November teaches us that there is no revolutionary way of learning from the immortals other than by organizing one’s life according to the needs of the party and the revolution. The fundamental lesson passed down to us by our devoted immortals, is that revolutionaries are bound to their conditions. Likewise, it embodies the way the revolution, party cadres and fighters rebuild their existence within certain periods of political struggle.
“The bows are now stretched with more strength/ In the night, we girded our bosoms for tomorrow/ In the night, the most invincible power prospered within us/ The dead ran from the mountains in droves/ The dead were resurrected within us.”
As Marxist-Leninists Communists, we have once again revived our immortals within ourselves this November. We forged deep connections to our fallen comrades and we cling tightly onto the dreams we share. With pride did we receive the gift they left us, the compass to freedom. During this month, we not only gained moral strength in their commemoration, but we prospered in the knowledge of being soldiers of the same struggle. We have simplified our consciousness to the standards of our immortals. The bows that are our ideology were strengthened.
November is the month where communists encounter the source of their strength, personified by the immortals. During this time, they stood at the forefront of all areas of party activity, and became subject of revolutionary work and the organization of an ideo-political framework. Across Turkey, Rojava, Bakûr, Bashûr and Europe, the immortals were commemorated by the party, through various slogans and practices, carrying their revolutionary values to the class of the oppressed and exploited. Grave commemorations, mass commemorations, Gece, internal trainings and workshops on learning from the immortals, processing their stories creatively and and introducing them to the masses, visiting the families of our immortals, and so on and so forth. The slogan “Always Forward in the Footsteps of Our Immortals” was embodied in daily activiteis of the party. The work during this month, intensely ideo-political and organizational in character, led us down the path of learning from our immortals, acquiring and developing our revolutionary qualities.
In summary, the work of the Marxist-Leninist Communists during November, month of the immortals, served to distill their revolutionary consciousness. It is the month of ideo-political achievements, but it also lends a voice to the fallen, who call on us. We are now at the ‘moment’ of understanding and responding to what we have learned from them, what we have learned from the call of November, and engraving it into our revolutionary lives under the command of “always forward”. In other words: the appeal of November and revolutionary consciousness that come with it, stand before us as tasks of the period.
So: what are we being called for? What is it, that the immortals are asking of us to integrate into our revolutionary struggle, under the presumption of ‘every heart being a revolutionary cell’? What kind of revolutionary action is demanded of us? November teaches us that there is no revolutionary way of learning from the immortals other than by organizing one’s life according to the needs of the party and the revolution. The fundamental lesson passed down to us by our devoted immortals, is that revolutionaries are bound to their conditions. Likewise, it embodies the way the revolution, party cadres and fighters rebuild their existence within certain periods of political struggle.
One thing is clear: revolutionary subjectification and development as a revolutionary cadre are possible by way of periods of political and total struggle. Above all, November commands us to understand and respond to the revolutionary needs of the period we are passing through. It confronts us with the multifaceted difficulties and challenges of the revolutionary struggle. The “politics of collapse” that has been pursued by the colonial fascist dictatorship since 2015, has aggravated the conditions of class struggle extraordinarily. During this prolonged and ongoing reactionary period, the political Islamist fascist regime, with the power of constitutive violence, broke the mass movement that reached its highest level during the Gezi Uprising and the Kobanê Serhildan(Kurdish, “uprising”) and has since been regressing step by step. The masses did not surrender, but retreated to the rearmost positions of resistance and defense. These given conditions were reflected in a row of consequences such as political indecision in the ranks of the working left, ideological hermorrhage and political retreat to the most backward positions, as well as political support of the bourgeois opposition. Loss of political assertion, lack of self-confidence and political cynicism became evident within the labor left.
During this period, Marxist-Leninists, who fought at the forefront and focused on paving the way against the period of reaction, became the special and primary target of the political Islamist fascist regime. ML-Communists resolutely remained on the line of resistance against the fascist dictatorship’s attacks, in form of liquidationist sieges, isolation from the masses and organizational destruction. The communists, fighting among flames, paid great prices during this period and faced it as revolutionary vanguards. The Marxist Leninists Communist fighters and leaders who rose to immortality during this period provided moral strength, courage and resistance to all forces that resisted, fought and we ready to take action. The actions of our immortals who responded to this period with acts of self-sacrifice are of special significance. They present us as the revolutionary procedures on how to relate to the needs of the revolution as a soldier in its service, as a soldier of the party. They are the physical realization of revolutionary determination, courage and solidity in the most difficult conditions of class struggle. They are documents of taking on the revolutionary mission and stepping forward. They symbolize, in utmost simplicity, the self-construction of revolutionism at certain periods, turning points and critical thresholds.
The period we are going through today, continues to be a protracted and difficult period that the labouring left movement has not yet been able to reverse with its united vanguard practice and progressive-revolutionary mass struggle. The conditions prioritize ideological clarity and revolutionary determination. The fascist reactionary siege can only be overcome with a typology of qualified revolutionaries who are unwavering in ideology, have high revolutionary determination and endurance, can integrate quickly and effectively into the masses, and have strong skills of persuasion and organization. Preparing the revolutionary cadres who will face the current period on a level of ideology and politics and solve its most pressing issues, imposes itself as the most crucial and vital task of the party activity of Marxist-Leninists. A concrete revolutionary development strategy that prioritizes active preparation, self-renewal and reconstruction, organizes and manages its own revolutionary development depending on the needs of the period should be an indispensable part of any communists praxis.
It is an indisputable truth that the constitutive fascist violence of the past, had devastating consequences on the entire working left. Being part of a fighting party, the Marxist-Leninist Communists are not exempt from the consequences of this long liquidationist siege. To proceed, we must update continuity of a concrete, deliberate ideo-political struggle against all the direct and indirect reactionary consequences and effects of the period on the Marxist-Leninist Communists. Preparing and organizing the party’s revolutionary cadres can only be achieved this way. In difficult times, there are setbacks, leaps forward, trembling and indecision. Revolutionary determination is not a phenomenon limited to an individual stance and activity. It is task of the party and an activity of the revolutionary leadership. Organizational leadership should be the driving force in organizing the revolutionary cadres and determination of the period.
Of course, the Marxist-Leninist Communist subject must move forward by relying on the experience of its militants, who are armed with mission consciousness, to face and carry this prolonged difficult period, as well as on the acquired quality and continuity of its structure. It must organize the revolutionary determination of the period by creatively realizing its given possibilities. The Marxist-Leninist Communistsmust move forward by leaning on their entire historical revolutionary accumulation and turning it into practice, succeeding in consciously organizing and raising ideological consolidation, political assertiveness and self-confidence. It must continue to march steadfastly on the path of organizing a revolutionary will and line that filters and focuses on all these class struggle realities from the lessons of its own practice and aims to change the situation. Here our revolutionary compass is again our immortals.
*Editorial of ATILIM newspaper, Voice of the Working Class and the Oppressed, dated December 1, number 144.