Indíque aquí
para la versión en inglés / Click here for the English version
Everything before us is changing -our institutions, culture, family structures and society itself. The League of Revolutionaries for a New America must change also to be in step with this process. When the League was founded, it was grounded among the practical fighters in certain sections of the survival, equality and trade union movements. As such, it gravitated towards the practical and tactical fight. However, the founding of the Labor Party has created the conditions to free up the League so that it can develop the theoretical and analytical side of the movement.
This situation demands that we discuss the concept of vanguard in its relationship to the line of march of the revolution in the United States. We do so to get a better understanding of our role as an organization of revolutionaries. Therefore, we will review the content of the revolutions in this century, look at the line of march of our revolution, and, draw conclusions and proposals for action.
The Line of March and Revolution
The countries that have experienced revolutions in the 20th Century have had one thing in common: they have been bourgeois-democratic revolutions in content. This is true of Russia, China, Albania, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Many of these countries have also had an anti-imperialist and or anti-colonial character. In Russia, with its small working class concentrated in the European part of Russia, the Bolsheviks were able to build a small disciplined party that based itself in the key section of the proletariat. Through the Soviets they were able to give direction to the larger social movement. They did this by concentrating on the vanguard of the proletariat ". . . in pre-revolutionary Russia, the metal workers were the vanguard of the Russian proletariat. Their conditions in society, their social organization in the factories, their militancy, and above all their class consciousness made them the vanguard" (O.W. Kuusinen, Fundamentals of Marxism Leninism, page 409).
The Bolshevik Party was a highly ideological and disciplined organization because it had to win the Russian masses to the ideas of socialism. At that time there were two possible paths forward to industrialization: one led by the working class and the other under the leadership of the capitalist class. The country was in the midst of breaking with the feudal fetters that restricted the development of capitalism. In other countries, the party took a political-military form combined with a united front strategy. Here again, the parties were highly ideological because they had to win over the other classes and sectors by convincing them that socialism was superior to the capitalist mode of production and in the interest of the people. Thus, industrialization would take place with the means of production owned in common, rather than in private.
Line of March in the United States
What is the content of our time? We live in a society moving from an economic base whose foundation was mechanics in industrial production to one based on electronics. This new economic situation is global. Where imperialism was the apex of the capitalist mode of production, globalization is capitalism in its descendency. With the new means of production based on electronics utilizing very little labor power, commodities are being produced with less value embodied in them, this includes the commodity of labor power. This is threatening the whole bedrock of the capitalist system of production which is based on profit being derived from the exploitation of labor power in the production process. Every new innovation in the new instruments of production lowers the value of the commodities produced. Thus, we are moving in the direction of a valueless society. We are in the beginning of the end of the capitalist system.
Socially, we are advancing towards a majority movement, similar to what Marx and Engels describe in The Communist Manifesto: "Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat" (Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Communist Manifesto, page, 109).
In previous revolutions, the majority of the populations did not have a stake in the common ownership of the means of production, and the class or section that did, was its vanguard. In those revolutions, the working class was a minority of the population, which led the masses of the people, who were mainly peasants. In our revolution the proletarian majority has a stake in the common ownership of the means of production and will have the capacity to represent themselves. This class of proletarians will be a practical movement not an ideological movement, and therefore they will develop their tactics and strategy.
What are the features of this beginning stage of the revolutionary process? This situation is creating a society that is being polarized economically and socially. We are moving from social polarization to political polarization and entering a period of the development of class identity. With the founding of the Labor Party, the immediate class interests are being united under one umbrella that brings together the interests of our diverse class. The role of the Labor Party is to awaken the American people through their program of action and to form a proletarian army.
Contrary to the situation in Lenin's time, under today's conditions there is no need for the organization of revolutionaries to direct the immediate practical struggle. To do so, confuses the role of the conscious element whose purpose is propaganda, with the tactical side of the struggle. This the Labor Party can do. The role revolutionaries is to provide economic, philosophical and historical understanding to the practical fighters; to arm them with revolutionary theory, clarity, philosophical understanding, and the historical line of march. The organization of revolutionaries doesn't have to persuade the practical leaders about developing a society whose economic base isn't built yet. On the contrary, our role is to point out that capitalism is a fetter on the development of society. With the new means of production based on electronics, we only have to point out what is inevitable - a social revolution that brings the production relations in conformity with the forces of production. This means building a society where the distribution of goods is based on need.
What is the relationship of the organization of revolutionaries and the people's party in the concrete?
The people's party represents the practical fighters, many of whom know and will master revolutionary theory. On the other hand, the organization of revolutionaries are masters of revolutionary theory, with many of them also being practical fighters. Both organizations are moving in the same direction but have a different division of labor in the revolution. Neither one can exist without the other. The practical fighters need an institution that knows the science of revolution which can teach them theory so that they can develop the movement's strategy and tactics. The revolutionaries need the practical fighters so that they can put the theory to the test in the struggle.
The revolutionaries must build an infrastructure of study circles, schools, book clubs, educational societies, sponsor forums, radio shows, television, videos, cassette tapes, circulate the presses and speak on the leading issues of the day. In this way the revolutionaries show the workings of the system and why it is outmoded, and they instill in the people a sense of entitlement to the means of production.
As a starting point, we should set as a priority the training of propagandists who are in position of influencing others and who have an interest and calling in propaganda, especially young revolutionaries. The understanding of propaganda requires particular skills. It requires an understanding of revolutionary theory, philosophy, political economy in order to provide analysis.
Also, we must make our press and other propaganda accessible to the activists in the struggle. This will mean a concentration on circulation with a division of labor for subscriptions, bundle sales, marketing, and the organization of a distributive apparatus. The circulation of our press will tell us whether we are succeeding or not.
The content of the revolutionary process taking place today is much different than in revolutions preceding ours. The other revolutions were bourgeois democratic revolutions and had two revolutionary classes capable of leading them - the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. In our revolution there is only one revolutionary class and in a short time it will be the majority of society - the proletariat.
Secondly, the capitalist mode of production is coming to an end. It can no longer grow because of limited profits from the production process because of the displacement of workers by the new means of production based on electronics. This is giving rise to severe polarity and will cause class conflict and struggle.
The majority of the people will be in the struggle, therefore they need a people's party to represent their interests. The Labor Party is moving in this direction. It is composed of the practical fighters in the diverse struggles that are taking place. Its role is to build the proletarian army.
As the revolution moves to this new stage the League must build a vast infrastructure of study circles, book clubs, forums, educational societies and other propaganda networks. To accomplish this the League needs to concentrate on the development of propagandists who are in a position to do propaganda. And also we must make our press accessible by concentrating on circulation. These are the tasks facing revolutionaries today.
(c) 1997 by the League of Revolutionaries
for a New America. Permission granted to reproduce, provided this message
is included, the article is not changed, and no further restrictions are
placed on its distribution.
Rally is distributed electronically to subscribers of the People's Tribune newspaper. For free electronic subscription, send email to pt-dist@noc.org with "Subscribe" in the subject line.