The method, the sum total of organisational forms and tactical positions an organisation or a class deploys in its service, the whole set of strategic actions, is the concentrated reflection of what an organisation or a class wishes to achieve or accomplish – it is entirely dependent on the ideology and political line of that organisation or that class. There is no such thing as method being just an inert form without dialectical relationship to the content. Method, to us is the sum total of forms, the sum total of forms of struggle we undertake to achieve our ends. And this form, this method is the reflection of our ideological and political lines. Revisionists and opportunists use a particular method, a form, not because that method and form can be useful to anyone and that the revisionists and opportunists are making a choice about it, but, instead, the concrete conditions force the revisionists and the opportunusts to make use of these forms to serve their class interests. For example, the leader of the “Left”-sloganeering front of Khrushchovite revisionism was forced to make use of the method of gossip and slander, the method of reactionary sectarianism and the method of conspiring and intriguing against his own comrades and the leadership to which he professed so much “loyalty” just a few weeks earlier. Can the Marxist-Leninists use the method of intriguing and conspiring to achieve their ends? What have Marxist-Leninists to fear in our Party? Only the revisionists and opportunists hide their politics in our Party and only they can advance their cause by intriguing and conspiring. The Marxist-Leninists have nothing to gain by it. There are some individuals in Canada (one of whom is this leader of the “Left”-sloganeering front of Khrushchovite revisionism) who claim that form has nothing to do with the political line and how we handle contradictions amongst the Marxist-Leninists and amongst the masses is not decisive. What is decisive is to utter revolutionary phrases on one hand (so-called “content”) and oppose revolution in practice (that is, practice is accidental and irrelevant for these revisionists and opportunists, and they demand that we should not learn from one’s practice but we should only look at the words, which they call the “content”). By pursuing this counter-revolutionary line, the leader of this front misled several individuals and called upon them not to come under proletarian discipline but, participate in active pursuit of slandering and creating gossip as the method of confusing the Marxist-Leninist political line. While these individuals say that form or method is unimportant, at the same time, the main content of their criticism of our Party is that “the Party is secttarian” and “we agree with the Party but not with the methods of work” which is to say that it is extremely difficult to find any fault with the ideological and political lines, what is wrong is that the Party comrades are making the mistake of putting the politics into practice. Very clearly, it is the practice of organising revolution and developing correct methods of work through stubborn and hard struggles that they don’t like. So they, in hysteria, accuse “you are sectarian you are applying Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought to the concrete conditions of Canada – how can you do such a thing!”
Under the conditions of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, no concession can be given nor can a relaxed view be taken on these matters inside the Party. Neither can the loose form of organisation be tolerated nor loose ideological and political lines. It is only solid inner-Party discipline which will assist in taking the correct attitude towards the masses. It is looseness of organisation and political line which gives rise to mistakes in the struggles of the masses. By recruiting cadres from the actual struggles of the masses and training them in the course of the developing revolutionary movement, we can organise a Party of disciplined Marxist-Leninists who can sustain the struggles of the masses over a long period of time and win victory over the exploiting classes.
Of the two aspects of the contradiction between unity and disunity, content and form, practice and theory, revolution and counter-revolution, unity, content, practice and revolution are primary and decisive It is because unity, content, practice and revolution are primary and decisive that the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie attempts to turn this relationship into the opposite and make disunity, the question of form, theory and counter-revolution as the main trend and through this method attempts to keep the people in bondage. The fact that there is dictatorship of the bourgeoisie must never be forgotten. The revisionists and opportunists attempt to tell the masses and especially the Marxist-Leninists in the Party that they should not consider the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie as a serious threat because, of course, “revolution is the main trend”. Through this method they slacken the vigilance of the Marxist-Leninists and weaken their revolutionary strength. To give the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie tit for tat, the Marxist-Leninists must build unity by actively destroying the forces causing disunity; enhance practice by actually making theory serve practice; safeguard content by destroying the reactionary forms and building the revolutionary forms and advance by taking decisive action against counter-revolution. So it is the task of the Marxist-Leninists not to be fooled by the sham statements of the revisionists and opportunists who give the metaphysics that unity, content, practice and revolution are primary and decisive and after saying it do the opposite in practice, that is, sow disunity, undermine content, disrupt revolutionary practice and support counter-revolution.
By firmly adhering to the correct Marxist-Leninist political line and in the proletarian revolutionary style, we can certainly make sure that revolution advances while counter-revolution suffers one defeat after another.
In summing up, the question of“correct handling of contadictions among the people under the conditions of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie” essentially amounts to what attitude we take towards the revolutionary mass movement and building the Party. In both cases, it is the Marxist-Leninist political line which must be put in command. It will take a very long period of struggle before we win decisive victories on either front, but we must begin correctly by upholding the Marxist-Leninist political line in Party building and methods of work. Then we will steadily advance from a crude and weak organisation to a pure and strong organisation. It will take the entire historical period of the dictatorship of the bourgoisie and the period of preparation and overthrow of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie with the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the whole historical period of the dictatorship of the proletariat. We must continue organising for this entire historical epoch.
We are going through very complicated struggles in Canada. Concrete analysis of concrete conditions shows that the revolution is very weak while the monopoly capitalist class is temporarily strong This relative weakness of revolution and relative strength of counter-revolution can be reversed if we persist in disseminating the Marxist-Leninist political line and giving the monopoly capitalists tit-for-tat on many fronts. During the federal elections campaign, we found that while our grasp of economics, politics and culture of Canada was pretty scanty, and in many ways superficial, the representatives of the monopoly capitalists were qualitatively much worse and totally incapable of dealing with the people. Monopoly capitalists will never be able to rectify themselves on this front because it goes against their class interests, while we can rectify ourselves and we should insist on everyone in the Party having vigorous training in the Marxist-Leninist political line through active struggles in the masses. This aspect of work, at this time, is very important. If we carry this task now we will be able to brave the greater storms tomorrow. The Party plays the decisive role in carrying this task through to the end. And we must insist on having a Party which is professional, disciplined, vigorous and capable of executing various tasks of the revolution. We have such a Party. Let us further strengthen it!