1987
Allying with 'Lesser-Evil' Bosses is Deadly for Workers
The weekend of January 17-18, 1987 is historic for our movement. A multi-racial group of over 200 workers and students, representing dozens of nationalities, met in New York during the International Conference of PLP. The following article is based on the opening address of the Conference.
A brief look at the current international political situation shows that bosses from Beijing to Washington are at one another's throats. The capitalist world is in crisis as each ruling class strives to survive at the expense of another ruling class. Every ruling class fights to survive at the expense of its own working class and others.
Compare this to what is going on at our communist conference. Workers from all over the world are at the conference striving for unity. This will be achieved. But not at one another's expense. Unity will develop as the result of collectively drawing lessons from revolutionary history as well as our own. We build for revolutionary communist unity as the rulers fight to achieve supremacy over one another.
Your presence shows the ruling classes cannot stop the growing unity of the international working class. You are part of the international vanguard of the working class. It proves that Marxism-Leninism can never be defeated . Marxism-Leninism has been pronounced dead by the bosses. The revisionists, from Beijing to Moscow, say that Marxism-Leninism is outdated. Marxism-Leninism can never die! It conforms to the interests of the working class. The capitalists and the revisionists believed they left Marxism-Leninism for dead. However, it is alive and well in the body of PLP, and in its line of Road to Revolution IV
Our job is to build the revolutionary party of the international working class. By building a powerful party of the international working class we will guarantee the victory of the working class. The workers will march behind the red flags of revolution. Victory will be ours!
We are all students of reality. We are all aspiring communist revolutionaries. When we view the world we see only two classes. The ruling class and the working class. While we see many ruling classes, we can see only ONE international working class. For years our Party has correctly advocated the slogan "the working class knows no borders." We understand that it is the ruling classes who have created borders in order to protect their profits, and to separate one area of workers from another. For years we advanced the idea of "smash all borders!" The rulers of the capitalist world have punished workers by creating artificial borders beneficial only to themselves. We do not believe in borders. Borders are there to create loyalty to one boss or another. We are loyal to no ruling class. These rulers are our deadly enemies who we must destroy!
So reality shows us that there is only one international working class. Why then should we imitate the bosses borders by having this party and that party? Having a different communist party in each country is playing the ruler's game. Workers in one area have particular problems and different situations from workers in another area but the universal truth is that in no area of the world can workers' problems be solved without communist revolution.
Workers' needs are far more alike than different. Why do we need the political "tower of babble?" (The "tower of babble" refers to a biblical tower that couldn't be built because God had made divisions among people by giving them different languages.) This has been imposed on us by the bosses. We say that there is only one working class. So we proclaim to one and all ONE CLASS: ONE PARTY!
The history of the international communist movement has taught us many profound lessons. We are fortunate. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Millions of communist revolutionaries have preceded us. Their experiences and our own are our greatest teachers. Many of the lessons we have learned came from errors of previous revolutionaries. They made mistakes; we make mistakes. We all have erasers on the ends of our pencils. The biggest mistake we could possibly make is not to learn from past mistakes of others as well as our own. However, let us be clear that our most important lessons can be drawn from the strengths of the old international movement. Our Party is based on the lessons of these past revolutionaries. Our Party carries forward the best experiences of Marxist-Leninists. Our policies are based squarely on Marxism-Leninism.
We have learned that there are no good sections of any ruling class. We do not believe in uniting with any section of the ruling class. As a result we reject the notion of anything other than the goal of communism. We do not agree with the idea of sharing power with any group of bosses. We do not believe workers led by communists have to go through stages to achieve communism.
Where has unity with a section of the ruling class led to communism? History has many examples of this--all bad! In China the communists allied with the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-Shek. Within years these nationalists killed thousands of communist revolutionaries. Finally, the communists had to go on the "Long March" to escape the nationalist butchers, and build a base area for their revolution. Incredibly enough the Chinese communists were still putting forward the concept of "New Democracy" instead of communism. They were still trying to ally with the better capitalists to solidify their revolutionary advance.
In Indonesia the communists followed a similar goal, They allied with the nationalist forces around Sukarno. For a time this policy seemed to work. The Communist Party (CP) had almost two million members. The CP controlled the labor movement. The CP elected members to governmental bodies. Their leader, Aidit, was the number two official in Indonesia. Basically, they followed the parliamentary road to power through unity with the so-called better bosses. They placed the correct strategy of armed revolution for communist power on the back burner. When they seemed to be impregnable based on achieving certain legal status they moved for a putsch (military coup).
The other side took advantage of this. The bosses still controlled the rank-and-file military. The CP forgot the old Bolshevik experience of penetrating the bosses military to develop the strategy of "turn the guns around." In two days the rulers' troops under the leadership of the officers' corp killed two million communists and progressive Indonesians. The rivers and streams of Indonesia were red with revolutionaries' blood. Aidit was shot quickly by the bosses' Army.
Unfortunately there are many of these examples. They are still going on all over the world. One of the most recent examples is the slaughter by the Aquino government of farmers in the Philippines demanding a better life. This mass slaughter of farmers and others by Aquino was going on as the government was negotiating with the communists for class peace. These negotiations for class peace are still proceeding. The communists try and justify their betrayal by portraying Aquino as better than the fascist Marcos.
There can never be class peace! The bosses are our deadly enemy. All bosses represent their class. They will kill and kill some more in order to hold on to their slime profits. Our job isn't to create illusions about these greedy bosses. Our job is to organize to wipe them out with violent struggle.
We can skip all those stages of dead communists floating down the rivers of the world because of illusions about and collusion with the enemy. We fail to see the benefit of these stages. Where has unity with the enemy ever led to victory? It is a contradiction or a bad joke in the face of all this to advance this idea. Only communism not nationalism can lead to workers' revolution. Internationalism is the flag of communist revolution.
Many good revolutionaries have proclaimed that the working class cannot be won to go directly from capitalism to communism. Many notions have been advanced that workers and others must go through many stages to win a communist society. It has been claimed that after the triumph of the revolution workers will still be so imbued with capitalist ideology that most workers could never readily accept communism. Consequently, socialism was viewed as a half-way house between capitalism and communism.
Many capitalist economic and cultural relations were maintained after the victory of socialism. These included, keeping the wage system, paying workers based on skills and the amount of production and small scale private ownership of land and business. A new communist culture was never really developed. Instead socialist culture was simply doing it better than the capitalists. Socialism meant capitalist culture was seen by more workers. Of course there were some notable exceptions, especially in film and writing. Because there was little communist teaching or basebuilding before and during the revolutionary process it was unrealistic to expect a new culture to develop.
At this point we would like to ask the workers and others in this room--do you believe in communism? Are you ready to live in a truly communist society? Well, it seems by the show of your hands that you are. Is there something special about us? Is it that we are so smart? Is it because communism is in our genes, that we all believe that communism is practical now?
We believe in the line of Road to Revolution IV because we have been won to it. Our experiences, and those revolutionaries before us show that anything less than communism won't work. Tell us what country ever went from socialism to communism? No hands! The truth is that every country which pursued socialism with the intent to move to communism, went back to capitalism. The fact is that every communist leader, with the noblest of intentions, who rationalized how society, the economic base, the workers, et al, were too "backward" to advance immediately to communism were wrong!
Every socialist country is now ruled by fascists! Fascism-capitalism has been the result of socialism. Now let's tell one another about which country that fought for nationalism, national liberation, independence etc. won communism. Why all the silence? It is because we all know that there is not one single example of any form of nationalism that ever succeeded in going from capitalism/colonialism to communism.
Again the truth is that virtually any form of national liberation, whether or not it included communists, and no matter what stage or stages the country went through, ever got to communism. Facts are stubborn things. Algeria, Indonesia, Nigeria, India, etc.,--most countries that won independence after World War 11-- are now ruled by fascists or the masses of workers are superexploited and have very little rights. The U.S. bosses and others claim that the Philippines without Marcos is a democracy. Sure, just ask the scores of farmers and others who were shot down in cold blood by Aquino's troops as they protested for reforms outside her palace.
Recently, a new twist has been added to the old, sad story of nationalism. The Shah of Iran led a fascist government armed and backed to the hilt by U.S. imperialism. The national liberation forces coalesced behind the religious freak Khomeni and threw out the Shah. This coalition, initially, included most of the left movement in Iran. So what's the end of this tale. The Khomeni clerical fascists wiped out tens of thousands of leftists who believed that Khomeni was better than the Shah. Now hundreds of thousands of Iranians are being slaughtered in a war for power and profits against the Iraqis. Of course the Iraqi nationalists started the war. But, the holy rollers in Teheran claim they will finish it even if it takes the last drop of blood of the young people of the nation. Additionally U.S. imperialists, who want to secure their own position in the Middle East, have been not only selling arms to Iran (and using the profits from these sales to aid the contras in Nicaragua) but have been supplying Iraq with spy satellite information on Iranian troop movements. By playing both sides against the middle, so to speak, the U.S. imperialists hope to keep their competitors exhausted and dependent on the U.S. for assistance. The lesson is simple enough. Any national movement leads to death and fascism. Only communism, the dictatorship of the proletariat can satisfy the needs of the workers and others.
How many times does the often repeated tragic lesson of nationalism need to be driven home? All bosses seek to make profits from our labor. It doesn't matter if this boss is from your country or not. Nationalist bosses hate communists. They hate communism. They will kill and kill some more to prevent communism in order to save their profits. Why do these so-called communists still advocate the farcical policy of allying with so-called progressive nationalism?
Stalin once correctly said: "In a crisis nationalists will run to the tent of the imperialists," Hasn't this always been true. Isn't is still true now. Just look at Iran, the Philippines, Angola, Nicaragua, etc., It doesn't matter whether or not the imperialist is from the U.S. or the Soviet Union. War and fascism can be the only result of national liberation or any other so-called revolutionary nationalist formation.
Nationalist leaders are bosses! They only want to make profit. Usually they can only make larger profits by taking profits from the imperialists (foreign bosses). They enlist workers' aid to help them fight for their increased profits. They use the anti-imperialist sentiment of the masses to enlist them in an unholy crusade for bigger local capitalism. After winning a bigger piece of the economic pie the nationalists increase the exploitation of their own workers.
Nationalism is the great reserve of capitalism. Nationalism misdirects the workers from organizing and fighting for communist revolution. Nationalism separates one group of workers from another. This makes it easier for the bosses to suppress the workers. Nationalism means divide and rule, this helps one group of bosses, a combination of bosses, or imperialists.
Communists must not fight for nationalism but for communism based on the unity not the disunity of the international working class. This process must start yesterday. When the revolution triumphs, millions of workers should be won to communism, not to some amended version of capitalism. We are building communist political consciousness, no matter how long it takes, workers must be won to the glory of communism. We must all have one single, clear cut goal--communism.
Only internationalism can lead to the victory of the working class. This international conference is a small but important step along the revolutionary communist road. This is a crucial event. It proves that workers and others from all over the world can plan for revolution under the banners of the PLP. (Over two dozen nationalities were represented at the PLP International Conference). This is why we continually advance the policy of WE ARE ONE WORKING CLASS; WE NEED ONE PARTY!
The Russian Revolution destroyed the myth that capitalism could not be overthrown. The Russian Revolution was proof that the working class, led by resolute communists, could defeat the capitalist class. The Russian Revolution was a clear and loud call to the workers of the world for communist revolution.
The Russian Revolution was a great teacher. We in the PLP are trying to carry out the correct strategy of the early revolutionaries. Among their correct ideas were: the need for a communist party unified by democratic centralism; the truth that the revolution must be based on the working class; the fact that the workers need allies among other sections of the population. Obviously, the revolution demonstrated the need for armed struggle. A correct idea at the time, and still valid, is the need for communists to penetrate the bosses' army. "Turn the guns around" was their strategy, and it is ours.
The rulers of today's world use terrorism to create the notion that violence against the bosses is wrong, self-destructive and futile. The bosses use terrorism to create passivity and abhorrence for revolutionary violence. The rulers claim that terrorists are revolutionaries bent on overthrowing capitalist order. The rulers use terrorist provocations to attack the workers, launch military strikes, and kill genuine revolutionaries. Terrorism and communist revolution have nothing in common.
Terrorists are usually upper- and middle-class nationalist forces. Terrorists hate the working class, and hate communists. Terrorists use individual violence to get a bigger piece of the pie for themselves and their groups from the imperialists. Terrorists eventually unite with the imperialists if the imperialists drop a few crumbs from their table.
Terrorists have more in common with the Mafia than they do with revolutionaries. If individual terror-violence could make a revolution, Al Capone would be ruling the U.S. The Russian Revolution proved that large numbers of workers could be won to armed struggle for revolution. The heart of this strategy was to be found in winning young workers in the Czar's military to communism.
Young workers armed not only with weapons but with the ideas of Marxism-Leninism were invincible. These young workers were trained by the rulers in the techniques of weaponry. They had the guns and they knew how to use them. They knew how to teach others to handle weapons and they knew where to get more from the bosses. The ruling class was the initial arsenal of the Red Army!
Communists in the military were crucial in winning others to armed revolution. And they were key to winning workers away from continuing to fight in the bosses' wars. The communists were able to render the Czar's military impotent. Later, the communists were able to organize detachments of soldiers and workers to take the offensive for revolution.
State power rests on maintaining bodies of armed men and women. We know from our own experience as well as from history that in any militant class struggle, the fight eventually boils down to the bosses calling out troops to crush the workers. A recent example in the U. S. was the Hormel strike. As the workers fought the company, they discovered that in order to win they had to fight their own union. When the local police were called out to put down the strike the Hormel workers fought the police. Then the bosses and their political agents in the state government called out the National Guard. The Guard protected the scabs and the plant from the workers; the Guard kept the plant operating for the bosses.
We did not have forces in those units of the Minnesota National Guard that were brought out to crush the strike, but we had two members in the Guard in Illinois. These two GIs, as well as other PLP members, asked the Minnesota Guard not to attack the Hormel workers. Our two GIs got good responses from both the Guard and the workers on strike. In the end, they were arrested. The point is that in every sharp class battle, the troops and cops are called out to protect the bosses' interests and put down the workers. In most cases, these troops are other workers who are in the military for the money and the supposed training. These working class forces can and must be reached!
If a party is serious about revolution, then armed struggle must be one of the key strategies. But as we said above, armed struggle for revolution is not individualistic terrorism. The idea is not individual bravado; it is deciding who is capable of waging armed revolution. Eventually, two streams will come together: detachments from the rulers' military machine will join masses of armed workers to form the military force of the proletariat.
In this period of war and fascism, this strategy created by the Bolsheviks is decisive. World War III is inevitable. Of course, many good people without revolutionary moorings are overwhelmed by this fact. Some say, "It will never happen. The bosses wouldn't want to destroy their own system of profits." Sometimes it is claimed, "The Party is wrong. War hasn't happened yet. Stop crying wolf!" Another popular trend is pacifism: "The bosses are so strong that nothing we can do can stop war. War is terrible, The best thing we can do is enjoy ourselves until it comes. In the meantime we can pray."
There is some truth in these distortions. In order to have credibility, every distortion has a germ of truth. Once again, history and facts are important teachers. Who in the U.S. on Dec. 6, 1941 would have believed that the next day Japan was going to bomb Pearl Harbor?
Sad to say, many forces in the Soviet Union just prior to the Nazi invasion of Russia took comfort in the notion that the Germans would not attack. This was true even though the Soviets had predicted this attack for at least 10 years. Just because something has not yet happened does not mean that it won't.
This phenomena carries over into the development of fascism. Which German Jew at the outset of Hitlerism really believed that 6,000,000 Jews were going to be killed? Which of those 2,000,000 Indonesian communists in 1965 thought they were going to be wiped out? If, the day before the massacre in Indonesia, you dared to say that tomorrow we will all be dead, you would have ended up in the loony bin.
What comfort can we take in saying there is nothing we can do because the bosses are too strong? Our job is to make ourselves stronger. Sure, war is terrible! But that and a dollar will get you on the bus today. When has being afraid of war stopped war? If fear could end war, there would never be another war. Will praying stop war? Which religious groups and their prayers have stopped war? The fact is that wars are the inevitable consequences of capitalism. Wars always occur as capitalists fight one another for the control of the world's markets. War has little to do with good and bad men. War has nothing to do with fear and prayer. War won't end because we are weak and they are strong. War can only end with the advent of a communist world. This is the only serious answer to war and fascism.
Communists can't be in the business of creating illusions. War is a fact of life under imperialism. There are more wars going on in the world today than in any one period in history. Tens ~f millions are fighting. Millions are dying. Draw no comfort because it is Iraqis and Iranians and not you. That war, as every other war, is the consequence of capitalism. And all wars today are related to the U.S.-Soviet rivalry for control of the world. The job of revolutionaries is to point out the ironclad lessons of history. Communists must point out absolute trends and their implications. Whether something happens on this day or that day is not the fundamental point. The crucial thing for communists to expose is the objective-universal laws of society. One sure thing is that world war is inevitable as long as capitalism exists.
Communists must also say that because war is inevitable, we should not be afraid of war. As we pointed out, fear can't stop war. But revolution can! War weakens capitalist rule. War creates the situation where society can no longer exist in the old way. The bosses can't rule as they did before, and workers can no longer live with capitalism. Workers' illusions are smashed by war! It is no accident that both the Russian and then the Chinese revolutions took place in the aftermath of war. Communists do not start or relish wars, but communists are ready to turn the bosses' wars into wars for revolution. The rulers of the world start wars--we communists will end them by crushing the bosses forever.
In this pre-nuclear war period, it is as important as ever, even more important, to have communists in the military. Every nuclear missile that is not fired on other workers is a big victory for the working class. Every military outfit that won't go to the Mid-East, Nicaragua and wherever the rulers will try to send troops for their profits is a blow to the vitals of the capitalist system. Communists in the military can limit the destruction that war produces. Communists in the military can win millions to choose the side of revolution. Why should we yield to the rulers' drive for war and fascism when there is an alternative?
The ruling class moves ever closer to our destruction with war and fascism; communists fight for the future of our class with revolution--which side are you on?
One of the lessons of international communist history is the need for a communist party. The significance of a communist party is that it has one goal in the pre-revolutionary period. The goal is to organize and to make revolution. Simple?--Yes and no!
Making revolution requires single-mindedness. Revolution must be understood as the only viable solution to capitalism. Revolutionary communist parties develop in capitalist societies. These societies are rotten. Capitalism creates many problems for workers. Often these problems divert us from revolutionary struggle.
Capitalist culture and ideology breeds a host of political contradictions that penetrate our Party. . Individualism of many forms, cynicism, despair, defeatism, etc., are some of the bourgeois attitudes that must be combated and defeated in the Party. But who is the Party? It is you and me! So criticism and self-criticism must be an integral part of our strategy. We must consistently carry out criticism and self-criticism in order to defeat the many aspects of individualism.
Revolutionary communist work requires a long range outlook. Even if the revolution happened tomorrow we would still need to be communists. The triumph of the revolution doesn't mean we all go back to being capitalists. Being a communist has no time limits. Being a communist means being one for your entire life.
History and our own practice have revealed a great secret--revolution usually requires a long time to achieve. Actually, historically speaking, revolution happens in a blink of the eye. Subjectively, and we are too subjective, revolution needs time to grow, develop and to occur. Young people, and not so young people, join the Party and think that revolution is right around the corner. Why not? Capitalist culture has bred us on a steady diet of a fast food culture. Many people expect everything to happen like a Big Mac--one, two, three. We are trained to expect "instant gratification." Often our personal relationships reflect the ravages of capitalism, they are packed with contradictions. Many problems are created by and are unsolvable under capitalism. Many people react to contradictions and problems by seeking quick solutions. Usually, most problems of importance need patience and perseverance as well as objectivity. All too often we try and solve our problem at one another's expense, instead of fighting the bosses. The rulers created these problems.
Patience, perseverance, objectivity are all nice words. These are attitudes not cultivated by capitalist culture. Urgency is an attitude which we often use in dealing with personal problems. However urgency towards building the Party and making revolution is really useful. So, we must learn to combine urgency and a long range outlook for carrying forward the revolutionary battle. These two contradictory outlooks must be united to make a revolutionary whole.
The Bolsheviks learned early on that confidence in the working class was essential to a long range outlook and to making the revolution. Our strategy is based on winning overwhelming numbers of workers to revolution. This strategy was developed by Marx in the Communist Manifesto and later enhanced in the works of Lenin. The question of workers being the central force for revolution was not a whim. It wasn't because workers were born to be revolutionaries, or because they were born with certain genes or three hands. Marx developed the correct idea of class struggle. This was predicated on the notion that capitalism spawned a working class. The capitalists were "their own grave diggers" because the working class could never satisfy their needs under capitalism. The capitalists need to make profits "maximum profits." These profits are made from the hands and efforts of workers (surplus value). This systematic robbery of the workers by their rulers created objective antagonisms. These antagonisms can only be resolved by revolution. This is the basis of communist ideology.
Our Party doesn't put a time limit on the revolutionary process. We only say that the class struggle is continuous. And at a certain point this process will reach the boiling point. However, a crucial ingredient, necessary to create the boil or boom, is the growth of the Party. Without a communist party there will be no communist revolution.
Because the working class and the Party do not develop at the pace to satisfy this one or that one, many people throw up their hands and arrive at incorrect conclusions. In this period workers are not flocking to the Party. The workers are being hit harder and harder by the bosses. The workers seem to be taking it. So workers are "hopeless," "rotten," "passive," etc. Thus, the theory of class struggle "must be wrong." Of course this is what the rulers say and want us to believe. They want us to believe the myth that capitalism is the "best of all possible worlds" and that the workers really like capitalism.
There are many variations on this theme: the workers are bad; the Party is bad; the line is wrong; Marx and Lenin were wrong; the demise of the old international communist movement proves all this. We could fill up many pages to indicate how these rationalizations-- based on partial truth--lead to the give-it-up attitude. The fact is that Marxism-Leninism is a science. As in all processes there are many ups and downs; twists and turns. Only a long range outlook prepares us to handle endless problems and contradictions. Creating a new society--a communist society is the most complicated process in the world. It is the most important task in the world. It is the only task that must grip our lives and millions of other workers.
Having a single goal does not mean it's simple. The revolutionary process is complex. Changing the world is not a parlor trick. There is no sleight of hand in this process. The working class is not like a trained seal, ready at the wave of our hands, to jump through the revolutionary hoop. We must win the confidence of the working class. The workers must come to see our Party in the same light that the workers of Russia were won to view the Bolsheviks. Only long, hard, patient basebuilding among millions of workers can eventually lead to mutual confidences.
Confidence in the working class and confidence in the Party are an inter-related development. Confidence in the workers and the Party cannot be legislated. But we have a lot going for us. History has proven that millions of workers can be won to communism and to fight for it. A great deal of confidence should be derived from the fact that our Party exists and grows despite the serious reversals of the old communist movement. Our presence here should inspire us to more vigorous communist practices. Every time we carry out any aspect of the party's line from selling C-D to organizing a battle at work, it is an important step in developing confidence in the Party and workers. Only continuous communist practice can succeed in creating the mutual confidence in the Party and the workers. The old saying that "practice makes perfect" was never more apt.
We must create the perfect triangle. One leg must be that Party members develop confidence in the workers; the other leg must be that Party members must have confidence in the Party; the hypotenuse is the workers having confidence in the Party members and hence the Party. Only long range communist practice can succeed in creating this communist triangle. The unshakable unity of communists and non-communists will lead to a triumphant revolution and its consolidation.
Presently, many people moan about how the "workers are not in motion." They bewail the "passivity" of workers. Often some of our members and friends are overjoyed when workers under the leadership of the nationalists, various revisionists, and liberals react to an event. These are forms of spontaneity. If workers act under bad leadership our job is to win these workers away from rotten leadership. Workers moving under right wing leaders do not represent a victory for the working class. When the workers of Poland moved under the banners of the fascist church controlled Solidarity Movement, was this a victory?
Our task under these circumstances is " how to turn a bad thing into a good thing." We tend to see any movement by workers or others as "great" because we don't really believe we can win large numbers of workers to our leadership. So we are ready to settle "for less." A lot less. The fact is that workers are yearning for communist leadership. Every time we act boldly with our base we are able to move many workers. Isn't it odd that the biggest event we organize every year is May Day. The problem isn't the workers. The problem is us! We do provide a certain amount of leadership, however we ladle it out with a teaspoon. Our practice reflects our lack of single-mindedness. Our practice shows our ties to bourgeois culture and outlook. Our practice must be consistent, bold, and decisive. The masses will respond to this leadership now! What is so wonderful about their lives now under capitalism? What's so good about ours?
Our Party must build the mass movement. We cannot rely on spontaneity. If we work in right wing organizations we must see how to win people in our Party. And we should develop the strategy and tactics to move blocks of these workers to the left. Winning workers to the left means winning them to InCAR and PLP. Eventually millions of workers can be won. But we cannot accomplish this without the legs of the triangle. We cannot do this without consistent practice.
All the contradictions of capitalist society can be turned into a giant tidal wave for revolution. War, fascism, racism, nationalism, unemployment, etc., can all he levers for revolution. There is no evil of capitalism that we should fear. This May Day can be a larger rallying point for revolution. Larger marches can be achieved. Where this type of activity cannot be done, then smaller gatherings of many kinds should be held. PLP May Days can be held in many other parts of the world this year. This reflects the growth of our Party. Just as this conference circles the globe so too can this coming May Day. How can the rulers ever defeat the workers when comrades like yourselves are mushrooming up all around the world. The rulers have failed in their efforts to stamp out revolutionary communism.
Let us take a solemn oath today that we will never let the Red Flag of communist revolution fall in the dirt. The old communist movement dropped this flag; we picked it up and are carrying it forward. We have no intention of letting it drop again! Communism is the noblest goal of all! It is the only perspective for the workers of the world. We shall never give up until the red flag covers the universe.