Maoism in the Developed World

By 1976, the KPD was apparently in decline. Its membership dropped from 900 to 700 in that year, and it was reported that it could only mobilize “up to 5,500 sympathizers for its various actions, or half of the number of the previous year.” Its Second Congress held in July 1976 adopted a policy of alliances with other groups.[209]

At its Third Congress in March 1980, the KPD decided to dissolve itself, by a two-thirds vote. Eric Waldman noted, The KPD left behind debts amounting to several hundred thousand DM, 250,000 DM alone as the result of legal obligations arising from the party’s spectacular occupation of Bonn’s city hall (10 April 1973) to protest the visit of the then president of South Vietnam.”[210]

Apparently the KPD remained loyal to the Chinese as long as it continued to exist. In 1978 the party Chairman, Christian Semler, headed a delegation that went to China. At the time that Vietnam moved troops in to overthrow the Pol Pot regime (supported by the Chinese) in Cambodia, the KPD announced that it “supports Cambodia in its struggle against foreign domination (i.e., Vietnam) and maintains contact with Maoist parties in Turkey and Belgium. “[211]

The Communist League Of West Germany

The third significant Maoist party in West Germany and the most important one after the disappearance of the KPD, was the Communist League of West Germany (Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschlands—KBW). It was founded at a conference in Bremen in June 1973, which was said to have merged 25 different smaller groups, most of them offshoots of the New Left SDS of the late 1960s. Its principal periodical was KommurdsUsche Volkszeitung.[212]

In March 1975, the KBW held its Second Conference in Lud-wigshafen with 98 delegates in attendance, said to represent 1,700 members in 46 local groups. It was reported that “Representatives from 76 communist groups from all parts of the FRG [Federal Republic of Germany] attended as guests.” The conference elected a new 15-member central committee, which chose a five member “permanent committee.”

In 1975, the KBW succeeded in electing one of its members to the city council in Heidelberg. Also, on September 21, it was a major factor in organizing a demonstration of 20,000 people in Bonn against a law prohibiting abortion.[213]

In 1975-1976, when all of the Maoist groups were putting forth their attitudes toward the West German army, the Bundeswehr, and participation in NATO, the KBW denounced “as betrayal of the working class” the position of the KPD in favor of maintenance of American troops in West Germany. It was reported that “The KBW supports universal military training because it ensures that the workers will learn how to handle weapons and thereby obtain the capability to free themselves from capitalist suppression. The slogan about turning the guns around7 in case of war expresses the attitude of the KBW.”[214]

In 1979, Eric Waldman reported that “One of the main efforts of the KBW is the struggle against the Bundeswehr. … The antimilitary activity is based on the ‘Directives for Military Problems’ and consists of two phases. The first is the creation of conspiratorial units within the military and other security organs of the FRG. … The second phase is disruption by KBW groups of military activities when the military is employed on behalf of the ‘bourgeois.’“[215]

In 1977, the KBW took part in some local elections. It received about 0.1 percent of the total vote in Hesse. In that same year, in March, in a demonstration in Grohunde against building a nuclear power plant, “a few hundred members of the KBW transformed a peaceful demonstration of about 15,000 persons into a fierce struggle with the police.”

By 1977, the KBW was by far the largest of the German Maoist parties. It was credited with about 3,500 members “and twice as many sympathizers.” One report on the party at that time noted that “The new organizational structure divided the party into three regions and forty district units. Hans Gerhard Schmierer is secretary of the Central Committee. In 1977 the KBW bought a large building in Frankfurt for more than $1 million to serve as its new headquarters and training center. It also bought an expensive computer communication system to keep in close touch with its field organizations.“[216]

Some information is available on the sources of funding for the KBW at the apex of its influence. Some of it (about 3.4 million DM) came from membership dues, which were about $40 a month. Another 1 million DM came from “gifts from ‘mass organizations’” and an additional 2 million from the sale of the party’s literature. It was reported that “The members pay a high percentage of their income to the party and are requested to transfer their savings, inheritances etc., to the KBW treasury.“[217]