Communist Party of Switzerland / Marxist-Leninists

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The Communist Party of Switzerland / Marxist-Leninists (KPS / ML), French Parti Communiste Suisse / Marxistes-Léninistes (PCS / ML), Italian Partito Communista della Svizzera / Marxista-Leninista , was one of the policies of the Communist Party of China (CCP ) oriented party in Switzerland , which was founded in 1969 and existed until 1987.

Organization and membership

A first Maoist party, which took the name of the old Communist Party of Switzerland ( French abbreviation PCS , German KPS ), emerged in Switzerland as early as 1963 but later disintegrated after various changes of course. Former members of this PCS founded the Center Lénine in Lausanne in 1964 , from which the Organization of Communists of Switzerland / Marxist-Leninists developed in 1967 . In 1972 it became the KPS / ML .

The membership of the KPS / ML cadre party was small and never exceeded 80 members, organized in cells. Sympathizers were recorded in mass organizations (for women, students, third world solidarity, etc.). Both cadres and sympathizers who came from the Swiss '68 or student movement from the early 1970s were expected to spend a lot of time (selling newspapers in front of factory gates, ideological training) and spending a lot of money on party work.

The proportion of workers was relatively high compared to many other late sixty-eight organizations; likewise the proportion of women. The Politburo was over years of two non-academics, a married couple; In the Central Committee the proportion of women was consistently over a third, among those responsible for the cells there were non-academics - industrial workers and employees - since they were constituted as KPS / ML. Thanks to the means of the "Arbeiter-Union" it was possible to form groups in the Zurich machine industry, in the building trade, in the hospital sector and in the Ticino industry. In German-speaking Switzerland, students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology initially provided a permanent set of members, primarily from the fields of agronomy and architecture.

Politics and international orientation

The Communist Party of Switzerland / Marxist-Leninists was the only Maoist group in Switzerland to enjoy official recognition by the CCP and, until the mid-1970s, by the Party of Labor of Albania . Articles from the monthly party organ October , as well as greetings from the party chairman, were occasionally quoted in the Peking Rundschau and party delegations were invited to China.

The KPS / ML aroused sensation, contradiction and anger within the left in the 1970s with domestic political statements that it derived from the Chinese theory of the three worlds . Since the main enemy was the two superpowers , with a clear accent on Russian social-imperialism , the KPS / ML represented positions that can be characterized as bourgeois-democratic: unity with its own bourgeoisie in the defense of the country's national independence, including national military defense. Supporting the trade unions in the struggle for better economic positions and basic democratic rights. Advocacy of nuclear energy as a factor of independence and as a technological advance. Constant criticism of the Labor Party as an agency for Soviet interests. All of this formally if the programmatic goal of wanting to realize "Red Switzerland" and the " dictatorship of the proletariat " continues.

From the mid-1970s , following the policies of the CCP , the KPS / ML viewed the Soviet Union as the main enemy. Like many other K groups , since the beginning of the attacks by Vietnam against Cambodia, it has supported the " Democratic Kampuchea " with Pol Pot , which the UN continues to recognize as the legitimate government of Cambodia. In 1987 the party dissolved into the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP), which existed until 1989.

In recent years, the Swiss Social Archives have received material from former members of the KPS / ML, and others. a. by Willi Wottreng , which is now available for further research.

Mass organizations

  • “October” groups, usually one per cell
  • Communist, Marxist-Leninist women
  • Communist, Marxist-Leninist youth in Switzerland
  • Marxist-Leninist students (late foundation, regionally restricted)
  • Workers Union, with publication of the same name
  • Swiss Associations for Friendship with China, Bulletin China / la Chine / la Cina , 1979 to 1992
  • Medic 'Angola, from 1976 Fighting Africa , with the eponymous magazine, 1971 to 1988
  • Workers and Soldiers Organization Offensive, the political soldiers' newspaper offensively , was published from 1971 to 1987
  • Friendship Association Switzerland-Democratic Kampuchea, with magazine, 1979 to 1983

Trivia

In a collage image that exists in multiple versions, the artist Sigmar Polke processes a photo of demonstrators with a banner on which the guiding slogan of the KPS / ML stands: "Against the two superpowers - for a red Switzerland".

literature

  • Friedrich-Wilhelm Schlomann / Paulette Friedlingstein: The Maoists. Beijing branches in Western Europe , Frankfurt am Main: Societäts-Verlag 1970 ( Switzerland p. 223–233)
  • Robert J. Alexander: Maoism in the developed world , Westport, Conn. ( inter alia): Praeger, 2001 ( Swiss Maoism pp. 159-161) ISBN 0-275-96148-6 .
  • Andreas Frei: Memories of Mao. The " Three Worlds Theory " and its propagation in Basel - a critical review , in: Paul Hugger (Hrsg.): China in der Schweiz. Two cultures in contact , Zurich: Offizin 2005, pp. 95-107 ISBN 3-907496-32-9 .
  • Sebastian Gehrig u. a. (Ed.). Cultural Revolution as a Model? Maoismen in German-speaking countries , Frankfurt am Main: Lang 2008 ISBN 978-3-631-57641-0 , therein:
    • Laurent Vonwiller: The Long March in the Soap Bubble. The Communist Party of Switzerland / Marxist-Leninists (KPS / ML) in retrospect , pp. 39–49
    • Angela Zimmermann: The long red decade of the Communist Party of Switzerland / Marxist-Leninists (KPS / ML). Memories of an almost forgotten chapter on the Swiss left , pp. 77–105
    • Marcel Dreier: The "fighting africa". Angola Solidarity and the “Three Worlds Theory” in Switzerland , pp. 107–131
  • Duri Beer: The world of the Maoists in Zurich. Cognitions, political engagement and collective identity of the KPS / ML 1972-1987 , licentiate thesis (summary in: Berner Historische Mitteilungen 24th year 2007, pp. 14–15 [1] ; PDF; 632 kB)
  • Hans-Peter Bärtschi: The east was red. A failed do-gooder (1967−1987), Post-Communist Reports (1988−2008) , Zurich: Chronos 2008 ISBN 3-0340-0916-X and ISBN 978-3-0340-0916-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ René Luzern: Sinokommunistische Gruppen in Westeuropa , in: Ost -problem, 1965, 322–329
  2. ↑ See Schlomann / Friedlingstein: Die Maoisten , 1970, p. 223ff.
  3. ^ Greetings from Comrade Gilbert Etienne , General Secretary of the Organization of the Swiss Communists , in: Peking Rundschau , No. 44/1970, p. 20; Letter from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Switzerland (ML) [Appointment of Hua Guofeng as Chairman of the CCP Central Committee], in: Peking Rundschau , No. 52, December 28, 1976, p. 26
  4. ↑ The Peking Rundschau No. 26 of July 4, 1978, p. 6 reported briefly on the visit of a KPS / ML delegation to the People's Republic of China in June 1978
  5. ↑ “In the penultimate edition of October , Central Organ of the Communist Party of Switzerland (ML), it was stated that the social-imperialist Soviet Union, behind the figurehead of peace , relaxation , internationalist aid and the liberation of the peoples from the imperialist yoke, united its aggressions, its world domination plans and its preparations hide imperialist war of conquest. The Soviet Union is currently the most dangerous and aggressive superpower that threatens all countries. ", Peking Rundschau No. 35 of September 5, 1978, p. 29
  6. ↑ “In a declaration by the Communist Party of Switzerland (ML) it is said that the Soviet Union had established bases on all continents and fed up chain dogs like Castro's Cuba and revisionist Vietnam. The aggression against Kampuchea is a renewed warning for all countries and peoples. Russian social-imperialism is a threat to the national independence of all countries and a threat to the interests of all peoples ”, Beijing Rundschau No. 5 of February 6, 1979, p. 25
  7. ↑ ava. [Natalie Avanzino]: The Maoist Movement in Zurich - An Unknown Chapter / An insight into the holdings of the Swiss Social Archives in Zurich , Neue Zürcher Zeitung No. 207 of September 7, 2006, p. 39 (international edition)
  8. ↑ Sigmar Polke "Against the two superpowers", 1976, see for example: http://ludwigforum.de/en/museum/collection , accessed on January 9, 2019.