First Published: The Call, Vol. 5, No. 12, July 19, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The Buffalo Unity Collective has affiliated with the unity trend of Marxist-Leninists and participated in the recent May Unity Meeting. In this statement, the collective explains the basis for its support of the party-building efforts and its view of the tasks ahead.
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We are a recently-formed collective of Marxist-Leninists who came together around unity with the OL’s party-building call. We are composed of OL cadre and independent Marxist-Leninists who had basic unity on party building and came together to further that goal.
Our unity with the OL’s “Call to Unite” is based on the following points:
1) That a Marxist-Leninist party, composed of the best elements of the working class, is a fundamental necessity in every country, and is a pre-requisite for the development of the socialist revolution in all its phases, including the establishment and maintenance of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the development of communism.
2) That the young Marxist-Leninist movement of today has passed through the stage where it re-affirmed the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought, particularly in opposition to modern revisionism, as spearheaded by the Soviet Union, and carried out domestically by the “CP”USA. These fundamental principles include such things as the necessity and importance of the party, the need to replace the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie with the dictatorship of the proletariat, the right of all oppressed nations to self-determination, including the right of secession, the need for armed struggled to overthrow the bourgeoisie, and the importance of the united front to unite the friends of the working class.
3) That the movement has reached the stage where it is time for the Marxist-Leninist movement to consolidate itself, particularly in the political and organizational fields, which in this period will become possible and concrete in unity around a party program. We feel that a definite trend toward unity exists in the movement which can be distinguished as a generally correct trend in opposition to an ultra-“left” and a right trend. The question of party program will be a decisive factor in making these trends even clearer.
4) That the objective situation demands the immediate unity of Marxist-Leninists as quickly and efficiently as possible. With the danger of world war increasing, the deepening of the economic crisis on a national and international scale and the fascist threat on the domestic level, the unity of Marxist-Leninists is imperative.
In addition to these points of unity, we must take into account other points in this party-building process:
We must pay particular attention to Marxist-Leninist theory in guiding us through this process, and propose that some form of organized study be disseminated throughout the unity trend.
We must continue, even while this process is going on, to link ourselves with the masses. Through negative experience and study, we have come to see that any line that postpones or negates the fullest participation of communists in the day-to-day struggles of the working class, using the rationale that we are “building the party” is incorrect and extremely dangerous. Party building is the fusion of the working class movement with socialism. Key to this is winning over the advanced, which cannot be done from the sidelines of the daily skirmishes between the workers and the capitalists. It demands the full participation of communists in these day-to-day struggles to win recognition as a vanguard force of the proletariat and to test and perfect our line and forces. This is what in the real world will win the advanced workers.
We must continue the process of studying and grasping the history of the development of this young communist movement.