First Published: Revolution, Vol. 3, No. 13, October 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The Revolutionary Communist Party announces the launching of a Mao Tsetung Enrollment into the Party. This is a direct call to workers and others who see the need for socialist revolution and are serious about devoting themselves to bringing it about in this country and making every possible contribution to the historic task of achieving communism worldwide, to come forward and apply for admission to the vanguard of the working class in this country, the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA–to commit themselves to systematically studying the Party’s line and the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tsetung Thought on which this line is based, to working actively with the Party in carrying out this line in practice and to joining the Party in accordance with the principles and procedures set forth in the Party’s Constitution.
As our Party has stressed throughout the Mao Tsetung Memorial Month, the setback suffered by the working class in China following Mao’s death has once again brought revolutionaries everywhere and the international communist movement to a crossroads. What must be done in the face of this bitter defeat? Throw down the red flag of proletarian revolution, fall on our knees before the bourgeoisie, give up the struggle against the imperialists, revisionists and other tormentors of the people and become in one form or another the servile tools of reaction? Some have chosen this course, but they can never represent the main and forward trend of history and can only end up being swept into the dustbin along with every system and all upholders of exploitation.
What lessons must be drawn from the temporary reversal in China? That socialism is bound to fail and communism is a hopeless illusion? Exactly the opposite is the case. Socialism is a great advance over capitalism and opens the way to communism, but, as Mao Tsetung explained, socialism is a long transition period during which there are classes, class struggle and the real danger of capitalist restoration and the principal contradiction remains that between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The goal of communism must and will be finally reached only through the victorious struggle of the working class to overthrow and finally eliminate the capitalist class and all the material and social conditions that give rise to exploitation in any form anywhere in the world. Twists and turns in the class struggle and temporary defeats are bound to occur, Mao taught, but these can never change the truth that the proletariat is bound to lead mankind to a whole new stage of history–communism, classless society.
Comrade Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Central Committee of the RCP, spoke to this in his speech at the Mao Tsetung Memorial Meetings: “The Cultural Revolution was the highest pinnacle yet achieved by the proletariat. The proletarian movement, like everything else in the world, develops in spirals and since the proletariat is the rising class, it is bound to advance, through this spiral, from the lower to the higher level. The material conditions and the laws of society dictate that socialism and ultimately communism are inevitable, and no setbacks can change that historical inevitability. In the last 100 years or so, from the Paris Commune to the Soviet Union to socialist China and the Cultural Revolution, the proletariat has continued to ascend to still greater heights and win still greater victories, despite temporary setbacks and reversals. As Mao Tsetung said: The future is bright; the road is tortuous.’”
Because of the loss in China should we cast aside the revolutionary banner of Mao Tsetung, either openly or while hypocritically claiming to uphold it? No, we must in fact hold high the banner of Mao Tsetung’s immortal contributions, learn from and carry forward the rich revolutionary legacy he has left to the international proletariat. We must redouble our determination to fight for the revolutionary cause of the working class and to master and apply the revolutionary science of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tsetung Thought in order to accelerate the forward march of history. The revisionist coup in China has put communists throughout the world, including our Party, through a severe test. It is only through such storm and stress, as Mao taught, that advance can be achieved. Our Party has stood this test and has refused to compound the great loss in China with a further defeat in this country–the transformation of the revolutionary vanguard of the working class into another knife in the back of the masses, another weapon of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. Instead the party of the working class in this country has been tempered and strengthened.
But many, greater tests and more historic tasks lie ahead for our Party and all revolutionaries, here and worldwide. The developments toward world war, arising out of the contention between the two imperialist superpowers, are growing and intensifying, while at the same time the revolutionary struggle is advancing and maturing in very difficult conditions in many countries. Even where there appears temporarily to be calm or an ebb, beneath the surface things are seething and tides are gathering. In the period ahead the question will be brought even more forcefully to the fore: to continue to stand firm and do everything for revolution, or to retreat, conciliate and finally collapse into outright betrayal? There will certainly be increasing difficulties and dangers, but by correctly understanding and summing up the unprecedented achievements as well as the setback of the Chinese revolution and deepening our grasp of Mao Tsetung’s enrichment of Marxism-Leninism and applying this to the situation before us, in the trials and upheavals ahead we can become further tempered, transform difficulty into opportunity, adversity into advance.
In this country, to make revolution, to overthrow one of the main exploiters of the people throughout the world, one of the two imperialist superpowers and main bastions of reaction, will strike a tremendous blow for the emancipation not only of the working class and oppressed people here but throughout the world. Whether such a momentous task can be attained before or during the world war whose shadow is more and more cast before us, or whether it will be brought about only later; in any event by unceasingly working for revolution and uniting with the proletariat and all the victims of imperialism and reaction throughout the world, by refusing to capitulate but instead constantly building struggle against, exposing and preparing for the final defeat of our imperialist ruling class and imperialism and reaction in general, we can and will continue to fulfill our obligations and make our contributions to the working class and its historic mission. This is the hard, high road of revolution on which our Party is determined to remain.
The answer, then, to the question–what must be done in the face of the reversal in China and the situation before us in general–is that we must intensify our work to bring about revolution and as a crucial part of this to build and strengthen the revolutionary vanguard of the working class, ideologically, politically and organizationally. It is with this understanding and in this spirit that the Revolutionary Communist Party announces the Mao Tsetung Enrollment.
Those who seek an easy way out of the situation we face, who cynically say that what has happened in China and even the international struggle as a whole do not really matter, or who insist on closing their eyes and hanging fast to every bit of revisionist treachery coming out of China and who do not want to reach any higher than the time-worn bourgeois aspirations of the renegades ruling China today, those who in one form or another repudiate or downgrade the immortal contributions of Mao Tsetung and his revolutionary line and Thought, and in general those who are looking for a niche for themselves and to serve a small circle or clique–all these will not and should not take up this call of our Party to work with, join and build it. It is not to them that this call is issued but to all those who are fired with a determination to put an end to all exploitation and oppression and the conditions that give rise to them, who are resolved to act in accordance with the forward development of history and to hasten the overthrow of everything reactionary and the final emancipation of mankind the world over, who dare to scale the heights and lead the masses in the greatest ascent in human history–to communism.
To respond please contact a local representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA or, if necessary, write RCP.USA; Box 3486, Merchandise Mart; Chicago, IL 60654.