First Published: The New Voice, Vol. IV, No. 20, October 6, 1975.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Readers of The New Voice in New York City have formed a Friends of The New Voice chapter. Long-time leaders in the struggles of the working class and students of Marxism-Leninism, they will carry on their work under the banner of this organization.
The formation of Friends of The New Voice chapters is important and timely in the current situation. In the struggle for the Party, Lenin said that the communist movement must divide up to understand principles and then the revolutionary wing must unite to carry out the work. History has proved Lenin right and is proving him right today. We have divided up, and now Marxist-Leninists must unite, while the anti-party opportunists of the October League and Revolutionary Union rename their competing organizations.
The New Voice is a Marxist-Leninist organization, not only a newspaper. It has always followed Lenin’s path. In the period of many individuals, circles, groups, and “pre-party formations,” The New Voice began the work of defending Marxism-Leninism against the anti-party opportunists, exposing their left liberal, non-class and liberal racist ideas. This was dividing up for clarity. Three main problems emerged; these are the tasks that separate Marxist-Leninists from anti-party opportunists.
First, The New Voice raised the slogans MAKE THE WORKERS’ STRUGGLES THE PARTY’S STRUGGLES; MAKE THE PARTY’S OUTLOOK THE WORKERS’ OUTLOOK. This was the problem of what kind of party to build. The Party is the union of Marxism-Leninism with the working class. It is not simply applause of spontaneously arising workers’ struggles, which is the theory and practice of the OL and RU, two sham Marxist groups. The Party does not exist by itself, either; it exists to serve the working-class struggle. It does these things by getting involved in the struggles of the working class and for general democratic rights, working for real gains and bringing Marxism-Leninism to people patiently, again and again, to show the way forward. This is a long, sustained effort: repeated agitation, propaganda, organization and struggle. TNV fought the Communist League, a sectarian sham Marxist group. With these slogans we also defeated a non-struggle tendency in The New Voice itself. Many friends first heard of TNV when they read The Struggle for the Party: Two Lines in the Movement. The movement divided over what kind of party to build, and now those who defend the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party must unite in order to found it.
Second, we say: THE ENEMY IS CAPITALISM; THE FIGHT IS FOR SOCIALISM. The key to the revolution a society needs is found in its economic relations. An analysis of classes in the United States reveals that an overwhelming majority of the people are working class, irreconcilably opposed by a small capitalist class. Profit and private ownership of the factories, offices and fields by employers is the root cause of the crises of this society. Imperialism, the stage this society is in, is monopoly capitalism, capitalism in decay that generates economic crisis and war. Only a revolution that smashes capitalism and builds socialism, where the working class acts as one to produce for its needs and to overcome the profit mentality, can solve these problems at their root. The Party will lead the working class to such a revolution. That is the contribution here to the world onslaught against imperialism. The New Voice exposed the false anti-imperialism of the OL and RU with their united front against imperialism in the U.S. This slogan implies an alliance of several classes to achieve something less than socialist revolution. This is false; this is petty bourgeois radicalism. The working class, the overwhelming majority, aims for socialist revolution as its strategic goal. (Policy toward small farmers and other small businessmen must be handled correctly, but this is not a major issue.) The OL and RU have never understood the proletarian revolutionary goal. The movement divided over class analysis, and now those who have a clear concept of the fight and the enemy must unite.
Finally, communists defend the slogan: FIGHT RACISM. Racism is a class question. Black workers are superexploited, and all workers lose when racism divides them. The way to build real unity among workers is by explaining their material interest in fighting it. We use this unity to lead real battles against the oppression of black people. We use it to smash the capitalists’ attempts to divide and crush us. Fighting racism does not mean pushing the line of “white-skin privilege,” the idea that white workers benefit from racism. This is the capitalist myth, dressed up in phony radical phrases, often in terms of the national question. A capitalist, racist line cannot be used to build the anti-racist struggle. Fighting the racist oppression of black people requires a class analysis of racism. The movement is dividing up in the face of the capitalists’ racism, and now those who know the road to victory over it must unite.
These are the three main tasks of fundamental, strategic nature on which the communist movement is divided. Marxist-Leninists have in the main separated from the anti-party opportunists. Now it is necessary to complete this separation and then to unite. The formation of Friends of The New Voice chapters helps to get organized. Groups that take up this banner defend the three key tasks, declaring their allegiance to revolutionary theory. They carry out agitation, propaganda, organization and actions for the needs and struggles of the working class. In their work, they use the newspaper and literature of The New Voice and help in turn to tie it more closely to life.
Friends of The New Voice work on their own initiative. The New Voice is able to carry out initial formation of chapters when contacted. From the chapters and the use of the newspaper as a Marxist-Leninist organizing tool, all will together prepare the scaffolding to build the Party. In the present situation, this is how to revolutionize conditions so that we may finally found the Party.
Communists extend a warm welcome to the New York City Friends of The New Voice. Their work will be strengthened, and they are helping to build the Party. By grasping the key link of chapter organization, they are giving material strength, the power of organization, to Marxism-Leninism and the fight for socialism.