Issued as an unpublished document: January 1980.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The variety of tasks that must be taken up by the rectification movement calls for communists to develop a multiplicity of organizational forms to carry out these tasks. No single organisational form can encompass all the tasks of the rectification movement. Thus, such forms as study projects bringing together advanced Marxist-Leninists nationally, basic study groups, national networks of Marxist-Leninists with particular tasks, various forms to organize and guide intervention in the day-today class struggle, theoretical journals, etc., must all be developed to make contributions to the rectification movement... – NNMLC, Developing The Subjective Factor
The past year has seen immense progress in making the concept of a broad rectification movement a material force among U.S. Marxist-Leninists. When the NNMLC was founded last March, it was one of only a few initiatives launched and guided by the rectification party-building line as it had been developed to that point. Today, the quantity and quality of the political, theoretical and organizational efforts initiated by the rectification line are making the idea of a rectification movement an actual reality. Undoubtedly, this process will continue and deepen during the next year. In this context, the NNMLC must re-evaluate its particular role in the party-building process.
More specifically, the re-evaluation of the role of the NNMLC is based upon recognizing the following developments in the U.S. communist movement over the past year:
a) The development of a wide scope of initiatives led by the rectification line. Even before the spring of 1979, the rectification line had begun to guide the work of a number of U.S. Marxist-Leninists and to launch political and theoretical work that could contribute to party building. But in the last year, the depth and number of initiatives led by the line has undergone a qualitative leap forward. Advanced study projects, the Marxist-Leninist Education Project, a number of mass organizations and the Club Network have all taken shape and developed under the initiative of the rectification line. The development of these initiatives – the multiplicity of organizations described in Developing The Subjective Factor – has made the concept of a broad, movement-wide rectification movement a material force among U.S. communists.
b) The development and elaboration of the rectification party-building line. Through its fuller elaboration and the debate among party-building forces, the essential elements of the rectification line have been confirmed, and a number of secondary aspects of the line refined and sharpened.
c) The winning of new forces to the rectification line. From a small and fairly geographically limited influence, the rectification line has now established a major national presence as a serious alternative to the fusion line.
d) The ideological and theoretical decline of the fusion line and the consolidation of a sectarian line in its organizational expression, the Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center (OCIC). As the rectification line has gained greater clarity and initiative, the fusion line has deteriorated. Its center in PWOC and the OC offers little theoretical defense of the line and has not demonstrated an ability to solve the outstanding theoretical and political problems facing the U.S. communist movement. Instead, the fusion center advances an elaborate cover of “neutral centers”, and a distortion of the history of our trend to avoid full and active debate over party-building line and cover its inability to move the U.S. communist movement forward in its task of party building.
e) The planned publication of a new theoretical journal in early 1980 and the emergence of the journal’s editorial board as the leading center for the rectification line. The journal will be a crucial tool in the process of line rectification, as well as the leading expression of the rectification party-building line. The journal’s editorial board consists of those comrades who have played the leading role in developing the rectification line and launching the rectification movement. Historically forged into a collective through the process of developing and implementing the rectification line, the board is now assuming the responsibility to lead and hold itself accountable to the entire movement on the basis of its line.
Considering these important developments, and especially the broadening of the rectification movement, the NNMLC adopts the following resolutions.
1) The task of the rectification of the general line of the U.S. communist movement and the reestablishment of its party is the central task of all Marxist-Leninists in the U.S., including members of the NNMLC. The NNMLC will contribute to these tasks in whatever manner is most beneficial for the collective advancement of the work of the movement as a whole. Concretely, this means rendering all possible assistance to the building of a broad rectification movement which will tackle the major theoretical problems of line rectification and the ideological reorientation of the communist movement. This includes a commitment to building the wide variety of organizational forms which suit this type of rectification movement, including study projects, MLEP projects, communist caucuses within mass work areas, Marxist-Leninist forums, etc. Our commitment to building these broad initiatives includes organizational responsibilities to build these formations, the assignment and encouragement of NNMLC members to participate in these formations as needed, and the encouragement of Club members to leave the NNMLC in order to pursue other forms of communist work if this would benefit the movement as a whole.
2) In particular, the NNMLC recognizes the crucial role the new theoretical journal promises to play in the rectification movement. A journal launched under the guidance of the rectification line can mean a qualitative leap forward for our movement. The ability of the journal to focus the attention of the movement on crucial political and theoretical questions, to synthesize the most advanced ideas and experiences in the movement, and to stimulate nationwide debate and struggle makes the journal an indispensible tool for the rectification movement.
In addition to the journal’s role as a key vehicle for line rectification, we also note the journal’s role as the leading expression of the rectification party-building line. Without a correct party-building line guiding its work, the journal would undoubtedly deteriorate into just another Marxist publication offering some interesting articles but no direction forward in the communist task of changing the world. With the rectification line guiding its work, the journal can set as its goal making a crucial contribution to the central task of U.S. Marxist-Leninists today.
The formalization of the journal’s editorial board as the leading center of the rectification line will allow the journal and the entire rectification movement to make the greatest possible contribution to party building. This formalization is a recognition of a reality that has developed over the past few years. The comrades forming the editorial board are those who have played the leading role in shaping the rectification line and launching the rectification movement. They have been historically forged into a collective leadership in the process of developing and implementing the rectification line. As the board assumes collective responsibility to act as the center for this line, its existence allows for the most rapid and effective development of the party-building movement.
The NNMLC will make whatever contributions are possible to the success of the new journal. This could include assistance to building committees to distribute the journal and popularize the work, as well as encouragement to all cadre in our trend to make use of the journal in unfolding theoretical struggle in the communist movement.
3) The NNMLC defines its particular role in the party-building process as a formation which will struggle for the reorientation and reorganization of the work of our trend under the guidance of the rectification party-building line. Party building is the central task of U.S. Marxist-Leninists in this period, and a correct party-building line is needed to mobilize the resources of our entire movement to effectively carry out the central task. With a correct line guiding the movement, the work of every Marxist-Leninist organization and individual Marxist-Leninist can be organized to make the most effective contribution to party building. A correct party-building line must be based on a correct orientation to the nature of the Leninist party, and, in our view, the rectification line embodies this correct orientation. It is therefore capable of bringing to the fore the maximum capacity of every cadre as it guides the communists in carrying out their central task.
While all comrades holding the rectification line will take up the struggle to reorient the movement under the line’s guidance, the NNMLC will take the most substantial organizational responsibility to realign our trend and its cadre with this line and orientation.
The NNMLC’s task in the reorientation and reorganization of our trend under the rectification party-building line takes a number of different forms, including the following:
a) The further development and deepening of the line itself. The main contours of the rectification line have correctly defended the Leninist conception of the party in its ideological, political and organizational arenas and have pointed the direction forward for our trend’s party-building efforts. But the line struggle in opposition to the right opportunist fusion line has intensified and forces the contending lines into deeper theoretical confrontation. The correct conception of the future party is at stake in this contention, and the line struggle over party-building line is clearly a key element in the overall rectification of the general line. The NNMLC can contribute to this struggle by taking on concrete tasks aimed at sharpening the rectification line, deepening its major formulations and developing the line into the most all-sided line possible.
b) The advancement of the line in the movement and winning of our trend to it. As the organizational form explicitly taking up the task of reorienting our trend under a correct party-building line, the NNMLC has particular responsibility to advance this line before the whole movement and struggle to win all Marxist-Leninists to it. This task includes the continued publication of materials, sponsoring of forums and seminars, and any form of activity which will advance the rectification line before our trend.
c) The training of cadre under the rectification line. In order to gain the maximum possible contribution of every cadre in the difficult tasks before us, cadre must be as carefully trained as is possible in the pre-party period in ideological, political and organizational work. This training must proceed under a party-building line and orientation which grasps the key tasks of the period and can scientifically develop cadre to take them up. The Club Network serves as an important form for the training of cadre around a correct party-building line. The organizational life of the NNMLC is an excellent vehicle for cadre to engage in active ideological struggle on the basis of a correct line, to deepen their commitment to the class struggle, raise their theoretical and political level, and gain experience in scientific and professional methods of communist work.
d) The reorganization of the work of cadre under the rectification line. As cadre are being trained and consolidated around a correct party-building line and orientation, the NNMLC will assist them in the organization of their political work to maximize their possible contributions to the rectification movement.
4) The NNMLC reiterates our basic orientation toward the relations within our trend and the line struggle now existing over party-building line.
First, the NNMLC upholds the unity of our trend as the principal aspect of this period. We reaffirm our intention to bring all anti-revisionist, anti-“left” opportunist forces into a broad rectification movement capable of settling the outstanding theoretical questions before us. We reaffirm our policy of engaging in joint work with all forces in our trend where there is a political basis in common outlook and approach to a particular task. We look forward to uniting our trend in a single Marxist-Leninist party based upon a single leading line. We view the line struggle over party-building line and over the other lines at issue in the rectification movement as the key vehicle to build Marxist-Leninist unity, basing ourselves on the Marxist-Leninist policy of unity-struggle-higher unity.
At the same time, we reject the notion of a “single center” for our whole trend not based upon a single leading line and orientation to the work of communists. The claim to a “single center” in the midst of a raging line struggle over the central question facing our movement is objectively a sectarian formulation which only serves to substitute the part for the whole. We are critical of the OCIC’s failure to acknowledge the line leading that formation. Objectively, the OCIC is pursuing a dangerous and sectarian course which can only force a premature demarcation in our trend on organization questions without the necessary open and aboveboard struggle over party-building line. The leadership of the PWOC as well as the OCIC leadership bears the major responsibility for this irresponsible policy, as they fail to engage in open struggle over party-building line or, indeed, even to hold themselves accountable to the movement for the changes and shifts in their party-building line.
We call upon the PWOC and OCIC to reverse their sectarian course and place the struggle over party-building line at the forefront and in that manner take the steps necessary to unite our trend on a correct party-building line.
1) In order to maximize the coordination of the NNMLC’s particular work with the overall center of the rectification line and the other initiatives led by the rectification line, the Club Network will transfer its national office from New York City to the San Francisco Bay area.
2) Due to the refinements in the role of the Clubs in the party-building movement, certain changes in the Club Network’s structure are needed to make its work most effective. Specifically, the National Conference and National Leadership Committee will meet as needed instead of at the specific intervals specified in the original by-laws. However, the NLC will meet minimally once a year. The National Leadership Committee is delegated to amend the present by-laws in accordance with this clarification.
3) The resignations of Melinda Paras and Irwin Silber from the positions of National Club Coordinator and National Club Chairperson are accepted. The new National Executive Committee shall consist of Max Elbaum, National Chairperson; Catherine Candee, National Coordinator; and Nina Silber, member of the National Executive Committee. Melinda Paras will act as East Coast Regional Coordinator of the Club Network. Irwin Silber will be leaving the Club Network to take up other duties in the rectification movement, most especially co-editing the planned theoretical journal.