This work is the most critical. What is needed from these groups (ourselves included) is: an increasingly co-ordinated struggle to unite around the Line and this Plan (as modified thru joint agreement) and take it out across the country – to all areas – to play the loading role at all 5 General Levels of Activity.
How can we bring this about? We propose the following 5 areas of “Joint Work”: 1) Joint Meetings; 2) a Joint Political Organ/Newspaper; 3) a Joint Theoretical Journal; 4) a Jointly-Organized Series of Forums; and 5) a Joint Project Among the Masses.
Let’s look at them first as a group and bring out the overall content of this “subplan”.
Their content must be and can only be: the struggle for genuine Marxist-Leninist Unity based on the Line and around the Plan AND in and thru all-out struggle against opportunism of all hues. The form they take is dictated by the concrete needs of our movement. Obviously we’ve got to have meetings. Further, the whole US movement needs to develop Unity in theory and practice. Thus our proposal for Joint Theoretical work (in the form of a Newspaper, Journal & Forum Series) and a Joint Project Amongst the Masses. The pivotal, or leading, activity would be the Joint Project. We’re going to agree on a joint campaign that will enable us to take the science to the masses and arouse mass discussion of the 5 (& 10) Burning Questions, and thru this they will come forward to help us in the struggle to found the Party. The theoretical forms of joint activity will thus have a completely concrete, practical activity, the joint campaign, to guide. Thru carrying out of joint practical and joint theoretical work directly tied to it, all will be able to see who are and who are not the genuine revolutionaries, the genuine fighters for founding the Party. (Of course, some enemies will try to hide amongst us; at least, they will be forced to actively carry out our Line and Plan...until such time as they expose themselves.. Now let’s look at each “Joint Activity” one at a time.
A) The Joint Meetings: It should go almost without saying why these are essential I and in what manner they should be conducted. We must, as Comrade Joe Stalin says, use the the Leninist style of work, combining “Russian revolutionary sweep” and “American effiiency”. “Russian revolutionary sweep is the life-giving force which stimulates thought, impels things forward, breaks the past and opens up perspectives. Without it no progress is possible.” “American efficiency is that indomitable force which neither knows nor recognizes obstacles; which with its business-like perserverance brushes aside all obstacles; which continues at one task once started until it is finished, even if it is a minor task; and without which serious constructive work is inconceivable.” This combination “is the essence of Leninism in Party ...work. This combination alone produces the finished type of Leninist worker, the style of Leninism in work.” (Foundations of Leninism, pp. 118-121)
Other key concepts that must pervade, run thru, all work concerned with these meetings are: the spirit of uncompromising struggle to unite with other honest genuine forces And to drive out all alien, opportunist ideas and forces; self-less dedication to the greater whole – the Party to come; patience and comradely struggle; & full participation of all members of all groups in all discussions – no bureaucracy from above or liberalism from below! They have to be working meetings – not debating what Marxism-Leninism is, but implementing it.[1]
B) The Joint Political Organ/Newspaper: Isn’t it clear that we need one newspaper for the entire country? Didn’t Lenin in What Is To Be Done prove this conclusively?
Isn’t it clear that what we don’t need is each group putting out some relatively puny effort? Let’s be frank about it – no group has been able to nor could be able to do more than this; but some are doing less. And even more important than the “quantity” – the size of the paper, the number of copies, the number of places distributed to, the size of the region “leafletted”, and the frequency with which it comes out –, is the quality. Comrades, some of the stuff we read in some of the newspapers and leaflets just astonishes us. A lot of it is not, in and of itself, politically deviating from Marxism; but is addressed to all kinds of questions of lesser importance. This type of article makes one wonder out loud, “This is all well and good, but why are they using up what precious little resources we have writing and publishing about this?” This type of article seems to indicate that the authors just don’t take founding the Party seriously. Comrades, is it the main (and only) task or isn’t it? And if it is, then hadn’t we better think things thru to make sure that everything that we do and everything that we write about contributes directly to it?
This tendency is bad enough; but infinitely worse and unexcusable is another type... a type that should be called anti-Marxist trash. A typical case here is the promoting of bourgeois democratic illusions. Imperialism is “reaction all down the line”; and US imperialism not only is NOT an exception to this law, it is one of the two leading centers, organizers of the darkest reaction on the face of the globe today, and has been for many years. Some of the worst offenders might even occasionally “admit” the above; but then they turn right around and discuss “the great traditions of democracy in the US” and then “proving” this in various articles. Was Lenin wrong? Is Imperialism “reaction all down the line” EXCEPT IN THE US? Comrades, this is ludicrous. We try, whenever possible, to distribute the newspapers of other groups; but the masses themselves would ridicule us were we to pass this trash out. And, of course, we don’t pass it out.[2]
The newspaper we need must have the following prerequisites:
1) It must have a joint editorial board, representing all participating groups;
2) This board must organize full democratic discussion of the main aspects of the line being put out generally thru the paper, and in, at least, the most important articles, in particular;
3) This board would certainly organize a division of labor to professionalize the work;
4) MOST IMPORTANTLY, of course, it must be based on the LINE – the 5 (&10) Burning Questions & the PLAN.. .explaining and promoting these time and again. Its function is to serve] as our main vehicle to take our LINE and PLAN to the working class and other oppressed masses and those discontented with capitalism. Its function is to help stir up that mass discussion of the 5 Burning Questions and of the PLAN; so that the masses and particularly the working class start to take up the Marxist-Leninist science as their own, and especially so that the advanced can see clearly what it is they must understand and carry out - to found the Party. It must be fundamentally an organ of propaganda: deep comprehensive explanation of the main questions facing the movements; why things are the way they are, inevitably in bourgeois society, and describe the nature of their real solution: revolutionary struggle to socialist society. “In a word, he must present ’many ideas’, so many indeed that they will be understood as an integral whole only by a (comparatively) few persons.” (Lenin, WITBD, pg 82,PRC edition). By way of contemporary example, there are many fine examples of such propaganda in the Canadian CPC(M-L)’s newspaper: The Marxist-Leninist. How much more critical it must be to us, when we don’t as yet have such a Party!
5) Every member of every participating organization and all other supporters of the movement to found the Party...i.e., all the revolutionaries, must make it a central part of their weekly work to make the maximum use of this organ. Its importance in rallying the genuine revolutionaries across the country to the struggle for founding the Party is clear...it can, must and will play the key role in finding & drawing them to us. All members must therefore study it thoroughly, discuss it openly and fully and lead the sane process with all their contacts. Amongst other reasons, this is to ensure the granite-like unity within our ranks, and that all cadre learn thru practice that they have the right and the responsibility to ensure the highest quality to all our work - and especially with the most important tools we use, such as this one.
6) This paper, being our main way in print to take the LINE and PLAN to the masses, must take the place of all the locally-issued papers now existent. In the beginning it may not be large in number of pages or more frequent than monthly; but it must be professional work. Only the greatest of reasons should stand in the way of it dependably “showing up” each issue at our usual distribution points and new ones. Our readers, in ever-expanding numbers, must come to regard our paper as their number one source of leadership – ideological, political and organizational. It will be able to do this only if everyone fights to ensure total mobilization for its regular, systematic distribution & discussion. It must find its way into the factories, schools, oppressed nationality and other communities, “Left” bookstores (for as long as they allow), etc.
Isn’t it clear that the masses need, and have needed, exactly such a paper for the last 50 years? Isn’t it clear that no small percentage will recognize it for what it is; for what it represents... the signal that at long last the torch has been taken up again... that it’s the beginning spark in a soon to be spreading controlled (by the masses’ own leadership & in their interests) revolutionary fire?!
There is nothing like such a paper currently; and worse, there has not been, as yet, any indication from those groups currently publishing newspapers, that there is movement towards this end! The revolutionaries inside and outside all existing genuine Marxist-Leninist groups must see to changing this totally amateurish situation.
C) The Joint Theoretical Journal: But a newspaper clearly can not satisfy all the main needs for Theoretical discussion within the movement to found the new Party. If we look back to how the Party was constructed in Russia, we see that, in addition to Lenin’s struggle for and work on the newspaper, Iskra (Spark), he wrote a series of works, mostly in pamphlet form. What, in fact, was the purpose and function of these works?
This becomes clear when we examine their subject matter. No, Lenin was not one of those closet scholars who thinks up great ideas in his head and writes a tome on it. No, each and every work had the most specific and serious of purposes. And this was: TO KNOCK DOWN WHAT EVER WAS THE MAIN ROADBLOCK STANDING IN THE WAY OF THE FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE LEADING EDGE OF THE MOVEMENT. In the “5 Burning Questions..,” we state that, “The only aim and function of its [Marxist-Leninism’s] theory is to guide its concrete practice; it grows in organic connection with revolutionary practice.” We learned this from observing the way it was used by all the great classics – Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin – and how it is still being used today by the member Parties at the IMLCM, and, in particular, by the PLA with Enver Hoxha at the head, and by the CPC(M-L) with Comrade Hardial Bains at the head. The only aim and function of this, our journal, must be to KNOCK DOWN THE MAIN ROADBLOCKS, ONE AFTER THE OTHER, IN OUR PATH TO FOUNDING THE PARTY! And only a theoretical journal, or a series of pamphlets could fulfill such a role.
We suggest the form be a “Journal” for the reasons that: it will keep solidly before us the continuous nature of the struggle for our Line and Plan in and thru the struggle against opportunism of all hues...we will know to keep our eyes open for developing Roadblocks... the task of producing a new issue for this purpose will be ever on our minds; all our members and the advanced will look to it and forward to coning issues to clearly and thoroughly point the way forward thru all the twists and turns that cone with such an important struggle.
By way of example of the type of work we are talking about here, the type of Journal, we offer this current issue of Red Flag. Its sole aim and function is to get the US party-founding movement “in high gear” in and thru striking at the main roadblock holding that movement back: The bourgeois democratic illusions & their main embodiment within the ranks of the people – “The Holy Alliance of the ’Left’”. Having hit at this main roadblock head-on; it also furthers the struggle against it by putting forth what we believe to be the: correct Line, Plan, and discussion of how to develop Capable Cadres. Just as the bourgeois democratic illusions within our midst have been the key to holding the masses and particularly their leaders, the Marxist-Leninists and the advanced, back from advancing to the Party; exactly by attacking them can we begin to steer the movement back onto the path to that Party. Just as the illusions and the “Holy Alliance” prevailed in the past due to the failure to take up the Marxist-Leninist fundamental stands in and thru all-out struggle against them; now, and in the future, Marxism-Leninism can and will prevail exactly to the extent that all the genuine forces re-affirm and unite on its basic stands, and struggle with all their might to found the Party in & thru the all-out struggle, now launched, against those illusions and that “Alliance”.
The other thing that is apparent about Red Flag #6, which may not characterize our movement’s future Journals, is its range of aspects, of the movement and the work, covered. But there’s a reason for this. We looked around and saw the damage that those illusions and that “Alliance” had caused; we see much chaos, disorganization, demoralization; we see some of the same most-dangerous illusions still slipping in, and often with great force...And it becomes apparent that our movement needs not only an all-out attack on what’s been wrong and what is wrong; but also that it desperately needs to have a sense of what must replace these old ideas and lines, the old methods of work, and the old organizational Line and structures. There are big problems with demoralization and dis-orientation in our movement and especially with the larger numbers who are “ex-activists”. To have any hope of winning them back to activity, we must give them reason for confidence, more reason than ever, far more reason, to know, for example, that there is a correct, a real Marxist-Leninist Organizational Line – and so, we felt impelled to include our Constitution, based on that of the CPC(M-L) of Canada, in the appendix. For the same reasons, we have included, either in the main text or in the appendices, pretty-detailed explanations of other questions and other organizational forms we feel we all must use. And, besides, what justification could there be for not presenting to the movement as much concrete guidance to get it moving “in high gear” against the illusions & “Holy Alliance” & the Bourgeoisie behind them, and for founding the Party based on Marxism-Leninism as we can?
D) A Jointly-Organized Series of Forums – US-Wide: Much of what we could say here should be self-evident. So let’s just sum those things up by saying... Most of those who used to be active are not now. Many of those who soon could be active are not now. Many of those who are active are EITHER doing work that is not contributing to the main and only task of founding the Party and, thus, can only be considered counter-productive as it is using up and drawing away our precious resources; OR, worse, doing practical and theoretical “work” that is in opposition to the basic, fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism...and, thus, causing even greater harm to themselves and those affected by their work. And even the best of our forces can not adequately provide leadership to the rest of us when they, the best, are undoubtably so little in touch with all these other forces. You can’t give much good guidance when you haven’t investigated your audience enough to know their real strengths and weaknesses.
This is not to say that we can’t be sure of anything. No. We can sum up past experience over many years. We can sum up current experience & talk with our closest supporters and with their and our other contacts. And using Marxism-Leninism, this sum-up has caused us to identify what we believe are the most key roadblocks: bourgeois democratic illusions & the “Holy Alliance”; and, secondarily, ultra-leftist tendencies towards idealist methods of “closet scholarship” and working from “brilliant ideas in one’s head”...
From the above discussion two things stand out: 1) We’re not now in good touch with the majority of what should soon be our own movement; 2) We don’t know these people – mostly “out-of-touch” – very well; but we can take what we do know generally to them and attempt to get them “in-touch”, moving, again, and, in the process, get to know them far better, and thus, be better able to provide continuing leadership to them (as well as benefit from all they have to contribute, which, in many cases, will be tremendous).
We can, must, and will use various methods to reach out to these forces. Each will have its own important role to play. One that can not be ignored is the use of Forums. Let’s now talk about what they are, how we can use them, etc., with the focus, as usual, on the content – in what way will we conduct them; and what we will definitely not allow to happen.
We will probably need two series of forums just to get things really started in most locations. First, we’ll need, of course, at least one contact there. Thru the contact(s) we’ll work to pull together a (relatively) small group of people who seem advanced.[3] Then, we hold the first forum there. This would be, most likely, a semi-private get-together, probably “by-invitation-only” of these seeming advanced, with whom we’ve tried to do preparatory work (discussion, study, joint activity where possible...) After the initial introductions and what-have-you, the main presentation(s) would be made. Their content would be: our Line, our Plan, our discussion of the question of “Capable Cadres”. The point, as in all our work, is: to stir up mass, democratic discussion of the 5 Burning Questions – Our Line – so that, from amongst the ranks of the people attending, some will come forth to join with us in our main and only task of struggling to found the Party in thru all-out struggle against opportunism of all hues. Thus, they would begin to become Cadres Capable of deeply understanding, fully uniting with, and, eventually, helping develop further THE LINE; AND of understanding, uniting, and developing THE PLAN...in other words, capable of carrying out the PLAN based on the LINE to found the Party.
These “first” forums will probably have a content very similar to the contents of Red Flag #6...with a main presentation: Against Bourgeois Democratic Illusions & The “Holy Alliance” and For “The Road To The Party”; & with broad discussion following on both these 3 subjects and also immediately-related ones, such as – Organizational Line (i.e., “Constitution”), etc. One thing is certain – THEY WILL NOT BE DEBATES! We are not about “debating” whether Marxism-Leninism is the truth; nor about whether we need a correct Line & Plan and Capable Cadres; nor are we about debating what we believe to be the most important aspects of these. What we’re about is taking our Line and Plan, in which we have Marxist-Leninist confidence, to the masses & particularly the advanced AND attempting to win them over, thru explanation and discussion, to joining us in our main & only task. The splittist method of the debate-type forms of the past IS JUST THAT – IN THE PAST! NO MORE!!
Hopefully, we’ll end up with a larger group of supporters in that area than we had. It would then be the most important task there to struggle towards a high level of organizational unity. Preferably, they’d constitute themselves, if they have sufficient forces & sufficient level of commitment, consolidation and unity, into an actual part of our organized communist movement – either by becoming members of one of the already-existing participating groups where possible, or by forming, temporarily, their own local group. If not able to do this, they’d constitute themselves in an Anti-Imperialist type of Union.
In any case, their work would continue with our help and guidance. A leading task of this work now would be to “repeat” the process again...but with a significantly larger “circle” of contacts. This second forum might be very much like the first...but with local participation in organizing it and leading it at a much higher level.
Meanwhile, of course, the work will continue and develop in other areas of the General Levels of Activity. The lessons learned and the problems that arise will be the basis for the “adjustments” and refinements we make in later forums (and all other work).
E) The Joint Project Among the Masses: The first thing we want to say here is that “we saved the ’best’ for last”. Of the 5 types of joint-work, this is the most important. This is the crucible in which everything else will be tested. Our meetings must solve the problems of unified and correct leadership in this activity – from start to “finish”. Our newspaper must report on it, sum it up, guide it, and rally ever more people to it. Our Journal and Forums will do the same, but in more depth, so as to consolidate ourselves, our closest supporters and other advanced as they come forward within this activity.
It’s like this: Our main and only task is to found the Party... The leading, key task, or general level of activity, is Uniting the Marxist-Leninists... And the key way to d that is thru the organizing, in a jointly-co-ordinated way, of an on-going project or campaign amongst the masses. Further adding to its importance is that it is the key for three of the four other General Levels of Activity and is the fifth “Level” itself.
But saying that we must take up (joint) work amongst the masses does not mean that we want to “help build the mass (read: spontaneous) movement”. We mustn’t fall in to such a trap, one that has “snared” many many of the activists & organizations, past &, unfortunately, present too. No, we don’t want to help build the mass spontaneous movements. This will occur “spontaneously” as the masses respond to the growing crisis, militarization & war danger, & to the growing police state, fascist threat. Lenin was clear that the spontaneous movement won’t bring state power. In What Is To Be Done? (PRC edition, pgs 48-51) he addresses this question as follows:
It is often said: the working class spontaneously gravitates towards Socialism. This is perfectly true in the sense that socialist theory defines the causes of the misery of the working class more profoundly & more correctly than any other theory, & for that reason the workers are able to assimilate it so easily, provided, however, that this theory does not itself yield to spontaneity, provided it subordinates spontaneity to itself.
But why, the reader will ask, does the spontaneous movement, the movement along the line of the least resistance, lead to the domination of the bourgeois ideology? For the simple reason that the bourgeois ideology is far older in origin than the socialist ideology; because it is more fully developed & because it possesses immeasurably more opportunities for being spread.” Thus it “...spontaneously imposes itself upon the working class still more.” “Hence, our task...is to combat spontaneity, to divert the...movement...& bring it under the wing of revolutionary” Communism. “Hence, to belittle the socialist ideology in any way, to turn aside from it in the slightest degree means to strengthen bourgeois ideology. (emphasis in the original)
What is needed is a class-conscious movement. But for this there are two prerequisites: 1) the masses must embrace the revolutionary methods of struggle, that is, they must come increasingly to recognize Marxism-Leninism as the theory which must guide their practice; 2) most importantly, we need the new Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, which alone can really lead mass revolutionary struggles, which alone can help develop them thru its systematic taking of the science to the class (& other oppressed masses) in its words & its deeds. In the absence of such a Party, what we can do is limited by both: our own smaller capacities to do it; more importantly, by the need to focus all the work so that it all serves the main & only task – founding the Party. In other words, we must pick & choose carefully what project or campaign to take up amongst the masses.
The prime criterion for this must be that it contribute to the arousing of the essential mass discussion of the 5 Burning Questions. This is because, as we have shown, in this way the masses will begin to take up as their own the science of Marxism-Leninism & from their ranks will come the advanced setting about helping to found the Party based on that science. Once again, we mustn’t use the idealist method of trying to think up a “good idea”. No, let’s look at what exists in the society...Where is there some key event or movement going on which has stirred up the masses’ interests...where the 5 Burning Questions constitute the basis of the discussion struggle being waged...where can we most readily reach those “who have come to know that all ’traditional’ methods of fighting the bourgeoisie won’t work”...?
In “The 5 Burning Questions...” we state that the bourgeoisie is relying heavily on its Reformists, particularly now, as the crisis deepens & the early signs of mass struggle are beginning to surface. Since before the time of the last election, they have singled out, from amongst the various forces within their “Holy Alliance of the ’Left’” two main ones: the Trade Union Bureaucrats and, especially, Jesse Jackson’s ”Rainbow Coalition”. It seems clear that he & this “Coalition” are the leading FIREMEN to put out the simmerings, the flickering sparks of mass rebellion & revolution...at all costs these must be “put out” – drenched in honeyed words & police heart. At virtually every struggle that really has started to flare up, this man, & his flock of cohorts & main supporters, have shown up to throw on the wet blanket.
We believe that this is where we should take on the bourgeoisie. Let’s organize a growing nationwide campaign to oppose the “Rainbow Coalition’s” scheme: to smother the revolution before it really starts to break out; & especially to demoralize the advanced who are coming forward to be met only with methods of work they’ve already rejected.
In Canada, the “Holy Alliance of the ’Left’” has had to respond to the growing threat posed to the system by the existence of a strong genuine Marxist-Leninist Party by “turning ’more radical’”. Suddenly, they’ve got all these “Marxist Bishops” up there! These “radicals” are calling for “big changes to make capitalism more humane, to give more, or ’real’ rights to the workers, to put the workers before profits...”. Sound familiar? Well, it should. Only they are a little further “left” (read: in their words only) than Jesse Jackson...exactly and only because the situation, the needs of the bourgeoisie, call for this.
Not long ago on a major US television network, we were presented with a “major piece” on “Liberation Theology” – a worldwide movement, especially in the less-developed countries. We were shown priests “teaching” the masses to believe in Jesus and Marx too! To take up arms (no less!) and even work with the Marxist revolutionaries because an end has to be brought to their terrible oppression. (Read: the people, being squeezed to death by the crisis, have been rising up in wave after wave of revolution. This movement must be held back from getting more out-of-control, and especially, from understanding & struggling for scientific socialist society. Religious belief has been a long-standing weakness and fetter, confusing and demoralizing the masses. Let’s come out “in support of” that which they are already taking up – the revolution – and “show” how it’s the “Christian thing to do”...thru this technique we can attempt to stop the revolution from being a thorough-going one, one that overthrows all imperialist maneuvers in and thru its continuation to socialism, the dictatorship of the proletariat, and “godless” communism... After all, they’ve been forgetting to attend their Sunday services, God forbid!)
Where were all these priests, etc., during the decades and decades of horrible suffering of the millions and millions of the workers, peasants and other super-exploited and oppressed masses in those countries?[4] They were there but not doing anything significant “in support” of the necessary overthrow of these imperialist-caused conditions. On the contrary, they were “quietly” undermining the struggle by spreading their “turn the other cheek” and other reactionary passivist and obscurantist doctrines. So is it an accident that all of a sudden these relative-unknowns, these “humble, quiet servants of the lord” are now not only involved in an “international movement” but, in fact, hailed as its leaders? We must ask ourselves, our contacts and the masses this question again and again – IS ALL THIS AN ACCIDENT? OR IS IT ALL BEING ORCHESTRATED FROM BEHIND THE SCENES?
No, this is not an accident; yes, it is being orchestrated from behind the scenes, by world imperialism, headed by the two super-powers, the US and the USSR. And it is happening now, it is being done now, exactly and only because the masses have already begun to rise up in struggle that will lead to revolution and to socialism unless, UNLESS it can be derailed. At all costs, two things must be prevented from happening: 1) the masses take up the scientific-socialist, Marxist-Leninist science as their own, as the guide to their struggles; and 2) that the new Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, based on and widely propagating that science and leading that revolution, be founded and continue to grow.
Thus, we have the phenomenon of “instant leaders”. Here are people like Lech Walesa in Poland, Bishop Tutu in Azania (South Africa) and many more, who previously were virtual unknowns (to the masses), instantly being acclaimed their leaders. Instant recognition from around the world, instant and heavy coverage of them inside their own countries, and instant organization and the necessary facilities (such as printing presses and other means) to procure the widest possible dissemination of their every word).
Two points must be made here: this is not a new phenomenon, a new trick of the bourgeoisie, they’ve been “helping” us by providing instant mis-leaders for as long as they’ve existed as a class; but, their use of this tactic is increasing because it is effective and because it is needed by them more than ever exactly and only because, in the face of the world-wide crisis who’s depth will soon break all records and is gathering still more steam, is deepening at a continuously accelerating rate, in the face of this the masses have had, and will continue to have, no choice but to rise up in revolutionary struggle against the system that offers them only: more of the same, plus militarization, the threat of war and actual war, and increasing police state fascizing of our life.
A look back at the 1920’s & 30’s shows that during the last great crisis, it was the bourgeoisies most squeezed by it that turned to militarism & Fascism “to save” their system. And the key role in preventing the masses from uniting & rising up to prevent this was played by the various reformist & opportunist parties. Further, thru beefing up the security forces, secret police, courts, & much more, they set about actually constructing the corporate fascist state, & thus prepared the way thru the “democratic process” for the fascist coup that soon followed.
Now, not one or a few, but all countries (except Socialist Albania) are galloping head long into the crisis. Now everywhere, including in the US, the bourgeoisie is cutting all social services while beefing up the military & police forces. Everywhere too the masses are rising up to fight this. So, the bourgeoisie, being no fools, turn more & more to the tactic of using more & more mis- leaders, who use more & more “militant” or “revolutionary” or even “communist” sounding words.
This then is their leading edge; let it be ours too! Let’s begin the process of teaching the masses of the need to drive these scum from our midst; thru this they will come to see the true nature of the Capitalist State &, little by little, more and more, the need for and the power of Marxism-Leninism and, particularly, the Party founded on it. Here too the opportunity presents itself, in the process of participation with the masses for their true interests and against these sham “leaders” attempts to manipulate their movement, to show them that it’s a worldwide phenomenon, that there’s a world-wide enemy system – imperialism – causing it, AND that there’s a world-wide revolutionary and socialist movement, led by the Parties of the IMLCM, with Albania and its PLA showing the bright future ahead.
We can’t hope, at this time, to divert, in the main, this movement from the path of betrayal onto which the Rainbow Coalition and others are steering it. But we can lay some groundwork for this, exactly by winning over the advanced, militating within it, in and thru the all-out struggle against the misleaders that we carry out in the literature we bring to it and thru our words and actions while participating in its demonstrations, as well as the work we continue on with after the events are held.
What is needed is that all the forces struggling to found the Party take up a common project amongst the masses. Our joint work on it will propel forward all our other work both all other aspects of building Organization-to-Organization Marxist-Leninist Unity; and all the other General Levels of Activity. We believe that this is that project.
We propose the following Main Slogans for our work in such a project:
1) [a particular slogan corresponding to the Immediate Demands of the situation]
2) MAKE THE RICH PAY FOR THE CRISIS!
3) DOWN WITH THE IMF!/CANCEL ALL THE “DEBTS”!
4) END THE WAR PREPARATIONS!/BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME!
5) NO TO THE GROWING POLICE STATE & DEGENERATE CULTURE!
These reflect our stand on the gravest threats facing the masses: The crisis and the shifting of the burden of it onto our backs – in the US and the rest of the world; The militarization of the economy, the carrying out of imperialist war against the peoples’ of the lesser-developed countries and the threatening to do so, and the preparations for and threat of a general, world war; the growing police state & degenerate culture; and a slogan focusing on the main particular issue at the time. This last could be about anything from: a particular US intervention in Latin America, Africa, Asia... TO: a particular attack on the working class or oppressed nationalities in the US... TO: the appalling lack of needed services, etc.... etc., either in a particular locality or US-wide. We obviously can not know what they will be in advance. We list examples and include a spot within the list of slogans to ensure that we all analyze and sum up the situations as they develop and encapsulize the needs of the masses and focus their anger and hatred and energy, thru a particular slogan, against their real enemy.
This brings us to the end of our “Plan for Marxist-Leninist Unity: Organization-to-Organization”. Indicative of the importance we place on the work at this particular General Level of Activity is the quantity and quality of attention we’ve addressed to it: both on the theoretical front – here in RED FLAG #6 and in previous works; and on the practical front – during SDMLG’s first year of existence.
Now, as with all other sections of this pamphlet, we again reiterate: It is the responsibility of each and every one of you, the advanced, to seriously review past experience from a Marxist perspective and decide for yourself whether this Plan “corresponds to reality”...whether it is the plan that we must all adopt and actively work under. Further, you must examine every existing group with a critical eye, comparing their stated “commitment” to founding the new Party, with their actual Line, Plan and practice, i.e., is it really revolutionary, is it moving us rapidly toward founding the Party, or is it something else? And if it is making some kind of contribution, is it enough? Is it half-hearted or is it providing “leadership to the leaders”? For your examination along these lines, a review of San Diego Marxist-Leninist Group’s 1st year of activity (see next section).
[1] Thus, diametrically opposed to the “debating society” method & “style” of the “Continuations Committees” of the past.
[2] Recent examples of what we don’t need: 1) That the main problem in Chile (under Allende) was that the masses were not armed(!) – no mention of the much more critical needs: the Party & the science; 2) That there’s more democracy in Italy than in the US as “proven” by the higher percentage of (mislead) workers who vote for the Revisionists(!)
[3] Those who have come to know that all the “traditional” methods of fighting the bourgeoisie won’t work.
[4] We don’t wish to deny that there are a few exceptions to this, priests who fight in the people’s cause.