The First Congress Of The Party Of Communists USA. New York State April, 2016.
Dear comrades and friends,
From Friday, April 1 to Sunday, April 3, our Party of Communists USA held its Founding Congress at historic Arrow Park (formerly the American-Russian Organization of Workers – AROW) in Monroe, New York. The Congress was attended by several dozen delegates and observers from all parts of the country, as well as representatives from fraternal parties internationally.
The Congress consisted of lively political discussions as well as a cultural program including music and videos.
Friday night was dedicated to two book presentations hosted by U.S. Friends of the Soviet People. Grover Furr discussed his new book: Trotsky’s Amalgams, and Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny discussed their book, Socialism Betrayed. There was a vigorous question and answer period.
The Congress opened and closed with the singing of The Internationale (in several languages). There were workshops on the workers’ movement in the U.S., on the economy, on oppressed nationalities, and on women and youth. While we could not decide on all outstanding questions, various views were aired and clarified.
We approved the Program (which had been discussed by the whole membership over the past year) with one small amendment. We also approved the Constitution with a few amendments that are currently being written up. These items and the greetings to the Congress are being printed and will be distributed shortly. On the last day, we elected a new and expanded Central Committee.
We apologize for the delay in sending out this announcement. This was partly inevitable due to the ongoing political work of our small but active Party, as well as to the untimely death of one of our leading comrades, Greg Rose, who was a highly respected member of our Secretariat.
Fraternally,Angelo D’Angelo
General Secretary
PCUSA 8 Points of Unity
I. Marxism-Leninism
We apply the science of Marxism-Leninism as the means to achieve supremacy of the working class and the oppressed.
II. Vanguard-Cadre Party
We maintain that the role of the party, as laid out by the Bolshevik experience, is that of a vanguard workers party, which opposes and organizes against the bourgeois state and its surrogate parties. Such a party acts as the general staff of the working class, educating, organizing and leading the proletariat in its struggle for liberation, and to that end the party must develop and train strong cadres to lead the struggle.
III. Dictatorship of the Proletariat
As Marx and Lenin wrote, we agree that organizing a class conscious working class is the only way to achieve liberation from the bourgeoisie-and that due to the inevitability of the class struggle and the nature of the state as the tool of oppression of one class by another, only the overthrow of the bourgeois state by the proletariat and the active destruction of the bourgeoisie by the dictatorship of the proletariat (Soviet power) will liquidate capitalism and consolidate the power of working-class interests to transform the social and economic relations of the United States into a socialist-communist state.
IV. Democratic Centralism
The principle of organization of the Party of Communists USA which provides both for the vesting of the necessary authority in the leading organs, and the highest democratic practice. Democracy and centralization comprise a dialectical unity; they are complementary; each enriches and strengthens the other, thereby guaranteeing the Party’s maximum efficiency for its vanguard role. In Party practice, Democratic Centralism means that: – 1. “All directing bodies of the Party, from top to bottom, shall be elected; 2. “Party bodies shall give periodical accounts of their activities to their respective Party organizations; 3. “There shall be strict Party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority; 4. “All decisions of the higher bodies shall be absolutely binding on lower bodies and on all Party members”.
V. Proletarian Internationalism
We support the international working class, and the struggle of the oppressed peoples for liberation from imperialist domination and exploitation within this country and around the world, and oppose all forms of imperialism worldwide, fighting especially against the mechanisms of imperialism created and maintained by the current bourgeois regime in our own country, and will actively oppose and work to end its wars of imperialist adventurism around the globe.
VI. Support for real existing socialism of the 20th century
We support and uphold the legacy and lessons of the socialist revolutionary movement of the 20th century, and the contributions of Lenin, Stalin and other leading Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries. We will defend that legacy against defamation by revisionists, Capitalists, Trotskyites, Maoists, Social Democrats, anarchists, Cold War liberal bourgeois and petty bourgeoisie “phony left” radicals that undermine the revolutionary history and struggle of Marxist-Leninist theory and practice. We reject the so-called “21st century socialism” and Euro- communism as revisionist attempts to promote reformist schemes and “market socialism” over true revolutionary struggle and socialist collectivization. We reject all unscientific and dogmatic vulgar Marxism.
VII. Continuing Lenin’s opposition to right opportunism and revisionism inside the World Communist Movement
We oppose all forms of right opportunism and revisionism to supplant Marxist-Leninist ideology in the world Communist movement, historically and especially exemplified by the current leadership of the CPUSA. We identify this revisionism as an intrusion of bourgeois ideology that weakens and distorts our theory, practice, and purpose, leading to class collaboration and counter-revolution.
Our Party presents an illustration of walking a tightrope, with right opportunism on one side, and ultra-leftism on the other, representing ideological divergence on our path to socialism.
Class consciousness is the primary focus of our Party’s ideological work. As Marxists, we believe that the history of all hitherto existing society, is the history of class struggle. Our Party is a working class party and is not a hobby, nor one time event, nor an expression of petite bourgeois radicalism.
VIII. Historically, revolution is the only means to the goal of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat and a scientific socialist society based on the science of Marxism-Leninism.
Our position is that class-conscious struggle for socialist revolution is the only means of achieving liberation for the working class. Further, that any measure of reformism, collaboration or conciliation with the bourgeoisie serves only to undermine and prolong workers’ struggle, leading to the further consolidation of capitalist power and dominance. “The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.” [Communist Manifesto, chapter ll, paragraph Vll].