First Published: Revolution, Vol. 3, No. 14, November 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The historic Mao Tsetung Memorial Month, which began with the two mass meetings in New York and San Francisco in early September, concluded with local programs sponsored by the Revolutionary Communist Party on the weekend of October 6-8. The programs marked two years since the arrest of Mao’s staunch allies, the so-called “gang of four.”
These meetings honored not only Mao Tsetung, but the Four as well, who refused to bow down and make a cowardly surrender of the cause of the proletariat, who fought to the last for Mao’s line and in doing so made it still more possible for millions in China and around the world to grasp clearly the nature of the reversal and to pick up the revolutionary banner carried by these heroes.
The spirit and content of these final meetings really crystalized and underscored the significance of the Mao Memorial Month for Party cadre and the many advanced forces from among the masses who attended. A key theme of these programs, held in almost two dozen cities, was the importance of the Mao Tsetung Enrollment announced by the Party in the October issue of Revolution. This call for enrollment into the ranks of the Party was 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, U.S.A.” The third anniversary of the RCP was celebrated at the programs.
Party speakers emphasized that the stand taken by communists and revolutionary-minded people in the face of the bitter defeat for proletarian revolution in China will greatly affect the struggle of the working class in the U.S. and other countries to liberate itself from the chains of capitalism. To fall victim to the cynicism the bourgeoisie is trying to spread, with its gleeful reports of the dismantling of socialism in China, will only lead to abandoning the revolutionary struggle of the masses. To embrace the scoundrels now riding high in China, to proclaim their trampling on all that Mao stood for and the victories of the Cultural Revolution as the real meaning of revolution, to grovel before the “practical” capitalist crusade of the current Chinese leadership, is to condemn the masses to continued slavery. And to incorrectly sum up the reversal in China and its causes can only lead away from the path that will actually lead to revolution.
In sharp contrast, the Party used the knife of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tsetung Thought to cut through the web of lies and treachery the capitalists and revisionists have tried to spin to confuse and demoralize people and to hide the real lessons of the reactionary coup d’etat. The Party rallied thousands under the call to uphold the banner of Mao .and, summing up the causes and lessons of the revisionist triumph in China, boldly pointed to the future with revolutionary optimism.
This is no Pollyanna “stiff upper lip in the face of adversity.” The Mao Memorial Month and the Mao Tsetung Enrollment are a sharp rebuke to those who think they have buried the red flag of revolution in the dust. Party speakers at these programs, as well as the call for the enrollment itself, emphasized the need to master and apply the revolutionary science of Marxism-Leninism, not only in deepening understanding of the causes and lessons of the revisionist coup in China, but to get a firm grasp on the development of revolutionary struggle in the U.S.
A woman attending one of the programs said, “If I can understand the earthshaking things that happen in the world, like what happened in China, I can certainly play a role in helping to change the world.”
In this light Party speakers directly took on the question: “What do we do in the face of this reversal and what is the road forward to revolution in the U.S?” How should we look at the massive upsurges that shook the country during the anti-war movement and the Black liberation struggles of the ’60s and early ’70s and the relative lull in mass struggle today?
What is the actual state of the capitalist system and its much proclaimed ability to “rebound” from crisis? What are the implications for the masses of people and revolutionary struggle of the intensifying contention between the U.S. and the Soviet Union?
It was pointed out that these are some of the key questions developed in the 1976 Central Committee report of the RCP, “Revolutionary Work in a Non-Revolutionary Situation.” As one Party speaker bluntly put it: “Why are we busting our backs today to build revolutionary struggle and organization of the working class?”
The answer to that question lies in using the science of Marxism-Leninism to understand the inevitability of revolutionary crisis under capitalism and the eventual triumph of the cause of the proletariat. And, closely linked to this, it means grasping the possibilities for advances toward that goal that exist within today’s situation and the important role that individuals, by taking the revolutionary stand of the proletariat and joining its vanguard party, can play in speeding the achievement of that great goal.
Mao Tsetung saw very clearly that the road to revolution is not a straight line, that it is marked by many twists and turns, advances and setbacks. One of Mao’s greatest contributions to the development of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian ideology was his understanding, developed in the struggle against the Soviet revisionists and the capitalist-roaders in China, that even after the proletariat had overthrown the bourgeoisie and won liberation it was possible for proletarian rule to be reversed and capitalism restored.
Today the imperialist system is at the beginning of a new spiral. This spiral is and will be increasingly marked by the crisis of the imperialist system and will give way to another spiral only through world war among the imperialists to redivide the world, revolution or–most likely–both, on a world scale.
In this country as well as others, this will mean increased oppression of the masses–and increased resistance to that oppression. And, while not definitely or automatically leading to a revolutionary situation here, it will raise at least the prospect of a revolution in a number of countries, possibly including the U.S.
In this regard, the speeches pointed out that our work today must be carried out as preparation of the masses and the Party itself for the ripening of a revolutionary situation, whether that comes relatively soon or only later, through the “working out” of the present spiral or only in a later one.
And these speeches also stressed that where things are at today–in a new spiral which might raise the real prospect of revolution in this country–is an advance from the period of the 1960s and early ’70s. Still, moving ahead today requires building off the genuine gains of the struggles of the ’60s, and many of these gains were expressed in a concentrated way in the formation of the Revolutionary Communist Party which is determined to carry forward this revolutionary tradition, while basing itself firmly on Marxism-Leninism Mao Tsetung Thought and on the proletariat.
The slogans for the final program summed up the situation for the working people in the U.S. in the wake of the revisionist takeover in China. FORWARD WITH THE GREAT LESSONS OF THE PARIS COMMUNE, THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION AND THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION! In great struggles and victories, the international working class has also suffered serious setbacks and defeats. Yet each of these victories, though later being back, has advanced the cause of our class and led to new breakthroughs. LEARN FROM THE FOUR WHO FOUGHT FOR MAO’S LINE AND REVOLUTION, NEVER WAVERING! Because revolutionaries in China did not cave in to those who want to place the goal of working class revolution with a bowl of goulash and new chains of exploitation, we are in a much better position not to let ourselves be dragged into dead-end reformism and capitulation to imperialism. CELEBRATE THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE RCP! LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM, MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT!