First Published: Revolution, Vol. 3, No. 3, April 1975.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Socialist revolution in the U.S. is inevitable, just as it is everywhere. Revolution in this or that particular country can be impeded and even temporarily side-tracked, but it cannot be stopped, any more than a hand can stop the ocean tide. The international proletariat will emancipate itself and all of mankind-this is an historical law independent of man’s will.
The bourgeoisie denies the inevitability of socialist revolution. It denies that there are such historical laws. But the bourgeoisie knows nothing of how history progresses. It believes, and wants everyone else to believe, that its rule is ordained by mysterious forces beyond anyone’s ability to understand, and that its rule will last forever.
But reality says otherwise. Already over one quarter of the world’s people have made socialist revolution, and people everywhere are rising up, wave after wave, preparing to do the same. A new day is dawning, the dark night of capitalist and reactionary rule is coming to an end.
In the U.S. the mass struggle is surging ahead and there are many important developments. Certainly one of the most important of these is that the struggle of the proletariat has reached the stage where its vanguard, revolutionary communist party is in the process of being formed. And at the heart of this process is creating the new party’s fighting programme that can lead the working class and masses to victory. And publication by the Revolutionary Union of a draft programme for that party marks a big step forward toward the creation of that programme.
Publication of this draft shows that the work of RU comrades and of all genuine communists has made tremendous advances, that our links with the working class and masses are now much stronger, that the path ahead is now much clearer, and that carrying out the present main task of forming the new party of the U.S. working class will soon be completed. Very soon our class’ most important and mightiest weapon will be forged!
Publication of the draft also means that all the genuine communist forces in the country must now shift into high gear and roll on and roll over anything that stands in the way of forming the party at the earliest possible time. The key task right now is for everyone to participate fully in discussion and struggle over this draft and any other drafts that may be produced. This draft represents a summation of the struggle of the U.S. working class and masses, and the efforts of communists to give that struggle correct leadership. It contains the political line which we believe must be the basis for the party and must guide its actual work.
As we say in the introduction to the draft, “A communist programme is a concentration of the party’s basic aims, strategy, and tasks. It sets forth to the working class the goal of its struggle and the means to achieve its high goal. So it is not only a focus for struggle and sum-up among communists; it is mainly a guide to action...”
Creating the programme and forming the party, then, is like building a bridge from the present to the future. It means that we are ready to consciously put an end to the old period of the struggle in this country and move on boldly and confidently to the new. Nothing can stop the revolutionary proletariat. FORWARD TO THE PARTY!