WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! 25ยข
Volume 11, Number 1
VOICE OF THE MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY OF THE USA
January 1, 1981
[Front page:
The 1980's: A Decade of Class Battles;
A Year of Struggle Since the Founding of the Party;
DOWN WITH THE REGISTRATION OF 18 YEAR-OLDS FOR THE DRAFT!;
Chrysler's wage-freeze plan threatens the livelihood of all the workers!--NO MORE CONCESSIONS!]
IN THIS ISSUE
| Turkey: Resistance to the U.S.-Backed Fascist Junta............................ | 2 |
| No to the Plots of Both Superpowers Against Poland!.......................... | 3 |
| El Salvador: New Wave of Struggle Against the Fascist Generals........ | 3 |
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| NIPSCO: Utility Workers Strike Against Concessions......................... | 4 |
| Hospital Workers Fight Increased Workloads....................................... | 4 |
| ECA: No to 'Run-Away' Scare Tactics!................................................ | 4 |
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| The Victories of Socialism in Albania Inspire the Workers |
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| to Fight for Socialism............................................................................ | 11 |
| From the Magazine Albania Today: On Problems of Socialism............ | 11 |
The 1980's:
A Year of Struggle Since the Founding of the Party
DOWN WITH THE REGISTRATION OF 18 YEAR-OLDS FOR THE DRAFT!
Chrysler's wage-freeze plan threatens the livelihood of all the workers!
Turkey:
Support the brave resistance to the U.S.-backed fascist junta!
Down with the Saber-Rattling of the Two Superpowers Against the Polish People!
El Salvador:
A new wave of struggle against the bloodstained U.S.-backed generals
Hospital workers keep up the struggle against increased workloads
At Northern Indiana Public Service Company:
UTILITY WORKERS WAGE DETERMINED STRIKE AGAINST CAPITALIST CONCESSION DEMANDS
At the Electronics Corporation of America:
No to the "Run-Away" Scare Tactics!
Forward Along the Path of the Founding Congress!
Albania inspires the workers to struggle for the socialist goal
1980 was a year in which the capitalist offensive against the American working class and people was pushed forward on all fronts. At the same time, it was a year in which the broad ferment among the working masses continued to gain strength. Taken together this reality signifies that powerful clashes are in the making. Great battles are being prepared between two hostile camps: between the forces of the working class and downtrodden masses, on the one hand; and the forces of monopoly capitalist reaction, starvation, fascism and imperialist war, on the other. 1980 has borne out the assessment made at the eve of the new year by the Founding Congress of the MLP,USA: the advent of the 1980's "marks the beginning of a decade of great class battles."
The Capitalist Offensive
In 1980, the profound economic and all-sided crisis gripping the capitalist order grew even worse. None of the capitalist chieftains can resolve this great crisis because it has its roots in the very system of monopoly capitalism itself. Instead the rich are striving to make the working people shoulder the entire burden of the crisis. In its drive to preserve its fantastic wealth and its man-eating system of exploitation and oppression, the imperialist bourgeoisie is fascizing. its rule and preparing for new wars of plunder. In short, starvation for the masses, fascism and war is monopoly capital's answer to the crisis.
Just look at the situation.
The very livelihood of the workers is under attack by the capitalist exploiters. In 1980 real take-home wages were cut ruthlessly by a 14% rate of inflation, record interest rates and relentless tax increases. Capitalist "reindustrialization" is bringing about even more backbreaking speedup, mass layoffs and plant closings; adding to the already over 8 million jobless workers. Meanwhile the big banks are hauling in untold billions on loan capital as prime interest rates climb over 21% and the oil corporations, defense contractors and other big monopolies continue to rake in record profits.
1980 also witnessed a further rise in racist and fascist terror against the masses and the widescale promotion by the bourgeoisie of every type of open reactionary and fascist element. Last month the Klan and nazi assassins who had brutally murdered five anti-Klan demonstrators in Greensboro, North Carolina were cleared of all charges. This verdict provides yet further proof that it is the government itself which is activating the fascist gangs to terrorize the black people and all the working masses. The growing numbers of police murders and beatings, particularly of the black and other oppressed nationality youth, is also a sign of the all-sided fascization of monopoly capitalist rule.
In 1980 the war drums of the U.S. imperialists beat louder as they feverishly militarized in preparation for a new imperialist slaughter. With the developments in Poland, both the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact and the U.S.-led NATO alliance are ominously rattling their sabers at one another and at the people of Poland. The war hysteria against the Iranian people's revolution and against the Soviet social-imperialists' brutal invasion of Afghanistan continues without letup. And the Pentagon is beefing up its "rapid deployment forces" in the Middle East in readiness for launching a war to defend the super-profits of the U.S. multinational oil corporations.
Monopoly Capitalism Is Bogged Down in Crisis
To serve their reactionary offensive the capitalists have set their media mills to producing mountains of lies on the theme that "the common man is moving to the right.'' This hoax is part of a concerted propaganda campaign for unbridled reaction. But, contrary to the fairy tales on the evening news, it is the monopoly bourgeoisie which is "moving to the right" and stepping up reaction against the "common man," the working masses. As Lenin stressed, imperialism, the domination of finance capital and the monopolies means: "reaction all along the line." Hence today it is clear that it is the rich ruling class which is developing fascism and heading for war. Furthermore the bourgeoisie is not resorting to such a reckless course from positions of strength and equilibrium. On the contrary, it is lashing out desperately from positions of insurmountable crisis.
At home the bourgeoisie is faced with the mounting resistance of the working and oppressed masses to the capitalist offensive. Abroad, since its debacle in Indochina, U.S. imperialism has continued to be rocked by the powerful blows of the people's liberation struggles in Iran, Nicaragua, El Salvador and elsewhere throughout its neo-colonial empire. Moreover the dangerous rivalry between U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, along with the other inter-imperialist contradictions, is being further aggravated and deepened.
The capitalist system in the U.S. is being wracked by the third industrial crisis in a decade; each more powerful than any crisis since the Great Depression. Far from capitalist pipe dreams of "revitalization" the future offers only more intense stagnation and crisis. The energy crisis also continues to deepen and a sharp financial crisis is manifested in the 14% rate of inflation and the 21% interest rates which are wreaking havoc. The deep political decay is reflected in the flagrant corruption and infighting among the ruling politicians. As well, the growing cultural and spiritual degeneration is a further sign of the bleak situation.
In short, U.S. monopoly capitalism is rotting alive, bogged down on all fronts by powerful crisis. This again confirms that Lenin was a hundred times correct when he described imperialism as moribund capitalism and defined this era as the era of the proletarian revolution. This does not mean that the U.S. imperialist monster will ever roll over dead under its own weight. Nor does it mean that it will not prove to be an even more dangerous and ferocious enemy, committing the most terrible crimes, as it is drawn deeper into the quagmire of crisis towards its doom. Quite the opposite.
What this assessment underscores is that advancing the struggle of the working masses against exploitation, fascism and war is on the order of the day. It brings home the burning necessity for bold revolutionary work to prepare the proletariat for the coming revolutionary storms.
A Broad Ferment Is Brewing Among the Working Masses
For the working people it is increasingly clear that the state of things under the rule of the rich is growing ever more intolerable and holds in store great dangers. The masses are seeking a way out of the situation and are more and more recognizing the need for struggle. Over the past year the extension of the anti-imperialist and anti-racist struggles in particular, as well as other stirrings, manifest the growing revolt which is building up among the working masses.
In 1980, powerful outbursts of mass struggle broke out in black communities across the country. Last May, the heroic black people of Miami hurled themselves into battle against the racist authorities in protest of the exoneration of the police assassins of Arthur McDuffie. For four days Miami was engulfed in flames as the masses in their tens of thousands clashed with the police and National Guard. Orlando, Chattanooga, Philadelphia and numerous other cities also witnessed the black people in courageous struggle; terrifying the bourgeoisie with nightmares of the 1960's. A new storm of struggle against racial discrimination and the fascist terror practiced against the black people by the capitalist ruling class is clearly on the agenda.
1980 also saw the powerful extension of the anti-imperialist and anti-militarist struggle. During the previous year the struggle against the U.S. imperialist nuclear program took on a nationwide mass character. Then, during 1980, a broad struggle emerged against Carter's order for the registration of the 18-20 year-old youth for the draft. In March, more than 30,000 demonstrated in Washington, D.C. against draft registration and since then demonstrations and protests have continued across the country. Mass actions also unfolded in defense of the people of Iran and El Salvador in the face of U.S. imperialist aggression; against military recruiting on campuses; against nuclear weapons research and production; and against other steps of U.S. imperialism's preparations for war. In these actions the anti-imperialist slogans have been widely taken up by the youth showing their determination to carry this struggle forward.
The capitalist assault on the workers' livelihood is provoking a seething anger in the plants, mines and unemployment lines. In 1980 the employers forced on the workers major wage cuts and other "concessions" to "save" and help "reindustrialize" the capitalist corporations. The two-year wage freeze with which the billionaires are trying to saddle the Chrysler workers provides a model which all the employers would like to follow. With the combined pressure of the massive layoffs and plant closings and the most disgusting betrayal of the trade union bosses, the workers' strike movement against these attacks has suffered setbacks. Nevertheless, despite the dirty sellout on the part of the trade union chieftains, the rank and file are stirring in struggle. Mass actions like that of the Wisconsin Steel workers are breaking out against the plant closings and layoffs. Some 1,900 auto workers walked out at GM's Norwood, Ohio plant in November, and other walkouts and slowdowns are being organized against the merciless productivity drives. These stirrings show that the workers have had more than enough and that fierce clashes are brewing.
This broad ferment which is gripping wide sections of the working class and oppressed masses is a sure sign of things to come. It must be armed with organization and consciousness and put on the correct road of uncompromising mass revolutionary struggle against capitalist reaction.
A New Standard-Bearer of Capitalist Reaction
To step up their ruthless offensive to suppress the masses the big capitalists are putting in the White House a new standard-bearer of capitalist reaction. They are replacing their smiling lackey Carter with their mouthpiece Reagan.
Ronald Reagan is a fascist Neanderthal. Expertise as a rabid warmonger, a crude racist and a raving anti-communist are Reagan's main "qualifications" for the presidency. The bourgeoisie is putting this decrepit fossil in the White House as a personality of ultra-reaction. Meanwhile the affairs of the administration will be run by the Cabinet and other top advisors such as General Alexander Haig, Caspar Weinberger and Richard Allen, all "old guard" henchmen of fascist Nixon.
Among Reagan's favorite (and large collection of) big lies is demagogy about "reducing the burden of big government." What this means in the practical business of government is hundreds of billions in "tax relief" and other handouts to the corporations and adding to the crushing tax burden on the working masses. It means the further slashing of unemployment benefits, social security, welfare, etc. It means a sub-minimum wage for the youth. It means curtailing health and safety regulations and an environmental policy based on the Reaganite proposition that trees are greater pollutants than industrial wastes.
Reagan's big lie of "reducing big government" means in fact more draconic repressive laws and the beefing up of the FBI, the CIA and the other police and intelligence forces in order to clamp down on the revolutionary organizations and suppress the working class and popular movements. It means saddling the working people with unbridled militarization, boosting the military budget from the $139 billion spent in 1980 to over $300 billion by 1985. It means a foreign policy of naked imperialist aggression and intervention against the people's liberation struggles all over the world.
Reagan Takes Up Where Nixon, Ford and Carter Left Off
Four years ago Carter was put in office with the mission of getting the monopoly capitalist system out of the quicksand of its all-sided crisis, and in particular out of a sharp political crisis. The so-called "crisis of confidence" was wracking the capitalist government after the long years of the barbarous war of aggression in Indochina and the two terms of the hated and criminal Nixon-Ford regime. Carter's job was to put a "human rights" coat of paint onto the same despised policies of Nixon.
Thus the Carter administration represented four more years of Nixonite fascism without the open reactionary Nixon. Instead it was behind the smiling, liberal-labor disguise of Carter and the Democrats that monopoly capital assaulted the livelihood of the workers, stepped up the attacks on the black people and other oppressed nationalities, and strengthened political reaction. And it was under the guise of imperialist pacifism, Carterite "human rights," that U.S. imperialism stepped up its frenzied arming and its aggressive drive to crush the liberation struggles of the peoples of Iran, El Salvador and Nicaragua, and the other peoples all over the globe.
In this process Carter's flimsy mask wore very thin and the "crisis of confidence," far from being resolved, deepened with the broad hatred of the masses for the lying hypocrite Carter. Moreover, the all-sided crisis of capitalism has only further intensified. Carter outlived his usefulness and had to go.
So today a frank voice of ultra-reaction is again returning to the White House, accompanied by none other than some of the chief gangsters of the Nixon-Ford regime. The starting point of Reagan's policies will be the same as those pursued by his predecessors. On all fronts of domestic and foreign policy Reagan will take up where Nixon, Ford and Carter left off.
The monopoly capitalist ruling class is striving for the iron suppression of the working class and oppressed masses. The change of horses from Carter to Reagan is one more turn on this same road. At times this process of fascization takes place under a liberal-labor and "human rights" policy. At other times the ultra-reactionaries like Reagan come to the fore. But whether done under a thin disguise or openly, it is the same Wall Street financiers and big monopolies which are carrying forward the fascization of their criminal rule.
Reaganite Reaction and the Democratic Party "Opposition"
Though Reagan is not yet in office, already large numbers of working people recognize and despise him for the enemy that he is. Undoubtedly Reagan will become the target of the people's burning wrath as the mass struggles unfold against the capitalist offensive. So the question at hand is on what road should the mass hatred for Reagan be placed and how should Reaganite reaction be fought?
During the elections, the Democratic Party and all their boosters called on the masses to vote for Carter and the Democrats as the only alternative to the "right-wing offensive" of the Republicans. It is inevitable that in the future, too, the Democratic Party liberals will try to come out as the "opposition" to the Reaganite conservatives. The trade union bureaucrats, the sellout "leaders" of the black people, and an entire army of social-democratic hacks will do their best to convince the masses that this is indeed the case. The Democrats and their flunkeys will strive to penetrate the mass movements with this objective. This is the way the Democratic Party strategists will maneuver to win the confidence of themasses, or at least to repossess the spoils of office. But the Democratic Party is not any kind of oppositional force whatsoever against the reactionary onslaught of monopoly capital. On the contrary. The "liberal" Democrats and the "conservative" Republicans are twin parties of the monopoly capitalist offensive against the masses. This is why all the Democratic Party chieftains have already pledged their loyal cooperation with the president-elect, eagerly promising a "honeymoon" when Reagan comes to office. This is why the Democratic Party liberals have declared themselves in favor of a close "working relationship" with Reagan in order to provide the Reaganite measures with a liberal-labor endorsement, just as during the reign of Nixon.
Build the Independent Movement of the Working Class!
Real opposition to Reaganite reaction requires a complete break with the two big capitalist parties and the politics of the bourgeoisie. The struggle against the capitalist offensive must be based on the independent political movement of the working class.
Building the independent movement of the working class requires adhering strictly to a policy of class struggle, a policy which stands for the stern struggle against the capitalists, a policy of class against class. It requires organizing the working class as a class for itself, a class with its own revolutionary mission and goals. The working class must be organized into a powerful revolutionary force in its own right and not as a pressure group or special interest group tailing along helplessly behind the liberals. The working class must come forward to rally all the poor and oppressed around itself.
Forging the independent movement of the working class requires that the masses must be instilled with a burning hatred for all the exploiters and their various front men, whether they be Reaganite conservatives or hypocritical liberals. A real struggle is needed to separate the mass movements from the influence of the bourgeoisie, in particular from the influence of the smooth-talking flunkeys of the Democratic Party. The bearers of capitalist influence in the working class and mass movements, the labor bureaucrats, the "riot stoppers," the social-democrats and other opportunist elements must be mercilessly exposed. Breaking away from the capitalist politics and influence is absolutely essential for the working class and popular movements to emerge as a great force against the monopoly capitalist offensive.
Today the independent movement of the working class can be seen developing in the growing revolutionary ferment among the masses. This is the significance of the skirmishes which the workers are waging against the capitalist productivity drives, layoffs, plant closings and wage freezes; of the growing networks of the Marxist-Leninist Party in the factories; of the revolts of the black people against racial discrimination; of the demonstrations and protests against the draft and U.S. imperialism. These are all signs that the working masses are seeking an alternative and are starting to go into action. This ferment must be encouraged and oriented further along the road of political independence.
This road requires pushing forward the mass revolutionary struggle, encouraging the initiative of the masses and waging mass actions against the exploiters and reactionaries.
This road requires the building of revolutionary organization in the factories, communities, schools and everywhere the class struggle rages. Organization is the indispensable weapon of the working class.
This road requires the development of revolutionary consciousness. Revolutionary literature should be read and distributed widely. Marxism-Leninism is the only scientific guide to the development of the revolutionary movement.
The essential weapon in forging the independent movement of the working class is the Marxist-Leninist communist party of the proletariat. Such a party is the highest form of class organization, the vanguard of the working class.
The Marxist-Leninist Party, USA is just such a party. It is a party of revolutionary action which works tirelessly to release the initiative of the masses and guide them in revolutionary struggle. It is a party of the class conscious vanguard of the proletariat united by steel-like organization which serves as a great organizing and unifying force for the proletariat and working masses. It is a party based on the science of Marxism-Leninism which at all times illuminates the road of struggle for the triumph of the socialist revolution.
The organized proletariat and downtrodden masses are the colossal force emerging in opposition to the monopoly capitalist offensive of starvation, fascism and war.
Storm Clouds of Revolution on a World Scale
The struggle which the working and oppressed masses are waging in the U.S. is one column of a great international struggle. The crisis which grips the U.S. capitalist system is part of a world crisis, shaking all the capitalist and revisionist countries without exception. All over the world the working class and people are hurling themselves into revolutionary struggle against growing exploitation, fascist reaction and aggressive war. The peoples are rising in struggle against U.S. imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism, Chinese social-imperialism and all the other imperialist oppressors and reactionaries. On all continents the Marxist-Leninist parties of the proletariat are strengthening themselves in this class war. In their struggles for socialism and national liberation the world's people have a firm ally in the People's Socialist Republic of Albania where socialism is being built and advancing. The revolutions in Iran and Nicaragua, and the strikes and armed uprisings in El Salvador, South Korea, Afghanistan, Turkey, Poland, etc., demonstrate that the revolutionary ferment is at work everywhere. Even the trumpeted strongholds of imperialism are being shaken.
The past year has fully confirmed the assessment of the Founding Congress that: "The new decade witnesses the gathering of the storm clouds of revolution on a world scale." It is this mounting storm which is shaking up the old capitalist world of starvation, fascism and war! And it is this mounting storm which is clearing the way for the inevitable triumph of socialism and communism in all countries!
[Cartoon.]
January 1, 1980 - January 1, 1981
[Graphic.]
A year ago, on January 1, 1980, the Marxist-Leninist Party of the USA was born. The decade of the 1980's opened with the banners of Marxism-Leninism and the revolution hoisted high by the class conscious proletarian vanguard. The year since then has been a year of struggle, a year of steeling the Party in the flames of the class war.
In this past year the Party's banner has proudly waved in the front lines of the revolutionary struggle. The militant struggle of the Party spread its name and influence widely in the midst of the mass movements. The Party provided orientation and direction for struggle against capitalist exploitation. It has provided a rallying point for the workers' struggle against the savage capitalist offensive of "reindustrialization," the common theme song of all the capitalist parties. The Party has taken a prominent place in the struggle against U.S. imperialist war preparations. It has done extensive work in the movements against the imperialist nuclear energy program, against the reintroduction of the draft, against the warmongering hysteria aimed at the Iranian revolution and in the movement in support of the national liberation struggles. As well, the Party put forward the path of active resistance to the racist attacks and fascist gangs, and vigorously participated in the struggle against the savage oppression of the black people, the people of Mexican nationality and the other oppressed nationalities. The Party carried forward the traditions of its predecessors of active resistance to the fascist anti-busing movement, opposition to the racist hysteria that "reverse discrimination" allegedly exists in the U.S., and all-round struggle against racial discrimination and national oppression.
In the past year the Party took care to further strengthen its proletarian character. While the opportunist groups have abandoned the proletariat, either working hand in hand with the labor bureaucrats and social-democrats or openly abandoning factory work altogether, our Party has continued to entrench itself in one factory after another. The Party worked to have the class conscious proletarians take their place in the center of all the various revolutionary movements and not just be restricted to the economic struggle. The Party also strengthened its proletarian character through intense work to study, apply and disseminate the proletarian ideology -- the powerful revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism. Thus the Party set before the working class the vista of the socialist revolution. In this regard, the Party also inspired the proletariat with faith in socialism through its extensive work to bring the news about the victories of socialism in Albania to the working masses.
This past year was also marked by the fierce battle against opportunism and revisionism. The founding of the Party itself represented the crowning point of the historic movement against social-chauvinism. This movement upheld the honor of the U.S. Marxist-Leninists against the betrayal by those who deserted to the side of the bourgeoisie with their chauvinist thesis of uniting with U.S. imperialism to "aim the main blow at Soviet social-imperialism." Our Party continued the struggle against Chinese revisionism, its ideological basis Mao Zedong Thought, and its counter-revolutionary fruit, the "three worlds" theory.
As well, the Party vigilantly fought Soviet revisionism. It opposed the attempts of some to rehabilitate Khrushchovite stands or to seek unity either with the domestic Khrushchovites or with the Soviet revisionists themselves, attempts that are being made under the vile renegade pretext that revolutionary Marxism-Leninism and the struggle against revisionism are allegedly "ultra-left" excesses of Maoism. The Marxist-Leninist Party utilized the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the historic Moscow Meeting of November 1960, the meeting which marked the start of the open clash between Marxism-Leninism and Soviet revisionism, to stress the need to carry the polemic through to the end against revisionism in all its forms, whether Soviet, Chinese, Yugoslav, "Eurocommunist" or other.
Our Party also unfolded a powerful all-round struggle against social-democracy. The Party fought hard against the flunkeys of the Democratic Party in the mass movement. It exposed the social-democrats as servile flunkeys of the Democratic Party who paint the policies of the capitalist offensive in faint "socialist" colors.
The year 1980 was not only marked by the consolidation and struggle of the Marxist-Leninist Party, but also by the increasing decay of the bourgeoisie. Beset by all-round crisis, the monopoly capitalists are stepping up their savage program of starvation, fascism and war. The capitalists squeezed the working masses to the wall in 1980 through soaring inflation, savage productivity drives and mass unemployment. 1980 also marked another year of increased arming and militarization by U.S. imperialism. The reintroduction of draft registration, the steps towards the militarization of women, the hysteria against Iran, another record-breaking military budget, all showed the savage nature of U.S. imperialism. And 1980 also marked a further development of fascization. The acquittal of the fascist murderers in Greensboro, the activation of the Klan and nazi gangsters, the bestial racist murders in Buffalo, N.Y., and Atlanta, Georgia, the increasing attacks on immigrants, the building of more and more jails and the passing of draconic new laws were also signs of the growing reaction of the bourgeoisie. The Carter administration orchestrated this offensive of the bourgeoisie throughout 1980. Meanwhile the replacement of the discredited old rag Carter, the concealed fascist, with the open fascist Reagan as the new chieftain of capitalist reaction, was still a further sign of the bourgeoisie's plans for the 1980's.
All these events show the falsity of illusions that the bourgeoisie will reform itself, show liberality or humaneness or "learn its lesson" from its defeat in Viet Nam or from the black people's upsurge of the 1960's. Nothing but police truncheons and nightriders can be expected from the U.S. monopoly capitalist dictators. Only the path of revolution, the path of the independent organization of the proletariat at the center of the struggle of all the oppressed, holds the hope of the future for the working masses.
In this serious situation, it is the task of all class conscious proletarians and progressive people to rally around the Marxist-Leninist Party, the party of the revolutionary proletariat. The Marxist-Leninist Party faces the future confident in its strength and solidity. The victories of the Party in 1980 were the fruit of the years of self-sacrificing work by the Marxist-Leninist activists since the founding of the nucleus of the Party in May 1969, the fruit of a decade of work by first the American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist- Leninist) and then the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists. The victories of the Party in 1980 are another illustration of the correctness of the Marxist-Leninist path, another victory for the Marxist-Leninist ideology as the only revolutionary ideology, as the hope and inspiration of the oppressed. At the same time, cognizant of its solemn responsibility to the revolution and the toiling masses, our Party opposes any tendency to euphoria over the partial victories won. Instead the Marxist-Leninist Party draws the attention of the working masses to the serious and threatening situation of the bourgeoisie's reaction. It boldly calls upon the masses to get organized for the big class battles ahead. Forward under the banner of the Party, the banner of revolutionary struggle and socialism!
(More articles on the First Anniversary of the Party - see pages 5-10)
January 5 begins a week of registering 18-year-old youth for the hated military draft. Last summer, the registration of 19 and 20-year-olds was met with a storm of protest. Tens of thousands of workers and young people marched defiantly into the streets to demonstrate their outrage against the war plans of the imperialist billionaires. This round of registration must also be fought with mass actions of the working people.
Registration is the first step towards the draft. And this draft has no other purpose than to serve imperialism. It has no other basis than to build up the army for new wars of imperialist conquest, to fight the Soviet social-imperialists for markets and spheres of influence, to drown in blood the anti-imperialist struggles of the people all over the world.
The working masses have no interest to fight the wars for the rich. Their blood boils when they think that again, just as in Viet Nam, their youth will be made into cannon fodder for the aggression of the billionaires. But the imperialists can't be stopped without a fight. The burning indignation of the workers, youth, women and all the oppressed must be used to bring them into action, to organize them and put them on the powerful path of mass revolutionary struggle. January 5 is a time for struggle. We must fight the reintroduction of the draft and every step the imperialist warmongers take.
The New Reagan Government Makes Frenzied Plans for Imperialist War
Today Reagan is replacing Carter at the head of U.S. imperialism. He will carry forward all of the warmongering policies of Carter, but with an even more open saber-rattling voice. Reagan has made his theme song the call for the U.S. to become the number one superpower, the chief oppressor and hangman of the people. The capitalists are placing him in the presidency as the undisguised champion of the interests of the monopolies, of reaction and imperialist aggression.
Reagan and his Nixonite army of advisors are clamoring for the most feverish militarization. They want to jack up the military budget to unprecedented heights, spending some $1,500 billion in the next five years, as compared to the $665 billion in the last five. They are calling for the building of every weapon imaginable, from a mobile system for the Minuteman intercontinental missiles to new advanced B-l bombers and even "killer satellites." Reagan's men are planning to expand all of the armed forces, including the addition of three divisions to the present 16-division army and increasing the navy from about 460 to 600 ships. They aim to dispatch these troops all over the world including the setting up of a permanent naval fleet in the Indian Ocean and new land bases in a number of countries in the Middle East.
Reagan claims that this militarization is needed to combat the aggression of the Soviet social-imperialists. But when he opposes the Soviet new tsars' brutal occupation of Afghanistan, their threats against Poland, their oppression of the Soviet people, Reagan is not taking a stand for the freedom and independence of the people. No, he only wants to sink the claws of U.S. imperialism deeper into these countries. Reagan's preparations for war with the Soviet social-imperialists aim at nothing other than deciding which of these imperialist superpowers gets how much of the loot that is plundered from the people.
For Reagan, not only the savage aggression of the Soviet social-imperialists, but anything that threatens the profits of the U.S. billionaires is considered a "Soviet plot." When the people of Iran and Nicaragua rise in revolution to throw off the U.S. imperialist yoke, well that's the Soviet danger and must be crushed. When the people of El Salvador and Turkey heroically resist the fascist butchers, then it's a Soviet conspiracy and must be stopped. Why tomorrow Reagan will call opposition to the draft a Soviet scheme which must be smashed. Behind the raving of Reagan lies the bloodstained interests of the U.S. billionaires, the interests of their entire system of enslavement, robbery and plunder of the people. The interests of the American people do not lie with Reagan's war preparations, but with the revolutionary struggle to overthrow U.S. imperialism and all of the imperialist exploiters.
Opposition to Imperialism Must Be Put in the Center of the Fight Against the Draft
With the warmongering Reagan in the White House, the Democratic Party will seize the opportunity to further infiltrate into the anti-draft movement to play the role of "opposition." But their aim is not to fight imperialism and war. They are entering the movement to subvert the anti-imperialist struggle and to bring it under the wing of the Democratic Party and its warmongering policies. Their dirty work can already be seen in the developments last fall. Flunkeys of the Democratic Party cancelled many actions against draft registration and virtually liquidated "anti-draft week" so as not to embarrass Carter and the Democrats while they were running for office. These are not fighters against draft registration but scabs against the struggle. It must never by forgotten that the Democratic Party is a party of monopoly capital just like the Republicans. It was Carter and the Democrats who began the reintroduction of the draft in the first place. And it was Carter and the Democrats who pushed the military budget to new highs and launched the naked imperialist "Carter doctrine" to defend the profits of the oil tycoons in the Persian Gulf and entire Middle East region.
Reagan's warmongering can never be fought with equally warmongering policies of the Democratic Party. The issue is imperialism. Imperialist aggression is not the unfortunate or unwise policy of this or that politician. Imperialism is a whole economic and political system, it is monopoly capitalism. As long as monopoly capitalism exists in the U.S., it will mean imperialist aggression abroad. And it will mean exploitation, racism and reaction for the American working class and oppressed people. Only by overthrowing imperialism itself, only by rising in socialist revolution and replacing the capitalist dictators with the rule of the working class can U.S. aggression be brought to an end. In the fight against the draft, opposition to imperialism must be put in the center.
Organize Mass Revolutionary Struggle Against U.S. Imperialist War Preparations
The flunkeys of the Democratic Party are also trying to create a moralistic stink in the anti-draft movement, making the sole issue whether or not to register. With the pious virtue of self- appointed saints they are creating the impression that the enemy is not Reagan and Carter, but anyone who registers. The imperialist warmongers cannot be fought by each individual taking a decision for himself or washing his own hands of the whole affair, no matter how self-sacrificing such individual actions might be. Draft registration is a political question confronting the whole American people. What is needed is the organizing of mass actions of the workers, youth, women and all the oppressed masses and the directing of the anti-militarist sentiment onto the path of conscious struggle.
Refusal to register is one of the forms of struggle. It has the value that it draws certain sections of the masses into more conscious political activity, manifests their burning hatred for imperialism, and can inspire other acts of resistance. But refusal to register and draft resistance by themselves can never stay the hands of the imperialist warmongers. At the height of the draft resistance movement against U.S. aggression in Viet Nam, when at some draft boards as many as 50% of the youth drafted refused to serve in the imperialist army, the government was still able to obtain enough cannon fodder to carry on its aggression. The MLP firmly supports those who resist registration, but it urges them to go on and take part in the mass actions and organized movement against imperialism. Their courageous stand has value as part of this movement and not as a panacea in itself.
We also support those who are registering with the intention of fighting imperialism from inside the armed forces once they are drafted. This daring stand must be supported because the struggle inside the military is ultimately one of the decisive fronts of battle against imperialist war. These activists take full part in the fight against the reintroduction of the draft and all imperialist war preparations and by this gain experience for the struggle inside the armed forces.
There are also large sections of the masses who hate militarism, yet find no alternative to registration. This section inevitably becomes the big majority. Yet these victims of the draft have not avoided struggle but on the contrary find themselves in stern fights once they are inside the army. Most of these youth, and also those who have already been ensnared in the "voluntary army," come from working class families. They have no interest in being the cannon fodder for the aggression and wars of the monopoly capitalists. This section of the masses must not be abandoned. They are very receptive to the anti-militarist work. The GI movement that arose in the 1960's shows that anti-imperialist work inside the armed forces is an important front of struggle.
All of these methods of struggle are courageous and require determination. As well, whether one registers or not, all should take their place in the protests and mass actions against imperialism and aggressive war.
Today the hatred for militarization is spreading widely through the working masses. In the factories and communities, in the high schools and colleges, everywhere the working people are voicing their contempt for the warmongering policy of Reagan and they are discussing what can be done to stop the imperialist drive for war. Now is the time to organize mass actions against the reintroduction of registration and the draft! Demonstrate at the post offices, against military recruiters at the schools, against the nuclear program, against the U.S. attacks on Iran and against every aspect of U.S. imperialist war preparations! Take the demonstrations into the working class communities and engage in widescale leafletting and discussions! Use the anger that is boiling up against the draft and imperialist war preparations to organize the masses! Forge revolutionary groups everywhere! Denounce the Democratic and Republican Parties and treat their political hacks with the contempt they deserve! Put opposition to imperialism in the center of the agitation against militarism and the draft and rally the working masses against the capitalist imperialists!
[Cartoon.]
Chrysler Corporation is moving closer to the precipice of financial collapse. In order to receive an additional $400 million in federal loan guarantees to keep the company afloat, the government and Chrysler are demanding that the workers' contract be reopened for a second time. This will be the third round of concessions imposed on the Chrysler workers since the "sacrifices" made in the 1979 contract.
This time around, the demands of Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca are more brutal than ever. He has arrogantly declared that "it's freeze time, boys," and is demanding a 21-month wage freeze. In fact this freeze is a savage wage cut. It eliminates all COLA (cost-of-living allowance) including the $1.15 an hour COLA that the workers are now earning. cuts the base wage from $9.75 to $9.47 an hour. Retirees' pensions will also be frozen as of December 31, 1980. Taken together, Iacocca is demanding that the workers' wages and benefits be cut by almost $3 an hour. Under these provisions the Chrysler workers will be making $4.59 per hour less than the pattern agreement. This freeze will cost the workers $673 million which, when added to the earlier "sacrifices," comes to $1.14 billion in lost wages and fringes. This is wage cutting with a vengeance.
Iacocca's demands are a big assault on the livelihood of the Chrysler workers. Moreover, they are a major thrust in the savage wage-cutting offensive of the capitalists against all the workers.
More Concessions Will Not Save a Single Job!
Iacocca and his well-trained lap dog, UAW head Doug Fraser, are telling the workers that they have only two choices: Either knuckle under and reopen the contract to sign away more of the hard-won wages and benefits needed to make a living, or lose your jobs. Chrysler will go down the tubes and you will go with it. This is the big lie being dished out to the workers.
But, as the last year of "sacrifices" has further brought home to the Chrysler workers, more concessions will not save a single job. They will only bring on more devastation of the workers. Just look at what is taking place.
The economic crisis is pounding at the monopoly capitalist system. The auto industry has been hit very hard by the overproduction crisis with the sharp collapse of the market for cars. Chrysler, the tenth largest industrial corporation in the U.S., has been pushed to the edge of bankruptcy by the dog-eat-dog laws of this crisis-ridden capitalist system. In this situation the Chrysler capitalists and the Wall Street bankers behind them have only one objective. That is to cover any possible losses by squeezing the workers to the wall.
Since the last concessions a year ago, five big Chrysler plants have been shut down. Like so much scrap metal, 40,000 workers (almost one- third of last year's work force!) have been tossed into the street. For the unemployed, SUB (supplemental unemployment benefits) pay has run out for most long ago, and thousands of others have been pushed off unemployment insurance to starve on the welfare rolls. For those "lucky" enough to work, the plants are hell holes of the capitalist productivity drive. Despite the layoffs, the workers face brutal speedup, job combinations and long hours of forced overtime.
With the concessions robbed from the workers and the government-backed loans, Chrysler has been pouring billions into this productivity drive which is wiping out the workers' jobs. These billions have allowed Chrysler to retool; to purchase robots, computers and other job-eliminating machinery; and to reorganize assembly lines and close down inefficient plants. Today Chrysler's operations are even being hailed by some capitalists as a model of "reindustrialization" -- that is, of ruining the workers through backbreaking and job-cutting productivity drives.
The last year has proven that "sacrifices to save jobs" is nothing but an anti-worker hoax. In fact, Chrysler wants to rob from the workers another $600 million to spend on more robots and computers to eliminate jobs and to fill the bank vaults of the moneybags behind Chrysler.
Demands for more concessions are especially cynical at this time when it is being openly admitted that Chrysler is more than likely not going to make it. These concessions have very little to do with whether or not Chrysler goes under. The fact is Chrysler Corp. and its financial godfathers are simply trying to soak every last penny out of the workers in case Chrysler's operations are either reorganized under bankruptcy, or are sold off to others. The Wall Street Journal has called for ''putting Chrysler out of its misery." This is a sign that the lords of finance who will decide Chrysler's fate will pocket millions whether Chrysler lives or dies.
Soon the banks will have lent Chrysler more billions in loans than the company's entire net assets. The workers are now being forced to make more sacrifices so that Chrysler can take out more loans and pay out more interest to these loan sharks -- (with some interest rates over 23%!). These bank loans will be the first to be repaid in case of bankruptcy, and over $1 billion of them will be covered by government guarantees. Therefore, whether Chrysler goes down or not, the Wall Street financiers are guaranteed a fantastic profit. This is how the capitalist vultures are preying on the blood and sweat of the Chrysler workers!
Chrysler Board Member Fraser -- a Traitor and a Scab
In the saga of the crisis at Chrysler, no one has played a dirtier role against the workers than UAW President Doug Fraser. Fraser and his cronies pose as "militant fighters" for the workers. They style themselves as the "progressive" wing of the trade union leaders and even pretend to be a little bit "socialist." But, as events at Chrysler have shown, Fraser and co. are nothing but a pack of traitors and scabs against the workers.
Fraser's voice has been the loudest of all trying to convince the workers that they must accept "sacrifices to save jobs." But to help jam concessions down the workers' throats, Fraser tries to sweeten them up with "stern" warnings to Iacocca. For example, he tells the workers that they should make further concessions only on the condition that there is "equality of sacrifice" between labor and management. What a farce! The workers are being ruined by wage cuts and speedup while one-third of their ranks are out of work. Meanwhile the top Chrysler executives live like kings, and Chrysler's banks are hauling in countless millions. Yet Fraser tries to give the workers sermons about "equality of sacrifice"!
This is as shameless as Fraser's lectures that the workers should accept more sacrifices so long as they can "share in the future prosperity of Chrysler." What Fraser has in mind is such sops as a few more shares of Chrysler common stock which has become as worthless as the paper it is printed on. Last year Fraser even declared the concessions a "partial victory" because in return the workers got "a voice in management." That is, Fraser earned himself a seat on Chrysler's board of directors in payment for his dirty scabbing on the workers.
Now, along with Iacocca and his other pals on the board, Fraser is pointing to corporate profitability charts. Fraser and the other top UAW hacks tell the workers that they "don't see any other choice" but to accept more concessions. On December 22 the Chrysler council of UAW bureaucrats met and agreed to reopen the contract and do Chrysler's bidding. What bootlickers!
"The Leading Edge" of Savage Wage Cutting Against All the Workers
Both Ford and GM have declared that if Chrysler gets a wage freeze then they too will demand the reopening of their contracts. Freezing the auto workers' wages will also have a ripple effect for the hundreds of thousands of workers in the supplier industries. Already many suppliers have agreed to Chrysler's request for a temporary freeze in prices combined with efforts to cut their own workers' wages.
Moreover, Mr. Iacocca himself stresses the significance of a wage freeze at Chrysler to the wage-cutting offensive of the entire capitalist class in the face of the economic crisis. As he put it: "I think we (the Chrysler bosses) are on the leading edge of the crisis. We are facing it first. I think everybody has to do it (freeze wages). Mr. Iacocca also describes his wage-cutting plans as Chrysler's "own internal version of wage and price controls." And he couples this with a call for six-month, government-enforced "wage-price" controls on all the workers. (What a telling exposure of the anti-worker and wage-cutting nature of the capitalists' ongoing schemes to rig up wage-price controls against the workers!)
Mr. Iacocca is on a particular crusade against cost-of-living adjustments, declaring that "At Chrysler at least, no more automatic wage increases linked to inflation.... We are going to stop the escalation part of this cold." To this he adds that as the auto industry was the first to adopt COLA formulas back in the 1940's, so too now the wage freeze at Chrysler will be the first step to abolish COLA throughout the country.
Of course, the plans and wishes of this corporate slave driver are one thing, and what the capitalists will be able to achieve against the workers is something else again. But there is truth to the claim that Chrysler's brutal concession demands are "the leading edge" of the savage wage-cutting offensive of the employers. It was after the notorious attack on the Chrysler workers with the fall 1979 contract that similar wage cutting spread like a plague to steel, rubber, trucking, aluminum and other industries. Likewise today, all the capitalist money-grubbers are eagerly waiting to see if Mr. Iacocca and his little helper Fraser will be able to saddle the Chrysler workers with a wage freeze. They want to break the Chrysler workers even further as an example to the whole working class that it must knuckle under and "sacrifice" to pay for the economic crisis of the monopoly capitalist exploiters.
Chrysler Workers, Take Up Mass Struggle to Defend Your Jobs and Livelihood!
Chrysler workers, you have already taken more than enough. The big lie of "making sacrifices to save jobs" imposed on you by Fraser and the other UAW chieftains has already done more than enough damage. More concessions will only bring even greater hardship. In the plants everywhere the workers are burning with anger against Iacocca's arrogant demand for a wage freeze. The workers are coming to the conclusion that they have been backed against a wall and there is no way out but to fight. And they are right!
It is time to take a firm stand! Not a penny more of concessions to the money-grubbers! Let the rich pay the price for the problems of Chrysler! Such a heroic stand will be a great victory for the Chrysler workers. And it will be a strong blow struck in support of all the workers who face the capitalist offensive.
Chrysler workers, all the capitalist vultures and the UAW leaders are united against you. United in struggle the workers are a powerful force. Now is the time to take matters into your own hands and rise in mass struggle to defend your jobs and livelihood!
To hell with Iacocca s wage freeze!
To hell with Fraser's "equality of sacrifice" for the rich!
Fight the layoffs and plant closings, overtime and speedup!
Make Chrysler and its Wall Street backers pay!
NO MORE CONCESSIONS!
[Photo: Militant May Day demonstration by thousands of Turkish workers on May 1, 1980. The fascist terror of the junta cannot cow the Turkish proletariat, which has such a glorious and longstanding tradition of revolutionary struggle.]
The U.S.-backed fascist military coup of September 12 in Turkey was organized with the desperate aim of once and for all drowning in blood the persistent mass struggles of the Turkish people against imperialism and reaction. For years now, a vigorous revolutionary movement has developed in Turkey. This revolutionary movement has thrown the Turkish ruling classes into acute crisis and threatened to deny U.S. imperialism yet another outpost of its neo-colonial empire in the Middle East, as did the glorious revolution of the Iranian people against the U.S.-backed Shah.
The fervent hope of imperialism and reaction was that the fascist military coup of General Evren would put an end to the people's struggles. Towards this aim, the military junta abolished all outward trappings of "democracy" which the previous civilian-fascist government of Demirel had maintained, and brutally suppressed all democratic rights of the people. As of November 1980, some 50,000 political prisoners were arrested. The revolutionaries and progressive people in jail have been subjected to the most barbaric tortures, many until their deaths. Over 40 people have been shot down in the streets by the fascist police and army, and nazi-style concentration camps have been established.
One of the most dastardly atrocities of the fascist regime was the hanging of the 16-year-old Marxist-Leninist youth Erdal Eren on December 13. Erdal Eren was arrested for participating in the anti-fascist struggle in Turkey. Throughout his trial, he not only exposed the kangaroo court proceedings but took an unflinching stand against the attacks of the fascists. This young revolutionary fighter was hanged by the military junta behind the backs of the people despite the total exposure of the farcical trial staged against him which had shown that he was completely innocent of the charges brought against him, and despite his young age which, according to their own fascist laws, does not allow the imposition of the death sentence. This hanging took place also in spite of an earlier annulment of his death sentence as a result of the mass struggles of the Turkish people and an international campaign organized by revolutionary and anti-fascist forces.
The savage repression being imposed by the fascist junta has met with the approval of the imperialists and reactionaries the world over. The Soviet revisionists too have come out to claim that the fascist junta is a "positive" development. This is a vivid exposure of the Soviet new tsars as social-imperialists and enemies of the liberation struggles of the peoples. Meanwhile, all the media mouthpieces of U.S. imperialism and the State Department spokesmen are officially ecstatic about the supposedly "favorable" results of the fascist coup, claiming that it has "restored stability, peace,...security" and so on.
But the truth of the matter is altogether different. Immediately after the coup, signs of renewed resistance by the workers, peasants and oppressed nationalities of Turkey were evident. These outbursts are sure signs that the fascist measures by U.S. imperialism and its puppets in Turkey will not be any more successful than were these same fascist measures when applied in Iran and Nicaragua. The facts prove that the Turkish people are not cowed by the imperialists' and fascists' brutality, but instead are determined to wage their revolutionary struggle till final victory.
Immediately as the coup was carried out, the revolutionaries and communists in Turkey initiated an intense propaganda campaign through the length and breadth of the country to expose the real nature of the new junta. So too the workers' outrage at the fascists burst out in several small-scale resistance struggles; and in some areas the people even came out in open protest demonstrations despite the hitlerite repression of the regime.
In their intense propaganda campaign against the fascist military coup, the revolutionaries took advantage of all kinds of means to reach the masses. Leaflets were widely distributed, slogans were written and posters hung up on walls. The leaflets especially were distributed in the big cities of Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Adana. In their propaganda, the communists exposed the real nature of the junta and called on the people to rise up in struggle against the fascists. They called for a united struggle of the people against the regime. In this campaign the revolutionaries did not limit themselves to the written word. In order to reach the maximum amount of people, they boldly stood up in public buses, in the schools, at factories and other places that the people gathered, to give revolutionary speeches condemning the fascist regime. This heroic revolutionary work was a source of tremendous inspiration to the working masses.
Despite the very difficult conditions, revolutionary proletarians have waged various struggles at their work places against the fascist coup. In the Kartal-Presiz factory in Istanbul, for example, the fascists had arrested 30 workers. When the workers arrived for work and learned of this outrage, they refused to go in for their shift and demanded the release of their comrades. Soon the workers coming off the previous shift joined in the resistance too, and the fascist junta was forced to release 25 of the 30 workers. So too, at the Tezsan factory in Izmit-Gebze, workers went out in protest after the coup until September 14. The fascist junta was only able to make the workers return by force of arms. Nevertheless, still defiant, the workers militantly shouted slogans against the fascist junta as they were forced back.
Several demonstrations of workers and revolutionary people have taken place despite the unprecedented fascist terror in Turkey. In the Altindag district of Ankara on September 22nd, 100 people came out in the streets against the regime. And in the Siteler district 100 people and in the Emek district 60 people participated in the protests. Students too expressed their hatred for the fascist junta, and boycotted their meals at the Beytepe campus. In four districts of Iskenderun demonstrations were organized with 20-25 people participating in each. As they marched the people shouted revolutionary slogans in defiance of the fascists, declaring: "Death to fascism, Freedom to the people!" They declared that the new fascist military junta will not survive in the face of the people's struggle.
The new military junta headed by the longtime friend and ally of U.S. imperialism, General Evren, has tortured many revolutionaries to their deaths in desperate attempts to obtain information about the revolutionary organizations of the people and to exterminate the revolutionaries. The Marxist-Leninists and other revolutionaries have honorably withstood these barbaric hitlerite tortures and died cursing the fascists. Hearing of these events, the people have not been silent. For example, after the death of one revolutionary communist recently, the workers and students of Ankara, in a number of districts, came out in protest demonstrations. The people hung up pennants and banners in his memory, and leaflets were distributed widely protesting his murder.
These reports of revolutionary actions and protests against the fascist military coup demonstrate that the Turkish people will not be cowed, no matter what fascist atrocities the U.S.- backed ruling classes perpetrate against them. In the end, the revolutionary mass struggle of the people will prove victorious and the reactionary ruling classes and their regime will be swept away forever.
The Workers' Advocate lends its voice to the worldwide condemnation of the brutal fascist junta in Turkey, and expresses its full solidarity and support for the revolutionary anti-fascist fighters. Death to fascism! Freedom to the people!
In recent months, a very complicated and dangerous situation has developed in and around Poland. Since late November, Soviet social-imperialism and its lackeys in the Warsaw Pact have stepped up their bullying and threats against the Polish workers and have set into motion the military preparations for a savage armed invasion of that country. For their part, the U.S. and other Western imperialists of NATO are trying to seize upon the Soviet moves against Poland to whip up war hysteria and intensify even further the already fever-pitch war preparations of their own. Underneath all the fine words of "freedom" and "fraternity" which are being tossed around, the fact remains that the saber-rattling of the superpower blocs against each other is over whether the Soviet social- imperialists or the Western imperialists will dominate over Poland. Genuine freedom for the Polish people requires opposing both the superpowers, both NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
Since the middle of the summer of 1980, the Polish workers have risen up in a powerful and just struggle against the savage anti-worker measures of the Polish revisionist-capitalist regime. This struggle has shaken the stability of the Polish regime. It has alarmed the Soviet Union. Hence the Soviet social-imperialists are making preparations for aggression in order to preserve their all-round domination of Poland.
Meanwhile the Polish workers, despite waging a courageous struggle, face a difficult situation. Reactionary elements such as Lech Walesa have come to the leadership of the Polish workers' struggle. Walesa and co. are trying to channel the workers' struggle and forms of organization towards a reactionary dead end. These elements are working night and day to sacrifice the interests of the Polish workers at the bloodstained altar of Western imperialism. Indeed, the Western imperialists are actively trying to use the crisis in Poland to bring Poland into their orbit of influence. If the Polish workers are not able to rid themselves of the Walesas, a great tragedy could take place and they could find themselves bound in new chains.
Soviet Social-imperialists Threaten Invasion of Poland
The immediate crisis which has brought forth the Soviet threats to invade was touched off by a series of strikes in Warsaw, Gdansk and Silesia. The severe economic crisis which sparked off the massive countrywide strike wave earlier in the summer has continued to deepen. Food shortages and high prices and other attacks of the Polish regime continue to create a difficult situation for the working masses. The Polish workers have continued to wage strikes and other struggles against the oppression of the Polish regime.
Utilizing as an excuse the strikes in late November which threatened to develop into a general strike in Warsaw, the Soviet revisionists and their mouthpieces in Eastern Europe set into motion all kinds of attacks and threats against the Polish workers. The news media of the revisionists in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union all simultaneously echoed the common theme of denouncing the "insidious plans" to "strengthen aggressive anti-socialist trade unionism in one of the socialist states." In turn, these attacks were taken up by the Polish revisionists also in order to bully the workers with such declarations as that if "the state and nation" were threatened, then the Polish ruling clique "would have the duty to seek all means to save the country from tragedy by asking their close neighbors for help."
On December 5, the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries met in Moscow under the tutelage of the Soviet chieftain Brezhnev. They issued a communique which "reiterated that socialist Poland, the Polish United Workers Party and the Polish people can firmly count on the fraternal solidarity and support of the member countries of the Warsaw Pact." This was the same language that had been used in 1968 at the time of the brutal invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet social-imperialism and other Warsaw Pact countries.
Meanwhile many reports indicated a military buildup of the Soviet and Warsaw Pact armed forces around Poland. The Soviet revisionist troops on Poland's eastern border were put on alert; various maneuvers were carried out along the Polish borders; and a call up of reservists was issued in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Carpethians. Clearly the new tsars of the Soviet Union have not only prepared the ideological and political groundwork for an armed invasion of Poland, but also initiated the military preparations for it. Moreover, it should be noted that a Soviet social- imperialist invasion can also count on the use of 30,000 Soviet troops that are already stationed in Poland as part of the Warsaw Pact.
The Soviet Union claims that it is simply seeking to assist Poland from the threat of "anti-socialist and counter-revolutionary elements." It claims that it is guided by the spirit of "proletarian internationalism" in offering "fraternal assistance" to "a member of the socialist community." Nothing could be further from the truth. For neither the Soviet Union nor Poland are socialist countries. Under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin the Soviet Union was a great socialist country which was a model of proletarian internationalism, assisting the revolutionary forces all over the world. But after the death of Stalin, the traitor Khrushchov came to power and began the process of capitalist restoration in the USSR. Today the Soviet Union has been transformed into a counter-revolutionary imperialist superpower. At the same time, the pressures of the Khrushchovite revisionists and the work of the traitors to socialism inside Poland succeeded in diverting Poland away from the socialist path that it had embarked upon after the overthrow of Nazi occupation at the end of World War II. Today Poland is a capitalist country which is dominated politically, economically and militarily by Soviet social-imperialism. In addition, Western imperialism has also deeply penetrated into Poland.
Today the slogan "socialist community of nations" bandied about by the Soviet Union is simply a signboard under which the Soviet social-imperialists hide their domination of the former socialist countries such as Poland. It is therefore completely ridiculous to suggest that those who have long worked to destroy socialism can today be the defenders of socialism in Poland, or that those who are themselves at the head of the counter-revolution can save Poland from the threat of counterrevolution!
On the contrary, the Soviet Union is preparing for yet another fascist invasion of another country. All the blustering statements and actions of the Soviet revisionists today bear a close resemblance to those of the period preceding the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Indeed, the hypocritical statements about "fraternal solidarity" and "socialist community" are nothing but the code words of the notorious Brezhnev doctrine of "limited sovereignty." This theory was advanced by the new tsars of the Soviet Union at the time of the fascist invasion of Czechoslovakia. This is a theory of great power chauvinism and aggression, the theory by which the Soviet revisionists seek to extinguish the independence of other peoples and give themselves the right to intervene whenever and wherever they want to. It is, in short, a theory of naked imperialism. The peoples of the world have not only seen this doctrine in operation in Czechoslovakia in 1968, but also in the barbaric invasion of Afghanistan a year ago. This theory has quite justly earned the hatred and opposition of the working class and oppressed peoples throughout the world.
The Polish Workers' Struggle
The economic crisis in Poland today is particularly severe. This can be seen in the widespread food shortages and high prices. This situation is the direct outgrowth of capitalist rule and the imperialist domination of Poland. The economy is not run for the purpose of satisfying the material and cultural needs of the working people as it would be in a genuine socialist country. Instead production is for the purpose of enriching the bourgeois managers and bureaucrats who control the state sector of the economy and the businessmen and rich capitalist farmers who control large sections of trade, agriculture and so on. While the workers and rural poor are exploited to the bone, the rich live like lords.
At the same time, the revisionist bourgeoisie has sold out the country to the foreign imperialists. Not only do the Soviet social-imperialists share in the plunder of the Polish people, but the Polish regime has also sold the country out to the financiers of Western Europe and the U.S. Poland today owes more than $20 billion to the foreign imperialists, the overwhelming bulk of it to the Western bankers. In fact, it is to pay this tribute that the country exports a tremendous amount of meat abroad, which is one of the biggest factors responsible for the food shortages and high prices.
The severe capitalist exploitation of the working masses in Poland was responsible for the mass upsurges by the Polish workers in 1970 and 1976. In the summer of 1980, the Polish regime increased the burden on the shoulders of the working masses even more by cutting food subsidies, thus driving prices sky high. This sparked off a countrywide strike wave in July and August, involving more than 150,000 workers. In this struggle the workers raised demands against the food shortages and high prices, for higher wages, and against unemployment and speedup. They also raised demands for various democratic rights against the social-fascist regime which stifles any struggle and motion among the workers.
The strike wave rocked the Polish government and forced it to make various concessions. The Polish workers smashed the official trade unions which are nothing but whip hands of the revisionist bourgeoisie, but the question remains of what organization to build. The struggle sparked a severe crisis in the ruling circles. The Gierek clique, which had come to power with the toppling of Gomulka in the face of the 1970 workers' revolt, was itself toppled and replaced by Kania and his henchmen. These gentlemen are making all kinds of noises about "reforms," but this is nothing but demagogy in order to quell the workers' struggle. Indeed the Kania government continues to viciously denounce the workers' struggle, and even calls on the Polish workers to follow the example of the scab trade union hacks "in the western countries" who "ensure that the employer doesn't go bankrupt...because no one else is going to give us our upkeep." Exactly like the capitalist moneybags in the U.S., Kania tells the workers to sacrifice so that the revisionist bourgeoisie and the foreign lords of capital can continue to line their pockets with gold. According to reports published in the New York Times, the Kania government is also trying to get the trade unions involved in managing the enterprises along the lines of the Yugoslav revisionist system of "self-administration." This is an attempt to tie the workers directly to the capitalist management and quell the class struggle. As well it attempts to destroy the class-wide unity of the workers by splitting the workers up into many sections all competing with one another.
The Polish workers face a very difficult situation ahead of them. Facing them remains the question of what path their struggle will take. This is especially the case because extremely poisonous snakes are lurking right in their midst. The leadership that has come to the head of their struggle, composed of elements such as Lech Walesa, is working to actively sabotage the working class movement. Walesa and co. are out-and-out counter-revolutionary elements who are working to turn the workers' movement into a mere appendage of Western imperialism. This is a towering crime against the working class.
Walesa's activities in subverting the Polish workers' struggle are chiefly inspired by his loyalty to the U.S. and other Western imperialists. Within Poland he links himself with the most reactionary pro-Western elements. He shamelessly waves the money he has received from the reactionary trade unions of the U.S., West Germany, etc. He models himself after and ardently admires the trade union hacks of the reactionary unions such as the AFL-CIO who are the greatest strikebreakers and saboteurs of the workers' struggles.
But Walesa goes further. He openly reveals his admiration for the most open fascist representatives of Western imperialism. Thus, in a recent interview with U.S. correspondents, Walesa expressed the view that Reagan's election "is a very good sign for the world and Poland, because he is a strong and consistent leader who will make things better for the world." He went on to point out that he also sees eye to eye with Solzhenitsyn, the notorious admirer of feudal tsarist reaction in Russia, "that there has been too much affluence and laziness in the West, too many concessions. Reagan seems to understand that." Just imagine! Walesa, who claims to represent the workers, openly reveals his love for the most notorious and open enemies of the working class. With such statements, this utterly degenerate bootlicker of fascist barbarism makes it amply clear that he is only working to use the Polish workers' struggle in order to tie it to the strivings of Western imperialism and the most medieval type of reaction.
Walesa has taken the responsibility of acting as an agency of Western imperialism which seeks to use the Polish workers' struggle in order to penetrate even deeper into the Polish economy and political system. In particular, Western imperialism is following the tactics of pressuring the Polish government itself to make various concessions which will make Poland even more favorable to Western imperialist investment, and to gradually wean Poland away from Soviet hegemony.
On this basis Walesa works to prevent the further development of the workers' struggle. He works to limit the struggle and make compromises with the Polish revisionist regime. Thus, during the recent strikes in November, the Polish government itself flew him in their helicopter from Gdansk to Warsaw in order to prevent a general strike from breaking out in that city. It may also be recalled that during the strike wave last summer, it was Walesa who counseled the Gdansk workers to return to work even before the government had agreed to any of their demands. Only when the workers rejected this was Walesa forced to accept the demand to continue the strike. Indeed, in recent days, Walesa has come out in his full form as a strikebreaker, denouncing the workers' strikes under the excuse that they "would push the country to the verge of collapse."
Walesa also promotes the common lie of the Polish revisionists and Western imperialists that there is something socialist about Poland. This allows him to compromise with the Polish regime in the name of working for "the common good of socialism." With this, he hides the fact that it is capitalism which is ruling in Poland and which should be overthrown. Indeed, this lie about Poland being allegedly socialist is one of the most important ideas that has to be combatted for the further development of the workers' struggle. At the same time, the talk of "socialism" in Poland plays into the hands of the Western imperialists who use it to slander genuine socialism with the lie that socialism is a failure and cannot even provide food and other basic necessities of life for the masses.
This shows that Walesa only holds up before the Polish workers the perspective of moving towards a refurbished version of the present capitalist-revisionist order. He wants a slight tinkering with the present order which will shift the allegiances of the ruling regime over from the Soviet Union to the Western imperialists. But such a road is suicidal for the workers. It cannot end the crisis in Poland and win them their emancipation.
To win their emancipation, the Polish workers face the task of step by step developing their struggle in a revolutionary direction towards the overthrow of the capitalist regime and all foreign domination and the reestablishment of socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat. For the working class to take this road, they must reconstitute a genuine Marxist-Leninist party. Only such a party can defend the workers' movement from the treachery of those like Walesa and opportunists of any shade, and lead the working class to the proletarian revolution.
U.S. Imperialism Seeks to Sink Its Claws Deeper into Poland and Use the Polish Situation to Step Up Its Own Militarism
The Lech Walesa type bourgeois elements are one of the many agencies which the U.S. and the other Western imperialist powers are using to sink their claws deeper into Poland. Already, Western imperialism has achieved a deep penetration of Poland and gives a great deal of attention to winning Poland away from Soviet hegemony into its own orbit of domination and plunder. Among other things, this is reflected in the installation of the Polish Pope. The Catholic Church in Poland has long been one of the main agencies of Western imperialism in Poland.
The Western imperialists also have direct links with the Polish economy. The Polish regime allows many enterprises to be fully owned by the foreign imperialists. At the same time, it is caught in a massive economic yoke to the bankers of the West. In its present economic crisis, the Polish regime is begging for more and more loans, and the Western banks are thus increasing the amount of tribute they will be drawing from the exploitation of the Polish working masses. Indeed, the Western imperialists are using the economic crisis in Poland, as well as their agencies like the Church and Walesa, to pressure for even more concessions from the regime that will make Poland a better arena for plunder and domination.
The tactical policy of the Western imperialists is, however, to gradually increase their influence, and is, to a large part, aimed at breaking the Polish government itself away from Soviet social-imperialist hegemony. Hence at this time, the Western imperialists are trying to reinforce the system of Church-government-trade union cooperation in Poland. Walesa and co. and the Church are actively working with the government to smother the workers' strike struggles, denouncing them as "irresponsible," and calling for "internal peace" in Poland.
The U.S. imperialists are also trying to use the Polish situation to whip up anti-communist hysteria and to step up their own war preparations.
Most hypocritically, the capitalist moneybags in the U.S., who are among the greatest enemies of the working class and its strike struggles, have made a big to-do over the last year claiming to support the strikes in Poland. This has been echoed by the strikebreaking chieftains of the American trade unions. Indeed this has been quite a strange spectacle. But the truth is, these gentlemen's support for the Polish strikes is a complete sham. This "support" has only been for the purpose of assisting the U.S. billionaires in sinking their teeth even more into the flesh of the Polish workers and to do propaganda against socialism and communism. But countless facts and the Polish strikes themselves have shown that there is not an iota of socialism in Poland. The Polish strikes do not prove the "failure of socialism" or "the twilight of communism," but the bankruptcy of the capitalist system which has long been restored in Poland. Meanwhile, true socialism built according to the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin prospers and marches forward triumphantly in socialist Albania, the only genuine socialist country in the world today.
The U.S. imperialists are also using the threat of a Soviet invasion of Poland in order to step up their own militarism. Hence, the recent NATO meetings in Europe, discussing the Polish situation, have pledged that a Soviet invasion will trigger an unrestricted buildup of weapons and increase the all-round militarization of the countries of NATO. This is justified on the excuse of the Soviet invasion, but its purpose has nothing to do with defense of the Polish people and everything to do with serving the warmongering ambitions of the Western imperialist powers themselves. To these powers Poland is simply a juicy morsel into which they are working hard to sink their teeth deeper.
But the Polish working class is not destined to remain a pawn in the calculations of the imperialist bloodsuckers. It has rich revolutionary traditions. The Polish working class is bound to speak on its own behalf and when it does, it will sweep away the rotten rule of the capitalists and all the imperialists who are today stealing the fruits of its sweat and toil.
In the last week, a major offensive has been launched by the revolutionary fighters of the Salvadorian people. A force of 3,000 armed patriots has attacked government troops in Chalatenago province in northern El Salvador and has succeeded in wiping out a number of fascist troops. The Salvadorian regime has frantically rushed in airplanes, helicopters and infantry.
This new upsurge has come on the heels of the wave of terror recently unleashed by the fascist regime in order to crush the revolutionary struggle of the Salvadorian people. The troops of the Salvadorian ruling clique and the government-sponsored terrorist gangs have intensified their ruthless campaign to murder and intimidate the oppressed masses and exterminate the progressive, anti-fascist militants in both the cities and the countryside. The regime, which has already murdered thousands, recently committed yet another series of atrocities. A most prominent and typical incident occurred on November 27 when some 200 National Guard and plainclothes forces raided a high school in San Salvador, abducting six revolutionary leaders along with 20 students and teachers. The anti-regime revolutionaries captured in the raid were quickly whisked away and killed. The regime's fear of the revolution is so great that they have undertaken the murder of three American nuns and a lay sister because they were allegedly "communists."
These actions of the criminal regime, however, have utterly failed to intimidate the revolutionary masses. In defiance of the government, thousands of people attended the funeral of the slain revolutionaries. Revolutionary fighters soon launched actions in five provinces. On December 16, the armed popular forces ambushed two government army patrols, inflicting serious damage. The anti-fascist forces have also surrounded government troops in the town of Arcatao, 60 miles north of San Salvador.
These battles against the regime are a continuation of the glorious struggle of the Salvadorian people to overthrow the fascist regime which is dependent on U.S. imperialism for its very existence. Ever since the current rulers came to power in October, 1979, the Salvadorian people have given them no rest. Through nationwide strikes, mass demonstrations, factory occupations and armed assaults against the regime's National Guard troops, the workers, peasants and youth have been mobilized into a mighty force that has greatly shaken the regime.
Faced with this situation, U.S. imperialism is going all out to aid the fascist regime. At the same time it is hypocritically trying to wash its hands of the blood spilled by its lackeys in El Salvador. It is this policy that lies behind the Carter administration's loud demagogical statements about suspending its aid to the regime and investigating whether the regime is tied to the recent atrocities.
The recent atrocities greatly exposed the Carter administration, which had backed the government of fascist assassins under the hoax that they were "moderate" and trying to stop the "violence of the left and the right." Thus, after the nuns were murdered, the administration suspended some $25 million in aid to the Salvadorian government pending an investigation by the U.S. officials into the violence. The investigation commission admitted that there was "circumstantial evidence of possible security force involvement" but nevertheless recommended that aid be resumed. Within days $20 million of the original aid was reinstated and a $45 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank was thrown in to boot. What a farce! First, the administration announces it will suspend its aid because the government security forces may be involved in the atrocities. Then the U.S. government admits the Salvadorian forces' involvement and resumes aid anyway.
While handsomely rewarding the Salvadorian butchers for their massacres, the Carter administration also used the "investigation" in order to consult with the Salvadorian regime and provide it with a new face lift. The commission report tried to wipe the blood from the Salvadorian regime's hands. The report presented the ludicrous argument that while the government troops were involved in the executions of the nuns, there is "no evidence that the Christian Democratic military junta was involved." Thus, this regime of army generals which has murdered thousands in this year alone is really a meek "lamb" because the generals did not do the killing, but only the troops they command!
Moreover the U.S. imperialists reshuffled and renamed the five-man ruling military junta to give it the appearance of "civilian rule." Officially the junta was scrapped while in fact the arch-fascist junta military leaders remained in power. Thus General Guiterrez was named Commander in Chief and Vice-President, and his criminal cohort Colonel Garcia retained his post as Minister of Defense. The junta's chief civilian fascist Duarte was named President. By instituting this "civilian" government, the Carter administration in fact solidified the strength of the most extreme reactionary military officers.
The actions of the Carter administration are further evidence that U.S. imperialism will always be a bloodthirsty enemy of the people of El Salvador. It was the Carter administration that put the current dictators in power through a coup d'etat in October 1979, in order to stop the massive revolt of the people against the hated regime of General Carlos Humberto Romero. Faced with the imminent overthrow of General Romero, the U.S. imperialists replaced him with a new, less discredited set of military officers. Since then, the composition of the new junta has been altered a number of times, but it has always remained solidly in the hands of the fascist military. The Carter administration provided the regime with $95 million worth of military and economic aid in 1980 and has been arming the junta to the teeth with "riot control" equipment. The administration has also sent a series of U.S. Army counterinsurgency "training teams" to El Salvador to instruct the National Guard and police in their war against the people.
This murderous program of the Carter administration promises to be further escalated by Reagan. Reagan's aides have denounced the wholesale fascism unleashed by Carter as being too concerned with "social reform" which is "unduly delay(ing) decisions on issues where human rights concerns conflict with other vital U.S. interests." Reagan's advisors on Latin America have already visited the big capitalists in El Salvador and assured them that they are for "strengthening the security forces" and "emergency financial aid" to the Salvadorian rulers. Meanwhile, various U.S.-supported fascist dictators in Central America recently met to express their love for the frankly militarist Reagan and are considering his election a signal to wipe out all their opposition. At the same time, the incoming Reagan administration is also finding the Carterite "human rights" ploy of use. For example, William Rogers, widely acknowledged as acting as an unofficial representative of Reagan, served on Carter's recent investigation commission. It is already clear that the Reagan administration will further advance the bloodstained and double-dealing policy of the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie.
However, all the reactionary violence and maneuvers of U.S. imperialism will end in miserable failure. The Salvadorian people are fighting against a regime which is the protector of the interests of U.S. imperialism and the big capitalists and landowners in its service. They are fighting against the poverty and oppression caused by U.S. imperialism and the oligarchy of fascist generals, big capitalists and landowners who are sucking the people dry in order to fatten their profit margins. For 43 years the U.S. imperialists have installed one military dictatorship after another. But they have never succeeded in breaking the desire of the people to be free from fascist reaction and U.S. imperialist domination. Today it is the Salvadorian rulers who are reeling from the strong blows delivered against them by the revolutionary struggle. Each revolutionary action of the oppressed masses is fresh proof that the struggle of the Salvadorian people will continue to intensify until the fascist, U.S.-backed regime is brought down.
[Photo: The people of El Salvador in action against the regime of the U.S.-backed generals.]
(The following article is based on a statement issued by the Buffalo Branch of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA, on December22, 1980.)
The Roswell Park workers have stepped up their resistance to the increased workloads! Throughout the hospital the workers have discussed the way to fight the latest assaults perpetrated by the Roswell Park administration. The workers have mapped out their tactics' for the struggle and have already set them in motion. It is the path of active resistance that has brought the triumphs in the past, that has defeated many of the attempts of the administration to increase the workers' burden. And it is this path that is the only guarantor of new victories in the future.
The administration recently began a "bed redistribution" plan to further increase workloads. Under this plan the hospital is increasing its size and the number of patients it takes in while the number of hospital workers is actually decreasing through attrition. In the nursing department alone the "bed redistribution" plan will cause the staff to work at 77% of what the administration claims is the needed strength, that is, minus one out of every 4.3 positions. Ever since the administration announced that this plan would go into effect, the workers vowed to fight it to the end. To achieve their goal the workers voted overwhelmingly at the last union meeting to organize a fight against increased workloads and for the demand that the state hire more workers. Right after the meeting, the workers started to carry out this correct decision. Already in many departments the Roswell staff has slowed down or used various other actions to press their demands. In fact, this slowdown has been going on in some departments even before the "bed redistribution" plan was announced, in response to the extreme overwork the Roswell Park staff was already facing. The organizing of the resistance struggle is not something "foreign" or new to the Roswell Park workers. It was through struggle that they repulsed the attempts to force the workers in the housekeeping department to buy uniforms. It was through struggle that they succeeded in making the administration hire another worker in the laundry department. It was their organized fight that smashed the attempts of the administration to fire four dietary workers. And it was the resistance of the Roswell Park workers and the rest of the state workers that thwarted the imposition of the reactionary "performance evaluation system" (PES) last year, a system that the state government is reviving again and which will meet with the same fate. It is only through an active and organized struggle that the workers have been able to achieve any success in defending themselves from the attacks of the administration.
The top labor bureaucrats of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) have come up with various schemes to sidetrack and wipe out the growing resistance of the Roswell Park workers. Mr. McGowan, the president of the N.Y. CSEA has gone so far as to claim that there is no support for a campaign to fight the increased workloads. This "man of action" has said he cannot do a thing, "as much as he'd like to," because that would put "his own ass on the line." He has demanded, as "proof" of the workers' desire to fight, signatures of 50% of the workers on a petition calling for some action, and only then would he take some measures. What this "brave fighter for the workers' interests" has conveniently "forgotten" is that the struggle is going on right in front of his nose. The workers are already fighting, every minute, every hour of every day. They are under attack and they are resisting. The labor bureaucrats' program for action amounts to stopping the workers' march before it attains its goal, to tie it up in a thousand and one pieces of red tape, to move it in every direction except against its enemy, the Roswell Park administration and the state. This is the treachery of the CSEA labor traitors. In fact, today as in the past, the only way the labor bureaucrats have been active, is in sabotaging the workers' struggle, in protecting the interests of the state and the Roswell Park administration. For example, it was the CSEA labor bureaucrats who forced the reactionary PES down the workers' throats and it was the same labor bureaucrats who praised and worked for the passage of Governor Carey's "cost cutting" and "job eliminating" 1980 budget. It should also be remembered that when the Roswell Park workers gave the slogan "mass active resistance is the way to defend the workers' interests," the labor bureaucrats of the CSEA raised the slogan "end your resistance." The labor bureaucrats take to mass active resistance like Dracula does to the cross.
Therefore, for the workers to defend themselves they must take matters into their own hands. Only by continuing to organize among themselves to carry forward mass active resistance can the workers defeat the latest attacks by the state government and the Roswell Park administration.
[Photo: On September 17, as part of their protracted strike against contract concessions, workers at the Northern Indiana Public Service Company closed down Route 12 for six hours near the company's Bailly generating station. Seventeen workers were arrested during this mass action.]
Since June 1st, 4,300 workers of the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) have been waging a vigorous strike against the attempts of the utility company to force a contract full of concessions down the workers' throats. The NIPSCO capitalists are demanding the elimination of COLA; cutbacks in sick leaves, pensions and insurance; and major changes in work rules in order to increase productivity. For seven months now the NIPSCO workers have stood up against these concession demands of the capitalists and they have launched one mass action after another to carry through their strike.
In August, 1,000 workers joined in a mile-long car caravan from Merritville to Fort Wayne where they held a strike rally. Seventeen strikers were arrested on September 17 when the workers defied the police and shut down Route 12 at the Bailly generating station for six hours. On September 25 hundreds of workers from other work places rallied in support of the NIPSCO strikers. As well, strike rallies have been held in Hammond/Crown Point, South Bend, Hobart, Valparaiso, and Goshen by the NIPSCO workers. Through these and other mass actions the workers have shown their determination to carry their struggle through to victory.
The NIPSCO capitalists are carrying out despicable measures to try and break the militant strike. For example, just prior to the beginning of the strike, NIPSCO hired about 2000 "supervisory" level personnel as a scab force against the strike. They have also been desperately maneuvering to split the strike by offering the manual laborers a separate agreement with better benefits than that offered to the clerical workers. As well, they have cut off their payments for the workers' insurance premiums, even though this is covered by a separate contract which has not yet expired.
While viciously attacking the NIPSCO workers, the utility company moneybags also brazenly jacked up their utility rates by 11.2% during the course of the strike. Like the other utility capitalists, NIPSCO is extorting enormous profits from the working masses through constantly rising utility rate hikes. But the capitalists try to blame these soaring rate increases on the workers themselves. At NIPSCO the workers' wages amount to only 6% of NIPSCO's operating cost. Yet the NIPSCO capitalists had the utter shamelessness to claim their latest rate hike was necessitated by the so- called high NIPSCO workers' wages.
As part of their strike the workers denounced this lying trickery and circulated petitions demanding a 10% rate reduction retroactive to June 1. Over 10,000 NIPSCO customers have signed these petitions so far. The workers from all over the area are burning mad at these utility capitalists who are rolling in dough while they demand outrageous sacrifices from the NIPSCO workers and ever increasing utility rates from their customers.
The determined mass struggle of the NIPSCO workers is another manifestation of the struggle that is emerging against the vicious wage-cutting offensive of the monopoly capitalist class.
(The following leaflet was issued by the Boston Branch of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA on December 19, 1980.)
Since the end of November, Electronics Corporation of America has been spreading rumors about their new plant in New Hampshire. They are trying to scare the workers that the Cambridge, Massachusetts plant will soon close down. After three weeks of the workers demanding to know the facts, Metcalf has written a letter to his "fellow employees."
This letter does not answer the workers' questions, but instead it claims that the Cambridge workers are "increasingly unproductive and disproportionately expensive," and therefore EC A will "tap the relatively plentiful labor market in the New Hampshire area." That is, ECA will take advantage of the minimum wage rates in New Hampshire. He says, "This will, we believe,...insure full employment in our Cambridge and other plants." He wants us to "believe" this but the letter doesn't insure anyone's job and is threatening the workers that unless they become more "productive" and less "expensive," ECA will move elsewhere.
Poor Mr. Metcalf and ECA who are suffering terribly from the "increasingly unproductive and disproportionately expensive" workers! Actually, the exact opposite is true. The workers are so productive and underpaid that, in Metcalf's own words, ECA's "net earnings once more reached a record high" in 1979 and the November stock report boasts of a "significant increase in earnings for 1980 despite the effects of a 30-day strike! Besides huge amounts going to bankers and to executive salaries, the clear profits have soared from $1,700,000 in 1974 to $4,440,000 in 1979. The value of the company has also doubled in this same period, including expansion to Puerto Rico. All this wealth has been accumulated from the labor of the "unproductive" and "expensive" workers!
And now, with these profits, ECA plans to build a new plant in New Hampshire which they will use as a constant threat against the Cambridge workers to reduce their wages, to intensify the speedup and possibly replace them altogether.
Moneybags Metcalf would like to have the workers believe that if they go down on their knees and work harder and faster for less that ECA will be so grateful that it will guarantee their jobs forever. But this is just a trick. Have the enormous profits made by ECA off the workers satisfied Metcalf and the other owners and made them grateful? No! Instead they have used these profits to build a new plant which they are holding over the workers' heads as a club to extract even more profit from them. The experience of the working class shows that going down on your hands and knees is the surest way to get kicked in the teeth.
In 1973 the workers at Goodyear in Akron, Ohio were told by their union leaders and the company that if they accepted wage cuts and speedup Goodyear would not close down its plants in Akron. The workers reluctantly went along. What happened? Goodyear used the added profits to build their new plants in other cities even quicker. Today only a fraction of rubber workers are left at Goodyear in Akron. Or look at the Chrysler workers. The union and the company imposed wage and benefit cuts on them, and the union turned over $200 million of the workers' pension money to Chrysler under the hoax that this would save their jobs. And what is Chrysler doing? Closing plants left and right and replacing workers with robots and other automated equipment. Metcalf and ECA are no different than Chrysler and Goodyear.
We must respond to ECA's attacks with mass struggle. That is the only way. We must resist the company's attempts to work us every last minute of the day as though we were machines. We must refuse to accept any further cuts in our wages. We must defend the new ("disproportionately expensive," as Metcalf calls them) workers whom the company is attacking with a special vengeance. And we must be prepared for bigger battles to prevent the closing of any departments.
As long as capitalism exists the workers' jobs will never be secure. The rich will always use their wealth to increase their profits at the expense of the workers' livelihood. They will close old factories, replace workers with machines, and throw millions out of work with every recession. What EC A is doing, capitalists all over the country are doing under the name of "reindustrialization." All this creates great suffering for the workers. And they should not accept it.
By fighting against speedup, layoffs, wage cuts and plant closings the workers can reduce the amount of damage the capitalists can do to them. But we must also use the struggle we are waging today to prepare the forces of the whole working class to get to the root of the problem -- that is, to overthrow the rule of the rich and their capitalist system.
The victories of the Marxist-Leninist Party in the past year have been victories for the path laid out at the Founding Congress. The revolutionary struggle of our Party has been conducted according to a conscious and systematic plan. This new year's, when we look back on the past year's work, is a time to rededicate ourselves to continuing along this revolutionary path. It is a time to review the broad, overall aspect of the work, the general strategy and tactics. This revolutionary sweep and broad vision inspires and lights up the day-to-day work.
The Founding Congress was the fruit of a decade of struggle and sacrifice since the founding of the nationwide Marxist-Leninist center, the American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist-Leninist), in May 1969. The plan to found the Marxist-Leninist Party and the general line for the Party were thoroughly discussed throughout the campaign to "Build the Marxist- Leninist Party Without and Against the Social-Chauvinists" in 1979. The militants of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists, the immediate predecessor of the Marxist-Leninist Party, met in an internal conference in March 1979 and unanimously and enthusiastically approved the plan to found the Marxist-Leninist Party. Extensive consultation was then held with sympathizers, class conscious workers, fraternal parties, progressive organizations in the U.S. and so forth. Only after these discussions had reached a certain point and the views held by the various forces taken into account, was the campaign publicly inaugurated at the May Day celebrations in 1979. This campaign was not only a continuation of the movement against social-chauvinism, but there was a marked extension of the work on the mass fronts. Particularly notable were: the campaign to organize the struggle of the auto workers; the work in the anti-nuclear movement; the fight against the warmongering hysteria against the Iranian revolution; the work among the oppressed nationalities; a further extension of the fight against social-democracy; and wide dissemination, in the first place among the proletariat, of the news about Albania, especially in connection with the 35th anniversary of the liberation of Albania. The combining of this intense and vigorous work with the campaign to found the Marxist-Leninist Party helped ensure that the founding of the Party was not the act of a handful, but an event in the life of the proletariat and revolutionary activists.
The Founding Congress discussed both the general perspective and the immediate tasks for the Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries. It brought to the fore a number of specific features of the revolution. It would be impossible in a short space to review the entire analysis of the Congress. Instead we shall examine a few of its many theses, theses which have been abundantly corroborated in the course of the past year's work.
The Socialist Revolution
The Marxist-Leninist Party is the party of the socialist revolution. The various fronts of work of the Party are all links in the chain leading to the revolution. The Congress stressed:
"The coming revolution is a proletarian socialist revolution. It is the overthrow of the oppressors through revolutionary violence. It will replace capitalism by socialism, expropriate the monopoly capitalists, abolish the exploitation of man by man and lead ultimately to communism, the classless society. It will destroy the state of the rich and abolish the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, which is a terrorist dictatorship of the rich minority over the overwhelming majority of toilers. It will replace it with the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is with the working class organized as the ruling class, with the rule of the overwhelming majority over the handful of capitalists and reactionaries." (Communique of the Founding Congress of the Marxist-Leninist Party of the USA and Selected Resolutions, p. 10)
The Party carried out extensive work to put forward the vista of socialism to the class conscious workers. The socialist perspective inspires and enlivens the class struggle, shows the goal of the revolution and instills confidence in victory. Ever since the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia of 1917, socialism has existed as a living reality. The Khrushchovite betrayal of socialism in the Soviet Union and elsewhere is only a temporary, though grave, setback. Socialism continues to march forward triumphantly in Albania and in the growth and development of the workers' and communist movements around the world. The non-stop development of socialism in Albania provides a base for the world revolutionary movement and a living proof of the vitality of the only genuine socialism, the socialism constructed according to the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. Our Party did wide work to bring the news of the victories of socialism in Albania to the proletariat. It is our Party that carries out the work in support of socialism in Albania among the masses.
Welding All the Revolutionary Currents Into a Single Torrent of Socialist Revolution
The Founding Congress not only upheld the goal of the revolution, but it charted the path leading up to the revolution. As part of this, it defined the correct relations between the revolution and the work in the present-day mass movement. It pointed out:
"The Marxist-Leninist Party defends the momentary interests and the immediate aims of the working class, but in the movement of the present, it also represents and takes care of the future of the movement. It uses the day-to-day struggle to organize the working and oppressed masses into a powerful force for the socialist revolution.'' (Communique, p. 9)
The Congress put forward the orientation of building the party in the midst of the revolutionary movement. It stated:
"The Marxist-Leninist Party works to weld all of the revolutionary currents into a single torrent with the proletariat at the center. The revolutionary mass movements...embody the growing revolt of the proletariat and other downtrodden masses against capitalism and growing fascism. These movements, which bring the masses of people into open conflict with the rich and the state power of the rich, are schools of revolution. In these movements, the masses of working people gain rich experience, become convinced through their own experience of the need for revolution and of the correctness of the policies, slogans and orientation of the Marxist-Leninist Party, and become organized and prepared for the revolution." (Communique, pp. 13-14)
In acting according to this orientation, the Marxist-Leninist Party is a party of revolutionary action. It is a party of class struggle, a party of fighters for the cause of the proletariat.
This orientation also stands opposed to the opportunist approach of tailing after the mass movements. Instead the Founding Congress put forward the active, Marxist-Leninist idea of guiding and orienting the mass movements, the idea of the active role of the Marxist-Leninist party. It is necessary not just to work in the mass movements, but to direct them to the revolutionary goal, to orient them so that each plays its role as part of the single revolutionary struggle led by the proletariat. This was the path followed by the Bolsheviks to attain the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution. As Stalin points out: "Only a party like the Bolshevik Party... only such a party could so skillfully merge into one common revolutionary torrent such diverse revolutionary movements.... Undoubtedly, the merging of these diverse revolutionary streams into one common powerful revolutionary torrent decided the fate of capitalism in Russia." (History of the CPSU (Bolsheviks), Short Course, 1939 edition, Ch. 7, Sec. 6, pp. 213-14)
The powerful extension of the work of the Party in the mass movements over the last year shows the correctness of the conception of the Founding Congress. It is also a testimony to the correctness of the great stress the Founding Congress laid on party-building. Work among the widest masses is not just a matter of activity in and of itself. No, the vigorous extension of this work is the fruit of the organizational strength of the Marxist- Leninist Party. It also requires the existence of a solid core of revolutionary cadre. It further demands a great deal of theoretical work to judge proper directions, orientations and slogans for this work. In the future, too, the further development of the work in the mass movements will go forward hand in hand with the constant work of strengthening and consolidating the Party.
The Fight Against Imperialism and Imperialist War
The Founding Congress brought out the important role that the struggle against imperialism plays in the socialist revolution. It held that:
"The socialist revolution carries forward the banner of struggle against imperialism and imperialist war. The U.S. is a monstrous imperialist superpower, a world exploiter, blackmailer and bully, and a center of international aggression. So long as U.S. imperialism exists, the world will be subjected to its schemes for world domination and to the threat of war. The proletariat fights against the imperialist war preparations, against colonialism and neo-colonialism and against all manifestations of U.S. imperialist aggression. The anti-imperialist struggle is a powerful force for the development of the socialist revolution." (Communique, p. 11)
The rise of the movements against U.S. imperialist war preparations in the last period is a vivid illustration of the correctness of this assessment. Following the orientation given by the Founding Congress, our Party strives to put the issue of fighting imperialism in the center of the movement against the reintroduction of the draft, the movement against the imperialist nuclear program, the work in support of the Iranian revolution and other liberation struggles, and so forth. The call for struggle against imperialism is both correct strategically and is a popular call. The anti-imperialist movement plays an important role in helping wide sections of the people take important steps forward towards revolutionary stands. The perspective of struggle against imperialism as a system also helps drive a wedge between the masses and the capitalist politicians. The importance and revolutionary role of the anti-imperialist struggle is confirmed by such striking facts as the experience of the struggle against the U.S. war of aggression in Viet Nam and the course of development of the present-day mass movements.
The Fight Against Growing Fascism
The Founding Congress also stressed that the fight against the process of fascization and the growing reaction of the big bourgeoisie is an important part of the socialist revolution. It held that:
"The socialist revolution has an anti-fascist character. The U.S. monopoly capitalist class is a center of fascism and reaction on the world scale. It is fascizing the U.S. state and society under the banner of so-called 'American democracy.' The proletariat fights the growing fascism of the monopoly capitalist exploiters. The socialist revolution will utterly demolish this growing fascism. It will abolish the overgrown oppressive system of a huge army, police and arrogant bureaucracy and replace them with the armed people themselves. The socialist revolution will bring genuine freedom and democracy to the overwhelming majority of the people, the formerly oppressed classes, and vigilant control will be exercised over the small handful of remnants of exploiters." (Communique, p. 10)
The growing reaction of the big bourgeoisie in 1980, the stepping up of racist and fascist attacks, the frenzied militarization, the preparations to suppress the popular movement with the iron hand, all show the wisdom of the solemn warning of the Founding Congress against fascization. For years various opportunists ridiculed our Marxist-Leninist analysis of the reality of fascization in the U.S. and of U.S. monopoly capitalism being, as Lenin teaches, "reaction all along the line." Today even some of these opportunists have had to eat their words and pay lip service to the danger of reaction. But our Party is well aware that these opportunists have still not broken with the capitalist program. They are still prettifying the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois state and, in particular, prettifying the Democratic Party in order to attach the masses to the tail of the capitalists on the plea of fighting the "ultra-right fringe.'' They still blame the masses as backward while extolling the exploiters as moderates and distorting the class basis of fascism. They separate the anti-fascist struggle from the class struggle and the socialist revolution. But a serious fight against fascism and reaction can only be waged from revolutionary and class positions. It cannot be waged from the standpoint of supporting concealed fascism under the liberal-labor mask concentrated in the Democratic Party against open fascism concentrated in the Republican Party.
Our Party and its predecessors have fought vigorously against the growing fascization in the U.S. whether it wore its Democratic or Republican face. We fought against the reactionary Nixon and Ford administrations. We based our struggle firmly on the class stand that the proletariat and toiling masses were the progressive force and that it was the exploiters who were the diehard reactionaries. On this basis, we successfully carried out struggle against Nixon's attempts to organize the so-called "pro-war backlash,'' the so-called "hard hat'' movement. Our Party also exposed the reactionary program carried out by the "Democratic" Carter administration. We showed how Carter was simply carrying out Nixonite fascism without Nixon, elaborating and implementing the common reactionary program of big capital and preparing the way for its further development. We showed that Carter's sham words of sympathy for "labor and the minorities" were nothing but political deception. During this period we continued our exposure of the state-organized nature of reaction and the fascist gangs and carried forward the path of active resistance against fascism. Thus our Party today is in a well-prepared position from which to plunge into the impending mass struggle against reaction now headed by the Reagan administration.
The Working Class Is the Main and Leading Force of the Revolution
The Founding Congress stressed that the socialist revolution is a proletarian revolution. It stated:
"The Marxist-Leninist Party organizes the working class as the leading and main force of the socialist revolution. Fundamental to the socialist revolution is the constitution of the working class as a class for itself, distinct from and opposed to the rich and all the exploiting classes. The first historic step in achieving this has been realized in the founding of the Marxist-Leninist Party." (Communique, p. 12)
The Marxist-Leninist Party is the party of the proletariat. It organizes and mobilizes the proletariat to take up its historic mission of the socialist revolution. As the Founding Congress stated:
"The Marxist-Leninist Party is the advanced detachment of the working class. It brings consciousness to and organizes the proletariat, and everywhere and at all times represents the interests of the proletarian movement as a whole. It is composed of the finest sons and daughters of the working class and of other dedicated revolutionaries who take up the class stand and the historical mission of the working class. A thousand red threads tie the Party to the working class which gave it birth, nurtures it and gives it strength." (Communique, p. 5)
Throughout 1980 the Party continued its work to enhance its proletarian class character. An essential part of this was the Party's work to entrench itself at the factories and work places.
It skillfully combined the economic and political struggle in a single inseparable whole. The Party knew how to use such popular struggles as the economic struggle to arouse the widest and even the backward sections of the proletariat. At the same time, the Party opposed vulgar economism. It conducted all its political agitations at the factories. The Party worked to bring the workers forward at the center of the general revolutionary movement.
The leadership of the proletariat in the revolution is a fundamental condition for victory. Only the proletariat can rally around itself all the working masses and progressive forces and lead them in the socialist revolution. As well, the proletarian leadership is reflected through the role of the proletarian ideology, Marxism-Leninism, as the only alternative to bourgeois ideology and the only scientific theory of the revolution. The proletarian hegemony can only be achieved through the proletarian party. But in turn the revolution and the hegemony of the proletariat are the acts of the proletariat as a class, under the leadership of the party.
It is quite notable that neo-revisionism, which has gone completely bankrupt, has either deserted the factories altogether in anarchist despair or resorted to merger with social-democracy and the labor bureaucracy. On the other hand, the Marxist-Leninist Party receives the sympathy and support of a growing section of the proletariat and has vigorously maintained its factory work. This reflects the fact that the struggle between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism and opportunism is a struggle between the ideologies of different classes. The revisionists and opportunists find their social base in a soldout stratum drawn mainly from the labor aristocracy and the petty bourgeoisie and including the labor bureaucracy and the myriads of petty functionaries of the state. Meanwhile the Marxist-Leninist line reflects the interests of the proletarian masses. Hence, while the revisionists and opportunists are scared of the masses, the Marxist-Leninists fight revisionism through going ever deeper and lower into the masses, below the soldout stratum. The opportunists and liberals at most see the proletariat as a suffering class, but in fact the proletariat is the most revolutionary class known to history.
Carry Forward the Struggle Against Revisionism and Opportunism
The Founding Congress put forward the perspective of the continuation, deepening and broadening of the struggle against revisionism and opportunism. It pointed out that:
"The Marxist-Leninist Party, USA fights irreconcilably against all forms of anti-Marxist ideology. It fights against both right and 'left' opportunism, against all forms of revisionism, anarchism, sectarianism and dogmatism, cultural nationalism, Trotskyism and social-democracy. It denounces modern revisionism, right opportunism, as the main danger inside the communist movement. It carries through to the end the irreconcilable ideological, political and organizational struggle against Khrushchovite revisionism, Chinese revisionism and Mao Zedong Thought, Titoite revisionism, Eurocommunism, Browderism, and all other revisionist trends." (General Rules)
The Founding Congress held that:
"The continuation and extension of the great polemic of Marxism-Leninism against revisionism is the imperative duty of all the Marxist-Leninist communists." (Communique, p. 39)
The Founding Congress thoroughly denounced Chinese revisionism and Mao-Zedong Thought. The Founding Congress itself was the crowning point of the historic movement against social-chauvinism, which struck with especial force at the anti-party trend of neo-revisionism, the American expression of Chinese revisionism and "three worlds-ism.'' The Congress held that there can be no slackening of the struggle against Chinese revisionism.
It pointed out the need to continue publishing literature dealing with the history of the struggle against neo-revisionism. It pointed out the particular features of the ongoing struggle against social-chauvinism, such as the close merger developing between the social-chauvinists of the neo-revisionist brand and the avowed social-democrats. It stressed that it was not sufficient to denounce the phrase "Mao Zedong Thought" but it was necessary to maintain a deep ideological content to the denunciation of Maoism. Otherwise, it warned, the old anti-Marxist-Leninist theses of Maoism could be revived under the cover of hypocritical phrasemongering allegedly "against" Maoism.
The Founding Congress also stressed the necessity to fight Soviet revisionism. It: "emphasized the great danger of Khrushchovite Soviet revisionism. Modem Soviet revisionism is the most comprehensive and highly elaborated theory of modem revisionism." (Communique, p. 17) As early as 1977 the predecessors of our Party had warned that the Soviet revisionists were seeking to profit from the treachery of the Chinese revisionists and their "three worlds-ism" in order to put themselves forward as allegedly the genuine anti-imperialists and real communists. The struggle against Soviet revisionism must be carried through to the end!
The continuation and intensification of the struggle against revisionism and opportunism in 1980 fully verified the need for a vigilant stand such as that of the Founding Congress. The struggle against Chinese revisionism continued. As expected, the struggle against social-chauvinism broadened in the course of the work in the movements against U.S. imperialist war preparations. Furthermore, the "RCP,USA" and certain other Maoists escalated their impotent anarchist gesturings in order to hide the exposure of the degenerate revisionist nature of "three worlds-ism" and Maoism.
As well, the savage attacks on our Party by the crusaders against ideological struggle also sharply raised the issue of what is the actual Marxist- Leninist critique of Mao Zedong Thought. The crusaders against ideological struggle sought to oppose our carrying the struggle against Chinese revisionism through to the end and to impose a "special relationship" upon our Party. They treacherously stabbed our Party in the back, especially timed their wrecking activity in a vain effort first to stop the Founding Congress and then to discredit it, and unilaterally broke off their former fraternal relations with our Party. With their attempt to impose the "special relationship," they sought to impose their own Maoist blunders upon our Party, blunders which they are preserving under a cover of purely verbal "anti-Maoism."
As well, the Khrushchovite revisionists and the "C"PUSA continued their efforts to make hay out of the fiasco of Chinese revisionism. Along with the social-democrats, they presented revolution and opposition to revisionism and opportunism as allegedly Maoist deviations. Besides the open Khrushchovites, certain other opportunists began to float the idea of unity with the Khrushchovites. Some promoted the idea of the "united labor front" with the local Khrushchovites and social-democrats, while others claimed that the "socialist world" embraced both the revisionists and the Marxist-Leninists. All these events showed the continuing danger of the international current of Soviet revisionism. Our Party firmly fought these plots. Right from the start, we had always placed the question of repudiating Chinese revisionism on the basis of carrying out a more consistent, firmer and more effective struggle against Soviet revisionism, and not for the sake of stopping the struggle against Soviet revisionism.
The Growing Activation of Social-Democracy by the Bourgeoisie
The Founding Congress also stressed the great danger of social-democracy and liberal-labor politics for the workers' movement. For decades, liberal-labor and Browderite politics have promoted the Democratic Party as the alleged party of "labor and the minorities." Liberal-labor politics is the politics of tying the workers' movement to the "liberals," especially to the Democratic Party, through the agency of the trade union bureaucrats, the "labor" lieutenants of the bourgeoisie. This liberal-labor politics seeks to subordinate the workers to their own worst enemy, the monopoly capitalist class, and in particular to the Democratic Party, which is one of the two big parties of monopoly capitalist reaction.
The social-democrats are in fact nothing but a "left" cheering squad for the Democratic Party. Their role is to dress up the fascist program of the Democratic Party in faint "socialist" colors. The social-democrats and other opportunists work to prevent the formation of the proletariat as a class for itself and to keep it under the influence of the bourgeoisie. The Founding Congress pointed out:
"All the opportunist and revisionist parties and sects are in a yellow front with the Democratic Party and are prettifiers of and a vehicle for its fascist program. The Democratic Party in essence plays the role of a liberal-labor or social-democratic party, and the various revisionists and avowed social-democrats form its 'left' wing." (Communique, p. 15)
The Founding Congress warned that the bourgeoisie was stepping up its use of social-democracy in subverting the workers' movement and the popular ferment. It pointed to:
"...the growing activation of social- democracy by the capitalists. Today there is mass disillusionment with the parties of the rich. Once again, the monopoly capitalists are turning more and more to social-democracy to keep the masses under bourgeois influence, to wipe out any spirit of revolt and any revolutionary sentiment, to solve the 'crisis of confidence1 by keeping the masses attached to the Democratic Party and to convert any independence from the capitalist parties into a mere formality or a sham. Social-democratic campaigns are being organized, a deeper tinge of social-democracy is being given to the labor bureaucracy, and the 'three worlders' are on the path of merger with social-democracy." (Communique, pp. 15-16)
The Founding Congress therefore gave the call:
"...step up the war on social-democracy." (Communique, p. 16)
The events of 1980 proved the wisdom of this call. Our Party waged a vigorous struggle against social-democracy all along the line. The fight against social-democracy was an inseparable part of the struggle against the sabotage of the workers' movement by the labor bureaucrats. As well, the "respectable" traitors to the oppressed nationalities worked hand in hand with the social-democrats. And our Party waged a fierce battle against the efforts by the flunkeys of the Democratic Party to infiltrate the anti-draft and anti-nuclear movements, cool them down and liquidate them altogether, and in any case prevent them from being an embarrassment to Carter's bid for reelection.
Our Party also paid close attention to the antics of social-democracy in the presidential election campaign. We fought the "Kennedy alternative" which was widely promoted by social-democracy. Our Party also exposed the rotten imperialist, chauvinist and big bourgeois nature of the Citizens Party of Barry Commoner. Our Party made full use of convincing exposures showing that the program of the social-democrats was just a refurbished version of the program of Carter himself.
As well, our Party pointed to the significance of the growing merger of the "three worlders" and local followers of Chinese revisionism with the avowed social-democrats. Merger with social-democracy is the same trail of treachery and betrayal pioneered earlier by Browder and Khrushchov and followed today by the pro-Soviet revisionists of the "C"PUSA. Our Party also branded as treachery and out-and-out Browderite liquidationism the so-called "united labor front" with the avowed social-democrats and the "C"PUSA being promoted by a group of covert social-democrats trying to dress up Browderism in Marxist-Leninist colors. Throughout 1980 the struggle against the American followers of Chinese revisionism thus became ever more closely linked with the struggle against social-democracy in the workers' movement. The question of merger with social-democracy, and of liquidationism and the spirit of renegacy came more and more to the fore in the struggle against revisionism.
Build the Independent Movement of the Working Class
The Founding Congress called on the workers to split with all the bourgeois parties, including the social- democratic and liberal-labor groups, and declared:
"To hell with the political parties of the rich! The workers must build their own independent political movement, independent of and against the parties and political program of the rich. The mass disgust with the two capitalist parties must be oriented onto the path of proletarian, class politics. The only path of salvation for the toiling masses is the path of revolutionary struggle, whose red banner is held proudly aloft by the Marxist-Leninist Party." (Communique, p. 16)
The genuine communist party of the proletariat, the Marxist-Leninist Party, is the highest expression of the independent movement of the proletariat. At the same time, the program for building the independent political movement of the proletariat involves finding the method of approach to step by step bring the masses away from the bourgeois politics and into revolutionary positions. It means taking an active role in orienting the mass ferment against the capitalist parties and in directing this ferment to positions of genuine independence from, and struggle against, the exploiters.
The Founding Congress discussed the demagogy of the social-democrats and the opportunists on the question of the word "independent." The social-democrats mean independence from the socialist stand of the class conscious proletariat and dependence on the bourgeoisie. The Founding Congress showed that the Party has a powerful weapon against this demagogy in the shape of the Party's concrete analysis of the program of the bourgeoisie and in particular of the program of the Democratic Party. This analysis shows that the social-democrats have no independence whatsoever from the bourgeoisie but are the most servile flunkeys of the Democratic Party. Using this analysis, the social-democrats can be branded in front of the masses not simply from general principles, but with lively exposures of their stand on the burning issues facing the masses, showing that the social-democrats are in fact just little servants of the capitalist offensive. Throughout 1980 the Party followed this method with good effect, exposing the Carterite stands of the social-democrats.
The development of the independent political motion of the proletariat faces the savage opposition of social- democracy and opportunism. The independent politics of the working class is the politics of class struggle, while the social-democrats call for cooling down the mass struggle and for finding panaceas to replace the class struggle. The independent movement of the proletariat requires the revolutionary organization of the masses, but such organization is opposed tooth and nail by the social-democrats, who seek to tie the masses to the Democratic Party, to the labor bureaucrats, to the state apparatus and to the bourgeoisie generally. The circulation of revolutionary literature and the study of Marxism-Leninism is an essential part of the class movement of the proletariat, but the development of revolutionary consciousness meets the special opposition of the social-democrats. The social-democrats aim to depoliticize the masses, advocate a vulgar economist approach to the masses and do their very best to promote bourgeois ideology on all fronts. Every step forward in the development of the independent motion of the working class brings with it the prospect of an ever sharper and ever more profound struggle with social-democracy. All the work done by our Party to develop the class organization of the proletariat on the- various fronts landed heavy blows against social-democracy.
Party-Building and the Building of Mass Organization
The Founding Congress laid great stress on the organizing, mobilizing and activating role of the proletarian party. All Marxist-Leninists must maintain a permanent stand of upholding the party principle in all spheres of revolutionary work. Party-building is not just an activity for congresses or formal occasions but is a constant necessity. The upholding of the party principle is also not just an internal task of the party. The party spirit must be brought to the proletariat. It must understand that the struggle of classes finds its highest and clearest expression in the struggle of parties. It must work to constitute itself as a revolutionary force and a class for itself by rallying around its Marxist-Leninist Party. The Founding Congress pointed out:
"The momentous victory of the founding of the Marxist-Leninist Party is not the end of the struggle for the Party, but a new beginning. It opens up a new period of struggle on a yet broader scale for the imbuing of the proletariat with the party concept and for the building and strengthening of the proletarian party." (Communique, p. 22)
The Congress also discussed the relationship of party-building to the building of mass organization. It showed how the pace of building mass organization and of the numerical growth of the various organized forces of the revolution depends on a number of factors such as: the degree of ferment among the toiling masses; the savage opposition by the bourgeoisie and its lackeys the opportunists; the detailed work of the Party; etc. The Congress assessed the results of the work in building various forms of organized links with the masses, from party units to literature distribution networks and study groups and on to various mass organizations of modest size, as at the heart of the work towards developing broader mass organization. The Founding Congress opposed the idea that the protracted and continuous organizational, political and ideological work of the Party can be shortcut and breakthroughs achieved by diluting the line or simply declaring on paper that one has a "mass organization." The Founding Congress pointed out that the growth of mass organization and of the mass movement in general puts before the Party new and more complex organizational, political and ideological tasks rather than replacing the role of the Party.
The course of the struggle against opportunism in 1980 verified the timeliness and necessity for the firm stand of the Founding Congress on party-building. The neo-revisionist swamp has given rise to a big mushrooming of liquidationism and the spirit of renegacy. The liquidationists and Browderites have revived in slightly new form the timeworn neo-revisionist idea of counterposing building the mass movement to building the party. They have gone to the extent of renouncing the very thought of building revolutionary organization of the masses in favor of alleged "broad organization" consisting of flabby coalitions of chieftains with the social-democrats, revisionists and opportunists. Some of them, like Browder before them, hide these abortions under a misuse of the name "popular front" or "united front" or "united labor front." But organizations without activity, based on some formulas chosen on the basis of being the lowest common denominator uniting various opportunist elements, are nothing but paper organizations that will prove impotent at the first serious struggle, if they last that long. They have nothing to do with the genuine popular fronts and united fronts of the masses that are powerful tools in the class struggle. But under the guise of building these Browderite "broad organizations," the liquidationists curse the party, tone down the line until it is indistinguishable from liberalism or social-democracy, and denounce the struggle against opportunism.
Meanwhile our Party has had success in continuing its work of organizing among the masses. It has shown in the last year ability to work both with previously existing mass organizations, where such organizations reflected actual motion or ferment among the masses, and to directly initiate mass forms. The work of our Party is steadily paving the way towards building broader mass organizations that are actually organizations of action, organizations truly independent of the capitalists, organizations that mark a real development of the initiative and activity of the proletariat and progressive masses.
The Perspective for 1981 in the Light of the Founding Congress
The Founding Congress is the guide for our Party. The coming new year presents new challenges and tasks for our Party. Carrying forward the line from the Founding Congress and assessing the political developments since then, a number of specific features of the coming period stand out. Among them are the following:
In the coming period the Party faces the sharpening of the struggle against starvation, fascism and war. Bourgeois reaction is deepening and presenting a threatening situation while the mass movements are stirring. Fierce clashes lie ahead. The ascension of Reagan to the presidency did not signify a "turn to the right" among the masses, but was instead another sign of the increasing reaction of the bourgeoisie. In the last election the masses showed a deepening disgust with the two big capitalist parties. Meanwhile the bourgeoisie, which has been shifting back and forth from concealed fascists to open fascists, from installing "liberals" to "conservatives" as the chieftains of reaction, has never stopped unfolding its program of a fascist offensive against the masses through each and every change, never stopped fascizing the state and trampling on the working people. The Party faces a further extension of its work among the masses and the task of leading and orienting the struggle against the monopoly capitalist dictators. The Party must pay close attention to the course of this struggle and detect the twists and turns in this struggle and the changes in forms and tactics that may be required at various times.
The Party also faces a complex struggle against social-democracy in the mass movements. The Democratic Party and its flunkeys will use the situation of a Republican president to try to facilitate their infiltration into the popular movement. The bourgeoisie will continue to make use of political deception to subvert the mass struggle as well as straightforward suppression and the iron fist. The progress of the struggle against social-democracy will be a major factor determining the pace of development of the independent political movement of the proletariat.
The Party also faces a continuing intensification of the struggle against revisionism and opportunism. This does not only mean that the revisionists and opportunists will attack the Party, but also that the Party will step up its powerful blows against the opportunists. The struggle against revisionism and opportunism will continue to serve as a great inspiring and activating factor.
Today the bourgeoisie is further activating social-democracy, while the revisionists of various shades are mired in merger with social-democracy, liquidationism and renegacy, and they have helped engender a general spirit of renegacy. Hence today the struggle against social-democracy and against merger with social-democracy and liquidationism will come to the fore of the struggle against revisionism and opportunism much in the same way as the struggle against social-chauvinism, "three worlds-ism" and the renegade thesis of "directing the main blow at Soviet social-imperialism" did in the period of 1976-1980. At that time the struggle against social-chauvinism was at the center of the struggle and gave rise to a movement of the honest and living forces among the revolutionary activists. This did not mean that the other fronts of struggle against revisionism and opportunism did not develop. On the contrary, for example, the struggle against social-democracy dramatically developed and deepened during this period. Nor did it mean that there was not an issue of social-chauvinism until this period. In the same way, in the coming period, around the struggle against social-democracy will develop the other fronts of the struggle against revisionism and opportunism. The struggle against social-chauvinism will continue to develop, and the Party will pay particular attention to carrying the struggle against both Chinese and Soviet revisionism through to the end.
Finally, the coming period demands continued vigilant attention to party-building. The extension of the work in the mass movements is only possible on the basis of the strength of the Party, and in turn each such extension and each change in forms and tactics requires new and further work in strengthening and building the Party. The internal life of the Party is a dynamic and active life which can not be left to spontaneity. Nor can the task of imbuing the proletariat with the party spirit and rallying the class conscious proletariat around the Party be treated lightly. Furthermore, each new wave of class conscious proletarians and revolutionary activists who come up around the Party require new work to train them in the Party methods and traditions. Thus the work to build the internal life of the Party, to disseminate the Marxist-Leninist ideology, to temper the Party and to rally the proletariat around the Party is in a sense repeated over and over again, but each time attaining a more profound content and a stronger bond with the proletarian masses.
Hold High the Banner of the Party
The proletarian party remains the decisive factor among the subjective conditions for the revolution. The work to imbue the proletariat with Marxism- Leninism and the party spirit, the work to rally the class conscious workers and revolutionary activists around the Party, the various fronts of work to build the Party, all remain a burning task of the revolution, a task that falls on the shoulders of the Marxist-Leninists.
Comrade Enver Hoxha explained the vital significance of the party for the revolution as follows:
"It is now historically proven that without its party the working class, under whatever conditions it may live or work, cannot achieve consciousness on its own. What turns the working class from 'a class by (in) itself' to a 'class for itself' is its party. Of course, struggle, action, temper and test the classes, the masses and the revolutionaries, and teach them many things. But if they lack a political party with a clear-cut program and scientifically based strategy and tactics, the struggle will either stop halfway or fail altogether. And the period of the present-day revolutionary movement and the numerous struggles of the peoples of various continents teach us this.'' (Report to the 6th Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania, Ch. VI, p. 224)
This first anniversary of the founding of the Marxist-Leninist Party of the USA therefore holds a special significance for all Marxist-Leninists and class conscious proletarians in the U.S. It remains the special duty and great joy of the militants and sympathizers to hold high the banner of the Party. In commemorating this new year, it is fitting to recall the words that closed the Founding Congress:
"Comrades, in closing this Congress, I would like to point out that this is a historic Congress. It is a victorious Congress. It has established the Party, it has elected the Central Committee and adopted the line and the policies of the Party. This Congress has been conducted in an atmosphere of enthusiasm and unanimity. This great unity manifested in the Congress is something that cannot be decreed. It is the result of the ten years of work to re-establish the Party. This Congress marks the consolidation of the class conscious vanguard of the proletariat, and it marks the beginning of a new campaign to organize the proletariat into a class for itself.
"Comrades, a very illustrious incident took place in 1917 between the February and October revolutions. At that time the opportunists who had various positions of power were in alliance with the bourgeoisie and they claimed that it was impossible to be anything but in alliance with the bourgeoisie. They could not rule on behalf of the proletariat; they had to rule with the bourgeoisie and against the proletariat. At a congress of mass organizations, one of the opportunist ministers, Tseretelli, was elaborating on the thesis that they couldn't take power for the proletariat. There was no one who dared to do this, he said; there was no one who dared to not be in alliance with the bourgeoisie. There is no party, he said, that dares to take the power alone into its hands. At this point Comrade Lenin interrupted him and said: 'THERE IS SUCH A PARTY!'
"Comrades, after this Congress it is the task of the Party to propagate the line that there is such a party. There is such a party that dares to overthrow the bourgeoisie. There is such a party that dares to break with the Democratic Party and its 'left' lackeys. There is such a party that dares to mobilize the proletariat. This is the basic line and spirit which is manifested in this Congress. With these remarks I would like to declare this Congress closed.''
The Founding Congress then closed with the singing of "The Internationale" and the shouting of the following slogans:
Long live the Marxist-Leninist Party of the USA!
Long live Marxism-Leninism!
Long live the international communist movement!
Hail the victory the Founding Congress!
[Photos: The First Year of the Party The Party in Struggle Against Growing Fascism
1. A picture of the Miami rebellion in May. Seven thousand strong, the black people stormed the headquarters of the racist police and courts, leaving it in flames.
2. The "human rights" mask of Carter did not fool the people in Miami. Hundreds surrounded his limousine during his visit there after the rebellion. They pelted it with rocks and bottles shouting, "Hail to the chief racist!"
3. Photo of a march organized on August 30, by the Caribbean Progressive Study Group in association with the MLP to commemorate the mass uprising against the murder of Luis Baez by the New York City police a year earlier.
4, 5. Photos showing the vigorous participation of the MLP and the Caribbean Progressive Study Group in a demonstration in Brooklyn, N.Y. on November 22, protesting racist police murders in the Bushwick community.
6. Photo of a demonstration of 3,000 on October 19, in Buffalo, N.Y. protesting the bestial racist murders of six black people. The MLP took an active part in this anti-racist struggle.
7. Picture of the Caribbean Progressive Study Group performing a revolutionary calypso at the 2nd Annual Calypso and Cultural Tent of the West Indian community in New York City in August. 1980 saw a further consolidation of the work of this organization which fights against racist attacks and also carries the banner of support for the struggles for national liberation in the West Indies.]
[Photos: The First Year of the Party The Party Carries Forward the Banner of Struggle Against Imperialism and Imperialist War
The Communique of the Founding Congress pointed out: "The socialist revolution carries forward the banner of struggle against imperialism and imperialist war. The U.S. is a monstrous imperialist superpower, a world exploiter, blackmailer and bully, and a center of international aggression....The proletariat fights against the imperialist war preparations, against colonialism and neo-colonialism and against all manifestations of U.S. imperialist aggression. The anti-imperialist struggle is a powerful force for the development of the socialist revolution."
1980 saw a big extension of the anti-militarist and anti-imperialist struggle. A nationwide movement emerged against the reintroduction of the draft, and other struggles against war preparations also grew. The Party has taken a prominent place in these mass movements and itself organized many activities to advance the struggle.
1. Hundreds of youth demonstrate in Ann Arbor, Michigan against Carter's call to reinstate the draft soon after his warmongering State of the Union message of January 23. Demonstrations broke out in all the major cities and campuses across the country.
2. On March 22, more than 30,000 people demonstrated in Washington, D.C. against the draft. Throughout the spring, mass rallies and protests were organized throughout the country. The MLP vigorously participated in these struggles.
3. Picture of a May Day demonstration of the MLP in New York City which militantly denounced U.S. imperialist war preparations.
4. On May 3, a militant demonstration of 150 people was organized in Buffalo, N.Y. by the Buffalo Branch of the MLP and the Union of Anti-Imperialist Students (formerly the Student Peace Coalition) against U.S. imperialist war preparations.
5. Picture of a meeting against U.S. imperialist war preparations organized by the Union of Anti-Imperialist Students at the State University of N.Y. in Buffalo in September. The UAIS is an organization which emerged in Buffalo in the course of the growing movement against imperialist war preparations. The Party supports the development of such militant organizations among the people.
6. Picture of a militant demonstration held on September 19, to denounce the University of California nuclear weapons lab in Berkeley, Cal. This action was one of many protests that continued to be organized throughout the country against the U.S. imperialist nuclear program including a rally of 30,000 people in Washington, D.C. in April.
7. Picture of the militant Party contingent in a demonstration of over 1,000 which picketed at and marched from the San Francisco Main Post Office to the Federal Building on July 19. From July 21 through August 2, the Carter administration began to force the 19 and 20 year old youth to register for the draft at the post offices. This was met by mass actions of thousands of workers and youth all across the country. The Party itself organized many militant actions and distributed 100,000 copies of a Special Issue of The Workers' Advocate.
8. Picture of a march organized by the MLP through a working class neighborhood in Detroit on July 26.
9. Picture of a meeting of nearly 300 people in New York City on February 9 to support the Iranian revolution. This meeting was organized by the Federation of Iranian Students in the U.S. This meeting, supported by the MLP, manifested the opposition of both the Iranian and American peoples to the warmongering of U.S. imperialism against Iran.
10. Picture of a mass demonstration on May 17, in Boston, against the U.S. imperialist threats against the Iranian revolution. In 1980, mass actions were organized in many cities which targeted the attempts of U.S. imperialism to strangle the Iranian revolution. In this movement and in its work throughout the year, the Party raised the slogan: U.S. imperialism, hands off Iran!
11. Picture shows comrades and sympathizers of the MLP performing revolutionary songs at an anti-draft demonstration in Boston on October 4. The Party further developed its cultural work and utilized this as one of many forms to advance the anti-imperialist struggle. Pamphlet from the Buffalo Conference of Anti-Imperialist Activists organized on June 7, by the Buffalo Branch of the MLP, with the active participation of the Syracuse Committee against Social-Chauvinism and the Union of Anti-Imperialist Students. This conference was another form which the Party organized to develop the anti-imperialist movement. It set out a practical program of mobilizing the broadest sections of the masses into vigorous mass anti-imperialist struggle.
12. Stickers shown here were yet another form widely used by the Party to spread the anti-imperialist agitation among the masses.]
[Photo: The Party literature is distributed in a number of languages.]
[Photos: The First Year of the Party The Party Provides Orientation to the Workers' Movement
1980 was marked by the stepping up of the capitalist offensive against the workers' livelihood, and an orgy of class collaboration on the part of the trade bureaucrats. The seething anger among the workers in the plants, mines and unemployment lines continued to grow. In various places, it broke out into mass struggles. The Marxist-Leninist Party took part in and provided guidance to the workers' struggle against capitalist exploitation. It raised the banner of struggle against the savage "reindustrialization" policies of monopoly capital, and exposed the criminal betrayal of the trade union bureaucrats.
1. A display of some articles from the pages of The Workers' Advocate. Through such articles, and many local newspapers and leaflets, the Party pointed out how the economic crisis shows the necessity for mass struggle and revolution.
2. Picture of the militant strike of 33,000 transit workers in New York City in April which defied the no-strike law of the government. The Party consistently supported and defended the mass action of the workers. In this work, it used leaflets, stickers and other forms of work, including cultural work on the picket lines with a song, "Victory to the Transit Workers!"
3. Picture shows mass agitation in Detroit calling for struggle by the auto workers. The Party uses a variety of means to agitate among the broadest sections of the workers.
4. Cartoon exposing the chauvinist "import hysteria" of the UAW bureaucrats. The labor traitors have organized such campaigns to divert and liquidate the struggle of the auto workers against layoffs, wage cuts and ruthless productivity drives.
5. A drawing from one of the many Special Bulletins of The Workers' Advocate put out in the winter of 1979/80 calling for a struggle against the brutal concessions imposed on the Chrysler workers by the capitalists and the UAW leaders.
6. Cartoon reprinted from a Special Bulletin of The Workers' Advocate exposing the sellout contract imposed on the steel workers by the USWA bureaucrats headed by McBride.
7. Picture shows Party comrades distributing literature against the capitalist elections fraud to the auto workers at a Chrysler plant in Detroit. The Party works to bring the workers forward to take their place at the center of the revolutionary movement on all fronts and does not restrict the workers to the economic struggle.]
[Photos: The First Year of the Party The Party Works to Imbue the Proletariat with Socialism
The Communique of the Founding Congress declared: "The Marxist-Leninist Party is a party of socialism, it leads the class struggle and stands for the overthrow of the capitalist exploiters. It fights for a new social order, for socialism and communism, for the end to the exploitation of man by man. It stands for the triumph of socialism on a world scale. It firmly upholds the People's Socialist Republic of Albania, the bastion of world revolution and the only genuine socialist country in the world today."
In its work among the proletariat and oppressed masses, the Party always holds aloft the vista of the socialist revolution. The perspective of the socialist goal inspires the working masses and increases their fighting spirit tenfold. In this regard, the Party popularized the socialist reality in Albania which serves to inspire the proletariat with faith in socialism. This is an ongoing work of the Party. As well the Party organized particular campaigns such as the celebration of the 36th anniversary of the liberation of Albania. A special issue of the The Workers' Advocate was widely distributed. Meetings were held in many cities.
1,2. Photos from the meeting held in Chicago on December 6, by the Party to celebrate the 36th anniversary of Albania's liberation.
3. Photo from the meeting held in New York City on December 6.
4. A scene from the Party's May Day demonstration in New York City, showing the enthusiasm of the masses for socialist Albania.]
[Photos: The Communique of the Founding Congress proclaimed: "To hell with the political parties of the rich! The workers must build their own independent political movement, independent of and against the parties and political program of the rich. The mass disgust with the two capitalist parties must be oriented onto the path of proletarian, class politics. The only path of salvation for the toiling masses is the path of revolutionary struggle, whose red banner is held proudly aloft by the Marxist-Leninist Party."
In 1980, the capitalists organized their presidential elections farce. All the candidates of the rich put forward the common program of starvation, fascism and war. The Party waged a broad campaign against the capitalist parties and the elections circus. All across the country, the MLP raised the call: Don't Vote! The capitalist parties are all the same! Build the independent political movement of the working class!
1. Picture shows MLP comrades denouncing Reagan at his Republican rally held in suburban Detroit on October 16. All across the country, the Party organized protests against Reagan, Carter, Anderson and other candidates of the capitalist parties.
2. Picture shows a march organized by the Party through a working class neighborhood of Buffalo. The Party organized many such demonstrations, which were important vehicles to encourage the masses to join in an active fight against the capitalist parties.
3. Picture of a meeting in Oakland on November 1. Through many such meetings, both public rallies and meetings in workers' homes, and a wide variety of other forms of work, the Party discussed with the workers and activists the task of building the independent political movement of the working class.
4. Photo shows a meeting of the Seattle Don't Vote Committee. In a number of cities the Party branches organized Don't Vote committees. These committees drew forces around the Party, multiplied their enthusiasm and activity and provided training in organization.
[Graphic.]
[Photos:
1. Display of many of the pamphlets published by the COUSML (the predecessor of the MLP) to orient and guide the struggle against social-chauvinism. This struggle began with outrage against the social-chauvinist thesis of "aiming the main blow at Soviet social-imperialism"; exposed the Chinese revisionist traitors and those who conciliated with them; led to the repudiation of the ideological roots of Chinese revisionism in Mao Zedong Thought; and cleared the way for the Party.
2. Picture of a meeting held in New York City in November, 1977, to hail the 60th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. This meeting of over 200 people denounced the betrayal of the social-chauvinists and all the revisionists and gave the stirring call: Follow the Path of Great Lenin!
3. Picture shows slogans painted by revolutionaries near a meeting organized by the agents of Chinese revisionism in 1978. These slogans express the deep anger of the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists at the hostile attacks of the Chinese leaders against Albania in July 1978. The movement against social-chauvinism served to greatly enliven the revolutionary activists in the defense of socialism.
4. The COUSML organized a nationwide day of revolutionary protest against the warmongering U.S.-China alliance on the occasion of Deng Xiaoping's visit to the U.S. in January, 1979. Picture shows the demonstration organized in New York City on January 29,1979.
5. Picture of a meeting organized by the Seattle Branch of the COUSML to hail the publication of Comrade Enver Hoxha's outstanding work, Imperialism and the Revolution. The struggle against social-chauvinism has been a component part of the international struggle against Chinese revisionism, in which the Party of Labor of Albania with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, has been in the forefront.
6. Picture of the meeting organized on May 5, 1979 in Seattle to celebrate May day and hail the Tenth Anniversary of the Founding of the American Communist Workers' Movement (Marxist-Leninist). At meetings like this throughout the country, the COUSML launched the public campaign to "Build the Marxist-Leninist Party without the social-chauvinists and against the social-chauvinists!"]
[Photos:
The Communique of the Founding Congress declared: "The founding of the Marxist-Leninist Party is the greatest victory of the historic movement against social-chauvinism.... The movement against social-chauvinism has been a powerful expression of the anger and indignation against the neo-revisionist class traitors of all those who preserved their revolutionary honor. This movement has been a great outpouring of support for revolution and proletarian internationalism.... The movement against social-chauvinism has been a powerful rallying center to unite all that is alive, honest and loyal to Marxism-Leninism and the revolution. This movement has proved indispensable in eliminating the anti-party and social-chauvinist filth from the Marxist-Leninist movement and in clearing the way to the reconstitution of the party. The Marxist-Leninist Party has been successfully founded without the social-chauvinists and against the social-chauvinists."
In 1980, the Party unfolded a powerful struggle against social-democracy. The Party fought hard against the flunkies of the Democratic Party in the mass movements. It exposed the growing merger of the "three worlders'' with open social-democracy and continued to frustrate the attempts of certain social-democrats to infiltrate the Marxist- Leninist movement.
1. Some of the articles that appeared in The Workers' Advocate against social-democracy.
2,3. Pictures of part of the Anti-Imperialist Contingent organized by the MLP participating in the mass demonstration of 3,500 people against the Democratic National Convention on August 10, in New York City.
4. The Party fought the "Kennedy alternative'' and the Citizens Party as nothing but vehicles of the Carterite politics of attack against the masses.
5. Picture shows Party comrades denouncing social-democracy and the Chrysler sellout contract at a UAW sponsored "Progressive Alliance'' conference on "the future of the labor movement'' held in Ann Arbor, Mich. January, 1980. The MLP fights the social-democratic subversion of the workers' movement.
6. Picture shows MLP comrades denouncing the social-democrats of Barry Commoner's Citizen's Party during Commoner's appearance in Ann Arbor, Mich, in mid-October.]
[Photos:
The Communique of the Founding Congress pointed out: "The Marxist-Leninist Party is a party of Marxism-Leninism. It lives by the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, the revolutionary doctrine which illuminates the path of the proletarian movement for emancipation. It has grown up and taken shape in a fierce struggle against all distortions of Marxism-Leninism, against all revisionism and opportunism including New Leftism, American exceptionalism, Browderism and both Soviet and Chinese revisionism."
The year 1980 saw a continuation of the fierce struggle of the Party against revisionism and opportunism. The Party deepened its exposure of Chinese revisionism and Mao Zedong Thought, vigilantly fought Khrushchovite revisionism, and defended the Leninist teachings on the ideological struggle and other questions which came under attack from the crusaders against ideological struggle.
1. Among the many articles against revisionism, The Workers' Advocate published several series of articles. These were: "In commemoration of the 110th anniversary of the birth of Lenin"; "Against social-democratic infiltration of the Marxist-Leninist movement"; and "Against Mao Zedong Thought." This latter series included:
Mao Zedong and the fight against Soviet revisionism; 2) Maoist distortions of the strategy of the proletariat in the imperialist countries of Western Europe and Canada, etc; 3) Against the national nihilism of the "RCP,USA"; and 4) On the question of two-line struggle."
2. The Party published several pamphlets against Mao Zedong and summing up the decade of struggle against the anti-party trend of neo-revisionism.
3. Cartoon against the "CPML" social-chauvinists. The Party's struggle against the social-chauvinists broadened greatly as it developed in the movement against U.S. imperialist war preparations which the social- chauvinists were trying to infiltrate and destroy.
4. Cartoon that accompanied an article against the anarchist posturings of the "RCP,USA." 1980 saw the further development of the anarchist despair of the "RCP,USA," further revealing the total bankruptcy of Mao Zedong Thought.]
(The following are excerpts from ''Problems of Socialism in the Light of the Marxist-Leninist Theory and the Historical Experience of the Party of Labor of Albania," by Foto Cami, as carried in Albania Today, No. 1980)
Thirty-five years of people's power, under the leadership of the Party, are thirty-five years of gigantic battles of the Albanian people for the construction, ceaseless development and strengthening of the new socialist order in Albania. In these three and a half decades socialism, from an aspiration and science, became a living reality which has shown its strength and vitality, its incontestable superiority over the old feudal-bourgeois order. In the conditions of socialism, Albania overcame its centuries-long backwardness and set out on the road of progress and vigorous social, economic, political and cultural development. Colossal achievements have been made in all the branches of the economy and the other fields of social activities. The past fades into insignificance in comparison with the present.
New Albania is the vivid example not only of the carrying out with success of the socialist revolution but also of its uninterrupted development. The revolution in Albania has not proceeded with zigzags, it has not suffered setbacks, but has always forged ahead. This is the great historic merit of the Party of Labor of Albania and of the leader of the Party and people, Comrade Enver Hoxha. This experience has a theoretical and practical value because it proves that what happened in the Soviet Union, in China and the other socialist countries which degenerated into bourgeois-revisionist countries, is not an unavoidable fatality, that, if the principles of Marxism-Leninism are implemented and defended rigourously, the cause of socialism is invincible, unbreakable.
The problems of socialism, the features of the socialist order and the road to the triumph and construction of socialism have been placed today at the center of the ideological struggle which goes on on a world scale.
The popularity, the attractive power of socialism has become so great that everybody, social-democrats and revisionists, democratic revolutionaries and other representatives of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois trends, speak of it. Some preach socialism without revolution, without the dictatorship of the proletariat and without Marxism-Leninism, some are for pluralist, humanitarian and democratic socialism, some others preach national and regional socialism, or self-administrative socialism which is counterposed to "etatist" socialism, and there are some others still who try to pass the reestablishment of capitalism in their own countries as real and developed socialism.
All these efforts are made in order to negate genuine socialism and to create the illusion that there are many models and kinds of socialism, with the allegation that the world has been changing, that new conditions have been created for going to socialism in ways different from the practices known to date and from what the Marxist-Leninist theory teaches.
At the root of all these preachings lies the negation of the fundamental common features of socialism as a socio-economic system, which constitute its essence and distinguish it from any other system, the negation of the general laws of the construction and development of the socialist society. Advocating several models of socialism stems from the negation of the leading role of the working class and its communist vanguard, the negation of the only theory of scientific socialism -- Marxism-Leninism.
The Yugoslav and Khrushchovite revisionists began their attack against Marxism-Leninism and socialism by attacking the revolutionary ideas and work of Stalin allegedly in order to go back to Lenin. The present-day "Euro-communist" revisionists who follow in the footsteps of the Khrushchovites are going even further afield. Now they have launched an open attack against Lenin and Leninism in order to go back to Marx. According to them, Leninism has grown obsolete, or at best, is suitable only to the backward countries.
There is nothing new in the claims of the modern revisionists that "Lenin has departed from Marxism." They were spread by the social-democrats 60 years ago. It was precisely Kautsky who accused Lenin of "revising Marxism." The real aim of this anti-Leninist campaign of the modern revisionists is not the return to Marx, but the complete abandoning of Marxism-Leninism in form, too. This has been sanctioned in the programs and constitutions of some revisionist parties as well as in the international documents published by these parties in which the term Marxism-Leninism is completely omitted and is stressed that Marxism- Leninism is not the only theoretical, ideological guide of the party of the working class.
All this is meant to create a great confusion and disorganization among the working class and the peoples, to blur the perspective for them and to turn them away from the correct road of the struggle against the capitalist and imperialist order, to weaken their confidence in the ideals of socialism and in the superiority of the socialist order, to alienate them from Marxism-Leninism, as the only scientific theory of socialism. This is the great service which the modern revisionists render the bourgeoisie, this is their counterrevolutionary road.
In these circumstances a correct conception of socialism and of the roads to its realization is imperative. Without reflecting on these questions, the aspirations and the struggle of the peoples for socialism can never be channelled correctly, they can never set themselves a clear objective. "In our time," Comrade Enver Hoxha says, "the problem does not arise of copying the revisionist pseudo-socialist theories, or of inventing new socialist theories. Socialism exists and develops both as a theory and as a practice. It has accumulated rich historic experience, summed up in the Marxist- Leninist theory, the vitality of which has been confirmed in life. By relying on this scientific theory and applying it in the conditions of each country, the revolutionary forces will find the correct road to socialism." (E. Hoxha, Report to the 6th Congress of the PLA, p. 243)
A brilliant demonstration of this great teaching is the successful construction of socialism in Albania. The Party of Labor of Albania has never pretended to present this experience of its own as something perfect, which overcomes all difficulties and contradictions, and even less has it pretended to present it as something of universal value. However, in this experience of ours we see the embodiment in life of the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism, the general laws of the revolution and socialist construction, which our Party has known how to apply in a creative manner in the conditions of Albania and in the complicated international situations.
In the great struggle for the triumph of the revolution, the construction of socialism and the defense of Marxism- Leninism, the theoretical thinking of our Party, the outstanding theoretical work of Comrade Enver Hoxha, which constitutes a valuable contribution in the treasury of Marxism-Leninism, have also developed. They are a powerful means in the hands of the Party and the masses of the people for the advance of the great cause of communism, an inexhaustible source of inspiration to all those who fight for the triumph and defense of freedom and national independence, the revolution and socialism.
The experience of socialist construction in Albania is broad and many-sided. It has been reflected in the documents of the Party and the Works of Comrade Enver Hoxha. In this report I shall dwell only on some problems which seem more pertinent to the present situation of the great struggle which is being waged between socialism and capitalism, Marxism-Leninism and the revolution.
Contradictions, Classes and the Class Struggle in Socialism
The revolution and socialism in Albania have developed with success and have forged always ahead because the Party of Labor of Albania has consistently stuck to the line of the class struggle and applied it with determination in practice, correctly treating and solving the various contradictions of our socialist society.
The whole period of the construction of socialism has been a period of fierce class struggle waged in all fields, political, economic, ideological and military, against the internal and external enemies as well as in the ranks of the Party and in the midst of the people. The enemies have fought us with all weapons and means, with blackmail and provocations, with pressure and interference, with the aim of containing and undermining the construction of socialism and eventually destroying it altogether. However, all these efforts of the coalition of the foreign and local enemies, who acted in collusion with each other, met with complete defeat against the sharp vigilance of the Party and the unbreakable unity of the Party with the people. A similar defeat awaits the enemies and their activity in the future, too, because in Albania are working a valiant and indomitable people led by an eagle-eyed party which is the sharp edge of the sword of the working class and which consistently implements the teachings of Marxism-Leninism.
From this rich experience as well as from the counter-revolutionary turn which events took in the Soviet Union and China and elsewhere, our Party has drawn conclusions of principled importance, which constitute a further development of the Marxist-Leninist theory on the class struggle. These problems should be reexamined today not only because we must treat them ever more deeply, but also because some misunderstanding has to be cleared up and the distortions of the modern revisionists, and in particular those of the Chinese revisionists now, have to be refuted.
The Chinese revisionists have come out with great pretensions in the field of theory, presenting the so-called Mao Tsetung thought as a new higher stage in the development of Marxism-Leninism, as the Marxism-Leninism of our epoch. In his outstanding work, Imperialism and the Revolution, and in his political diary, Reflections on China, Comrade Enver Hoxha has made a principled, thorough and all-round criticism of Chinese revisionism, the theory and practice of "Mao Tsetung thought."
The Chinese propaganda says that "the most important contribution which Mao Tsetung has made to Marxism-Leninism is the theory of the continuation of the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat." It must be said from the beginning that if Mao Tsetung has any "merit" at all in this question, this is that he has confused and badly distorted this problem, thus not only making no contribution to the Marxist theory, but bringing about a great confusion and making a flagrant distortion of it.
It is an elementary truth known to every Marxist that the specific feature of the socialist revolution, one of the essential points which distinguishes it from all the other revolutions known in history, is that it does not end with the seizure of power, but continues as an uninterrupted revolution even after the seizure of power during the entire period of the dictatorship of the proletariat until communism. Thus, Mao Tsetung has made no discovery at all.
According to the Chinese theoreticians, "the theory of the continuation of the revolution in the conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat" has at its foundation the acceptance of the existence of antagonistic classes in socialism, which exist objectively until communism. What is the truth about this question and what does our experience show?
It is known that the exploiting classes have come to exist in history alongside of the emergence of private ownership of the means of production, and they exist as long as this ownership exists. In socialism, with the liquidation of private ownership and the establishment of socialist relations of production in town and countryside, the exploiting classes as such are liquidated, and together with them also the exploitation of man by man. For a time only their leftovers as individuals linger on, but they do not constitute a class in themselves, because now they are bereft of all political power and the means of production.
In socialism there exist some objective conditions and factors which facilitate the emergence of a new bourgeois class. Apart from ideological factors, bourgeois pressure from outside and inside, there exists also the "bourgeois right," the principle of distribution according to work, which hides in itself a sort of inequality between people, and still allows the existence of distinctions between town and countryside, between mental and physical work, etc. On this basis even in socialism new bourgeois elements emerge, but they do not turn into a new bourgeois class in every instance. They become such a class, as the experience of the revisionist countries shows, only if the new bourgeoisie usurps power, if the principle of remuneration according to work is violated and great differentials in income are permitted, if the struggle against various distortions in the socialist relations of production and against the hangovers of alien stands towards the proletarian ideology and policy of the Party is not waged. Hence, this is a permanent possibility, not a fatality. This danger is avoidable by means of all-round ideological and political, organizational and economic measures. This is proved by the experience of socialism in Albania, where not only the old exploiting classes have been liquidated long ago, but the emergence of new exploiting classes has not been allowed.
The advocates of "Mao Tsetung thought" claim that "if antagonistic classes did not exist in socialism there would be no need for the dictatorship of the proletariat until the stage of communism." The existence of the dictatorship of the proletariat until communism is not necessarily linked with the existence of antagonistic classes. On this score, the Khrushchovite revisionists declared the liquidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the Soviet Union as a consequence of the liquidation of the exploiting classes.
The need for the dictatorship of the proletariat to exist even after the liquidation of the old exploiting classes, as the Party of Labor of Albania has explained, is connected with the continuation of the class struggle up till communism, and the continuation of this struggle up till that time is connected with a series of other factors, and not necessarily with the existence of antagonistic classes. These factors, which exist inside the country, are the leftovers of capitalism which cannot be wiped out instantly, but linger on for a relatively long time and manifest themselves in many fields of life, especially in the field of ideology and the so-called bourgeois right, in the distinctions between town and countryside, mental and physical work, etc.; outside the country there is the great and all-round ideological, political, economic and military pressure of the capitalist and revisionist world, which does not pass without having its impact on our people. The dictatorship of the proletariat is needed precisely to suppress the enemies of socialism, who emerge as a result of these factors, to avoid the danger of a switch-back to capitalism, to ensure the uninterrupted development of the socialist revolution until the triumph of communism on a world scale.
"The theory of the continuation of the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat," as presented by Mao and his followers, in fact is an attempt at sanctioning the wrong opportunist line which has been pursued in China and which has led not only to failure to liquidate the old exploiting classes, but even to the emergence of the new bourgeois class, which shares power in China.
The distorted treatment of this problem in social life is also connected with its distorted treatment within the party. According to "Mao Tsetung thought," the party of the working class is divided into antagonistic classes, with their bourgeois and proletarian headquarters, and as a result, two lines, which express the interests of these two classes, exist in it objectively and unavoidably. In this question, too, we have to do with a flagrant deviation from Marxism-Leninism.
The division of society into classes is not necessarily expressed in the division of the party into classes. It is true that people from different classes come into the party, but they do not come in the quality of representatives of these classes. "The Party is not the arena of classes and of the struggle between antagonistic classes," says Comrade Enver Hoxha, "it is not a gathering of people with contradictory aims." (E. Hoxha, Imperialism and the Revolution, p. 400, English edit.). The Marxist-Leninist party is the militant union of people who are inspired by the same ideals and fight for the same aim, and these are the ideals and aims of the working class.
Of course, the people who come into the party, not only those from non-proletarian strata but also those from the working class itself, are not free from the influences and ideologies of the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie, feudalism and patriarchalism. The communists live, work and fight in the midst of society, in which the class struggle is waged, and they are not immune from alien influences and manifestations. The external pressure from the capitalist and revisionist world acts on the entire society and on the party members as well. All these constitute that basis on which the class struggle in the party is waged.
This class struggle in the party is objective, unavoidable, it is the reflection of the class struggle which goes on in society. However, the class struggle in the party is not expressed in every instance and in an unavoidable manner as a struggle between two lines. The class struggle in the party is objective and unavoidable but not the existence of two lines.
The line of the party is a complex of directives and orientations for an entire historical period; it defines the aims of the party as well as the ways to reach them. The party of the working class can have but one line, the line of the revolution, of the dictatorship of the proletariat, of the construction of socialism and communism. From this standpoint, not any alien manifestation in the party, not any opposition, not any divergency, represent a line apart. It is another matter whom they serve and to what mill they are grist. These matters cannot and must not be confused. Otherwise the consequences would be very grave; this would lead to sectarianism, to smothering of democracy in the party, to confusing friends with foes.
To accept that the bourgeois line in the party exists objectively, independently of the wishes of people, means to accept the fatalistic and anti-dialectical concept which confuses the possibility with the reality. Since the emergence of the bourgeois line is only a possibility, to present it as something which exists fatally means to open the road, in a conscious manner, to the bourgeois line in the party and to undermine the party, the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism. The present events in China are the direct consequence of the course of Mao Tsetung on permitting two opposed lines in the party.
[Photo: May Day Celebration in Albania, May 1,1980.]
November 29, 1980 marked the 36th anniversary of the liberation of Albania. The Marxist-Leninist Party organized a broad campaign to celebrate this event. The MLP distributed about 50,000 copies of a special issue of The Workers' Advocate hailing the victories of the Albanian people and creating enthusiasm for the socialist cause of the working class. The Party also organized meetings and celebrations in many cities including New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area.
This campaign is part of the year- round work of the MLP to organize support for socialist Albania and to make the working class conscious of the socialist goal of its struggle. As was stressed at the Founding Congress of the MLP:
''The consistent adherence of the PLA (the Party of Labor of Albania) to Marxist-Leninist principle has ensured that the People's Socialist Republic of Albania stands as the glorious bastion of socialism and world revolution. Socialist Albania is the shining example of the emancipation of the working class and the cause of socialism. Socialist Albania signifies a radical advance in the forward march of humanity and demonstrates in real life the bright future for the workers of all countries. In the world revolutionary struggle, socialist Albania stands at the very heart of the camp of labor, an example, an inspiration, but also a reliable base and powerful aid for the triumph of socialism in all countries.
Below are some excerpts from two speeches given at the celebration of the 36th anniversary of socialist Albania, held in Boston on December 13.
--First Speech --
ON THE 36TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIBERATION OF ALBANIA
Tonight we are celebrating the 36th anniversary of the liberation of Albania a little more than a month after the U.S. presidential elections. Almost 50% of the people refused to vote for any of the candidates of the rich. While the bourgeoisie talks of a Reagan landslide, the facts are that more people refused to vote than voted for Carter and Reagan combined. These figures reflect that increasingly the masses are looking for an alternative to the capitalist political parties and to the increasingly miserable life under the rule of capital....
Capitalism promises the people a very bleak and dangerous future -- a hell on earth. There is only one alternative and that is to wage mass struggle against the offensive of the rich and organize and prepare our forces for a revolution to overthrow the capitalist government and system and to establish the rule of the working class and build socialism. It is only by following the path of revolution that the Albanian people have been able to escape all the miseries of the capitalist system. This is the path that we too must take.
But the bourgeoisie tries to deny this alternative, to create pessimism that there is no alternative to the capitalist system.... Albania is a powerful weapon to combat the pessimism the bourgeoisie creates about revolutionary change....
The capitalists tell us that we have no choice but to accept more inflation and unemployment and pay more tribute to the rich. We say to these gentlemen, "Tell us, if that is so, then why is it that in Albania they have had no inflation or unemployment for over 36 years, and no rich to pay tribute to."
The capitalists tell us that nothing can be done in the world without creating some high-living, tax-gobbling bureaucracy and that taxes must go up while social services are cut back. We say to these gentlemen, "If that is so, then tell us how is it that in Albania they provide free health care and free education to all citizens to the extent that Albania has the best health care system and the highest percentage of the population in school of any country in the world. And yet there are no taxes whatsoever on the people." ...
The capitalists tell us that racism and fascism are inherent in human nature and will always be with us. Then how is it that in Albania, along with the rich, these evils have been eliminated, and that rather than protecting the racists as the U.S. government does with the Klan, it is forbidden in Albania in the constitution itself to form any organization which promotes racist or fascist ideas? Of course, the capitalists can't answer these questions because the answer is that the Albanian people have rid themselves of the rich parasites who live off the labor of the masses. Albania is living proof that the working class can build a much better life without and against the rich. The reality of socialist Albania is a great inspiration to the struggle of the working class and the oppressed masses everywhere. It inspires us with confidence in the victory of our cause....
The working class is a great powerful and revolutionary class. Its mission is not to ask for a voice in how it will be enslaved but to rise up and liberate mankind from the yoke of the capitalists. This is the goal of the independent movement of the working class. This is what the working class has done in Albania. This is what we must do here too....
Comrades and friends,
Just as the revolution must be an act of the workers themselves, so too must be the building of socialism.... As you can see, the work of building socialism in Albania is not something done by an all-knowing bureaucracy but rather the conscious activity of two million Albanians. But how are the Albanian people able to be so united and accomplish all these miracles?
The key is the leading and organizing role of the Marxist-Leninist party of the working class, the Party of Labor of Albania. The Albanian people are an heroic people, and time and again over the centuries they rose up against the foreign oppressors and the reactionaries in Albania. But, each time, after a while, the exploiters would find a way to divide the working masses and the revolutionary forces, and the struggle would fail. It was not until the Marxist-Leninist party of the working class was formed in 1941 that the Albanian people were able to achieve the unity necessary for victory and to combat the divisive maneuvers of the oppressors. Guided by the science of Marxism-Leninism, the PLA organized the Albanian working class into a powerful revolutionary force to lead the fight of the Albanian people against the fascist and Nazi occupiers and their allies, the rich in Albania. It organized strikes, demonstrations and uprisings in the cities and sent workers to the countryside to organize the peasants into the national liberation war. And when the Nazis were defeated, the PLA organized the workers and peasants to set up the people's state power and to continue the revolution so that they and not the rich would receive the fruits of their struggle to free Albania from the Nazi hordes. To this day the PLA has been the organizer of all the victories of the Albanian people....
Comrades and friends,
Today, after many years, the working class in the U.S. once again has its Marxist-Leninist party, the MLP,USA. This is a small party but like the PLA it is a fighting revolutionary party, and its influence among the working masses is steadily growing. Let us rally around this party and help build it and extend its influence among the working and oppressed masses! Let us use the struggles of the masses which are breaking out against the fascist offensive of the rich to organize and train the masses for the socialist revolution!
Hail the 36th anniversary of the liberation of Albania!
Glory to socialism!
-- Second Speech --
ON THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1960 MOSCOW MEETING
Comrades and friends,
Tonight we are celebrating not only the 36th anniversary of the liberation of Albania but also the 20th anniversary of the heroic stand of the Party of Labor of Albania at the Moscow meeting of 81 communist and workers' parties. At that meeting in 1960, Comrade Enver Hoxha and the PLA denounced and exposed the crimes of the Khrushchovite revisionists before the entire international communist movement.
After the death of Stalin, various elements, who had been working behind the scenes to sabotage the implementation of the correct socialist policy of the Bolshevik Party, came out openly and seized control of the Party and state in the Soviet Union.
The Khrushchovites made up the most outrageous slanders against Comrade Stalin in order to attack Marxism-Leninism and the socialism that was built up in his time. They disorganized the working class and put the power in the hands of the bureaucrats and managers who became a new privileged elite. They used their control of the army and the police to terrorize and jail hundreds and thousands of honest communists and workers. At the same time they let out of jail all the Nazi collaborators and fascist scum like Solzhenitsyn who had been imprisoned by the dictatorship of the proletariat. They set about the all-around restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union. But the Khrushchovites did not confine their crimes to liquidating the great workers' state. They set about corrupting and splitting the entire international communist movement. Khrushchov rehabilitated the U.S. imperialist agent Tito. He called him comrade and a communist. At the same time the Khrushchovites put great pressure on the communist parties around the world to accept their theories of giving up the road of revolutionary struggle for the overthrow of imperialism and capitalism under the guise that any struggle of the peoples might unleash nuclear war. Instead the peoples were to put their faith in Khrushchov's deals with Eisenhower and Kennedy.
The Khrushchovites resorted to blackmail and bribery and even murder to impose their views on others. The spread of Khrushchovite revisionism led to the liquidation of socialism in all the countries of people's democracy except Albania and to the corruption of the majority of the communist parties in the world. Revisionism cut the revolutionary heart out of these parties. It turned them into liberal tails of the bourgeoisie. The results were especially disgraceful in our country where the Khrushchovites put the final nail in the coffin of the CPUS A, which was already undermined by Browderite revisionism.
The spread of Khrushchovite revisionism was the most serious setback ever suffered by the international communist movement. What Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo could not accomplish by murdering millions of communists, Khrushchov accomplished from inside the communist movement.
At the Moscow meeting in 1960, Comrade Enver exposed Khrushchov's crimes, denounced his slanders of Stalin and refuted his revisionist theories. The PLA's stand in Moscow put an end to the unrestrained spread of Khrushchovite revisionism. It was a call to arms for the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists the world over to rise up and expose the Khrushchovites and the revisionists in their own countries. The PLA's courageous stand was the beginning of the great polemic against modern revisionism.
Khrushchov was humiliated, and very much feared the development of this struggle. The Khrushchovites used every kind of blackmail to shut up the Albanians. They refused to sell Albania wheat when she desperately needed it during the drought of '60-'61. They broke off diplomatic relations and cut off all trade. But the PLA and the Albanian people were not cowed down. As Comrade Enver said, "Even if we have to go without bread we Albanians do not violate principles, we do not betray Marxism-Leninism."
To this day Albania has not let up in its exposure of the Khrushchovites for even a minute. In the 1970's, when the Chinese revisionists came out openly against the revolution, the PLA led the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists of the world in exposing them too. The polemic waged by the PLA and the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists a- round the world against the Khrushchovite and Chinese revisionists and their followers in the various countries has produced an utter fiasco for the revisionists. Increasingly the class conscious proletarians all over the world know' these revisionists as traitors and imperialist gangsters. In one country after another the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists have regrouped themselves in the course of this struggle and reestablished the Marxist-Leninist parties in their countries. The struggle against revisionism of the various stripes is reinvigorating the Marxist-Leninist and revolutionary movement of the proletariat. It is revitalizing the work of the Marxist-Leninist parties and preparing the forces for a new' wave of revolutions.
In spite of the great victories won in the course of the struggle against revisionism there are people running around today saying that this struggle is divisive, sectarian and that there are better, more practical things to do. As if fighting the traitors to the cause of the revolution wasn't a practical question.
Comrades and friends, these people are dead wrong. To stop or tone down our exposure of the revisionists, to not explain the issues to the masses of the people and revolutionary activists means to leave the door open for the revisionists and opportunists to liquidate the revolutionary movement. If we have peace with the revisionists and allow them to wreck the revolutionary movement without opposition, then sooner or later we too will degenerate to the level of these revisionists.
On this 20th anniversary of the Moscow meeting let us salute the courageous stand of the PLA and pledge to carry the struggle against revisionism through to the end.
Long live Marxism-Leninism!
[Photo: Picture of the meeting organized in Boston on December 13 to celebrate the 36th anniversary of socialist Albania.]