Simultaneously with the Gelsenkirchen Party Congress, the work of the MLPD was successfully shifted to the basis of the proletarian mode of thinking. This new basis of party building is a decisive conclusion from the revisionist degeneration of many former communist parties and from the restoration of capitalism in all socialist countries without exception in the second half of the twentieth century. With an all-round system of self-control, the party has drawn conclusions mainly from the crucial role of the mode of thinking in the development of party building, of the class struggle and of socialist construction.

The new party program expounds in an all-round way what the MLPD understands by working on the basis of the proletarian mode of thinking and, at the same time, shows the prospect of a new upsurge of the struggle for genuine socialism. The new party program generally claims to provide a programmatic orientation to the new-type Marxist-Leninist party and to demonstrate, in particular to the working class and the broad masses, which conclusions the MLPD has drawn from the history of the international Marxist-Leninist and working-class movement.

For the first time, this program is related to Germany after its reunification. Accordingly, it sets itself the task of overcoming the effects of the division of the German working class over decades, as an important contribution to the preparation for an international socialist revolution.

With the party program, everyone is given the possibility to comprehensively get to know the MLPD's policy and to understand it in its essential features. It conveys an independent orientation for the path of the self-liberation of the working class and all the oppressed and exploited. Simultaneously, it brings across many opportunities for the interested reader to take part in the future tasks of mankind and, according to his or her possibilities, commit oneself to the liberation from capitalist exploitation and oppression at the side of the MLPD.

The new party program has been written out of the experience of the MLPD's history of almost thirty years of party building; its draft was not only critically discussed by the party members, but also by interested persons not attached to any party and by the international Marxist-Leninist and working-class movement as well. Therefore, it is also a contribution to the international Marxist-Leninist and working-class movement to draw its conclusions for a new upsurge of the struggle for genuine socialism.

Stefan Engel

Chairman of the MLPD