The aim of the CPUSA(M-L) is the overthrow of the imperialist bourgeoisie and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, socialism and communism.
The proletariat is the main force and the leading force in the revolution. It is the only consistently revolutionary class in capitalist society. While the development of imperialism and the rise of modern industry causes other classes to decay and disintegrate, the very process of capital accumulation means the proletariat grows in numbers, becomes strong, steeled and prepared for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie.
As a class the proletariat does not own the means of production. It sells its labor power to the capitalist. It takes part directly in production, circulation or service. It creates surplus value for the capitalist. A part of this class is the rural proletariat who are paid wages for work on the land. This includes migrant workers.
The U.S. working class is the largest, most developed proletariat in the history of class society. Its ranks are steadily growing as a result of the general crisis of capitalism.
The leading section of the proletariat is centered in the heavy industries of capitalism. It is here that material conditions produce the most conscious, disciplined and advanced revolutionary fighters of all nationalities.
In the United States, the allies of the proletariat include all those who are oppressed and exploited by the imperialist bourgeoisie, who suffer from the yoke of oppression and who can be won to the side of the proletariat.
The most important allies of the proletariat are the oppressed nations – both inside and outside of the state borders of the U.S. They are the direct reserves of the proletariat. The strategic alliance between the proletariat and the oppressed nations is essential for victory. This strategic alliance can only be built upon the absolute guarantee by the multi-national proletariat of the right of self-determination for all oppressed nations, and the consistent struggle against white chauvinism.
The tactics of the united front are required to mobilize the potential allies to the side of the proletariat. This front, led by the proletariat and its vanguard Party, will include all those who can be won to support the cause of the revolution.
The rural and urban petty bourgeoisie are comprised of small shopkeepers, small farmers, intellectuals and some administrative and some professional people. Because of their intermediate position between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in the relationship to production, they are vacillating forces. While they tend toward the bourgeoisie, the petty-bourgeoisie is often driven toward the proletariat as a result of the general crisis. Allies for the proletariat can be won from these forces. Of these allies, at certain times, some sections of the small farmers and progressive intellectuals play an important role.
Other direct reserves of the proletariat are the semi-proletariat. Semi-proletarians engage in wage labor, but may also own or rent land and some minimal means of production by which they produce a part of the means of subsistence for their families.
The lumpen proletariat lives parasitically off the labor of others, and is an extremely unstable, unreliable and vacillating force. On occasion, some elements of the lumpen proletariat such as prostitutes can be won to the cause of the proletariat.
The proletariat is both the leading and main force in the united front against the imperialist bourgeoisie. This united front may include genuine national bourgeois elements within the oppressed nations of the U.S. who fight to some degree against the imperialist bourgeoisie. The united front tactics can only be successful when led by the CPUSA(M-L).
The immediate task of the Party is to mobilize and lead the masses against the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie and all their collaborators and social props – the reformists and the revisionists. This includes:
* leading and assisting the proletarian movement to mobilize its allies to prevent the ability of the bourgeoisie to rule – in every factory, mine, farm, military base and center of capital.
* acting at every opportunity to prepare the masses for the final victorious battle for state power.
* leading the proletariat in the seizure of state power and in its consolidation in the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The proletariat strikes its main blow at the imperialist bourgeoisie, the savage and irreconcilable enemy of the proletariat and its allies.
Bourgeois class rule is based on ownership of the overwhelming mass of the means of production: the factories, farms, resources and services necessary for daily life. The bourgeoisie consists of a tiny fraction of society, but controls virtually all of the wealth.
The bourgeoisie exercises its dictatorship through the state which includes the army, courts, police, secret police and schools.
The outlook of the bourgeoisie is the dominant outlook of society, infecting every aspect of life. It is promoted by terror, force of habit, religion, custom, violence and the relations of the capitalist mode of production. There is intense class struggle between the two world outlooks, the bourgeois and the proletarian.
The power of the bourgeoisie in all spheres must be completely and ruthlessly destroyed. Its private ownership of the means of production must be eliminated. The bourgeoisie in the U.S. is the most powerful capitalist class in the history of class society. It will spare no effort to maintain its rule. With the deepening of the general crisis of capitalism, fascism will increasingly become the form of bourgeois rule in the U.S. The open terroristic dictatorship of the imperialist bourgeoisie goes hand in hand with preparations for imperialist war.
There are no sections of the U.S. bourgeoisie which are progressive or allies of the proletariat. It stands for reaction all along the line. It must be destroyed as a ruling class worldwide.
In order to destroy the power of the bourgeoisie, the proletariat must first remove the class forces who block the road. These groups are the direct agents of the bourgeoisie, conscious or unconscious. They are the collaborators who try to contain, manipulate and mislead the working class movement. They protect the rule of the bourgeoisie. They are the social props of the bourgeoisie.
The social props are the political agents of imperialism. They are part of the camp of the enemy, and in no way are neutral or middle forces in the class struggle. These agents of imperialism include both the reformists who preach reform as an end in itself and various opportunist trends, who peddle class collaboration under the guise of fighting the bourgeoisie.
Instead of fighting for reforms as part of the struggle for revolution and socialism, reformists preach reform as an end in itself. They prop up the rule of the U.S. bourgeoisie and oppose socialist revolution and communism.
The main forces of reformism in the U.S. are the trade union bureaucrats. They are largely drawn from the labor aristocracy, the skilled craft sections of the working class, and are bribed by the superprofits of imperialism. The trade union bureaucrats today control all major and most minor trade unions in the U.S. They consist of the leadership in the international unions and many locals, both paid and unpaid. However, not all trade union officials are bureaucrats.
Because of the influence of the labor aristocrats and the control of the trade union bureaucrats, the AFL-CIO apparatus has become an extension of the bourgeois state. It is a means to subdue and mislead the proletariat. Its ambition is peace with the bourgeoisie and reform of the capitalist system.
Other misleaders who preach reform as an end in itself can be found in the ranks of every mass organization in the U.S. from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Organization for Women (NOW) to many church organizations.
Opportunism is class collaboration, rejection of the class struggle and revision or distortion of the revolutionary science of the proletariat, Marxism-Leninism.
Like reformism, opportunism sacrifices the long term interests of the proletariat for immediate gains. Opportunists bow to the spontaneous nature of the working class movement. They mortally oppose the leading role of the proletariat and its vanguard Party.
The development of the U.S. as a large imperialist power provides the material basis for opportunism. This has resulted in a wide variety of opportunist trends which daily vie for influence and domination of the proletariat. The greatest danger to the working class movement is modern revisionism. However, the struggle against opportunism must be waged both against those that cover their opportunist deeds with “left” sounding slogans and against right opportunism which is open conciliation with the bourgeoisie.
Modem Revisionism: Modern revisionism is the most dangerous and widespread form of opportunism in the U.S. It was pioneered in the U.S. and internationally during the 1940’s by Earl Browder. Browder led the CPUSA down the road of class collaboration to the actual dissolution of the CPUSA in 1944. While the internal basis within the CPUSA for opportunism was long-standing, Browder led the CPUSA to collaboration with the Democratic Party, conciliation with the trade union bureaucrats and abandonment of the right of self-determination for the Black Nation. Browder led the complete liquidation of the class struggle under the guise that “Communism is 20th Century Americanism” and capitalism would inevitably change peacefully into socialism.
Tito of Yugoslavia championed modern revisionism in the 1940’s and today continues to lead Yugoslavia down the capitalist road in collaboration with U.S. imperialism.
After World War II, capitulation to the threat of war and conciliation with the pressure of U.S. imperialism were the conditions for the rise of modern revisionism as an international counterrevolutionary trend. With the death of Stalin in 1953, Khrushchevite revisionism gained power in the most authoritative, oldest and largest communist party in the world, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In a socialist country the basis of support for modern revisionism and the restoration of capitalism is the old exploiting classes and their remnants which continually seek to regain power. The success of Khrushchevite revisionism stemmed from the failure to consistently and correctly wage the class struggle both inside and outside the Party. Khrushchev advocated “peaceful transition”, “peaceful competition” and “peaceful coexistence” to cover his nestling up to U.S. imperialism. Abandoning the essence of Marxism – the dictatorship of the proletariat – he advocated the “state of the whole people” and the “party of the whole people”. Modern revisionism denies the continuation of class struggle during the historical period of socialism.
Sprouting numerous branches in Europe, the “Eurocommunists” are also modern revisionists.
The theory of the “three worlds” represents a new major variety of modern revisionism. It preaches that the transition from capitalism to socialism is not on the agenda and denies the Leninist strategy of the alliance of the proletariat and the oppressed nations and people.
In the U.S. the main representative of modern revisionism is the CPUSA with its line of “detente”. Those that advance the theory of the “three worlds” are a rising voice of opportunism that present a grave danger to the victory of the proletariat.
Trotskyism: One of the outcomes of modern revisionism is the re-emergence of Trotskyism. Present day Trotskyism is a continuation of the counter-revolutionary views of its founder tailored for today’s conditions. Trotskyism serves the bourgeoisie by attempting to splinter, divide and undermine the unity of the working class movement. It opposes revolution by stages and the genuine national liberation movements. It opposes the possibility of socialism in one country. Trotskyism swings alternately between adventurism and economism.
The main representatives of Trotskyism in the U.S. are the Socialist Workers’ Party and the International Socialists.
Anarchism: This is a counter-revolutionary political trend that abandons the historic mission of the working class and its vanguard Party by denying the need for a disciplined Marxist-Leninist party. It advocates sole reliance upon individual acts of terror as the means to achieve its ends, thereby liquidating the role of the proletariat.
The work of the various opportunist trends has assisted the bourgeoisie in their efforts to undermine and destroy the unity and Marxist-Leninist leadership of the working class movement. The victory of the proletariat and its allies over imperialism must be tied to the exposure of these various opportunist trends. They must be routed from the ranks of the working class.
The resolute, uncompromising and militant struggle of the CPUSA(M-L) against all social props of the bourgeoisie distinguishes it from all other political parties, who in word may seem to oppose the bourgeoisie, but who in deeds prop up the very existence of imperialism.
The Party fights for socialism by the use of all forms of organization and struggle, centering our work in the industrial proletariat and waging the armed insurrection to seize control of the means of production and the state.
Our Party fights for the complete emancipation of the proletariat and its allies from imperialism. The aim of the CPUSA(M-L) is to lead and assist this struggle by promoting the consciousness, organization and overall fighting capacity of the proletariat and revolutionary masses.
The struggle for democracy and the struggle for socialism must be linked to one another. The struggle for democracy serves the struggle for socialism. Our Party supports all struggles for democratic freedoms which objectively aid the proletariat and its allies in achieving political power.
The greater the political and democratic freedom gained by the proletariat, the more clearly will the nature of the imperialist system be exposed as the source of the hardships and exploitation of the masses. The fight for democracy, when linked to the struggle for socialism, enhances the fighting ability of the proletariat and its allies.
To correctly wage the class struggle, to put the political goal of state power in the forefront, it is essential that the Party utilize both legal and illegal forms of struggle. Our Party proceeds on the knowledge of the historical reality that it is the illegal struggle, including armed insurrection, which will insure the final victory over the bourgeoisie and the achievement of state power.
The Party guides and leads the proletariat to mobilize the broadest number of people in combat against the imperialist bourgeoisie.
Our Party wins the confidence of the masses by its program, tactics and organization. This is achieved by heeding the voice of the masses and applying the mass line. The Party is both the leader and the student of the mass movement. The development of genuine Party leadership depends upon the correctness of the Party program, and the consistent, protracted struggle to win their confidence through the vanguard actions of the Party.
The mass movement in the U.S. is extremely broad and is constantly developing its fighting ability. The Party will lead all progressive sections of this movement.
Women are specially oppressed under capitalism. Women are prevented from participation in socialized production, paid lower wages, are largely unorganized and receive inadequate medical and other benefits. The violent and degenerate attacks against women in the form of rape, beating and pornography represent the intensifying oppression of women as the general crisis of capitalism deepens. On all fronts, but particularly in production, our Party fights for the complete equality of women and their full participation in political life.
The vast majority of youth in the U.S. are specially oppressed. High unemployment, particularly among national minority youth, is chronic. Wages for youth are extremely low, and jobs are often without benefits or unionization. The proletarian youth of the U.S. are a vital revolutionary force which the Party mobilizes to the cause of socialism.
The majority of the aged in this country are also cruelly oppressed. The aged are cast aside by capitalism under mandatory retirement. They suffer with inadequate pension or social security benefits and are faced with outrageous medical and household bills. The experience, wisdom and active participation of the aged constitute an invaluable contribution to the revolution.
National minorities in the U.S. suffer a special oppression and are denied democratic rights. They are discriminated against in jobs, wages, housing, education and all aspects of life. They are the target of the most reactionary chauvinist and police violence. The Party fights for the genuine equality of all nationalities and their full democratic rights.
The vast number of men and women in the military are proletarians. The Party is committed to work within the ranks of the military to undermine its ability to function and turn its ranks to the side of the proletariat.
Countless men and women, particularly national minorities, are imprisoned in the U.S. for crimes against the bourgeoisie. The Party actively shoulders its responsibility to organize, educate and fight for the democratic rights and emancipation of all political prisoners.
Our Party concentrates the center of its work in the industrial proletariat. In waging the class struggle, the reformist trade unions are the main mass organization of the workers where the fight for genuine democracy and socialism must be waged.
Our aim is to link the CPUSAT.M-L) to the trade unions. The Party will lead the class struggle in the reformist trade unions to transform them into proletarian organizations that fight for the genuine interests of the proletariat. This requires that we neutralize the influence of the labor aristocracy and drive the reactionary trade union bureaucrats out of the unions. This will be accomplished in the battle to smash the reformist AFL-CIO trade union apparatus and build genuine trade unions and a trade union center controlled by the rank and file.
Our Party fights to make every factory a fortress. The proletariat wages the class struggle against the bourgeoisie for control of the means of production. The struggle in the trade unions is a school of communism which educates and prepares the proletariat to seize and maintain state power.
The experience of the proletariat worldwide has completely confirmed the necessity of armed struggle against the bourgeoisie as the final means of securing victory. The necessity for armed struggle is based upon the Marxist-Leninist understanding of the nature of imperialism and the antagonistic contradiction between the proletariat and its enemy, the bourgeoisie.
The armed struggle will be the insurrection, not of a handful of revolutionaries, but of the vast majority. Led by the Party, the insurrection will triumph in the seizure of state power. The task of the CPUSA(M-L) is to carefully and methodically prepare the conditions for the development of a proletarian Red Army, under the leadership of the Party.
Just as the bourgeoisie is an international force of reaction, so the proletariat must organize and unite internationally to defeat the bourgeoisie. The U.S. proletariat is a detachment of the international proletariat. Its aim is not only to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat in the U.S. but also to eliminate imperialism and establish communism worldwide.
Our internationalist duty first and foremost requires that we wage the class struggle against the U.S. bourgeoisie and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat in the U.S. It also requires the active support and assistance to the proletariat in all countries oppressed and exploited by capital, unity with the Marxist-Leninist parties of the world and active support and solidarity with the socialist countries. Proletarian internationalism requires active support and solidarity with the national liberation movements which weaken imperialism. In the U.S. it especially means support for the oppressed nations within the U.S. state borders. The working people must also oppose the designs of imperialist war and aggression.
Along this road the U.S. proletariat will successfully carry out its historic mission and make a lasting contribution to the liberation of all mankind.