The working class movement in the U.S. is a component part of the international struggle against imperialism and for socialism, as well as a section of the worldwide united front against imperialism and the two superpowers. The workers, toiling masses, and oppressed peoples throughout the world are a direct reserve of the U.S. workers’ struggle. This is especially true of the peoples of the oppressed nations and countries who comprise the third world.
Within the U.S., the working class and its Party must build the broadest possible united front and unite all who can be united against its main enemy, the U.S. imperialist ruling class.
Under the leadership of the CP(M-L), the united front must be built in opposition to monopoly capital, the threat of fascism and imperialist war, in defense of democratic rights, in support of the revolutionary struggles of the working class and oppressed nationalities, and in resistance to all attacks on the people’s living standards.
Building this united front against imperialism and its reactionary policies is a strategic task that is developed in unity with the international tasks of the Party. Together with the armed struggle and the Party itself, the united front is one of the three main weapons used in overthrowing imperialism in general, and U.S. imperialism in particular. Through this revolutionary front, the working class narrows the target of attack and isolates its strategic enemy–the imperialist bourgeoisie–and extends its influence over the broad masses.
Within the united front, the proletariat is the only consistently revolutionary class; it is the main and leading force. The proletariat always preserves its ideological, political and organizational independence while uniting the broad masses.
At the heart of the united front within the U.S. stands the alliance between the working class and the movements of the oppressed nationalities–the main strategic alliance for the U.S. revolution. U.S. imperialism developed largely on the basis of national oppression and the subjugation of the nationally oppressed peoples, inside and outside its own borders. The emancipation of these peoples is impossible without the complete defeat of imperialism. The revolutionary struggles of the oppressed nationalities are a powerful blow to U.S. imperialism. This strategic alliance between the workers and oppressed nationalities will lead to the final defeat of U.S. imperialism.
The allies of the working class are to be found among non-proletarian classes and strata. The very character of imperialism places it in opposition to the needs and interests of the great majority of the people in the U.S. It has given rise to and will continue to give rise to powerful mass social movements of the people which will help the working class to undermine the reactionary foundations of imperialism.
The history of the U.S. is filled with examples of these important social movements that serve as a direct reserve of the proletariat. For example, millions of people from all walks of life demonstrated their opposition to imperialist aggression in Indochina. Growing out of this struggle are the continuing mass movements of veterans, G.l.’s and war resisters. Movements for civil rights and equality, movements of the unemployed, the elderly and pensioners, and movements of welfare recipients involve tens of thousands of people. The women’s and youth movements have been particularly important reserves against imperialist oppression and exploitation. Within the prisons and penitentiaries of this country, massive movements for reform have led to rebellions and heroic mass struggles.
These mass social movements have contributed enormously to the building of the anti-imperialist struggle and to the forces and conditions which led to the founding of our Party. The working class must firmly support the struggle against all oppression and give leadership to these mass movements.
Allies of the proletariat can also be found among the middle class, or petty bourgeoisie. This class is made up of small proprietors, producers, artisans, professionals; large sections of the intelligentsia; and most people in managerial or supervisory positions in production and administration. While the petty bourgeoisie is on the whole a reactionary class that will inevitably die out, its intermediate position between the working class and the bourgeoisie leads to its struggle with monopoly capitalism. It has a vacillating character in contradiction with both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. It is a class afraid of social change but at the same time, one that is being increasingly ground between the advance of large capital and the advance of the working class. Increasingly awakened and ruined at the hands of big business, the middle class is an extremely unstable, violent force, potentially revolutionary or ultra-reactionary without a clear social basis or consciousness, but recklessly seeking immediate relief.
Petty bourgeois ideology, a form of bourgeois ideology, with its strong emphasis on individualism, personal success, reformism and subjectivism, is a corrosive and pervasive force in society. Its outlook makes the petty bourgeoisie a prime source of recruitment for fascism.
This class is generally divided into upper, middle, and lower petty bourgeoisie. The upper ranks encompass those with high incomes, having the strongest political and economic ties to the bourgeoisie and the most reactionary outlook. The lower and middle strata, which contain proportionately the highest number of oppressed nationalities, suffer from falling living standards, economic deprivation and hardship. Their members are constantly being driven into the ranks of the workers.
The interests of the majority of the middle class, of all lower strata of the middle class, lie with the proletariat. The fascist line which attempts to unite the petty bourgeoisie against the workers means only continued oppression and ruin for the petty bourgeoisie.
Where revisionism and reformism dominate the workers’ movement, the petty bourgeoisie will look elsewhere for leadership. But where the working class movement is strong and under revolutionary leadership, the great majority of the petty bourgeoisie and all middle strata will be rallied to its cause.
The intelligentsia is a stratum whose members come primarily from the petty bourgeoisie but from all other classes as well. It is composed of people mainly specializing in mental work, such as writers, professors, engineers, technicians and intellectuals. In the U.S. a growing number of the intelligentsia participates in the process of production. Most of the intelligentsia holds the class outlook of the petty bourgeoisie. Intellectuals in this country are increasingly suffering from the effects of the crisis and are being turned out of the universities only to find no jobs.
Like the petty bourgeoisie in general, the intelligentsia can place themselves in the service of one or the other of the two main classes. At times, members of the intelligentsia have played an important role in articulating the revolutionary sentiments of the masses.
A particular feature of U.S. society has been the development of significant numbers of working class intellectuals. Our Party must recruit to its ranks the most class conscious working class intellectuals and establish a firm alliance with the progressive members of the intelligentsia as a whole. The intellectuals who integrate themselves with the masses of workers and oppressed peoples can be transformed into genuine proletarian fighters.
The allies of the proletariat are to be found in the rural as well as the urban areas among the small farmers and toiling masses. Small farmers who own their own means of production, i.e., land, fertilizer and farm equipment, are a part of the rural petty bourgeoisie. The penetration of the countryside by monopoly continues to lead to the displacement of small farms by mammoth agribusiness. Displaced farmers are constantly joining the ranks of the proletariat. They should be supported and led in their struggle against monopoly capitalism and won to the side of the proletariat.
Closely linked to the proletariat is the semi-proletariat, a staunch and reliable ally. The semi-proletariat consists of toilers and exploited people found mainly in the countryside. Landless or owning a small allotment of land, its members are compelled to sell their labor power to supplement their independent farming. Examples include sharecroppers, tenant farmers and some small farmers.
In the Black Belt South and in the Southwest, sharecroppers and tenant farmers constitute a peasantry that is a remnant of slavery and semi-feudal relations. They are still victimized and driven to economic ruin by the agribusiness monopolists. Their demand for land confiscation and redistribution can only be fully resolved with socialism.
The semi-proletariat is daily being crushed by the force of monopoly capital With the gigantic crunch of the monopolies, semi-proletarians are rapidly being thrown solidly into the ranks of the working class.
Among the other forces which must be taken into account in the U.S. revolutionary struggle is the lumpen proletariat. The lumpen proletariat is composed of declassed elements thrown mainly off the lower layers of the working class. As capitalism develops, an inevitable feature is the growth of poverty, misery and social decay. A portion of the population becomes superfluous to production. Out of these conditions develop the declassed strata who often turn to criminal and anti-social activity. The lumpen occupies the urban streets and boweries, hustling daily to survive. They therefore become a recruiting ground for organized crime and reactionary and fascist movements.
The lumpen proletariat has contradictions with imperialism and, at certain times, members of this unstable stratum can play a progressive and revolutionary role. But this stratum is definitely prone toward destruction and intrigue. The working class must be vigilant and never rely on the lumpen proletariat. It must oppose all views which promote the lumpen as the vanguard, once a prevalent theory in petty bourgeois politics. Under the political guidance of the working class, some elements from the lumpen proletariat will be won to the side of the proletariat.
While these various middle and declassed forces can be won to one degree or another to the cause of the proletarian revolution, none of them can play an independent or leading role.
They are all classes and strata that are gradually dying away, products of another era and doomed to extinction. Essentially it comes down to a battle between the two great classes in modern day society, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, while these various middle forces must ultimately stand with one or the other.
It is for this reason that the working class and its Party must forge the anti-imperialist united front and rally the broad majority of the population behind its program.