First Published: The Call, Vol. 2, No. 3, December 1973.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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In the United States today, an increasing number of revolutionary people have begun to see the necessity of building a new communist party, to lead the working class in its fight for socialism and a better life.
Faced with the intensifying economic and political crisis, more and more people have begun to take up the study of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and the task of integrating that study with the movements of the working and oppressed people. This growing trend is reflected in the growing movement of communist and revolutionary organizations that have emerged in recent years.
Running counter to this trend has been the most concerted efforts of the imperialists to smash and subvert the communist movement, by any means necessary, including open fascist attacks as well as the use of opportunists within our own ranks. The revisionist CPUSA has stood in the front ranks of these opportunists, proclaiming themselves as the “vanguard” of the working class, while at the same time, spreading ideological confusion with their line of “peaceful transition to socialism.” This shows that proclamations are not enough.
The CPUSA has launched a vicious campaign of slander at the entire anti-imperialist movement and especially at the forces of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, who stand as the main alternative to their corrupt, revisionist leadership. A day does not pass, when these “peaceful” revolutionaries do not openly attack this movement as well as the People’s Republic of China, which stands at the center of the world revolutionary movement today.
Their purpose is to create a wall between the revolutionaries and the masses of the people, in an attempt to isolate these forces, neither one of whom can move forward decisively without the other.
Within the ranks of the anti-revisionist forces, there are “left” opportunists, who are trying to provide a cover for the revisionists, while in essence accomplishing the same thing. From the “left” they attack Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and all that it stands for. At a time when the communist movement has begun to deepen its ties among the masses, while forging unity within its own ranks, these super-revolutionaries are doing everything possible to isolate the movement and spread disunity and splits.
These forces are exemplified by the Communist League and their recently issued “Call for a Congress.” In its “Call,” C.L. presents a neat formula for party-building – call a congress and proclaim yourself the party! It is a formula that in fact exposes C.L.’s isolation and petty-bourgeois class character. Using the “genius theory” of developing knowledge, and rejecting the mass line, (“from the masses to the masses,”) the C.L. has based its call for a new party on its “new” theories of Marxism, which go against all the fundamental principles of scientific socialism and therefore are bound to fail.
Of primary importance is their rejection of the anti-imperialist united front, as the general line of the communist movement, both internationally and here in the U.S. The Communist League has proceeded on the policy of “disunite the people” and drive the middle forces into the arms of the enemy,” as its general line, rather than taking up the revolutionary line of “uniting the many to defeat the few.” In the C.L.’s view, they are the only revolutionaries, while even the Chinese Communist Party and its leading organs are “run by revisionists.”
Here at home, they pose their slogan “class against class” as the alternative to the united front against imperialism, liquidating the national question facing the oppressed peoples within the U.S. as well as the struggles of the millions of people of various strata of the population fighting heroically to defeat the fascist and aggressive policies of U.S. imperialism.
When looked to for guidance by the masses, they pose their simplistic formula for all the struggles of the people. “Build a party” they tell them, in essence, posing the basic task of party building in opposition to the day-to-day struggle of the people.
They make the slogan of party building into a trite, stale slogan, instead of a living reality. They turn the communists away from the people, saying that no struggle can go on until there is a communist party. By following this line of “first build a party, then fight for the people” they turn their backs on the masses and their line becomes one of dogmatism, just the opposite of what Marxism-Leninism is supposed to be. Their relation to the mass movement of the people is to participate in this or that struggle, only in order to recruit the “most advanced” while forgetting about the immediate struggle altogether.
In Chou En-Lai’s Report to the 10th Party Congress of the CCP, he emphasized an important principle for all revolutionaries to grasp: “The people and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.”
This principle must govern party-building as well. The class struggle exists independently of the Communist League or any other group and no party worth a damn can be built outside the storm of this struggle. By trying to stay out of this storm and keep dry, the C.L. can never build a party of the Leninist type, a party that is a fighting arm of the working class; a party that is rooted firmly in the struggles of the people; and a party that successfully integrated the principles of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete conditions here in the U.S.
There is no short-cut to building such a party. It cannot simply be proclaimed into being. It must be built slowly and carefully among the vanguard sections of the proletariat and oppressed people. The forces who signed the C.L. “Call” are an isolated group of proven splitters and ultra-“leftists” who have attacked everything healthy and developing within the revolutionary movement.
There is nothing the revisionist CPUSA and the imperialist ruling class would like more at this time than for the C.L. to “declare” themselves the party and use them as the “left” alternative. There is nothing the revisionists would like more than for the genuine Marxists-Leninists to oppose the anti-imperialist united front and isolate themselves. There is nothing the revisionist party would like better than for revolutionaries in this country to abandon Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought for the “thought” of the C.L.
However, the future is bright. Thousands of honest revolutionary fighters have rejected the two bankrupt roads of right revisionist (CPUSA) and “left” revisionism (C.L. and their dozens of predecessors). Like C.L.’s forerunner, the Progressive Labor Party, who once proclaimed themselves the “vanguard” party, but later proved to be splitters and wreckers, C.L.’s future is dim.
The day is rapidly approaching when the genuine revolutionary leadership in this country will be consolidated organizationally as well as ideologically and the working and oppressed peoples will have conscious leadership. But, we are forced to say, that C.L.’s “congress” will not be that day.