First Published: The Call, Vol. 6, No. 19, May 16, 1977.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The Draft Constitution of the new Communist Party (M-L) requires that all Party members carry out the principles: “Practice Marxism and not revisionism; unite and don’t split; and be open and aboveboard, don’t intrigue and conspire.”
These “three do’s and three don’ts” are guiding lines in the methods of work for all members of the Party. They enable us to demarcate all correct tines from the incorrect ones and to distinguish real communists from revisionists. If these principles were abandoned, our Marxist-Leninist Party would change into a revisionist party of the CPUSA-type.
These three principles were formulated by Mao Tsetung. Together, they sum up the historical experiences of the working class in building its vanguard party in all countries.
In China, the “gang of four,” Lin Piao, Liu Shao-chi and all revisionists and opportunists attacked the “three do’s and three don’ts” in order to destroy the Communist Party and restore capitalism. They all engaged in splittist activity and intrigues to promote their revisionist line and seize power. This has also been the practice of the modern revisionists in the U.S., as well as the present-day opponents of our Party.
All three of these principles constitute a single unity, and all three must be taken together. In order to “practice Marxism and not revisionism,” it is necessary to serve the interests of the great majority of the working people and to unite them closely together.
It is also the duty of communists to openly proclaim their principles. Only the reactionary classes need to be secretive about their views, hiding them from the people and using small conspiracies and intrigues to carry out their oppression. As Karl Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto: “The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.”
The Soviet revisionists and their followers in the various revisionist parties, like the Communist party U.S.A., are the greatest splitters of our time. In the course of imposing their revisionist line and abandoning these teachings of Marx within the working-class movement, they viciously attacked the genuine communists and split the movement in two. They engaged in all types of splittist activities and intrigues, covering up their real designs. Throughout the world, the genuine communists, inspired by Mao Tse-tung’s ideas, have worked for more than two decades to unite the communist movement again on the principles of Marxism-Leninism.
In our experience in building a new party since the CPUSA was seized by the Gus Hall revisionists, we have also encountered revisionists in our own ranks. Martin Nicolaus was a political swindler who nestled in the communist movement by keeping his real views secret.
In order to destroy the October League and our Party, Nicolaus tried to push the revisionist line of relying on the liberal bourgeoisie rather than on the working class. To do this, he dressed up his line with “left”-sounding phrases and tried to factionalize and ultimately to split our ranks. But he failed miserably and finally fled to the side of the bourgeoisie without winning over one person.
The bourgeois character of the revisionists and opportunists can be seen in the fact that they never rely on the masses and are incapable of uniting with the broad majority of cadres or the people. Learning from these negative examples as well as from the positive examples of the genuine Marxist-Leninist leaders, our Party must raise its level and develop a strong working-class style of work. Our new Program openly proclaims our communist aims and allows us to get criticism and supervision from the people in order to improve our work. We conceal nothing about our views.
Our Constitution upholds democratic-centralism and calls for the broadest unity – unity among Party members based on our principles, unity between the Party and the masses, and unity among the broad majority of the people themselves against imperialism. The rules established in the Constitution enable every Party member to express their opinion, to resolve all differences and to correct mistakes through unity, criticism, unity.
We call on all the Marxist-Leninist fighters to join our Party and unite into one single unified organization. It is time to put an end to the period of disunity and small circles. In this way, the principles of “practicing Marxism and not revisionism, uniting and not splitting, and being open and aboveboard and not intriguing or conspiring” will firmly guide the work of the new Party.