The long march...

"The era of reforms is long over for the U.S. Whatever meaningful reforms or advances that could be achieved under capitalism have been made, and nothing more is now possible. "
The esteemed leader of the long march, Gary Hicks


Comrades. As the re-elected Chair of the CPUSA, I want to welcome all of you here to the head of the long march we are about to embark on led by Gay Hicks and the responsible members of the CPUSA working through the previous anonymity of the Communist Century. Under their brilliant guidance we are about to embark on the experience of a life-time.

Please take the time to read this because it will be guiding our work in the period ahead as we embark on the long march...

All aboard the Red Express!

Sam Webb
Chair, National Board CPUSA


The Main Immediate Task of the CPUSA

The Main Discussion Document is a serious effort by leadership to come to grips with the complexities of the U.S. political and economic situation. Nonetheless, we have disagreements with some of its formulations and conclusions. If we are to understand the current crisis, we cannot treat it as a replay of the Great Depression. It marks a new, more acute stage of the crisis of US and world capitalism. It cannot be resolved as the Depression was by war and its attendant massive worldwide capital destruction, large-scale technological advances and opening up of new areas to capitalist exploitation. The era of reforms is long over for the U.S. Whatever meaningful reforms or advances that could be achieved under capitalism have been made, and nothing more is now possible. All the present shifting (reforming) is simply to guarantee the profits of one capitalist grouping at the expense of others, and the tax-paying proletariat. Everybody knows or senses this, which explains the lack of political energy for piecemeal changes in the general population. The only way forward now is to socialism. The only possibility for human survival is socialism. There are no more intermediate stages of social development, no unfinished pre-revolutionary 'democratic' tasks. The idea of an anti-monopoly, anti-transnational stage of social development or of struggle has no real meaning

The main barrier to socialist transformation is the US state. The capitalist state must be dismantled or de-constructed and replaced by a proletarian state and socialist republic. But the advanced sections of the working class are woefully unprepared to take on the bourgeois state. The weakness and demoralization of the working class derives from the deep penetration of bourgeois ideas in the class. The only antidote is Marxism, the main pillars of which are materialism – the knowledge of the primacy of material conditions in physical and social life- and dialectics – the knowledge of the dynamic, multi-sidedness of all phenomena, including social relations. Only the absorption of a theory of revolution by the class will give it the strength and self-confidence to take and exercise power. For the Party to play its leading role in this titanic struggle it must itself become thoroughly imbued with Marxism throughout its ranks.

The old organizations of reform are incapable of displacing the bourgeois state. The sections of the working class that were once its cutting edge have, for various reasons, largely exhausted their revolutionary potential. New leading contingents of the class, new organizational forms and new methods of struggle have now begun to emerge. Only an organization armed with materialist dialectics can discern and nurture the sprouts of the new in the wreckage of the old.

The adoption by the Party of advanced communication technologies is an implicit acknowledgement of the primacy of science and technology in contemporary social development. This development is a tentative opening to those sections of the working class that are the protagonists of the scientific and technological revolution and who are key to building the new society. We must develop this opening further.

Many individuals and organizations attempt to work in a Marxist framework. However, the unique, special place of the CPUSA in American political life derives from its historical roots in the Communist International and its status as an integral organizational component of the World Communist Movement (WCM). We need to reaffirm decisively our adherence to the WCM and reconnect especially to its rich historical experience, which is critical for developing our revolutionary capabilities.

We propose to the incoming NC that it initiate as its primary immediate task a party rectification campaign aimed at saturating the Party with a thorough-going study of Marxism. This would consist initially of Party wide study of Marxist theory and then study of the political, social and economic reality of US. On the basis of the results of this campaign, we anticipate there will be a need to draft a new Party program, a new Party constitution and a new mass line. When these processes are well under way or completed, the Party could consider the launching of several mass organizations of a revolutionary nature. Here are possible examples.

Rally for a Republic – mass organization joining all people opposed to the US State

Movement for Socialism Now – a mass organization for revolutionary restructuring

Communist Constructors/Builders of Abundance – a movement of workers building advanced economy – engineers, scientists, and directors of production, distribution and services.


Submitted by responsible members of the CPUSA who lead the work of www.communistcentury.com.