Many communists would ask: Why is the Committee for a Communist Labor Party a necessity? Are there not half-a-dozen communist organizations and parties already in operation nationally? We could reply simply: They are revisionists. They are opportunists. Yet to use these words without elaboration is not contributing anything productive to the discussion nor cultivating productive discourse on these concepts.
Let us define what we mean by revisionist and opportunist.
The US communist movement is revisionist in that it deviates from Marxist principles and adopted a rendition of “communism” harmless to the capitalists. One of the oldest nominally communist parties in the United States today, the Communist Party USA, denies the need for a social revolution to overthrow capitalism and endorse members of the center-right, anti-communist Democratic Party.
“... People who pronounce themselves in favour of the method of legislative reform in place and in contradistinction to the conquest of political power and social revolution, do not really choose a more tranquil, calmer and slower road to the same goal, but a different goal. Instead of taking a stand for the establishment of a new society they take a stand for surface modifications of the old society. If we follow the political conceptions of revisionism, we arrive at the same conclusion that is reached when we follow the economic theories of revisionism. Our program becomes not the realisation of socialism, but the reform of capitalism; not the suppression of the wage labour system but the diminution of exploitation, that is, the suppression of the abuses of capitalism instead of suppression of capitalism itself.”
— Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution, Chapter 8.
Other parties within the opportunist camp, like the Party for Socialism and Liberation, twist the meaning of socialism by defending the policies and actions of the modern People’s Republic of China, which imposes a social-imperialist1 order and has long undergone the capitalist road of development over the socialist road.2 China today has a state-capitalist economy built upon exploitation of the Chinese working class and debt-trap diplomacy.3 Those who consider the Chinese model to be “socialist” in truth seek to reproduce that same model of capitalism, regardless of whether they intend for it or not.
In addition to these errors, all of these organizations suffer from chronic bureaucratism and are isolated from the masses, not applying the mass line4 and therefore not acting in accord with the masses material needs and desires.
Mao Zedong once argued in his 1937 essay titled “On Contradiction”, “it is through internal causes that external causes become operative.” In other words, it is not chiefly through the external influences of the capitalists that the revolutionary movement is made impotent, but rather through its internal shortcomings — revisionism, opportunism, etc.
If the failures and irrelevance of the American communist movement can be attributed to these internal problems (revisionism, opportunism, etc.), it follows that we must resolve them. Further, if we aim for a state that represents a democracy of the working class, it necessarily follows that these conditions must be resolved through direct engagement with and empowerment of the workers.
Thus, the Committee for a Communist Labor Organization hopes to achieve the following:
Firstly, to create a party of a new type. We are building a party which understands the needs of its members and empowers them to act in a democratic manner. We seek to build an organization which operates in a manner free from the bureaucracy of the previous organizations of the American communist movement through accountability structures that flow from the bottom of the organization, a Marxist psychology based in historical materialism, and a revolutionary application of the mass line in all fields of struggle.
Secondly, to advocate and develop a living Marxism. This will be a Marxism which is, in all ways, free from the chains that impeded previous implementations of Marxism — dogmatism, revisionism, and adventurism. This will be a Marxism which, through informed practice, develops in accord with modern demands and the needs of the working class. This will be a Marxism which in all capacities upholds the principle “ruthless criticism of all that exists.”7
It is only through this path that the US communist movement can be reborn into a force which is truly effective against the capitalist system.
Workers of the world unite!
Notes:
Social-imperialism is the imperialism which develops in former socialist states which have restored capitalism
The socialist society can only go in two directions — or roads, metaphorically speaking — the capitalist path or the socialist-communist path. It is a society in constant movement in one way or the other.
Debt-trap diplomacy refers to when a creditor-state (an imperialist state) lends money to a borrower-state (semi-colonial state) that cannot pay its debts, with the strategic intent of gaining political, and economic leverage over the borrower state. Debt-trap diplomacy is one of the main mechanisms of imperialism today, as seen with the International Monetary Fund and China's Belt and Road Initiative.
The mass line is best summed up as the principle “from the masses, to the masses.” With the mass line, the party constantly interacts with the people to hear their grievances, understand their needs, and provide Marxist solutions to them.
Historical materialism is a method of analyzing history that focuses on how economic and social relations shape and are shaped by material conditions, power dynamics, modes of production, and historical contexts over time.
Adventurism refers to risky and aggressive actions taken without careful consideration of the consequences of those actions. Adventurists often believe that individual actions outweigh the actions of the collective. They are right only insofar as their actions lead to persecution of the collective, regardless of the collective's actual culpability in the actions of the adventurist. Examples of adventurism include but are not limited to armed insurrection, terrorism, and other acts of violence; especially when conducted without public support, long-planning, or strategic direction.
See Marx’s September 1843 letter to Ruge.
