Brief Report on the Reconstruction of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan One Year After the Death of Comrade Zia
One year has passed since the death of Comrade Zia chairperson of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan (C(M)PA). In this one year, the C(M)PA faced many problems that were solved with the courageous initiatives and efforts of the members of the Central Committee and the party units. Dogmatism and sectarianism had put our party unity in serious danger. The most important organizational problem that our party faced after the death of Comrade Zia was the dissolution of the party's Politburo by two members of the Central Committee. In the absence of the party's Politburo, the two mentioned members, under the guise of the International Relations Committee, dismantled the party’s democratic centralism and led the party on the path to dogmatism and sectarianism. The other members of the Central Committee and party units responded by protesting and criticizing the behaviour of these two members. But this dogmato-sectarian circle did not heed these protests and criticisms but turned to vengeful "criticism" to silence the critiques and adamantly defended their unprincipled actions.
At this time, a member of the Politburo criticized the group's actions and called on them to pay attention to the concerns and criticism of members of the Central Committee and party units. But a member of this clique, who calls himself the “International Relations Committee”, responded to the criticism of the Politburo member and questioned his authority to criticize the sprouting dogmatic and sectarian practices in the party, and announced the special jurisdiction of the International Relations Committee to work as the party’s steering committee until the party’s third congress.
Members of the Central Committee and party units considered the transfer of the party leadership to the International Relations Committee contrary to the party's constitution, reminding the two members that according to the party's constitution, only the Politburo, in between the two plenums, can exercise the power and leadership of the Central Committee and be in charge of the party’s democratic centralism. In the absence of a legitimate and elected Politburo, no individual member of the Central Committee and no working committee of the party, including the International Relations Committee can replace the Politburo and dismantle the party’s democratic centralism.
Even after many criticisms of the dogmatic and sectarian practices, the individual in charge of the International Relations Committee individually published Sholajawid No. 26, the party's central organ. Other members of the Central Committee again protested this style of individual and arbitrary work, calling it illegal. In several letters, members of the Central Committee protested this practice and the replacement of democratic centralism by individual members, calling it unprincipled, illegal, and divisive.
Unfortunately, this dogmato-sectarian circle not only ignored these protests but also individually published Sholajawid No. 27, disseminating it through emails to party members and supporters, even those outside the party. The writings and speeches of only one party unit, which is in control of this circle, made the content of this issue. The solo effort to publish these two issues against party rules exposed the monopolistic and sectarian nature of this circle.
Members of the Central Committee and party units, frustrated by this dogmato-sectarian circle, convened an emergency meeting to rebuild the party at the invitation of a member of the Politburo and other members of the Central Committee in November 2020. The meeting, attended by a majority of members of the Central Committee and representatives of party units, discussed the problems of the party and the dogmatic and sectarian practices of the two members. This meeting identified dogmatism, sectarianism, and unscientific writing style as a major organizational problem and concluded that party reconstruction should be carried out taking into account the requirements of rectification party’s style of work and the requirements of struggle against dogmatism, sectarianism, and unscientific writing style. According to the principles of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the rectification movement for party style of work needs to struggle in theoretical, ideological-political, and organizational fields. At this meeting, it was decided that this process should begin with the purge from the party those who carry the dogmatic and sectarian line. According to the decision of this meeting, two members of the Central Committee of the party were subjected to disciplinary measures, as a result of which "Sh" was expelled from the party for repeatedly endangering the party interests and "L" was demoted for cooperating and supporting "Sh"'s actions.
Over the past year, these two individuals have engaged in racking behaviour towards the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan, such as hacking the website, producing and publishing content under the party's name, organizational revelations, and personal attacks on party members. From 27 November 2020 to 3 January 2021, the two-person clique, in collaboration with suspicious non-party forces, hacked the Sholajawid website. While the party's website was in the control of the circle, the publishing policy was reduced to insults against party members, which further exposed the dogmatic and sectarian nature of the clique. Since its inception, our party has always been opposed to a propaganda policy that confuses the ideological-political struggle with unfruitful bickering and ad hominem personal attacks.
These individuals have continued to operate under the name of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan and claim to have published 11 issues of its public and internal journal, and have held several plenums and a congress. The unscientific writing style (plagiarisms) of the circle, in Mao’s words “infantile, crude, philistine and lazy-minded formalist methods”, which does not require the use of brainpower, also reflects the nature of the group's plenums and congress. For example, their statement of March 8, 2021, was plagiarized from issue 1 of the Nabard Zan issue No. 1 [Women's Struggle], published in 2001.
After the expulsion of these people, to fight against dogmatism, sectarianism, and unscientific writing style, we have focused the party's activities on two important issues: 1) theoretically, on understanding and studying the roots of dogmatism and sectarianism, and 2) organizationally, by focusing on rebuilding regional and grassroots committees. Per our organizational needs, during this period, the party paid special attention to studying classical works of Marxist theory and party documents and the reconstruction of party committees, including the training and education of party cadres.
In this regard, in the light of the Maoist principle of criticism and self-criticism, the party has comprehensively summarized and analyzed the activities, shortcomings, and ideological political mistakes of the party. We believe that only in this way can we succeed in linking theory to practice, applying the general truth of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in the specific circumstances of the revolution in Afghanistan.
Mao writes: "The rectification movement is a widespread movement of Marxist education." (Mao, March 1957) Therefore, following this principle, in the rectification movement, we will study Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to apply it to practice and in the light of which to solve the theoretical problems of the revolutionary practice. As Mao puts it: "Marxism-Leninism-[Maoism] is a science, and science means honest solid knowledge; there is no room for playing tricks. Let us, then, be honest.” (Mao, 1941, May)
The Central Committee of the Party assures all members and supporters of the party that our party, by rejecting sectarianism and dogmatism, now has better ideological-political and organizational cohesion, and this will pave the way for the expansion of the party.
Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan
June 2021
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