In this issue we are presenting our criticism of In Struggle’s October 9 unity conference, as well as our proposals, in order to intensify the political debate for unity.
In Struggle’s conference on October 9 was only a part of their grand project for unity of Marxist-Leninists which they have recently put forward.
We reject this project entirely and completely. It’s an opportunist project which violates the principles of Marxism-Leninism on the question of unity and will lead to even greater divisions in the M-L movement.
In Struggle’s proposition is to organize a series of four conferences that will lead to a Congress in one year’s time to found the SINGLE Marxist-Leninist organization.
This project puts organizational unity before political unity. It denies that the principal problem in the Marxist-Leninist movement is its uneven political development and its division on major political questions.
It denies that right opportunism is the principal obstacle to unity. Instead it says the main obstacle is “sectarianism” which the League supposedly suffers from.
What characterizes our movement today is on the one hand a certain number of groups which have not yet developed clear and final positions on the political questions of first importance. They have little practice in the working class, but sincerely aspire to integrate themselves in the struggle for socialism and recognize Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought as the only theoretical basis for their activities.
On the other hand two positions are being clearly drawn in our movement in spite of its youth. Confrontations between these positions are taking place on the major questions of strategic and tactical line. The two positions are represented by the two Marxist-Leninist organizations – the League and In Struggle! (In spite of the fact that the comrades from In Struggle!, for tactical reasons, deny they are an organization, they themselves admit that their group in fact assumes all the functions of an organization. See Proletarian Unity, p. 18).
This is why we must above all deepen and accentuate the debate over line if we are to unify the M-L movement, particularly between the League and In Struggle!. Also, we must develop the necessary forms which will permit Marxist-Leninist groups across the country to situate themselves in this debate.
To proceed otherwise, to unite on no clear basis and to avoid the debate over line is to go against the basic principle laid out by Lenin: “Before we can unite, and in order to unite, we must first draw a clear line of demarcation”.
Contrary to what the comrades from In Struggle! propose, the communist principle is not one of forming one single pre-party organization, but of forming one single party in each country. Whereas the League most definitely would prefer to have one single organization, this must be based on a clear political line. If more than one organization is erected, it is because there is no unity around political line, and that there are in fact two lines.
In Struggle’s proposal aims not at eliminating the divisions over political line which exist in our movement, but rather at burying them after four conferences. Four days and a majority vote, this is the essence of In Struggle’s proposal!
This is why we propose a method which recognizes the actual divisions in the communist movement and places their resolution around the basis of a correct ideological and political line at the center of our preoccupations.
INTENSIFY THE DEBATE AROUND POLITICAL LINE! MARXIST-LENINISTS, UNITE!
[1] Appendices 1 and 2 are from The Forge Vol. 1, No. 20.