The last Congress of the Communist Organisation (Kommunistische Organisation, KO) was held from June 21 to 23, 2024. At this congress the members decided to found the Communist Party (Kommunistische Partei, KP). Therefore, we consider this congress to be our 1st Party Construction Congress (a name we adopted for the first two congresses, because they will establish the basic features of the party as such). As a result, we are giving up our previous name and are changing it to Kommunistische Partei (KP).
Resolution on the founding process of the Communist Party
Here we self-critically note that in recent years we have promoted an idea of the founding of the party that we now regard as incorrect. In fact, we considered the point at which we could see ourselves as a communist party to be a distant event, where it was not entirely clear when and how we would get there. This idea was still reflected in our theses on the character of the communist party and the self-understanding of the KO, even though the theses already represented a clear step forward. Even though we made it clear in our self-conception that mass work is a necessary element in building the party, we now realize that having acquired deep roots in the masses cannot be regarded as a prerequisite for the founding of the party. This self-conception continued to formulate excessive organizational requirements for the founding to take place. This resulted in postponing the founding of the party to an unspecified time in the future. The unclear vision of our goals and path led to an overemphasis on our own immaturity and a mystification of the party as the finished product of a long process. A self-critique of our previous understanding of clarification and development will follow soon.
In the discussion on building the party, the majority of the Central Leadership (CL) and the organization as a whole increasingly took the position that building the party should be understood as a process whose basic requirements – a democratic-centralist organizational structure and a programmatic base – we had already achieved. The impulse for this discussion initially came from the unresolved name dispute with the right-wing split of the Communist Organisation, which continues to use the name of Communist Organisation, consciously creating a potential for confusion that we considered extremely damaging. It seemed pointless to us to give ourselves another name when the founding of the party, and thus another name change, was imminent anyway. Another reason is the changed social situation: we live in troubled times – the imperialist war in Ukraine has taken on a new quality, the reactionary development in Germany is getting stronger and has reached a new peak with the genocide in Gaza. When the KO was founded in 2017/18, we thought that we could take several years to fundamentally rethink and clarify all the burning issues of the movement. However, the research work of the past few years has not always been directed towards the development of a party program. We can neither afford nor expect to resolve every issue in detail before we are able to adopt a first party program. Moreover, on many points we already have a deep collective understanding that goes far beyond our programmatic theses and will be further deepened by the work of the following period, which we can document in a first party program. Of course, this does not mean that the adoption of the party program marks the end of this process. A communist party must continue to mature ideologically and will develop its program accordingly.
Today, we no longer believe that there are fixed conditions beyond the two points mentioned above for founding a party, such as a certain number of cadres, but we understand building the party as a continuous process in which the communist party gains in maturity and strength and can on an increasing scale meet the demands of the class struggle. Since the founding of the KO, we have made great progress in this regard – our ideological clarity and unity have developed further, we have become more experienced and mature as communists, and we have gained experience in class struggle and in confronting opportunism. In recent years, we have developed and adopted central documents on the basis of which our internal organizational practice has developed, our work among the masses has become more targeted and through this we learned to apply democratic centralism. Nevertheless, we are aware that we are still at the beginning. That is why we do not see the founding of the party as a finished act, but as a challenge to ourselves, which we want to approach with a measurable plan of development. With the last congress we started a founding process, in which we are now. We have decided on a plan of development for the next three years for the tasks that lie ahead of us.
Our plan of development and the next steps towards a party program
Deciding our course of action for the next three years was one of the central discussions of the weekend. A plan for building the KP was adopted at the congress, our 1st Party Construction Congress. Above all, it states that we will focus the activities of the Communist Party on clarifying the strategic question, the questions of the oppression of women and the relationship between the sexes, and on better explaining our ideas of socialism until the 2nd Party Construction Congress, likely in March 2026. Based on the results of this clarification, we want to adopt the party program and thus complete the founding process of the Communist Party. Four articles will be written on the central project of clarification: On Revolutionary Strategy and the Critique of Revisionist Ideas; On Class Analysis in Germany; On the Critique of „Market Socialism“; and On the Material Conditions for Socialism in Germany. Although we have repeatedly dealt with the oppression of women under capitalism in the past, we have never been able to go into sufficient depth and, in particular, have not developed a detailed assessment of the various bourgeois positions on this question. We must now make up for this in the course of developing our program, in order to work on this field of struggle on the basis of a Marxist-Leninist standpoint and also to strive to unify our own standpoint.
Already at this year’s summer camp (June 7th to 12th, 2024), we want to go out with a program that has been written in the name of the CL as a first draft in the run-up to the congress and discuss and improve it with the communist movement and all interested parties before our next party congress. To this end, we will create various offers and opportunities for cooperation.
Further steps to develop and create new structures are planned before the 2nd Party Congress: The creation of a scientific organ and the preparation of an organ for agitation and propaganda (a party newspaper or a news platform), which will be established after the 2nd Party Congress, as well as the development of a clear trade union strategy and an understanding of factory cells, in order to work out a future orientation for the transformation of the party’s mode of operation into factory cells and to begin initial trials. We will continue to work on cadre and membership development and draw up and implement a central education plan. The Central Committee of the Party will set up a youth department, and the 2nd Party Congress will pass a resolution on the question of youth struggle, on the basis of which the youth organization of the KP will be formed.
With the adoption of the program at the 2nd Party Congress, we are laying the foundation for further work: between the 2nd and 3rd Party Congresses, we will concentrate on further consolidating the structures and developing our mass work. At the 3rd Party Congress, which, after the adoption of the program, we no longer see as a party construction congress, we will also pass resolutions on the issues of women’s oppression and sexes as well as on climate and environmental issues.
By declaring that our founding is not yet complete, we also invite communists and existing communist groups from all over Germany to participate in the founding process of the Communist Party, especially in the discussion and revision of the draft program, with the prospect of joining the party in the course of the process or at our 2nd Party Construction Congress if there is a high level of agreement on ideological issues.
Resolution on Imperialism and International Resolution
With the resolution on imperialism, we were able to complete the clarification of the question of imperialism in the last legislative period. In it, we present a fundamental description of the nature of imperialism, monopoly and the law of uneven development. In addition, we also deal with the current developments in the imperialist world system, especially the role of Germany. We state that we as communists in Germany must fight against German imperialism, but at the same time it is necessary to lead the struggle against imperialism as a whole and not only against the hegemony of individual states that are considered particularly aggressive. In this way, we expand the position formulated in the programmatic theses, which continue to form our programmatic basis.
In the International Resolution we state that the basic strategic orientation is the same in all countries: the struggle to gather forces for the overthrow of capitalist rule and the establishment of working class power. As a communist party, our main task for the time being is to develop a revolutionary program for the working class in Germany. At the same time, we are convinced that a revolutionary strategy for the entire working class must be developed at the international level. Therefore, we consider the dissolution of the Communist International in 1943 a mistake. We must work to rebuild an international structure with binding decisions based on ideological unity. We welcome all efforts for a closer international coordination of the communist parties on the basis of ideological clarity and unity, especially the founding of the European Communist Action, and want to intensify our relations with the parties and organizations of the ECA and the revolutionary pole as a whole. We know that we strengthen the international communist movement in particular by advancing our own party building, by rooting ourselves more deeply in the working class and increasing our influence in the class struggles.
Both resolutions will be published in the coming weeks.
Report of Accountability and Elections
The outgoing Central Leadership presented its report on the past legislative period to the members and was able to draw a positive balance: Many points of the last action orientation (the resolution on the central political projects and goals of the KO from the extraordinary congress in 2023) were fulfilled and much more: With the campaign „Down with the War“ initiated by the KO we could put our internationalist and revolutionary standpoint on the imperialist war in Ukraine into practice and also deepen the exchange with comrades from other communist groups. In many places, we took part in the struggles against the genocide in Gaza and the involvement of German imperialism in it, and in some cities we even played a decisive role in shaping them. We were able to gain more experience in mass work in workplaces and trade unions and were involved in the struggle of workers and the confrontation with the class-collaborationist line of the trade union leadership. On the whole, however, this work remained at a level that is much too low. We were also able to develop theses on climate and environmental issues, write and publish a book on capitalism in China and a book criticizing Maoism, as well as other publications. We were able to significantly develop our public relations and media work, especially through systematic work in social media. We expanded our international relations with communist organizations and parties in Europe, Latin America and North America and organized a communist congress in January 2024 with many international guests and speakers. Our summer camp in the summer of 2023 was also a success, surpassing the number of participants of the year before even though the split happened in January 2023. There is a clear increase in interest in our organization and our positions, and we have seen a significant increase in personnel and the emergence of new local groups. At the same time, however, we continue to encounter problems.
The enormous workload of many comrades, especially those in leadership positions, in addition to work, family and other life circumstances, must be emphasized, but also a different political-ideological level of development of our members, so that not everyone has always been able to follow the development steps of the organization promoted by the CL to the same extent. For example, in the discussion before and at the congress, it was criticized that although many good publications have been produced in the last year and a half, too few educational opportunities have been created to enable all comrades to gain a thorough understanding of these texts.
At the end of the congress, the previous Central Leadership was released and the new leadership, renamed the Central Committee in accordance with our self-understanding as a party, and other committees were elected.
Thanks to our international comrades!
We were especially pleased with the greetings from our international sister parties and organizations that were read during the course of the Party Congress: We received greetings from the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM), the Communist Party of Sweden (SKP), the Party of Labor of Austria (PdA), the Brazilian Revolutionary Communist Party (PCBR), the Communist Workers Platform of the USA (CWPUSA), the Revolutionary Communist Youth Union (Bolsheviks) of Russia (RKSM (B)), the Workers Front of Ukraine (RFU) and the Revolutionary Communist Party of France (PCRF).
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for the solidarity you have shown us and will publish these greetings separately on our homepage.
Join the Communist Party – Let’s us together create the fighting organization of the working class!
We have begun a new stage with our party and are beginning its planned formation. The title „Communist Party“ is not a medal to be worn only after leading large proletarian armies in countless battles of the class struggle. The fact that we are now adopting this name does not mean, for the time being, that we are seeking party status under the bourgeois law of the Federal Republic of Germany, which is necessarily linked to participation in elections. When we consider this step appropriate will be the subject of a separate discussion and decision. For Marxism-Leninism, a communist party is not an electoral association, even though it participates in elections, if the conditions allow it. It is a cadre and militant organization of the working class, guided by a revolutionary program, organized on the basis of democratic centralism.
We do not choose the name „Communist Party“ out of megalomania or overconfidence. The title represents the demand we make on ourselves to take the revolution seriously. It stands for honesty and critical self-reflection with regard to our own shortcomings and the unwavering will to overcome these mistakes and shortcomings; but it also stands for the will to lead where the knowledge of the right path has already penetrated our own ranks and the possibilities for action have been recognized. With the name of the Communist Party we want to say: we are ready to take on the task that history has given us – not knowing if we will succeed, but confident that we will not stop until we have succeeded.
We emerge from the 1st Party Congress determined and full of energy, because we know how urgently a communist party of the working class is needed. A party that stands firmly on the ground of scientific communism. A party in which the experiences of the struggles of our class flow together and can be transformed into a powerful counterattack. A party with the will to draw every worker, regardless of his or her own ideological conception, into the common struggle and thus transform the countless individual struggles into common struggles. A party that can meet the demands of the class struggle. A party that can become a rallying point for other revolutionary communist forces in Germany and that takes practical steps to unite these forces on a common ideological and programmatic basis. A party that aspires to one day be the vanguard that leads the working class to revolution, the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and towards socialism.
Let us get to work!
