From the desk of the General Secretary of the Party of Communists USA
The American Communist movement has recently seen yet another division among its ranks. This new trend is characterized by both left- and right-deviations, both of which objectively support the interests of the capitalist class.
In terms of ultra-left views, this trend has taken the position that the solution to the genocide in Palestine is the imminent destruction of Israel. This is not, and never has been, the position of Communists. The Communist movement has historically supported the two-state solution along the pre-1967 borders, as defined in UN Resolution 242. Also worth mentioning is that one of the handful of people who signed the Declaration of Independence of Israel was Meir Vilner, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Israel. It’s also worth noting that Comrade Stalin was the head of the International Communist movement at the time, and all of this occurred under his leadership. This is also the position which was upheld by the representatives of the Palestinian people in the recent Beijing Declaration.
Furthermore, it is also common for adherents of this trend to refuse to use the name “Israel” at all, instead referring to the state as the “Zionist entity.” This name indicates that these people reject the possibility of a non-Zionist Israel, which has been the goal of the Communist movement since the creation of Israel. Just as Communists struggled against apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the United States, we never called for the destruction of those states – instead, we called for a new government which would eliminate these conditions.
This new trend is also marked by an affinity towards decentralization and a lack of Bolshevik discipline. The leadership of this movement, which is concerned with their personal platforms on the Internet first and foremost, has already indicated that they will not subject these platforms to the discipline necessary by the elected leadership of a Communist party – i.e., that they will air whatever personal views they wish regardless of whatever Party line may emerge. The foundation of a Communist party is unity, and this unity cannot be possible while there is decentralization. As was understood by Comrades Lenin and Stalin, a Communist Party must always have one Center, and one Center only.
Finally, in terms of ultra-left deviations, we have seen the leadership of this group glorify violence. They have a fondness for putting their logo on AI-generated images of groups of people holding assault rifles. Compare this to the behavior of Communist leaders of the past. There are no photos of Lenin holding a gun – and we must understand that this is deliberate. Communists must never be seen as advocating for violence. This behavior is historically associated with Maoists and the New Left. Marxist-Leninists do not engage in this adventurist behavior; however, this does not mean that Communists are pacifists. To the contrary, Communists uphold the right of the working class to defend itself. However, to glorify violence is to give the capitalists an excuse to crush our movement.
In terms of right deviations, this new trend within the American Communist movement is marked by social chauvinism, support of the pro-Trump “MAGA Communism” movement, and uncritical Russophilia. Its leadership has already indicated that they will push so-called “traditional family values”, which is nothing more than a dog-whistle for anti-LGBT+ sentiment. This is part of a wider trend of tailism which this trend exemplifies. Tailism is the opportunistic tailing of the masses, where reactionary views are accepted solely for the purpose of attempting to gain their support. This is in contrast to the Leninist principle of Communists as the vanguard of the working class, leading them forward to higher degrees of class and social consciousness.
The tailism of this trend is further exemplified by its support of so-called “MAGA Communism”, which is rooted in the MAGA movement that backed Donald Trump as President of the United States. The correct approach is to support neither major Presidential candidate in the 2024 race, not to opportunistically tail one or the other Party, or the populist movements that back them.
Lastly, there has been a trend within this movement to remove the “critical” part of “critical support” for the anti-imperialist countries and groups which are struggling against NATO, Western imperialism, and NATO-backed Fascism. Most of the anti-imperialist countries today are still capitalist, and their leadership still represents the interest of their national bourgeoisie over the interests of the working class. This is why we, as Communists, do not put the leadership of these countries above criticism, despite the objectively positive role they play in fighting against imperialism. This new trend, on the other hand, erroneously demonstrates an uncritical “Russophilia”, smoothing over the fact that Putin, the protege of Boris Yeltsin, is a resolute anti-Communist who has in the past attempted to get Russia to join NATO.
The new trend has also voiced uncritical support for Hamas because of their role in the Palestinian struggle, despite the fact that Hamas was historically used as a tool by the Israeli state to suppress, and even murder, several Communists over the past years. We stand with murdered Communists all over the world.
The history of the American Communist movement is littered with the graves of once-new tendencies which split off from the original scientific socialist, Marxist-Leninist ideology of the Soviet Union. Trotskyism, Maoism, Petty-bourgeois New Leftism, and Anarchism all failed because they were unable to “walk the tightrope”, that is, they failed to avoid ultra-left deviations or right-opportunism. Some veered to the left, some to the right, and some vacillated between the ultra-left and right-deviation, as we are seeing with this new trend today. All failed, or will ultimately fail, as a result of these deviations. These detours from a Marxist-Leninist interpretation can be summarized as “left in form, right in essence.”
Furthermore, just as we walk the tightrope, we cannot tail the working class, as this new trend does, nor can we move too far ahead of them, to the point where they will not be willing to follow. The ideology of Marxism-Leninism does not need revision, nor does it need to be “updated” for modern times. It is by its very nature the vanguard of the working class, following the original path set out by comrades Marx, Lenin, and Stalin.
