Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany

The Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (German: "Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands", MLPD) is an antirevisionist political party in Germany without parliamentary representation. It was founded in 1982 by members of the Communist Workers Union of Germany (Kommunistischer Arbeiterbund Deutschlands; KABD). The MLPD has long been the largest far-left grouping in Germany.

The MLPD has traditionally defined itself as Maoist in orientation, originating from the heritage of Maoism in the 1960s student movements. It declares the political and economical changes in most of the eastern European countries after the 20th Party Congress as treason to socialism. It refers to the ideas of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao, some adherents oriented themselves also at Enver Hoxha after the Deng Xiaoping-era began in China.

It promotes the "Dictatorship of proletariate", before socialism can develop. This concept excludes the existence of the civil democratic order. So the MLPD wants to abolish the current German constitution and replace it with a new social order.

It participates in the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO).

The MLPD's youth movement is called "Rebell" (Rebel).

At the 1998 federal elections the party gained only 0.01 percent of the votes. In 2002 the MLPD didn't participate at the federal elections and called on people for boycott.The MLPD participated in the 2005 federal elections, generally positioning itself in campaigns as a radical alternative to the Left Party. The MLPD won 0.1 percent of the total votes cast. This marked a tenfold increase compared to the result of 1998, despite the competition through the Left Party.

Its strongest showing was in the states of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, where it garnered 0.4 percent of the vote. [http://www16.dw-world.de/wahlgrafik/index.php?lang=en] .

Although some German labor unions declare a simultaneous membership in the labor union and the MLPD inadmissible, many members of the party are members of a labor union and even fulfill a task there. Thereby some MLPD members were already excluded from a labor union, among these the present chairman of the party Stefan Engel, who used to be a member of the IG Metall and is now a member of Ver.di.

External links

* [http://www.mlpd.de Official web site]