In the past few years–particularly the last three–there has been much discussion of conceptions on how to build a Revolutionary Party of the Proletariat in this country. These discussions have taken place among the various formations and individuals that compose the revitalized communist movement–a movement which arose in the late 60’s and early 70’s in opposition to the reformism and class collaboration of the revisionist CPUSA. This movement has itself divided into two tendencies–one which has consolidated dogmatism and sectarianism and given birth to a series of “parties” and parties to be and another which begins to understand that it must not only break with revisionism but also with dogmatism which like revisionism is rooted in idealism and metaphysics.
From the standpoint of most of the major forces in the dogmatist wing, they have resolved the question of how to form a Marxist-Leninist Party by constituting their groups as the vanguard revolutionary formations while the majority of the smaller organizations in this wing view themselves as the nucleus for the party. The most outstanding examples of the former are the transformation of the Revolutionary Union into the Revolutionary Communist Party and the October League into the Communist Party (M-L). On the other hand, among the “anti-revisionist” and “anti-dogmatist” trend there is still much debate on how to build the Revolutionary Party of the Proletariat. Two of the leading forces in this debate have been the Philadelphia Workers Organizing Committee and the Guardian Newspaper. Although these two formations represent leading forces in that debate, there have been other comrades who have participated in that debate–and here we would include ourselves. Some of this debate has taken place in public forums but much has taken place in channels of unity and struggle that have been created by organizations that identify themselves as “anti-revisionist” and “anti-dogmatist.” This debate has been useful and usually absent of the vitriolic attacks that have characterized the debates among the dogmatic wing of the “New communist movement.”
In these debates, our organization has maintained differences with the conceptions of party building espoused by the PWOC and the Guardian Newspaper.
The analysis herein represents the first of two publications around the question of party building which have been a topic of internal discussion and struggle within our ranks and with other Marxist-Leninists since the summer of 1977. In contributing to the process of principled struggle among the party building forces in this country, we think it important that the formations, collectives and individuals in our developing movement begin to clarify our perspectives and deepen these debates.
In this part of our party-building position we assess the present state of the party-building forces–particularly the “anti-revisionist and anti-dogmatist” forces and the contradictions which characterize the party building process in this country.
It is within this context that we begin to raise, in a general form, our criticisms and differences with the conceptions maintained by the PWOC and the Guardian Newspaper. In our estimation the formulations of both these formations around party-building have undergone changes but the fundamental basis and perspectives at the root of their approach and positions on this question remained unchanged qualitatively.
Central Committee El Comité-M.I.N.P.