After quite a long-drawn discussion, our organization as for now has also formally adopted an altered name which is in accordance with today’s conditions. The term "party" has been outdated already for quite a long time; it stemmed from our origin out of the KPD/ML and the Rote Garde (Red Guard) and, generally, the Marxist-Leninist movement of 1969-1972 which under the then conditions endeavoured the construction of a party.
These resolute efforts under the stimulus from the international development
to create a new revolutionary party, to take up again the revolutionary
traditions after the Second World War, themselves belong to the most remarkable
developments in the political life of the Federal Republic of Germany and
Berlin(West), together with the revolutionary upheavals of the years 1966-1972,
particularly as they took place in a country in which the reactionaries
thought everything to be under control, and in which, in the more recent
history, revolutionary political and theoretical movements are rare. It
is not by chance that this epoch in the country’s development is being
shrugged off as "phase of fragmentation", as a presumption to create a
workers’ party. Right from the start, this movement had incurred the hatred
of almost all rulers and in particular of the media.
It defined its viewpoint as opposed as well to the Western capitalist system under the domination of the USA as to the bureaucratic extremely parasitic capitalism in the Soviet Union, and referred to the Third World’s upswing, to the exposure of the violent US-imperialism, to the general criticism of culture in the West, to the polemics against revisionism from the part of the CP of China and the Cultural Revolution in China, but also to the own revolutionary party traditions in Germany integrating them in a new way. In doing so, it really formed an important stage of the country’s development in the situation of that time.
The KPD/ML (Neue Einheit) arose from the split and the aggravated struggles of the years 1969-72 as a point of concentration and since then has been developing the taks further, and also as a group has been taking part in political life, as far as it possibly could. The course and, if you like to say so, the failure of this movement are decisively connected with the economic and social changes which started in the beginning of the seventies and up to now radically have changed social structures.
It is already an 150-year-old experience that communist parties themselves are objects of influencing from the part of different political camps. This party foundation, situated in a focus of the international development, must involuntarily become also an object of speculation and influencing from the part of different political forces: of Social Democracy, of revisionism as associated above all with the then Soviet Union, but also of conservative forces. On the other hand, the strong rivalry of the different political forces in Germany and particularly in Berlin had been the precondition for reaching a certain legality. This inevitably led to unusually sharp and manifold debates within the party groups.
Our organization decidedly has defended and is defending the foundation of a Marxist-Leninist party as intended in the end of the sixties. According to the then development of theory and insight it was the only possible way to set a resolute counter-point against the then existing idealistic currents. In particular, the KPD/ML defined its point of view as opposed to the revisionist DKP (Deutsche Kommunistische Partei) which had been organised in connection with the state, but also to organizations which wanted to generate a hodge-podge between DKP, Social Democracy and the Marxist-Leninist party, as did for example the KAB/ML ("Kommunistischer Arbeiterbund/ML" - "Communist Worker’s League/ML") from South-West, the later KABD ("Communist Workers’ League of Germany") resp. MLPD ("Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany"). This remains correct, even if this party, the KPD/ML, by overhastily and cursorily proceeding in its foundation, showed a number of shortcomings. The program of this party not only showed an unequivocal standpoint with regard to proletarian revolution but also with regard to the national question, this then being in a way extraordinary. It was inspired by the eruption of the Cultural Revolution in China and by the struggle against revisionism by the CP of China.
Since 1970 decidedly we attacked and unambiguously we characterized the phony-left organizations, the KPD (AO), the KPD/ML (Roter Morgen), the KPD/ML-ZB as well as the Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland (KBW) which was founded a bit later. These organizations confirmed our criticism by their self-exposure, when they were put to the test by the changing of the international situation, when the activities were no longer supported by a great Power, the revolutionary China, but when it was essential to defend things basing on one's own strength. By the mentioned organizations' ridiculous performance of changing colours from one day to the next, confessing that for ten years they had basically been dressed up in the wrong way, our organization's defense against these was proven right. (The KPD/ML-ZB was dissolved already in 1972 under not quite clear conditions). Without independence and without defending the political line basing on our own organizational structure a successful defense had not been possible.
But as for the MLPD it is to say, that their acceptance of Marxism-Leninism and of the revolutionary China from the very beginning was standing on a false bottom.
One may not ignore, that the MLPD, resp. the former KABD, always has fought against the most precious achievement, which was brougt about by the movement of the sixties and of the early seventies, the radical breaking, also culturally breaking, with bourgeois society. This organization especially refused the radical breaking with the social-democratic parties and with the trade-union leadership. They always tried to water down the exposure of the trade-union leadership's pro-imperialist nature, of their fundamental connection with the establishing of the Federal Republic of Germany the way it was managed by the allies in 1948/49. The trade-union leadership of the FRG always was tied together with the whole imperialist and capitalist system in Europe ruled by the USA and it always has been a chainlink of its rule. By denying this point, which mostly was accepted in its main outlines even by the organizations mentioned before, the KABD, resp. the later MLPD, has always taken in reality an utterly right-wing position, despite its formal confession of the Chinese revolution.
The Group Neue Einheit expressedly points out to be a continuer of the KPD/ML, holding the KPD/ML's inaugural declaration to be one of its most important starting points. This does not, however, completely describe the group's character, because in the course of time the KPD/ML (Neue Einheit) has developed and continued many subjects by itself and at present embodies working on socialism as it is resulting from present developements of production and from present conditions of socialization. Above all it orientates itself by reality in a creative manner, and also Marxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong-thougts are put to the test of reality.
But also we are continuers of this party and of the movement of these times and we are attaching value on that expressedly. In the same time we are also the only one still existing group basing on that party and on that movement. All the other organizations and groups which are known to us have declared expressedly their breaking with the party of then and with its programmatic declaration.
Our organization has adhered to the term KPD/ML (Neue Einheit) as long as there was hope after all to realize the KPD/ML somehow in the context of radical social changes and thereby to put through as far as possible our clearlier and clearlier pronounced principles in regard of such a party. But hope decreased already in the seventies, strictly speaking the possibilities of building the party in the intended way decreased already in 1974. By the beginning of the transfers of production, the ecologistic campaign in public life, the shifting of the burden of economic crisis especially on foreign workers and on Third World and the rearrangement in the international process of industrializing the possibilities of building this party further decreased. By the overthrow in China and by the total change, you can also say worsening, of the international situation linked to it, the possibilities of building the party in the mentioned way melted down even more.
The possibilities of building a revolutionary party not only depend from the domestic situation but also decisively from the international situation. It is clear that the situation in the eighties had to be basically different from the situation in, let us say, 1970, the time of the Cultural Revolution in China, the time when the policy of Mao Zedong spread from China to everywhere in the world. But the KPD/ML (Neue Einheit) all the time defended and developed the revolutionary principles it had held from the beginning and still attempted to carry through the party, especially after the total exposure of the Chinese overthrow in 1979 linked with warlike manoeuvres and with the rightist trend following this overthrow on the international level. But it had to face a number of adverse international factors and also adverse factors in the own country. The KPD/ML (Neue Einheit) especially achieved merits not only by the determined defense of the revolution in China but also by defending the grounds of Marxism in the way of fighting against the rightist pessimism in society which is related to the term ecologism, defending decidedly natural science and especially nuclear energy, and by doing so took the only acceptable position which was fundamentally in accordance with Marxism-Leninism and all revolutionary traditions.
The mentioned parties not only kept silent about this rightist morass and hysteria but even expressed their support at the top of their voice. What the KPD/ML achieved in this sphere becomes clear if one considers that it opposed the prevailing bourgeois propaganda, the clerical influence on public opinion, the influence of the whole social apparatus and the actually concerted smear campaign of the phony-left parties including the MLPD.
By making a stand against this orgiastic rightist trend the KPD/ML (Neue
Einheit) has defended basic values of civilisation. The anti-nuclear propaganda
and then generally the "green" propaganda also was a pillar of the re-dissemination
of esoterica and unmasked obscurantism in society.
Since 1982/84 our organization has worked on renewing the foundations and in the same time on continuing and defending them. This is also concerning Marxism, Leninism and MaoZedong-thoughts.
The triple naming KPD/ML (Neue Einheit) in this way is no longer necessary, the term "party" is outdated since a long time. Since a couple of years we have made an effort to give our organization a new naming, which nevertheless expresses the continuity of our work.
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Since about 1993 the term KPD/ML (Neue Einheit) is no longer used in publications. The use of the naming KPD/ML (Neue Einheit) was stopped in the year 1994 . The organization now immediately has adopted the name Gruppe Neue Einheit (group Neue Einheit). At first this is the most simple, anyway the mostly used name. The Central Comittee made this step on June 7/8, 1998 in accordance with the conference of our whole organization, by which it was several times authorized to alter the name. It has to be stressed one more time that this altering of name as for itself does not mean at all any change with regard to the contents of our organization's work. We express our conviction that renouncing the term "party", which is going too far in this concrete context, will facilitate the discussion and the cooperation with and in other organizations, that means that by this we will achieve organizational facilitation. The strategical discussion of our organization shall be held without the permanent pressure to make a decision concerning our name.
The greatest contribution today is lying in the renewal of theory and in working out the foundations of revolutionary organization as it results from the tremendous changes of the last 25 years. As our organization up to now successfully has put up resistance to the various opportunistic derailments it has achieved also from this side good preconditions for a work like such.
On the basis of the radical changes still committed worldwide by capitalism and of the much deeper going internationalization of all events in this world there are greatest tasks coming up to the revolution.
June 1998
Group NEUE EINHEIT
Central Committee
Decision of September 10, 1998