The Committee for a Proletarian Party is a local San Diego collective which formed in the Spring of 1977. The members of the collective did intensive study together for a long period of time in order to hammer out principles of unity upon which a Marxist-Leninist, democratic centralist organization could be founded. The principles of unity, which are to be found in the following pages, are not being put forward as a comprehensive, all-around development of a communist line for revolutionary work in the United States at this time. But we do believe that these principles on party-building, the international situation, the national question, strategy for revolution in the U.S., the woman question, and the gay question, represent a fairly high level of unity for a local communist collective.
We do not see ourselves as the potential core or leading center for formation of the Communist Party. We regard the Committee for a Proletarian Party as a temporary, transitional organization, which energetically seeks to merge itself into a national communist organization. On the other hand, we believe that we have definite strengths in theory and practice and can make significant contributions to the whole communist movement, which we plan to bring forward to comrades and friends in the coming period.
Although we are still a local organization, we are continuing to deepen our struggle against localism and small-circle mentality. Through months of study we waged resolute struggle against right opportunism, which we found to be the major danger both within our own membership and throughout the communist movement. We made a substantial break with those political forces which steadfastly refused to recognize party-building as the central task and continued to peddle anti-Leninism, pragmatism, and economism on the strategic task of building a Communist Party. In addition, we broke with centrist forces who denied the restoration of capitalism in the USSR and tried to contend that the Soviet Union’s foreign policy was merely the result of revisionism and great nation chauvinism, and not an inexorable result of its imperialist economic base.
Although we feel that we have made substantial progress in this struggle and can help other local collectives to make a similar break, we believe that the struggle against right opportunism is far from over. In forming the Committee for a Proletarian Party, we have made progress in taking scattered individuals who were for the most part, spectators of the communist movement, and forged an organization which has become part of the communist movement and can contribute to its advancement.
In this limited sense, a local communist collective can play a progressive role. But, overall, local circles are a declining aspect of the communist movement. The Committee for a Proletarian Party takes very seriously the tactical task of uniting Marxist-Leninists. Our aim is not to perpetuate ourselves for as long as possible and jealously guard our independence. We are firm in our orientation to seek unity, primarily with national communist organizations, as well as with other local circles and individuals in San Diego.
We call on comrades and friends to study our principles of unity, and in the spirit of unity-struggle-unity, to lay out the areas of agreement and disagreement. We call on those political forces who are being opportunistically united around opposition to “left” dogmatism as the main danger in the communist movement to pull back and right themselves before contributing to the consolidation of a retrograde tendency.
Together let us build a new communist party on firm proletarian foundations. Deepen the struggle against right opportunism. Strengthen the bonds between the communist and workers movement, and work to form a party which can operate as the vanguard of the class.