Rally, Comrades! The Voice of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America

As the press of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, the mission of Rally, Comrades! is an expression of the League's mission. Its primary purpose is to coalesce and consolidate a core of communists politically prepared to take the next step in the line of march of the revolutionary process. It expresses the continuity of the League's understanding that this stage of the revolutionary process requires us to focus, not on the masses, but on those capable of influencing and leading others.

In the world-historical revolutionary process, understanding the proper relation between a revolutionary organization and the mass movement is of the utmost importance. Revolutionary organizations have fallen into one of two errors – either demanding the abolition of private property without any consideration for the stages of development of the proletariat and the objective conditions they face, or simply taking up whatever the class thinks at any given time and elevating that to the revolution and class struggle.

In the Communist Manifesto Karl Marx summarized the proper dialectic: "The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of that movement.”

His colleague, Frederick Engels, applied this dialectic to organization: the organization of revolutionaries must be the subjective (theoretical, tactical and strategic) expression of the objective (historical, mass, objective) movement.

The League rests on this dialectical relation: "We face the task of building a revolutionary organization while participating in the mass movement at the highest level. These two are not the same thing, but neither can be done without the other. Accomplishing these two pulls us in different directions; navigating the relation between the two directions is the way that we will build the League." (Katrina, the Rulers’ Strategy and the Tasks of the League, December 2005)

The actual field of work of the communist lies in the relation of the two, what we term the "art of politics.”

Mass movement and revolutionary organization

A movement is in the category of history, not politics, Being objective or unconscious, it is not the result of someone's ideas, but spontaneously arises on the basis of the contradictions within society and expresses itself as the summation of the scattered and often seemingly unrelated activity of hundreds of millions of people.

These millions are striving to move in a certain direction, that is, in the direction of revolution and communism, but they are not conscious of this inevitability, which results from historically motivated and seemingly scattered and individual activity.

The communist movement is this historically evolved struggle of the proletariat for the seizure of political power. It is not the sectarian activity of a group of people ideologically committed to communism.

Clearly the communists must do two things. They must adopt the program of the class. This does not mean that they adopt what the class says and thinks; it means that they adopt the actual goals and demands of the class. Those goals can be understood only by a deep understanding of the quantitative stage of the class struggle and by learning to sum up the scattered objective demands of the workers.

And the communists must struggle for the broadest possible unity of the working class on the basis of the objective demands of the class. This broad political unity cannot be achieved without compromise. If all people were able to see the same thing in the same way, compromise would not be a problem. Since they do not, and cannot, because of differing experience and ideology, the art of compromise becomes the form of the struggle for political unity.

League program and mission

The League program expresses these dual responsibilities. Within the overall context of the program of the class – communism as the only practical solution to the problems of today – the program addresses the immediate needs of the workers. “Society must take over the corporations or the corporations will take over society” provides the general political guideline for the work.

On the other hand, the program "represents and takes care of the future of that movement" by outlining the League’s mission within that process to prepare the revolutionary forces for the next stage toward political revolution. The League program states: “Tens of thousands of socially conscious people declare themselves revolutionaries in opposition to the degenerating social and economic conditions. The League's mission is to unite these scattered revolutionaries on the basis of the demands of the new class, to educate and win them over to the co-operative, communist resolution of the problem.”

Therefore, within the overall context of epochal transformation, the program provides the general political guideline for the League's work and outlines the one main thing that the League is trying to accomplish at this stage of development.

To accomplish this mission

Many things must be done to accomplish this mission. All of the League's political assessments and strategic and tactical projections are the hows of carrying out this mission. This includes the identification of nationalization in the interests of the workers as the next step in the line of march of the revolution and identification of the dispossessed of the Rust Belt as the decisive section of the class, as well as the broad dissemination of propaganda that seeks to show the roots of the problem, instill an understanding of class interests, and to break the intellectual and political bonds that tie the workers to the capitalist class.

In all of this, the League's goal is to influence the emerging revolutionaries in order to create a conscious communist core that can provide the stability and clarity to the revolutionary movement in its next stages of development.

We can only move the masses to the next stage of development by influencing their leaders. The League’s strategy is the development of the leaders of the movement. This means we work within the existing movement rather than attempting to create something that we can control. If we intend to link up with the leaders of the existing movement, we have to present them with the resolution of the problems they are grappling with.

The role of Rally, Comrades!

Thus, Rally, Comrades! seeks to reach and influence those who are already to a certain degree conscious of the root of society’s problems, however this is expressed (as anti-capitalist, anti-corporate, revolutionary, or another form), and who are seeking strategic direction and perspective to win.

Rally's mission stated as editorial policy in each issue speaks to this when it states: “In this period of growing motion and developing polarization, Rally, Comrades! provides a strategic outlook for revolutionaries by indicating and illuminating the line of march of the revolutionary process. It presents a pole of scientific clarity to the conscious revolutionaries, examines and analyzes the real problems of the revolutionary movement, and draws political conclusions for the tasks of revolutionaries at each stage of development in order to prepare for future stages.”

Revolutionaries are drawn to what we have to say in different ways, but the common thread is that they are looking for something more than just fighting back. They are looking for a greater understanding of the problem, and a direction and strategy to solve the problems they and their constituents face.

Rally speaks to these leaders – these revolutionaries – who are emerging from every front of struggle as conditions worsen.

To reach and influence these revolutionaries, Rally must first of all speak to their interests and concerns. It must not only expose the roots of their problems and convince them that capitalism is finished, it must put forward a direction in which to go, a strategy to pursue, the next steps and why. It must analyze political motion and events, outline strategy and direction, and broaden the outlook of the revolutionaries beyond their narrow fronts. It must focus its work on creating conscious communists, who are prepared politically to move the gathering forces along the next step. Ultimately, Rally, Comrades! is a political paper, facing outward, and striving to reach and influence the emerging leaders as they begin to grapple with the broader questions of why, and which way.

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt of a report to the Rally, Comrades! Annual retreat, July 2009.