First Published: Unite!, Vol. 4, No. 3, March 1, 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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For the first time since the degeneration of the Communist Party U.S.A. in 1944, the working class has a Marxist-Leninist program. On March 1st, the MLOC published the Draft Party Program for the reconstitution of the vanguard communist party.
The Program, approved last fall by the First Congress of the MLOC, represents a significant break with opportunism, reformism and revisionism. With the adoption of the Program and the founding of the communist party in the United States, the spontaneous working-class movement will be transformed into a class-conscious struggle for the overthrow, of the bourgeoisie, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, socialism and communism.
This Program is a declaration of war against the U.S. bourgeoisie and the worldwide system of imperialism and reaction. It is the product of many years of struggle in the trade unions, on the shop floor, in mass organizations and in the Black and Chicano Nations. It reflects the experience of many veteran class fighters, the strength of the masses, and the science of Marxism-Leninism.
The battle for the new Program goes back many years, long before the formation of the MLOC in 1975. The struggle for a Marxist-Leninist program is a continuation of the struggle against the class collaboration of the CPUSA in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. It is a continuation of the battle waged against the rise of Khrushchevite revisionism. The Program was tempered in the heat of the struggle against the new revisionist tide, the “theory of the three worlds”.
The Draft Party Program is a program of class struggle, achieved as a result of the efforts of many courageous fighters, who have valiantly fought against the bourgeoisie and their social props for the past 34 years.
This Draft Party Program is the only Leninist program in the United States today. It takes the science of Marxism-Leninism and applies it to the concrete conditions. As a result, it is a real guide to action for the U.S. working class and its allies in the struggle for state power.
The Program is an internationalist Program which recognizes that our greatest responsibility to the peoples of the world is to overthrow the U.S. bourgeoisie. Unlike other programs which try to cover for the U.S. bourgeoisie, this Program upholds that U.S. imperialism is a mortal enemy of the peoples of the world. The Program stands in direct opposition to any and all theories which proclaim that U.S. imperialism is no longer aggressive or expansionist.
Not only does the Program correctly direct our fire against the U.S. bourgeoisie, it is also a guide to the course of struggle ahead. It correctly defends the revolutionary alliance between the proletariat and the oppressed nations in the U.S. as the only way to victory. This Program upholds and demands the right of Black and Chicano Nations to self-determination, up to and including secession. By taking this correct internationalist stand, the Program cements this strategic alliance and starkly exposes the national chauvinism of all other programs.
As a part of the course of struggle, the Program places great stress on the necessity to train and prepare the working class and its allies for armed insurrection. The Program demands the right of the working class to arm itself. This is a direct blow to the revisionist theory of the peaceful road to socialism.
The Draft Party Program takes up the revolutionary demands of the working class and its allies. By making these demands both concise and concrete the Program is a fighting tool in the day-to- day struggles against the bourgeoisie. This section of the Program is in sharp contrast to other programs whose demands are neither concrete nor have polemics against revisionism and any sense of order or priority.
This Program is not a document to be read once and placed on a dusty shelf in some library, never to be brought out again. The opportunism of other programs is reflected in their length, abstraction and muddled state. These programs are impossible to use as a guide to action.
The Draft Party Program will be tested in the heat of class struggle so that when the Founding Congress of the Party is convened there will be a genuine basis for improving it for adoption by the Congress. This is the Leninist approach to sharpening all of the tools of class struggle.
This Program calls on the working class and all progressive forces to take up the Program, and use it to smash the bourgeoisie.
With the Draft Party Program in hand, the working class and its allies will once again know the nature and course of the struggle ahead.
The MLOC is committed to make every effort to unite the various Marxist-Leninist forces which exist in the U.S. We have always defended the view that polemics, against revisionism and the basis for drawing clear lines of demarcation between Marxism-Leninism and opportunism must be centered on the Party Program.
The Draft Party Program submitted by the MLOC draws sharp lines of demarcation with other programs on major questions of principle – the Black National Question, the Chicano National Question, the nature of U.S. imperialism, armed struggle, and the strategy and tactics of revolution, We call on all Marxist-Leninist forces to come forward and struggle for unity based on the principles of the Program. It will be on this basis that genuine Marxist-Leninists can unite and form a single Marxist-Leninist Party.
We know that there are many genuine comrades in numerous organizations throughout the U.S., comrades who are unclear or mistaken about questions of Marxism-Leninism. We call on all these comrades to study and struggle to adopt this Draft Party Program. Those comrades, Marxist-Leninist circles or organizations that seek to unite with this Program are welcomed on the basis of correct, principles governing the relations between Marxist-Leninists. In the next issue of UNITE! we will issue an open letter to other organizations inviting discussion on the Draft Party Program. We strongly encourage all Marxist-Leninist comrades and organizations to take up this call to build the party of the working class.
The publication of this Pro-gram comes at an extremely positive moment in the class struggle. Over the last several months, for the first time in many years, clear, decisive and definite lines of demarcation have been drawn in the international communist movement. This is the Program of a definite Marxist- Leninist trend. This is the only Program that can lead the U.S. working class in carrying out its historic mission of the transition to socialism and communism. This Program stands alone as a beacon to the workers and their allies by pointing out the true road of struggle for victory over U.S. imperialism.
The Central Committee of the MLOC invites all those who battle against U.S. imperialism to discuss this Program, to use this Program in class struggle.
We invite all those who, can unite with this Program to join with us in the reconstitution of the Party. We invite all those with differences in strategy and tactics to discuss these differences with us, and struggle for unity on the basis of Marxist-Leninist principles.
In the world today, when the imperialist camp, headed by U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, are everywhere preparing for imperialist, world war and fascist reaction, the working class and its allies must move boldly to block the path of imperialist reaction. This Program is a powerful contribution to the development of the subjective factor in the U.S., the consciousness and organization of the proletariat and its allies to make revolution, establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, socialism and communism.
The publication of this Program signals the reality that the conditions are already prepared for the formation of a vanguard communist party. With the circulation, use and improvement of this Program, the time will be ready to sweep aside over thirty years of revisionist hegemony in the working class movement and to re-establish a genuine headquarters for Marxism-Leninism and proletarian revolution.
Workers, Oppressed Nations and Peoples of the World UNITE!
On To The Party!