Appeal of JRCL to the Working Class of the World

World revolutionary situation is ripe as global financial crisis erupts. Let's fight, taking back Marxism--the thought of self-emancipation of working class!

Japan Revolutionary Communist League -National Committee
Japanese 한국어

● The collapse of capitalism, imperialism, has entered a decisive stage. It is high time to accomplish proletarian world revolution.

A worldwide financial crisis far surpassing the Great Depression in 1929 has erupted. Imperialism at its final period has, in the last decades, carried on its neo-liberal agenda of deregulation and privatization practicing the capitalist law of the jungle to its full extent. A handful of bourgeois have thus earned an astronomical profit through exploiting working class brutally, imposing extremely heavy work, dismantling social welfare system and driving all working people into unbearable poverty. The full-scale practice of the neo-liberal agenda finally ended in a disintegration of the whole economic and social system of capitalism in its core.

Imperialists, or capitalist class of the whole world are now in a total panic. Is there any policy for them to address the situation? Only thing they can do is to compete each other more fiercely for their own survival in an abortive attempt to escape from the worsening worldwide financial crisis. It will only aggravate the situation further into a bottomless abyss. Final result is evidently a complete disruption and collapse of the world economy and a catastrophic world war. No exit is left for them.

For the working class, on the contrary, it is a long-awaited opportunity to achieve its historical task. The time has come the working class should overthrow the rule of bourgeoisie and definitively put an end to its tyranny for a long period. What is imperative for the working class and all exploited and oppressed people of the whole world is not, in any case, to join forces with the capitalist class to find a solution for capitalism in crisis. It is a road to the hell hand in hand with capitalist class. This is absolutely impossible after all. What we are witnessing at this moment is imperialism has finally come to an end of its historical development. Survival of imperialism, that had once suffered a serious loss at a part of its world system in 1917 by the Russian Revolution, was only possible through the help of Stalinism, which distorted the Russian Revolution and betrayed the cause of proletarian world revolution. It is evident that only achievement of proletarian world revolution can put an end to capitalism, or imperialism in death agony and save the whole world and human society from a total catastrophe.

What the working class wants is not a partial reform of this existing social system but its total overthrow. Argument that the capitalist system could meet the problems caused by exploitation and poverty through any kind of reform has repeatedly been exposed to be a total illusion in the course of history. What we want is not to replace inequality and poverty by equality and richness. What we want is abolition of wage slavery and termination of a society based on exploitation of people by other people. We need to overthrow the existing society from its fundament that treats workers like rubbish for the interest of the capital under the total domination of money.

Our ultimate goal is to establish a society based on genuine human community on a global scale (a communist society) by working class, who is actually running the whole society, through seizing the state power and overthrowing capitalism all over the world. It is our urgent task to accomplish proletarian world revolution now.

● The power to change the world lies in international labor solidarity of working class and its advance.

The conditions for proletarian world revolution are completely ripe. Capitalist class is no more able to maintain class rule over working class in the old way. They have lost the power of dominating a society. Everybody deadly wishes to change the world fundamentally.

Where lies a power to carry out revolution? In working class! Only the united power of working class can change the society and create a history. The fact is that each worker has a power to break up capitalist rule. One can't realize this power as long as workers are divided, forced to pit each other and deprived of unity. However, once workers overcome the division, become united each other, regaining a class consciousness that they are running the society, and rise up for an uncompromising struggle against capitalist class, then an unexpected class power emerges from within workers and develops itself for self-emancipation.

Another important thing: the working class is, in its essence, one single international class. Proletarian revolution is essentially world revolution. National boundaries as well as divisions, discriminations and suppressions alongside the nations are all artificial products of the ruling class as tools to destroy working class unity oriented toward world revolution. The instant workers realize that they are fighting the common struggle against the same class enemy, they join together to establish class unity overcoming every kind of division. Working class possesses such ability. When class unity of working class develops beyond border, it will gain an enormous power to change the whole world.

Now the time has come when the call of the Communist Manifesto, "Workers of all countries, Unite!" comes true. The whole world is witnessing the struggle of working class that is called "grave-diggers" of capitalism by Marx, is spreading in every region and country in a gigantic scale. Storm of strikes, demonstrations and riots are raging across the world with an angry cry, "We must live". Above all, most significantly, the May Day of 2008 has marked a decisive point. US longshore workers and Iraq workers stood up in solidarity for a strike to stop war. Workers united internationally can stop war. We can thus overthrow imperialism. Here is a reality of proletarian world revolution.

We must now launch our effort to found a new International as an international organization of working class for world revolution. The International Labor Solidarity Rally held every November in Japan with participation of militant labor unions of three countries, namely Japan, Korea and the USA under the sponsorship of Doro-Chiba (National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba) is preparing a basis for that. Let's develop labor unity that is fostered and forged by the International Labor Solidarity Rally and begin a struggle to unite workers of the world in a single cause.

● Let's rehabilitate Marxism in its genuine form, crushing every kind of reactionary ideologies that have scattered mistrust and despair on working class!

The quintessence of proletarian revolution is that "the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes itself". It means, at the same time, through liberating themselves from the yoke of wage slavery, the working class achieves abolition of class society and emancipation of all humankind from every kind of suppression. Marxism clarified this.

Stalinism that brought about counter-revolutionary transformation of the Russian Revolution of 1917 systematically distorted and denied this core of Marxist thought, that is, self-emancipation of the working class. Betrayal and renunciation of world revolution, justified by a falsified formulation, "Socialism can be constructed in one country alone", gave initial impetus to distortion and transformation of revolution. Though USSR Stalinism pretended to be "a working-class state", the reality of the USSR was a total domination over working masses by the privileged bureaucrats who usurped the Party and the State. This self-contradictory structure of Stalinism finally caused the collapse of Stalinist system. The fall of Stalinism gave birth to various kinds of ideologies and movements that tried to find a solution in other way than Marxism. Many of them argue, "Proletarian revolution alone can not solve the contradictions lying in the existing society". By the end of the 20-century, this trend had become "a fashionable mindset".

All of these tendencies are fundamentally erroneous in that they deny revolutionary ability and power of the working class, claiming that workers in reality have no power to change the society. They look down upon workers as only "the suffering class to be saved" but not as an active class capable of self-emancipation. Therefore, when the working class rises up for a serious struggle to overthrow capital's rule by its own power, those people are easily scared and become a reactionary force hostile to the upsurge of the working class struggle.

In face of rapidly ripening revolutionary situation, we urgently need to take back Marxism into the hands of working class in its genuine form, carrying out an uncompromising struggle against reactionary ideologies that scatter mistrust and despair on working class. Brother NAKANO Hiroshi, adviser and former president of Doro-Chiba, emphasized, "I am convinced that working class can surely gain a victory when it is not influenced by a false idea that humiliates and degrades working class". It's true. Doro-Chiba is an unparalleled labor union that has squarely confronted the Division and Privatization of Japan National Railways for decades and has successfully survived with a significant victory over many years' corporate offensive. The strength of Doro-Chiba lies in its full confidence in the self-emancipating power of union members, or working class and in labor unity based on this confidence. In other words, Doro-Chiba has put genuine Marxism into daily practice of the labor union.

Proletarian revolution means an all-out and direct participation of ordinary workers in building up workers' power and in establishing a new society that is run entirely by workers. Unity of working class makes it possible. Through building up and developing class unity, working class takes back by force its basic human community that has long been taken away from it. Unity is a basic form of Commune. For the victory of revolution, working class grasps control over the point of production by its united power, kicking out capitalist class and overthrows bourgeois state power through rallying around it all working people, including farmers, who are fighting against the common enemy, imperialism. Thus as an ultimate extension of working class unity, proletarian dictatorship is established in place of bourgeois dictatorship.

Proletariat organized as ruling class immediately sets about activities effective for "withering away" of proletariat as a class. Working class in power strives to sweep away material conditions of class and class antagonism, breaking up old society and constructing a new society without exploitation. Thus an association emerges in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all, a genuine human community.

As we described above, proletarian revolution is a great task carried out by the working class itself. To make a first step, we need, first of all, to take back Marxism, working class thought, into the hands of proletariat and to put it in practice, overcoming every kind of distortion of Marxism.

● Labor union is a weapon of working class to fight against capital. Let's take back labor union into the hands of rank and file, kicking out corporate-friendly labor leadership, agent of capital!

Accomplishment of proletarian world revolution depends upon restoration and revitalization of class-based labor movement. Labor union needs to recover its proper power as a fundamental organ of working class unity and as a decisive weapon to fight against capital.

Labor movement has long been dominated worldwide by Stalinism, Social Democracy and every kind of reformism, which has never challenged the capitalist system itself. In the meantime, mistrust on the labor union and labor movement and despair on the ability of organized labor to change the society have spread all over the world. This is the point. The ideology hostile to organized labor has constituted an obstacle to the development of working class struggle, suppressed anger of workers, helped limitless exploitation of capital under the neo-liberal agenda and caused, as a result, considerable increase of working poor. We need to fight against it and defeat it completely. Let's kick out, by the revolt of rank and file, system-friendly corporate union leadership who has long controlled unions. Let's reestablish militant labor unions like Doro-Chiba in every work place.

Leaders of such reformist labor movement warn, "When the company goes bankrupt, workers can't live". Capitalists insist, "Society doesn't go without us." They are lying. It's true, wage labor can't exist without capital. The fact is, however, the whole production of the society is actually run by workers. Not only industrial production, but also education and medical care are all carried out by workers at the point of production. Capitalist class exists only to exploit from workers and to obtain a huge amount of profit. They are just parasites of a society totally dependent on the labor of working class. United workers have enough power to run the production and society when they seize means of production that is possessed by capitalist class as their private property. Getting rid of parasite class, gigantic productive powers that are brought forth by working class can be fully utilized for the development of the human society.

The labor union is a fortress of class unity. It is a historical product of the life-and-death struggle of working class against limitless greed of capital. The labor union is an organization in which workers not only fight daily guerrilla ware-fare against capital but further train and prepare themselves for a fight to break a chain of wage slavery and thus transform their work places into a stronghold of proletarian revolution. Class-based labor movement and revolutionary movement are closely connected and interwoven. Well aware of this, bourgeoisie of the whole world is desperately driving its attempt to destroy labor unity and prevent development of class-based labor movement with the help of corporate union leadership. It is our urgent task to break down this offensive and go forward. Let's bring a magnificent presence of militant labor unions at the forefront of the history.

● Let's create a working class party for the victory of proletarian world revolution!

Japan Revolutionary Communist League (JRCL) is a communist organization that has been fighting in solidarity with Doro-Chiba.

In the last half of 1950s we separated ourselves from Stalinism represented by the former USSR, left Japan Communist Party and founded an independent organization. We have then elaborated a platform of "For Proletarian World Revolution against Imperialism, against Stalinism". We have been developing our struggle for a half century, fighting back state power repression and white-terror of fascists. Comrade HOSHINO Fumiaki, framed up political prisoner for Okinawa struggle in 1971, has been sitting in jail for 34 years, refusing to convert and sticking to principle.

With a determination to carry out 21st century revolution by every means, we have launched a fresh march forward together with young workers and students who are rising up for an all-out revolt against capitalism, imperialism.

For the victory of proletarian revolution, working class needs, besides labor unions, a political organization of workers, a party. JRCL has endeavored to build up a working class party, a Marxist party through rebuilding ourselves continuously, always learning lessons from the struggle of Doro-Chiba. In bloody fight against imperialism and a Fascist force and in an uncompromising confrontation with Stalinism and other movements within the framework of capitalist system, we have promoted our serious efforts to recapture Marxism in its genuine form. Our achievement is materialized by a series of publication on the study of essential literature of Marxism, including Manifesto of the Communist Party and Wage Labour and Capital.

We issue here a fresh message to working class across the world. Let's revive genuine Marxism now! Join us in the effort of creating a genuine Marxist party, a working class party for the victory of proletarian world revolution. The time has come the working class worldwide should form a single force to overthrow capitalist society. Let's rush for the victory of the final struggle, succeeding and developing lessons of the Paris Commune in 1871 and the Russian Revolution in 1917.

"The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win."

Let's carry out a struggle to materialize these words of the Manifesto through inspiring a living soul into it.