First Published: The Call, Vol. 5, No. 18, September 6, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
The Marxist-Leninist Fighting Union, a collective in San Diego, Calif., was recently accepted as a member of the Organizing Committee for a Marxist-Leninist Party. Below we print excerpts from their unity statement. The collective members have been active in Gary Tyler defense work and building the fightback.
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The Marxist-Leninist Fighting Union was formed earlier this year from a group of Marxists and advanced workers who had organized and been active in the San Diego Call Support Committee.
We originally came together last year to take up practical communist work which we felt at this time had to be done if a new communist party was going to be built. We did this against a trend in this area which saw open communist work as either too dangerous or not a priority.
Practically, what we wanted to do was to take timely and relevant propaganda and agitation to the masses of workers, unemployed and GI.’s written in their own everyday language. We also wanted to actively help initiate and lend support to the Struggles of the masses that are possible now and to bring Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought into the midst of these struggles.
We have come to realize that anti-revisionist groups must take up open communist work among the masses from the very beginning if they are to succeed in uniting with and developing advanced workers from the working class. We think that experience shows that it is impossible to develop and to keep a correct line in isolation from the masses and their struggles.
In our ongoing work, we have made some errors which we have now seriously taken up correcting. At times, we failed to grasp how our work affected and was part of a nation-wide revolutionary movement. We failed to see that unity is the main trend today, and so fell into the error of sectarianism. We, thinking ourselves to be the only “true Marxists” in San Diego, failed at times in uniting with other Marxists who have much to contribute toward the destruction of the imperialist system. We are now making efforts to unite with these progressive people on the basis of anti-imperialist unity.
Unity is the main trend today within the anti-revisionist movement. We have entered a new period in which party-building is not only possible, but a question of immediacy. The factors for both war and revolution are increasing. Within the U.S., the forces for war are organized. Without their Marxist-Leninist party, the revolutionary forces will remain disorganized and unable to accomplish their revolutionary task.
We unite with the principles of unity of the Organizing Committee for a Marxist-Leninist Party and dedicate ourselves to take up the practical tasks of party organization and the drafting of the party program. We urge comrades in San Diego and nationally who have basic unity with these principles of the Organizing Committee to make a break with sectarianism and take up with us the new tasks at hand in consolidating the line and the organizational unity of the new party.