First Published: The Call, Vol. 7, No. 24, June 19, 1978.
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.
Today all the contradictions in society are sharpening, here and throughout the world. On one side stand the two imperialist superpowers. They are contending with each other to recarve the world and are preparing to go to war to do it. On the other side stand all the peoples and countries of the world. It is they who suffer the consequences of the activities of these two biggest exploiters and oppressors.
It is precisely at such a point in history that the need for working class unity is greatest. Yet there is no getting around the fact that the divisive influence of the bourgeoisie and its stooges, the trade union misleaders and the revisionists, has done a great deal of damage.
The capitalists and their agents will use every weapon they have to do this dirty work. We should never forget what happened right here in this city of Chicago nine years ago. Comrade Fred Hampton was shot to death with Mark Clarke as they lay asleep in their beds.
We must learn from this. They hated Fred Hampton because he was a revolutionary, because he stood for unity of the working class with the oppressed nationalities. They will never sit back and peacefully allow these two great revolutionary forces to merge, because this merger will bring about the death of capitalism as surely as I am standing here.
Before the Party could be founded, a long period of struggle had to take place.
Without this struggle, wouldn’t the revisionists have a free run of things today? Without this struggle, would the various anti-China “Marxists” be as divided and on the defensive as they are today? Without this struggle, would the chauvinists who sided with the anti-busing movement under the banner of “communism” be as discredited as they are today?
This should stand as a lesson to those who argued initially that this important fight in defense of Marxism was “sectarian.” Certainly there has been a strong counter-current of sectarianism. Even now we must guard against the sectarian current. But the ultra-leftist trend has met with defeat time and time again. It is right opportunism, revisionism that stands today as our greatest internal enemy.
More recently we have seen several new pretenders to the name of the party. Some claimed that the “party was already a settled question.” Others claimed that their party was the “revolutionary” communist party. Now they have all slithered down into the anti-China swamp, playing the Trotskyite game of loving “socialism” everywhere but where it exists.
Following the death of Mao Tsetung, these phonies jumped out of the woodwork and launched a sneak attack on China. They were confident that their friends, the “gang of four,” would win their counter-revolution and seize power. It was the signal for some to try and form a faction within the international communist movement and to sabotage the growing unity trend. Their common bond was a hatred for the ideas of Mao Tsetung, the greatest Marxist-Leninist of our time. In particular, they lashed out at his brilliant theory of the three worlds.
Now our Party has been born. It is different from those which are parties just in name. It is guided by a revolutionary program. It is organized along Leninist lines, that is, organized for class struggle and making revolution, not for studying or simply running candidates for office.
Because of our internationalism, it has been claimed by the revisionists that the CPML forgets class struggle. They try to make us believe that to fight both superpowers means “class collaboration.”
Who are the real class collaborators? Our Party, with its short, but outstanding history of combat against the ruling class cannot be made to fit that charge. Our Party has no reason for being except to wage class struggle.
Finally, I would like to say a few words about building communist unity. By unity, 1 mean unity around a revolutionary line, in opposition to revisionism. I mean unity in one party as opposed to the continued existence of many circles. By unity, I mean principled unity as opposed to opportunist blocs.
One important effort is the Committee to Unite Marxist-Leninists. This has been jointly initiated by ATM, IWK and our Party and hopefully will attract even greater numbers to its ranks. Its purpose is to unite all the separate forces into one, single, unified party.
The principles of this Committee have been jointly formulated and reflect the minimum basis for unity, discussions possible in the present-day communist movement. No one group is necessarily the leader of this committee, but rather it is a joint effort.
For our part, we will work on all levels to unite. Whether it be through this committee, or party to party, or group to group, the CPML is open to each and every real and sincere unity effort.
For too long, the leaders of the opportunist groups, such as the Avakian anti-China clique, made discussion between Marxist-Leninists impossible or at least very difficult. This situation at least should be changed.
Comrades, the world today is a very good place to make socialist revolution. Imperialism and social-imperialism are being fired upon from without, everywhere that oppressed peoples and nations exist. Now let us take the momentum from this great occasion to further unite our forces and fire from within.
* * *
It is a great honor for me to extend the warmest congratulations from the AKP-ML of Norway to the vanguard of the proletariat in the United States, the CPML, on its first anniversary. This is an event of the greatest importance, not only to you and the proletariat of the U.S., but to workers and oppressed peoples all over the world, because it marks the historic victory of reestablishing the communist party in one of the two imperialist superpowers.
The CPML has set itself the task of leading the working class and the oppressed nationalities in the U.S. in defeating the monopoly capitalist ruling class and building socialism in this country. Your victory will have a tremendous impact on the revolutionary struggles of all peoples. It will put an end to imperialist oppression of a vast number of nations and liberate the productive forces in an advanced capitalist country. It will go down in the history of mankind as one of the most important milestones ever seen.
The CPML, one year old, may seem tiny compared with the huge forces of the enemy. But what counts in the end is whether or not a party has a correct political line and how well it is organized.
Our experiences with the CPML have taught us that it is a principled Party with high Marxist-Leninist qualities. By taking a correct stand for the national self-determination of the Black nation, the Party has passed the test set by Karl Marx when he estimated the qualities of a proletarian party of an oppressor nation.
Just like Mao Tsetung, our Party has a great respect for the U.S. proletariat. Some of the most outstanding battles of the world proletariat have been fought by the working class in your country in the past. The big miners’ strike this winter and the countless class struggles waged here have shown the great potential of the working class. Once this force is unleashed under the leadership of its vanguard, the CPML, it will sweep away the rotten and decadent capitalist system and create a bright new U.S.A. of the people.
Comrades, we have great hopes for the CPML. Our Party is a young one, just like yours. We can give you no advice but one: stick to Mao Tsetung Thought. Our experience is that when we do, we succeed; and when we don’t, we fail.
The Norwegian working class is now facing the sharpest attacks on its living conditions since World War II. Recently the social-democratic government denied the workers the right to vote on a new wage agreement which cuts back real wages by five to ten percent. In this situation, our Party put forward the slogan of a political strike against the forced agreement. Some 25,000 workers of different trades followed the slogan, and tens of thousands of others made resolutions against the agreement.
The capitalists and their government use the method of so-called nationalization to fill the bank accounts of the monopolies from the tax bill. This fully exposes the class nature of the social-democrat government and the bankruptcy of the revisionists who see nationalization as the road to socialism.
Just like yours, our Party supports the scientific theory of the three worlds elaborated by Mao Tsetung. According to the new brand of revisionists, we should hence be “class collaborationists,” “opportunists,” “supporters of imperialism” and whatnot.
The fact is that Chairman Mao’s theory of the three worlds is a theory for the class struggle and revolution under the present international conditions. The opportunist gentlemen can scream their heads off with all their subjective “theories,” but their attacks on the greatest Marxist-Leninist of our era will not hurt any more than the mayflies lightly plotting to topple the giant tree.
Dear comrades, at present the rivalry between the two superpowers is more fierce than ever. Soviet social-imperialism is making aggression everywhere. Now it tries to grab the Horn of Africa to close in on the southern flank of Europe. It prepares to take Europe by a pincer movement, and I would like to point out that Norway constitutes the northern flank. The new czars are undoubtedly making plans for a future invasion of Norway. They are already stealing the territorial waters of our country, trampling on its sovereignty over the Spitsbergen Archipelago and sweeping our coastal waters for fish.
The Norwegian people have witnessed five years of Nazi occupation and will never allow any aggressor to become their master. We rely on the correctness of the Party’s line, on the patriotic Norwegian people, and on the international support of all freedom-loving peoples of the world, including the people of the U.S. We will never be intimidated.
Our two parties are bound together in a common cause. Together with the Communist Party of China and all other genuine Marxist-Leninists, we will march forward toward our aim of liberating all mankind from the chains of imperialism and the victory of communism all over the world.