Non-party communists’ disunity over party-building line is tremendous. Even in the unlikely event that our own positions on the tasks, composition, and general form of a party-building network were totally correct, there would not be instant agreement with them. For comrades not in a party-building effort which they are sure is on the right track and unites all who should be participating, the immediate task is to organize the struggle over party-building line.
Joint party-building efforts cannot begin without unity on that line; unity on that line will never develop from articles in a half-dozen newspapers, erratic correspondence and privately-cirulating papers, conferences held only by this or that section of the movement, and a host of pamphlets that largely reach other comrades only to the extent that all utilize and read Guardian advertisements. Even if everyone saw all this literature, the struggle would remain disorganized ideologically, as the P.U.L. has pointed out. Outside of a grouping like the OCIC, at least, there is little to encourage statements and polemics to respond directly to each other, and little to permit an undeveloped circle that is not prepared to publish its own pamphlet to just raise a question that should be taken up.
In our opinion, comrades from different sections of the movement who agree on the need for a struggle over party-building line among all of us should establish a theoretical journal devoted entirely to that struggle. It would be open to any serious contributors, but it would print materials only on questions such as the preconditions for party-formation, the theoretical and practical tasks of communists in the period before those preconditions are met, how we should organize ourselves, who should unite in a joint party-building effort, the role of an ideological center, and what have been the communist movement’s main and secondary deviations from the correct line on these questions.
Major contributions could and should respond directly to each other; comrades with short questions or suggestions to make could send in short letters. Everyone would know where to read the latest contributions to the debate over party-building line. Printing the mailing addresses of contributors and perhaps a ”board” section in the back would permit comrades with similar views to get in touch with each other directly, assuming certain security guidelines were established. Polemics in the journal would help prepare the conditions for moving the struggle forward through forums and conferences, sponsored either by the committee publishing the journal or by other comrades.
We suggested joint publication of such a journal privately to some other groups months ago. We have not begun it ourselves for two reasons. First, we lack the human and financial resources to undertake it alone. Second, our contacts are, in the main, limited to the “Albania-leaning” section of the movement. For a journal to establish itself as a periodical to which all articles on party-building should be sent and as a publication that all comrades outside the parties should read, it would have to be a joint project of some forces from each section of the non-party communists.
We encourage correspondence on this proposal, and particularly offers to help implement it. Such offers could range from willingness to discuss joint responsibility for publishing, to willingness to help distribute the journal or contribute to it financially. At the very least, comrades who support this idea but can do little to help implement it should inform us of their interest, and they should try to persuade organizations to which they are close to assist in the publication of such a journal.
A periodical devoted solely to discussion of party-building would probably be needed only until a party-building organization is formed.[1] The timing and method of formation of the party-building network will depend largely on who our forces are, which can be gauged only as the struggle over various proposals develops. Some groups could conceivably begin to link up almost immediately, with the degree of line unity being so high that the immediate questions would be the practical ones of committing human and financial resources to the work of the network, setting up its organizational structure, arranging secret forms of communication, and developing an agenda for taking up questions of line and theoretical investigations. More likely, there will be a period of a year or more of struggle over party-building line in general, especially the question of lines of demarcation, before there are forces ready to link up, based on a common view of our tasks and who is capable of taking them up.
But that struggle itself needs to be organized, and the creation and promotion of a journal on party-building line is the logical next step.
[1] Our references to the formation of a party-building organization are not meant as a slight to the existing OCIC. Such references do, however, reflect our belief that the OCIC is not a viable party-building organization. It is both too exclusive (in demanding agreement that the U.S. is the main danger to the world’s people, instead of only that it is the main enemy for the U.S. proletariat to fight) and too inclusive (lacking unity on party-building line).