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After reading the Draft Plan for a Leading Ideological Center, members of the Louisville Workers Collective (LWC) expressed concern about the ability of the IC and the forces within it to develop and test our theory in our practical work. Many felt that what the Draft Plan outlined to be the tasks of the IC in relation to practice were not sufficient. More systematic, nationally coordinated practice during this period is necessary in order to adequately test our theory and to win over many potential recruits to participate in the IC process – many advanced workers, national minority people, and independent leftists will become part of the IC primarily on the basis of recognizing good communist practice by IC forces. It is important to win over these people to the IC because they have much to contribute to the ideological struggle and consolidation of our tendency.
At this meeting there was a beginning discussion of whether or not national pro-party organization(s) were necessary during the IC period in order to adequately guide our practice. Due to time limitations, there was no resolution of this question, but the delegates to the conference were asked to raise these questions about practice in the IC period.
The two LWC delegates have been able to come to agreement on a proposal that the Draft Plan speak more clearly and positively of the role that national pre-party organization(s) can play in the IC period. We present this proposal as individuals as our organization did not have time to fully discuss the question.
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First, some of the history of this question in the OC process should be reviewed. In July 1977, the majority of the Committee of Five put forward their views on the need for an ideological center in the “Draft Resolution for a Leading Ideological Center”. This document states that the main objective of the center would be to lay the basis for a national pre-party organization. It states that ”only a national organization could provide the form for en embryonic testing of our theory through a nationally coordinated workplan. Only a national organization could begin to shape activity which would approximate real communist practice.” In February 1979, the PWOC published a self-criticism in The Organizer which stated that the former conception was wrong due to a number of reasons which they outlined in the article. One important reason is that since no organization in this period will have a fully developed program for the U.S. revolution, there will continue to be forces outside any such organization with equal right to participate in the ideological struggle. Because of the continued existence of racism in the communist movement, national minority people will be likely to shy away from an all white or predominantly white communist organization. Forming the IC into a pre-party organization directing practice would exclude these forces and therefore be racist and sectarian.
We have come to agree that the IC itself should not form into a national pre-party organization for the reasons outlined in the PWOC’s self-criticism. However, we think that there is a strong need for national pre-party organization(s) during the period of the IC in order to adequately test our theory, to win over people to the IC process, and to enable us to develop to the point where we can provide some embryonic communist leadership in the class struggle before we declare that the vanguard party of the U.S. revolution is ready to be formed. The new draft plan for a leading ideological center is designed to draw as many members of our tendency as possible into the IC process, but we think that many more people will be won over if the draft plan speaks more clearly to the question of practice in this period – if the plan encourages the development of national pre-party organization(s), states the reasons they are needed, and shows the positive contributions they can make.
Before we discuss the reasons we think such organization(s) are necessary, let us state from the outset that we agree that any national organization(s) formed would have to at all times put the interests of the IC and the tendency as a whole above the interests of its own organization. All members of such organizations would be responsible for aiding in the development of the IC – the organizations would need to commit cadre, money, and other resources to the IC. The organizations would need to educate their cadre about and wage a continual struggle against all manifestations of the circle spirit and sectarianism in its work and its relationship to the IC. From the beginning, the IC would have to take care to see that no one organization establish a hegemony that would stifle tendency-wide ideological debate within the IC.
The reasons we think national pre-party organizations) (NPPOs) are needed in the IC period can be grouped into three main areas: they would contribute to the theoretical struggle, win over people to the IC process, and enable us to provide some embryonic communist leadership in the class struggle prior to declaring the formation of the vanguard party for the U.S. revolution. These reasons are elaborated on below:
The communist method for gaining knowledge necessary to change the world includes testing theoretical conceptions in practice in the class struggle. Not all of the theoretical questions facing our movement can be directly tested in practice (e.g. the class character of the S.U.), but many important questions can and should be (trade union question, strategy for anti-racist work, etc.). It is impossible to seriously test our theory for the U.S. revolution in one city or area which is all a local organization can do. To seriously test our theory wo need national organization(s) that can coordinate work in many parts of the country. The draft plan states that the IC will hold national conferences to sum up practice and encourage the development of a common line with the minority being encouraged to test the theory of the majority. Though this will be useful, a national democratic centralist organization with disciplined cadre would be far more capable of carrying out the work of testing our theory in our practice in the class struggle, a higher level of political unity around strategy and tactics and a higher level of coordination between localities would be possible. In addition a national pre-party organization(s) would be able to set goals, evaluate the success or failure of a theoretical approach, sum-up and draw lessons more effectively than a loose grouping of organizations which agree to test a theoretical approach after a national conference.
Also, NPPOs would be able to integrate several different, areas of work and test out several related components of our theory at the same time. This is important in the development and recruitment of advanced workers to our movement – advanced workers who come forward in a rank and file caucus in a plant will develop class consciousness through exposure to the communist approach to anti-imperialist work, community struggles such as housing, electoral work, etc., as well as trade union work. NPPOs would be able to take up the development of advanced workers in an integrated way based on its strategic approach to these different areas of work.
During the period of the IC we want to draw in as many advanced workers as possible to participate in developing our program, strategy, and tactics for the U.S. revolution. Due to the low level of fusion of the communist and working class movements, the advanced workers at this time do not have a developed class consciousness, are not part of the communist movement, and therefore would not be attracted to a center for ideological struggle among communists. The only way we can win over advanced workers to our movement is by providing leadership in the class struggle in which they are involved; for the reasons listed in the previous section a NPPO directing practice would be able to apply our theory to our practice more effectively, and would be more able to develop the consciousness of the advanced workers to the point where they would see the importance of participating in the IC process.
We also want and need to draw in as many national minority people as possible to participate in the IC. Their participation in developing the program, strategy, and tactics for the revolution is absolutely essential’ the fact that racism is the main division in the U.S. working class movement means that a correct anti-racist program must underly and be integrated into our strategies for each area of mass work. Given the history of the racist practice of significant parts of the left movements in the U.S. many national minority communists and progressives are likely to stay away from the IC until IC forces have shown their ability to take seriously in their practical w0rk the struggle against racism by taking up the task of winning over white workers to that struggle. A NPPO would be most able to develop such systematic anti-racist work.
There are also many independent leftists who will not be attracted to the IC on the basis of the ideological struggle alone. This is partly due to the lack of theoretical development of the U.S. left as a whole and to an unclear understanding of the role of theory in guiding our w0rk. It is also due to the fact that in the history of the U.S. Communist movement there have been many armchair Marxists who talk or expound a theory but do not put it into practice. Many independent leftists engaged in important practical work could be won over to the 10 if NPPOs within the IC began to provide systematic leadership in practical struggles that is neither ultra-left nor revisionist.
To sum up, NPPOs in the IC period would be more effective in applying our theory to our practice and more able to develop good communist practice in the different arenas of the class struggle. Through this practice, it would possible to draw many advanced workers, national minority people, and independent leftists into the IC process. This is necessary cue to the critically important contribution these forces can make in developing the theory for the U.S. revolution.
Point 10 of the 18 Points of Unity states that the building of a vanguard party “becomes possible on the basis of the development of a correct application of Marxism- Leninism to the concrete conditions of the U.S. and a fusing of the communist movement with, the class struggle of the proletariat.” The history of the recent communist movement in this country is that a series of small groups of “Marxist-Leninists” have declared themselves to be the vanguard party of the U.S. working class without recognizing the necessary preconditions for forming that vanguard, such as the need to prove their ability to provide even minimal leadership in the class struggle. They have remained small sects isolated from the working class movement. If we are to avoid this error, we need to show our ability to provide a beginning level of communist leadership in the class struggle and to win over advanced workers through our work. This is the true test of whether or not the theory we have developed is correct in its approach to the U.S. revolution, the true test of whether we have developed our theory and practice enough to form a genuine vanguard party, NPPOs will enable us to move forward in our efforts to provide communist leadership in the class struggle and win over advanced workers to our movement, thus contributing to the party-building process.
In suggesting that a more positive statement be made in the Draft Plan about the important role national pre-party organization(s) can play around the ideological debate going on within the IC and the tendency as a whole, we are in no way ascribing to or promoting agreement with the fusion strategy for party building that some OCIC groups adhere to. In any of the above we have not stated agreement with any of the essential aspects of the fusion strategy, except the Marxist concept of recognizing how knowledge is gained. Our sole purpose in putting forward these ideas, which we feel any Marxist-Leninist should have agreement with, is to recognize the fundamental Marxist philosophical truth that the correctness of any theory is not determined by subjective wishes or desires, but by objective results in the class struggle.
In agreeing with the above it naturally follows that only a national pro-party organization(s) can give coordinated, systematic, and thorough testing of our theories end ideas. Finally, inclusion of a more positive statement concerning national pre-party organization(s) and the role they can play in giving validity to our theory will enhance the respect for the process of the IC among the broader party-building forces within the tendency.
Realizing that the theory we will be developing for the program, strategy, and tactics for the revolution will be tested in the developing national, class and women’s struggles and done in the most consistent and thorough way possible will encourage many sincere forces to participate in the process of developing and strengthening the IC.