Unfortunately, many of the comrades who must begin laying the foundations for a true vanguard party are among the least experienced in our movement. We can see why some wait for someone else to build the party. But they should not wait, for so many of those who have been in the movement longer either have gone too far on the wrong track in their present parties, or have dropped away, too disappointed in how they saw things going.
Those who are less sure of themselves, however, who are open to learning from each other and from the workers, yet who are also determined not to follow anyone uncritically, no matter how well developed they appear to be–such comrades can be among the best in the movement, despite their real shortcomings. They can do far more at present than those who deny the immensity of our tasks; pretend that the masses are eagerly hanging on their every word (or who fear that saying any words will alienate the people); propose yet another “unity plan” that ignores the need to involve rank-and-file communists in the broadest line struggle; pretend that their theoretical poverty does not emasculate their attempts at revolutionary practice; and can hear no criticism of their various dual unionist, nationalist, social-chauvinist, or other dangerous political lines and right or “left” methods of mass work.
This greater potential for contributing to the real work of U.S. communists means that every comrade who is not with one of the existing parties must recognize the party-building responsibilities that we all face and take up the struggle. The readers of this and any other works on party-building must make a priority of discussing with their comrades what must be done to build a genuine, revolutionary vanguard party in this country. Then they must begin to play a part in that process.
The struggle to unite some critical mass of communists, or, rather, as many more than that as possible, around a correct party-building line is crucial. We need it; the workers and other oppressed masses of the United States need it; the oppressed and exploited toilers of the world, desperately seeking signs of U.S. imperialism's internal disintegration, need it. Being a communist in this period means neither simply sitting in a study group or the library, nor passing out bold-sounding leaflets or organizing around local events. It means actively joining forces that are seeking the means to build the party that will lead the U.S. working class and its allies to revolution.
As those who have already formed their “vanguard” parties all remind us when they urge us to join them, both the dangerous international situation and the growing economic and political crises are daily increasing the need for communist leadership of the working class. At some point, sharpening contradictions will produce a qualitative leap in the necessity for such leadership. Neither imperialist war, nor a real threat of fascism, nor an upsurge in the mass movement will wait for the communists to outgrow our theoretical infancy or to do the other work that will permit the development of a stratum of communist workers and their unification in a party.
Today U.S. communists are nowhere near being capable of leading a proletarian revolution. Our work does not even have a perceptible impact on the bourgeoisie's freedom of action in conducting the affairs of this country. Yet the means for overcoming our weaknesses are largely at hand. If we merely play at revolution, or if we dabble in “progressive” politics, we will remain as politically irrelevant as we are today. If we are serious and selfless, if we use Marxism-Leninism and use our heads, we can create the young party which, in its maturity, will lead the U.S. working class and its allies in the destruction of a thundering imperialist giant.