First Published: Workers’ Press, Vol. 2, No. 10, October 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Resistance to the economic and political crisis of capitalism is growing among the ranks of working people. It is evident in strikes taking place throughout the country, as well as in a recent poll which showed that less than 50% of the eligible population will vote in November’s presidential elections. But the many fronts of struggle have one fundamental thing in common: THEY ARE WITHOUT CLASS-CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP, in the form of a vanguard political party of the working class. Instead, the ’leadership’ of the working class is characterised by reformism – that is, reliance on the present capitalist system and government to provide reforms, to better the lives of working people. The Meanys, the Abels, the Fitzsimmons, all are tied by a thousand threads to the Democratic and Republican parties, the representatives of big business.
There is no salvation for the working class under capitalism–only wage-slavery and oppression. And as the general crisis of capitalism deepens, more and more of the burden will be thrown onto the backs of the poorer workers and the oppressed nations and peoples that live within the borders of the US (Black Nation, Puerto Rico, Southwest region, Native Americans). History has placed before the multi-national US proletariat the task of overthrowing US imperialism, the monster responsible for untold suffering the world over. The working class must have its vanguard party to lead the class struggle against the bourgeois ruling class, using the science of revolution, Marxism-Leninism, as a guide to every action. A genuine communist party must be built to shatter the influence of reformism and revisionism within the working class and to forge the mighty army that will overthrow the power of capital once and for all! The formation of a communist party must be the central task of all communist and class-conscious workers.
The so-called Communist Party USA (CPUSA) has degenerated into a channel for bourgeois influence within the working class, a servant of the capitalist Democratic Party. The CPUSA may call itself a vanguard party of the proletariat, but by its actions it has proven to advanced workers throughout the country that it really only serves the interests of the capitalist class and their labor agents, the Meanys, Millers, Woodcocks. As far as the CPUSA is concerned, workers and oppressed peoples should put their faith in the bourgeois ballot box, and through alliances with ’progressive sections’ of the ruling class, win emancipation from capitalist tyranny. Such ’friends’ the working class doesn’t need.
A multi-national communist party will not be built by simply declaring, itself to be the party. Several of the founding members of the Marxist-Leninist Collective participated in the founding of the Communist-Labor Party (CLP), and later left it. We learned from that experience that it is not enough to call a Party. Congress on the basis of good intentions and enthusiasm, without struggling previously to forge a party program based on unity and clarity around political line. (We are currently in the midst of summing up our differences with the CLP). No, the party must be built in the course of uniting Marxist-Leninists and advanced workers around the principles of Marxism-Leninism, and in the course of revolutionary practice of applying these principles to the concrete conditions in the US.
We agree with those forces in the Marxist-Leninist movement who recognize right opportunism as the main danger both within the working class and currently within, the party-building movement. We also agree with those who hold that the struggle for unity around the political questions facing the US proletariat is essential for carrying out the central task of party-building, and that the party program is necessary before a Party Congress can be called. We are self-critical for not having been a part of the polemics taking place around the question of how to build the party until this time; this as a reflection of our relative backwardness theoretically and isolation from the practical working class movement, both of which we are taking steps to overcome. We are currently studying the positions of other organizations in the movement to build a party – ATM, MLOC, LPR (M-L) and WC(M-L) and are beginning to engage in joint theoretical and practical work with some of them. (We do not believe these are the only Marxist-Leninist organizations.) As we deepen our understanding of the lines of the various organizations through study and practice, we will publish more articles clarifying our positions and attempting to contribute in whatever way possible to the process of forging the vanguard party.
BUILD A GENUINE COMMUNIST PARTY IN THE US!
COMBINE MARXISM-LENINISM WITH THE WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT!