In last month’s P.O. we discussed the battle against liquidationism in education. This month, we will discuss the need for different levels and forms of education.
It is clear that our Party’s success or failure will in large part depend on how well we succeed in recruiting and training the vanguard elements of the proletariat – its honest militant but uneducated workers, into fully accomplished Marxist-Leninist leaders. We have already begun to recruit some of the most advanced workers into our Party through our role in the Farmworkers struggles, our fight against the Klan, Nazis, Posse Comitatis, etc. Also, through our struggles in the factories we have won over many workers from the industrial proletariat. These new recruits have entered our Party through these struggles and have studied little or no Marxism-Leninism. Yet they must be educated. At the same time, there are comrades in our Party who have studied Marxism for many years. How do we educate all of our cadre on the various levels of understanding of Marxism-Leninism. It is clear that we are beyond the point of having a uniform educational program for all cadre. Consequently we are suggesting the following:
Political Economy:
1. Wage Labor and Capital b. Value, Price and Profit c. Leontiev – 1 /2
2. Leontiev second 1/2 b. Imperialism
3. Economic Prob. of Socialism b. NEP
4. Capital Vol. I Chapters 1-8
5. Capital Vol. I Chapters 9-15
6. Capital Vol. I Chapters 16-24
7. Capital Vol. I Chapters 25-33
8. Capital Vol. II
Philosophy:
1. Dialectical & Historical Materialism b. On Practise c. On Contradiction
2. Socialism, Utopian and Scientific b. Basis and Superstructure c. Relative and Absolute Truth
3. On Protracted War b. Freedom and Necessity C. Ludwig Feurbach
4. Textbook of Phil.
5. Anti-Duhring
6. Adoratsky
7. Materialism and Empiric Criticism
Leninism:
1. Foundations of Leninism b. Communist Manifesto
2. What is to Be Done
3. State & Revolution b. Two Tactics c. Left Wing Com.
4. History of CPSU (B) first 1/2 b. One Step Forward – Two Back
5. History of... second 1/2
6. Proletarian Revolution & Ren. Kautsky b. Revisionism c. War and Peace
7. Olgin pamphlet on Trotskyism b. Mastering Bolshevism
8. Dimitrov b. Dutt
9. Civil War in France b. Paris Commune
10. Marxism and Linquistics b. On Organization – Stalin
11. On Organization – Lenin b. Peter’s Manual c. Letter to a Comrade
Political Education:
1. National Question Theor. I b. National Question theor.II c. Negro National Colonial Question
2. Southwest Question b. Indian Question
3. Woman Question b. Woman Question II c. Youth Question
4. Syndicalism b. Revisionists c. Liquidationism
The above are 4 basic areas of study. Each level under these areas would represent an 8 to 10 week course of study that comrades would take. Each Area Educational Committee must make an analysis of levels of study of comrades in your area and draw up a plan of educational study. For most areas, this will be internal education. For some larger areas, this program will express itself in the legal education – along with other courses such as: a. History of the Communist Movement b. What is Capitalism c. Why is there Unemployment? d. History of the Nazis, KKK, etc. in the U.S., the point is that the Area Educational Committees must insure that the education offered meets the various needs of comrades and contacts in the area. And, must also insure that all comrades are involved in a regular, ongoing study of Marxism-Leninism, internally or through legal education wherever they exist.
The above proposed Program of Study will not solve all of our problems. As a matter of fact, it only scratches the surface. Our ability to expand the ranks of our Party with the caliber of cadre we need will present us with an ever growing number of fighting, yet theoretically uneducated workers. How are we to insure that in a reasonable amount of time they become accomplished Marxist-Leninists? If we are to continue to build a Party of developed Marxist-Leninists, especially in this period, when we are recruiting many workers in a process of a fight, we must insure that their initial level of understanding is elevated.
We must guarantee this process in order for their militant fighting spirit to be blended with class consciousness, so that they will become independent Marxist-Leninist leaders of the working class movement. What better example do we have than our comrades in Detroit, who once united with Marxism Leninism have lept ahead by bounds in leading the working class. Or those comrades in the West Coast who have recruited many farmworkers and plan to recruit many more!!
Can our Party afford not to develop more leaders from those gems of gold, that are now being recruited. Of course not. Our work as communists is to train leaders, i.e., “give up all you know and set the conditions for them to develop as well rounded Marxist-Leninists”. Comrades, our Party has many living examples of cadre that are leaders of the working class, who have been recruited, that are now leaders in our Party. We must continue this process, so that we will increase by the hundreds the training of proletarian intellectual fighters.
Based on this understanding, the National Education Committee will begin the development of a program that will help satisfy some of these needs. However, comrades in the areas should develop whatever necessary to educate our comrades. Copies of all reports are due on the 5th of each month.
Comradely,
National Education Committee