Unhampered by the hangovers of feudalism, USNA capitalism by the end of the 19th Century, had fully entered into its aggressive, moribund, final stage–Imperialism. The USNA multinational state is the international hangman of revolutions and the enemy of the peoples of the earth. The working class of the United States of North America is locked in a life and death struggle with the capitalist class. This struggle is evolving under conditions where the workers have had no general staff–no Marxist-Leninist Communist Party–to guide them. In the struggle to form and develop such a Party, the Marxist-Leninists are carrying out their historic responsibilities. Basing ourselves on the Communist Manifesto and the Program of the Communist International, the Marxist-Leninists of the USNA set out to rally the revolutionary working class around the following program.
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The working class of the United States of North America constitutes the majority of the population. The stranglehold of the big financial capitalists over the countryside has led to a sharp decline in the family farm. The growth of the working class by absorbing the superfluous farmers, through the destruction of the broad strata of the petty bourgeoisie and through immigration has placed the proletariat in an extremely favorable position. The means of production in the USNA are concentrated in the hands of a few; the proletariat and the class enemy stand face to face. The historic conflict is at hand.
Two inevitable internal policies of imperialism are bribery of the upper strata of the working class and terror against the more proletarian sections of the class. From the most oppressed and exploited workers there is developing a struggle against the capitalists and especially against the state.
The trend toward shifting the economic base from mechanics to electronics has not only increased the reserve army of unemployed but also created a huge qualitatively new army of the permanently unemployed, especially amongst national minority proletarians. Every technical advance makes the position of the proletarians more untenable.
The struggle against the capitalist class is a struggle against all who live by the labor of others, and against all exploitation. It can only end in the seizing of power by the working class, and the transferal of all land, instruments, factories, machines and mines to the whole of society for the organization of social production under which all that is produced by the workers and all improvements in production must benefit the working people themselves.
The revolutionary working class movement is the grave-digger of USNA monopoly capitalism. It is part of the international movement of the world’s working class for peace, democracy, national liberation and socialism.
The greatest danger facing the working class is the open terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, most imperialist elements of finance capital–fascism. This assumes the German military form. Since 1932, the executive branch of the government has accumulated emergency powers far greater than those granted Hitler and Mussolini.
The military has long ago clamped a stranglehold on the administrative bureaucracy. The military, loyal reactionary servants of imperialism, presents a grave danger to civil liberties and to the labor movement.
The struggle of the workers against the inroads of fascism accelerates the political development of the class and inevitably sharpens the antagonisms that can only end with the dictatorship of the proletariat–the only political form that guarantees the emancipation of all the toiling masses. The struggle of the working class of the USNA for its emancipation is a political struggle. Its aim, by defeating the fascist offensive, is to pass over to the offensive and overthrow the monopoly capitalist rule which is the seedbed of fascism. Only through the revolutionary struggle for reforms can the proletariat be organized to establish its dictatorship.
The emancipation of the working class is the revolutionary act of self-emancipation.
Our Party declares that its aim is to develop the class consciousness of the workers, point out and clarify the aims and objects of the struggle, and to organize and participate in this struggle of the working class of the USNA.
Hence, our Party will support every national liberation movement, every movement of labor and struggle of the people that is directed against the fascist offensive, for peace, for democracy, for national liberation and socialism.
Making this program our starting point, our Party demands and sets out to lead the struggle for:
1. Full employment at the expense of the military budget; jobs with peace. Unemployment compensation commensurate with the number of children to extend to all unemployed workers, both urban and rural proletarians. Nationalize welfare and equalize funds to all welfare recipients commensurate with the number of children.
2. An end to compulsory overtime. Strict enforcement of a 35-hour week. No speed-up.
3. Prohibition of work by children under 16.
4. An end to price hikes and to all attacks on the living standards of the workers.
5. Recognition, implementation and protection of the rights of women; equal pay for equal work.
6. Free universal medical care.
7. Equal, quality and integrated education for all children. Bilingual education wherever there are non-English speaking students. Nationalize education.
8. Independence for the Negro Nation and Puerto Rico.
9. Stop deportations. No documentation papers required for any workers. Open borders.
10. Regional autonomy for the Mexican national minority of the Southwest and for the Indian Peoples.
11. Independence, freedom and regional autonomy for the peoples of all nations and territories oppressed by USNA imperialism and the withdrawal of all USNA troops and bases from foreign nations and territories such as the Philippines and Panama. Renunciation of all the secret arrangements and unequal treaties imposed on all peoples and countries that have been conquered by USNA imperialism.
12. Equality for all national minorities. No national privilege.
13. The guaranty of decent housing through government financing and the expansion of the public sector of housing for the people.
14. Nationalize the energy industry.
15. Outlaw the KKK, Nazi Party and all fascist gangs.
16. Free quality 24-hour childcare for working families.
17. Support the right to bear arms.
18. The right of workers to organize into unions and to strike. Repeal Taft-Hartley and all other anti-labor legislation.
19. An end to all discrimination against military and civilian resisters to imperialist war. Unconditional amnesty for these resisters.