Gelsenkirchen, Germany – The Marxist Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD) celebrated its 40th anniversary with a weekend of celebration from August 25-28. Among the 1500 who attended were party members from across Germany, their families, residents of the local community, and international guests representing revolutionary parties and organizations from 31 countries across five continents. Andy Koch, the National Organizer of Freedom Road Socialist Organization attended the celebration.

The climax of the weekend on Saturday, August 27, was the unveiling of a new statue of German revolutionary thinker Karl Marx, which joins the statue of Russian revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin which has stood on the lawn of the MLPD headquarters complex since 2020.

Before the unveiling, MLPD Chairwoman Gabi Flechner led a ceremony honoring comrades with more than 40 years of membership. These veterans were nearly all retired industrial workers, with decades of experience organizing in the factories and mines of Germany while also building revolutionary organization. Today, the membership of the MLPD remains more than 70% workers, and includes many nationalities.

The weekend program included seminars, workshops, discussion forums and cultural performances. Topics included the history of the MLPD, the importance of theoretical work in party-building, and current work among the industrial working class.

A discussion on the importance of theoretical work in the task of Marxist-Leninist party building was opened with a presentation by Stefan Engel, who was chairman of the party for 35 years. He currently oversees the production of the MLPD's theoretical organ, Revolutionärer Weg (Revolutionary Way). Engel explained the systematic and collective way in which the party trains all cadre not only to read and study the classics of Marxism-Leninism, but to grasp the dialectical method, which lies at the heart of these writings and to learn to apply it to current concrete conditions.

Immediately before the opening event of the celebration weekend was the first ICOR (International Coordination of Revolutionary Parties and Organizations) Women's Conference, an effort to build and advance theory and practice of revolutionaries around the question of women's liberation. Many in attendance will participate in the upcoming World Women's Conference in Tunis, Tunisia September 3-10. Monika Gärtner-Engel, a long-time MLPD leader, current head of the party's international department, and main coordinator of ICOR, addressed the conference, emphasizing that women make up a large and growing section of the working class, and that the struggle against oppression of women is an important issue for revolutionary organizations to engage in both practically and theoretically.

The day after the MLPD 40th anniversary weekend, a joint international seminar of ICOR and the MLPD was held. The international representatives from 31 countries discussed along with German comrades the issue of the development of new imperialist countries, the tasks of party building and the practical organization of an international united front against war and fascism.

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