Declaration of the American Communist Party

As drafted by the Plenary Council for the American Communist Party

History has shown repeatedly that the real basis of a Communist Party lies not only in its ideas, doctrines, or programs. The united mission that fastens its bonds of association is defined by the common development of history itself, and acquires reality only in the concrete, practical contributions made by it thereof. It is therefore evident that in a given country there can only exist one Communist Party, insofar as a given country can only have one history. In the history of the United States of America, that party is the Communist Party USA.

But when in the course of events, a Communist Party proves itself to be incapable of meeting a new development of history, it evidently must be reconstituted in exact proportion to the necessities of meeting that same development. For a Communist Party cannot have a strictly a posteriori historical existence. As the Party of the living proletariat, its continued historical existence depends upon and can be wrought only from an active and living relation to the flame of history. Where a Communist Party, hitherto legitimately established, ceases to possess this relation, its bonds of association, forged in the glorious fires of past historical struggle, become liquified. It then becomes necessary, according to the very laws of history, for its authority to be founded anew, however abruptly in contravention of its hitherto form, on the basis of rediscovering its original common mission.

A decent respect for the opinions of the international Communist movement and the sacred history of the Party itself requires that such an authority declares the causes which impel it to emerge so abruptly.

Marxism–Leninism is not a doctrine born of pure thought, but real historical practice. The wisdom of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao finds its basis not in the detached elucidations of the intellect, but in the union between thought and its real, practical premises. The synthesis of Marxism–Leninism is based not in the opinions of this-or-that individual, but in real contributions to the development of history. From the vantage point of such an outlook, an opinion, theory, or even ideology cannot suffice to serve as the foundation of a Communist Party. It likewise follows that a Communist Party cannot be reconstituted purely on the basis of differences in opinion, theory or ideology. Indeed, a vicious cycle of sectarianism, having its basis in this individualist folly, has dealt great damage to the Communist movement.

However, careless, nihilistic, and opportunistic indifference to the unifying premises of a Communist Party have done equal, if not far greater damage. It suffices to recall the circumstances surrounding the dissolution of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, where the pure formalism of convention eclipsed any trace of sincere conviction among cadres. It was precisely indifference to these unifying premises that led to the liquidation of the Communist Party USA in 1944, which survives in name today only because then principled Communists had the courage to reconstitute it on a renewed basis. That these premises are not based in the pure thoughts of this-or-that individual does not render them nonexistent. They are based in the synthesis of thought and practice, an insight united in actuality with the common, historical existence of a given country; which could not possibly confine itself to the conceit of an individual. It therefore follows that only the conventions born of a Communist Party which yields results are sacred.

Only those conventions which are born not of pure dogmatic conceit, but real, practical necessity from the perspective of history, are regarded by the Marxist–Leninist outlook as inviolable. The great wisdom of Communist leaders, hardened by decades of experience of struggle, has long dictated that the formal authority of a party long established should not be reconstituted for light and transient causes. In usual circumstances, such a formal authority can be petitioned with disagreements of a genuine historical basis. The procedures of democratic centralism, while establishing a unity of action, permit the possibility that a party can remain responsive to new changes in history, even if it has pursued an erroneous path. But when a long train of abuse, corruption and usurpations of this procedure render the Party inept and unresponsive before history, disgracing it in procedural, operational reality to the status of a Communist Party in name only, it becomes both historically and practically necessary that the authority of the Communist Party be reconstituted on a fresh basis. Such has been the patient sufferance of cadres and clubs under the so-called leadership of the Communist Party USA, and such is now the necessity which forces them to reconstitute the Communist Party.

That the Communist Party USA has failed to acknowledge the unprecedented historical challenges facing the American people follows evidently from the fact that the development of the American nation has objectively entered into contradiction with the form of the United States of America itself, which has failed to contain the heightened political polarizations ravaging it from within. That the Communist Party USA has become defunct, and usurped by interests contrary to its historical existence, is only a logical extension of the defunctness, and general usurpation of the United States itself by those same interests.

The corruption of the Communist Party USA was itself born out of this crisis, under whose pretext successive ruling cliques have, time and time again, attempted to liquidate the Party itself. The history of the present illegitimate clique, which has hitherto usurped the name, properties and honor of the Communist Party, consists in repeated and sustained efforts which, short of attempting to dissolve the Party entirely, have rendered the organs of Party association weak, inoperable, and incapable of forging political independence in the face of a what is evidently an entirely new chapter of national history. To prove this, let the facts be submitted to a candid audience:

• The ruling clique refuses to abide by the laws they themselves establish.
• They have forbidden District Committees and Regional Clubs any serious involvement in the decision-making processes of the Party, refusing to render transparent the activities of the National Committee when called upon to do so.
• They have fully disregarded the conventionally and constitutionally mandated process of record-keeping in the Party’s relations with other organizations, replacing official reports with informal meetings.
• They have unconstitutionally liquidated the sole theoretical journal of the Party, “Political Affairs”, while rendering the activities of the publishing house obsolete; suppressing the development of any principled outlook, and discouraging the promotion of Marxist–Leninist education which might contradict the conclusions imposed upon them.
• They have replaced serious Marxist–Leninist education with eclectic seminars given from the liberal perspective, designed primarily to instill allegiance to the Democratic Party.
• They have unconstitutionally banned principled disagreement and alternate viewpoints contrary to their own, which contradict the democratic centralist principle of freedom of criticism, unity of action.
• They have libelously dismissed all interpretations of Marxism–Leninism which reject neoliberal ideology as ‘fascist,’ in order to create the dishonest pretext to silence any criticism of the Party’s fruitless strategy.
• They have interfered in the autonomy of both Districts and Clubs, secretly and unconstitutionally employing agents to remove particular members from offices and nominations for offices within them.
• They surrendered the sacred historical archives of the Communist Party to New York University, a ruling class institution.
• They employed unprincipled means to obstruct the Party’s democratic procedures, by arbitrarily prolonging the National Convention in order to unduly consolidate power.
• They severely limited the scope of pre-convention discussions, reducing them to an illusory and staged charade of democracy, while silencing all discussion on the most historically prescient, pressing issues, such as the Party’s continued strategy of surrendering its independence to the Democratic Party and revisionist theory of ‘fascism.’
• They have unconstitutionally refused to report the financial status of the Party.
• They unconstitutionally usurped any semblance of legitimate Party authority during the 32nd National Convention of the Communist Party USA, in what amounted to a premeditated coup, fully contravening the democratic process in order to both illegitimately consolidate power and force abjectly minority opinions, such as support for the Democratic Party in the midst of an unprecedented genocide in Palestine, upon the whole Party.
• They began an unprecedented campaign of ruthlessly suppressing inter-party petitions surrounding the convention, unconstitutionally banning all intra-club and intra-chapter communications, dissolving entire clubs and expelling dozens of individuals without any trial.
• They began a libelous campaign to discredit the intentions and original causes of the Petition movement surrounding the improper procedures of the National Convention, baselessly accusing sincere and principled Communists of acting on the basis of outside organizations.
• They have unconstitutionally intimidated and coerced all remaining clubs within the Party to renounce the petition movement.

In every stage of these contraventions of the Party’s honor the leadership has been petitioned for redress in the most sincere and reasonable terms: These repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injuries.

Having closed off all avenues of principled criticism both within the Party and, in a way that is unprecedented, the 32nd National Convention of the Party itself, in tandem with having had rendered the Party historically inept for decades, the illegitimate ruling clique of the Communist Party USA has liquefied the hitherto form of the Party.

Thus, the possibility has emerged that the Party may be reconstituted on an entirely new basis, a possibility which the present Plenary Committee, alongside 29 clubs of the Communist Party USA, now seize upon in actuality.

Therefore, the Plenary Committee of the American Communist Party, now assembled in Chicago, Illinois, solemnly declare, and in light of the present political crisis which all but officially challenges the integrity of the United States of America itself, the reconstitution of the Communist Party USA as the American Communist Party.

American Communist Party Plenary Committee