What do we mean by Ideological Line, what is an ideology? Any ideology can be said to be composed of 3 things: its stand, its method and its viewpoint. Stand addresses the question of: Which side are you on? In the world today, there are fundamentally only two sides diametrically opposed to each other...the side of the bourgeoisie and all reaction, and the side of the Working Class and oppressed masses and all that is progressive. We stand with our class – the Proletariat.
Method addresses the question of: How do you analyze things? Here too, there are two choices, diametrically opposed to each other...Metaphysics and Dialectics. Metaphysics sees things and events as mostly unrelated, with change occurring happenstance, accidentally and caused by factors external to the thing. Dialectics is the scientific method that sees in all things a unity and struggle of opposites, with internal factors being the basis of change while external ones can be the catalyst; that everything is constantly changing – first thru relatively small, almost-imperceptible, quantitative increments, and then, finally, thru large, dramatic, revolutionary, qualitative leaps; and that things, nature, and human history too, develop like a spiral upwards, thru the “negation of the negation”, rather than simply in a circle – nonsense like: “History repeats itself, there is no progress.”...All genuine scientific discovery and progress is made using the dialectical method, whether this “user” realizes it or not. The confusion caused by the Metaphysical method serves the interests of the Bourgeoisie and is, therefore, promoted by them on all sides. We try to always use the Dialectical method.
Viewpoint addresses the question of: How do you view things... which comes first – the real world or the idea? Again we are faced with two diametrically opposed choices... Idealism and Materialism. Idealism holds that the idea comes first or is more real (& thus leads to, and is at the base of, all religion...). Materialism holds that the real world exists independent of the will of man, and that ideas are the reflection (more or less correct) of this reality in our minds; that, therefore, to change the world it is necessary to first understand it, to study its laws (with economics at the base; & politics and culture/ideology as the superstructure) of existence and motion... . Idealism obscures, covers up, why things are the way they are and how they can and must be changed. It therefore serves and is promoted by the Bourgeoisie. We must use the Materialist Viewpoint.
Our Stand, Method and Viewpoint, our Ideology, is proletarian dialectical (& historical) materialism...Marxism-Leninism is the science based on and promoting this ideology.
Political Line results from the application of the general principles of an ideology to the concrete situation at hand. Our political line is thus the result of applying proletarian ideology, Marxism-Leninism, to the situation we face today in the world. And clearly we can not understand the present without a correct analysis of how we got here, the past. We call our Line “Ideo/Political” because it combines the two together in one general statement or overview.
Now, given that our Main and Only Task is founding the new Party, we need an Ideo/Political Line to lead this work and upon which to found this Party. This Line must satisfy two conditions: 1) must address, and correctly, ALL the most fundamental “make or break” questions, essential for that level of unity NECESSARY to found the Party; 2) must include ONLY those most necessary questions (and their key aspects)...SUFFICIENT to unite around to found the Party, and NOT the many other important and unimportant ones which will be, and can only be, addressed and solved correctly by such a Party later.
We are convinced[1] that the following “5 Burning Questions...”, once discussed, agreed upon, and taken up firmly, would constitute “...The Necessary And Sufficient Basis...” to unite all the US Marxist-Leninists in one Party, “...To Found The US Party”. We hold that all the advanced, all those who have come to know that all “traditional” methods of fighting the bourgeoisie won’t work, that these fighters should struggle for unity over these questions and set about to found the Party! We include them here in the outline form: (see next section #10)
[1] We are convinced, not because of “great ideas in our heads” but because we used dialectical & historical materialism to analyse the question: “Why don’t we have a Party?”. The review we just presented in section 8 points out that again and again those who tried to organize for founding the Party did so in opposition to the Marxist-Leninist stand on exactly these 5 Questions. Similarly, the CPUSA itself was destroyed because of its abandonment of these stands & their replacement with American exceptionalism on each question.