The Chicago Workers' Voice is publishing a theoretical supplement. The CWV is produced by comrades who were all members or supporters of the former MLP.This article appeared in the first issue of the* CWV Theoretical Supplement* (called the CWV Theoretical Journal from issue #2 on).
Despite the dissolution of the MLP, the CWV group feels that the MLP attempted to develop the mass movements in a revolutionary direction. The MLP provided valuable lessons and guidance to activists trying to build a revolutionary political movement. The MLP worked to restore revolutionary Marxism. It developed a serious ideological, theoretical and tactical critique of revisionism, social-democracy and trotskyism.
We regret the dissolution of the MLP
The final issue of The Workers' Advocate reports that the MLP dissolved due to an internal crisis brought on by a loss of forces and the difficult conditions and by a lack of ideological cohesion. In our view, the loss of forces and the low level of the mass movements were very serious problems facing the Party and may have, themselves, meant that the Party could not be maintained. Yet, if it were not for the ideological disunity some form of national organisation and work would have been maintained. Thus it is our view that the ideological disunity played the key role in the complete dissolution of the party.
What were the ideological and theoretical disputes tearing apart the MLP? Among these the Chicago Workers' Voice thinks there are 1) the assessment of imperialism, 2) analysis of the program of the capitalists and what the program of the working class should be in the post Cold War world, 3) assessment of the role of the working class as a base for revolutionary politics, 4) assessment of Leninism, 5) assessment of Soviet history, and 6) analysis of the role of a small revolutionary party or group in the present situation.
A large part of the political and theoretical issues which came up inside the Party has scarcely been submitted to critical discussion in former Party circles, much less by those outside direct former Party circles. We think that the disputes in the former Party reflect objective problems facing the revolutionary movement. For one thing, as the MLP tried to deepen its critique of revisionism and the roots of revisionism, the study provoked many serious questions on the tactics and theory of the Bolshevik Party even while Lenin was alive. As well, world politics is in much flux since the breakup of the former Soviet Union and the East European bloc. This is posing many questions regarding the program of world capitalism and how should the proletariat respond. Further, there are many issues on how revolutionaries should organize in the present period when revolutionary movements are nonexistent or in disarray.
It was precisely disputes on these and related questions which tore the MLP apart. It is the opinion of the CWV that these issues are not only of significance to activists who were members or supporters of the MLP. We consider these issues to be of general importance to the movement. It is also our opinion that if another group planning to build an anti-revisionist communist party should get going a year from now, 5 or 10 years from now or many years from now, it will face many if not all the same problems ideologically which faced us. Therefore, we consider it our duty to have these problems ou t in the open. This is why the CWV is producing a journal.
While the editors have their own views, they will undertake to print the different views that existed in and around the former MLP on the issues already mentioned and other important questions. For this the journal will draw on analytical and theoretical documents written before the dissolution of the Party that are either unpublished or only internally circulated. It will also publish articles, theoretical studies, comments or letters sent in by our readers. The standpoint and conclusions among various authors will vary. Only where so indicated will a contribution reflect the views of the CWV.
The CWV hopes that this journal will help the activists who want to maintain and develop the Marxist-Leninist trend to sort out their stands on various questions. We are in a period when a number of basic questions are up for debate and discussion. To assist in sorting out our stands, we feel that all views should be heard in this journal.
The journal will attempt, as far as possible, to reflect the views and work of our readers. It will not a priori rule out contributions from any former Party activists or from anyone who wants to discuss the issues involved. It will attempt to provide a channel to our readers to discuss the issues raised in the former MLP and by the revolutionary movement. <>