This is the first issue of The Workers' Advocate Supplement. For many years The Workers' Advocate has served as the voice of the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists of the U.S. It has been built up through the hard work and sacrifice of the Marxist-Leninist communists and class-conscious workers. It has not attempted to be something complete in itself, but has served as a tool to deal with the tasks of the revolutionary movement and of party-building. As the Marxist-Leninist Party (and its predecessors) advanced, and as the special tasks facing the revolution have changed, so have the tasks before The Workers' Advocate.The article below, from the first issue of i]The Workers' Advocate Supplement[/i] in January, 1985, explains the original plan for the Workers’ Advocate Supplement both what material it was to contain and its relation to what the MLP was trying to accomplish with The Workers' Advocate itself.
The Second National Conference of our Party, the Marxist-Leninist Party, discussed the special tasks of revolutionary work in the present period, when the bourgeoisie is on a ruthless offensive but the response of the working masses has been temporarily shackled by various factors including the heavy hand of reformist treachery which trims its sails according to the whims of the capitalist liberals. The resolutions of this conference can be found in the December 1 issue of The Workers' Advocate.
One of the subjects discussed at the Second National Conference was how to gradually transform The Workers' Advocate so as to have it play an even greater role in building up revolutionary organization deep among the masses. Among the changes dealt with was more regular publication of The Workers' Advocate. The Workers' Advocate, in dealing with the many-sided work of the Marxist-Leninist Party, has in the past functioned as both a political affairs newspaper and a theoretical organ, and it has also had special issues for mass circulation at major demonstrations and during major campaigns (such as the campaigns against U.S. Imperialist exploitation of and intervention in Central America; in favor of the Nicaraguan workers' press to celebrate May Day; against the capitalist parties during the national presidential elections; to popularize the lessons of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 among the masses; etc.) It has had both regular issues and many theoretical supplements and other special issues. It was decided to work towards having the regular issue coming out more frequently and to gradually transform The Workers' Advocate's methods of covering the class struggle and party-building.
At the same time, the Second National Conference held that it was essential to maintain the extensive coverage of theoretical questions in the The Workers' Advocate, the more detailed analysis of political events and the in depth coverage of the burning issues and controversies facing the revolutionary movement in the U.S. and around the world, including the discussion of the tasks for strengthening the international Marxist-Leninist movement. Without theory, the proletarian movement is blind and subject to many wrong directions and catastrophes to develop theory, and to popularize theory among the masses, it is necessary both to have political affairs articles that show the Marxist-Leninist analysis in direct relation to the immediate events of the day, and to have space for longer theoretical articles, and for important documents. It was held that some of these longer articles and documents would continue to be in the regular issue of The Workers' Advocate, but there was need for another way of publishing them to reduce the number of times that the regular issue is replaced by special theoretical issues and to provide more flexibility for how Marxist-Leninist theory is popularized in the regular issues.
Thus, the Second National Conference endorsed the plan to establish The Workers' Advocate Supplement as a regular publication, replacing many of the special issues. The Supplement has the purpose of providing a place to publish many different types of material that cannot be covered adequately in the regular issue of The Workers' Advocate.
The Supplement will publish theoretical articles, including longer articles that could hardly fit in the regular issue under any plan. It will also provide a place to publish much valuable background material for the study of the theoretical matters being raised. Furthermore, it will also publish certain Party discussion articles that raise valuable ideas but are not authoritative expositions of the Party's stand or which discuss issues on which the Party has not yet taken a decision.
It will also publish many political affairs articles, leaflets and other materials on current political events that did not make it into The Workers' Advocate regular issue for one reason or another. It will thus further encourage the political and economic agitation of our Party, give Party comrades and class-conscious workers a broader knowledge of the work of the local branches of the Party, and maintain a close connection with immediate revolutionary practice.
It will carry reprints from other parties in the international Marxist-Leninist movement and thus help encourage proletarian internationalism. The reprinting of a document from another party will not necessarily mean that the Supplement is endorsing the document or the ideas in it, but that the Supplement regards the document as useful in bringing the views of the revolutionaries of other lands to the American workers and revolutionaries. The proletarian revolutionary movement is a world movement, of which the American Marxist-Leninist communists form only a single contingent. It is vital to study the experience of party-building and the revolution in other countries. And this is also important in strengthening the struggle against U.S. imperialism and the crimes of the American bourgeoisie around the world. It is the workers and peasants around the world who form the backbone of the struggle against oppression and exploitation, and the anti-imperialist movement in the U.S. will be immensely strengthened as it distinguishes the different forces that confront U.S.; imperialism in the world and directs special attention to supporting the revolutionary forces of the working masses.
It will also carry other materials, such as cultural work (songs, poems, denunciation of bourgeois culture, etc.), letters, documents on Party history, etc.
There is no hard and fast dividing line between materials that will be published in the regular issues of The Workers' Advocate and the Supplement. The Supplement will tend to provide a more convenient place for the printing of longer materials, but it will also include all categories of articles that were suitable for the regular issue, but didn't actually make it into the paper. It will carry authoritative party statements and polished materials, but it will also generally be a more suitable place than the regular issue for the publication of various materials that, while of value and interest, are either discussion pieces or have certain draw-backs that would otherwise hinder publishing them.
Like The Workers' Advocate, The Workers' Advocate Supplement is a journal of the Central Committee of the Marxist-Leninist Party. The Supplement will appear at least once a month. It will vary in size in accordance with the available material and the immediate tasks of the party. It is especially designed for the use of Party activists and sympathizers, but it is a public journal, available to all progressive people who wish to purchase it. As well, some issues of the Supplement may be produced in larger numbers for wide distribution.
The Workers' Advocate stands at the head of a system of proletarian literature - from leaflets, factory distribution networks and local newspapers to the Supplement, pamphlets and books. We call on all workers, activists, and progressive people to read and support the workers' press. Let us unite to bring the truth to the people, as opposed to the lies, dollar-worship, racism and chauvinism of the bourgeois press! Let us build up the revolutionary proletarian press as part of the work of strengthening the class-conscious proletarian movement, building a genuine fighting communist party, the Marxist-Leninist Party, and preparing for the socialist revolution! <>