As we approach the Congress, all of us represented on the Continuations Committee should understand the tasks that the whole Committee has between now and the convening of the Congress. As the basis for understanding these continued tasks, the NCC has consulted Volumes 6 and 7 of the Collected Works of Lenin, Volume 10 of the Selected Works of Lenin, and The Communist Party Manual of Organization by J. Peters.
The most important task that the entire Continuations Committee has yet to do, in continuing the work of the Conference, is to study, discuss thoroughly and achieve the greatest possible unity before the Congress on all the Congress documents. These includes l) the Rules of Operation for the Congress; 2) the draft Party Program and Explanation, the draft Party Constitution, and the principal draft resolutions – all these documents are being submitted by the NCC to the presidium of the Congress for acceptance by the Congress; 3) additional draft resolutions which some of the organizations on the Continuations Committee are submitting for consideration by the Presidium); 4) documentation papers which the NCC is submitting to support statements made in the draft Program and resolutions. The Rules of Operation are printed in this Newsletter, and the other documents will be sent out toward the end of July.
While the draft Party Program and Constitution will be pretty much self-explanatory, the draft resolutions may need some explanation. All the draft resolutions will be brief political statements that present the line of the Party on a particular question and what the Party resolves to do about the question. The draft resolutions from the NCC to the presidium will include the following questions: The National Question (this will be one resolution which states the Party’s position on the National Question within the USNA state and internationally), the Woman Question, the Youth Question, Industrial Work, the question of War and Peace, the United Front Against Fascism, the Farm Question, and the Attitude of the Party to the International Communist Movement.
Until the time of the Congress, the Conference Resolutions continue to be the basis of unity for the Continuations Committee. However, through study and struggle on the Continuations Committee, we have reached a higher level of understanding on many questions presented in the Conference Resolutions. Therefore, while the general political line of the Conference Resolutions (that is, the majority resolutions) will be maintained in the draft resolutions submitted by the NCC, they will also reflect this higher political understanding and will be written in the form of a Party resolution. In addition, they will deal with questions not considered by the Conference, such as the Farm Question.
In addition to the NCC draft resolutions, there will also be a few other resolutions. These are being submitted by a couple of organizations and collectives on the Continuations Committee. They will deal with questions such as the ENA, welfare rights, drugs, etc. The Presidium will decide whether or not these resolutions should be considered by the Congress body.
Another kind of document will be documentation papers. These are research papers which document and support statements made in the draft program and resolutions. While the documentation papers are not for acceptance by the Congress, they will be used for reports and reference material by the Congress.
Finally, there will be support statements at the Congress. These are statements issued by fraternal organizations, especially international Marxist-Leninist organizations or parties, supporting the work of the Party Congress. The Congress itself will also issue support statements or greetings to other Parties, or in support of certain national liberation struggles.
Comrades, while the political study of Congress documents is the most important task still before the Committee in continuing the work of the Conference, there are also some organizational details that we must deal with. As these are worked out on the NCC, we will inform the local committees.
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The principle task of the Congress will be to found an independent Party of the proletariat in the USNA based upon the theoretical, political and organizational principles developed by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, and clarified by the experiences of the international communist movement. In accomplishing this task, the Marxist-Leninists of the USNA face a special responsibility. Because of the traitorous line and opportunist leadership of the CPUSA, the vanguard of the proletariat in the USNA as in no other country of the world is isolated from the ideals of communism. Marxist-Leninists understand that the struggle against revisionism is an integral part of winning the vanguard of the proletariat to the cause of communism. Therefore, in discussing the Congress, we must first point out and learn from the history of the CPUSA. From its inception, the CPUSA was racked by factions. As head of the Third .International, Comrade Stalin waged a continued struggle with the CPUSA against factionalism. As long as the CPUSA adhered to the principles of the Communist International, they were able to organize and lead many militant struggles of the working class, They were also able to recruit many of the best elements of the working class. But as soon as the petty-bourgeois leadership of the party began to move away from the principles of the Third International, bourgeois distortions of Marxism-Leninism crept into the line of the party, and the factions became more open. Factional disputes prevented a scientific struggle against these distortions by placing factional interests above the interests of the whole party. This was one of the things that eventually allowed the CPUSA to follow the road of spontaneity, reformism and revisionism.
The Continuations Committee struggles to guarantee that the Marxist-Leninists who participate in the Congress are united on certain key questions developed in Marxist-Leninist Unite! In continuing the work of the Conference, we must ground ourselves deeper in the science of Marxism-Leninism as the only theoretical unity possible for a Proletarian Party of a New Type. We must struggle for unity on the main Congress documents which are an expression of the political line of the Conference, but on a higher level. We must completely unite on the necessity to dissolve all organizations on the Continuations Committee and to participate in the Congress as individuals representing the Line of Marxism-Leninism. By doing so, we will eliminate one of the basis for factions from the Congress and the Party. Finally, we must agree to conduct the Congress, and form the Party, on the political and organizational principles elaborated by the Third International. With such unity achieved before the Congress, the Congress can accomplish its work.
The Congress will be a political body of Marxist-Leninists who have related to the Continuations Committee, and who have been accepted by the National Credentials Committee and the Congress, As are all bodies of Marxist-Leninists, the Congress will be based completely on the principle of democratic-centralism. Once full democratic discussion has taken place and a decision reached the minority must submit to the majority. All must strive to understand the scientific basis for the majority positions, and voluntarily submit to these decisions. It is in this way that factions can be prevented and that the iron discipline necessary for unity of will and action in a Marxist-Leninist Party can be achieved.
The first action of the Congress will be to dissolve all organizations and collectives, including the NCC. These will be replaced with a Congress of Marxist-Leninist individuals and an elected presidium. The presidium will be the central political body of the Congress and will exist until the Central Committee of the Party Is elected. It will preside over all Congress functions. It will have the authority to decide which resolutions are brought to the floor, what committees need to be set up, how sessions will be conducted, what reports need to be made, and anything else that is necessary for the successful development of the Congress.
There will be three categories into which all attending the Congress will be placed: full representation, partial representation, and observers. (For a. full explanation of these categories, see the “Rules of Operation.”) Each of these groups will be seated in designated areas at the Congress.
The main political work of the Congress will be carried on in plenary sessions of the body as a whole. This work will include discussion and vote on the principal Party documents, as well as discussion and vote on all other resolutions, support statements and greetings which the presidium presents to the Congress. Finally, the presidium will make the actual recommendation to the Congress of the formation of the Party, a name for the Party, and a slate for the central committee. After discussion has been held and other proposals taken from the floor, the Party will be founded, the Central Committee elected and the immediate tasks of the Party set.
The Congress is only the beginning of the struggle to build the Party and to win the Independence of the proletariat. But it is an essential and terribly important step. All must resolve to come to the Congress as prepared as possible, so that the struggles and political positions advanced will bring about a higher application of Marxism-Leninism and a higher unity. We are making a qualitative leap in the development of the working class struggle in the USNA. All must strive to be up to the task.
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The following rules of operation for the Congress have been drawn up by the National Continuations Committee according to the rules by which Party Congresses have historically operated. They have been adapted to the present conditions in the USNA for a founding Party Congress. Each local committee and every organization which is a member of the Continuations Committee should discuss these rules thoroughly. Objection to any part of the rules must be written up and submitted to the NCC no later than August 15.
1. The Marxist-Leninists participating in the 1974 Congress agree to found a Multi-National, Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of a New Type in the USNA. The Party will he based upon the principles of the 19 conditions for affiliation proposed by Lenin to the Second Congress of the Third International.[*] These principles are the basis of operation for all Marxist-Leninist Parties and congresses. While we recognize that the Third International no longer exists, nevertheless, we act in the spirit of the Third International, and see these same principles to be applicable to Communist Parties today.
2. The Marxist-Leninists participating in the Congress recognize that the Congress is a political body of Marxist-Leninists which operates according to the principles of democratic-centralism, with the minority submitting to the majority, and lower bodies submitting to higher bodies.
3. Basis for full representation – All individuals and all individual members of organizations and study groups that are represented on the Continuations Committee have an opportunity to participate in the Congress provided that they are accepted and recommended by the National Credentials Committee to the Congress and accepted by the Congress itself. If for some reason, the National Credentials Committee has reason to believe that a person is politically unreliable or hostile to the line of Marxism-Leninism, the Committee or the Congress can disqualify the individual from participation in the Congress, but only with cause.
4. Each Marxist-Leninist who has been represented on the Continuations Committee and whose credentials are accepted by the Congress will have a voice and one vote, with the responsibility to speak and vote as an individual representing the line of Marxism-Leninism as applied to the conditions internationally and in the USNA today. Representation is not through delegates who speak and vote for a designated number of people in their organizations or study groups, and it is not delegate representation through the Continuations Committee. Delegate representation is impossible since a number of comrades are unaffiliated. Once a monolithic organization is formed, delegates are possible, but under the conditions of scattered groups and individuals delegate representation only opens the door for the formation of factions.
5. Partial representation – International Marxist-Leninist Organizations and individuals whose credentials are accepted by the National Credentials Committee and the Congress will have the right to partial representation in the Congress. With each individual having a right to speak but not to vote.
6. Observers – Individuals and groups who have a history of working closely with organizations on the Continuations Committee, who have supported the work of building a Multi-National, Marxist-Leninist Communist Party in the USNA, and who have proved themselves to be politically reliable will have a right to participate in the Congress as observers, provided they are accepted by the National Credentials Committee and the Congress. Observers will not have speaking or voting rights.
7. Seating – all Congress participants will be seated according to their status in the Congress as full participants, partial and observers.
8. The first point on the agenda of the Congress is to dissolve the Continuations Committee and the organizations which make up the Continuations Committee and to elect a presidium to preside over all further Congress proceedings. If any organization refuses to dissolve itself it will be expelled immediately from the Congress.
9. Recommendations for the Presidium will be made to the Congress by the National Continuations Committee and voted on by the Congress. The presidium should be composed of Marxist-Leninists who reflect the national make-up of the working class in the nations of the USNA state and the oppressed regions and national minorities of the Anglo-American Nation. It should also represent the principal organizations that have been represented on the Continuations Committee.
10. Once accepted by the Congress, the presidium will be the central political body with the responsibility to insure that the line of Marxism-Leninism is upheld and that a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party is formed at the Congress to guarantee that the Congress rules are maintained, to continue the political and organizational recommendations of the National Continuations Committee, and to direct all further work of the Congress, This will include:
a. Recommendation to the Congress of the draft Party Program and Explanation, draft Constitution of the Party, and draft resolutions that have been proposed by the National Continuations Committee. Discuss and propose to the Congress any additional resolutions which have been submitted by organizations on the Continuations Committee which the presidium feels need the consideration of the Congress. In the event that documents need greater clarity, or that additional resolutions need to be written, the presidium will appoint a committee from the Congress to do the research and writing, and report back to the presidium.
b. Carrying out the necessary organizational work to conduct the business of the Congress assigning comrades to make reports and speak on major issues, organizing the plenary sessions, setting up the necessary committees, insuring that the security apparatus of the Congress is maintained, drafting the necessary greetings to be sent to ether communist parties, etc.
c. Recommendation to the Congress of the actual formation of the Party, a name for the Party, a slate for the Central Committee of the Party, and the immediate tasks to be performed by the Central Committee.
d. Deciding the proper disciplinary action for any individual that violates the Congress Rules, and expelling from the Congress any faction that may develop.
e. Anything else necessary to insure the correct handling of the Congress.
11. While the presidium is the central political body of the Congress, with all security collectives and committees subordinate to it, the presidium itself is subordinate to the political decisions that are made by majority vote of the Congress in plenary session.
12. The main political work of the Congress will be conducted in plenary sessions of the body as a whole. The entire Congress body will discuss and vote on the draft Party Program and explanation, the draft Party Constitution and the draft resolutions submitted by the National Continuations Committee, other resolutions and statements decided by the presidium, the name of the Party, and the slate of candidates for the Central Committee of the Party.
13. Acceptance of all issues will be decided by majority vote. Once a vote has been decided, the minority must submit to the decision of the majority.
14. All decision of the Congress and all the elections it carries out are decisions of the Party and binding on all Party organizations. They cannot be challenged by anyone on any pretext whatever and can be rescinded or amended only by the next party Congress. – Lenin.
15. Each participant in the Congress is assigned to a security collective. Apart from the plenary sessions, these are the main political collectives for all individuals during the period of the Congress, All political and organizational matters which are not dealt with in plenary session itself, or in one of the committees of the presidium, should be dealt with through this collective. Each person is responsible for their actions to the collective as a whole; the chairman of the collective is responsible to the head of security who in turn is responsible to the presidium. Each collective should meet once a day to take care of the necessary political and organizational work.
16. Each collective has a particular responsibility during the period of the Congress: responsibility for housing, security of the place of the Congress, clean-up or set-up, typing and running of documents, food, literature, child care, transportation to and from the airport, culture, emergencies, etc. Each member of the security team is responsible for contributing actively to the work of the collective.
17. All participants of the Congress are responsible for adhering strictly to the following security regulations:
a. Use first names or false names only; do not ask any participant their last name.
b. Do not ask anyone about place of job or place of origin.
c. Do not bring any cameras or tapes to the Congress.
d. When at the places of housing, or the place of the Congress, use the name (a name of the organization we are representing will be given at the time of registration) when speaking to anyone who is not a participant in the Congress,
e. Strict attention must be paid to the time schedule of the Congress. Participants, must be at designated places at the designated times.
f. Participants should limit phone calls to absolute necessity. When using a phone, pay phones must be used.
g. Because comrades are unfamiliar with the areas around the places of the Congress and housing, no comrades should go out alone. All should go out in multi-national groupings, with other members of the security collective.
h. Each person is responsible to report to the chairman of their collective anytime he or she will we separated from the collective for any reason (when going out to eat, going out in the evening); and they must report back when returning.
i. Each participant has the responsibility to report any violation of the security regulations and the Congress rules to the chairman of the collective.
Any liberalism on the above points can endanger the security of individual comrades, as well as the whole Congress.
Comradely, NCC
[*]The 19 conditions for affiliation proposed by Lenin to the Second Congress of the Third International should be studied, along with the Rules of Operation for the Congress, by all Marxist-Leninists related to the Continuations Committee. The 19 points can be found in Volume 10, Selected Works of Lenin, or in the pamphlet On the Struggle Against Revisionism by Admiral Kilpatrick. The pamphlet can be obtained from the Communist League.
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1. Introductory remarks from the NCC; motion from the NCC for the dissolution of the NCC and all the organizations that are members of the NCC; presentation of a slate of people for the presidium; discussion and vote by all those being proposed for full representation.
2. Report and recommendations from the credentials committee for those who are to be full participants in the Congress, partial participants, or observers; discussion and vote. Official seating of participants.
3. Keynote address – this will include a discussion of the tasks of the party and an international and national report.
4. Statements from veteran comrades; presentation of support statements and greetings from international comrades.
5. Introductory report on the draft Party Program and explanation, discussion of the draft program and explanation. Vote.
6. Introductory report on the draft Party Constitution; discussion and vote,
7. Introductory report on each of the draft resolutions submitted from the NCC to the presidium; following each, report, discussion of the resolution; vote.
8. Presentation of other resolutions and reports decided by the presidium; discussion, vote.
9. Motion for the formation of the Party, adoption of a name; discussion and vote.
10. Recommendations from the presidium for a slate of candidates for the Central Committee; discussion and vote.
The above agenda includes the main political work to be carried out by the plenary sessions of the Congress. Included in the agenda will also be other political and organizational aspects which the presidium sees necessary to include. In addition proletarian cultural events with participation from as many comrades as possible will be included.
Comrades from each local committee and from each organization should prepare now to participate in these cultural events. In the event that comrades need musical accompaniment and do not have instruments, some of the comrades in Chicago will prepare to assist them. Comrades should send in tapes beforehand – in this way the Comrades here will have an opportunity to practice.
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Comrades,
We propose that individuals should not be represented on the Continuations Committees. Marxist-Leninists must adhere to the need for organization, discipline and ideological struggle. All individuals considering themselves communists must be willing to be in an organization or study group. (We recognize the possibility of unusual exceptions, such as an individual located where participation with others is difficult).
The view that collective behavior, discipline and democratic-centralism can await the formation of the Party is a view fraught with dangers, for it guarantees every self-proclaimed adherent to the principles (regardless of his or her social practice) a place on the Continuations Committee. “From this point of view Comrade Martov,” says Lenin, “the borderline of the Party remains quite indefinite, for every striker may ’proclaim himself a Party member.’ What is the use of this vagueness? A wide disorganizing idea, the confusing of class and Party.” (V.I. Lenin, One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, quoted by J. Stalin in Foundations of Leninism.)
Although not a direct parallel with the Second Congress of the RSDLP, the admission of individuals to our Continuations Committee is bound to have a similar effect, for it disorganizes the struggle for unity within the Continuations Committee.
Why do we say that admitting individuals disorganizes the struggle? Because the Continuations Committee, although not a leading centralist political body, nevertheless, is the main forum for the struggle and resolution of important differences in party program and strategy within our movement for a party of a new type. We are on the eve of forming a Bolshevik Communist Party. We should not wait until the Congress to make clear and carry out the rules of membership, the principles of discipline, the methods of operation and the efficiency of such a Party:
“A member of the Party is one who accepts its program, and who supports the Party both financially and by personal participation in one of the party organizations.” Paragraph one of the Party Rules (Bolsheviks).
The great teacher Joseph Stalin points out in Foundations of Leninism that the “Party is the organized detachment of the working class...,; it must imbue the millions of unorganized non-Party workers with the spirit of discipline and system in the struggle, with the spirit of organization and endurance. But the Party can fulfill these tasks only if it is itself the embodiment of discipline and organization, if it is itself the organized detachment of the proletariat.”
We expect constant struggle against individualism and ultra-democracy before the Party is formed, as well as after. We don’t think it is right to act like Martov and the opportunists on organizational principles before the Congress and within the Continuations Committee, and then become Leninists at the Party Congress. We oppose the view of Martov who “wanted to throw the doors of the Party wide open to unstable non-proletarian elements. ” (Lenin) We encourage a struggle against individualism, and see no need for individual representation on the Continuations Committee.
Comrades, we ask the National Continuations Committee to reconsider its position on individual membership and to respond to our criticism. And we ask the Regional Continuations Committee to help all Individuals to join or form organisations, study circles, or factory groups.
Fraternally,
The San Jose Study Group
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The NCC welcomes the letter from the San Jose Study Group. Adhering to the political principles of unity for the Continuations Committee, and to the democratic-centralist discipline of the Committee, they have written up their points of disagreement and submitted them for the discussion of the whole CC. It is this approach to struggle and discussion on the Continuations Committee which we need to advance and unite all who are on the Committee prior to the Congress.
However, the National Continuations Committee disagrees with the proposal made. The San Jose Study Group asks that the NCC, “reconsider its position on individual membership.” It must first be stated that this position was not made by the NCC, but a position made by the Conference of North American Marxist-Leninists at the time that the Continuations Committee was formed. The call for the Congress states, “The Continuations Committee which was formed at the Conference of North American Marxist-Leninists has the task of organizing a Congress in which all serious Marxist-Leninists and revolutionaries will come together to form a proletarian Party of a New Type in the US.” This call was to include both individual Marxist-Leninists, and members of organizations.
Since the decision was made by the Conference, it is not up for debate. It is the role of the Continuations Committee to continue the work of the Conference. Therefore, it is not within the auspices of the Committee, either the NCC or the CC as a whole, to change this right of representation of individuals, just as it is not within our authority to change the political line of the Conference. To do so would violate democratic-centralism. Only the Congress can vote to change or further develop the Conference line.
This policy of representation was put forth by the Conference because it correctly reflects the conditions existing among Marxist-Leninists, that of many scattered groups and individuals. While it may be good training for all comrades to submit to the discipline of an organization or collective other than the Continuations Committee, it must be understood that the Continuations Committee itself operates according to democratic-centralism.
Comradely,
the NCC
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Dear Comrades,
After study, we on the Detroit Continuations Committee more fully understand and rally behind the May Conference Resolution on the Party.
However we feel that point #5 would convey a clearer understanding of democratic-centralism and iron discipline if a fuller quoting from Stalin’s FOUNDATIONS OF LENINISM would be included. We believe all comrades will unite on the necessity of being clear about the role of criticism and conflict of opinion in the development of iron discipline.
The fuller quoting in point #5 should be included as follows:
5) The Party is the embodiment of unity of will, incompatible with the existence of factions, “The achievement and maintenance of the dictatorship of the Proletariat is impossible without a party which is strong by reason of its solidarity and iron discipline. But iron discipline in the party is inconceivable without unity of will, without complete and absolute unity of action on the part of all members of the party. This does not mean of course, that the” possibility of conflicts of opinion within the Party is thereby precluded. On the contrary, iron discipline does not preclude but presupposes criticism and conflict of opinion within the Party. Least of all does it mean that discipline must be “blind”. On the contrary iron discipline does not preclude but presupposes conscious and voluntary submission, for only conscious discipline can be truly iron discipline. But after a conflict of opinion has been closed, after criticism has been exhausted and a decision has been arrived at, unity of will and unity of action of all Party members are the necessary conditions without which neither Party unity nor iron discipline in the Party is conceivable.”
BUILD A MULTI-NATIONAL, MARXIST-LENINIST COMMUNIST PARTY!
Detroit Continuations Committee
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In discussion on the New Orleans Continuations Committee, of the Conference Resolution “Party of A New Type,” the comrades indicated that there was no opposition raised to any of the points in the resolution. We are in full unity.
There are two additions to the resolution proposed for Page 4, Par, 2:
1. The leading role of centralism should have been gone into more thoroughly to ensure that all the participants in the Congress understand that democracy is relative and that Marxism-Leninism is not up for debate.
2. That the party is a party of leaders, not big heads and rank and file. To ensure this, democracy under the leadership of centralism must be given full play.
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CORRECTION – The first sentence in the article on “The Congress” [above – EROL] should read: The principle task of the Congress will be to found an independent party of the proletariat in the USNA based upon the theoretical, political and organizational principles developed by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung, and clarified by the experiences of the international communist movement.