First Published: Revolution, Vol. 1, No. 2, November 15, 1975.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The following statement was read at events that took place around the country last month. The events held on the occasion of the anniversaries of the Russian and Chinese revolutions, celebrated the victories of the U.S. working class and the recent founding of the working class’ Revolutionary Communist Party–Ed.
Fellow workers:
We meet today to celebrate the victories of the working class. We meet today to celebrate the founding of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
The formation of the Party is one of the victories of the working class, a great victory born out of the battles of the working class. The working people gathered here today are part of that class, the American working class, made up of men and women of many nationalities, from all parts of the world and of all ages. We work everywhere, in mines, in mills, in plants, on shipboard, in railyards, in stores and offices, and many of us spend long stretches unable to get work.
But for all these differences, we are members of one class above all else. We face a common situation and have a common destiny. It is the labor of the working class as a whole that produces the great wealth of this country, that makes everything run. But doing all this, we are robbed of its fruits by the ruling class of capitalists who run the government and all of society in their own interests. We produce, and the very wealth we produce becomes a weapon in the hands of our enemy, more wealth for the capitalists, more chains on the working class. We produce in common and in common we are exploited.
Our goals are the same, too. We want a good life for ourselves and our families and a bright future for our children. And we don’t want it at the expense of our class brothers and sisters, but for the common benefit of all working people and the advancement of humanity. We can and we will build this good life and bright future, but we must be free to do so, free of the wealthy leeches who bloat themselves on the very blood of the workers. To crush these parasites demands the surveying of the battlefield and the drawing up of a battle plan that can guide us to victory. This battle plan is the line that will guide us in destroying the old world and building the new. It is the line that represents the outlook and interests of our class, the working class.
This line sums up how to fight, how to develop struggle, how we can win other sections of the people to our banner, how to link up all our battles and concentrate the most decisive blows at the ruling class. We are one class, and we need one line to unite us and build our struggle.
To draw up the battle plan and to lead the battle, our class needs a general staff. This is the RCP.USA. For 20 years, since the cowardly betrayal of the working class by the old Communist Party, the American working class had not had its own Party to unite and lead its many battles and illuminate the way forward. Today we celebrate the end of this long period. The Party of the working class, the Revolutionary Communist Party, has been founded, united around the line that represents our class, and with the determination to lead our class in class war to break the chains that shackle us.
This is why the formation of the Party is a victory for the working class, a victory that paves the way to further victories and the inevitable destruction of our oppressors. This is the historic goal of our class, the goal toward which its struggle has been building since it was first forged into a class under the lash of capital.
This celebration takes place on the occasion of two great milestones in the revolutionary struggle of the working class. Fifty-eight years ago this month, the working class of Russia, led by its Party, rose up, took power from the capitalist rulers and created for the first time in history a workers’ state, the socialist Soviet Union. Since that time, despite the fact that a new ruling class has restored capitalism there, the struggle of the working class has continued to advance worldwide, and the Russian workers will surely crush these new Tsars, just as they did the old ones.
This month also marks the time, 26 years ago, when the working class of China, led by its Party, united the masses of people to drive out U.S. imperialism and the feudal lords and capitalists of China who served it. Since that time the working people of China have continued the revolutionary struggle to remake society and have beat back the attempts to restore capitalism, continuing the march toward the bright future.
Today we celebrate these great victories of our class, and at the same time we strengthen our resolve to shoulder the great tasks-our class has ahead of it. The road to final victory will contain many twists and turns, dangers and difficulties, but we are sure to reach our historic goal.
FORWARD!
Central Committee Revolutionary Communist Party, USA