On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the MLPD

June 20^th marks the 25^th anniversary of the founding of the MLPD. For 25 years, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been depicting the MLPD as an insignificant left sect. What do you think about that?

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is an organ of the class rule of the monopolies for the oppression of socially critical opinions and endeavors, especially those of the revolutionary working-class movement. Its practice, as well as its points of view, reflect the political strategy and tactics of the ruling powers. For example, it produces the public terminology of the ruling powers for the journalists, state officials and politically interested people for dealing with the MLPD. Equipped with a highly questionable aura of “insider-knowledge” and “painstaking research”, infinite amounts of tax revenue are poured into the denigration of left-wing forces, in particular the MLPD. Employing a level of information that lies far lower than that of the popular press, they deliberately create a distorted, deterrent image of the MLPD.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution makes use of the societal system of the petty-bourgeois mode of thinking with modern anticommunism as its essence. This was built up as a dam against the development of the class-consciousness of the working class.

As a fact, with the help of this system of the petty-bourgeois mode of thinking, the MLPD was successfully kept in a relative isolation for many years. Contrary to its genuine historical role as the revolutionary force for the liberation of the working class in Germany, the MLPD was depicted as a marginal appearance in society. Actually, only those people could get a somewhat realistic picture of us, who came into direct contact with the MLPD, because the modern media refused to give information about the MLPD for many years.

Our straightforwardness and our systematic rank-and-file work enabled us to become a societal factor with growing significance step by step. Today there is no significant workers’ struggle, no mass movement, no societal discussion in which the MLPD has not developed a profile and is often a determining participating force. Our international attraction has also grown enormously. Our international friends appreciate the clarity of our ideological-political line, our proletarian character, our systematic work among the masses and, of course, our international solidarity.

In many discussions and decisions of ruling politics, of trade union leadership, of company managers, the MLPD is sitting at the same table: “What would the MLPD do if…”, “How can we prevent that the MLPD…”.

The contradiction between the depiction provided by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and reality is becoming more and more intense. The only thing is that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution doesn’t seem to notice how it is discrediting itself in the eyes of an ever-growing mass of progressive people.

The media depict a successful German federal government. Is this an accurate picture?

Contrary to the Schroeder/Fischer administration, where the media strongly criticized the federal government, the media are now doing everything in their power to give the impression that the grand coalition is doing successful work. That has less to do with the quality of the grand coalition than with the fact that the Schroeder/Fischer administration dismissed itself with a deep political crisis, leaving behind strong tensions in the societal structure. These are so strong that society cannot regain the stability it had in the 1960s and 1970s. For the ruling powers, there is a risk involved when more and more people are searching for a societal alternative. That was the reason why the grand coalition became necessary as a government to cope with crises. It especially had the task of quieting down society and regaining a certain confidence and maneuvering capacity.

Of course the government is benefiting from the fact that it is operating in times of relative economic revival. However, the economic revival is only a temporary vacillation within the framework of wavering stagnation and should not be overestimated. The decline in the unemployment statistics is mostly due to the rapid growth of limited term and part-time jobs, mini-jobs and 1€-jobs and of contract workers. Almost all companies are continuing to reduce their regular workforce and replacing them with contract workers. They can rid themselves of these without greater political problems, if the economic development reverses again. Additionally, contract work is advantageous for pushing through a general reduction of wages, splitting the working class and undermining developed class consciousness.

Of course the government is getting better results in the present polls, especially Mrs. Merkel, but in no way did this stop the process of the destabilization of society fundamentally. People remain very skeptical about whether this government seriously wants to or will be able to solve the problems of unemployment, the climate catastrophe or the problems of poverty, education and the family.

The G-8 Summit Meeting was certainly the most important event of the latest time in various respects. What significance does this really have?

The results of the G-8 Summit Meeting are being drastically over-estimated in the media. In its essence it was actually a demonstration of the “good will” of the governments of the leading imperialist countries in face of the justified demands of the masses for climate protection and aid for the African countries. In these issues there have been no tangible results. The mass media almost completely refrained from reporting on the actual agreements of the G-8 countries. These apply in particular to the “liberalization of the world economy”. For example, various dependent countries, especially in Latin America, have cancelled privatizations or demanded the protection of domestic production, etc. under the pressure of mass protests. The G-8 countries want to take energetic action against this and make every effort to remove the growing obstacles against the reorganization of international production taking place on the backs of the masses in the dependent countries. This reflects the imperialist character of the G8 countries.

The MLPD participated in the protests in accordance with its possibilities and is attempting to cooperate with various forces among the so-called “critics of globalization”. But actually, the official line of “attac” was a weak petty-bourgeois critique of “globalization policies” at the most, which should supposedly be “implemented more justly”. This criticism is directed against so-called “neoliberalism”, as if the exploitation offensive of international finance capital, which is taking place on the background of the merciless competitive struggle for the control of the world markets, were only one of a variety of possibilities of capitalist policies. With the consciously very blurry slogan “Another world is possible”, people are made to believe that another capitalism might be possible, favorably one with a “humane face”. However, this is an illusion and, in the end, with the attacks against “neoliberalism”, the actual evil is taken out of the firing lines.

A principled opposition against imperialism or even a stand for the international proletarian revolution can be attributed to only a minority of the demonstrators. The striking force of an anti-imperialist movement can only come by means of the working-class offensive, which was only represented to a small degree in the protests. Therefore it was correct that the MLPD did not direct all its forces to these protests and that it adhered to its principle lines of its rank-and-file work, especially in the factories and trade unions.

Last year, MLPD was expecting a "hot autumn ". Obviously that failed to come in the expected form. Was the general assessment of the political development expression of wishful thinking on the part of the MLPD?

The "hot autumn" was no wishful thinking, but an absolutely realistic tactical aim. The workers and employees were quite prepared. In the eyes of the population, the reputation of the Federal Government had reached a historical low in October 2006 - in polls, only 19 percent approved of the government’s work. The readiness of the workers was shown with the 220,000 demonstrators who demonstrated in five cities against the government on October 21^st, 2006. In spite of that, the "hot autumn" could be choked off by the class cooperation politics of government, monopolies and right-wing trade union leadership. One can never predict with absolute certainty how the class struggle will develop. Neither can revolutionaries only call up to struggle if the realization and the success are secure. That would be plain opportunism! What ever is necessary has to be stated, convinced, prepared. The masses must decide themselves. And if that still does not result in a struggle? Then the revolutionaries have to evaluate the objective and subjective factors for that, as well as their own powers of persuasion and draw productive conclusions for the future work. One must acknowledge soberly that the tactical starting position changed and the government and the monopolies have succeeded with the help of the union leadership in temporarily cushioning[WB1] the class contradictions and relatively stabilizing Berlin's crisis government.

To stabilize the situation, the government postponed[WB2] some attacks of their crisis program - think only of the planned sharpening of the Hartz-IV laws with the cut of the benefits, which were put on ice for the time being. Or of the cutbacks of the protection against dismissals, that were announced loudly. For the first time in years, the capitalists in the metal industry offered a real wage increase in the collective agreement for the metal industry. That made it possible for the union leadership to scotch the collective bargaining before the start of real mass strikes. It went so far as the government even giving prospects for improvements for parts of the population, as for example, in the care of small children.

That all did not lead to euphoria over the government but to some reserve among the broad masses, which is particularly expressed in the temporary decline of active people's resistance and the rebellion of the youth.

Among the workers and, in particular in the core of the industrial proletariat, the development trend, however, is different. Unlike the trend among the broad masses, no decline of the struggles occurred here. The speed of the transition to the workers’ offensive just slowed down a little.

While we had a decline in the numbers of participants and of independent strikes to 11,150 participants and one to two strikes per month in the year 2006, more than 75,000 workers and employees took part in independent strikes until June 2007 alone. That is the highest level since the year 2004.

Outstanding were the independent protest action of 13,000 miners on February 1^st in Duesseldorf and the corporation-wide strikes at Airbus in March, and now at the beginning of June, the independent strikes flaring up again and again against ERA (skeleton wage agreement), concentrated at DaimlerChrysler and various other companies, particularly in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

There was also an upswing of the trade union warning strikes of the IG Metall (metal workers’ union) in this year's collective bargaining. More than 400,000 metal workers, thousands of printers and colleagues and, currently, the construction workers were involved. At Telekom tens of thousands of employees have been on strike since the overwhelming strike ballot of 96.5 percent on May 11^th. We are also experiencing the first strike in the construction industry that has taken place for a long time.

300,000 participated nationwide in the trade union demonstrations and short-term strikes against the grand coalition's increase of the pension entry age to 67 years, in spite of partial disorganization from the right-wing trade union leadership and the threats of the employers’ associations because of "illegal political strikes". Those were political strikes against the government policy, although they were organized by the trade union. At least 530,000 participated in the demonstrations and rallies on May 1^st, 2007, more than the year before.

Especially remarkable in terms of quality is the development of a higher level of corporation-wide cooperation of the class-conscious core of the workforce on a national and international scale, particularly at VW and General Motors. In this context, the solidarity declarations adopted by workers’ delegations from numerous sites around the globe at the 5^th International Automobile Worker's Counsel have a great significance for the future.

Since September 11, 2001, the imperialists have been coordinating their suppression against the masses of the people internationally, in particular against the revolutionary working-class movement. What is the MLPD’s answer to that?

The spearhead of the internationally coordinated measures is without a doubt directed against the revolutionary forces. The ghost that causes the actual fear and sleepless nights for the ruling class is still the communism. In January 2006, within the framework of the decision on a "Resolution against the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes", the European Council discussed about Marxism-Leninism as being the actual "root of terrorism". Today, the so-called "fight against terror" constitutes the best possibility for the monopolies to justify the increasing expansion of the state power apparatus. The G8-summit became an exceptional demonstration of power in which the increasing fascization of the state apparatus became obvious. 1,200 demonstrators were arrested randomly and detained in degrading cages. Reports are accumulating, which prove a deliberate provocation of the police apparatus at the demonstration in Rostock. The open deployment of the German Federal Armed Forces against such mass protests is also new, which became clear in the deployment of a Tornado-jet for the surveillance of the demonstration. Bourgeois politicians now take the provoked riots as a pretext in order to approve the use of rubber projectiles against demonstrators by order of the respective deployment leader in future. Also the introduction of "preventive detention" is being discussed.

Some may find all that to be alarming and threatening. But imperialism is a colossus on feet of clay. US-imperialism and its open striving for world hegemony associated with Bush’s "New War" is facing the second historical defeat in Iraq and in Afghanistan after Vietnam.
Also the current economical upturn will not last for long. The present worldwide mergers, the gigantic bubble at the world's stock market are already an expression of a gigantic surplus capital that will let off steam in a new world economic crisis. It is well-known that such world economic crises are connected with increasingly deeper crises, in which also the class-consciousness of the working class develops in leaps and the influence of socialism can seize the masses. We Marxist-Leninists do well not losing any time to prepare ourselves in calmer times for the sharpening of the class struggle and gathering strength.

The MLPD has been doing comprehensive internationalist work for years. How must it be further developed in face of the internationalized counterrevolution?

Basically, all aspects of the workers’ and people’s movement, the women’s movement, the youth movement, the environmental movement, the antifascist struggle are getting an international dimension. To some extent, there is international cooperation in all of these fields, however still relatively sporadic and often spontaneous. It is necessary to join all of these movements to form an enduring, systematical and indissoluble interaction of struggles, class struggle and active people’s resistance for bringing about a superior strength against the system of imperialism. Most important is that the Marxist-Leninists are taking steps to move closer together. This is why the coordination of the work of the Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations and revolutionization of class struggle beyond borders is a task of the day of proletarian internationalism.

The analysis of the "Götterdämmerung – Twilight of the Gods – over the ‘New World Order’“" obviously attracted a lot of attention on an international scale.

Meanwhile our book is being read and sold in at least 30 countries on all five continents. Obviously it is giving many progressive and revolutionary organizations and movements clarity and practical impulse. The translation into English, French and Spanish enabled numerous revolutionary organizations with which we foster bilateral relations to study it thoroughly. In accordance with the development in their countries, they unanimously confirm that the reorganization of the international production radically calls all structures into question which until now were mainly organized nationally.

The world domination of international financial capital has not only dramatically aggravated, but also internationalized all social problems, environmental destruction, the crisis of the bourgeois family system, mass unemployment, the threat of war, the abolishment of the social achievements, the dismantling of democratic rights and liberties.

Thus the need for international cooperation is growing without end to discuss about the solution of these problems and to jointly organize the struggle.

Shortly after the publication of the "Götterdämmerung ..." the necessity of a following analysis about the strategy and tactics for the preparation of the international revolution was emphasized. How far has this theoretical work progressed?

Though we had to solve very extensive practical tasks in class struggle and party building, we could also make important progress in this theoretical work. The draft introductory chapter concerning the proletarian strategy and tactics and the international character of the revolution is already nearly finished. Here we can convincingly prove that the international character of the revolution is not an invention of the MLPD, but totally in correspondence with all classical exponents of Marxism-Leninism. This fundamental correspondence has its deep roots in the fact that the international revolution is in accordance with the objective dialectics of the course of history.

Some time ago, we began to theoretically generalize our findings since the development of the doctrine of the mode of thinking. So we came to the view that the question of the mode of thinking is not only the decisive problem for developing class struggle and party building in Germany, but that it has also become a central question for the preparation of the international revolution on a worldwide scale.

However, we are not satisfied with the pace of our theoretical work. Much too often we are prevented from these forward-looking tasks by other important events and tasks in party building and class struggle. So sometimes it was necessary, but not always justified, to postpone the theoretical work. The last plenary session of the central committee (CC) of the MLPD had a very critical and self-critical debate about the inadmissible displacement of the theoretical work and denounced it as an important manifestation of worship of spontaneity in the leadership work of the CC.

The anticommunist propaganda in the media has been substantially intensified since a year and a half ago. The killer phrase of Stalinism and Maoism is obviously used to keep people away from the socialist alternative. How is the MLPD going to take action against this?

All opinion research institutes are currently taking the view that the trend in the search for a social future clearly goes towards the left.

The newly founded party “The Left” has its main potential above all in rejecting the current conditions of capitalism. But it has no positive program, no positive social alternative.

Only a society of genuine socialism could be such a perspective which draws the conclusions from the positive and negative experiences of establishing socialism, but also from the societal development of the reorganization of the international production of imperialism.

The positive social alternative is mainly obscured by the effect of this anticommunist campaign which is drawing a distorted image of socialism. We have no other choice but to disprove this anticommunist propaganda theoretically through patient propaganda work and to prove by our practical example that socialism is living and the only alternative to the capitalist barbarism.

Anticommunism is also rekindled, of course, by the insufficient assimilation of the negative experience of the revisionist degeneration of the international communist movement – especially its effect in the countries of the Soviet Union and the GDR, in which only a caricature of socialism had been existing since the middle of the 1950ies.

We will not succeed in helping socialism to gain new esteem without comprehending in massive numbers that socialism has been replaced by a bureaucratic capitalism of a new kind since Khrushchev in the Soviet Union and Deng Xiao Ping in China.

The social discussion about socialism resolved by us is still disregarded gravely in the “Red Flag” and in our events. This is especially problematic in a situation where the search for a social alternative has grown very strongly.

What is your opinion on the fact that just on the weekend before the MLPD’s 25^th anniversary, the new party “The Left” came into being?

In general, there is talk about a “turn” or “trend to the left” in the population. The development of class-consciousness is, in fact, determined by the growing search for a societal alternative. Media publicity for the founding of the party “The Left” aims at confining this search within bounds conforming to the system. “The Left” aims strategically at a concept of reforms to overcome the system, to drive back the power of the monopolies. These are fundamental concepts of an entire reformist or revisionist program to enable the transformation of state-monopoly capitalism into a social state. In the end, the growing criticism of this society is supposed to be led into a direction which is harmless for this societal system!

In this connection I feel that the choice of the name “The Left” is somewhat pretentious. The new party is far from representing the left in Germany. You might be able to call them the radical-reformist wing of the left in Germany. In strategic terms, “The Left” is, of course, a counter-program to the revolutionary character and profile of the MLPD.

At the same time, “The Left” should not overestimate itself. Even “brilliant” election results like those in Bremen fall back behind the results of the national elections in 2006. Real membership growth is actually small. And, especially in the systematic rank-and-file work in the focal points of social development, “The Left” is extremely weak. These focal points of a movement for social change do not lie within the parliaments, but instead in the factories, in the neighborhoods, in the rebellion of the youth, in a new environmental movement and, not at least, in a theoretical-programmatic work with a perspective. All of these fields are trump cards of the MLPD, but only marginal factors of “The Left”.

But I would like to emphasize - “The Left” is not in the first place our opponent, but a potential ally. We welcome the tactical achievements of “The Left”, which we cannot overlook. Many demands which were once put forward by the MLPD alone and were rejected by PDS have now been taken up in the program of “The Left”. That goes for the political right to strike, the unconditional rejection of interventions by the federal armed forces (including those with a UN mandate), the defense of the bourgeois-democratic rights and liberties, shortening of working hours with full wage compensation, the necessity of a minimum wage etc. We are seeking cooperation in all of these issues.

Such an alliance has certain prerequisites – cooperation on the basis of struggle and on an eye-to-eye level, and, not least, that “The Left” ensures that anticommunist abusive remarks coming from their ranks about the MLPD or our comrades are refrained from. Wherever such pretentious and childish behavior is prevented or overcome, productive, practical-tactical cooperation between the MLPD and “The Left” develops. It should always also be used to discuss controversial strategic issues.

To put it short – for the MLPD the founding of the new party “The Left” is especially an incentive to sharpen its revolutionary profile, to give a clear perspective to the diversified search for a societal alternative and, wherever possible, to cooperate with “The Left” on the basis of clear principles.

In our last interview you spoke about an offensive of revolutionary rank-and-file work of the MLPD. What has become of that and what is your view of the future of this project?

In November 2006, the 6^th plenary session of the Central Committee oriented party work to a political offensive of revolutionary rank-and-file work. Three aspects were named:

· First of all, an offensive for anchoring the most important demands of the working class,

· secondly an ideological offensive of genuine socialism and

· thirdly, an offensive of organizational work among the masses.

A number of excellent initiatives were developed in the course of this work and successful achievements were made. We distributed more than 40,000 copies of a 15-point program with the most important demands and concerns against the policies of the Merkel-Muentefering government. This proposal of the MLPD for the joint struggle and for further building up the militant opposition were surely a significant contribution for spreading the demands for a political right to strike, for the shortening of working hours with full wage compensation and against the imperialist foreign policy of the federal government.

At the same time, the 7^th CC plenary session stated that this offensive of rank-and-file work could only be developed to a limited extent up till now. For example, the especially positive membership recruitment since the 7^th Party Congress has gone over into a stagnation since the last quarter of 2006.

The changes in the tactical starting situation naturally set limits to the effectiveness of our work among the masses for a while. We cannot always influence this just as we might like. At the same time, we established that the CC and the organization did not deal with this new tactical starting situation enough. This led to the fact that even within the leadership, some comrades were somewhat disappointed in the political development. However, if you deal with the development from the point of view of dialectical materialism, it is natural that class struggle develops in waves and that temporary setbacks merely prepare a new upswing in class struggle. Merely reacting to the concrete ups and downs in class struggle leads instead to false conclusions and activities. With actionist undertakings and sensational revelations some comrades wanted to fire on the development artificially with all their might. But, of course, this is a hopeless effort in today’s starting situation and the given balance of forces. It only keeps us from taking on our most important tasks and provokes pressure and hectic.

Ideologically this is an expression of idealism advancing, as if the Marxist-Leninists, if they only make enough effort, can determine the advance of things haphazardously. The 7^th CC plenary session directed revolutionary vigilance to coming to grips with the worship of spontaneity in party work.

Unlike actionist undertakings, our systematic rank-and-file work is not dependent upon the ups and downs of class struggle. It is instead, at every point in time, the adequate method to anchor the party among the masses and represent and propagate socialism in theory and practice and organize the masses. Systematic rank-and-file work is the direct counter-program against worshipping spontaneity.

In your last interview with the “Red Flag”, you stated that the Marxist-Leninist youth work is the most important practical problem which remains unsolved. What has the MLPD done since then to solve this problem and which achievements have been made?

The MLPD has definitely made achievements. However, it has also established that we are dealing with a very far-reaching problem which has deep roots in society and cannot be solved in such a short period of time.

This great progress made became most evident with the 13^th International Whitsun Youth Festival. Like no other Whitsun Youth Festival before, it was marked by a high percentage of children and young people among the 7,000 regular participants and a total of 18,000 visitors. In the entire range of events, the MLPD, the youth league Rebell and the children’s organization “Red Foxes” had a leading influence in this success. At the Whitsun Youth Meeting we put the all-round school of life of the proletarian mode of thinking into practice because a large mass of children and young people were able to develop their initiative and satisfy their thirst for knowledge. Each and every party member took over responsibility for the care, the training and education of the children and young people and blossomed out in this cooperation.

However, the starting point for this great success was not the practical activity, but rather the broad ideological-political initiative for the creative new study of the MLPD’s line on youth policy.

We have observed that the MLPD’s line on youth policy has only been studied in fragments and that, accordingly, only single aspects have been put into practice. But the school of life of the proletarian mode of thinking cannot only be put into practice in fragments! In every aspect in which it does not function, petty-bourgeois antiauthoritarianism, bourgeois social education, modern anticommunism – in short, the entire scope of the system of the petty-bourgeois mode of thinking destroys many achievements already made.

The renewed study of the line on youth policy cannot be understood as a mere brushing up of one’s knowledge! What is new is the dialectical approach to the fundamental lines of the system of Marxist-Leninist youth work in the critical and self-critical confrontation with various distortions and vulgarizations. We have defined the interrelations and qualitative relations of the fundamental components of Marxist-Leninist youth work dialectically and studied them anew: We have termed the ideological-political leadership of the youth league through the party as the leading factor, practical cooperation as the all-round practical foundation of the school of life of the proletarian mode of thinking and organizational independence as the main method in the education for self-liberation.

For the further process of self-change, the CC has decided to place the rebuilding and stabilization of the Red Foxes as an organization within Rebell into the center of our work. One of the most prominent features of the displacement of our line on youth policy was that in the past years, the independent organization of the Red Foxes within Rebell actually dissolved into single groups of the Red Foxes. No central Red Foxes leadership existed, no independent profile as an organization. This is exactly what we will be working on within the coming months, not least with the work focusing on the two children’s camps in Truckenthal and Alt Schwerin. Under the slogan “Serve the People”, the entire youth league Rebell must take over the full responsibility for the future of the children and their education. The entire MLPD must understand that its relation as a whole to the future of party building is expressed in its engagement for the role of the organization Red Foxes.

The next regular Party Congress will be taking place in the year 2008. Are there already plans and goals?

The period since the 7^th Party Congress that took place in the spring of 2004, encompasses two different periods of time. The first one was marked by growing mass struggles in the factories and trade unions, as well as struggles against the government. The MLPD was able to take influence upon these in such a way that more and more workforces began to organize their struggles on a company-wide level and partly across national borders. The climax of these working-class struggles was undoubtedly the Opel-strike in connection with the dramatic upswing of the Monday demonstration movement in the year 2004. These economic and political mass struggles resulted in an open political crisis, which sealed the end of the Schroeder/Fischer government. The second period is the period since the Grand Coalition in which the struggles declined to a small extent and in which the working class offensive was slowed down at the least.

In the first period of time, the MLPD expanded its work, recruited many new members and multiplied its mass influence. The second period of time was especially suited to solidify these positions in an ideological, politically and organizational sense and to direct and organize our work toward a new upswing of the struggles, which is absolutely inevitable. In both periods we could learn a lot for our systematic rank-and-file work under the conditions of the historical period of transformation, which was ushered in by the reorganization of international production in the 1990’s.

The 8^th Party Congress will be able to draw positive conclusions out of an excellent party development. However, it will have to deal further with the problem of the worship of spontaneity, which is evidently an important accompanying phenomenon of the transition of the preparation[WB3] of the international proletarian revolution.

The most important preparation for the 8^th Party Congress will be the reorganization of the party in seven leagues on the Land level and 50 counties, as well as rebuilding the Red Foxes organization and solving the problems in youth work. We have already taken important steps ahead which must, however, come to a climax in an all-round process of the self-change of the system of rank-and-file work. The 8^th Party Congress will be characterized in particular by gearing the entire party to the future tasks in class struggle and making its contribution to the preparation of the international revolution.

The 25^th anniversary of the MLPD will surely be actively celebrated in the forthcoming weeks. The secret services of Baden-Wuerttemberg have already honored that by means of a special report and they hope these events to go bust. Do you want to present the precise plans of the MLPD to the readers?

With our active participation in the Automotive Workers’ Counsel in May in Stuttgart, where 71 workers’ shop-floor delegations from 17 countries participated, with the great success of the 13^th Whitsun Youth Meeting at the end of May and also of the “Horster-Mitte”-celebration on June 16, that was attended by more than 3,000 visitors, we have already reached important climaxes and made important achievements in the work. The celebrations for “25 Years of MLPD” are surely in the focus now, starting with the ceremonial act on June 20^th, on occasion of the actual birthday of the MLPD in the “Horster Mitte”.

The three central events at the beginning of August are the climax of the celebrations for 25 years of MLPD. An international seminar entitled “The Reorganization of the International Production and the International Socialist Revolution” will take place on the second and third of August. A unique international interest for this great event is already becoming apparent. 37 revolutionary and Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the United States have already announced their participation with delegations. That will be a joint discussion - hitherto unique of this kind - of workers, young people, members and functionaries of the MLPD with representatives from the international Marxist-Leninist and working-class movement - a genuine mass discussion! It is important to prepare this event intensively, to elaborate contributions on issues of work among the rank-and-files, about the assessment of practical experiences, but also to work out theoretical issues. This debate will surely raise the understanding of all those involved about the necessity and the tasks of the international coordination and revolutionization of the struggles raging worldwide. Then, on August 4^th, the big anniversary celebration of the MLPD will take place. Various discussion rounds, presentations, cultural and culinary contributions are listed on the program – in short: an all-sided presentation of the activity of the MLPD. I was requested to hold a detailed speech on the profile, history and perspectives of the MLPD at the evening reception. The evening program will be concluded with a contribution of the youth league Rebell, as well as with the revue “25 Years of MLPD – Setting out for new times!”. There is no doubt that this will become the greatest and, at the same time, most significant single event of the MLPD since its founding and all comrades, Rebells and Red Foxes, fellow combatants, companions, friends and interested people are cordially invited. That does explicitly not only apply to direct supporters of the MLPD: each and every one who feels a future of social change is necessary belongs at these celebrations!

Then, on August 5th, an antifascist commemoration will be held at the site of the former concentration camp Buchenwald. With this, we want to express our deep ties with the active resistance of the communists against Hitlerite fascism and the positive tradition of the old KPD. After all, the chairman of the KPD, Ernst Thaelmann, was killed in the concentration camp Buchenwald before the end of the Second World War. At the same time, the concentration camp Buchenwald also symbolizes the crucial role of proletarian internationalism. Not only that the detainees in Buchenwald came from 50 nations - they even succeeded in freeing themselves under the lead of an undercover working international camp committee towards the end of the war.

On the one hand, it is the diversity of the central celebrations, but on the other hand it is also a so far unique international interest that gives these great events such extraordinary importance. I am sure that the members and friends of the MLPD will provide for impressive and moving days at the beginning of August with their justified pride of the party of a new type, their enthusiasm and the great engagement for the MLPD and that they will launch a broad campaign for it from now on and make it a great success.

Thank you very much for the interview!