First Published: Marxist-Leninist Vanguard, Vol. II, No. 8, August 1959.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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On the seventeenth of this month the Provisional Organizing Committee for a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party – the “POC” – will be one year old.
This fact has two sides: its primary and positive aspect, and its secondary and negative aspect. On the one hand, the POC has not only survived external attacks and internal disruption attempts, but has consolidated and expanded the scope of the organization and entered upon a program of practical mass work.
On the other hand, our very existence in our present organizational form testifies to the fact that our main aim is yet unrealized, that a Marxist Leninist Communist Party has not yet been reconstituted in our country. For when that task is accomplished, the POC will immediately cease to exist.
Yet, – and this is the most important thing – an examination of both aspects of this first anniversary points to one conclusion:
THIS PAST YEAR OF STRUGGLE FOR THE RECONSTITUTION OF A MARXIST-LENINIST PARTY IN OUR COUNTRY HAS VINDICATED EVERY MAJOR POLITICAL AND THEORETICAL ANALYSIS AND DECISION MADE BE THE POC!
1) We rejected the revisionist-conciliationist line of the 16th National Convention of the old Communist Party of the U.S.A.
The leadership of the old Party cried “Unity! It’s wonderful” as they concocted their unprincipled deals among their various factions. But that “unity” has had a peculiar characteristic: it is a unity which embraces a steadily diminishing, disoriented, dispirited, disorganized group.
Were we correct or not in spurning the advice of the “Left”-conciliators to be content with the line of the 16th Convention as “the best we could get”? Today the answer is clear: The “best they could get” turned out to be a party which after two-and-a-half years has no national program, no national daily newspaper, and hardly enough strength to face the prospect of a 17th Convention, already long past its constitutional due-date.
Who have proved to be the real anti-Party forces? Those who have ruined it with opportunist abandonment of Marxism-Leninism? Or those who with growing strength are resurrecting it (though outside the old shell) on the firm foundation of Marxism-Leninism in theory and practice?
At the same time, we have pointed out from the very beginning that the 16th Convention could not be correctly viewed as a momentary aberration, but rather, that it was a culmination of a resurgence of an old and deep-rooted revisionist influence among the leadership of the American Party. And, from the beginning we declared that the struggle for a Marxist-Leninist Party would be a long one; there was to be no quick and easy overnight correction.
2) We not only endorsed the 12-Party Declaration, but we made it our platform for struggle against the line of the old Party leadership and its revisionist-conciliationist 16th Convention line.
Among the old Party leadership there are those who openly reject the 12-Party Declaration. There are others who seek to cover up their rejection of it by evasion, pretending it is just a subject for “study”. On the other hand, as everybody knows, the international Communist movement regards the 12 Party Declaration as its guiding program.
Who, then have acted as real Communists? Those who, like the old Party leaders, reject or minimize the Declaration? Or those in the POC. who not only endorse it, but apply it every day in the struggles for peace, the peoples welfare, national liberation for the Negro people, for democratic rights and for socialism – and in the struggle against opportunism, particularly its main form, revisionism.
At the same time, we have pointed out from the very beginning that what is involved in the endorsement of the Declaration is no mere formality. Rather, the principles put forth in that historic statement of the international Communist movement are firmly rooted in Marxist-Leninist theory and practice, including forty years of the actual building of socialism. On the other hand, the line of the 16th Convention, as is historically the case with opportunism, is rooted in the class interests of the bourgeoisie. The two cannot be reconciled, that is why a whole epoch in the history of the American Party is destined to turn upon what might appear to some to be a mere formality – the endorsement of the 12-Party Declaration.
3) Under the threat of expulsion, we broke with the old organisation rather than abandon the uncompromising struggle for Marxism-Leninism; we organized ourselves as a Provisional Committee to Reconstitute a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party in our country.
Some among the old Party leadership boasted that they would soon dispose of us. “We will chop off a few heads by expulsion”, they said, and the others will shut up and ’be good’.” Others offered as friendly advice the thought that we must avoid expulsion at any cost. They argued that the struggle could still and could only be fought out within the old Party organization.
Well, – and did the old leadership succeed in its attempt to dispose of principled questions by head-chopping? People who shrink from battle with the bourgeoisie should not look for easy victories over those who are determined to fight for Marxism-Leninism against the bourgeoisie and its opportunist spokesmen.
And, where is the struggle for Marxism-Leninism within the old Party which our “friends” said they would conduct? People who really want to struggle for Marxist-Leninist principle’s must first of all know the difference between principles and tactics. “Tactical” maneuvers which require silence when Marxist-Leninist principles are being smothered under a burden of revisionist vulgarity (a la the 16th Convention) – such “tactics” destroy any possible basis for struggle for revolutionary principles.
But – to break with the old Party under the threat of expulsion that is one thing, an absolutely necessary first step. At the same time we have known from the beginning that to reconstitute a Marxist-Leninist Party in our country – that is a long, hard road of many steps.
4) We broke with the neo-conciliators who preached that, in or out of the old Party, only one step was required – the formation of a front of dissident factions for purposes of negotiating terms with the old-Party leadership. (This was nothing but a specialized version of the unprincipled “all-trend unity” line of old leadership.)
They threatened: “The international movement will never forgive. . . .” They show their “devotion” to the international movement by disparaging our fight for its program.
They cajoled: “After all, the POC doesn’t have all the answers. . . .” By posing a false issue, the neo-conciliators sought to disguise their withdrawal from the fight for a Marxist-Leninist Party. The question is not whether or not POC has all the answers; we never claimed to have them ALL. But one answer we do have and we will hold to it come hell or high water: That is that a strong Communist Party can be built only on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. But it is precisely that one answer which the neo-conciliators refused to accept as the basis of struggle.
Well, where are these “friends of the international movement,” today? Some have “retired” and become tourists. Some have turned to individualistic career-making in the trade union movement. Some have come almost full-circle back to the 16th Convention “unity” line. But one thing they share in common: the abandonment of the struggle for Marxist-Leninist theory and practice.
We have, from the very beginning, drawn sharply the main lines of demarcation between ourselves and the revisionists and conciliators. But it became plain that the influence of neo-conciliators cannot be cleared away except by extending our work to the field of day-to-day programmatic struggle on issues. The ground will not be cleared for a reconstitution of the Party by theory alone.
5) In our struggle against the revisionist-conciliationist line of the old Party, we have consistently distinguished between the conscious betrayal of Marxism-Leninism by the leadership, on the one hand, and the influence of revisionism and conciliationism upon the rank-and-file, on the other hand.
Some comrades – out of immaturity – argued that such a distinction was wrong. No honest members were left in the old Party, they said, except an insignificant few hopelessly, and unthinkingly loyal to the name of the old Party and infected with hero-worship for one or two leaders. Some evn went so far as to suggest that the Communist Party as a whole never was worth saving in the first place.
If we had adopted that counsel, would it have weakened and isolated the architects of revisionism in the old Party? On the contrary, it would have permitted them to pose as the champions of the revolutionary Communist tradition in our country.
It would have served to rally to their side as active allies those who are in fact, at most, passive.
Furthermore, it is an essentially sectarian approach to condemn as “hopeless” workers and others with whom we have never met and discussed. Yet it is well known that, outside of a few centers, we have not in an organized way met and discussed with the rank-and-file members remaining in the old Party. Even if only one (and surely there will be a goodly number) of these join P.O.C. as a result of our approach of differentiation between leadership and rank and file of the old Party, then our policy would be vindicated.
In fact, even if not one more member of the old Party were to come into the P.O.C., this policy of differentiation would still be necessary. For the revisionist-conciliationist line which split and ruined the old Party can be decisively exposed only when it appears in its most fully developed form, i.e., among the leadership. In only this way can the principles involved be abstracted from secondary and irrelevant considerations and placed before the workers, (including those in the old Party) in their clearest, most generalized and significant forms.
At the same time, we have from the very beginning, and with increasing clarity, understood that a new Marxist-Leninist Party in our country cannot be built by merely “transplanting” members of the old Party. This is especially so now that there is no general organized internal struggle in the old Party against the 16th Convention, and for the 12-Party Declaration. Furthermore, there are thousands, particularly Negro and white proletarians, who left the old Party in disgust with its revisionist tendencies. Among these workers we find wide interest and new members for P.O.C. And among those who have never belonged to the old Party our call for a new Marxist-Leninist Party will find increasingly favorable hearing as the class struggle sharpens. By the very nature of things, our work among this latter group will require a relatively greater share of our attention – attention which can only be developed in the course of the struggle on issues. Already we are proud to count in our ranks a number of new Communists, particularly young workers who are entering the Marxist movement for the first time – as members of the POC.
We “turned our faces outward”, took up the struggle on issues: peace, international proletarian solidarity, wages, unemployment, Negro rights, housing, etc The POC thus in practice strives to vindicate the Marxist-Leninist principles of united front work and Party organization.
This “turn outward” revealed for the first time the full proportions of the historic task we had assumed. Still, only a few in our ranks found it too hard to face, and on one pretext or another showed that they had gone as far as they were prepared to go in this increasingly demanding work. Their arguments varied from the echoes of neo-conciliationism to “personal differences”. But they displayed, in their turn, one common characteristic: A basic lack of confidence in the ability of American Marxist-Leninists to fulfill their historic responsibilities.
If we had succumbed to these fears, would the interests of socialism have been served? On the contrary, we would have been accepting the basic theme of revisionism – American exceptionalism. For, if one has a confidence in Marxist-Leninist principles, for and in America, how else can one show it than by putting those ideas to the test of practice?
But in this, we ourselves are hardly more than at the beginning. There is a serious unevenness in our levels of work on major questions and as between one area and another. We have yet to establish the POC in some of the most important centers and in the South. We must, overcoming weaknesses inherited from our past, strive to raise the work in all areas to the plane of the meet advanced. Reports appearing in this anniversary issue of VANGUARD, testify to the determination with which our membership is tackling these problems.
In Two Roads, we said we chose the road of the historic 12 Party Declaration which “leads to the heart of the class straggle – the elementary condition for the growth of our Party and of its influence.” Although the form of the struggle for a Marxist-Leninist Party in our country has changed, we are more dedicated to that proposition than ever before. This is the meaning of our policy of “turning our faces outward” from the internal straggle in the old Party. The development of the struggle on issues now becomes derisive for the continuation of building for a Marxist Leninist party.
PEACE – From the October Revolution, to the New China, right down to the 20th and 21st Congresses of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the victorious march of socialism has at last made peace possible for the war tortured peoples of the world.
Now, in its turn, the imposition of world peace on the imperialist warmakers will facilitate the advancement of the socialist world to communism – the final emergence “from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom ” (Engels)
The victory of world peace strengthens the struggle for national liberation of the colonial peoples: it restricts the full development of the imperialist anti-colonial front; it reduces the traditional economic vulnerability of the dependent countries; it helps to contrast the hypocrisy of imperialist promises, with the true national liberation policies of the socialist world.
The victory of world peace strengthens the workingclass in its struggle for economic concessions, democracy and for socialism: at undercuts the imperialists’ war policy, the political premise of their reactionary and fascist attacks on the rights and living standards the people; it strengthens the selef-confidence of the working class in its struggle with the bourgeoisie; it facilitates the strengthening of international proletarian solidarity.
It is obvious that the interests of our people coincide with that of the socialist and all other countries in respect to the earliest end of the cold war, and the victory of the policy of peaceful coexistence of the capitalist and socialist worlds.
But the “cold war” was conceived and organized in America, by latter-day exponents of the “manifest destiny” of U.S. imperialism. In the form of Democrats and Republicans they have shown the same enthusiasm for the war-generating “leader..of..the..free..world” and “positions..of..strength” policies, and for the monopoly profiteering that it makes possible.
For all these reasons, general and specifically American, we who strive to vindicate the principle of the Marxist-Leninist vanguard working-class party in our own country, must make peace the foremost issue in our mass work.
THE SIX-HOUR DAY – The monopoly capitalists are raking in fabulous and crowing profits. At the same time there is a steady increase in the number of chronically unemployed workers in our country. These facts are but two sides of the same coin – the increased exploitation of labor through speed-up, automation, etc. This situation is a knife at the throat of the working people. It cries out for immediate relief – first and foremost, for shorter hours. This is the most direct and effective way to cut the profits of capital and to fight unemployment.
Therefore, in vindicating our guiding principles and aims, we must, everywhere on the economic front of the class struggle put foremost the question of the absolute necessity for a shorter work day, a six hour day.
FOR EQUAL RIGHTS FOR NEGROES – In our land is a monstrous prison, the biggest prison in the world. Within its stifling walls are eighteen-and-a-half million people. The American ruling class has sentenced them all to this prison for life, for the “crime” of being Negroes. Though its walls are invisible, they are patrolled by armed guards who, by systematic terrorism, seek to discourage the attempts of the prisoners to achieve their freedom. The name of this prison is Jim Crow Discrimination.
This prison, in turn, is a cornerstone of the entire edifice of the reactionary rule of U.S. monopoly capital over the masses of the white people, as well. It has become an indispensible support to the imperialists’ economic, political and ideological power.
Around the world is heard the sound of crumbling walls of national oppression, from the Far East, Middle East, Algeria, and Black Africa to Latin America, Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba. The Negro people of the United States have heard. Taking heart, they have flung themselves with growing determination against their jailers. This struggle takes the general form of a demand for equal rights. Its center of gravity lies in the South, where in the Black Belt area the Negro majority constitutes an oppressed nation.
For all of these reasons, we must vindicate our aims and principles by day to day struggle for the full economic, political and social equality for Negroes. In our mass work, we must strive to place the fight for full voting rights for Negroes in the South as the foremost demand in the political struggle for American democracy against reaction and fascism.
DEFENSE OF THE PEOPLES’ LIVING STANDARDS – Wall Street, the financial oligarchy – the real rulers of America – are pressing relentlessly forward with their “austerity” program against the living standards of the masses of the people. Every aspect of the economic lives of the workers and farmers feels the pinch of it: The shameful neglect of the elderly; the cold rejection of the young people’s aspirations for a secure place in a life of useful work; the growing double burden on the life of the working women; the mounting hidden and open taxes on the low-income families; monopoly price robbery of workers and farmers; the systematic neglect of deterioration of housing, education and public services. These are of the very substance of the real daily lives of the common people of our land.
We who strive to vindicate the Marxist-Leninist “tribune-of the-people” Party principle, must champion the interests of the masses at every point, against these encroachments upon their rights and needs.
* * *
Such tasks as these come into focus as we “turn our faces outward” in the fight to reconstitute a Marxist-Leninist Party in our country – the elementary condition for which task is for us to move into the heart of the class struggle.
Yes, we have taken only one step or two on a long road – but we have taken them. We therefore can feel a certain confidence in renewing our pledge of a year ago:
FORWARD TO THE RECONSTITUTION OF A MARXIST-LENINIST COMMUNIST PARTY IN OUR COUNTRY!
BUILD THE P.O.C.!
BUILD THE VANGUARD!