ANNOUNCING THE DRAFT PROGRAMME OF THE RCP, USA-MAY 1, 2001

We invite you to celebrate with us. Here in the "belly of the beast," our party has produced what we believe is a powerful document...that breathes the science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the fire, and the hope of revolution...that speaks with clarity to the basic problems of this society and world-and to their solution.

We are also proud to announce that through tremendous efforts by comrade translators, the Draft Programme is being published simultaneously in English and Spanish on May 1st.

And what is a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist programme? It is a kind of road map for destroying the old and creating the new. It is a tool for understanding society and the world, and for identifying the forces who will make revolution. A Maoist programme is a statement of the fundamental changes and transformations that proletarian revolution will bring about and the policies that will guide these changes-learning from the accumulated experience of socialist revolution.

As the authors of the original Communist Manifesto said, our new Draft Programme "disdains to conceal its views." It explains that the world capitalist system of exploitation and oppression is outmoded and unnecessary...that a radically different world is possible...and that there is a path to overthrowing the U.S. ruling class. With this Draft Programme, the RCP expresses our determination to lead the masses to make revolution and to remake society, from top to bottom, in this stronghold of imperialism. And we do this as part of the world proletarian revolution.

How right it is that the new Draft Programme will make its appearance on May 1st! This is May Day, the holiday of the international working class. On May Day, class-conscious proletarians and revolutionaries rededicate ourselves to the struggle to break the chains of oppression everywhere. We take the measure of where we stand and where we must go in that struggle. We declare our common cause with our class brothers and sisters across the planet fighting for emancipation.

Across the country, special release parties will be held at Revolution Books stores. Proletarians and others will also be gathering in smaller-group meetings to join in welcoming this political weapon. The website of the Revolutionary Worker/Obrero Revolucionario newspaper will post special on-line features.

On the weekend after May Day, the Party will hold major public programs and private gatherings to spell out its vision and plans for the next phase of this great project. Party spokespeople will talk about how we see the importance of this Draft, how we plan to engage diverse forces in discussion about the revolutionary perspective of this Draft, and why advanced proletarians and others need to play a crucial role in taking up this Draft and taking it out. There is much to celebrate.

For more than a year, work on this Draft-wrangling over political issues, research, and the writing of it-has been the focus of intense efforts. Important contributions have been made by many people-comrades, friends and allies.

Now a new phase begins. Over many months, our Party will discuss this Draft, exchanging views with diverse forces and encouraging an atmosphere of debate over the decisive revolutionary questions that the Programme concentrates: What is the path to revolution in this country? What about the revolutionary potential of the proletariat here? Does a revolutionary MLM programme truly speak to the basic problems of this society and the world and their solution? What will the new society be like? What are the needs of different sections of the people and how will they be met through this revolution? How can we win?

This Draft Programme concentrates a revolutionary line. But it is a... draft. And so we aim for discussion, debate, and deepening of understanding on a wide scale-all to culminate in a final Programme.

What does the Party have in mind?

The Party plans to dispatch squads of people all over the country with the Draft. The Party will seek out meetings with forces all over the country-Native Americans, farmers, youth in the newly arising movements, veteran political forces, intellectuals, artists and more. Circles of proletarians will take up these revolutionary questions with the Party. The pages of the RW/OR will feature articles and correspondence on the Draft.

The Draft Programme will be circulating at a time when there are new upsurges, and when a new generation is increasingly grappling with questions about the way forward for humanity. During this past year, sections of revolutionary youth have contributed in many ways to producing the Draft. Investigation teams took up the MLM method of class analysis, conducting interviews with proletarians in the sweatshops, fields and housing projects. This kind of fusion of MLM and the newly arising generation needs to take place on an even higher level once the Draft is out.

This Draft Programme, and what it has to say about creating a new society, connects with the concerns of millions of people. This is a programme that has clear solutions to the oppression of women, to national oppression; it is a programme that deals with culture, with morality, with building a new socialist economy.

The RCP is serious about learning from the ideas, suggestions, and criticisms of others about this Draft-because we are serious about the most scientific, far-reaching, and practical Maoist programme for revolution in the U.S.

So if you refuse to accept this as the "best of all possible worlds"-if you are searching for a plan to change the world-we invite you to explore our new Draft Programme and take it to the people.