The key to understanding historical development is the concept that class struggle is the motor force of history. The motion of classes, with each class struggling to realize its objective class interest, determines in the final analysis the course of human development. Capitalist society has given rise to the two great opposing classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and it is the historical destiny of the proletariat to abolish the capitalist system, and with it, class society altogether.
While class struggle is the underlying determinant, the political struggle–particularly the struggle for state power–is the actual battlefield upon which the working class struggles to realize its class objectives.
Given the political and ideological grip of the bourgeoisie on the working class under capitalism, a hold which is constantly reinforced by the mode of production as well as by conscious ideological manipulation, the working class is characterized by uneven political development. This means that different sectors perceive their individual and class interests differently and that there are great variations of political consciousness and outlook within the working class. At the same time, the overthrow of the capitalist system is in the objective interest of the working class. To become a class force conscious of its own long-range interests and the necessity to conquer political power in order to realize them, the working class needs leadership, an advanced detachment, which undertakes to lead and systematically train the working class in revolutionary struggle.
It is the Marxist-Leninist party which is the advanced detachment of the working class. The party must provide the necessary ideological, political and organizational leadership that will enable the working class and its allies to overthrow the capitalist system, seize state power, establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, and build a socialist society. The party in each country is also a part of the world revolutionary process, understanding that the interests of the proletariat in each country are advanced by the victories of the working class and oppressed peoples everywhere.
The party is built on the recognition that “the objective conditions are the basis of change, the subjective forces are the agents of change.” The party represents the crystallization of the subjective forces, the conscious element.
A fundamental theoretical task of the subjective forces is the accurate, scientific, all-sided appraisal of the objective conditions. The very process of summing up objective conditions is an assertion of the leading role of the conscious element and can proceed only on the basis of basic ideological coherence.
Marxism-Leninism provides that coherence. Marxism-Leninism is the science which embodies the highest achievement of the conscious element, the deepest and most penetrating analysis of the real world. Thus the party is built on the science of Marxism-Leninism.
Yet the science of Marxism-Leninism cannot be expressed abstractly. It must be concretized in an ideological and political line, a line that analyzes reality and points the direction forward. As Mao wrote, “ideological and political line decide everything.” Thus the party must be built upon a correct line–a line that embodies the science of Marxism-Leninism and applies it to the concrete conditions. As Stalin puts it in Foundations Of Leninism, “In order that it may really be the advanced detachment, the party must be armed with revolutionary theory, with a knowledge of the laws of the movement, with a knowledge of the laws of revolution.”
Thus the party is the advanced detachment of the working class able to lead because it is built on a correct ideological and political line.
In its role as advanced detachment, the party must bring its scientific theory, its line, to the spontaneous working class movement.
This theory only becomes a material force as it is gripped by the masses and translated into revolutionary social practice. At the same time, it is the social practice of the masses which is the ultimate source of revolutionary theory. The task of the party is to sum up that experience, generalize from it and return that experience–now in its higher, theoretical form–to the masses. This is the essence of the communist slogan, “From the masses, to the masses.”
The party as advanced detachment has the responsibility to bring its line to the spontaneous working class movement because, left to itself, that movement cannot rise to the level of socialist consciousness; rather, it will be subordinated to one or another form of bourgeois ideology. Thus the party must not expect to find its line in the spontaneous movement, but must combat spontaneity and bring a line to the spontaneous movement. As Lenin wrote in What Is To Be Done?, “Since there can be no talk of an independent ideology being developed by the masses of the workers themselves in the process of their movement, the only choice is, either bourgeois or socialist ideology. There is no middle course (for humanity has not created a “third” ideology, and moreover, in a society torn by class antagonisms there can never be a non-class or above class ideology.) Hence, to belittle the socialist ideology in any way, to turn away from it in the slightest degree, means to strengthen bourgeois ideology. There is a lot of talk about spontaneity, but the spontaneous development of the working class movement leads to its becoming subordinated to bourgeois ideology...hence our task is to combat spontaneity, to divert the working class movement from this spontaneous trade-unionist striving to come under the wing of the bourgeoisie and to bring it under the wing of revolutionary social-democracy.”
When the working class under capitalism has a party, the central task of the party is to lead the working class to the seizure of state power. This requires making Marxist-Leninist theory a material force in the working class, the fusion of communism with the spontaneous working class movement. It is the party’s general line which provides the overall analysis and direction to guide it in accomplishing its central task. The party’s general line is an ideological, political, and organizational line which expresses in concentrated form the universal principles of Marxism-Leninism as applied to the concrete task of the seizure of state power in a given country. Of course, a party is constantly refining and deepening its general line through study and the summation of experience.
At times, a genuine party may lose its bearings and stray from a correct line. In such cases, the communist forces must rectify the party’s general line, unite on a correct view of the direction forward, and put the party back on a revolutionary course.
Such a rectification inside a party would require sharp inner party struggle. A mass movement in the party to expose and criticize deviations from the correct path would have to be launched. Expulsions from the party would probably occur, as any die-hards holding on to the backward line would have to be thoroughly purged from the party’s ranks. And a re-evaluation of leading cadre would undoubtedly occur, as a strong party center would be required to guide the party in the necessary consolidation around its rectified orientation.
In some periods, however, the working class lacks a genuine party altogether. This can either be because no genuine party has been built in a given country, or because a genuine party has once existed but has qualitatively degenerated beyond repair. In these periods, the working class lacks the advanced detachment, the conscious element, that can provide leadership to the class struggle. Thus, party building, actually forging the vanguard party, becomes the central task of the Marxist-Leninists. If a party has never existed, the central task is to develop a correct general line and build a party on that basis. If a party has existed, but degenerated qualitatively, the central task of the communists is to rectify the general line and re-establish a genuine party.
In the US today no genuine Marxist-Leninist party exists. The leading claimant to the title, the CPUSA, has sunk hopelessly into revisionism, and the various attempts to re-establish a party made in the last few years have failed to project a correct general line before the communist movement and in fact have been characterized by serious errors of left opportunism and dogmatism. Thus the genuine communist elements find themselves without a communist party to guide their work, and the genuine communist movement exists outside of any party. Under these conditions, party building is the central task of the US communist movement. And given the concrete historical circumstances, this can be put even more precisely: the central task of the US communist movement is rectifying the general line of the US communist movement and re-establishing its party.