Published: Workers’ Daily News Release, produced under the leadership of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists, Vol. 1, No. 1, September 12, 1973.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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On August 28, 1973, the last day of the historic First Conference of American Marxist-Leninists, the Red Star Cadre (Marxist-Leninist), the Red Collective, the Red Banner (Marxist-Leninist), the Lexington Communist Collective (Marxist-Leninist), the Association of Communist Workers and the American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist-Leninist) united together to form a single national Marxist-Leninist Center of the American proletariat, the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists. The formation of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists comes at a decisive time in the development of the Marxist-Leninist movement in the US and in the development of the revolutionary mass movement of the American working class. It represents the deepest heartfelt desires of all the Marxist-Leninists throughout the country to sit together and develop their solidarity in order to build the Marxist-Leninist Party and serve the proletarian revolution. The formation of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists marks an end to the period of splitting up and right-wing sectarianism in the Marxist-Leninist movement which has been caused by the modern revisionists and ushers in the stage of Marxist-Leninist groups and individuals uniting together from all over the country in order to further smash up modern revisionism and build the Marxist-Leninist Party capable of leading the revolutionary mass movement of the American working class towards proletarian revolution.
It has always been the deepest aspiration of the genuine Marxist-Leninists to unite together to build one Marxist-Leninist Center in the U.S. This aspiration reflects the needs and desires of the American proletariat to have a single united Communist Party which can unite the entire working class around itself so as to isolate the monopoly capitalist class and its allies and overthrow their fascist rule. The monopoly capitalist class knows well that the unity of the Marxist-Leninists will necessarily bring about the unity of the entire working class and that this unity will lead to the complete overthrow of the capitalist system in the U.S. It is for this reason that the monopoly capitalists have long used their revisionist and trotskyite henchmen to divide the Marxist-Leninist forces and the revolutionary people and to liquidate the revolutionary mass movement of the American working class. The Red Star Cadre (Marxist-Leninist), the Red Collective, the Red Banner (Marxist-Leninist), the Lexington Communist Collective (Marxist-Leninist), the Association of Communist Workers and the American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist-Leninist) all developed out of the revolutionary mass movements of the American working class and people in the 60’s and 70’s and each organization has profound experience with modern revisionism and its tactics of splitting the Marxist-Leninist forces and using reformism to liquidate the revolutionary mass movement. Over the years these organizations took upon themselves the responsibility of holding high the genuine revolutionary aspirations of the American working class and side by side with all genuine Marxist-Leninists in the U.S. fought countless battles to uphold and disseminate Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, launched continual struggles against the monopoly capitalists, fought to overcome many aspects of bourgeois ideology and influences inside their organizations and struggled to build genuine Communist organizations in their own areas. Firsthand, these organizations have learned the evil nature of modern revisionism and the profound truth of the Marxist-Leninist thesis that “without a revolutionary Party there can be no revolutionary movement”. It is on the basis of this common experience in struggle against modern revisionism and for the Marxist-Leninist Party that these organizations have united together to form one single Marxist-Leninist Center of the American working class.
In November, 1972, the Red Star Cadre (Marxist-Leninist), the Red Collective, the Association of Communist Workers and the American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist-Leninist) sat together with fraternal comrades from the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) in the Preparatory Committee of the Conference of North American Marxist-Leninists, This historic Preparatory Committee meeting issued the great CALL FOR A CONFERENCE OF NORTH AMERICAN MARXIST-LENINISTS which called upon all Marxist-Leninists in the U.S. to sit together to unite for the cause of the Marxist-Leninist Party and organizing the proletarian revolution This CALL brought the struggle to unite the Marxist-Leninists in the U.S. into one National Center to the objective level. During the weeks and months since November, the organizations which upheld the CALL worked hard inside to sit together and clarify the basic Marxist-Leninist ideological and political line, and worked hard outside to bring the CALL for the Conference of North American Marxist-Leninists and the Marxist-Leninist political line to the revolutionary organizations and revolutionary masses throughout the breadth and length of our country The ranks of the Preparatory Committee grew and the founding organizations were joined by the Red Banner (Marxist-Leninist) and the Lexington Communist Collective (Marxist-Leninist) as well as other Marxist-Leninist individuals from the West Coast and other areas of the country. In the First Conference of American Marxist-Leninists, held in Detroit, Michigan, from August 18 to 28, all these organizations further clarified the Marxist-Leninist ideological and political line and solidified their ranks through a mass democratic Conference. This historic Conference gave birth to the Central Organization of U.S Marxist-Leninists. During the entire period from November 1972 to August 1973, the genuine Marxist-Leninists struggled hard against small-group mentality and splittism and tenaciously fought to uphold Mao Tsetung Thought inside and outside the Marxist-Leninist ranks. The success of the First Conference of American Marxist-Leninists has fully created material conditions on the ideological, political and organizational fronts to launch even further attacks on modern revisionism and opportunism and their masters, the U.S monopoly capitalists, and to carry through to the end the sacred task of reconstituting the genuine Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of the American working class.
With Marxist-Leninists from all over the country uniting to strengthen one national Marxist-Leninist Center, the revisionist Party USA, which treacherously calls itself “communist”, finds itself increasingly isolated in left-wing and progressive circles and it is for this reason that a new breed of revisionism is also emerging on the national scene in opposition to the trend of building the Marxist-Leninist Party which is represented be the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists. Certain individuals from Chicago, heading the so-called “Communist” League, are parading themselves as wise old anti-revisionists in the hope of gaining hegemony over certain sections of left-wing circles; certain ex-“leaders” of the student movement who were notorious for their anti-Marxist-Leninist stand in the 60’s have put on Mao badges and taken up such slogans as “ultra-leftism and dogmatism are the main problem, not modern revisionism” and “now is the time to sink deep roots and wait till later to build the Party”. Together these groups are attempting to isolate and split the genuine Marxist-Leninist forces and prevent the development of Marxist-Leninist leadership in the revolutionary mass movement of the American working class. Especially since November 1972, these groups and individuals have exposed themselves as anti-revisionist only in words, while in deeds they employ the same methods and style as the revisionists and adhere to an anti-Marxist-Leninist line.
Those people who are screaming about the “problem of ultra-leftism” have employed the old and worn-out trick of the revisionists of maligning the genuine Marxist-Leninists as “sectarians” and “CIA agents” while they themselves refuse to sit together with the genuine Marxist-Leninists in order to sort out differences and reach points of unity in an open and above-board manner. At the same time, the so-called “Communist” League attempted to split the Marxist-Leninist forces and the Preparatory Committee from within. The “Communist” League sat together with the comrades from the Preparatory Committee in its first meeting in November and agreed to: (1) work together to execute the political line of convening the Conference of North American Marxist-Leninists and of building the Marxist-Leninist Party, and (2) to keep all differences for internal discussion and refrain from attacking any of the participating organizations. But right from the beginning these sham anti-revisionists gave their word only in order to break it.
Immediately that the Preparatory Committee meeting was finished, the “Communist” League attempted to turn one section of the Preparatory Committee against another, isolate and split other Marxist-Leninists through character assassination, rumors, lies, etc. They used the CALL for the Conference of North American Marxist-Leninists as a method of fattening their own group while undermining the unity of the Marxist-Leninists. Without consulting the Preparatory Committee and in complete violation of the form of discipline of the Preparatory Committee, the “Communist” League called a bogus conference in Chicago in May, attempting to palm it off as the “Conference of North American Marxist-Leninists”, and thereby create confusion among the Marxist-Leninists and gain prestige for itself. They carried out vile slander campaigns against the Preparatory Committee and each of the participating organizations. But their splitting and wrecking tactics only caused the genuine Marxist-Leninists to unite together more closely and their ranks to swell. The Red Banner (Marxist-Leninist) came forward to uphold the principle of unity of the Marxist-Leninists and denounce the splittism and wrecking activities of the “Communist” League. The Lexington Communist Collective (Marxist-Leninist) also smashed through the rumors and splitting atmosphere caused by the “Communist” League and joined the ranks of the Preparatory Committee.
The entire class struggle between the genuine Marxist-Leninists and the sham Marxist-Leninists and sham anti-revisionists, which reached the objective and national scale in November 1972, has served to greatly enhance the unshakeable solidarity amongst the Marxist-Leninists and provided them with tremendous experience through both positive and negative example. This class struggle is bound to develop further in the coming months and years.
The First Conference of American Marxist-Leninists and the founding of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists has united comrades from all over the country around the necessity of carrying through to the end the struggle against modern revisionism and to reconstitute the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party as the decisive factor in organizing the American working class for proletarian revolution. The comrades of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists are united on the firm basis of the Marxist-Leninist political line of building instruments of working-class propaganda in the midst of the revolutionary mass movement. It is by clarifying the Marxist-Leninist line on all the problems facing the American working class and people, organizing wide-scale dissemination and discussion of the Marxist-Leninist ideological and political line amongst the masses, sitting together and uniting with all genuine Marxist-Leninists and by beginning to lead the revolutionary mass movement of the American working class that the conditions will be created for inaugurating the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party and the proletarian revolution will be advanced. The Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists stands as a rallying point for this work and an open call to all Marxist-Leninists in the U.S. to sit together and unite for the cause of the Marxist-Leninist Party and the proletarian revolution.