We have been proposing for two years that the principal energies of Marxist-Leninists should be oriented towards their merger with the working class, the first condition in the carrying out of the strategy of the proletarian revolution, the others being the winning over of the broad masses under the direction of the proletarian Party, and the arming of revolutionary forces, (essential for the overthrow of the bourgeois state, and establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.)
In effect, Marxism-Leninism is the science of the proletarian revolution, while the working class is the principle agent of the socialist revolution, it is the merger of Marxism-Leninism and the working class movement, (the developed form of which will be the proletarian Party and, ultimately, the dictatorship of the proletariat), which is, therefore, the essential condition for revolution.
This merger, and its organizational forms, will result from a potentially long struggle: it goes without saying that a calendar of the revolution or its organizational phases cannot be determined in advance; it depends on objective and subjective conditions which may or may not permit certain developments, such as the creation of the Party. In order to resolve these questions, a correct analysis has to be undertaken, and the correct application of revolutionary Marxist-Leninist principles has to be learned. One thing is certain, however, this merger will be the result of a struggle which Marxist-Leninists have to carry through to the end, a struggle which has to be organized, and which cannot rely on either a spontaneous movement of the masses, the advanced elements of the proletariat, or Marxist-Leninists themselves.
We find, at this time, in Canada, at the beginning of this struggle, that there exists a Marxist-Leninist movement striving to link itself to the proletariat on the one hand, and on the other, advanced elements of the proletariat aspiring to the ideology of their class. The problem facing us then is, what should be the correct orientation of this struggle for the merger of Marxism-Leninism and the workers’ movement.
Fundamentally, to raise the issue of the Marxist-Leninist organization of struggle for the Party, (the present preoccupation of the whole Marxist-Leninist movement), is to ask the tactical question of how to organize the struggle for the merger of Marxism-Leninism and the workers’ movement. But, the problem of the Marxist-Leninist organization will not be correctly resolved if we do not, at first, at this stage, clearly establish the objectives and tasks of Marxist-Leninists, since, the organization which is to be created is, in the end, nothing more than the relationships which have to be established between Marxist-Leninists themselves and, in turn, with the masses, in order to correctly carry out the tasks which face them at the time.
The strategic direction determines the tasks of Marxist-Leninists at all stages of the revolution. Because of the development of the revolutionary struggle in Canada, Marxist-Leninists have to work now for the merger of Marxism-Leninism and the workers’ movement, that is, in practice, to work to win over, politically the advanced workers to communism, and to offer them organizational frameworks where they themselves can be involved in the struggle of other less advanced strata of workers, in using as well, various forms of propaganda and agitation in all economic and political struggles of the proletariat and labouring masses. It is principally in these terms which Marxist-Leninists should see their link with the masses, that is, through the winning over of advanced elements, which, closely linked to the masses and active in their struggles, will enable the Party (or organization) to attain a real foothold among the people.
The central task of communists at this stage (the central task or principal objective, in that it is an essential condition in applying a revolutionary strategy) is the merger of Marxism-Leninism and the workers’ movement, in other words, the joining together of the Marxist-Leninist movement and the workers’ movement. In practical terms, Marxist-Leninists, particularly the organization or groups, have to view their activities in terms of linking themselves politically to the workers’ movement in general, and to its advanced elements more directly. We emphasise linking politically intentionally to avoid all ambiguities on the nature of this liaison. The Marxist-Leninist movement links itself with the workers’ movement when, through participating in their struggles, it spreads Marxism-Leninism, not only as a general doctrine of class struggle, but also as a ”guide to action”, specifically, a guide to correctly leading short term political and economic struggles, on the one hand, and on the other, to take advantage of their immediate struggles as a means of developing class consciousness, the essential condition for the development of the long term struggle for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The history of the workers’ movement and of the revolutions of the 20th century teach us that the way to achieve the merger of Marxism-Leninism and the workers’ movement takes two forms: propaganda and agitation. It is worthwhile, here, to point out the tremendous relevance of the first chapters of “The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik),” published in 1949, which summarizes the lessons drawn by the Russian communists themselves, from their experience gained during their revolutionary struggle. We learn here that the first activities of the Russian Marxists were principally those of propaganda. Marxist literature was already considerable in Russia from the 1880-90 years, moreover, numerous workers’ circles, where Marxist intellectuals were developing the workers’ political education, were initiated during this period. But this was not enough to merge Marxism-Leninism and the workers’ movement, even if numerous advanced Russian workers were taking part in these circles; this was not enough to merge Marxism-Leninism and the workers’ movement, because propaganda alone is not enough to develop a “social-democratic” consciousness (Marxist-Leninist in today’s terms) in the struggles of the workers’ movement.
The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik) teaches us then, that:
Under Lenin’s guidance, the St-Petersburg League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class was the first body in Russia that began to unite Socialism with the working-class movement. When a strike broke out in some factory, the League of Struggle, which through the members of its circles was kept well posted on the state of affairs in the factories, immediately responded by issuing leaflets and Socialist proclamations. These leaflets exposed the oppression of the workers by the manufacturers, explained how the workers should fight for their interrests, and set forth the workers’ demands. (p. 17)
... that is called communist agitation.
Communist propaganda and agitation are the principal means of realising the merger of Marxism-Leninism and the workers’ movement, since, in order to accomplish this, the falsity of bourgeois ideology has to be shown to the masses in order for proletarian ideology to triumph, that is, the scientific analysis of the nature of capitalist society, the need to destroy it, as the only way to eliminate its contradictions, and the direction to take in order to accomplish this.
In general, propaganda consists of criticising the capitalist system, the source of all social, economic and political contradictions. Propaganda is essentially the spreading of Marxism-Leninism, applied to the concrete conditions of the country. More specifically for us, propaganda should analyse more and more deeply the living conditions of the Canadian people and the contradictions which oppose the various classes of society, (and describe the way to resolve them), in applying the teachings of Marxism-Leninism to the concrete conditions of our own country, as well as those which prevail among all countries of the world.
Propaganda, even in taking a stand on a particular issue, always tries to clarify the overall view of the situation, on the formulation of general principles which explain such a situation,, and on the necessity of revolution (of the overthrow of bourgeois power), in order to arrive at a genuine solution.
Agitation is inseparable from propaganda; it aims to win over to a revolutionary perspective, the numerous specific struggles in which the masses have fought against all forms of exploitation and oppression. The forms and magnitude that it takes are obviously conditional upon the prevailing situation of the workers in struggle, upon the existence or not of links of the group or the organization with them, upon the possibility or not of creating links within the precise framework of the specific struggle and finally, upon the level of development of the Marxist Leninist organization or group itself.
The intervention of communists in a particular struggle can be very minimal, for example, a news article on the struggle, or the handing out to the workers concerned, of a leaflet containing a Marxist-Leninist analysis of their struggle. It can, as well, be more developed and involve , for example, the organizing of certain forms of support, such as the popularising of the struggle, the gathering of funds, or the picketing by sympathizers. It can take on an even more significant character if, for example, communists associate themselves more directly with the workers, in agitating on the picket lines and bringing along supporters, in speaking out at workers or support assemblies, in cooperating in the preparation of the workers’ own propaganda and agitation material, and in the initiating and running of various committees necessary for directing the struggle.
Finally, communist intervention reaches its highest degree if communists take over the political and organizational direction of the struggle. Under present conditions, such a situation can only really occur in very rare and exceptional cases: it still remains, however, that this is the objective for which communists have to constantly strive. The simple writing of a news article, or distribution of a leaflet on a workers’ or people’s struggle should be carried out in this perspective. But the communists’ striving for the leadership of workers’ and people’s struggles should never lead to the lowering of the political level of their activities.
Communist propaganda, even in addressing itself to all workers and progressive intellectuals, is firstly going to reach the most advanced among them, those least influenced by bourgeois ideology. Communists, however, should not compromise whatsoever on the content of this propaganda under the pretext of reaching greater numbers, because it is not in lowering the level of their work that communists will educate workers, but the contrary. But that should in no way prevent them from presenting their propaganda (and agitation) in the most accessible and lively forms; it is wrong to claim that a Marxist analysis has to resort to a language with a difficult and barely understandable vocabulary.
Communist agitation, on the other hand, should be directed towards the workers and broad masses, but in particular, at this stage, the industrial proletariat. Agitation should reach the largest possible number of workers in each case; it should be concerned with concrete situations; a conflict, a social injustice, a struggle, a demand, etc., and aim for a mass mobilisation, without being afraid to appeal to their feelings, to their ideals of justice, to their class solidarity, all without lowering the level of its political line in relation to that of propaganda.
As the principal forms of present day communist activity, agitation and propaganda cannot be isolated from one another. While agitation tries to incite the masses to oppose an exploiting and oppressing regime, propaganda should furnish a scientific explanation of such a situation and show the ways to emerge from it. The most advanced elements of the proletariat and labouring masses, assimilating Marxism-Leninism thanks to communist propaganda and agitation, will be those who will lead the aroused masses and move them in the direction of the revolution. Communist leaders emerge, in effect, during struggle (otherwise they would not be genuine leaders), and struggles are the acts of the masses.
It is therefore by means of agitation and propaganda that Marxism-Leninism will merge with the workers’ movement. And this merger will occur through the “conscious” winning over of the advanced workers to communism on the one hand, and by the growing support for the communist interventions on the other. Because, the Marxists’ link with the masses is not the result of special techniques of propaganda, agitation, or organization, but only through the political activities of communists, carried out in the framework of workers’ struggles.
Propaganda and agitation have one common objective: to develop workers’ consciousness. This is accomplished by means of the scientific explanation of social phenomena of capitalist society (in propaganda), and by means of the inciting to struggle against the enemy by mobilising around a particular demand (through agitation).
Communist organizational work cannot, in turn, be isolated from communist propaganda and agitation work; while Marxist-Leninists cannot correctly carry out the latter without developing, at the same time, the former. And to say that the central task at a certain stage is agitation-propaganda, implies the presence of the organizational means necessary to accomplish this.
The question of the organization has, as everyone knows, been for a long time the subject of discussion in the Marxist-Leninist movement. We have seen in the preceding chapter, to what opportunist errors an incorrect conception of organizational work can lead. It is still common today, in the Quebec Marxist-Leninist movement, to distinguish between the communist organization and the workers’ organization, as if it were a matter of two different worlds. In fact, the theory of “intermediate organizations” shows that, for many Marxist-Leninists, it is a matter of two different worlds: with communists joining the organization or the Party, and workers, barely militant or advanced (according to these same Marxist-Leninists), joining the “intermediate organizations” of various types.
This is not a Marxist-Leninist point of view. It represents a total abandonment of today’s communist tasks, and a sabotaging of the merger of the workers’ movement and Marxism-Leninism. The only organizational work to which communists should devote themselves, is communist organizational work, the direct extension of agitation-propaganda work. What have to be organized are the groups, or “circles” which are destined to furnish a Marxist-Leninist formation to advanced workers who desire it... (and there are some!). Also to be organized are the cores, or cells, in the framework of which communists, intellectuals or workers, will carry on their work of communist agitation and propaganda.
Even if the C.M.O. was right in claiming that advanced workers are very rare in Canada and Quebec, their theory of “intermediate organizations” is not justifiable. There were also less advanced and backward workers in Russia, and Lenin neither advocated the establishment of institutions intended particularly for them, nor the implantation of communist intellectuals among them. At the stage of the merger of Marxism-Leninism (or “social-democracy” at the time of Lenin), Lenin always stressed the priority of agitation and propaganda. Precisely, in A Retrograde Trend in Russian Social-democracy (Complete Works, volume 4, p. 278-285), he points out the need for “easier” forms of agitation and propaganda, directed towards the lower strata of the proletariat, forms which could even pass for “legal educational activities” (see p. 282).
Thus, at the stage of the creation of the organization of struggle for the Party, there would be no question of communists scattering their energies in building up “intermediate organizations erroneously called “mass” organizations. For, even if an existing communist group or organization had the ability to initiate mass organizations, these would have to be strictly tied into the carrying out of the central task of the period. For example, we can recall that the Chinese Communist Party initiated mass women’s organizations at different stages of the revolution. Now, the organization of women was always structured in view of the revolutionary tasks of the moment, whether it was the struggle against the occupying Japanese, the agrarian reform, etc., and not principally to oppose the specific oppression of women (despite its significance in that country). It was in the process of carrying out these revolutionary activities, in line with the party programme, that Chinese women were confronted with their own particular situation, and thus able to develop appropriate solutions.
The Chinese Communist Party could act in such a way because it had a strategy and programme, and at each stage of the struggle it established the means by which its programme could be realised under the prevailing conditions (i.e. party organizations, directed by the Party). The Chinese communists, like the Russian communists, started at the beginning: because for communists, it is not a question of simply taking over the leadership of struggles, but of giving a revolutionary direction to the workers’ movement and its struggles. It is not possible to develop such a direction by organizing with a vaguely progressive or social-democratic programme.
To suceed in giving a communist direction to workers’ struggles, the winning over of the advanced workers to communism is essential. This is the central task of communists at this stage, the task which involves the creation of organizational forms necessary for its realisation. As the tasks of Marxist-Leninists are principally those of agitation and propaganda, it follows that they should create an organization which is made up of agitation-propaganda units, units in which a certain division of labour would be obviously necessary in order to keep track of the various forms of agitation and propaganda...