Third Congress of the PCUSA – Remarks from the General Secretary

As Communists, we trace our origins and our ideological heritage to the October Revolution of 1917, which led to the establishment of the first Worker’s State in the form of the Soviet Union. This began the first epoch of the international Communist movement.

The second epoch began with the counter-revolution and illegal dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The direct lineage of our Party begins in this second epoch with the formation of US Friends of the Soviet People, which led to the National Council of Communists USA, and finally the formation of the Party of Communists USA on May Day 2014, ten years ago. Now, our Third Congress is taking place at the beginning of a new epoch, the epoch of Multipolarity.

The beginning of this third epoch in the international Communist movement is marked by the anti-fascist Special Military Operation in the Ukraine. This operation has drawn the line in the sand beyond which NATO and its fascist proxy forces will not be allowed to pass. Thus, the uncontested rule of Western imperialism in the world, which had been unmatched since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, is coming to an end. The balance of power is quickly shifting towards the anti-imperialist and anti-fascist forces of the world, and this shift characterizes the new epoch of Multipolarity.

Our comrades in the Party are well aware of the new challenges which have emerged in this new epoch. The Russian Special Military Operation has divided the World Communist Movement. On one side are the truly progressive forces which understand the dialectical reality of the situation and recognize the Special Military Operation as the frontier of a worldwide anti-fascist and anti-imperialist struggle. On the other side are the ultra-left organizations, which view the war as nothing more than an inter-imperialist conflict, and thus oppose the Operation in general. These organizations are fundamentally the same as all ultra-left groups: “Left in Form, Right in Essence.” Their actions objectively serve the interests of Western imperialism. Thus, once again, we face a struggle within a struggle: the struggle for correct ideology within the World Communist Movement, taking place within the broader Class Struggle itself.

To meet today’s challenges, there will be Three Pillars in our success as a Party: firstly, the correctness of our Ideology, secondly, the application of Bolshevik discipline and principles of organization in our Party, and thirdly, the Organizational effectiveness of our work.

Our ideology has been, and will remain, one of our Party’s greatest strengths. This ideology, known as Marxism-Leninism, is the science of dialectical materialism applied to today’s imperialist epoch. Our ideology is the ideology of the Soviet Union, without revision. It is the North Star of our Party, correctly guiding our actions in advancing the class struggle. We must be continuously vigilant in walking the Party line tightrope, never yielding to short-sighted right-opportunist revisionism, nor petty-bourgeois radical ultra-leftism.

It is also important to recognize that, finally, U. S. Imperialist Unipolarity, which began in 1991, has come to it’s inevitable conclusion by the emergence of other centers of Multipolarity, as exemplified by Russia and China. This new reality of Multipolarity has elicited a familiar response from the forces of reaction. That response is the re-emergence of Fascism as a real threat in the world today.

            The last time Fascism reached this level of prominence was in the lead-up to World War II. Our fight against Fascism is and will be guided by the analysis of the Seventh Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) of 1935, led by Comrade Georgi Dmitrov. Dmitrov defined Fascism as “the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital.” The Comintern’s solution, followed by all Communist parties throughout the world, was the formation of an international Peoples Front.

In the coming years, it will be one of the major tasks of our Party in the coming period to work towards the creation of a new Peoples Front that will defeat the Fascist threat once again.

The second pillar of our success as a Party will be the Bolshevik form of our organization. This means that we are guided by the principles of Democratic Centralism and Collectivism in work and leadership. Democratic Centralism means the subordination of the minority to the majority in decision making, as well as the subordination of lower Party formations, such as cells and districts, to higher Party formations, such as the Politburo, Central Committee, and, at the highest level, the Congress.

Democratic Centralism is effective only when we follow collective methods of work and leadership. Collective work fosters unity in the Party and allows the Party to work as a unified, concentrated whole. By contrast, Individualism has always been poisonous to collective Communist work, and we must always be on guard against petty-bourgeois individualist thinking and actions within our Party.

Finally, the Party of Communists USA will be successful by developing and improving effective methods of organizing our work. The decisions made at this Congress will chart our course for the next five years. Accomplishing the goals we have set out here requires effective methods of organization and discipline in our work. All Party formations – departments, commissions, district, cells, and more – must work according to the plan which has been developed at this Congress and previous Congresses.

The elected National leadership of the Party must work to apply the line of the Congress to the changing day-to-day conditions and ensure that these Party formations work according to this line. The leadership of our Party must be held to the highest standards of discipline, as their actions set the standard for our level of organizational discipline as a whole. History has shown us that individualism, parochialism, and spontaneity have been obstacles for our organizational discipline.

By following these principles, the Party can be confident that, following our Third Congress, the coming years will be a period of growth, productivity, and influence for our Party in contributing to the international class struggle. It is our responsibility to uphold and preserve the science of Marxism-Leninism ideology, as exemplified by the Soviet experience.  It is up to us to continue our Communist lineage and heritage for generations to come.

As we move forward from this Congress to meet the new challenges of today, let us never forget the famous words of Comrade Maurice Bishop, leader of the New Jewel Movement in Grenada: “Forward ever, backward never!”