Adopted: June 24, 1979.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Whereas, Party building is the central task facing the anti-revisionist communist movement in the U.S.; and
Whereas, within the context of party building our principle task at this time is to actively take up the theoretical struggle; and
Whereas, left opportunism is the main error holding back the forward motion of the anti-revisionist movement of which there are four features:
1) On the question of party building: reducing party building to uniting the existing stock of M-Ls in order to develop a correct political orientation; failure to do a concrete analysis of the conditions of the working class and class struggle in the U.S.; failure to critique revisionism;
2) In relation to the reform struggle: to belittle the significance of the struggle for reforms and to falsely counterpose it to the struggle for socialist revolution;
3) As regards the struggle for democratic rights, to view these struggles as inherently bourgeois, or “diversionary” and therefore irrelevant to the working class, therefore opposing the ERA, school busing, etc.;
4) On the international question: flunkeyism and blind allegence to the international line of the Communist Party of China;
THEREFORE, be it resolved that this national conference of national minority M-Ls 1) recognizes the necessity for the development of a single center for our movement to centralize open debate on the important questions facing our movement; further, 2) we acknowledge he 18 Points of Unity of the OCIC as the starting point for much theoretical debates; and finally, 3) the ideal forum for the organized study of the 18 Points of Unity is the developing local centers OCIC.
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Whereas, Racism is the principle division in the U.S. working class; and
Whereas, the failure of the anti-revisionist, anti-dogmatist tendencies to correctly apply Marxism-Leninism to the concrete conditions of the U.S. has led to racist errors; and
Whereas, the present class and racial composition of the organized party building movement militates against a qualitative advance in the struggle against racism;
Whereas, there is a general need for greater theoretical clarity to guide the struggle against racism; and
Whereas, this is a task facing the anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist movement as a whole; and
Whereas, sexism is one of the oldest forms of class exploitation; and women’s relationship to class society in general is conditioned by the bourgeois division of labor in the family; and
Whereas, women’s special oppression under capitalism is tied to the fact that: 1) women represent a cheap source of labor and super profits for the capitalist class; and 2) women are a large part of the reserve army of the unemployed; and
Whereas, the particular nature of national minority women’s triple oppression on the basis of class, race and sex objectively places national minority women in forefront of the class struggle; and
Whereas, the dominant moral versus materialist approach to the struggle against sexism has resulted in a glaring lack of conscious approach to mass work among national minority women with the goal of winning them to Marxism-Leninism; and
Whereas, the failure to grasp the advanced character of national minority women points to the need for greater theoretical clarity on the nature of their special oppression and role in the class struggle; and
Whereas, this is also a task facing the anti-revisionist M-L movement as a whole; and
Whereas, racism within the women’s movement, sexism within the democratic movements of national minorities and the continued existence of both racism and sexism within the organized communist movement has objectively obstructed the development of national minority women within the mass movement and the communist movement; and
Whereas, sexism is the principle contradiction among national minority Marxist-Leninists; and
Whereas, these conditions of the M-L movement define particular tasks for national minority M-Ls, these tasks being:
1) taking up the struggle against sexism as the principle contradiction among and between national minority Marxist-Leninists in the present period;
2) uniting movement-oppressed, nationalities to the workers movement.
3) winning advanced national minorities to communism;
4) building unity among minority communities;
5) fighting against narrow nationalism among national minority workers; and
THEREFORE, be it resolved by this national conference of national minority Marxist-Leninists that 1) we recognize the necessity to take up these special tasks and address the theoretical aspects of each, first, to identify the principle contradiction that impedes the achievement of these goals, and second, to engage in theoretical study and debate to achieve a higher level of understanding of these questions and their resolutions.