The Road Ahead:

The Role of the National Campaign for Marxist-Leninist Unity.

The NCMLU (See Note) was formed as a pre-party committee to resolve the more important ideological differences which exist between Marxist-Leninists, and to lay the organisational basis for a future communist party.

1. The first task is to form a nucleus of Marxist-Leninists, and to consolidate this group in the form of a pre-party committee.

2. On the basis of this nucleus, the next task is to win over and help form the proletarian vanguard which will emerge, and

3. on the basis of the vanguard, to intervene in the class struggle, and increasingly win over the working class and sections of the intermediate strata who will need to defend themselves against the consequences of the crisis of capitalism. This crisis of capitalism is not moving away from us but is coming closer - the bourgeoisie themselves admit this.

This is the road ahead for Marxist-Leninists. Not to take this road is to abandon the struggle for the party and for socialism.

The NCMLU is confronting the political culture of deep sectarianism of the Marxist-Leninist left. As far as party building is concerned the view of the NCMLU should be that these people are still politically immature. Sectarians are not defending principles, but refusing to work with others who share the same principles.

Marxism-Leninism bases itself on the notion that there are different levels of political awareness in the working class: the advanced workers, which are a small stratum of the working class, the average workers, and the lower stratum. Our practice must take full account of that fact.

Building a party can take different forms at different stages, but the practical content will always be the same, i.e., starting from the highest level, the advanced workers, and working our way down. In other words, from the nucleus, to the vanguard, and, from the vanguard to the masses, in that order. This doesn't mean we don't participate in any mass work, but it is secondary to consolidating the nucleus, which firstly is an educational task.

At a time of the deepening crisis of international capitalism, we cannot agree with views which lead to the abandonment of the struggle for a communist party, which proceeds firstly by forming a Marxist-Leninist political nucleus. This pre-party nucleus may vary in size and take different forms, but the struggle for it is of decisive importance.

 

SPRING 1999 INTERNATIONAL MARXIST-LENINIST REVIEW 

 

Note: at the time of publication, the NCMLU was entitled NCMLP - National Committee for the Marxist-Leninist Party.

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