Nelson Peery Entering an Epoch of Social Revolution Including additional essays "Dialectics of the Leap and the Destruction of Capitalism" and... "Polarization in U.S. -- Basis for a Workers Party"
(c) Copyright April, 1993 Workers Press P.O. Box 3705 Chicago, IL 60654 The prestige of Lenin, the urgent calls of the new international communist movement for unity of the revolutionary forces in the USNA were the basis for the formation of the CPUSA. The ideology of the founding organizations was anarcho-syndicalism and a right- wing revision of Marxism. Organizations or people cannot simply adopt an ideology. They either keep the one they have or they change it quantitatively in relation to experience and intellectual development. The CPUSA adopted Marxist-Leninist terms. They kept the anarcho-syndicalism and revisionism. Syndicalism is a form of trade unionism with the aim of workers owning the means of production and distribution. Its final goal is the control of society by federated bodies of industrial workers. The major weapon of syndicalists is the general strike.[12] Anarchism is the doctrine urging the abolition of governmental restraints or of the government itself as the condition for full social and political liberty.[13] In the USNA, anarchism arose from the petty bourgeoisie in its struggle against the robber barons. It early on united with syndicalism from the immigrant European workers to become anarcho-syndicalism. The revolutionary process in 1919 was entering the stage of unionization of the industrial proletariat. The working class members of the new Communist Party came directly from the syndical movement and brought their ideology with them.[14] The revolutionary upsurge engulfing the world did not allow time for a principled unity. The great need was to unite the revolutionary movement based on practical activity. They would pay the price later. The CPUSA grew with the growth of the industrial unions and after its isolation during the late 1940s it simply transferred its syndicalism to the mass struggle. There were new slogans but they had the same syndicalist content. Instead of calling for one big union the call was for national unity under a Roosevelt coalition, all-class black unity, unity of the unions -- everything in the name of unity. It never recognized the existence of the dialectic. Lacking Marxist theory, the CPUSA transformed the objective demand for revolutionary unity into a slavish tailing behind whoever was temporarily in control of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). This final crisis of the CPUSA evolved as the industrial stage of the USSR began to transform and Soviet society, economics and politics were thrown into antagonism. The CPUSA cannot explain to its membership why the Soviet government is doing things that are against the interests of the world's workers. Their Party arose from an ideological tendency that limited them to a certain stage of history. They are adrift. Like the old soldiers of "The Barracks Ballad," they will now begin to fade away. _http://www.scienceofsociety.org/texts/epoch/epoch.complete.html_ (http://www.scienceofsociety.org/texts/epoch/epoch.complete.html) _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list Marxist-Leninist-List@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list