During the last year, U.S. imperialism has been in the throes of an acute crisis. Because of its striking defeats in Indochina and the increasing erosion of its position as the “top” imperialist power, the U.S. ruling class has tried more and more to shift the burden of its crisis onto the backs of the U.S. people.
The severe economic and political crisis has thrown millions of U.S. workers and other progressive people into direct conflict with the imperialist bourgeoisie. The people’s struggles here continue to grow and flourish.
Among the workers, open defiance of the Nixon administration’s wage-freeze was shown in the strikes of hundreds of thousands of dock workers and miners. These along with numerous wild-cat strikes have taken a toll of billions of dollars from the imperialists. Run-away inflation and open government corruption have resulted in the most bitter hatred for the present government. The political consciousness of the masses of workers has grown, as indicated by continued opposition to the war and the sympathy of the workers around such events as the Attica Prison revolt and the Angela Davis case.
The movement of the Afro-American, Puerto Rican, Chicano and other oppressed nationality peoples for liberation has developed continuously, despite severe repression. Reactionary violence of the imperialists has been met with revolutionary violence. Increasingly, industrial workers of these nationalities are playing a leading role in the liberation fight, and Marxist-Leninist ideology is becoming a material force in these struggles.
The continuation of the war against Indochina has brought millions of people into the fight against imperialist policies of war and aggression, including working people who are most severely hurt by these policies. In 1971 alone, 98,000 GIs deserted from the U.S. Army.
These are but a few signs of the expansion of the anti-imperialist struggle in this country. In the past few years, the people of the U.S., particularly the U.S. workers, have become an important component part of the world-wide anti-imperialist movement.
In general, the situation in the U.S. presents excellent possibilities for heightening the struggle against imperialism and its aggressive policies, and for building a revolutionary movement aimed at smashing U.S. imperialism and replacing it with the dictatorship of the proletariat. Despite the fact that the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie is resorting more and more to fascist measures, the people’s struggle continues to grow.
In the future, there is the definite possibility that the bourgeoisie will entirely drop its “democratic” facade and open fascism will become the dominant form of its rule. In the long run, this inability to rule by “democratic” methods is just another sign of their growing weakness and impending collapse. But the threat this poses should not be ignored or underrated.
This is a pre-revolutionary period, and the main task facing communists now is to take advantage of the present excellent situation by preparing the working class for a determined and vigorous struggle aimed at the complete overthrow of the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie.
An important product of the split in the international communist movement and the growth and development of the mass struggles of the American people, has been the emergence of a young communist movement in the U.S. Using Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought as its guide, this movement seeks to lead the spontaneous struggles of the broad masses of American people towards the goal of revolution and dictatorship of the proletariat.
This new communist movement is developing in revolt and opposition to the revisionist CPUSA, the inheritor of Browder and Khruschov. The CPUSA’s total abandonment of the revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism, its chauvinism and economism, has made it the agent lackey of U.S. imperialism within the working class movement itself.
Recognizing the historic truth that if there is to be a revolution there must be a revolutionary party, the creation of a new communist party – one of the Leninist-type – has become the principal task for all communists in the U.S. Given the total degeneration of the CPUSA, the developing struggles of the working class and its allies have been restricted to simply attempting to reform this rotten imperialist system. Under the leadership of a genuine communist party can the masses themselves understand through their own experience, the necessity to smash the existing order and to direct their struggles toward the final aim of socialism.
A new communist party must be built. Following from our revolutionary aims, this must be a party of the Bolshevik-type and not a reformist mass, electoral party like those of the modern revisionists and social-democrats.
The purpose of such a party is to mobilize and lead the working class and its allies to revolution and sustain its victories after the seizure of power.
This purpose makes it necessary to have a militant party, bold enough to arouse the working masses in revolutionary struggle; one that is sufficiently experienced to find its own bearings in the complex conditions of making revolution; and one that is flexible enough to steer the proletariat through the inevitable twists and turns in the class struggle.
This party must be the advanced detachment of the working class. To stand at its head, it must base itself on the science of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and apply these universal truths in a program and strategy for revolution in its own country. It must ceaselessly combat revisionism and all forms of opportunism. Class divided society inevitably produces a struggle between two class lines within the left forces and within the party. In order to keep on the right course and draw itself closer to the militant masses, the struggle against opportunism is essential for victory. A communist party must give conscious leadership to the class struggle and must always remember its final aims.
A communist party must be a fighting organization. It must be vigorous and have an iron will. Made up only of the most devoted, selfless communists – the finest representatives of the working class – such a party must practice democratic-centralism, have a division of labor, and must be able to master all forms of work necessary (open and secret, legal and illegal, parliamentary and mass, strikes and armed insurrections). In its methods, it must practice criticism and self-criticism to ensure Marxist-Leninist unity and maintain close ties with the people.
A Bolshevik-type party is a party of the proletariat and must enjoy the closest and firmest links with the class. Only through integration with the working masses, and most importantly basing itself on factory nuclei, and wholehearted participation in the mass struggle, can this goal be achieved.
For such a party, practicing the mass line is the method of mobilization of the revolutionary forces. That is, it must go to the masses, take their ideas and concentrate them, then go back to the masses, persevere in the ideas and carry them through.
A communist party must base itself on proletarian internationalism and the slogan “workers of all countries, unite.” It must wage a determined struggle against the oppression of nations, particularly those oppressed by “its” own bourgeoisie. It must be a party composed of communists of all nationalities within the same State and who share the same strategic objective. It must combat all forms of great-nation chauvinism and narrow nationalism.
Comrade Lenin said, “There can be no strong socialist party without a revolutionary theory which unites all socialists, from which they draw all their convictions, and which they apply in their methods of struggle and means of action.”
At this time, when the revolutionary movement of the working class is without a conscious leading group, when the principles of Marxism have been robbed of their revolutionary guts by the revisionist party and when the movement towards communism has been torn away from the mass movement, the fight for theory has become decisive. Based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and the particular conditions of the United States, we must constantly test our theory in practice, participating in mass struggle and summing up this experience. In this way we can reject incorrect ideas and develop correct ideas, raising our theory to a higher and higher level. Through this process, a program of struggle must be formulated, one that gives direction to the movement and poses its strategic aims. This program will not only be the result of active participation in the mass struggle, but also the result of sharp struggle against all forms of opportunism within the communist and working class movements.
While the principal danger in the general peoples’ movement is posed by the right opportunist CPUSA, within the young communist forces the main danger is ultra-leftism. Due to inexperience and still shallow roots among the basic sections of the working class, the danger of a “purest” view towards the mass struggle and negation of the united front pose an important obstacle. A manifestation of this ultra-leftist influence is the view of “building a party first, then later engaging in the mass struggle.” Sectarianism and unprincipled attacks within the communist movement are also sym-toms of idealism and dogmatism.
While at the present time our main practical work is among the factory workers of all nationalities, communists must also actively participate in the mass anti-imperialist movement. This movement is a firm basis of support for the struggles of the oppressed peoples around the world and for the working class struggle in the U.S. We must oppose all forms of sectarianism that seek to divide the forces who are opposed to imperialism and its policies of war and aggression.
The spontaneous and dispersed character of the communist movement at present has led to localism and primitiveness. Communists must develop a high level of organization that can carry on revolutionary work and safeguard the struggle from police attack. Communist organization must be built along factory lines, firmly linked to and under the supervision of the masses.
Those organizations and groups who adhere to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought must unite to struggle and struggle to unite in both serious ideological work and in common practice in order to build a new vanguard party of the working class. The revolutionary unity between the October League (M-L) and the Georgia Communist League (M-L) is a single step in that direction.
The working class needs unity. But unity can be effected only by a united organization whose decisions are conscientiously carried out by all class-conscious workers. Discussing the problem, ascertaining the views of the majority of the organized Marxists, expressing these views in the form of decisions adopted by delegates and carrying them out conscientiously – this is what reasonable people all over the world call unity. Such a unity is infinitely precious, and infinitely important to the working class. Disunited, the workers are nothing. United, they are everything. V. I. Lenin (CW: 19)