Maoist Communist Union (U.S.A.)

Continue the Rectification, Fight Demoralization, Apply Marxism Consistently

Liberalism is extremely harmful in a revolutionary collective. It is a corrosive which eats away unity, undermines cohesion, causes apathy and creates dissension. It robs the revolutionary ranks of compact organization and strict discipline, prevents policies from being carried through and alienates the Party organizations from the masses which the Party leads. It is an extremely bad tendency. 

Liberalism stems from petty-bourgeois selfishness, it places personal interests first and the interests of the revolution second, and this gives rise to ideological, political and organizational liberalism. 

People who are liberals look upon the principles of Marxism as abstract dogma. They approve of Marxism, but are not prepared to practice it or to practice it in full; they are not prepared to replace their liberalism by Marxism. These people have their Marxism, but they have their liberalism as well—they talk Marxism but practice liberalism; they apply Marxism to others but liberalism to themselves. They keep both kinds of goods in stock and find a use for each. This is how the minds of certain people work.

—Mao, Combat Liberalism

Comrades,

The rectification is in full swing and has been a great success so far. On the eve of the launch of the campaign, the small section of MCU which had politically degenerated to Menshevism jumped out and was quickly driven from the organization without major incident. This alone was a victory for proletarian politics. It allowed us to charge forward with the rectification campaign without direct and open interference from a section of our organization. With the small clique who opposed DC no longer in MCU, we have been able to get to the root of various organizational shortcomings and begin to develop a stronger proletarian culture in MCU. 

This has required sharp struggle on various levels. First and foremost we have had to wage an open battle against opportunism in our ranks as well as petty-bourgeois laziness, empiricism, and dogmatism. This struggle has been particularly sharp as, in the months since the Conference, it has become clear that our level of ideological unity was lower than we had previously believed. This is not so surprising given the organizational issues which were endemic to our ranks in the lead up to the Conference. Addressing these issues head on has been incredibly fruitful and drastically improved our organization’s style of work in a very short period of time. This has been achieved partially through driving out of our ranks those people who were unwilling to apply Marxism to even the Marxist work they were supposed to be doing.

The improvement to our style of work has also been achieved through launching an open struggle against comrades’ liberalisms. There are many good comrades in our ranks who, despite their strengths, have significant weaknesses. These comrades are not consolidated to opportunism, and they do apply Marxism to some of the work that they do but not all of it. They have not yet deeply internalized the dialectical world outlook or the proletarian fighting spirit. Their work ethic is lacking, and they have some significant petty-bourgeois tendencies. Now that we have begun an open struggle against these liberalisms we are using the method of “cure the illness to save the patient” to help these comrades transform and thus overcome the internal obstacles to our growth and development as a pre-Party organization.

Second, to rectify, we have needed to deepen our understanding of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, so that we can more readily apply it in all situations. Following the method developed by Mao and the Chinese Communist Party, we prepared for the rectification campaign first issuing a call to for all comrades to study and deepen their knowledge of Marxism. As Mao noted in Reform Our Study, enthusiasm is but one necessary condition for a Marxist style of work. Alone, it cannot sustain itself. In order for comrades to consistently approach our work with enthusiasm, energy, and tireless dedication, they must understand Marxism-Leninism-Maoism on a deep level. Otherwise, the enthusiasm which they feel for our work—which is genuine and real—will turn into its opposite when they confront situations in which they cannot get their bearings because they lack sufficient understanding of MLM to carry out our political line. Therefore, to carry forward the rectification campaign, we must also deepen our collective and individual understanding of MLM through tireless study. Only thus can we unite theory with practice and advance our party building efforts.

Third, the rectification has required us to struggle to apply Marxism to all aspects of our lives. This last struggle requires us to fight against tendencies in our ranks to have Marxism but also liberalism. Some comrades have taken the approach of applying Marxism to the political work (but not fully) and to others (but with limitations) but not to themselves and their lives. Fred Engst has noted that Marxism is like a flashlight; it is easy to use it to illuminate the path in front of you, but harder—and even painful at times—to shine it on yourself. But we must illuminate ourselves, our shortcomings, and our backwards ideas. When comrades are instead liberal with themselves, they will inevitably be liberal with others and liberal in the broader political work that we are doing. Therefore, the struggle to consistently apply Marxism to ourselves is closely related to the struggle to consistently apply Marxism to the political work that we are doing. As Mao once said:

I am of the same mind as Lu Xun. I like that sort of frankness of his. He said he would dissect [and analyze] himself more severely than when dissecting others. After having taken several spills, I also tend to do as he did. But comrades generally don’t believe [in doing so]. I am confident, but also have a certain lack of confidence.

Comrades would do well to remember this and take up a similar attitude. 

In order to carry forward the rectification campaign to completion, comrades must enthusiastically take up all three of these struggles each and every day. The first is the struggle against opportunism, petty-bourgeois laziness, empiricism, and dogmatism. The second is the struggle to deepen our understanding of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. The third is the struggle to apply MLM to all aspects of our lives. Only in waging a consistent and tireless struggle each and every day can we rectify our wrong styles of work, replace our liberalism with Marxism, and Bolshevize our ranks. All of this is essential to combating liberalism and opposing the non-proletarian tendencies which will inevitably arise within our ranks. As Mao noted:

As we say, dust will accumulate if a room is not cleaned regularly, our faces will get dirty if they are not washed regularly. Our comrades’ minds and our Party’s work may also collect dust, and also need sweeping and washing. The proverb “Running water is never stale and a door-hinge is never worm-eaten” means that constant motion prevents the inroads of germs and other organisms.

Though the struggle is arduous, the path forward is clear. What’s more, we have already won a number of victories over own conservatism, indiscipline, and petty-bourgeois laziness. These victories are evident in the outpouring of creativity from comrades across MCU since the launch of the rectification campaign. These include artistic productions but also comrades across the board bringing to bear their creativity on the key political questions we face as a pre-Party organization. We have quickly addressed the lackadaisical approach to study in our ranks; we have launched a successful local study in NYC with a significant number of consistent participants; we have addressed long-standing issues in how the Miami branch and organized a local study there too; we have exposed, and partially overcome, numerous comrades’ petty-bourgeois laziness and indiscipline; we have addressed many of the issues in the Online Study; we now have a large group of people joining the next round of the CDC; and we have significantly strengthened our ideological unity. Overall we are finally in a strong position to carry out primary task of growing and developing as a pre-Party organization.

It is important to be square that our primary task is not “growth” but growing and developing as a pre-Party organization. We are not just looking for more numbers, but qualitative and quantitative growth and development. We need not only to gain more cadre, but also deepen our ideological unity, improve our style of work, and sharpen our understanding of MLM. 

As we noted in Growing as a Pre-Party Organization and the Development of MCU’s Political Line:

The growth and development of MCU requires both quantitative expansion and qualitative improvement. Quantitative expansion means recruiting new cadre and developing new supporters. To recruit new cadre and develop supporters we need to propagate our line, popularize our work, debate various revisionist and opportunist trends, and educate and develop people so they can be ready to become cadre and supporters. 

Qualitative improvement means becoming more disciplined internally, getting more organized, raising our theoretical and ideological level, and Bolshevizing ourselves in an all-around fashion. First and foremost, this has entailed refining our internal division of labor to allocate sufficient cadre to the tasks required for our growth and development; we discuss these tasks in greater detail below. It has also involved developing clear internal policies and guidelines for practices of Democratic Centralism, internal reporting, and more.

Reducing our primary task to “growth” frames things purely in quantitative terms. This reductive formulation leads to various errors. For example, problems with a contact will be overlooked because “we want to bring people in,” frantic and unfocused follow-up with vaguely promising contacts will be prioritized over study, and we will inevitable end up lowering our ideological standards to prioritize what appears to be political expedient. These opportunist errors will only lead to bigger organizational problems in our ranks.

Empiricism and Demoralization

Despite our recent victories, some comrades are struggling with low morale. Given their empiricist tendencies and mechanical thinking, they are primarily demoralized because we now have a few less cadre than before the launch of the rectification campaign. These comrades look only at the surface but not the inner workings of our organization. They examine only the quantity of cadre and not the quality of our work. They look at the form of appearance but do not examine the essence. These partially demoralized comrades who are struggling with empiricism are still Marxists,1 but we must help them see the errors of their analysis and overcome their demoralization. 

Let us examine more closely the flawed empiricist thinking which has led some comrades to feel demoralized. As noted above, our principal task is not simply growth in numbers, but growth as a pre-Party organization. This requires us to deepen our ideological unity, improve our style of work, raise our collective and individual theoretical levels, and much more. Achieving this sort of qualitative growth and development is a necessary compliment to quantitative growth—and in our present conditions, it was a necessary prerequisite to further growth.2 Without this qualitative development, any quantitative growth would be a pyrrhic victory and quickly turn into its opposite. Growth which dilutes our ideological unity, weakens our organizational discipline, and undermines our ability to practice democratic centralism will impede our efforts to develop into a proletarian vanguard party. 

It was for these reasons that we resolutely opposed the Menshevik line that advocated that we abandon democratic centralism. Comrades across MCU have seen the flawed and revisionist logic underpinning this line. However, our more empiricist comrades have been swayed by some similar reasoning. While not consolidated to revisionism, their empiricism leaves them vulnerable to its pernicious arguments.3 Namely, they worry that because lost a few cadre, that we are not achieving our aim of growing as a pre-Party organization. 

This confusion is based the incorrect assumption that our quantitative growth—number of cadre—will proceed in a linear fashion.4 But the path to revolution is tortuous; it involves many twists and turns, many ups and downs. We advanced a few steps forward with our Conference, then we could not advance any further. We were unable to grow as we had planned and a small number of comrades refused to carry out the responsibilities that had been bestowed upon them by the membership of MCU when they were elected to positions of leadership at the Conference. Others, even in leadership, opposed putting into practice our basically correct political line.

In short, we had people in our ranks who actively and passively opposed proletarian politics. We drove out a few of these people last Fall. Then, an active Menshevik opposition jumped out. They created a fuss, claiming—in a roundabout fashion—“now is not the time to practice MLM principles like democratic centralism” and openly advocating that we weaken our ideological unity. They were swiftly exposed as Mensheviks and split from MCU.

This small and temporary decrease in our numbers is not a setback but an advance.5 In essence it is an advance, as we have driven from our ranks those who were opposed to our politics and our line, and who therefore impeded our ability to grow as a pre-Party organization. Through this we have grown stronger and more unified. In so doing, we have put ourselves in a much better position to grow as an organization, as indicated by the successes we are experiencing in our local studies and the number of participants who will be joining the next Cadre Development Course. What’s more, we have a more clear understanding of the issues faced by a number of cadre who are committed to our political work and line, but have secondary shortcomings which have impeded their ability to consistently carry out solid work in practice. 

Other Sources of Demoralization

While empiricism is the primary underlying cause for some comrades feeling demoralized, it is not the only one. Some comrades are nervous about the rectification campaign. Motivated by an underlying conservatism, they fear their own issues coming to light. Sometimes this is simply due to shame about shortcomings they have and mistakes that they have made. Other times, it is motivated by a deeper nihilism about their ability to change, ultimately rooted in a metaphysical thinking (and often deep attachment to one’s issues).6 Finally, some comrades doubt that we can succeed in making revolution. All of these three reasons for demoralization are somewhat distinct, but they all share a common character, namely that they are rooted in fundamental disagreements with Marxism. In order to carry forward the rectification, all comrades must struggle against these forms of non-proletarian thinking in themselves and others. 

It is necessary to analyze each of these three attitudes so as to better understand how each of them entail fundamental disagreements with Marxism. By better understanding these wrong tendencies and backwards attitudes, comrades will be better equipped to struggle against their existence in our ranks.

First is the fear of one’s own mistakes and shortcomings coming to light. This tendency, while it may seem somewhat innocent, is actually based on a deep distrust of comrades, oneself, and the people. It is ultimately motivated by a narrow self-interested perspective which is at odds with the long-term perspective of the proletariat. While the bourgeoisie encourages us to believe that humans are fundamentally self-interested creatures, incapable of acting except out of an animalistic self-interest—a self-interest which the bourgeoisie describes as natural, that is from nature, but which is, in fact socially determined by the prevailing relations of production and especially the system of private property, all of which is not given by nature—the reality is that the history of class struggles, especially since the development of Marxism, has shown that humans are capable of thinking and acting historically. That is to say, that we are capable of understanding our present situation as part of the larger struggle to abolish classes, and to align our doing with this understanding. We are therefore capable of fighting for a higher cause, a cause which is not an idealist fantasy but rather is based on a theoretically rigorous understanding of the development of human society and our ability to work together to consciously transform objective reality.7

Given this historical perspective, it should be clear how petty and self-centered is the idea of hiding one’s mistakes and shortcomings. It not only serves the bourgeoisie, it not only prevents the comrades who take this approach from whole-heartedly participating in our revolutionary efforts, but it also impedes our ability as a Pre-Party organization to advance towards our larger goals in the class struggle. This narrow and self-serving attitude must be uprooted in our ranks, as it represents a lack of full dedication to serving the people. 

Our point of departure is to serve the people whole-heartedly and never for a moment divorce ourselves from the masses, to proceed in all cases from the interests of the people and not from one’s self-interest or from the interests of a small group, and to identify our responsibility to the people with our responsibility to the leading organs of the Party.8

All our cadres, whatever their rank, are servants of the people, and whatever we do is to serve the people. How then can we be reluctant to discard any of our bad traits?9

Our duty is to hold ourselves responsible to the people. Every word, every act and every policy must conform to the people’s interests, and if mistakes occur, they must be corrected—that is what being responsible to the people means.10

As we Chinese Communists, who base all our actions on the highest interests of the broadest masses of the Chinese people and who are fully convinced of the justice of our cause, never baulk at any personal sacrifice and are ready at all times to give our lives for the cause, can we be reluctant to discard any idea, viewpoint, opinion or method which is not suited to the needs of the people? Can we be willing to allow political dust and germs to dirty our clean faces or eat into our healthy organisms? Countless revolutionary martyrs have laid down their lives in the interests of the people, and our hearts are filled with pain as we the living think of them—can there be any personal interest, then, that we would not sacrifice or any error that we would not discard?11

Is it any surprise that comrades who spend so much time worrying about their mistakes coming to light are feeling demoralized? Their orientation towards their own mistakes is narrow and self-centered. They lack a broader historical perspective. Their orientation towards their mistakes is not separate and isolated from their orientation towards the rest of the work. The more they try to hide their mistakes and shortcomings the more this narrow and self-centered orientation bleeds into other work. Mistakes add up and compound. Eventually, quantitative changes crosses a limited and passes over to qualitative change. Then the demoralization which was secondary can become primary as comrades consolidate to a self-centered approach. From there it is only a hop, skip, and a jump to outright hostility to Marxism. 

Will comrades who hide their mistakes and shortcomings, who keep their comrades at arm’s length be able to approach our work with enthusiasm? No, of course they will not. Enthusiasm does not fall from the sky, it is based on a profound theoretical knowledge which, in turn, allows us to consistently align thinking and doing. Running away from problems and hiding them from others will only lead to demoralization and, eventually, capitulation to the enemy.

Closely related to this fear of one’s own mistakes coming to light is an underlying nihilism about themselves which some comrades harbor.12 They believe that, ultimately they are doomed to failure. These comrades are invested in a metaphysical view of themselves. They have internalized the ideology of the bourgeoisie and want to believe that they are unable to change—they have an active ideological investment in this view. Through this pernicious logic, they aim to absolve themselves of fault and blame for their mistakes.13 If they cannot change, who can blame them for continuing to make the same mistakes? This sort of reactionary sentiment leads, in a straight line, to resenting ones’ comrades, our organization, and ultimately, Marxism itself. From the initial axiom that they cannot change, it only follows logically that it is unfair for comrades to push them and struggle against their backwards ideas and bourgeois tendencies.14 This road leads directly to reneging on Marxism and capitulation to the bourgeoisie (even if it takes the form of revisionism). 

Comrades who view themselves metaphysically and believe that they cannot change have deeply internalized the logic of bourgeois society. That said, the ubiquity of this nihilistic subjective disposition in our society is the result of certain particular historical circumstances. As an imperialist power in decline, the U.S. bourgeois has had trouble developing an ideology capable of inspiring the masses of people and securing their belief in some sort of higher social ideal and goal. Of course, their difficulties in crafting a captivating ideology presents significant openings for us as communists, and it is more challenging to develop a strong revolutionary movement in periods where the bourgeoisie is more able to secure the direct subjective buy in of large swaths of the masses.

Given their challenges in winning widespread popular support for a national narrative capable of inspiring the people (e.g. Manifest Destiny, the technocratic progress narratives of the 1950s, the War on Terror, etc.), the bourgeoisie promoted the idea of the “end of history” and related hallucinations of brazen individualist consumption as the highest ideal.15 As a complement to this, they promoted various forms of “enlightened” cynical nihilism from post-modernism16 to suburban mall kid culture.17 These cynical views critique aspects of the existing society, but at an ironic distance. The widespread adoption of cynicism has had profoundly deleterious social impacts, which can be seen in the fact that, in many leftist circles, it is considered naive and passé to be optimistic. Some comrades have internalized this logic. 

Some, under the influence of bourgeois therapy narratives—which have been popularized, far beyond the confines of clinical settings, via social media and leftist circles—believe that they cannot change but instead just “cope” better or worse with their supposedly immutable issues. Others, attached to post-modern forms of Romanticism,18 cling to their sadness and issues like Gollum to the One Ring, muttering to themselves in perverse pleasure at their own suffering even as they allow their issues to twist and warp them.

To the comrades who think this way, we should ask: Are you an exception to dialectics? Don’t all things in this world move and develop? Why would you alone operate according to metaphysics? This sort of individualist exceptionalism19 should be understood for what it is, a decadent, narrow, and self-centered worldview, actively and consciously promoted by the capitalist class to keep the people in chains. Clearly, the comrades who still cling to these decadent views of themselves need to revisit the first rectification document and take up more seriously the study of dialectical materialism, so as to better combat their own metaphysical views.

What’s more, nihilism about one’s ability to change—which always requires active ideological investment, reproduced each day through one’s actions20—is interrelated with nihilism about our organization and the larger society. Comrades doubt about their own ability to transform is often tied to doubts that we can succeed in our goals of building a vanguard party and eventually leading a revolutionary movement.21 This view, still all too common in our ranks, inevitably leads to comrades taking a lackadaisical approach to our work. If you don’t believe that we can succeed, why try so hard? Why not slack off, go easy, fail to follow through on tasks, etc. After all, if we are doomed to failure, then what is the point of really trying so hard? It simply follows logically from the initial assumptions. From this, it should be obvious how corrosive this view is.

While our comrades are, thankfully, not totally nihilistic, some comrades still harbor deeper pessimism. This pessimism often comes to the fore in more difficult situations, when the external conditions are more challenging. 

In Mao’s 1930 letter to Lin Biao—which was later turned into the document A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire—he criticized some of Lin’s shortcomings.22 He noted that Lin had not been won over by the two major deviations of the time—the lines of “purely military” approach the revolution and the “roving guerrilla bands” without regard to building up the base areas—but that because Lin lacked “an incisive concept for building political power” that Lin’s approach to mobilizing the masses would not succeed.23 The whole letter aims to show Lin that his pessimism about the situation in China (which Mao noted that Lin has partially, but not fully overcome) is tied to his lack of such an incisive concept. In short, he did not know how the revolution can succeed and so he fell into pessimism. 

Comrades should closely consider this example. It is related to the above point that enthusiasm alone cannot sustain itself, but instead requires a deep knowledge of Marxism. Even the many victories that Lin experienced as a commander of the Red Army, real victories in the class struggle which had escalated to a civil war, were not sufficient to sustain his optimism. What was needed was his further development as a Marxist in general, and in particular his understanding of the CCP’s line and strategy at the time, of which he had a relatively weak grasp.

Comrades who are struggling with a similar sort of nihilism about our prospects for success should ask themselves how well they understand not only MLM general, but our line in particular.24 Do you have an incisive concept for building political power? If not, then it is necessary to study our line more closely and better understand how we plan to grow and develop as a pre-Party organization.25 What’s more, if comrades lack the basic historical knowledge of how organizations develop from small circles into vanguard parties, how can the they feel optimistic about our own prospects? 

If comrades have a weak grasp of dialectical materialism (tending only to see the surface level of phenomenon), if comrades don’t know much Marxist history, and if comrades also don’t understand our line, what sort of optimism can they have? Only a quasi-religious faith that we will succeed, which is totally divorced from real revolutionary optimism.26 For the latter can never be a matter of faith, but instead is based on profound theoretical knowledge.

All these types of demoralization are extremely corrosive. They eat away at the revolutionary unity in our ranks and impede our ability to accomplish basic tasks. They must be resolutely struggled against, by the method of curing the disease to save the patient. Comrades must enthusiastically struggle against their own demoralization while also taking up the struggle against these same tendencies in others.

Conclusion

The intellectuals often tend to be subjective and individualistic, impractical in their thinking and irresolute in action until they have thrown themselves heart and soul into mass revolutionary struggles, or made up their minds to serve the interests of the masses and become one with them. Hence although the mass of revolutionary intellectuals in China can play a vanguard role or serve as a link with the masses, not all of them will remain revolutionaries to the end. Some will drop out of the revolutionary ranks at critical moments and become passive, while a few may even become enemies of the revolution. The intellectuals can overcome their shortcomings only in mass struggles over a long period.

—Mao, The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party

In the first rectification document, the Central Committee noted that it is not possible to develop the conditions necessary for a truly proletarian discipline all at once, but that we must take steps in this direction here and now. The launch of the rectification was an important step forward in this direction. However, it was a small step and we have many more to go in order to complete the rectification. 

In the second chapter of “Leftwing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder—in a passage that was quoted in the first rectification document—Lenin explains how the discipline of the proletarian party is maintained, tested, and reinforced.27 Each of his conditions entails the Party having close ties to the masses. The first condition is a vanguard party with class consciousness, meaning that it contains the most advanced elements of the working class movement. The second requires the vanguard to merge with the broader masses. The third is to lead these masses and show them, through their own experience, that the Party’s line is correct.

So how can we, a small pre-Party organization with only very limited links to the fighting proletariat, let alone the broader masses, develop proletarian discipline? This is a challenge that all small circles face at the inception of reviving the Marxist movement in their country. It is particularly challenging for us because unlike the groups which founded in the 1960s and 70s, we do not have a strong working class movement, a broader mass movement akin to protests against the Vietnam War, or even larger revisionist parties from which we can split off more principled people.28

But there are examples of groups advancing toward the formation of proletarian parties in similar historical conditions of reaction and demobilization. In particular, the early Russian Marxist circles began in the 1880s, which was known as the “decade of small deeds” because of the lack of popular mobilization against Tsardom and the general conditions of reaction. We must study the lessons of this period and other similar periods in the history of the proletarian movement. 

In particular, we must understand how the circles advanced towards the formation of the Party despite initially being composed primarily of members of the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia. In fact, the main issues that we face as an organization are closely connected to the fact that many cadre come from the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia. As the above quote from Mao shows, intellectuals are a wavering bunch, they tend to lack firm conviction, are averse to discipline, and require a long period of involvement in mass struggles to remold themselves.

The Communist Party of the Philippines has also dealt with this issue:

The established system of schools, mass media and other cultural institutions and mechanisms is under the ideological, political, organizational and financial control of the US and the local reactionary forces. The US has been able to influence and shape the educational and cultural system through US agencies, foundations, media corporations engaged in the dissemination of news and opinions, TV programs, movies and pop music, the World Bank and other UN agencies. Unless they undergo progressive political education and revolutionary ideological remolding, the intelligentsia and the rest of the urban petty bourgeoisie tend to be the passive transmission belt of imperialist and reactionary ideas although they may easily complain against the degree of exploitation which they suffer.

If this is such a big issue in the Philippines, which is oppressed by U.S. imperialism, it is easy to deduce how much greater of a problem we face here, in the most powerful imperialist country in the world, with the intelligentsia and the rest of the urban petty bourgeoisie. But the solution to these problems is not beyond our comprehension. We need comrades to solidify their understanding of MLM in general and our line in particular. We need to fight against dogmatic sloganeering, which comrades use to cover the holes in their knowledge. We need to fight against the metaphysical worldview in our ranks and promote dialectical materialism. We need to combat liberalism in our ranks and apply Marxism to all aspects of our lives. We need to deepen our ties to the fighting proletariat. 

All of these are essential to remolding comrades and continuing the rectification. While this document focuses on the most pressing issues around demoralization and its link to empiricism and metaphysical thinking, comrades cannot lose sight of the overall picture of the rectification campaign. We must see both the immediate principal task and the longer-term goal of remolding our ranks. This remolding is essential to create a truly Bolshevized organization. 

Given this goal, it can be helpful to quote from the 1925 Theses on the Bolshevisation of the Parties of the Comintern:

A Bolshevik is not one who joins the Party when the revolutionary wave is at its height. A Bolshevik is he who participates in the work of building a Communist Party during long years and if need be, decades, in years of depression, and in years of slow development of the revolution. This does not mean that those comrades who join the Party when the revolutionary tide as rising are inferior to those who already joined the Party previously.

A Bolshevik Party does not spring up suddenly when the revolutionary wave has reached its climax. A Bolshevik Party participates in all struggles and is formed during the process of such struggles. Right Wing and wavering elements in the Comintern and amongst those sympathetic, are of the opinion that the slogan of Bolshevising the Party is inopportune, since revolutionary events are not developing rapidly. They fail to understand that if the tempo of revolutionary development flags, if in connection with this, vacillation among certain sections of the proletariat increases, and the tendency in favour of counter-revolutionary Social Democracy increases, then the necessity for the slogan of the Bolshevisation of the Party becomes all the more actual. It is precisely under these conditions that Communists must work with greater perseverance to create a bulwark against this wavering, to retain the best elements of the proletarian vanguard in our ranks, increase their number, hold aloft the banner of the proletarian revolution, and in this way be capable in very difficult circumstances to weld together a proletarian nucleus fitted to prepare for, and organise the proletarian revolution under all and any conditions.

This is the task before us as MCU. It is an exceeding difficult and complex task which we are carrying out under a period of extreme reaction and popular demoralization. In order to rise to the occasion, in order to be worthy of the heritage bequeathed to us by our revolutionary predecessors, we must develop within our ranks what Lenin referred to as a “granite foundation” in Marxist theory. 

In order to do this we must work eagerly and tirelessly to understand and assimilate every last bit of revolutionary history and theory we can and to understand how to apply it in our current historical circumstances. This is a task which requires the active participation of all comrades. If comrades are unclear on the most basic aspects of MLM, how can they begin to work to apply this theory to our present conditions? And comrades would do well to remember that they are not blank slates, the holes in comrades’ knowledge of MLM are not empty, but filled with liberalism and bourgeois ideology. Without addressing this glaring issue which is nearly ubiquitous, it will be impossible to Bolshevize our ranks, and we will instead end up clowning. 

But if we take up this rectification campaign with the courage necessary for the proletarian cause, then we will succeed in overcoming our present shortcomings, Bolshevizing our ranks, building a solid pre-Party organization, deepening our ties with the fighting proletariat, and laying the groundwork for a Vanguard Party. This is conclusion is neither a pipe dream nor an article of faith, but a basic materialist understanding which follows from a concrete (MLM) analysis of our concrete situation. But the courage necessary for this task demands much of us. We must unflinchingly look at our own shortcomings, those of our comrades (including leading comrades), and those of our organization. We must fight each and every day to align our thinking and doing with communist principles. We must fight narrow-minded and short-sighted selfishness and instead encourage the kind of historical thinking necessary to serve the people. Only thus can we carry forward the rectification to its successful conclusion.

Footnotes

  1. “The second point is that knowledge needs to be deepened, that the perceptual stage of knowledge needs to be developed to the rational stage—this is the dialectics of the theory of knowledge. To think that knowledge can stop at the lower, perceptual stage and that perceptual knowledge alone is reliable while rational knowledge is not, would be to repeat the historical error of ‘empiricism.’ This theory errs in failing to understand that, although the data of perception reflect certain realities in the objective world (I am not speaking here of idealist empiricism which confines experience to so-called introspection), they are merely one-sided and superficial, reflecting things incompletely and not reflecting their essence. Fully to reflect a thing in its totality, to reflect its essence, to reflect its inherent laws, it is necessary through the exercise of thought to reconstruct the rich data of sense perception, discarding the dross and selecting the essential, eliminating the false and retaining the true, proceeding from the one to the other and from the outside to the inside, in order to form a system of concepts and theories—it is necessary to make a leap from perceptual to rational knowledge. Such reconstructed knowledge is not more empty or more unreliable; on the contrary, whatever has been scientifically reconstructed in the process of cognition, on the basis of practice, reflects objective reality, as Lenin said, more deeply, more truly, more fully. As against this, vulgar ‘practical men’ respect experience but despise theory, and therefore cannot have a comprehensive view of an entire process, lack clear direction and long-range perspective, and are complacent over occasional successes and glimpses of the truth. If such persons direct a revolution, they will lead it up a blind alley.” —Mao, On Practice ↩︎
  2. In this sense, comrades who fall into empiricist errors also lapse into metaphysical thinking. They see the growth of MCU principally in terms of increase or decrease in membership and fail to grasp how in order to grow and develop as a pre-party organization we need to address our various organizational shortcomings and weaknesses. Based on this empiricist thinking they assume that the quantitative decrease in our numbers, which has come about as we have worked to address our internal ideological issues, automatically indicates a qualitative weakening of our organization. They fail to grasp how, in riding ourselves of a few Menshevik and opportunist elements, we have strengthened our organization and prepared the grounds for further growth and development. 
    “Metaphysicians hold that all the different kinds of things in the universe and all their characteristics have been the same ever since they first came into being. All subsequent changes have simply been increases or decreases in quantity. They contend that a thing can only keep on repeating itself as the same kind of thing and cannot change into anything different.” —Mao, On Contradiction ↩︎
  3. “On account of their limited and narrow experience, most of the empiricists lacked independent, clear-cut and systematic views on problems of a general nature and therefore they usually played second fiddle in their association with the dogmatists; but the history of our Party proves that it would not have been easy for the dogmatists to have ‘spread their poison throughout the Party’ without the collaboration of the empiricists; and after the defeat of dogmatism, empiricism became the main obstacle to the development of Marxism-Leninism in the Party. Hence we must overcome subjectivist empiricism as well as subjectivist dogmatism. Only by completely overcoming both dogmatist and empiricist ideology can the Marxist-Leninist ideology, line and style of work spread far and wide and take deep root in the whole Party.” Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party, 1945 Resolution by the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. http://www.marx2mao.com/PDFs/MaoSW3App.pdf ↩︎
  4. Underlying this view is a metaphysical world outlook which assumes that change proceeds in a linear quantitative fashion (e.g. through simple addition). ↩︎
  5. If comrades take an empiricist approach, the loss of a few cadre can have the form of appearance of a setback. But, a basic Marxist evaluation shows that driving out Mensheviks, opportunists, and other similar tendencies from our ranks is an advance, and has the form of appearance of an advance, provided one looks at it from a Marxist perspective. ↩︎
  6. Metaphysics posits that things do not change. It is based on the ecclesiastical proposition “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). In On Contradiction, Mao notes that Chinese metaphysics long posited that “Heaven changeth not, likewise the Tao changeth not.”
    He also notes, “The metaphysical or vulgar evolutionist world outlook sees things as isolated, static and one-sided. It regards all things in the universe, their forms and their species, as eternally isolated from one another and immutable. Such change as there is can only be an increase or decrease in quantity or a change of place. Moreover, the cause of such an increase or decrease or change of place is not inside things but outside them, that is, the motive force is external. Metaphysicians hold that all the different kinds of things in the universe and all their characteristics have been the same ever since they first came into being. All subsequent changes have simply been increases or decreases in quantity. They contend that a thing can only keep on repeating itself as the same kind of thing and cannot change into anything different.”
    Comrades need to more deeply understand metaphysics so that they can more effectively take up the struggle against this reactionary worldview in themselves and others. ↩︎
  7. That is to say by fighting for Communism, we are not sacrificing our lives in vain for an illusion such as fighting as U.S. solider in the Iraq War for “Freedom and Democracy,” becoming a storm-trooper for a fascist demagogue, or become a martyr for some religious hallucination.
    It should be noted that those who fought before us in rebellions against oppression (such as the Spartacus Rebellion in Ancient Rome) similarly fought for a higher cause that was not illusion or fantasy. But with the development of modern large-scale industry and the proletariat, it become possible, for the first time in history, to adopt a dialectical materialist worldview. As Mao notes, “As the social economy of many European countries advanced to the stage of highly developed capitalism, as the forces of production, the class struggle and the sciences developed to a level unprecedented in history, and as the industrial proletariat became the greatest motive force in historical development, there arose the Marxist world outlook of materialist dialectics.”
    While earlier progressive and revolutionary struggles fought for higher causes than just narrow self-interest, it was not possible for the slaves of ancient Rome to develop an objective historical perspective and fight for the abolition of class society in the way that the modern proletariat can. ↩︎
  8. Mao, On Coalition Government. ↩︎
  9. Mao, The Tasks for 1945. ↩︎
  10. Mao, The Situation and Our Policy After the Victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan. ↩︎
  11. Mao, On Coalition Government. ↩︎
  12. Not all comrades who hide their mistakes and shortcomings believe that they can’t change. Some just fear the social and organizational consequences of their mistakes coming to light. This too is an anti-social attitude predicated on an underlying individualism. However, it is not necessarily due to more fundamental nihilism. ↩︎
  13. Some blame their mistakes on the objective conditions in the U.S. at present, while other try to deflect blame onto MCU. ↩︎
  14. Comrades who adopt this axiom of individual immutability generally respond extremely defensively to criticism, exhibiting anger and lashing out when their actions and underlying ideas are criticized. On the one hand, as noted above, this frustration follows logically from their belief that they cannot change; on the other hand, it is also a reflection of the immense internal frustration they feel at themselves for being so stuck and invested in their own lack of transformation. It is immensely painful to deny one’s own agency in the choices and decisions one makes every single day. ↩︎
  15. The ideology of consumerism is highly adaptable and can take a more blatant form (e.g. “YOLO”) or be more subtle—often when aimed at nominally progressive office workers and intellectuals—and take the form of ethical consumption (including but not limited to recycling ideology, Toms Shoes, etc.) ↩︎
  16. Behind post-modernism’s veil of intellectual erudition is a deep underlying nihilism, not only insofar as the philosophy posits that there is no objective reality, but also—and especially—because it posits that any attempt to change reality and overcome oppression will result in just another oppressive power structure:
    “When post-modern/post-structural concepts are employed in affirmative action or norms they yield an attitude of skepticism and nihilism within which every kind of coherent and meaningful enquiry becomes suspect. While reading a text, post-modernism/post-structuralism first postulates ambiguity, incoherence and not-determination as the attributes of texts, and then actively pursues the ideal of ambiguity, in coherence and analysis. Such fondness for a play of words leads to a sort of jugglery through the ‘denial of the metaphysics of presence and foundationalism of every kind.’ With their dismissal of totality, they celebrate difference and heterogeneity. Though the Foucaultian concept of the inseparabletic (sic) between power and knowledge or Derridean difference is no less a concept of totality. They also reject progress and emancipation in history. The fragmentation of the social world is, within this perspective, compounded by the post-modern/post-structural denial of coherence in life and social structure precluding the possibility of offering explanations. With their notion of ‘dislocations’ structural regularities and identities are issues that remain unexamined. Similarly, the narrative of dislocations remains an enigma. They even rule out the possibility of explanations, however incomplete, partial or limited they might be. With their rejection of cause and effect they exclude any predictability in any field.” Siraj, Post-Modernism Today. ↩︎
  17. Beavis and Butt-Head is perhaps the best cultural representation of cynical and ironic disdain being a veil for deep investment in the ideology and worldview of the ruling class. These two characters sit in front of the TV all day laughing at how dumb MTV music videos are, but the joke ultimately is on them, as they are the fools wasting their days away watching these very videos.
    Olivia and Paula from Season 1 of White Lotus are a more recent example of the same subjective disposition of cynical ironic disdain. ↩︎
  18. As an artistic movement, Romanticism posited that the artist was able to create beauty because of direct divine inspiration. The rise of this individualist theory of art was closely tied to the Protestant Reformation—which argued that individuals had a direct connection to God and did not need the mediation of the Catholic Church and the intersession of saints to speak to God—and the rise of generalized commodity production. In the U.S. today, it is instead often the artist’s trauma and suffering which serves as supposedly unique singular inspiration for aesthetic production. In this schema, sadness and suffering sits in the place formerly occupied by God and is thus given a sacred sheen.
    “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails (famously also covered by Johnny Cash) is perhaps the most explicit endorsement of this worldview:
    “I hurt myself today // To see if I still feel // I focus on the pain // The only thing that’s real”
    By making pain the only real thing, it is effectively elevated to the realm of the sacred. The rest of reality then takes on the character of a phantasm, with each particular thing merely being a derivative being which, at its root, will always lead back to the pain which grounds everything. Comrades who have seen Twin Peaks: The Return, should also consider the ideas expressed in the Nine Inch Nails song, “She’s Gone Away” which they perform in Part 8. It can be helpful to remember what the Log Lady says in her introduction to the Pilot episode, “To introduce this story, let me just say it encompasses the all—it is beyond the ‘fire’, though few would know that meaning. It is a story of many, but begins with one—and I knew her. The One leading to the many is Laura Palmer. Laura is the One.”
    But unlike Lynch, we should not long for the One—which is always a longing for metaphysics—but instead openly embrace dialectical materialism. A fundamental stance of dialectical materialism is that there is no one that does not divide into two, no unity without division, and therefore that there is no One. Metaphysics is always an attempt to think reality as ultimately based on an indivisible unity.
    Lastly, it is important to note our contemporary sad music tends to fetishize relationships, especially since these are supposed the only “good thing” that progressive petty-bourgeois people can long for unironically. And searching for a romantic partner is colloquially referred to as “looking for the One.” This attitude leads to prioritizing the search for a romantic partner over the world and the class struggle, and treating the sadness over failing to achieve this as likewise more important (more real) than anything else. This exact subjective disposition is expressed by Mitski, whose father was likely a CIA agent, in her song, “Frances Forever”:
    “I don’t need the world to see // That I’ve been the best I can be, but // I don’t think I could stand to be // Where you don’t see me” ↩︎
  19. While the belief that one cannot change may appear to be less nefarious than the arrogant belief that one is exceptionally good and better than others, it is actually just as bad. The proletariat needs neither bloviating arrogance nor despondent wallowing. It is just as harmful to the revolution to take pleasure in delusions of exceptional superiority as it is to perversely enjoy the horror of one’s supposed immutable inferiority. ↩︎
  20. There is a dialectical relationship between thinking and doing. We act in line with our thinking, but our doing also determines how we think. Therefore, the more one acts in a given way, the more they consolidate to thinking this sort of action makes sense. That is why the struggle to act differently is an essential part of the struggle to transform one’s thinking. ↩︎
  21. Given the prevailing individualism of our culture, nihilism about oneself is often just a proxy for nihilism about the larger society and about the people more specifically. ↩︎
  22. While Lin was later to play an infamous role as a key capitalist roader in the Cultural Revolution, it should be recalled that at this point he was a dedicated revolutionary leader. It can be helpful to refer to what Edgar Snow wrote of him in Red Star Over China:
    “With Mao Tse-tung, Lin Piao shared the distinction of being one of the few Red commanders never wounded. Engaged on the front in more than a hundred battles, in field command for more than ten years, exposed to every hardship that his men had known, with a reward of $100,000 on his head, he was as yet unhurt.
    “In 1932, Lin Piao was given command of the First Red Army Corps, which then numbered about 20,000 rifles. It became, according to general opinion among Red Army officers, their ‘most dreaded force,’ chiefly because of Lin’s extraordinary talent as a tactician. The mere discovery that they were fighting the First Red Army Corps was said to have sometimes put a Nanking army to rout.
    “Like many able Red commanders, Lin had never been outside China, and spoke and read no language but Chinese. Before the age of thirty, however, he had already won recognition beyond Red circles. His articles in the Chinese Reds’ military magazines, Struggle and War and Revolution, had been republished, studied, and criticized in Nanking military journals, and also in Japan and Soviet Russia. He was noted as the originator of the ‘short attack’—a tactic on which General Feng Yu-hsiang had commented. To the Reds’ skillful mastery of the ‘short attack’ many victories of the First Army Corps were said to be traceable.” ↩︎
  23. “When I say that you want to use the method of mobile guerrilla actions to extend political influence, I do not mean that you have a purely military viewpoint or the ideology of roving rebel bands. Manifestly, you have neither of them, for these two kinds of ideas are devoid of any concept of winning over the masses and you, on the contrary, have proposed to ‘go all out to mobilize the masses.’ Not only have you advocated this but you have been carrying it out in practice. What I disapprove of is your lack of an incisive concept for building political power. Consequently, the task of winning over the masses and promoting a revolutionary high tide can definitely not be successfully accomplished as you have imagined in your mind.” ↩︎
  24. We have conducted preliminary agitation practice in our branches. This practice involved comrades roleplaying conversation with semi-Marxists of various stripes. Most comrades struggled in their first practice session to articulate our line on a basic level and to discuss and debate basic questions of Marxism with these fake contacts (comrades pretending to be semi-Marxists of one stripe or another) without lapsing into dogmatism or liberalism. Improving our abilities to win over contacts is both a matter of practicing this sort of agitation, but also deepening our knowledge of MLM. For example, some comrades struggled to spell out the basics of our line. Others fumbled when their fake contacts raised basic questions or objections (e.g. believing China is not an imperialist power or spelling out some Trotskyist criticisms of Maoism). Without a clear understanding of an MLM line on these topics, it will be impossible to resolutely oppose the revisionist opportunist arguments and win over unconsolidated semi-Marxists to Maoism. ↩︎
  25. “Cadres are a decisive factor, once the political line is determined.” Mao, “The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War” (October 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 202. ↩︎
  26. Historically this has taken various forms, including the cult of personality around a leading comrades, but also a belief in the inevitability of communism. ↩︎
  27. “How is the discipline of the proletariat’s revolutionary party maintained? How is it tested? How is it reinforced? First, by the class-consciousness of the proletarian vanguard and by its devotion to the revolution, by its tenacity, self-sacrifice and heroism. Second, by its ability to link up, maintain the closest contact, and—if you wish—merge, in certain measure, with the broadest masses of the working people—primarily with the proletariat, but also with the non-proletarian masses of working people. Third, by the correctness of the political leadership exercised by this vanguard, by the correctness of its political strategy and tactics, provided the broad masses have seen, from their own experience, that they are correct. Without these conditions, discipline in a revolutionary party really capable of being the party of the advanced class, whose mission it is to overthrow the bourgeoisie and transform the whole of society, cannot be achieved. Without these conditions, all attempts to establish discipline inevitably fall flat and end up in phrasemongering and clowning. On the other hand, these conditions cannot emerge at once. They are created only by prolonged effort and hard-won experience. Their creation is facilitated by a correct revolutionary theory, which, in its turn, is not a dogma, but assumes final shape only in close connection with the practical activity of a truly mass and truly revolutionary movement.” ↩︎
  28. Despite the challenges posed by the existence of large-scale revisionist parties—and their misleadership of the masses—it is important to remember that in India, the Philippines, and Peru, the parties which eventually lead the revolutionary movements formed by splitting from the existing revisionist parties. ↩︎