Since the negative aspects of this proposal have been laid out already, we will not go into them again here. Rather, we will propose a general format for a Marxist-Leninist newspaper that we should publish, on an interim basis, until our application of Marxism-Leninism enables us to develop a clear political line.
We propose to continue putting out a newspaper which would be primarily (though not exclusively) aimed at advanced workers and revolutionary intellectuals (which we believe make up the bulk of our current readership). By advanced workers, we mean working class militants who are open to Communist ideas, although they may not consider themselves revolutionaries at this time.
Content of the paper would focus on several areas:
1. Coverage of spontaneous struggles in the workplace, among native people, in schools, among people of other national minorities, among women, etc. This coverage, however, would differ substantially from our current practice. Articles would omit the details of struggles which do not enlighten the readers as to their political content. For the time being, we might continue to support the “most militant” elements in a particular struggle even if the political outlook of these militants is quite different from our own. However, we should never restrict ourselves to that type of support and should continuously point out that the resolution to the problems of workers, women, national minorities, etc. is not possible under capitalism but only under socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat. We should explain what we mean by socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat as well as fully explicate the nature of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie which we currently live under. We should also point out, to the best of our ability at this time, what steps can be taken to advance the struggle for socialism. In short, we have to tell the truth, to share what we do know with our readership and also to admit what we don’t know (yet). Debate among Marxist-Leninists should be encouraged within the pages of the newspaper with the aim of resolving questions and adopting collective positions – rather than debating indefinitely.
2. We should write about all political developments which affect the lives of working people: that is, elections, various machinations of bourgeois parliaments, the role of cultural and media propoganda in various situations, etc. Until now we have too often refused to cover and analyze developments that have a negative effects on workers when there is no immediate organizational “remedy” or “struggle” available. This error has been a reflection of our Economist politics and, as Lenin points out in What Is To Be Done?, to restrict the focus of agitation and propaganda to the self-organization of workers is to retard the political development of the working class and hence to retard the struggle.
3. We should continue our anti-imperialist coverage of world affairs on the basis of a Marxist-Leninist stance on the anti-imperialist struggle. Again, we should focus primarily on the political line which enables anti-imperialist movements to achieve victory or which causes them to be temporarily defeated.
4. We should not hesitate to attack all forms of opportunism, social democracy, revisionism, trotskyism, anarcho-syndicalism, when they appear in the working class movement. In doing that, we should be conscious of two things: 1) The basis of, say, CP manipulations in the trade union movement cannot be properly understood without explaining theoretically what revisionism is. 2) Our own lack of strategic alternatives will condition, and to some extent limit, our ability to flush out various forms of opportunism in the working class movement.
5. We should begin to explain the basic theoretical concepts of Marxism-Leninism so that advanced workers may begin themselves to use and apply the methods of proletarian revolution. We should be honest about the theoretical and practical problems which confront the Marxist-Leninist movement.