The Bay Area Communist Union (BACU) has been in existence only a short period of time, and this is our first public statement. It is admittedly a very brief one, but it is quite sufficient to explain how we view the requirements of communist work in this period, and why we are in existence as a communist organization altogether. Moreover, it is not a statement intended to ”explain communism”, or to explain our views, to the public in general. Our intent, here, is to explain our views to the many individuals and organizations in the revolutionary and communist movement, and to workers and others who already are somewhat familiar with the aims, political lines and practical work of the movement.
We are a local, Bay Area, communist organization. Our aim, in common with all other U.S. communists – that is true communists and not fake ones – is the overthrow of the capitalist system, and the establishment, in its place, of a socialist system of society. In short, we work for a victorious socialist revolution that will replace the present rule (dictatorship) of the capitalist class with the rule (dictatorship) of the working class, and in the long run will lead to communism, the abolition, altogether, of all “class rule” and of the division of society into classes.
The theory guiding our revolutionary activity is Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung thought, which will be referred to hereafter, for short, as Marxism-Leninism.
Most of the members of the Bay Area Communist Union are not new to the communist movement. Some of us were recently members of or close to, the former Black Workers Congress; these, and others were, prior to that, members of the Revolutionary Union (now called Revolutionary Communist Party). In addition, two of our members were active in the Progressive Labor Party in the early 60’s and one in the Communist Party in the 40’s. Other comrades in our organization are new to the communist movement.
Why do we need – or why does anybody need the Bay Area Communist Union? Are there not enough Marxist-Leninist “parties”, organizations, and groups? Does the working class need more? Would it not be better if all Marxist-Leninists were united in one vanguard party of the working class, in one “new Communist Party”?
Yes, indeed, it would be much better if there were one united vanguard party of the working class, and, moreover, the development of such a new communist party is an essential – one of the essential prerequisites for a successful socialist revolution.
However, the actual formation of the new party is not the immediate task of communists today. The ground has not been sufficiently prepared for it. We are still in the preparatory stage of developing the communist forces, learning the theory of Marxism-Leninism, integrating with the working class and the masses in general, learning how to do revolutionary work among the masses, learning how to develop correct political line and correct strategy and tactics, and so forth.
The Bay Area Communist Union can be said to have had its principal origin in the former Revolutionary Union (RU). The RU, in its early years, put forward and practiced a generally correct political line, and therefore was an inspiration to all, or most, revolutionaries. It called on revolutionaries to turn their efforts toward the working class, and to integrate themselves with the working class; it emphasized the revolutionary nature of the Black liberation struggle and the struggle of other nationalities, and pointed to the emergence of Marxist-Leninist forces from these struggles; it put forward the strategy of a United Front against imperialism, and practiced the tactics of a united front among the various revolutionary and Marxist-Leninist forces; and, organizationally, it called on revolutionaries to unite in revolutionary collectives, do communist work, and carry on an exchange of ideas and experiences.
However, beginning in approximately the end of 1972, a number of wrong lines became dominant in the RU. Some of these lines had previously existed, but were not yet dominant, or had not yet exhibited their full negative influence. What were these wrong lines? A sectarian style of work as opposed to a united front style of work; a strategy of work among workers which downplayed both building a base in the workplace and in the trade unions, and building the independent role of communists and communist organization, in favor of imaginary “intermediate workers organizations”; a center-of-the-universe mentality in which the RU regarded itself as the true communists – “the vanguard” – while all other communist groups and organizations were “fake” communists; a super-secrecy in organizational methods; an overemphasis on centralism which has to do with unity of will and action around a correct political line – as opposed to democracy – which has to do with giving full play to the members’ initiative, contact with the masses and learning from them; in effect, a bureaucratic and not a democratic, centralism was imposed; and finally, and most important of all, a completely wrong and especially harmful line on the National Question, which was a complete 180 degree turn-around from the RU’s initially, generally correct position, and which denied the independent validity, and independent revolutionary character, of the Black and Third World liberation struggles, reducing the National Question to a class question in the narrow, “worker vs. boss” sense – in essence adopting the same position as the Socialist Party of the early 1900’s.
Most of our members were in the RU at that time, and participated, on one level or another, in opposing these wrong lines; some of them were suspended, most of them resigned.
After that, some of these comrades fell into the error of dogmatism and “building the party through theoretical struggle is key”. This occurred together with, and under the influence of, dogmatic trends and groupings within the old Black Workers Congress.
Other comrades, however, with more experience, avoided that error. They struggled, though insufficiently, with the dogmatists. They raised their political views openly to the Guardian Radical Forum. They carried on discussions with other communist groups such as the October League and the August 29th Movement. They came to the conclusion among themselves, although with some procrastination, that their responsibility was to consolidate a core of communists for the purpose of continuing and expanding the development of communist work among the masses in our own area, the Bay Area.
At the same time, some of the comrades who had fallen into the error of dogmatism, into what was called a “tactical retreat from mass work”, saw from their own experience its barrenness and futility, and left the circle of dogmatists.
Both groups then joined to form the Bay Area Communist Union.