Below we publish an English translation of the solidarity statement we received and published earlier.
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
LONG LIVE THE TKP/ML! DOWN WITH THE PERSECUTIONS OF COMMUNISTS!
Today on the 28th of July 2020, sentences have been given in the Federal Republic of Germany in the so-called “TKP/ML trial”. In this trial, which took over four years, ten comrades were sentenced for such offenses as “leading a foreign terrorist organization” and “membership in a foreign terrorist organization”. Each of them was sentenced to prison, from two and nine months up to even six and half years. No actual crimes, in which the accused would have committed, were not presented in the court, only the vague claim about “terrorism”. This so-called “terrorist organization” is the TKP/ML, the vanguard of the international proletariat in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan. The Party, which for decades has waged People’s War for the New Democratic Revolution. The Party, which is the real leader of the broadest and deepest masses in its country. It’s not any “terrorist organization”, but a party in an internal conflict.
It is significant that before this there has not been a single state in Europe which would have considered the TKP/ML to be a “terrorist organization”, and it’s not found from for example the “European Union’s” or even Germany’s “list of terrorist organizations”. Only Turkey, the fascist dictatorship governed by Erdogan, has officially named the TKP/ML as a ”terrorist organization”. Now Germany, the state which ostensibly has left behind its fascist past, which is the hegemonic imperialist in the “EU”, has decided otherwise, and for this the court of Munich applied for – and so it received – approval for the sentences from as high as the justice ministry of Merkel’s regime. At the same time Germany has again demonstrated that its own constitution and international treaties are merely a piece of paper, which it is ready to abandon in its pursuit of suppressing justified revolutionary struggle.
The prison sentences received by our comrades cannot stop the revolution and the TKP/ML. For years on, its members and supporters have been, en masse, imprisoned, tortured, and executed without trials, yet still the reaction has not been able to stop the inevitable motion of history. The sentence from Munich alone is enough to demonstrate this – why else would it have been given, if the imprisonments, executions, and torture had finished that? Likewise, it is demonstrated by the numerous news about the armed struggles of the People’s War, in which the Workers’ and Peasants’ Liberation Army, TIKKO, has defeated the enemy. And likewise it is also demonstrated by the wide support from the masses enjoyed by the TKP/ML, not only in Turkey, but also in Europe where millions of migrant workers from Turkey live. An old wisdom has it that the reaction may imprison a revolutionary but not the revolution. The more it imprisons, tortures, and executes, the more it only show itself as being in trouble. Down with the reaction! Long live the TKP/ML and the revolution!
The attack against the TKP/ML is an attack against the whole International Communist Movement, whose real representative in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan is the TKP/ML. One of us! Even more, the decision of the Federal Republic of Germany means the intensification of the anti-communist offensive in Europe. The sword is pointing against all communist and, in general, revolutionary parties and organizations. This shows the real scale in which the European reaction has now attacked against the International Communist Movement. The same intensifying offensive we are seeing everywhere in the world, because on Earth there cannot be found a single country, a single continent, where the deepest and broadest masses would not use their right to rebel against the reactionaries. We condemn fiercely the strikes of the world reaction against the TKP/ML and the International Communist Movement. Down with the general counter-revolutionary offensive! Long live the International Communist Movement and the strategic offensive of the World Revolution!
Guided by proletarian internationalism, we want to express our solidarity to the TKP/ML and the International Communist Movement. In particular, in Finland we urge all Marxists, revolutionaries, and democrats to condemn the so-called “TKP/ML trial” as an attack against the TKP/ML, against the International Communist Movement, and against the democratic rights of the peoples, and to demonstrate their support to the TKP/ML and to the cause of the whole International Communist Movement. To underline this we cite the words of Marx:
“Citizens, let us think of the basic principle of the International: Solidarity. Only when we have established this life-giving principle on a sound basis among the numerous workers of all countries will we attain the great final goal which we have set ourselves. The revolution must be carried out with solidarity; this is the great lesson of the French Commune, which fell because none of the other centres — Berlin, Madrid, etc. — developed great revolutionary movements comparable to the mighty uprising of the Paris proletariat.”
Our strength lies in solidarity!
Down with the persecutions of communists!
Long live the TKP/ML!
Long live the International Communist Movement!
Maoist Committee in Finland
28th of July 2020