1. The purpose of the revolutionary Communist Party is to lead the working class in making a triumphant proletarian revolution. The Party will be the vanguard of the working class; at the same time it will be an inseparable part of the working class.
2. Without a centre of bold, scientific leadership, the working class cannot sustain or develop its struggle against the British imperialist bourgeoisie. For this reason, building the revolutionary Communist Party of the working class is the central task in Britain today. We must arrange all our work around this central task, so as to serve this central task.
3. The Party must be built on three main fronts: ideological, political and organizational.
4. Ideologically, we must build the Party and arm it with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought in a constant struggle for proletarian ideology against all forms of bourgeois ideology.
5. Politically, we must build the Party as the political Party of the working class, by closely integrating the universal truths of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought with the concrete practice of the British revolution.
6. Organizationally, we must build the Party by grasping the proletarian organizational principle of democratic centralism. Democratic centralism is essential for the working class to fight with unity of will and unity of action. Only democratic centralism can enable the Party speedily to concentrate correct ideas upwards and give centralized guidance downwards.
7. The democratic centralist discipline of the Party is iron discipline because it is conscious and voluntary discipline. The four main rules of Party discipline are:
1) the individual is subordinate to the organization;
2) the minority is subordinate to the majority;
3) the lower level is subordinate to the higher level; and
4) the entire membership is subordinate to the Central Committee.
8. The Party must have a style of work of integrating theory with practice, forging close links with the masses, and practising self-criticism.
9. The Party must have deep roots in the working class and working people. It must give leadership to the struggle of the class by using the mass line.
10. The imperialist bourgeoisie will not tolerate the existence of the Party as soon as this endangers their fundamental interests. The Party must rely on the masses, the true bastion of iron, against the counter-attacks of the bourgeoisie. The more the Party is prepared for these counter-attacks, the more the bourgeoisie will hesitate to strike.
11. The resources organized to carry out the many tasks of Party building at present are limited. It is therefore essential to grasp priorities and to mobilize all positive factors.
12. At this stage when organized resources are limited, we must choose priorities between different classes strictly: we must direct all mass work to the working class, and concentrate particularly on the industrial working class.
13. Although in general practice is primary over theory, at the present stage in Britain theory must be primary over practice. The main theoretical tasks in Party building are to develop a programme, and an analysis of classes in Britain today. However practice is essential and in some specific aspects of work it is already primary.
14. It is essential to grasp priorities correctly on the basis of the two historical tasks of revolution. The first historical task is to win the class conscious vanguard of the proletariat to a conviction in the necessity for revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The second historical task is to lead the masses in practical activity towards the revolution.
In the period of the first historical task propaganda is primary and agitation is secondary; although agitational articles should dominate our political paper quantitatively, propaganda articles play the decisive role, providing the tool to consolidate the advanced workers in order to win them to the Party.
15. We must overcome the division of the small British Marxist-Leninist movement into a number of parties, organizations, and circles. However it is premature to found the new revolutionary Communist Party until we have a Party programme and a single leading centre. The target in the middle term must be to form one single democratic centralist Party-building organization.
16. We must struggle hard to unite all genuine Marxist-Leninists. In uniting Marxist-Leninists, the struggle for ideological and political unity must play the leading role. When ideological and political unity has been won on major questions between different groups it must be consolidated organizationally by uniting in a single democratic centralist organization.
17. In the course of the battle to unite all genuine Marxist-Leninists the correct ideological and political line for the revolution in Britain will be strengthened through struggle. Active ideological struggle is the key link in uniting the Marxist-Leninist movement for Party-building.
18. We must grasp three specific tasks to fulfill the aim of establishing a single democratic centralist Party-building organization:
1) Ideological struggle and education against small group mentality. Small group mentality resists the idea of mobilizing all positive factors for Party-building. Its slogan is: ’the smaller, the purer’. In order to break down the divisions into small groups, Marxist-Leninists must carry out Mao Tsetung’s call, “do more self-criticism, seek common ground on major questions and reserve minor differences”.
2) Protracted struggle against incorrect ideological and political lines on the British revolution. We must wage this fight in a militant and scientific spirit with the unity of all genuine Marxist-Leninists as the aim of the struggle.
3) Forming larger democratic centralist organizations by uniting smaller organizations. This is the key immediate organizational step on the road to a single democratic centralist Party-building organization. Federal forms of unification are opportunist because they do not challenge small group mentality openly and they violate democratic centralism. We must unite to form larger democratic centralist organizations by overcoming lines of demarcation on major questions through active ideological struggle – the weapon for ensuring principled unity.
19. We must carry out these specific tasks boldly and thoroughly. The working class must have its genuine revolutionary Communist Party! The revolutionary Communist Party is being built!
Adopted at the 1st Congress of the Revolutionary Communist League of Britain, July, 1977.