Contribute to the Debate

Over the next several months the RW/OR will be putting a spotlight on the DP, highlighting important parts of the Draft Programme. Along with this the RW will publish selected comments, criticisms, and suggestions from people studying the DP--including comments from Party supporters, debates from the 2changetheworld website, and letters from prisoners.

Readers of the RW are encouraged to contribute to the debate by sending in comments. Comments can be sent to "Draft Programme Debate" c/o RCP Publications, PO Box 3486 Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654. They can also be given to your local RW distributor.

For the Draft Programme text and major background documents, click here.

For more ongoing debate over the Draft programme, also visit 2changetheworld.info

On the Road Toward the Finalization of the Party Programme!

During World Historic Times--We Need World Historic Answers

Revolutionary Worker #1200, May 25, 2003, posted at rwor.org

May Day 2001 the RCP released its Draft Programme with the slogan "Looking For A Plan To Change The World...It's Here!" The RCP's Draft Programme, or DP as it is commonly referred to, is the accumulation of over a year of deep study and investigation of the lives of the people and the shape of U.S. society--applying the revolutionary science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to this whole process. The DP is infused with the collective wisdom of the whole Party, highlighted by many path-breaking contributions of RCP Chairman Bob Avakian. The DP reflects rich understanding gained through over 25 years of revolutionary practice, linking the Party's revolutionary line with the masses and their struggles. Through this whole process, the revolutionary line is deepened. Importantly the DP reflects deep summation, drawing on the whole historical experience of the international proletariat. It is the concrete application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to our concrete conditions here in the U.S.

Since the release of the DP the RCP has learned from the sentiments, thoughts and opinions of thousands of people checking it out. It has conducted a kind of "coast to coast and border to border" conversation. The RCP has been taking the DP out to broad sections of people, from proletarians in housing projects to professionals, artists and intellectuals, immigrants and farmers, sisters and brothers locked behind the prison walls. All the while the RCP has been popularizing its revolutionary strategy and vision and at the same time learning from thousands who have been checking the DP out.

The 2changetheworld website has provided a lively forum where many have come to debate the content of the DP, making suggestions for changes and improvements and wrangling over the revolutionary politics within it.

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Over the past few years a new generation has stepped forward to oppose imperialist globalization. Since 9/11, literally millions more have come into political life and struggle against the juggernaut of war and repression. Mao Tsetung teaches us the fundamental law that "people fight back, then they seek philosophy." Many are asking why things are this way--and do they have to be this way, is another world possible. For those looking for a plan to change the world, it's here!--in the pages of the RCP's Draft Programme.

We are living in historic times. The U.S. rulers seek to impose a brutal new "Roman Empire" on the world. Yet, at the same time, they have been met with the resistance of millions taking to the streets in protest the world over. In these times, the opening sentence of the Draft Programme proves all the more relevant and true, "Of all the tyrants and oppressors in the world, there is none that has caused more untold misery and committed more screaming injustices against the people of the world than the rulers of the U.S."

And the words of Bob Avakian prove ever more appropriate, "If you can conceive of a world without America--without everything America stands for and everything it does in the world--then you've already taken great strides and begun to get at least a glimpse of a whole new world. If you can envision a world without any imperialism, exploitation, oppression--and the whole philosophy that rationalizes it--a world without divisions into classes or even different nations, and all the narrow-minded, selfish, outmoded ideas that uphold this; if you can envision all this, then you have the basis for proletarian internationalism. And once you have raised your sights to all this, how could you not feel compelled to take an active part in the world-historic struggle to realize it; why would you want to lower your sights to anything else?" (DP, p.31.)

Over the next several weeks the RW/OR will be putting a spotlight on the DP, highlighting important parts of the Draft Programme. Along with this the RW will publish comments, criticisms and suggestions of people studying the DP and turn the pages of the RW into a forum of discussion and debate.

This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497

The Debate from the RW

RW #1229 February 15, 2004

On Lopsidedness and Parasitism

RW #1228 February 8, 2004

Question of winning over/working with farmers in grain under socialism

RW #1227 February 1, 2004

Two comments from RCP comrades on the Draft Programme's approach to religion and religious forces

RW #1223 December 21, 2003

RCP Reply: Key Questions on the Liberation of Black People in the U.S. (continued)

RW #1222 December 14, 2003

RCP Reply: Key Questions on the Liberation of Black People in the U.S. (continued)

RW #1221 November 30, 2003

1. NAPO Response to the RCP Draft Programme
2. RCP Reply: Key Questions on the Liberation of Black People in the U.S.

RW #1219 October 12, 2003

1. On the distinction between the proletariat and the proletarian state
2. On the UFuLP (United Front under the Leadership of the Proletariat) and the dictatorship of the proletariat

RW #1215 October 12, 2003