At the recent forum sponsored by the Guardian in New York, representatives of several communist organizations spoke in a spirit of unity about the tasks ahead. This was a very encouraging sign and showed the growing maturity of the movement. But unity cannot be built on good intentions alone. For real unity to be forged and a party constructed which includes the different forces which now exist as separate entities, work on three levels must take place: 1) ideological, 2) mass work, and 3) organizational work.
The movement in the U.S. today is characterized by a new awakening among the people and most significantly among the industrial workers. This is a measure of the depth of the crisis which the monopoly capitalist class finds itself in at the present time. The present strike wave, the revolts against government cut-backs and the meat boycott add more testimony to this depth.
However, the main weakness of the movement is (and historically has been in this country) the lack of conscious leadership and a high theoretical level.
To build a new Party, a break must be made with the disregard for theory which has characterized the revisionist CPUSA. This neglect for theory along with their tailism towards the trade union struggle has been the chain with which they have tied the working class movement to the capitalist system.
The CPUSA’s political paper, the Daily World, is marked by the absence of any theoretical guidance and reads like any other liberal piece of journalism. This is characteristic of the CP’s abandonment of the final aims of the struggle and their infatuation with reforms under capitalism.
At a similar period in Russian history, V.I. Lenin wrote his now famous words:
Without a revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement. This idea cannot be insisted upon too strongly at a time when the fashionable preaching of opportunists goes hand in hand with an infatuation for the narrowest forms of practical activity.[1]
Lenin was showing that political education of the workers must come from “outside” the working class as a conscious effort on the part of the communists. Spontaneously, on their own, they can develop only trade-union consciousness. While integrating closely with the struggles of the working class, the young communist movement must take part NOW in the political education of the workers.
The political questions which confront the working class today revolve around strategy – “Who are our friends and who are our enemies?” This question cannot be answered based on the subjective wishes of any group or individual, but on a concrete analysis of the conditions here today in the U.S.; a scientific study of the various class forces and the relationship between the working class and the nationally oppressed peoples.
Can we say that this kind of theoretical study has been done yet? No, it hasn’t. And because it hasn’t, come the problems of sectarianism, of failing to build unity based upon firm principles.
For principled unity to be built among the various sectors of the communist movement, the theoretical level must be raised or unity will be superficial or transitory and opportunism will take over within our ranks as it did in the CPUSA.
Lenin goes on to say:
Yet for Social-Democrats (communists – ed.) the importance of theory is enhanced by three other circumstances, which are often forgotten: first by the fact that our Party is only in process of formation, its features are only just becoming defined and it has yet far from settled accounts with the other trends of revolutionary thought that threaten to divert the movement from the correct path...[2]
There are those today who would have us down play the fight against revisionism, to down play the ideological struggle for the sake of practical unity. But, unless this fight is waged through the course of the struggle, no new party can be forged and reformism and economism will continue to dominate the workers’ struggles.
When we say that opportunism must be fought in the “course of the struggle” we mean that it is not enough to stand back and criticize the revisionists or the trade union leadership. The people can only learn from their own experience. This brings up the importance of putting theory into practice.
There are some elements of the movement, generally characterized by “ultra-leftism” who think that a Party can be called into being or “declared” at one or another conference. These people have disdain for the mass struggle of the people and view communists only in a narrow sense of holding certain Marxist ideas.
A real Communist Party can only develop in the course of struggle. It is here we, as well as the masses, learn to distinguish between what people SAY and what they DO. In recent months, we have seen more and more examples of communist groups playing a leading role in the workers’ movement; leading strikes; and building united-front demonstrations against the government’s policies of war and fascism. The increased level of this kind of work has made a higher level of unity among the communists possible.
Our mass work must be based at the point of production. It is here that the young communist organizations must concentrate their forces at the present time. The trade union struggle is our starting point because this Is the basic organization of the working class.
Because this movement is dominated by the most corrupt and rotten leadership imaginable, a rank-and-file upsurge has been on the rise in recent years. Led by the Black and other minority workers, this rank-and-file movement is bringing new life into the slumbering working class struggle. It is here that communists must be most active. It is here that the daily work of building the rank-and-file caucuses and intermediate or citywide organizations must be done, pushing forward, step by step, in accordance with the existing conditions, the political consciousness of the workers and the trade unions in general.
Through this work, the various trends within the communist movement take shape as the organizations grow in size and, most importantly, begin to win the advanced workers to the revolutionary cause. These workers are the link to the working class as a whole.
Of special importance here is work among the women workers. This is a special task, often neglected by some who feel that the women are “too backward.” The recent struggles at Farah, Shell and other militant strikes show the real power of the women as well as their willingness to take a militant stand along with the men.
To help forge unity, as much practical cooperation as possible between the different groups should be encouraged. As they begin to develop unity in the course of practical work, organizational unity will become more of a reality. They must consult and work jointly in the united front and factory work whenever possible. This includes work among the multi-national as well as the national groups. This kind of cooperation is necessary because of the absence of one center.
The present situation where the communist forces are largely scattered and locally based makes our organizational tasks very great. While at present there are several centers and the people are often confused due to different policies and organizations (sometime even in the same plants); this can be used to gain a broad range of experiences.
However, in no way should this situation be glorified to be anything but a weakness, a sign of backwardness and primitiveness. At present, several of the most advanced communist groups are organized along national lines rather than uniting communists of different nationalities into one group. Some of these groups have played the leading role of bringing revolutionary leadership and theory to the Afro-American, Puerto Rican, Chicano and Asian peoples’ movements, especially to the minority workers. This, of course, is the most important kind of mass work for communists at the present time.
The separateness in general can be attributed to the opportunism and history of white chauvinism which has plagued some sections of the movement and backward levels of large sections of the white workers. This form has enabled many revolutionary-minded minority workers and intellectuals to be won to the communist movement who might not have joined a multi-national or mostly white organization.
In some ways, this is a similar situation to the one the Russian Bolsheviks found themselves in pre-revolutionary Russia which was called “a prison house of nations” because of the severe oppression of the minorities under Tsarism.
While Lenin always took a principled stand for multi-national organization, because of the objective conditions, many of these national forms of organization were preserved right up to the October Revolution in 1917.
Today, we must work and push for a multi-national party. Where necessary, some national forms might be preserved even after the Party is built if it will bring minority forces into the Party and help forge class unity. But, ideologically and organizationally the Party must be united with a single center.
Within the Party and the present communist organizations, there must be a type of “division of labor.” The white communists must take on the main responsibility for work among the white workers and especially for combating chauvinism and in that way, push the unity of the class forward.
To the degree that this task is carried out, and white workers are brought into the struggle to take the side of the Black and other minority workers, this will make the special job of the minority cadre that much easier. Their special duty is, while working among the class as a whole, to work among the minority workers and combat narrow nationalism which directs itself against the white workers rather than against the monopolists.
One more important organizational task calls for communists to build their present organizations along Leninist lines so that the party is formed on a sound basis. First, they must be built at the point of production on the basis of the factory nuclei or concentration.
This will help insure its proletarian character and prepare it for the greatest organizational task ahead, that of leading proletarian revolution and building workers’ organs of rule.
Aside from being factory based, rather than along community lines, like the revisionist parties (which are based on electoral districts) the communist organizations from the very beginning must develop democratic-centralism and combine secret and open work together.
This task cannot be put off “until there is a party,” while loose, legal groups are formed for the present time. This type of opportunism on the organizational questions will foster opportunism on other questions not to mention hurting the chances of the present groups for survival against the fascist attacks, and their winning the respect and the trust of the working class.
If we seriously take up these ideological, mass and organizational tasks and combat sectarianism and small-group mentality, the day will soon approach when a new Party can emerge, when the communist movement can be united and not scattered and isolated into dozens of small circles. At that time, the working class can step out of the darkness and out from under the mercy of the exploiters.
This will be a great day for the people of the world and a day which brings the downfall of U.S. imperialism closer than ever.
I AM CONVINCED THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WHO ARE FIGHTING VALIANTLY WILL ULTIMATELY WIN VICTORY AND THAT THE FASCIST RULE IN THE UNITED STATES WILL INEVITABLY BE DEFEATED. Mao Tsetung
[1] Lenin, “What is to be Done?”
[2] Lenin. “What is to be Done?”