January 4, 1980—Revolutionary Worker—Page 11

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CWP* "BeyondthIn addition to this article, readers are

encouraged to read the latest issue ofRevolution magazine, which has justpublished a major article on the Communist Workers Party, and the philosophical basis for its opportunism. The9.evo\ui\on article is called, "There WillBe Revolution, But Wishing Won'tMake It So. Voluntarism, Metaphysicsand the Communist Workers Party."

On November 3, the KKK and theNazis, in close collaboration withpolice, murdered five people andwounded nine others in an anti-Klanrally in Greensboro, N.C. Several ofthose killed or wounded were members

of the Communist Workers Party(formerly the Workers ViewpointOrganization—WVO) which hadorganized the rally.Our Party, the RCP, made it very

clear at the time where it stood on theseattacks. In a press release and an articleimmediately afterwards, we said, "TheRevolutionary Communist Party onceagain firmly condemns these brazen,brutal murders by the Klan and theNazis, and the obvious role 'of thepolice and their bosses. The RCP, ashas been stated before, has serious,deep disagreements with the Communist Workers Party, who called thedemonstration, over many majorpolitical questions. These differenceshave been and will continue to be madeclear in our Party's press.. That Isthe purpose of this article.

Neither the line of the CWP, nor thatof its WVO predecessor, has ever hadanything to do with genuine Marxism.Historically, this sect has beencharacterized by an exotic combinationof pseudo-revolutionary, dogmatic andphoney "left" posturing and the mostslavishly rightist and economist practice.

Since the formation of the Communist Workers Party three monthsago, it is this ultra-"left" current whichhas come sharply to the fore and tendedto characterize the CWP, though theiropen rightism, particularly economism,has remained intact as well. In fact,WVO historically has combined andpitched back and forth between "left"and right—always carefully avoiding agenuine revolutionary communiststand. This phony "leftism" is not justa matter of mistakes and deviationsfrom a genuinely revolutionary line; infact, it is the opposite of genuine leftism.But the CWP seems to at least talk

about revolution, even at last claimingto uphold Mao and the Four and opposing the current revisionist treason inChina, while much of the rest of theLeft in the U.S. has at this point givenup even doing that. Precisely for thisreason the potential exists for somerevolutionary-minded people to be attracted to the CWP in the short run.More important, CWP raises to a

principle a deviation that Comrade BobAvakian pinpointed in the CentralCommittee report, "The Prospects forRevolution and the Urgent Tasks in theDecade Ahead"—a deviation that failsto see "the real contradictions and theway things are moving and developing"and instead views revolutionary work as"just gritting our teeth and doing allthis because it's the right thing to do,even though it has no real relationshipto the actual situation and itsdevelopment.. .another form of Utopian socialism, idealism, moralism."While this may assume ultra-"lefi"forms, this outlook will ultimately giveway to rightism, to capitulationism. Bystudying this deviation in its fullyflowered form of the CWP line, revolutionaries can better understand andcombat the nature, danger and sourceof this kind of thinking in the presentperiod, and grasp the correct line betterin opposition.

First, a brief note on the fact thatsome of the confusion over the difference between CWP and genuinerevolutiona' ^ seems to have beer,rather co '^ly created by the CWPitself W ■; CWP makes no secretof its h^ -or the ;P, they never-

e Point of No Return"theless consistently attempt a shallowmimicry of certain aspects of the RCP'sline and work.

Two instances should give an idea.Following the Mao Memorial Meetingsheld by the Party in September 1978,which climaxed unprecedented masscampaigns to defend and uphold therevolutionary line of Mao in the face ofthe revisionist coup in China, the RCPannounced the Mao TsetungEnrollment—a call on revolutionaryfighters, who through the campaignhad been armed to see more clearly thegoal of the working class and the needto pick up the banner and stand withMao Tsetung, to step forward to jointhe Party. At the time WVO publiclyand virulently condemned the RCP forexposing the revisionist leaders inChina, who they continued to defendfor some months. But then, after sometime passed, the WVO announced itsown. .Mao Tsetung Enrollment!

Likewise, during the recent campaignto Stop the Railroad of Bob Avakianand Free the Mao Tsetung Defendants,the Party popularized on a nationallevel the militant slogan "Turn D.C.Upside Down!"—a call for 200volunteers to come to Washington,D.C., the site of the trials, and turn itinto a major political arena of struggleagainst the bourgeoisie's attempts todestroy our revolutionary leadership. Ashort while later, up went CWP'sposters: "Turn the Country UpsideDown!"

Is CWP's imagination really so barren that they can develop no slogans oftheir own? Not likely. As our examination of their line will show, their imagination is quite active indeed, thougha bit on the bizarre side. No, these casesof petty political pickpocketry aretypical of CWP's method of borrowingthe superficial trappings of a revolutionary line to conceal their owndangerously opportunist essence.

Subjective Idealism of the CWPThis essence, boiled down, is subjec

tive idealism in the form of voluntarism—the view that the world can bereshaped, and revolution accomplished,through a sheer act of revolutionarywill and without applying revolutionaryscience to understand the world. To theCWP, revolution is a matter of gettingyour nerve up and not "punking out,"to use a favorite phrase of theirs.

True, CWP calls on its followers tostudy—but what their line betrays is a

Despite having all the appearances of a parody, this is anactual CWP comic strip. It illustrates their "leftism"—lots ofmilitance and talk about the "dictatorship of the working class."But also obvious is CWP'seconomism, with Peter being"revolutionized" by economiccrisis, and the "communist's"role being reduced to saying, ineffect: "The economic crisisshows we need revolution; followthe CWP!" This is a long wayfrom revolutionary agitation. Notealso CWP's "scientific" analysisof the present economic situation—"worse than the thirties."And note how zombie-like artisticform faithfully follows content.

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total failure to apply that study to reality, to understand reality in order tochange it. Instead, CWP has inventedits own reality, spun from their urgentdesires to see change soon, and in so doing has negated the very real elementsleading to revolutionary change. Infact, for all their talk of the weakness ofthe bourgeoisie, their line ends up farover-estimating the strength of thebourgeoisie, and totally leaving out therole of the masses.

Let us look to CWP's summation ofits own history in the Nov. 5, 1979newspaper, Workers Viewpoint.

"Revolutionary Situations FrequentUnder Imperialism" they say very earlyon, and then, incredibly, claim thatsuch a situation existed in the U.S. immediately following World War 2! Nowa revolutionary situation demands notonly that there be a revolutionary party,but that the ruling class can no longerrule in the old ways (its institutions arebreaking down, there is open war between various groups, they can't evenunite their own ranks, let alone maintain hegemony over the masses) and theworking class and masses cannot live inthe old way, is drawn into action by themillions, and is willing to not only diebut to kill in order to change it. Themost recent striking example of a realrevolutionary situation has been therevolution in Iran.

Can anyone conceivably think thatthe U.S. was in anything approximatingsuch a situation in 1946? Their positionin the world had been greatlystrengthened, with a vast new empireand a position of undisputed hegemonyin the capitalist world. This, and the expansion that resulted, in turn allowedthem in the years ahead to throw a fewcrumbs to the masses and cool out thestruggles that had in fact raged duringthe Great Depression of the 1930s. Thisthesis of CWP's puts you in mind of aremark Stalin once made in a differentcontext, to the effect that to say such athing one must have either taken totalleave of his senses or be an opportunist.

CWP claims that "in this excellentsituation, the Communist Party(USA). . .lost (its) nerve. . . What wasone of the best opportunities for proletarian revolution in the U.S., theserevisionists now speak of as the 'horrors of the McCarthy era.'"

Well, there was a revisionist betrayalby the CPUSA, and it was sickening indeed, constituting a severe setback tothe U.S. working class—but not

because somehow they blew their "bigchance" for revolution right then, butbecause had the CP stayed on therevolutionary road in what was admittedly a period of defense, it would havekept the spark of revolution and scienceof Marxism-Leninism alive, and this inturn would have immeasurablystrengthened the next wave of massstruggle—that of the 1960s, when theobjective position of the imperialistshad grown far weaker. This is the lessonof that period, not some stupid fantasyof automatic revolution if only revolutionaries don't lose their nerve.

Travelling into the metaphysicalrealms of CWP for just a moment,though, let us suppose the CPUSA hadcalled for a revolutionary onslaught atthe time. Such a move, while "showinguts," would do nothing for revolutionbut set it back by setting up the mostclass-conscious to be killed anddemoralizing the masses. This wouldhave been putschism, a desire for quickand easy victory carried out by a handful, a deviation that MaoTsetung—who CWP claims to upholdbut in fact doesn't even begin tounderstand—condemned and had tofight in China for years. "Going out ina blaze of glory" may be the only alternative to selling out that CWP can conceive of—but revolutionaries dedicatethemselves to preparing, in the words ofLenin, to "solve those practical taskson those great days. . . in which 20 yearsdevelopment is determined in a singleday."

As for today's conditions, while notcoming fully out and saying just yetthat the U.S. today is in a revolutionarysituation, you're certainly left with thefeeling that such a statement is on thetip of their tongue.

"The bourgeoisie increasingly cannotrule in the same way. . . The masses areincreasingly not willing to live in thesame way. . . But most important of all,the proletariat now has its Party, theCommunist Workers Parly (sic), toorganize it, make it conscious and leadit in such a way that U.S. imperialismwill never find a way out of this crisis!"

While the bourgeoisie is definitely ina bad way and getting worse, and whilethe masses are again beginning to stir,CWP's deliberate echoing of Lenin'sterms is designed to imply that a revolutionary situation is just about here.Two things are revealed here: the first,a lack of respect for reality, is not new.

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CWP:Continued from page II

But the second is more revealing: theCWP's apparent view that capitalismreally won't be getting too much worse.This comes through in their almostcomplete failure to even mention theprospect of world war in their analysisof the developing crisis. Their article*'30s Depression Haunts Bourgeoisie,But Fear of 80s Freaks Them Out!"{iVy, 11-5-79) omits any mention ofwar at all!—while instead ottering thetheory that "whether the capitalists willbe able to *do what FDR did' in the nextfive years is a matter of life and deathfor them." In fact the CWP picturesitself in a race against the bourgeoisie'ssupposed ability to recover in "the nextfive years." The spiralling defensebudgets are analyzed in the same articleby the CWP as merely an economicgimmick to alleviate the crisis!

Clearly the CWP believes that the imperialists can extricate themselves fromtheir problems without war, despitetheir talk about how with the CWP onthe scene the bourgeoisie will never"find a way out." CWP indeed is awedby the apparent stability of the U.S., bytheir remaining reserves, and simply cannot conceive of^where in fact this systemis going no matter how blatant the signsof that direction are becoming. Perhapsthey sense the approaching war, and inreal "freaked-out" fashion, try to pretend it won't come if CWP doesn't

recognize it.The CWP has clearly substituted its

own fantasy world for an analysis ofthe objective situation. They seemmotivated to make only the most superficial analysis of this situation, and evenmost of that is wrong. When they arenot creating their own fantasies they arebusy swallowing down others'. Theycompletely accept the illusion that thebourgeoisie is out to "re-industrializeAmerica"—never mind the "little fact"

that the bourgeoisie is gearing most alltheir moves, including economic ones,to preparation of themselves and theirimperialist bloc for war. They also continue to cling to the Chinese revisionists' Three Worlds Theory and useit as a further justification for ignoringwar with such gems as: "the strugglesof the third world have pushed back thedanger of world war..." {IVV, Nov.5), and that this Three Worlds analysis"gives us time" (same issue).

What Does It Mean to Prepare?

This subjective idealism carries overinto their view of the Party and themarses. The CWP, in their imagina-tio: , is the center of everything, and themasses nothing at all.They speak of "forging the Com

munist Workers Party, USA beyondthe possiblity of defeat in the comingperiod" as "the most crucial part of thepreparatory work to seize the country inthe bloodbath." "The act of buildingup the Party of the U.S. working classis the act of the awakening of the U.S.working class itself," and throughoutthere is a constant refrain of the partyneeding to "steel itself."Must the party of the proletariat be

prepared for the revolutionary situation? Absolutely! But this preparationgoes on in dialectical relation to constantly raising the consciousness of themasses through agitation and propaganda, a newspaper in particular,and through leading them in the crucialbattles of the day. For instance, isn't itexactly through practice like agitationand struggle against the reactionary offensive of the bourgeoisie around Iranthat revolutionaries will, as a byproduct, be "steeled"? Apparently notfoi CWP, as they've been virtually absent from this battlefroni in any significant way. But genuine revolutionariesmust .y:. p that it is precisely crises likethe ne around Iran that discloserudsi-iicnt^ of what a real revolutionarysituation will be like, complete with thetremendous political turmoil and thene^ to both put out a sharp communistline while uniting broadly with thosewho have not only a desire to fight andlearn but also possess their own class interests and ideas, etc.

Rejoining the CWP in its self-steeling, we find their view of how communists will win leadership of themasses in the storm and swirl of .strug

gle: "The Party members and advancedelements of the proletariat must seizethe time, actively learning to assumeleadership by actually assuming leadership in all spheres of life without exception. Kick out the hacks and misleadersof all shades and colors." This is a standard "militant" economist recipe for"seizing leadership." It shows that, forall their "leftism", CWP has by nomeans abandoned their rightism andeconomism. It is the standard "fireyours, hire ours" appeal to the workersto select communists as their leaders notbecause of their overall program, butbecause they are better day to dayfighters. In the particular form theCWP is practicing it now, this amountsto "left" economism-that is tacking onrevolutionary sounding rhetoric aboutrevolution and socialism onto essentially trade unionist practice.

Unfortunately for the CWP this is nobetter than plain old rightisteconomism, which they also practice,and is something that the U.S. workingclass historically has had more than itsshare of dead-end experience with. TheCPUSA, which they insult but neverreally scientifically analyze, practiced.something like this in the late 1920s andearly 1930s before they made their totalleap into rightist abandonment ofrevolution. This "left economism",however, was one factor which helpedset them up for this leap. It amounts toa total abandonment of the all-around

revolutionary role of communists, particularly the role of broad politicalagitation and propaganda exposingcapitalism in an all-around way.

Let us look at exactly how the CWPenvisions its role in revolution and how

it is steeling its membership.CWP concludes its statement on its

founding with the following: "Comrades, seize the time, build the Communist Workers Party, Prepare for theDictatorship of the Proletariat! Wemust steel ourselves, perfect ourorganization, and deepen our perspective and vigilance, by grasping the correct line, in the course of actuallyassuming leadership of the workingclass. Only then will we be able to seizethe time, fight, fail, fight again, failagain and fight until we reach the pointof no return, where all turning back isimpossible, until final victory."

This "point of no return" idea is based on—and designed to encourage—theidea that since the objective world is notknowable and can't be scientificallyanalyzed (and nor does it have to be),then all that revolutionaries must do is

to get to the showdown "where no turning back is possible" andsomehow—through their steeling—survive the storm and awake, like Dorothyand Toto, in the Land of Oz after thecyclone.Anyone can achieve the sublime state

sought for by the CWP, where no turning back is possible, by just marchingoff a cliff. But the result could not bedescribed as "final victory", at least bythose who uphold Marxism-Leninism,Mao Tsetung Thought and the proletariat represented by that ideology.

Need for Genuine RevoiiidonaryScience

This cynical hype job by the CWPleaders, these hot-air exhortations to"steel yourself", turns out to be theassurance that to make revolution allyou must do is hate the bourgeoisie,love the masses and blindly follow theCWP.

This Is clearly illustrated in the poemwritten to commemorate the foundingof the CWP. Note, in the followingpassage, how "study analysis and sum-up" dissolve into the virtue of hate,which is then elaborated on in depth:

We have not forgottenbecause we have studied

and we have analyzedand we have summed-upand we have foughtand we have killedand we have hated.Yes,we have hated,because we must hate themwe must hate the bourgeoisiewith a hatred so clean and purethat it steadies our trigger fingerssharpens our eyesmakes our tongues into knivesthat pierce their shriveled heartsmakes our existence

the instruments of their deathsyou see, the monopoly capitalistsdo not have a monopolyon hatred

and we know that they do not havea monopoly on dealing death.

It is certainly true that a workingclass not yet filled with the deepesthatred for the bourgeoisie, Its rule, andthe wage-slave system of exploitation itrepresents can never make a revolution.But neither can these subjectivequalities alone bring about a revolutionwhen the situation is not ripe—nor cana revolutionary party give real leadership based solely on a claim that theyhate the bourgeoisie more profoundlythan anyone else.Comrade Bob Avakian, Chairman of

the RCP, addressed this question in histalk greeting the volunteers who cameto D.C. this fall:

"...if we didn't have a hatred forthis system, if we weren't fired with thatkind of hatred, if we didn't have a burning desire to get rid of and bury it onceand for all, we would have no right tocall ourselves revolutionaries. Leninonce said, very clearly, in fact, withoutthis kind of spirit you can't have arevolution..."

"But that spirit, he says, will alsonever make a revolution by itself. It hasto be tempered with revolutionarytheory and the scientific understandingto deal with the complexities of what arevolution is about and being able tobring forth the forces that can actuallymake revolution—and that's the masses

of people in their millions and tens ofmillions."

Or, as the late Comrade Gert Alexander once put it in a struggle withanother group of opportunists: "Somepeople want revolution so bad they arewilling to be ruthlessly scientific aboutit."

The CWP uses the word "science" (itcomes up once in the poem, for example) and even sometimes poses as veryscientific. But what comes throughmore and more—and in fact is an ex

pression of the dilemna of dogmatismdesperately trying to make the leap intosome practice—is the feeling that"Well, we've got our analysis down andbehind us, now it's time to 'steelourselves' and leap into the real fray."This leaves out the real dynamic role ofrevolutionary theory in analyzing theworld and guiding practice in changingit.The point here is that the conscious

element—the Party, in this case—canonly transform the world consciouslythrough grasping the laws governing theworld and the contradictions determin

ing its development—not only ingeneral, but at each particular stage.The revolutionary theory of the proletariat is scientific because it-N..ismaterialist—that is, it proceeds fromrecognizing and studying the objectiveworld (i.e. matter) that exists outsideand independent of the consciousnessof man; and dialectical in that itrecognizes that matter is in motion andthat both the world and societyceaselessly change and develop as aresult of the struggle and resolution ofcontradictions inherent in matter itself.

Because matter and consciousness

themselves form a contradiction—with

THE NEWS...ABC'S TV news recently reported that the State Department has kept

a record of the attacks on American embassies during the decade of the'70s. They said that during that time, there were 655 explosive bombs InU.S. embassies abroad, 266 incendiary bombs, and 95 kidnap attempts.

consciousness arising from matter andin turn reacting back on the world andchanging it through man's practice—man's role in society is a conscious and dynamic one. By grasping the laws governing reality, man canuse those laws to change reality.Not so for CWP. They have read a

few phrases in some Marxist works, andthey truly hate the position they are inand so they have constructed their ownworld.

The CWP, basing itself on thegeneral and true statement that imperialism is the era of proletarianrevolution, draws therefore the conclusion that the U.S. is in a revolutionarysituation right now. They refuse to'study the real stage of the current imperialist crisis, and miss that not only isthe U.S. not in a revolutionary situationnow, but that—more importantly—there are elements and there is motion within the current still relativelystable situation that will lead to onequite a bit more challenging (and filledwith real opportunity) than the narrow-minded theorists of the CWP dare imagine.

Likewise, CWP once read that themasses make revolution—and so theyhave concluded that whatever themasses are doing now must be "revolutionary." Thus, in their article onthe funeral march following the Greensboro massacre, CWP describes an"elderly woman (sitting) on her frontporch, sweaterless on that cold rainyday and watched without saying aword. But she didn't have to, becausethe marchers knew where her heart was.They knew that sitting out front was herway of showing her hatred of capitalistoppression and defying thebourgeoisie."So that's the role of the masses—to

sit and watch as the real heroes (theCWP) march by! The masses don't"have to" do much at all in the CWP

world, since whatever they do is alreadyright on. And this makes it much easierfor CWP, for instead of arming themasses with a correct line—which doesinvolve struggling with them—and onthat basis unleashing X\\t\v initiative, allCWP must do is hoist their flag on theirway/ito- the point of no return and"know" that the masses will rally toit—"in their own way."But more to the point—CWP's view

of what constitutes advanced activityfor the masses today again misseswhat's really going on: the contradictory character of the real mood of themasses, where, despite the overall lowlevel of class consciousness among theAmerican working class and massesbroadly, revolutionary sentiment is onthe upswing. There already exists asmall but significant section, numbering perhaps in the tens of thousands,who can and must be mobilized into a

revolutionary material force that inturn will influence millions. It is this

understanding that has led the RCP toundertake the work of spreadingRevolutionary Worker distribution networks and, further, to the call forRevolutionary May Day 1980.Here is illustrated the real role of the

subjective factor—not empty calls to"steel yourself" and "assume leadership", but an actual line that can graspthe motion and development of the objective world and on that basis formulate policies and plans that themasses will take up as their own tochange the world and actually move theclass struggle forward.

This is the task that the proletariatdemands of its party: leadership in thetortuous, complex and protracted classstruggle which exists in the realworld—leadership with the science ofMarxism-Leninism, Mao TsetungThought.The CWP line is a reflection of the

class position and sentiments of the"outraged pclty-bourgeois intellectual".Ground down by monopoly capital andhating it, they are in fact awed by its apparent strength. Convinced of theirsuperiority to and right to lead themasses, they are blind to (and fearful oOthe huge potential power the masses really f>ossess, and consequently provide noleadership ai all! Thus they retreat to aworld of dreams and dogma, eventuallystanding in the way of the real advancesthat the proletariat has to make. It willlead no one anywhere—unless it is to the"point of no rcturp." M