First Published: Resistence, Vol. 10, No. 2, February 1979
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
Slowly but surely the rectification campaign launched by LPR (M-L) is beginning to bear fruits. Although still in its early stages, the campaign is showing positive effects at all levels. Cadres and most of our contacts alike have enthusiastically responded to the call to make an all-out effort in bringing about a major change that will enable the organization to play a more significant and positive role in the revolutionary struggle in the United States.
These successes although very small indeed, should serve as a stimulus to continue the hard work. We must move forward in the great task of remoulding our way of thinking and style of work. Let’s briefly examine the development of the rectification campaign in some areas up to now.
The need to have a more consistent and systematic approach towards seeking unity with other M-L organizations and individuals is one of the areas in which the campaign has focused.
In this respect some progress has recently been accomplished. The open response that we made on the National Proposal for Building the Anti-Bakke movement by the Workers’ Congress (M-L) represents an important breakthrough in our attitude, not only toward the comrades of the WC (M-L), but towards the communist movement as a whole. It shows in practice that we are attempting to break our small circle spirit. That instead of striving to develop “Our Own Thing” on every issue, we are actively seeking unity with other genuine M-L forces in order to move forward the revolutionary process.
At the same time, more attention has to be given to a top priority: the development of a plan for party building that will attempt to lay-out a method by which genuine Marxist-Leninists can move forward our central task in this period. The presentation of that plan to the whole movement and the attempt to reach unity on it with other M-L forces in an open and aboveboard manner will definitely represent one of the major achievements of the campaign.
With all probability the most significant early success in relation to M-L unity has been the decision of the comrades of the Colorado Organization for Revolutionary Struggle (COReS M-L-M) to also initiate a rectification campaign. Moreover, steps are being taken to link the two campaigns. In this way unity can be forged in the process of ridding our ranks of subjectivism, spontaneity, sectarianism, and all the evils that affect us all. The decision of COReS and LPR to use the framework of the rectification campaign to struggle for higher unity, and the incorporation of the close contacts of both organizations in the rectification and unity process, are definitely important steps toward stabilizing higher unity in a principled way between both organizations and the individual Marxist-Leninists involved. In fact, the contacts of both organizations have been making valuable contributions to the development of the campaign. In the different meetings held with them, around the rectification campaign, good criticisms of our line and practice, as well as self-criticisms and repudiation of their own errors, have been made by most of them. And what is more important, most of them see themselves as integral parts of this motion toward rectification.
These small steps are indications of a forward motion that we will struggle to maintain and improve.
After reaffirming our line that “propaganda is the chief form of activity” in this period (“party building period”) and that Resistance should mainly be a propaganda organ, major changes in the form and content of the paper, its distribution system, its uses in every area of work, etc., has been determined. Amongst these changes is the expansion to a 12-page format as of May, 1979; the initiation of permanent feature columns on factory issues, national movements, readers’ correspondence, and culture; more coverage of local struggles around the country, etc.
In terms of distribution, drives to increase circulation are being planned. A special role in this respect will be given to the development of “Friends of Resistance” in different areas of the country. Finally, to facilitate the study of the newspaper and its use with contacts, guidelines are being developed and will be made accessible to cadres, contacts, and other Resistance distributors with every issue of the newspaper.
In this area we are still at the stage of developing a new study plan. Nonetheless, the guidelines that have been agreed upon, which must be reflected in the new plan, are in fact a major change in our approach to study. Those guidelines call for a greater emphasis in the study of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought as a guide to all our work; to focus on the study of the concrete conditions of the United States; for taking into consideration the uneven theoretical development that exists both amongst our cadres and contacts which therefore requires that we develop study guides and study circles at different theoretical levels; to emphasize again on individual study as the principal form of M-L study for our cadres and close contacts; and finally, to develop study guides and study circles on Political Economy, which is the area of greatest theoretical weakness in the organization.
As we said earlier, this is just a brief review of the development of the campaign up to the present. Every one of the three areas touched upon here, as well as other questions such as mass work, cadre training, democratic centralism, methods of leadership, sectarianism, etc., are now under discussion. In future issues of this paper as well as other publications we will be putting forward our views on such questions. Today we are just letting our readers know of the basic direction in which we are moving. We welcome criticism, comments, questions, suggestions, etc., from our readers on any of the questions the rectification campaign has raised, or you think should be raised. The pages of Resistance are open for principled struggle in this respect.