Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat is the one thoroughly revolutionary class. In the U.S.A., the proletariat forms both the motor and leading force of revolution. Yet without its political party, the proletariat can neither lead the revolution nor set it in motion. Only under the leadership of this party can the proletariat fulfill its historical mission: the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the construction of socialism. The CPUSA, which in the past struggled to play such a role, has repudiated all revolutionary principle and become a party of the modern revisionist type. A new party must be built.
The Proletarian Unity League is a communist organization dedicated to working together with other communist organizations to bring that party into being. The construction of a revolutionary proletarian party, guided by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, is the primary objective of all revolutionaries in this period.
We do not think that the line or the practice of any single organization in the communist movement (including the several existing parties) provides the basis at the present time for the construction of a genuine multinational communist party. The various Marxist-Leninist forces can only unite around a leading line, program, strategic perspective, tactical orientation, and body of organizational rules. This leading line must “settle accounts” theoretically and politically with other lines. A leading line can only emerge through a rigorous, protracted ideological struggle.
In our view, white opportunism in political line constitutes the fundamental threat to the construction of a revolutionary party.
At the same time, we regard “left” sectarianism as the immediate or principal danger to the communist movement. By encouraging putchist attempts at party formation, frustrating the necessary ideological struggle, and inflaming group antagonism, “left” sectarianism not only continues the isolation of communism from the workers’ movement but also threatens the communist movement altogether. All revolutionaries must unite in opposing premature “party congresses” and the groupist spirit which dominates among Marxist-Leninist forces.
September, 1975