First Published: The People’s Tribune, Vol. 1, No. 1, November 1968.
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 California Communist League was formed a few months ago in Los Angeles by a group of Marxist-Leninists for the purpose of participating in an organized fahsion in the class struggle and developing a body of theory with which to fight the ruling class and most particularly the U.S. imperialist state.
After a careful evalution of the politial scene and the various organizations in it, we have come several conclusions: that the spontaneous struggles of the unorganized and unskilled workers in general, and black and brown minority workers in particular, against increased repression and exploitation, represent the focal point of the objective class struggle in the U.S. today. This spontaneous movement is advancing steadily toward direct confrontation with the imperialist state in the absence of any organized revolutionary leadership (a party of the working class). Unless a party of the working class is formed which is capable of organizing and leading the workers and uniting all who can be united in the workers cause, this confrontation will result in a bloody defeat of the working class. A fascist dictatorship will be established in the U.S. (for which the stage has already been set), and a large number of militants will either be killed or co-opted by the imperialists.
History has proved that the working class cannot emancipate itself, or the liberation of oppressed nations and nationalities cannot be achieved through the political parties controlled by the ruling class. Only a revolutionary party of the working class led by the most class conscious and militant sections of the workers can do it.
Although we do not feel that we can form such a party at this time, we propose to start with a revolutionary organization that participates in the daily struggles of the working class, that publishes a periodical newspaper that expresses the viewpoint of the working class on the major political issues of the day, that fights for the complete unity of the working class, that deals with the pressing problems of national oppression (by raising in a concrete way the slogans which will provide a correct solution to the problem: full equality for the minorities in the Anglo-American nation, and independence for Puerto Rican and the Negro nations), that unfailingly fights against and exposes all the traitors and renegades from the working class who mouth the cause of the working people only to advance their own careers and fortunes, and lastly that leads the fight to find the body of knowledge (theory) which will lead the working class along the least bloody and most direct path to the victory of Socialism.
The California Communist League bases its confidence in this cause on the universal truths of Marxism-Leninism, which is the only correct guide to the revolutionary struggles of the people. We know what must be done and although it will be an extremely hard and difficult task to defeat the enemy of the peoples of the world, our own U.S. imperialists, we are confident in the inevitability of the victory of the peoples’ cause and the victory of socialism in the U.S. and throughout the world. We call upon all honest revolutionaries, Marxist-Leninists, and workers who realize the necessity of such a struggle, and who are willing to participate in the struggle, to contact us.