Dear Comrades, Delegates and Alternates to the First Congress of the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee:
It is with great satisfaction and pride that the Central Committee submits this Report to the First Congress of the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee.
We have convened our Congress at an extremely important moment in the international class struggle. The period in which we live is very complicated. On the one hand, on all continents of the globe, we can see the tremendous progress being made by the socialist camp, the proletariat and oppressed people of the word against the world system of imperialism. The camp of socialism is strengthening its forces, widening its influence over the masses, and preparing for greater victories ahead.
But at the same time, we do not in any way close our eyes to the real dangers and hazards that confront us. The Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee declares that these dangers stem mainly from the worldwide system of imperialism, the two superpowers–U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism– from modern revisionism and the newest forms of revisionism which have emerged in the theory of the “three worlds”. We believe that the period in which we are living is a period similar to that in which Marx worked and lived and defended his doctrine, in which Lenin worked and lived and defended Marxism-Leninism against all sorts of opportunists and revisionists. It is a period similar to that, after the death of the great Comrade Stalin, in which Marxist-Leninists all over the world needed to come forward to defend Marxism-Leninism against Khrushchevite revisionism and the various opportunist currents which emerged.
Over the last 30 months, the 2 and a half years since the formation of our organization, in May of 1975, there have been many important changes in the world in which we live. Our organization was formed on the eve of the victories in Kampuchea, Vietnam and Laos. Since that time there have been victories scored against imperialism, feudalism, and colonialism in Africa and other parts of the world.
The Selected Works of Comrade Enver Hoxha have been available in English for the first time, published in various parts of the world. We have seen the dissemination of Volume 5 of Comrade Mao Tsetung. We have seen the victories of the 7th Party Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania, and the great internationalist rallies which have been held in Germany, Portugal, Greece and Spain. And most recently, the very important statement which is reprinted in the December issue of UNITE!, from five Marxist-Leninist parties of Europe. This statement we believe follows in the tradition of the Third International founded by Lenin, and is provided today in the United States only by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee.
But in the last thirty months as well, we have mourned the deaths of the great Marxist-Leninists, Comrade Mao Tsetung and Comrade Chou En Lai. Other comrades in the class battle have fallen in Azania, Chile, Brazil, Eritrea, Palestine, the Philippines and on countless battlefields. Certain advances have been made by the revisionists and opportunists, particularly in Africa. The present class struggle in China is one of very great concern to the revolutionary people of the world.
These points reflect the fact that class struggle has developed on many fronts, that there have been new battles won, but the objective conditions of the class struggle have not changed. The objective nature of the era remains the same as that outlined by Lenin. On the one hand, we have the camp of socialism, the proletariat, the great socialist countries, the Marxist-Leninists of the world, the national liberation movements–a camp which is bringing into being an entirely new world. On the other hand we have the camp of imperialism and reaction, led by the two superpowers, but containing all imperialist reaction, all capitalist and feudal elements all over the world.
The task of this era has not changed, there have been no new conditions as today some suggest, to concretely change what Lenin spoke of long ago when he said that, “the abolition of capitalism and its vestiges, and the establishment of the fundamentals of the communist order comprise the content of the new era of world history that has set in. It is inevitable that the slogans of our era are and must be the abolition of classes , the dictatorship of the proletariat....“Lenin, On Struggle with the Italian Socialist Party,” LCW, Volume 31, p.392.)
This Congress and our organization must stand firmly on the viewpoint that communism is not some distant and abstract goal; that communism and the class struggle is not something to be postponed and replaced by the united front against the two superpowers; that the proletariat of the world and the U.S. is able to make revolution. It is the working class, and only the working class, which is capable of smashing the bourgeoisie worldwide, replacing it with the rule of the proletariat together with its allies. We state here and now that in this country we will not give up the class struggle, as the theorists of the “three worlds” would have us do. This is a Congress which stands in absolute opposition to the U.S. bourgeoisie, and to monopoly capitalism.
Socialism is the goal for which we are fighting. It is not some invention of dreamers, not some abstract thing to be taken up for solution fifty years from now or one hundred years from now but a question to be solved today.
There is no evidence, comrades, no new data to disprove Lenin’s great teachings. We stand firmly behind what Lenin pointed out about the nature of our era and we stand firmly behind the strategy of Leninism in our era, which is the alliance of the working class and the oppressed nations of the world.
This Congress therefore stands for the direct road to political power by the proletariat, the road of class struggle and the complete victory over the bourgeoisie. This is the road begun by the Paris Commune and the October Revolutions. It is the road that Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tsetung and Enver Hoxha have followed. In this country it was the road charted over one hundred years ago by the smallest circles of Marxists. It was a road taken up in 1921 with the formation of the Communist Party, U.S.A.
Even though the “C”PUSA degenerated and took a different road, took the road of class collaboration, today we stand committed to continue on that original road. We are absolutely confident that no matter what the “C”PUSA does, no matter what the other agents of the bourgeoisie propose, we will successfully carry out a revolution in this country, as they have been carried out all over the world.
We think that it is extremely important to learn from the mistakes of the international proletariat, and to study well the history of Marxism-Leninism in the United States and of the class struggle. We will not follow on the road taken by the “C”PUSA, and we will not fight under the banner of social-chauvinists today, who call for unity with the U.S. bourgeoisie against the Soviet Union.
The road taken by the Communist Party (M-L), and other lesser groups in this country is the road of counter-revolution, and we stand in this Congress to condemn it, we stand to expose it, and we stand to rout it from the midst of the working class. Just as in Russia, and in China and Albania, the proletariat and its allies rose up in revolution, we will rise up in this country. Our brothers and sisters in the Soviet Union will likewise rise up, and together we will overthrow U.S. imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism, and bring into being a new world.
When we look around in the world today, we can state firmly that revolution is in the air. All the events of modern day life point to this fact. Revolution is led by the socialist countries who stand in the very forefront of the class struggle. The example of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, with 2 and a half million people, has enormous moral and political influence on the course of the class struggle worldwide. As such a small country, it is an extremely powerful testament to the power of socialism, to the vitality of the ideas of Marx, and to the recognition that revolution is on the agenda.
In the last year we have seen a new alignment and development of the subjective factors, which has emerged since the 7th Party Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania.
At that time, comrades, there was great confusion and great fog being spread by certain forces in the world. This confusion told the proletariat that the real problem was to build a united front against the two superpowers, not socialist revolution. This confusion stated that the viewpoint advanced by Lenin, upheld by Stalin and the Communist International, that there exist two camps in the world, permanently in this era, no longer applies, and that there is new evidence to conclude that there are three worlds–no longer the worlds of capital and labor, but three worlds.
Since the 7th Party Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania, several important things have taken place. First, very firm and definite lines of demarcation have been drawn on an international level, between the genuine Marxist-Leninists, and the opportunists who preach the theory of the “three worlds”. Second, we have been provided with an extremely sharp weapon in the class struggle, an extremely clear, straight forward and lucid presentation of the Leninist theory of revolution, a weapon which we can take up and utilize in the class struggle. Third, we have seen in countries in Europe and Latin America, the rise of Marxist-Leninist parties who today stand in the very vanguard of the class struggle, parties which have already created liberated base areas, parties which today mobilize tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of workers in the class struggle. The five Marxist-Leninist parties of Europe which have signed the recent declaration reflect a level of class struggle which we have not seen since the 1930’s.
This new alignment of the subjective factor that we are talking about, this new growth and maturity of Marxism-Leninism is also reflected here in the United States. In the last six to nine months there have been definite and clear lines of demarcation drawn between Marxism-Leninism–represented by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee–and opportunism, represented by many other circles or groups that claim to be Marxist-Leninist. Today we are the only organization in the U.S. that stands consistently for proletarian internationalism, for the genuine unity of the international proletariat and for its leading role in the world revolution. We are the only organization in the U.S. which stands for the genuine support of the national liberation movements and of the socialist countries. So, comrades, that is a profound change since the period in which we formed the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee in 1975. We have come to understand the day to day reality of the strategy we have adopted, which is the actual forging of the alliance in deeds, not in words, between the proletariat and the oppressed nations and peoples of the world.
This is a non-stop battle, one which will be waged on the battlefield of armed struggle. It will not be waged by liquidating the struggle against imperialism as a world system, and only focusing on the two superpowers. The Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee has always stood for the defeat of the international bourgeoisie and all its social props, whether it be the trade union bureaucrats and labor aristocrats here, the “C”PUSA, the revisionists, or the various social props around the world–the Mobutus of Zaire, the Boumedienes of Algeria, the Sadats of Egypt, and all of the compromising elements which defend imperialism. This is the road we are committed to take.
On the other hand, as the camp of socialism and the various Marxist-Leninist parties develop and grow stronger, so do international reaction and the international bourgeoisie step up their frantic efforts. The bourgeoisie pursues a dual policy. On the one hand, they try to suppress the revolution by force; on the other hand, they attempt the disintegration of the revolution by the influence of bourgeois ideology in the form of modern revisionism, the theory of the “three worlds” and other voices. At the forefront of the efforts by the bourgeoisie to destroy the revolution by force is the armed aggression of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism against countless countries, peoples, and movements all around the world. The efforts to undermine and disintegrate the Marxist-Leninist parties of the world and the revolutionary movement through the influence of bourgeois ideology, has primarily taken the form of modern revisionism. Revisionism today is centered in the Soviet Union, which preaches a view of peaceful coexistence, a view of detente, and liquidates the role of the proletariat and the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
We have heard a lot recently about the so-called “Eurocommunists”, particularly from Italy, Spain and France. These reactionaries have nothing in common with the communism of Marx. The Berlinguers, the Carillos, or the Marchaises of Europe stand for counter-revolution, stand for the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and stand for class collaboration. Without them, the bourgeoisie of Europe would hardly be able to stand on its own two feet. While certain contradictions exist between them and the modern revisionists centered in Moscow, they represent the feuding among thieves. These contradictions are relative. The contradiction between these counter-revolutionaries and the proletariat and oppressed masses is absolute. These so-called “Eurocommunists” are traitors to the cause of the revolution, and social props of the bourgeoisie. They are as doomed to failure as Tito or Khrushchev.
In the last few years we have seen a new theory arise which claims to defend Marxism-Leninism and claims to oppose modern revisionism, centered in the Soviet Union. This new international trend takes a variety of forms in different countries, but it has a common song, and that song is the theory of the “three worlds”. This theory completely liquidates the international role of the proletariat and the alliance which it must forge with the oppressed nations. This ridiculous theory does not even have within it room for a socialist country such as Albania, which is clearly not a part of Asia, Africa or Latin America. And if there should be a revolution in a place like France, or Britain or Japan, would they then be a part of the “third world”? The most obvious implication of this theory is to liquidate, therefore, the entire role of the socialist countries. Comrades, this theory of the “three worlds” is not some minor deviation, not some simple opportunism which has emerged by accident, but represents a definite international trend.
Some have said to us recently, and some have said to us in the past, that the tone of our polemics, the sharpness with which we speak to these questions is inappropriate. Comrades, we do not think so. We think that it was entirely appropriate for Lenin to fiercely condemn the Second International. It was appropriate for Stalin to condemn the modern revisionists in Yugoslavia, and for Mao and Hoxha to attack the rise of revisionism in the U.S.S.R. We believe and stand by what Lenin once said, that there are moments when a question must be raised sharply and things given their proper name, the danger being otherwise that irreparable damage may be done to the party and the revolution. We stand firmly on Lenin’s teachings that unless we firmly oppose the theory of the “three worlds”, unless we prepare and arm ourselves to thoroughly and scientifically understand the class struggle in the Communist Party of China, we will do irreparable damage to the revolution. We have raised this question sharply and given it a proper name–it is an anti-Leninist theory, a theory which definitely follows in the footsteps of Kautsky and Khrushchev.
The theorists of the “three worlds” try to dampen the flames of revolution. Comrades, exactly the opposite has happened. In all parts of the world there are numerous Marxist-Leninist parties who have stood up to this opportunist trend. This theory has been opposed by five Marxist-Leninist parties in Europe, as reprinted in their statement, in Japan, in Latin America, in all parts of the world, and in the U.S. by our organization. The sword of Marxist-Leninist theory has been sharpened, and serious and systematic struggle is being waged against revisionism in all forms that it takes. Comrades, we are committed to carrying this struggle out, and we understand that this struggle against the theory of the “three worlds” is a life and death struggle.
The theory of the “three worlds” represents an external and also an internal danger to a socialist country. By conciliating with U.S. imperialism and all varieties of bourgeois reaction, the theory of the “three worlds” definitely strengthens the hand of imperialism and world reaction. This anti-Leninist theory is a direct attack against genuine socialist countries, such as the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania. By liquidating the historic role of a socialist country and the socialist camp, the theorists of the “three worlds” provide aid and assistance to all those who seek to destroy socialism in Albania and China, and in all countries where the dictatorship of the proletariat is established. The current situation requires that we pay substantial and increased attention to the defense of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania in an all round way.
Internally, the theory of the “three worlds” liquidates the class struggle and props up the reactionary bourgeoisie. In a socialist country, if carried to its logical conclusion, the theory of the “three worlds” can only lead to the liquidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The tragic setbacks in the Soviet Union with the destruction of the Bolshevik Party and the restoration of capitalism, teach us that we must always remain vigilant in strengthening and defending the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The victory of the theory of the “three worlds” in a country such as the U.S. and its hegemony over the proletariat, would mean the death of the revolutionary movement in this country for a period of time. Its victory in other capitalist countries would mean the triumph of revisionism on a scale which we have not yet seen in the world today.
We must recognize that there will be many difficulties in the course of the class struggle we are waging, many difficulties which we have not even foreseen at this time. We recognize fully that the U.S. bourgeoisie is the strongest, largest, most powerful bourgeoisie in the history of the world. We have no illusions that it will spare any violence against us, or abandon any form of struggle in its effort to destroy us. The bourgeoisie of the U.S. will use all opportunist voices and social props in its fight to retain state power.
Support for the opportunist theory of the “three worlds”, which aids the bourgeoisie, is headed in the U.S. by the Communist Party (ML). Comrades, we will say openly and publicly that the actions of the Communist Party of China in recognition of the CP(M-L) are a great disservice to the proletariat of the U.S. and the progressive people of the world, who are looking to the proletariat in this country for a victory.
Opportunists may do great damage for a short period of time but we know that in the long run we will triumph over them. While disruption and failure is the logic of the opportunists and the bourgeoisie, we may fail temporarily, but in the long run we will succeed and they will fail. The logic of Marxism-Leninism is one of success and victory. We recognize that the road will be very difficult. Lenin explained that political activity is not like the pavement of Nevsky Prospect. Nevsky Prospect is a big, broad, well lit street in Moscow.
In this country we expect that the opportunists will grow stronger and louder before they are destroyed. We have suffered some temporary setbacks at their hands, for sure. Some bookstores in the U.S. no longer carry our materials and in fact, some bookstores are taking off the shelves the 7th Party Congress documents from the Party of Labor of Albania, the works of Comrade Enver Hoxha, and other important Marxist-Leninist documents. But even in the short run, these setbacks have been a great impetus to us. Though sales in some bookstores may decrease, our cadre are seeking to take Marxism-Leninism more directly into the plants, mines and farms of this country–directly to the workers. What in one light seemed a bad thing, when seen differently has turned out to help place us directly on the correct course.
Comrades, going directly to the workers is the road which we are determined to carry out. We will succeed because we have a very reliable guide and compass, the theory of Marxism-Leninism. This is a period in which there must be renewed energy and vigor applied to the study of Marxist-Leninist theory. Theory cannot be studied for the sake of your own personal development; it must be studied for the sake of applying it in the class struggle. Comrades, the reason we have been able to wage the battle we have against the opportunist theory of the “three worlds” is because the comrades in our organization have taken up the study of Marxist-Leninist theory, exposed the opportunist theory of the “three worlds” and are today able to wage that struggle on many fronts all over the country. This is the period in which the kind of theoretical work we began in Communist Line Nos. 1 and 2 must be continued, and deepened and developed on a much firmer basis in order to combat the opportunist viewpoints which have come forward.
Comrades, we believe that theory is not something that is lifeless, not something without value, but something which can be applied in the day to day class struggle. And we believe that it has to be tested by the practical aspect of our deeds, not simply by what kind of study program we outline. To the extent that we are armed with Marxist-Leninist theory we will be able to continue the struggle. To the extent to which we do not take steps now to arm our cadre firmly on the basis of Marxist-Leninist theory we will falter in the future.