Organizing in the most effective way requires a whole science, the science of organization. Organization has its own laws. An organization is created to ensure the realization of the political line and tasks. . . An organization may be either highly revolutionary or highly conservative. It is most revolutionary when it fully corresponds with the needs of life. It is most conservative when it develops a tendency to inertia while life is constantly changing and moving forward. (Le Duan, Some Problems of Cadres and Organization in Socialist Revolution)
The NNMLC is a nationwide communist organization which is located within the anti-revisionist, anti-left opportunist trend of genuine Marxist-Leninists in the US. The basis of unity of the NNMLC is the demarcation with both modern revisionism and left opportunism, and the Club Network’s party building line as elaborated in “Developing the Subjective Factor–the Party Building line of the NNMLC”. In essence, this line holds that the central task of US Marxist-Leninists today is the rectification of the general line of the US communist movement and the reestablishment of its party.
All the work of the NNMLC is based upon and guided by this line. As one among a multiplicity of organizational forms which communists have developed in this period, the Club Network exists to make the most organized, scientific use of the subjective forces available to contribute to our movement’s central task.
The particular tasks of the Club Network within the rectification movement and the method by which the Club Network is organize to carry out those particular tasks are elaborated upon as follows:
I. The political tasks of the period–the rectification and re-establishment of a communist party in the US.
II. The organizational life of communists in a pre-party period
III. The particular tasks of the NNMLC
IV. Principles of organizational work of the NNMLC
The central task before the entire US communist movement is he rectification of the general line of the communist movement d the reestablishment of its communist party. The rectification of general line includes first and foremost the rectification of the correct communist orientation towards the very nature and role of the communist party we are struggling to reestablish. In the ideological field this targets the decisive role of the subjective factor. In the political field the rectification of the communist movement’s orientation includes not only the role of the party as the general staff of the working class struggle, but also the rectification of the party program and strategy for the seizure of state power in the United States. And in the organizational field this requires the rectification of the communist movement’s orientation to the vanguard party itself. The requirements of the political goal of seizure of state power require that the party be one of professional revolutionaries, with an experienced leadership, disciplined and capable of unified action based on a unified line.
The complementary task to the rectification of general line is the training of the human material which must develop and carry out this line–that is the training of leadership and cadre for the party’s reestablishment. The forging of leadership and cadre to develop, implement, and deepen the general line of the party as it is rectified will be crucial to the success of the party’s reestablishment. This process of developing cadre also includes the integration of new forces into the conscious communist activity of party building.
The mobilization of a widescale rectification movement around the general line leading to the party’s reestablishment is a complex and difficult task. It will require years of study and carefully organized debate and discussion around a wide range of theoretical questions. Furthermore, the general theoretical level of the majority of cadre is not yet high enough to participate actively in the process of line rectification, and efforts must be made to raise this level systematically. A. greater consciousness of communist work within the arena of mass organizing must be stressed in order to direct this practice to the rectification goals.
Normally of course, such a complex rectification movement would be organized and conducted within the context of a communist party. All communist forces would be functioning within the same nationwide organization, with a clearly designated leadership body and accurately defined membership. A party can provide for a complex organizational mechanism with a clearly marked division of tasks under central leadership. But we are without such a party that is the nature of the contradiction we face–and yet must take up these tasks despite our current organizational primitiveness. In fact we must utilize the process of this rectification movement to lay the groundwork for the alteration of such organizational conditions through the reestablishment of the party.
1) To accomplish the tasks ahead of us the communist movement must create the MOST DEVELOPED ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE POSSIBLE to organize and guide the tasks of the rectification movement. First, because the tasks require bold organizational initiatives and the most systematic methods of work possible in order to accomplish the tasks before us. Second, because we must train our entire movement in professional standards of communist organizational work.
The organizational initiatives of our party building work must be approached in the most systematic manner possible. We must fight empiricism and anarchic methods of work, and struggle to map out the tasks of every organization and project with scientific principles of work, practicing steady and consistent summation. Whenever possible we must introduce and struggle for proletarian organizational relations of democratic centralism which provide the best possible context to guide the practice of an organization and develop both leadership and cadre. A concerted campaign must be waged against the anti-organization and individualist tendencies which have become a predominant reaction to the commandism of the left opportunist forces within the left.
At the same time, we must carefully guard against the notion that any existing organizational form can all-sidedly guide the work of the communist movement and the full development of cadre in this period. The only political basis to expect any organization to guide the work of the communist movement overall and the all-sided work of the cadre is a general line for the revolutionary struggle. Consequently all forms of communist organization in this period without a general line are inherently limited and one-sided in their capacities. This is a crucial distinction from the thrust of the organizational orientation of the earlier party building efforts of the new communist movement which emphasize the development of all-sided “pre-party” formations of the RU or OL type. The formulation of nation-wide pre-party formations to guide the work of their cadre in all areas of theory and practice implies a general line which they are united on which is qualitatively distinct from the other genuine forces of the communist movement. This erroneous assumption has contributed to the small-circle mentality and sectarianism of the pre-party formations inability to distinguish themselves from the vanguard party. The attempt to conduct such an all sided form of guidance circumvents the necessity to struggle out political differences with other forces of the communist movement and to forge a genuine party with a real general line (as opposed to a minimum set of “points of unity”, which is all such a formation could be united on in this period).
Thus, the particularity of organization building in a pre-party period requires that every communist formation grasp firmly the one-sidedness of its character and the limitations of its development. Every organizational formation of the communist movement in this period must have a clear basis for its existence [in the specific task it is best suited to fulfill. If that task is a necessary and constructive task, and the organization grasps its limitations firmly, it is bound to advance the progress of the rectification movement and gain the support of the entire communist movement despite differences in organizational affiliation. The most developed organizational vehicles, however, must be particularly on guard against hegemonism and the tendency to view their quantitatively more advanced form, as anything qualitatively superior to many of the other more specific or limited organizational vehicles of the pre-party period.
2) In a period in which the tasks of a rectification movement are wide and varied and where the communist movement is widely scattered as individuals and small local groupings, the policy of MULTIPLICITY OF ORGANIZATION must apply. This is based on the recognition that prior to the reestablishment of the party, the correctness and genuine orientation of communist forces cannot be evaluated on the basis of membership in any particular organization. Since there is no organization which has formulated the general line of the communist movement (which would be the basis for the demand of adherence by all communist forces), no organization stands as the one organization which all must join. In fact, the wide variety of tasks before the communist movement and the scattered condition of communist forces requires just the opposite. A wide scope of organizational forms which are particular to each task must be encouraged to blossom in this period: specialized study commissions on a specific line (such as the question of capitalist restoration in the Soviet Union, the racial/national question for minorities in the US, history of the US communist movement, woman question, etc.); local Marxist-Leninist organizations to guide intervention into the class struggle; joint study groups; theoretical journals and publications; joint work teams of communist forces in mass struggles or organizations, etc. Of course, the broadest possible coordination and interrelations among organizational forms must be promoted. This process must also be guided, summarized, and synthesized as the basis to move to a reestablishment process which actually united communists in a single form of the new party. But, the process of forging a leading center for the party’s reestablishment can only take place in the demonstration of leadership in unfolding this process on the correctness of party building line and the ability to actually lead In the process of line rectification overall. It is only the party which can qualitatively guide the work of the communist movement as a whole and expect the organizational affiliation of all genuine communists.
3) All forms of communist organization which are established in this period are of a TRANSITORY CHARACTER since all communist organizational functions will be united upon the reestablishment of the party. This mean that all present forms of communist organization must elaborate their specific limitations and transitory character and must construct themselves in a way that paves the way for the forging of the party and prepares its members for the future subordination of their organization to the party formation. This also means that no organization takes part in the reestablishment of the party as an organization. Only individuals can actually participate in a reestablishment process, since the criteria for party membership is the sole responsibility of the party and the review of each individual’s capabilities must be conducted by the party center by its own standards. This must be counterposed to the federationist notions of “merging” existing communist organizations, an approach which builds in factions from the onset of the party.
4) Part of the recognition of the transitory character of existing communist formations is the CONSCIOUS LIMITATIONS WHICH MUST BE PLACED ON THE PRACTICE OF DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM. While democratic centralism is the only form of proletarian organizational relations, it can only be applied in relation to a unified and advanced line of an organization. In order to set the basis for the alignment and realignment of individual communist elements in the course of the rectification movement and the formation of a unified leading center for the party, democratic-centralism cannot be applied in an all-sided way in relation to the struggle among communist forces.
The National Network of Marxist-Leninist Clubs is one organizational form which can help advance the unfolding of a widescale rectification movement in the US and contribute to the reestablishment of the party. The importance of the formation of the NNMLC rests most strongly in the advanced party building line which is the basis of the organization. As the rectification of the communist orientation on the nature and the role of the party is the key area of rectification work at this stage, the correct party building line of the NNMLC gives it an important role within the communist movement, in the struggle to advance this line, engage in struggle against backward and incorrect lines, and deepen and develop this line further. THUS, UNTIL THE MARXIST-LENINIST MOVEMENT IS UNIFIED ON A CORRECT PARTY BUILDING LINE, THE NNMLC WILL MAKE ITS MAIN TASK THE STRUGGLE IN THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT OVER PARTY BUILDING LINE.
The NNMLC will also take up certain other aspects of the theoretical and political struggle for the general line. This work not only advances the theoretical work of the members of the organization and their contribution towards the rectification of the general line, it also helps to advance the general importance of theoretical work for the entire communist movement at this stage. This aspect of the NNMLC’s work will be limited by the NNMLC’s very nature. It brings in members of a very uneven and varied theoretical level. Given the overall low state of theoretical development, it can be expected that the main attention in this area will be the strengthening of the political lines of demarcation of the anti-revisionist, anti-“left” opportunist trend, and the overall raising of the level of its members. This will place club members in a better position to take an active part in the process of rectification of general line which will be conducted by the communist movement in numerous other forms. The NNMLC study work can help to open up the discussion and study of outstanding theoretical problems before the US communist movement and help to integrate its members into the process of rectification work in a more systematic way.
As a national organization of Marxist-Leninist forces, the NNMLC can provide an organizational context for a large number of individual communist elements to participate in more conscious party building work. It is a particularly valuable formation for connecting communist forces into rectification work, as it carries no responsibility or commitment to guide all of the practical work of its members nor expect its members to adhere to developed principles of unity outside of those demarcating our trend and those guiding our party building efforts. This can allow a wide scope of Marxist-Leninist forces in our trend to work jointly in an organizational formation around rectification tasks without requiring the most developed political line and discipline to guide extensive practical work.
At the same time, the communist organizational practice within a nation-wide formation is important experience in the training of leadership and cadre for the communist movement. A nation-wide formation helps provide the conditions for communist forces to break with localism and small circle mentality and sectarianism. The NNMLC will also struggle to develop the most advanced organizational relations of a communist orientation in grasping the role of leadership, combatting ultra-democratic prejudices, practicing the correct relation between leadership and cadre; and organizing in a limited way nation-wide common practice which provide excellent training for the future party.
The limitations of the NNMLC are important to note here as well. In general, the NNMLC shares with all other communist organizations a “transitory character” and recognizes it is only one appropriate form among many in this period. Many other organizations and individual forces not connected to the club network hold an advanced orientation on party building and have significantly helped to develop, deepen, and implement this line. More specifically, the decision of the NNMLC to guide its members integration into the class struggle in only a very limited fashion will mean a one-sidedness in the development of our cadre. All possible methods of assisting our members in taking up other work and developing their practical experience in organizing the masses outside of the direct work of the clubs must be taken up consciously by the leadership of the clubs. Also, the unevenness in level of the NNMLC members on the theoretical plane will mean that more advanced forms of study to make substantial political breakthrough on outstanding theoretical questions will not be most conducive to the particular character of the NNMLC, although certainly club members will individually be active in such formations.
On the whole, however, the formation of the National Network of Marxist Leninist Clubs will serve an important and valuable function in the current stage of the US communist movement. It fills a vacuum of nation-wide communist organization for potentially hundreds of communist elements to organize their integration in the rectification movement and train them for the future work of a reestablished party. The NNMLC is committed to the greatest possible maximization of that role and is confident that its formation accurately corresponds to the “needs of life” at this stage of the communist movement and will serve a highly revolutionary role.
In the immediate period, these tasks will be concretized into some of the following areas of work:
1) The study and deepening of our party building line within the Club Network as well as conducting study groups, forums and debates to advance this line throughout the communist movement.
2) Study forums and debates around major outstanding theoretical questions and of newly breaking domestic and international developments.
3) The continuation of study around the Guardian’s 29 points from the standpoint of deepening our grasp of the demarcation of the anti-revisionist, anti-“left” opportunist trend.
4) Continued work in writing for the Guardian newspaper, which contributes to line rectification through analysis and news writing around the concrete struggles which surface daily.
5) Initiatives in intervention in the spontaneous class struggle in the context of our party building line, which have the limited goals of the line struggle in the midst of concrete conditions of organizing work; of joint work with other communist forces; and of contributing to the training of our cadre in a more all-sided way. In the immediate period this will be limited to such areas as Southern Africa solidarity work and mass campaigns to support the special demands of minority peoples such as the anti-Weber campaign.
The organizational principles under which any organization functions must be geared to the political tasks which it hopes to accomplish. The task before the NNMLC and the entire communist movement in the US is the reestablishment of a vanguard communist party which is capable leading the working class to the seizure of state power and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Even in this pre-party period we must struggle to develop and’ practice the communist principles of organization which will train our cadre for this historic responsibility. The party we are struggling to forge must be imbued with organizational principles which facilitate the political role of the party as a general staff of the proletariat. It must be capable of functioning in an illegal manner, intervening rapidly and decisively in the class struggle, and training thousand and hundreds of thousands of cadre to bring communist ideology and politics to the working class through their thoughtful and creative application of the party’s general line and its specific policies and programs.
To play such a role within the working class, the communist party must be based on the Marxist-Leninist principles of democratic centralism–proletarian democratic organizational principles. These principles promote the widest possible democratic participation of the cadre under strong and centralized leadership. These principles translate into a very important set of organizational relations:
a) The individual is subordinate to the organization.
b) The minority is subordinate to the majority.
c) Lower levels of organization are subordinate to higher levels.
d) The entire membership is subordinate to the national leadership and the national leadership is subordinate to the entire membership in the form of the National Conference (which elects and holds this national leadership accountable.)
In addition, the internal political life of the NNMLC will be guided by the following principles:
a) The leadership will be held accountable for developing a concrete program to raise the general theoretical level of the organization so that Club members will be able to contribute more extensively and more equally to the political life of the organization; Club members will be held accountable for taking up study and other forms of training in order to raise their own theoretical level.
b) All bodies within the organization shall rigorously practice criticism-self criticism, combatting tendencies towards individualism, liberalism and commandism.
c) All leadership bodies within the NNMLC operate on the principle of collective leadership, with individuals holding each other responsible for carrying out collective decisions; at the same time, individuals in each body must take responsibility for their own views and positions.
These principles are crucial to the functioning of proletarian organization especially in the context of a national organization. The NNMLC will proceed under the organizational principles of democratic centralism in order to give the maximum play to both democratic participation and centralized leadership to accomplish its specific tasks. Furthermore, the practice of these organizational principles are a crucial element in the training of our leadership and cadre for party relations in the future. At the same time, we will carefully limit the nature of our democratic centralism to ensure that it does not fetter the ideological and political interaction with the communist movement as a whole. The practice of democratic centralism within the NNMLC must be subordinated to the higher responsibility to forge a unified leading center for the reestablishment of a vanguard party.
The NNMLC gives a major priority to the development and training of leadership for the communist movement. In the current period, our movement is sorely lacking in experienced and trained leadership capable of the development of our general line and organizing the implementation of that line so it becomes a material force. Our leadership must be given a healthy context in which it can exert itself fully in theoretical and political struggle, be held accountable for its positions, and be judged on the results of its work and correctness of its opinions. The NNMLC will actively encourage the development of communist leadership and take great care to place advanced elements of the organization in leading positions through the process of democratic election. Our leading members are responsible to forge leading collectives at all levels of the organization and practice the principles of collective leadership and individual responsibility. Our leadership is held accountable to the mass membership through the process of democratic election, criticism-self criticism, and through the right of recall in all levels of the organization. In addition, the pre-party period of our work requires that our leadership must be held accountable hot only to the NNMLC but to the communist movement as a whole.
The NNMLC will also take responsibility for the training and development of its cadre. In the ideological field, it will promote the most active theoretical training and development so that our cadre can interact with and contribute to the forging of the general line and hold its leadership accountable. It will also foster the active aid consistent practice of criticism-self criticism to correct problems in the work and combat bourgeois individualism which is such a predominant current within the US communist movement. In the political field, the NNMLC will bring club members into the midst of the struggle for correct political line and into the practice and implementation of that line. In the organizational field, the NNMLC will promote collectivity in its organizational process to improve the fighting strength of the organization, bring out the qualities of each member, and combat the backward ideas and weaknesses of each member. The clubs will also practice regular and conscious planning and summation of work to bring club members into the most active role as the subjective factor.