a state that is connected to the people from the highest to the lowest level, serves the fulfillment of its interests and can be controlled by it.
From the supreme council, new state organs are formed to fulfill all state functions still necessary even under socialism. While the council-democratic state means unprecedented freedoms and rights for the working class and the laboring population to shape social life, it holds down the the class of the bourgeoisie and consistently fights all efforts to reintroduce capitalism or otherwise oppose the new state power.
To protect the gains of the revolution, it will be necessary to build a Red Army that breaks with the old militarist spirit of the bourgeois armies, but masters all the technological and military achievements of capitalist warfare and raises them to an even higher level to defend socialism against attacks from the capitalist countries.
The state of the dictatorship of the proletariat is designed in its entire structure to involve ever larger sections of the working class and the laboring population in the regulation of all social affairs. In addition to various forms of participation in political and economic decisions, special mechanisms will be created for the strict control of all those who are in the service of the new state as functionaries – the success of these mechanisms also depends on the participation of the broadest mass of the population.
After the working class has seized power, the Communist Party is given an arguably even more important role than before. It must continue to be the organizational body of the most determined, progressive and self-sacrificing sections of that class, precisely those sections which are pushing most strongly towards communism. Although the party must be proactive on all social issues, it must not simply merge with the new state apparatus, but must remain the leading force, especially with regard to the active involvement of the entire working class in political events and the spread of communist ideology.
2. Constructing the Socialist Planned Economy
The smashing of the political power of the capitalist class must be accompanied by the elimination of its economic power as quickly as possible. At the time of the establishment of the new state power, however, socialist relations of production do not yet exist. With its assumption of power, it therefore immediately begins to destroy the capitalist economic base, which is based on the exploitation of human labor power, and to build the socialist planned economy.
The capitalist class, that is, all those who live from the exploitation of other people’s labor, will be dispossessed without compensation. Their property will be taken into possession by the institutions of power of the council democracy and thus transformed into socialist state property. Likewise, private ownership of land will be abolished, thus eliminating it as a means of enrichment and speculation.
Immediately after the revolution, the socialist state begins to ensure supplies for all segments of the population and to form central planning bodies. These first centralize knowledge of all economic resources, means of production and labor available in the country and then go about drawing up ever more extensive economic plans.
In contrast, petty bourgeois who own their own property but have not accumulated enough wealth to live off the exploitation of other people’s labor are integrated into socialist economic life by means of persuasion. In this regard, collective farms can serve as a transitional form.
In any case, however, the socialist state takes measures to prevent a resurgence of capitalist elements in the economy: The buying and selling of labor power is forbidden in principle, as is that of land and means of production. Speculation is curbed by the setting of mandatory prices by the state planning organs. The socialist state establishes a monopoly on foreign trade. The wage level is raised, the general working time is reduced, the salaries of all occupational groups are regulated uniformly; heavy, physical work is especially compensated and/or the working time is reduced especially strongly there.
The enormous waste of labor and resources under capitalism is ended, and production is directed toward meeting individual and social needs. The unemployed and workers in socially unproductive occupations such as the finance or advertising industry are included in the socially necessary production.
The general obligation to work under socialism is complemented by a rational distribution of the necessary work among all sections of society, so that both unemployment and the enormous workload will become a thing of the past. At the same time, socialism ensures a dignified standard of living for all people who are unable to work or who are in the process of education/training.
The average work week can be reduced by these measures shortly after the revolution and will be further reduced as soon as the first successes of the revolution are secured and the council state is consolidated.
Economic planning is organized in such a way that the workers actively participate in it, right down to the individual departments of the factories; they discuss the plan, make suggestions for its betterment and for the improvement of work processes. In this way, not only are enormous potentials for the development of economic productivity unfolded, which are forever being denied under capitalism, but the opposition between head work and manual work, between managerial and executive activities, is increasingly abolished in social practice.
3. Women’s Revolution
The tasks of the socialist revolution include not only the elimination of capitalism, but also the elimination of patriarchy. While the power of the capitalist class can be broken relatively quickly and a socialist economic base can emerge within a few years, patriarchy is still rooted far deeper in people’s habits, relationships and personality structure than is capitalism. The moment of the seizure of power by the proletariat is therefore only an intermediate stage in the struggle against this relationship of oppression. Only this step makes it possible to fully develop the struggle in the whole of society.
In order to promote women’s participation in the construction of the new society and provide them with tools to fight patriarchy, the system of council democracy is supplemented by women’s councils, which have clearly defined responsibilities and decision-making powers.
The socialist revolution does not stop at the complete legal equality of all genders. It immediately sets about developing measures to ensure the actual equality of all genders, as well as to abolish the economic dependence of women on men.
With public kitchens and laundries, an expansion of day-care centers, the extension of schooling and similar measures, household work is socialized – as far as possible. At the same time, the socialist state power also directs all measures to the creation of a new consciousness to combat patriarchal thoughts and ideas that justify the subordination of women to men.
The lasting development of socialism towards communism is impossible as long as all genders do not participate equally in social production and political and social life.
In the legal sphere, the right to physical and personal self-determination is recognized. Socialism guarantees free access to abortions, recognizes the right to self-determination in one’s gender, and takes consistent action against any discrimination based on gender or sexuality. Special incentives for entering into marriages disappear from the legal system, and patriarchal violence is recognized as a serious crime and systematically prosecuted.
The elimination of patriarchal mechanisms of repression in the economic foundation of life is the necessary pre-condition for overcoming patriarchy, all relations of repression based on it, as well as the corresponding behavioral patterns and ideas of people in general. These include, in particular, the ideas about the alleged nature of women and men that have developed over thousands of years and the way they fit into the patriarchal family order. Overcoming them requires a conscious, tireless struggle at all levels of society.
The continuation of the women’s revolution in socialism thus opens the path to a communist future for humanity in which all traces of the age-old enslavement of one class by another and of women by men are eliminated, and thus people can finally face each other eye-to-eye, completely independent of their gender.
4. Cultural Revolution
The struggle for the consolidation of the proletarian dictatorship and the consolidation of socialism is by no means fought and decided only in the political, military and economic fields. The development of socialism and its advance towards communism presuppose a tireless struggle against all the lingering properties of class societies in the way people coexist.
Only with the establishment of socialist state power can this struggle also be carried out to the necessary extent in the whole of society. The working class in power revolutionizes not only the economic system but also education, the media, art. Put simply: all aspects of culture.
Socialism will provide all the necessary means to educate the members of society to become educated all-round and interested in all aspects of life, as well as becoming active and collective individuals. This process begins at birth and, unlike under capitalism, does not end at the end of a school or university career. Permanent learning and continuous education and training become an irreplaceable part of social life and are promoted accordingly. The costs of all forms of education are covered socially instead of privately.
The media landscape is transformed from a means of disseminating capitalist ideology into a means of combating it. The newspapers, television, the film industry develop into forums for discussion of socialist democracy. Workers are encouraged to engage with them and use them as their own means of expression.
While art in the capitalist world is still a pleasure for a select part of society, under socialism it becomes truly common property. Both the products of socialist art and the means for their production are freely accessible. Workers are encouraged and supported in becoming artistically active themselves and thus enriching social life.
In the development of a socialist culture, the working class in Germany is faced with the circumstance that it cannot take only the culture of one nation as a starting point, for its ranks unite workers from a multitude of countries. The culture of socialist Germany will take up the most progressive elements of all these cultures and raise them to a new level.
Socialism puts an end to the division of workers on the basis of their origin and instead promotes the development of an internationalist culture. Racism in all its forms is combated, and migrant workers are encouraged to enter the center of social life and participate in the construction of socialism as an equal part of society.
III. Strategy of the Socialist Revolution
1. The Working Class as the Main Force of the Revolution in Germany
Despite all bourgeois sociological models: the working class, the main force of the socialist revolution, exists in Germany. Not only that; it continues to grow and constitute an ever larger part of the population.
As capital grows and expands, so does its hunger for the labor force. It penetrates ever more areas of society and reshapes them in such a way that they can be used for its proliferation.
The petty bourgeoisie, as a class standing between capitalists and workers, also finds itself in constant agitation by capital. Due to the constant development of the capitalist economy, gaps continue to open up in which independent petty bourgeois can assert themselves for a while, yet simultaneously capital continuously strives to subjugate them in the production process via direct subordination. At the same time, developments in history have shown that the petty bourgeoisie will not disappear as a class and, as a political factor, it plays an important role in the stability of the bourgeois system.
Even sections of the academic professions, which used to be associated with high social rank and prosperity, are becoming increasingly similar in their living conditions to the broad mass of the working class.
Not least, the growth of the working class in this country is fed by immigration, which has long since become an necessity for the exploitative demands of the German monopolies.
But as the working class grows, it also becomes more diverse and complex. Both the objective developmental tendencies of capitalism and the conscious efforts of bourgeois ideologues undermine the unity of the working class.
Its large and constantly growing number is thus countered by the economic, political and ideological fragmentation of the working class. Today, it lacks not only an awareness of the fact that socialism corresponds to its objective interests, but even of the fact that it is a class with common interests.
Class consciousness cannot be acquired spontaneously by the working class; socialism has reached the maturity of a science through the work of the communist movement, and it is inconceivable that the working class as a whole will acquire this consciousness on its own. It is therefore the central duty of communists to develop the class consciousness of the working class and to become its leadership in the class struggle.
As the ruling class is increasingly forced by the internal contradictions of capitalism to attack the workers as a collective class instead of pitting them against each other, there arise with ever greater regularity tendencies that facilitate and encourage the forging of an „iron fighting unity“ (eiserne Kampfeinheit) of our class.
In order to achieve this goal and to counter the attempts of the capitalist class at division, it must be a central focus of the practical work of communists to establish their roots in all parts, sections and groups within the working class.
This especially includes working class women, LGBTI+ persons and migrants of our class, urban and rural workers, and all generations of the working class from the youth to the retired. This is necessary firstly to fully unleash the fighting potentials of the working class and secondly to counteract the attempts of the ruling class at division.
2. The Reserve-Forces of Revolution in Germany
Germany is one of the most powerful imperialist states in the world. Its capital flows into the whole world and returns, supplemented by the surplus value it has squeezed from the workers of other countries. This economic strength is the basis for the powerful German state apparatus and one of the most modern armies in the world, which is ready on numerous continents to enforce the interests of German capital.
This is also the basis for the possibility of the German bourgeoisie to bribe a part of the working class with particularly high wages and a prominent position within the production process and, as a labor aristocracy, to draw it politically to its side.
From this and from Germany’s central position in the imperialist world system it follows that arguably the most important allies of the revolution in Germany are the communist movements and the workers‘ movements of other countries; especially those countries where German imperialism has been able to gain the greatest position of power, meaning above all in Eastern Europe.
Any successful attempt at eliminating capitalism in another country, or even at limiting the rule of imperialists in a dependent country, will drastically improve the chances of the revolution’s success in Germany.
It is therefore one of the most important tasks of the working class in Germany, under the leadership of the communists, to stab German imperialism, the dominant power in Europe, in the back when it plots to crush the revolutionary uprisings of our class siblings.
Other potential allies of the socialist revolution in Germany are the petty bourgeoisie and the semi-proletarian class groups (Zwischenschichten). These include the classic petty bourgeoisie consisting of small farmers, small tradesmen and self-employed craftsmen, as well as small civil servants and small self-employed workers. In addition, there is today a growing modern petty bourgeoisie, mainly consisting of (executive) employees in capitalist enterprises and well-off freelancers.
To the extent that their deliberately manufactured dreams of rising up within the capitalist system are shattered and they are, on the contrary, threatened with descent into the working class by economic crises, the laws of capitalist competition or the economically intolerable conditions dictated to them by banks and monopolies, the ideological attraction exerted on them by the capitalist class diminishes and the communists, as the politically conscious part of the working class, can exert influence on them and bring them into the class struggle.
3. The Main Direction of the Revolution
Regardless of the current state of the communist movement and the labor movement, the next strategic goal in this country must be socialist revolution. For this, it is necessary to win the key sections of the working class for the revolution. These are, in particular, the workers in the main industrial centers and in the sectors of the economy that are most important for the assertion of proletarian power after the revolution; that is, heavy industry, transportation, food production, weapons production, and all other parts of the central infrastructure.
The wavering petty bourgeoisie and the semi-proletarian class groups (Zwischenschichten) must – if possible – also be won over to the revolution, or otherwise at least be politically neutralized. Sooner or later, the building up of political influence in the central agencies of the state apparatus and even in the police and military will become of great importance for the success of the revolution.
The capitalist class, on the other hand, will be completely dispossessed by the revolution as quickly as possible and will therefore, as a class, put up fierce resistance to the very end.
Objectively, conditions in Germany have long been calling for socialism. The artificial construction of further intermediate phases or milestones that must first be achieved is equivalent to a distraction from this goal and inevitably leads to the fragmentation of the revolutionary forces.
Thus, even the struggle for reforms that temporarily improve the living conditions of workers under capitalism cannot be the main objective of communists. They know that all successes in this regard are only temporary and that all concessions wrested from the capitalists will sooner or later result in new attacks.
Therefore the revolution in Germany cannot base itself on a minimum programme. Its direct goal is the construction of socialism. The communists take part in the day to day struggles of the working class and contribute with all their resources to their success. The most important aspect though remains to be that the political unity of the working class is forged in these struggles, that the workers convince themselves of the necessity of revolution and gather indispensable political experience as a precondition to successful revolution.
IV. The State of the Communist Movement
1. The International State of the Communist Movement
The first half of the 20th century was a time of great successes and triumphs for the Communist movement. It is the period in which the first successful socialist revolution took place in the form of the October Revolution. Shortly thereafter, the Communist International was founded under the leadership of the Communists in the Soviet Union, which united and advanced the struggles for world revolution. Numerous anti-colonial liberation struggles followed, the victory over Italian, Japanese and German fascism, paid for with tens of millions of deaths, as well as further courageous attempts to build socialism, as in Albania and China.
By contrast, in the second half of the last century, the world Communist movement and with it the working class experienced numerous painful setbacks in the struggle for communism. The emergence of new class divisions in the socialist states, the imposition of modern revisionism and restoration of capitalism in the former socialist countries from the mid-1950s, the shift of Western European Communist Parties to the reformist line of Eurocommunism, the victory of revisionism in China and in Albania were only the most important turning points that led to ideological uncertainty, confusion and fragmentation in the Communist movement.
Even though by their very nature they had long ceased to be socialist societies, the collapse of the revisionist states in the so-called Eastern bloc only served to exacerbate this negative trend. Communism subsequently lost much of the appeal it had previously held for hundreds of millions.
Especially in the Western imperialist countries, this development paved the way for a flourishing of numerous (semi-)anarchist, Trotskyist and other ideologically and politically amorphous groups and circles. In word or deed, these often appear pseudo-radical, but de facto constantly reproduce the state of disintegration, because they shy away from directing all energy towards the preparation of the socialist revolution and drawing the resulting political, organizational and personal consequences.
Internationally, there are today only a small number of Marxist-Leninist forces working seriously toward the conquest of power by the working class in a revolutionary civil war. Many organizations have so far failed to rise above the level of a relatively narrow circle or, depressed by decades of setbacks, have fallen into the rut of reformism and become completely absorbed in the day-to-day petty work.
The still comparatively numerous adherents of modern revisionism do not represent a revolutionary potential anywhere in the world. They openly deny the necessity of armed revolution and, moreover, are prevented by their narrow ideological vision from making a sober evaluation of the restoration of capitalism in the former socialist countries.
The state of the world communist movement makes the reconstruction of the communist movement and the preparation of the socialist revolution in Germany a special challenge. At the same time, however, any progress in this task represents an important contribution to the strengthening of the world communist movement.
On the historic eve of World War 3, one of the duties of communists in Germany must be to build relations of international solidarity with their comrades in other countries. In the long run, the objective must be to jointly rebuild a Communist International.
2. The State of the Communist Movement in Germany
This deep crisis is also reflected in the situation of the communist movement in Germany. It differs from the worldwide situation at most in that the counterrevolutionary efforts at dismantling have been particularly successful here in some ways.
It has left its mark to this day in the form of a great fragmentation and ideological disorientation of large parts of the political resistance movement. The existence of political circles and the associated constant emergence of new political circles that are narrowly confined to specific regions continue to characterize the situation of the revolutionary and communist movement.
With regard to the circles that keep emerging, it should be said above all that neither the subjective nor the objective factors of the situation of our movement provide a basis for further delaying the necessary step of joining the process of building the Communist Party. Thus, these forces condemn themselves to organizational instability and political lack of influence.
Many of the organizations that still bear communism in their names have either long since quite openly abandoned the theory of the revolution necessary for it, or have postponed it to an indefinite future, and reject any suggestion that a clandestinely formed cadre party is necessary for a successful revolution in this country as leftist sectarianism.
However, the reconstruction of the Communist Party is the historic duty facing Communists in Germany today. There is no way around this task, and there is no justification for postponing it. This task will be accomplished by no one if not by us, here and now.
We meet other approaches to construction, including other ideological lines, cooperatively on the basis of revolutionary solidarity and seek unity in struggle as well as regular exchange in order to learn from each other.
3. Reconstructing the Communist Party
In order to realize the socialist revolution, the most class-conscious and determined sections of the working class must unite to form a Communist Party.
The political leadership of the working class must be exercised by a cadre party bound by conscious discipline and unshakable convictions, which does not understand Marxism-Leninism as dogma, but applies it in a living way, develops it further and thus raises it to the height of the times. It must be active throughout the country and rooted in the working class.
In the struggle to destroy capitalism, it must recognize all forms of struggle and prepare concretely for their application. It must accordingly withdraw its organizational framework from the grasp of counterrevolution, but at the same time be so closely linked to the working class through a diverse network of mass organizations that it can lead it politically in struggle and also win the best forces from its ranks for the Communist Party. Since such a party does not exist in Germany today, it is the most urgent task of all communists to work on building such a party.
The Communist Party must be a collective system of communists who can tackle all these tasks and solve them successfully. The creation of a type of communist cadre capable of concretely leading a revolution in this country is central to this.
The creation of the largest possible number of professional revolutionaries as the nucleus of this party, distinguished by the fact that they fully orient their lives to the needs of the revolution and tear down every barrier between the collective and their supposedly private needs, are essential not only for any Communist Party, but also for any serious attempt to build such a party in this country.
4. Phases of Revolutionary Struggle
Building the party will not lead linearly to the socialist revolution in this country. Rather, the development of the communist movement will continue to take the form of leaps of success and bitter defeats.
It is decisive for the success of communists to correctly analyze the respective concrete conditions, including the social power relations, to determine their own duties and priorities in their work accordingly, and then to approach them in a disciplined manner.
In a situation where there is not yet a Communist Party in this country, the development of this very organization must be the focus of all Communists. While organized communists, owing to their relative weakness, cannot yet hope to reach and convince the broadest swathes of the working class, they must first concentrate on winning the most politically conscious section of that class over to communism and uniting them in one party.
However, this emphasis must not be confused with the acceptance of stages that are strictly separated from each other. Under no circumstances must it become a pretext for indefinitely banishing the recognition and application of all forms of struggle from the practical considerations of communists. The strategic goal of Communists, the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism in the socialist revolution, must remain the decisive criterion by which their practical work is measured.
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Based on this communist program for the revolution in imperialist Germany, we are taking the fighting path that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels already pointed out to communists in the Communist Manifesto:
Boldly and fearlessly, communists lead the struggle for the liberation of the working class and the overcoming of the exploitation and enslavement of man by man.
The communists disdain to conceal their views and intentions. They openly declare that their purposes can only be achieved through the violent overthrow of all previous social orders.
Let the ruling classes tremble before a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to gain.
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
