Position of KKE on the Webb's platform and the developments in the CPUSA
Athens, 13 April 2011
To the members and cadre of the CPUSA,
To the workers that struggle in the USA
To the communist and workers parties
Dear comrades,
In
February 2011 the chairperson of the CPUSA, Sam Webb, published an
article in Political Affairs, the electronic publication of the CPUSA,
entitled “A Party of Socialism in the 21st Century: What It Looks Like, What It Says, and What It Does”. Even if the specific article is accompanied by an editorial note which claims that “The
following article represents the views of its author alone. It doesn't
necessarily reflect the official views of any organization or
collective.”, it is obvious to us that the public position of the head of a Communist Party concerning such an important issue requires special attention.
On the 16th of February we received a letter from the editorial team of Political Affairs which invited us to send in our opinion.
Our
party, after studying this article and the reactions it has provoked
within the ranks of communists both in the USA and internationally,
considers it necessary to take a public position through this letter, as
is required by its responsibility as a part of the international
communist movement.
Our assessment is that we are dealing with a comprehensive liquidationist platform of
29 theses which has been placed before the international communist
movement and proposes the total revision of the principles and
revolutionary traditions of the communist movement.
The KKE, as a section of the international communist movement, considers
as its duty the refutation of this platform, which questions the need
for the existence of a party of the working class in the USA, and in
general is directed against the revolutionary and anti-imperialist
movement internationally. The 18th Congress of our party stressed that “The
battle against social-democratisation tendencies in Communist Parties –
through the intervention of imperialist mechanisms, anti-communism and
the bourgeois media – must be fought firmly and consistently by
defending the historic role of the working class and its organised
vanguard, the principles of Marxism-Leninism and of socialism. This task
takes on even greater significance in face of the growing
anti-communist offensive in the EU and internationally.”
Dear comrades,
The platform that has been presented today, through the article of the chairperson of the CPUSA, constitutes the culmination of
a course of “adjustment” in the last decade as the author himself
points out. There have already been developments in this intervening
period which communists in Greece, as well as in the USA and other
countries have monitored with concern, such as:
- The handing over of the Party’s archives to the imperialists, the bourgeois state of the USA in 2007.
- The closure of
the print publication of the newspaper (People’s Weekly World) and the
journal Political Affairs, with the simultaneous alteration of its
character.
- The organizational shrinkage and dislocation of the party.
- The political “tailing”, behind one of the two pillars of the bourgeois political system of the USA, that is to say behind the Democratic Party.
- The stance in relation to the ambitions of US imperialism ( e.g. rejection of the demand for the immediate withdrawal from Iraq)
- The blocking of
the Joint Statement of the Emergency Meeting of the Communist and
Workers’ Parties in Damascus, because in the final text there was the
position for the withdrawal of the imperialist occupation forces from
Iraq.
- These elements intensified after the 29th Congress of the CPUSA. It was not by chance that immediately after the congress, an article was
published in Political Affairs which called into question not only the
need to maintain the name of the party, but the possibility and even the
necessity of a Communist Party’s existence in the USA today.
Today the Webb platform comes as the culmination of this course and openly
propagandises the abandonment of the Marxist-Leninist worldview, the
abolition of democratic centralism, and the undermining of the
principles of the party of a new type.
We would like to draw your attention to the following basic aspects of this platform:
- ON THE QUESTION OF THE THEORY OF THE PARTY
It
proposes the replacement of our theory by an eclectic hotchpotch which
does not go beyond the limits of liberal bourgeois ideology. It
attacks Marxism-Leninism directly, which constitutes one of the central
laws of the existence and activity of the party of the new type, as
V.I.Lenin pointed out “Without revolutionary theory there can be no
revolutionary movement… role of vanguard fighter can be fulfilled only
by a party that is guided by the most advanced theory.” In this
specific platform various extremely old opportunist positions are
promoted as new (e.g. Marxism-Leninism is foreign, anti-democratic, it
is a distortion of Marxism by Stalin etc.), these are positions which
disarm the labour movement and surrender it, without theoretical tools,
to the claws of the exploitative system.
- ON THE QUESTION OF THE POLITICAL PROPOSAL OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY:
It promotes the view that there can be solutions in favour of the working class within the framework of capitalism. In
this way, it promotes as an alternative solution the line of the
so-called “green” capitalist restructurings. In addition, the Webb
platform considers the characterisation of the crisis as a capitalist
crisis of overproduction insufficient. It distorts the essence of the
over-accumulation of capital as it associates it with…. A lack of
investment opportunities. It states characteristically: “Short of a
new New Green Deal on a global level, it is hard to see where the
dynamism for a sustained upswing, let alone a long boom, is going to
come from.”
These
views recycle social-democratic and opportunist theories on economic
recession and development which whitewash capitalism and conceal its
class essence, leading the Communist Party to give up on its strategic
goal and support political proposals, which have as their goal the
acquisition of new super-profits by the capitalists, in the name of
“ecology”, at the same time when they are turning nature and natural
wealth into commodities, and destroying the planet in various ways.
- THE QUESTION OF THE SOCIALIST PERSPECTIVE:
It renounces the struggle for socialism. The
notion of revolution is entirely absent. It proposes an endless process
of successive stages, in which the alliances will be formed not on the
basis of the criterion of the era and the class interests of the working
class. Webb proposes working for “- the balance of forces is to shift in a progressive direction”.
This view condemns the party to submit itself to the temporary
circumstances and not to work with a strategy for the overthrow of
capitalism through the concentration of forces.
Nevertheless,
it is obvious to us, that the tactics of a Communist Party must serve
its strategy, which is the overthrow of capitalism and the construction
of a socialist-communist society. The position of Webb in practice
abolishes the strategic goal of the Communist Party, and finally aims to
shake the very character of the Communist Party. Socialism is in any
case on the agenda, from the moment that we live in the era of
imperialism, the highest and final stage of capitalism. The timeliness
and necessity of socialism-communism is projected by the impasses of
capitalism, the imperialist wars, the economic crises, the huge social,
economic, environmental, ecological and other problems which capitalist
society gives rise to. A Communist Party must form tactics and alliances
which facilitate the concentration of forces, the class unity of the
working class and the social alliance with the popular strata, with the
aim of maturing the subjective factor for the acquisition of power by
the working class, and not to be trapped in alliances and stages, which
will lead it to struggle under a “foreign flag” in the logic of managing
capitalism.
-ON THE QUESTION OF THE FORMATION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY
The Webb platform proposes moving beyond the Communist Parties. It says that “A
party of socialism in the 21st century embraces Marxism, understood as a
broad theoretical tradition that reaches beyond the communist movement.” A party that does not struggle for the interests of the working class but “fights for the interests of the entire nation.”
This
position denies the necessity of the existence of the Communist Party
in the USA and indeed in the entire world. The KKE successfully dealt
with similar views, when they emerged in our party 20 years ago under
the influence of “Gorbachevist” theories. The communists of Greece
fought hard to repel these opportunist views, for the preservation of
the KKE, for the preservation and strengthening of its revolutionary,
class and internationalist character. Today, 20 years later, the
communists not only in Greece but all over the world can judge the
positive results that the outcome of this battle had for the KKE. The
KKE was able to stand on its feet, to elaborate serious theoretical and
political issues, without deviating from the principles of
Marxism-Leninism. It approved its new programme and came to important
conclusions concerning the causes of the overthrow of socialism,
enriching its conception of socialism. It has taken significant
initiatives for the unity of the communist movement at a regional and
international level. It strengthened its bonds with the working class
and the other popular strata. The influence of its positions and its
prestige has been strengthened as it plays the leading role in the
regrouping and development of the class-oriented labour-trade union
movement and in the tough strike mobilizations of the workers in our
country.
None
of the above would have been achieved, if opportunism had prevailed 20
years ago in the KKE. The KKE would have gone down the road of
dissolution and the labour-popular movement would have lost its basic
pillar of support.
-ON IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE
The Webb platform renounces the struggle against bourgeois ideology and opportunism. The party which Webb describes surrenders from the ideological struggle. He writes “A
party of socialism in the 21st century doesn’t turn – liberals,
advocates of identity politics, single issue movements, centrist and
progressive leaders of major social organizations, social democrats,
community based non-profits, NGOs, unreliable allies, and the “people”
(according to some, a classless category concealing class, racial, and
gender oppression) – into enemies.”
But
can a Communist Party enlighten the working class, the other popular
strata, if it does not have an ideological front against views which
present capitalism as the only way, which simply promote different types
of management of the exploitative system? The answer of the KKE to this
is that it is impossible for the struggle of the people to develop
without a firm and consistent ideological front against unscientific
bourgeois and opportunist theories. This is especially true in today’s
conditions, when the role of the various NGOs has become obvious, which
are connected financially and in other ways with the imperialist
organizations. In conditions when social-democracy has been in
government and has demonstrated in practice that is a pillar of support
for the bourgeois political system. In these conditions the communists
not only must not give up on ideological work and struggle, but they
must intensify the struggle even further against these forces.
-ORGANIZATIONAL OPPORTUNISM
Webb
rejects the Leninist organization, the organization of the vanguard of
the working class which corresponds to the needs of the class struggle
for the abolition of exploitation. He rejects the Leninist organization
because he rejects the struggle for socialism and has taken sides with
the bourgeois class for the perpetuation of capitalism.
And
so, a state machine which is both experienced and powerful will be
opposed by a “party”, according to him, based on the Internet, with an
open door policy for new members as an organizational principle: “Joining should be no more difficult than joining other social organizations”.
Thus
we can see that not only does he reject the tried and tested
organizational principles of the Communist Party of a new type, which
were established in the era of Lenin, but he promotes the idea of a
party of an NGO type, which corresponds to the content which he himself
proposes and is in the direction of a “Communist Party” assimilated into
the bourgeois system, which will work for the salvation and
“correction” of capitalism and not for its overthrow.
-A PARTY OF REVOLUTION OR REFORM?
Reform
is the answer given by Webb to this fundamental question, which was
posed a hundred years ago. His view denies that the party is the
vanguard of the working class and subordinates its activity to the lowest level of class consciousness (“A
party of socialism in the 21st century takes as its point of departure
the issues that masses (relative term) are ready to fight for”). Of course a reformist line is proposed as well as the prioritization of the intervention in the institutions of
the bourgeois state. The struggle for reforms within imperialism is
acclaimed not only as a “means” buts an end for this “new” party.
In
reality, when has the path of reforming the capitalist system ever led
to the abolition of the exploitation of man by man and the vindication
of the workers’ desires? The “recipe” of reforms has been tested by the
peoples through various social-democratic and centre-left governments,
which in practice have been proved to be the main vehicles for the
imposition of anti-people and anti-worker measures, and as pillars of
support for the imperialist organizations and wars.
-“MARXISM”…WITHOUT MARX
Webb calls the class nature of bourgeois democracy into question. As he writes: “What I’m challenging is the notion that everything is subordinate to class and class struggle no matter what the circumstances.” He questions the class nature of the bourgeois state, that is to say the dictatorship of the US monopolies and claims that “Thus
the nature of the struggle isn’t simply the people against the state,
but the people winning positions and influence in the state and then
utilizing them to make changes (within and outside of the state)”.
This
is an old opportunist position which Marx had already rejected in his
era, and was revived by the bankrupt eurocommunist current. And this
alone would be enough for us to come to the conclusion that the
“Marxism”, which is mentioned as being the theoretical basis of the
“party of the 21st century”,
has nothing to do with Marx and his theoretical contribution but aims
at its vulgar distortion, the burying of revolutionary theory, and the
deception of the workers.
- ILLUSIONS CONCERNING THE ROLE OF THE US GOVERNMENT AND THE MONOPOLIES:
The Webb platform fosters illusions and works for the submission of the people to the government of the USA, that is to say the world’s leading imperialist power: “The
point isn’t for the U.S. government to simply to crawl into a national
shell, but to reinsert itself into world affairs on the basis of
cooperation, peace, equality, and mutual benefits…”
At the same time he fosters illusions concerning a “ humanized” version of the monopolies: “big
sections of the transnational corporate class have pulled the plug on
the American people, economy, and state…the commitment of major sections
of the transnational elite to a people-friendly public sector, a
vibrant domestic economy and a modern society has waned…”
As
the Chairperson of the CPUSA has given up on a class approach to
society, the abovementioned positions are to be expected. These are
positions which not only have nothing to do with the history and
struggles of the party he represents, but they bear no relation to
reality either. The continuing occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, the
new imperialist war in Libya demonstrate what kind of activity the US
government has developed outside its “national shell”. And it conducts
similar anti-people activity for the defence of the interests of the
monopolies inside its own country.
- ESCALATING THE LINE OF “TAILING” CAPITAL AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
The
strengthening of political reaction which is intrinsic to imperialism
and is intensifying in the conditions of crisis is interpreted as
“ultra-right extremism”. This leads to conclusions which violate the
truth and reality, such as “we say too definitively that the
independent forces stand no chance whatsoever of taking over the
Democratic Party. That still may be the case, but it is a mistake to
rule it out completely at this point.” The equation of the working
class and its movement with the trade union bureaucracy of the AFL-CIO
is consistent with the political line of alliance with sections of
capital.
Webb’s article marks an overt siding with the class enemy and a complete alignment with contemporary state-level anticommunism. It calls for “an unequivocal break with Stalin”
and lines up with the slanderous assault on socialist construction
which offered so much to the Soviet peoples and played the decisive role
in the anti-fascist victory of the peoples. In essence, these positions
attempt to conceal the reality, the complex problems of the class
struggle in the USSR and the tough confrontation of working class power
with the bourgeois class in the countryside, the kulaks.
It
adopts, in essence, every kind of slanderous simplification of complex
problems, such as the sharpening of the class struggle in the USSR. The
article goes a step further and joins up with Havel, Walesa and all the
reactionary anticommunists of the EU who talk of “crimes against
humanity”. It lines up with the tendency that attempts to criminalise
the Communist Parties and the defence of socialism: “τo describe these atrocities as a mistake is a mistake – criminal”.
As
is well known the opportunist current in Europe that forms the so
called Party of the European Left (ELP) holds a similar anti-historical
position.
Dear comrades of the CPUSA,
Members, friends and cadre of the CPUSA,
Conscious Workers of the US,
At
this very critical moment for your party the KKE calls on you to take
into account that the ideological attack against the Party of a New Type
focusing on its identity, its character and its organisational
principles was unleashed from the very first moment of its existence. The
revisionists have always supported the dissolution of the party of the
working class; they have always been a pillar of support for the
bourgeoisie. The bourgeois class and its supporters understood from the
very first moment the role of the party in the political emancipation of
the working class and its movement. The ideological attack which was
unleashed continues up to the present day as is demonstrated by Webb’s
article.
We call on you to take into account the fact that the party can only fulfil the role of the proletarian vanguard on
the condition that it is equipped with unity of will, unity of action,
and unity of strict discipline. Its internationalist character stems
from its nature; it constitutes an integral part of the world communist
movement.
Experience
confirms and practice which is the yardstick of truth proves that the
revolutionary line of struggle not only does not restrict mass work but
it reinforces it. It
strengthens the expectations of the working people, it provides a
way-out and a perspective, it contributes to the change of the
correlation of forces. The independent action of the party is a
prerequisite for the formation of a policy of alliances that will be
subordinated to and serve the strategy for the overthrow of capitalism.
In
addition, we consider it necessary to take into account that the
necessity of the socialist revolution and the construction of the new
communist socio-economic formation is
not determined by the correlation of forces, which is shaped at the
various historical junctures, but by the historical need to resolve the
basic contradiction between capital and labour. The counterrevolutions
in the USSR and the other socialist countries have not altered the
character of our era which is an era of transition from capitalism to
socialism which is timely and necessary as shown by the tragedy of the
millions of workers and unemployed who suffer from exploitation and the
intensification of the problems that the exploitative system causes.
We believe that the replacement of the principles of Marxism Leninism by
revisionist approaches in the name of national peculiarities caused a
great deal of damage to the communist movement and continues to do so.
No national peculiarity can negate the necessity for the revolutionary
overthrow of capitalism, the necessity for the conquest of political
power by the working class, for the socialisation of production and
central planning. The economic crisis that broke out in the capitalist
world and the intensification of the inter-imperialist contradictions
further highlight the timeliness of socialism. Under these conditions
the driving back of the new wave of state anticommunism, the defence of
the socialism we knew, of its great contribution to the world working
class, of the identity and the revolutionary traditions of the communist
movement acquire a special importance.
Dear comrades,
Historical
experience, the developments themselves have refuted the views that
spoke of “the end of history”, the “obsolescence of Marxism-Leninism”
and the “end of the Communist Parties”. On the contrary, today there is a
stronger need for the existence of Communist Parties that have roots in
the working class and the workplaces, which believe in Marxism-Leninism
and proletarian internationalism. The labour movement must consciously
act and rise to the challenge to ensure the existence of a revolutionary
party of the working class. This is a crucial duty and a challenge for
the most advanced workers and for communists in all the countries of the
world and of course above all in the USA.
The
consistent confrontation with and rejection of this
opportunist-liquidationist platform is a requirement which springs from
the historical traditions the labour and communist movement in the USA,
it is a condition for the revival of revolutionary communist ideals in
the US labour movement and society.
The International Relations Section of the CC of KKE
