First Published: Red Worker, political newspaper of the October League, Atlanta District, Vol. 2, No. 5, June 1972.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The Georgia Communist League (Marxist-Leninist) in Atlanta and the October League (Marxist-Leninist) united on May 13, 1972. Together they formed one national organization with the name October League (Marxist-Leninist).
This unity comes at a time when the workers’ movement, the struggles of oppressed peoples, the anti-war, student and women’s movements have grown tremendously. Not since the 1930’s has U.S. imperialism been rocked with such a crisis as we see today. The inevitable product has been the upsurge of millions of people fighting against this system and its policies of exploitation, war, and injustice.
From these struggles thousands of revolutionaries have come to recognize the need to build a new, revolutionary communist party in this country. It is becoming crystal clear to these revolutionaries that the old revisionist Communist Party U.S.A. does not want revolution; that they will never prepare, arm and lead the working class and oppressed masses in making revolution. They only lead the working class back into the waiting arms of the imperialists.
A lot of unclarity still exists as to how such a vanguard party will develop. Since this is the main immediate aim of the October League (ML) we will go briefly into our view of how this goal can be reached.
As far as our theoretical tasks are concerned, this means that communists must stand firm and defend the principles of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought against all of its enemies.
The CPUSA, the trotskyites and opportunists of other brands are trying hard to divert the revolutionary movement. .Mastering the principles of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought can only happen if we take up the most relentless fight against opportunism and bourgeois ideology. Mastering the principles can only take place in the closest connection with their concrete application to the crucial strategic and tactical questions facing the U.S. revolution.
Revolutionary theory cannot be developed by a handful of intellectuals behind closed doors but must be steeled and tested in the heat of class struggle (both theoretical and practical class struggle). Apart from this method we cannot hope to hammer out a firm party program which can unite all communists with common convictions around a correct plan for action.
This approach to party building also has important application to the practical work of communists and class-conscious workers. Because of the betrayal of the CPUSA. the theory of communism is separated from the working class and mass struggle against imperialism.
To build a new communist party we must closely link the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and the aims of dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism to the mass struggles, particularly with the movement of workers in the big factories.
In practice, this means that, we must direct the majority of our efforts to building factory-based communist organizations. While concentrating on winning the most advanced, class-conscious workers to communism and the revolutionary struggle, we must organize the working class on all levels. Communists must fight shoulder to shoulder with the masses in the political and economic struggles they are waging. At the same time we should not be short-sighted and simply tail after those struggles. Communists must actively take up the task of winning the masses of workers to revolution and socialism through their own experience in the daily battles against the capitalist class.
As this work develops it will become more possible for the workers and communists to play a decisive role in mobilizing the U.S. people into a broad united front against imperialism and its policies of exploitation, war and injustice.
In other words, to build a vanguard party (not vanguard in words but a real vanguard in deeds) we must go deeply among the masses and cement this bond between communism and the working class movement.
Finally, when we say that a party must be forged in the heat of class struggle, this means we have certain organizational tasks. Organization is our weapon for transforming ideas and plans into action.
Today many communists exist in small organizations, but all (small or big) suffer from organizational primitivism. By this we mean that the pace of the mass struggle often outstrips the organizational abilities of communist groups to participate in the most organized and consistent manner as leaders of these battles.
The training of large numbers of communist cadre – cadre who can keep their political bearings while going deeply among the masses, the mastery of all different types of work (open/secret, propaganda work); and the struggle against narrow localism and organizational sectarianism are only a few of the organizational problems which we must fight hard to overcome in the next period.
To sum up, a new communist party must be consciously fought for. It will not come ready-made!
In our view, these are very bold tasks for such a young communist movement to take on. But the rapid expansion of the mass movement and the frenzied attacks by the imperialists call for communists to be farsighted, practical and bold!
In the next few months, the October League (M-L) will begin publication of a national political newspaper in which we shall speak to many of these questions in greater detail.
The formation of the October League, on a national scale, is only a single step in the direction of building a new communist party. But it is important because it shows the direction towards unity based on principle and common practice which the communist forces are moving towards and which must be cemented in order to build a new party.