No. 3 – We do not see the Western Voice as a communist paper or a communist collective, but a collective which has a lower level of unity in which communists are one element (not necessarily the majority numerically). We would modify what we stated earlier as the ideological basis of unity. We still contend members of the collective must support anti-imperialist struggles {which may not be anti-capitalist struggles), but we have changed from calling for support of anti-revisionism to calling for support of anti-capitalist struggles. (People who, according to a communist analysis, hold parliamentary illusions may still be members of the collective if they are opposed to a capitalist economic and political and cultural organization of our society.) (X/Y, Some Responses)
1(a) The primary political task is to increase the scope, intensity and numbers of people in mass struggles, struggles which objectively help to undermine the barriers that currently divide the working class, barriers such as sex, race, union bureaucracy. – (X/Y, Some Brief, Provocative Notes)
The line that the current strategy should be a united front, as described by X/Y is translated into a line that the basis of unity of WV should be a “united front”. There is general recognition in the collective that this ”official” basis of unity has little basis in reality. In fact, no collective member would care to be characterized as being other than in favour of communism and opposed to revisionism. This has been true for at least two years, and we have yet to come across candidates- for collective membership who do not support socialist revolution.
This is no accident, as the political, theoretical, organizational and material demands imposed by the collective on the membership require a high degree of discipline and dedication. No one will devote his or her life to the WESTERN VOICE unless convinced that it is working towards some concrete resolution of social contradictions. “Left wing” social democrats who “still hold parliamentary illusions” can find far more congenial outlets than in the trenchant anti-NDP, anti-CP atmosphere of the WV.
It is not far-fetched to suggest that the logical consequence of the “united front as basis of unity” line would be to wage a constant battle against the “spontaneous” anti-Economist, anti-revisionist outbursts of people in the day to day work of the collective, not to mention in the pages of the newspaper. If we are not to be condemned to the perpetual confusion and “ homogeneity” which accompanies an unstated anti-revisionist basis of unity, then our only alternative is to get rid of it decisively, and set about finding ways to eradicate the hegemony of the communist mentality.
The “basis of unity” or political line, in a communist party is the strategy for proletarian revolution. It remains relatively constant, as does the objective, of revolution. The mass line changes with changing circumstances and tasks. In the WESTERN VOICE, what might be called the “hidden political line” is the so-called united front “mass struggle” strategy. This has been elevated into the total definition of political line, without any real analysis of the other fundamental questions of the revolution (principal contradiction, class analysis, leading role of the proletariat and its party, economic analysis, etc.) The “united front” line has further been stretched to become the “mass line” and “basis of unity” of the paper itself. The united front strategy has as its main tactic the creation of a united front through a newspaper which is itself a united front. The form is the content. And all this without having a party or any other political organization to figure out objectives and methods and take leadership.
In the Marxist-Leninist tradition there is a difference between basis of unity and mass line. Basis of unity (political line) represents the underlying principles, strategy and consciously arrived at line of development of a revolutionary organization. Although subject to refinement and criticism it remains relatively constant. Mass line refers to the specific tactics of Marxism-Leninism in the mass movement at a given stage of the struggle.
Thus for example in the period of the second united front against Japan, the Chinese Communist Party proposed that one element of national unity with the Koumintang (KMT) against the Japanese invaders would be a halt to the confiscation of the land of landlords. Mao warned the KMT, and put forward the view in the Party that such alliances and concessions have limits – including the preservation of CP leadership in its liberated region and the Red Army, and the preservation of CP independence and freedom of criticism in its relations with the KMT. A “mass line” calling for a halt in the peasant revolution was put forward – but the Party did not lose sight of the objective needs of its real “basis of unity”.
In a report delivered to the Party three months after the proposal to the KMT was made, Mao pointed out that ”it is history’s verdict that China’s bourgeois-democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism is a task that can be completed, not under the leadership of the bourgeoisie, but only under that of the proletariat.” He acknowledged that a bourgeois-democratic state formed in alliance with the KMT might move towards capitalism but that socialism, too, was possible, and “the party of the Chinese proletariat should struggle hard for the latter prospect”. He concluded,
To debase the class stand of the Party, to obscure its distinctive features, to sacrifice the interests of the workers and peasants to bourgeois reformism, is sure to lead the revolution to defeat. What we ask is: carry out firm revolutionary policies and strive for complete victory in the bourgeois-democratic revolution. To overcome the undesirable tendencies we have described, it is absolutely necessary to raise the Marxist-Leninist theoretical level of the whole Party, for Marxism-Leninism alone is the compass which can guide the Chinese revolution to victory. (Mao, SW, v. l, p. 269, p. 273-5)
At other times, of course, the mass line corresponds more closely to the basis of unity, as in En Lutte’s call for the creation of an organization of struggle for a proletarian party.[1]
There are two basic alternatives. One is that the political orientation of the newspaper collective be openly Communist: that the newspaper help in building the communist movement and that this implies working towards developing a unified political line on the major issues which confront the movement. The other alternative is that the communists within the collective accept ideological variety, not only within the framework of Marxism-Leninism, but also outside it; that the newspaper take on the ideological formulations of “left” social democracy side by side with the formulations of Marxism-Leninism. Given the situation within the labour movement, the native movement, women’s movement, etc., it should be quite apparent that such a newspaper would only compound the ideological confusion which already exists.
One variant of this position that has some currency is that this region really needs TWO newspapers. One would continue the work of “raising the level of mass struggle” while the other would take on the task of building the revolutionary movement. Newspaper number 1 would seek to develop a staff of militants who presumably not yet all communists. though perhaps political leadership within the group would come from communists.
Several problems arise. Given the low level of development of the communist movement in B.C., how would this political leadership be made effective? How will Marxist-Leninists who have not resolved such basic questions as the principal contradiction, the nature of alliances, the conditions for the creation of the party, political program, etc. – how will they establish themselves at the head of a group of politically active Social Democrats? A newspaper such as this might be put forward as a terrain of mass work for communists. But it should be quite clear by now that this simply will not work. In fact, such a newspaper is precisely the type originally envisioned in the X/Y papers; after 2 years of effort, we are no closer to seeing it.
It might also be suggested that such a group be put together without the active participation of Marxist-Leninists, or perhaps that MLists have a hand in the paper but not exert political leadership. We are then in reality talking about a true ”left” social democratic paper, perhaps a la Quebec-Presse In such a case, we are seeking to promote the development of an instrument which at least in the short run would be an effective political instrument for the ideas of social democracy. Communists or potential communists who came to such a paper would quickly either move into the communist movement – or change their politics, to the right.
[1] There are several groups in Quebec which openly base themselves on Marxism-Leninism. One group, En Lutte!, has been distributing its newspaper among workers for 3 years. En Lutte’s main objective is to build a revolutionary proletarian party by fusing Marxism-Leninism with the workers’ movement. Among other groups with similar objectives is the recently formed Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist), a product of the unification of three groups which have existed for several years.