First Published: The Call, Vol. 6, No. 10, March 14, 1977.
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.
The following statement of political unity with the Organizing Committee for a Marxist-Leninist Party (OC) was recently submitted. It contains the Communist Unity League’s views on some of the main questions facing our movement.
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We are a Marxist-Leninist organization operating in the Vermont area. The theoretical basis for our work is Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. The basis for our unity with the Organizing Committee is an agreement with the eight principles of unity and a commitment to implement them in our work. We welcome the formation of the party as a great step forward in consolidating the forces for revolution nationally and world-wide.
We first came together because we felt the need for revolution. For a period, our work was not guided by the study of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, but by our reactions to the conditions that surrounded us. An example of this was our involvement in electoral politics. We found ourselves in the company of “radicals” and reformists of various types. We found it impossible to unite with these people because they didn’t believe in working with the masses. Under these conditions we withdrew our involvement.
It was then that we began to seriously study Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and use it to guide our practice.
By studying revisionism in its historical roles, we have been able to analyze our past experiences and understand the necessity of defeating revisionism worldwide. Revisionism is the main ideological danger confronting the revolutionary movement today.
The victory of the revolution means the overthrow of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In order to achieve this, we must have a Marxist-Leninist party of the working class that is clear on the objectives and the problems facing us in this historical period.
Internationally, the two imperialist superpowers, under the cover of “detente,” are cranking up their war machines to fight for world domination. One of the main tasks of communists in this period is to expose the myth of “detente” and oppose a new imperialist war.
The masses do not stand to gain from fighting for their “own” imperialists. Instead, we must be prepared to turn the imperialist war into an uprising against imperialism. In this aim, we unite with the third world liberation struggles and recognize that the Soviet Union is the more aggressive and dangerous of the two superpowers because it poses as the ally of third world nations in order to replace U.S. imperialism with Soviet social-imperialism. The task of preparing the masses for war can best be accomplished under the direction of the party.
We support the right of Afro-Americans to self-determination up to and including secession in the Black Belt South. We support full democratic rights for all oppressed national minorities.
The oppressed nationalities and the U.S. working class have a common enemy–the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie. We must build a united front in order to overthrow the capitalist class.
In the U.S. and other capitalist countries, bourgeois feminism incorrectly formulates the woman question and liquidates unity with the working class and minorities in the class struggle, putting individualist and careerist interests in the fore.
Women’s oppression is a result of class society and an economic weapon in the hands of capitalists and imperialists. Women’s emancipation cannot be won by following the reformist lead of bourgeois feminists but can only be won by taking up the class struggle. Women must be trained in revolutionary skills and advanced to positions of leadership and responsibility in the party and in mass organizations. Particular efforts should be made to organize women workers.
The working class is the only revolutionary class in U.S. society. Our party must base itself in the working class, particularly among the industrial workers, who are the most highly concentrated and socialized in production.
Trade unions are now under the control of the capitalists. Under the mis-leadership of union bureaucrats, trade unions are used by the capitalists to channel the class struggle into demands for petty reforms while preserving capitalism. Union bureaucrats must be kicked out and the unions must be won to the leadership of the party so that the rank and file can be an organized force fighting for socialism.
“The proletariat has no other weapon in the struggle for power except organization.”
BUILD THE PARTY! MARXIST-LENINISTS, UNITE!