Revolutionary Worker #1223, December 21, 2003, posted at rwor.org
Our Party holds that the most desirable and effective course of revolutionary struggle is for the multinational proletariat, represented and led by its vanguard, to carry out a unified revolutionary struggle: a unified struggle to overthrow the U.S. ruling class; a unified struggle to establish, on the basis of equality, a multinational socialist state over the largest possible territory of what is today the United States. We are actively working in this direction.
We do not believe that creating separate national republics provides the most liberating path to solving national oppression and continuing the revolution to do away with all oppression. This is why we say that the proletariat does not favor the creation of a separate African-American Republic under now- foreseeable circumstances.
What is the thinking behind our view of a unified revolutionary struggle?
To begin with, there is a material necessity for this. If we are truly serious about going up against and defeating the world's most powerful ruling class, a ruling class that has massive amounts of technology and weaponry at its disposal--it is going to take the determined struggle and sacrifice of tens of millions. It's going to take, when the conditions present themselves, a coordinated mass armed insurrection followed by civil war. And without overthrowing the U.S. ruling class, self-determination of Black people will be impossible to achieve.
Second, there is a material basis for unified revolutionary struggle. It exists in the social structure of U.S. society, in the "dual oppression" that confronts the masses of the oppressed nationalities, and in the multinational make-up of the revolutionary class, the proletariat. And in our work in the proletariat--in the struggles we are part of and initiate in the factories, schools, and communities--we find that the advanced of all nationalities desire unity and cherish unity when it is achieved. We find this among broader sections of the people as well.
Third, a unified state over the largest possible territory provides the best basis for building socialism and creating a liberating society. The highly developed productive forces of U.S. society have been built up on the backs of the exploited and oppressed in this country (and throughout the world). They must be utilized to serve the people, in particular the formerly oppressed and exploited who have suffered the American nightmare. The Native American peoples need the right to rule themselves--but they also need access to the accumulated productive forces that the labor of generations has created on North America. They should not be cut off from the future planned socialist economy and the transformations it makes possible.
We believe there is a basis to build a liberating society that can not only address the needs of the exploited and oppressed of all nationalities, but also unleash their energy and creativity to bring a new world into being. The combined strength of a large and diverse socialist society can and must create a powerful base area for the world revolution, to assist the struggles of the exploited and oppressed everywhere.
We spoke of the material basis for a unified revolutionary struggle. The existence of a multinational proletariat--some 70 million strong and whose most exploited sections include millions of Black people, Latinos, and other oppressed nationalities, and millions of white proletarians--is a tremendous source of strength for proletarian revolution. But the proletariat in the U.S. is also marred by caste-like division. It is marred by disunity and wide gaps in experience and understanding. Fighting and combating these divisions is essential to building a class-conscious and revolutionary movement.
Unity cannot simply be declared. It can only be forged in practice. Unity must and can be built through the struggles today, in the build up to the seizure of power, and in the actual struggle for power. Waging the fight against white supremacy and racism is a crucial front of struggle in society today. And it is a pivotal part of building the revolutionary movement and laying the basis to wage and win the armed struggle to overthrow the rule of capitalism when the time is ripe.
As the Draft Programme explains, we work at fighting national oppression and building unity from two sides. In our work in the proletariat, we give great emphasis to building the fight against national oppression: to uniting the proletariat of all nationalities not only to take up struggles in society around police brutality, affirmative action, English-first campaigns, etc., but also to be on the front ranks of these battles.
From the side of the movements of the oppressed nationalities, the class-conscious proletariat strives to unite with these struggles...to encourage and help build the fiercest and most uncompromising resistance against national oppression...to fight for the internationalist line and outlook of all-the-way proletarian revolution within these movements...and to build ties especially with the most determined fighters in these struggles and to develop fighters against one form of oppression into fighters against all oppression.
The standpoint of communists, representing revolutionary proletarians of all nationalities, is to firmly uphold and fight for the right of self-determination...where that right applies. In U.S. society, that right applies to Black people. But upholding the right of self-determination does not necessarily mean advocating its exercise. Just as with the right of divorce: the right to divorce must be supported and defended, because it is essential for conditions of equality and voluntary union--but it does not follow that divorce is what is called for in every situation.
In our pamphlet "Cold Truth, Liberating Truth," we discuss this:
"The right to self-determination is just that--a right. Recognizing the right of self- determination is not the same thing as insisting that the right be used to set up a separate country...The right to do something doesn't mean you have to do it. It just means that others--and especially those who have a whole history of oppressing you and denying your rights--must not be in the position of forcing the decision on you."
We apply this understanding in our revolutionary work today. We train the masses, especially the white masses, to uphold the right to self-determination for Black people and to take up the fight for equality for all oppressed nationalities. This is what we call training the people in a self-determinist spirit. In the party's division of labor, our white cadre have a special task in combating chauvinism among white workers (while party cadre of the oppressed nationalities pay special attention to struggling against narrow nationalism among the oppressed nationalities).
As we have explained, we are not proceeding from a program or solution of establishing separate national republics. But we do take into account the possibility that the demand for an independent African- American Republic could well come on the agenda. This could present itself in a revolutionary situation and the struggle to achieve power, or after power is achieved. Forces in the Black nation advocating a separate state could emerge and rally significant sections of Black people around a program and struggle for independence.
Whether or not a separate Black republic should actually be established is something that can only be decided in the concrete, in the course of the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the imperialist system. This no doubt will involve complicated twists and turns. But whatever the particular circumstances, revolutionary principles must be applied.
Specifically, the masses of Black people must be relied on to resolve the question of whether to establish a separate African-American Republic. They must be able to do so free from force and intimidation, especially from people of the European-American nation. The method must be that of persuasion, not coercion. As the Draft Programme puts it, "the proletariat will rely on the masses, especially in this case the masses of Black people, and will work to resolve the question non- antagonistically and in a way that serves the larger interests of emancipating all the exploited and oppressed."
Who has the right to speak on these questions? The short answer is that any revolutionary worthy of the name not only has the right but also the responsibility to put forth analyses and positions on matters of critical importance to making revolution. This applies to the national question, to issues of women's liberation, to a correct stand around immigrants, and so forth.
Whether a position is correct or incorrect is not a function of who puts it forth. It's a question of line. By that we mean it's a question of whether a particular analysis or position corresponds to objective reality...represents a truly emancipating outlook and program...points to the transformations necessary and possible at this stage of human development. These are the relevant criteria for judging positions.
NAPO says, speaking of the RCP's line on self-determination, that "no predominately white American organization, communist or otherwise, has the right to propose a limitation on the self- determination of the Afrikan people...." We have already discussed our position on self- determination. But more needs to be said with respect to what our Party is about and how it sees its responsibilities.
First off, it is not correct to characterize the Revolutionary Communist Party as a "white" or a "predominantly white" organization. We are a multinational party that bases itself on the revolutionary outlook and interests of the proletariat--a class that is made up of many different nationalities in the U.S. and that is an international class. We aim to represent the interests of revolutionary proletarians of all nationalities. We draw our members from all categories of the exploited and oppressed in society. We carry out revolutionary work among the masses, and broader sections of the people, of all nationalities-- learning from and leading them in struggle. Our party participates in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, which is made up of parties and organizations from the imperialist countries and the Third World.
Second, we have a responsibility to analyze and take positions on a whole range of issues bound up with making revolution and transforming society. Our party is determined to lead the people to rise up to overthrow the capitalist-imperialist system. We are committed to doing our part to bring about a communist world. We take this responsibility, the responsibility to act as a vanguard, quite seriously. We have a duty to analyze the structures and relations of U.S. society. We take to heart the task of summing up lessons of history and learning from revolutionary experiences in other countries.
To make revolution and run a new society requires unified purpose and direction, an understanding of how society can function in a liberating way, what solutions will work to overcome particular forms of oppression and advance the struggle for total emancipation. That's what our Draft Programme is about: a strategy for winning power and a vision and plan for building a liberating society. And we invite NAPO and others to comment on other issues addressed in the Draft: political institutions, economics, ecology, culture, and so forth.
We do not have a monopoly on truth--and we seek to learn from others. When we make mistakes, we aim to correct them and dig into their roots.
We have our opinion about the Black national question and the role of self-determination in the revolutionary struggle in this country. That position is based on historical and social analysis. We are conducting our work with a certain perspective, towards a certain revolutionary resolution of national oppression.
NAPO and others also have their opinions and views on this question. For NAPO, the essence of Black people's struggle is for independence. But NAPO, or any other political force, must not blur the distinction between holding such an opinion and declaring that the question has already been settled (as articulated by NAPO).
The question, as we have emphasized, will only be settled in complex conditions of revolutionary struggle and upheaval--and will ultimately be settled by the masses of Black people. In such revolutionary conditions and through the course of all the struggle leading up these conditions, many things will have radically changed. By that we mean there will be changes in the relations among people, including of different nationalities. There will be changes in peoples attitudes and thinking. Of course, there will remain vast and profound transformations to be carried out once the imperialist system is overthrown and revolutionary power is established.
But the masses will in fact be in a changed situation. People will have been waging intense and thoroughgoing revolutionary struggle. They will have been forging unity and raising their political consciousness. It is in this context that it will be shown whether setting up a separate African-American republic in the Black Belt south will be in the interests of the masses of Black people--whether it will correspond to their felt needs, and will be supported by them.
National oppression gives rise to resistance. It gives rise to national movements. Within these national movements different trends, currents, and class forces contend for influence and leadership. NAPO will be struggling for its program, as will other forces. But no one can impose their position on the masses. And no force can claim for itself the right to decide the question--in the name of Black people.
As we said at the start, we appreciate the seriousness of NAPO's commentary on the Draft Programme . Clearly, as both NAPO's critique and our reply indicate, we have strong differences. But we are in the trenches together. We both want to see this imperialist beast slain. Our party firmly believes that by clarifying key questions and by struggling in a principled way for deeper understanding and unity, we can bring that day closer.