New Constitution of RCP: Faltering Organization Stamped by Avakianism

click here for the full document

The Revolutionary Communist Party has finally published at least one final outcome of their v-e-e-e-e-e-e-ry long program process.

After publishing a draft version of their program in 2001 (!), the whole process came to an abrupt and long halt because of the intense struggle that imposed the appreciation of Bob Avakian as “the cardinal question” for communists.

Now that new line is being enshrined in their new constitution — encapsulated in a number of revealing preoccupations, formulations and verdicts.

We will be discussing key developments of this document — including its abandonment of the term “Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.”

*   *  *  *

Note: For purposes of review, we have posted a few deliberately brief excerpts below. For full context and argumentation, we suggest people to examine the document itself — posted here for distribution on the RCP’s own website. When it becomes available for purchase, we urge  you to buy your own personal copy at your local Revolution bookstore.

* * * * *

This document is (as you will see) far more than a party constitution. It is nothing short of a new mini-program — which suggests that the previous “New Draft Programme of the RCP” will soon be put to rest — along with its various formulations that are now considered revisionist.

But as you will see it is far more than that: The publication announcement says that it “lays out the mission and vision of a new stage of communist revolution, informed by Bob Avakian’s new synthesis of communist theory.” This is a coming-out document for the RCP’s new ideology, and it is appropriate that they use the occasion to retire their previous terminology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

There are many things to note about this peculiar document, even on first pass. In this new document, the ideology of the RCP is labeled simply as “Communism as a Science” and we can expect that to be their official usage for decribing Avakianism (a term they are not themselves using.)

People around the RCP have come to expect a very cramped and restricted discussion of all such developments. The very-slightly experimental days of 2changetheworld feel long gone.

But we at Kasama can at least provide a forum for some critical exploration to help evaluate this revealing new milestone on the RCP’s road.

* * * * * * *

Here are some excerpts for review — taken from its closing section.  They give a flavor of the whole

Appendix: Communism as a Science

Communism is both a science and a revolutionary political movement. It is also a goal—not a utopia, but a liberating goal whose potential basis lies within the situation that confronts humanity, a situation where a leap is possible to a radically different and much better world.

To understand the world, and to change it in the interests of humanity, people need scientific theory. Science is not some set of mysterious laws “belonging to the scientists.” Science, all real science, is a vital human activity that aims to learn the causes of phenomena the reasons why things happen and how they develop—and it seeks these causes in the material world, which includes human society. A scientific approach does not seek supernatural “explanations” nor does it accept any explanations which cannot be tested, and verified or disproved, in the real material world, but instead develops an initial theory based on evidence from the world, tests out the theory in actual practice and against the results achieved, and through this process arrives at a deepened understanding of what is true. That understanding must then be further applied to reality.

Communism is a radical rupture from all religious outlooks. It has shown the way out of the spiritual slavery in which oppressed classes have been chained throughout history. It matters to know what’s real. There is no need to invent gods who supposedly control the natural world and humanity’s destiny. Without a scientific outlook, people are deprived of an understanding of the means and dynamics of change, of their own potential role in bringing about change—and of the joys and grandeur of discovery….

* * * * *

Here is an excerpt from this appendix expressing the central role the RCP’s now assigns the person and theories of its chairman.

All of this poses, anew, the great need for communism. While there are no socialist states in the world, there is the experience of socialist revolutions and there is the rich body of revolutionary, scientific theory that developed through the first wave of socialist revolutions to build on. But the theory and practice of communist revolution requires advances to meet the challenges of this situation—to scientifically address, and draw the necessary lessons from, the overall experience of this first wave of socialist revolution and the strategic implications of the vast changes taking place in the world.

Bob Avakian has taken on this responsibility, and has developed a communist body of work and method and approach that responds to these great needs and challenges.

He has undertaken a scientific summation of the first wave of socialist revolutions, in the Soviet Union and China. And, as a starting point, he has refuted the notion of the “death of communism,” upholding the great accomplishments of these revolutions, and has developed further analysis of the real problems they confronted in the societies they “inherited,” and in taking the first steps of socialist transformation in an imperialist-dominated world. Upholding, as by far the main aspect of these revolutions, the liberating changes they produced on many levels for the great majorities of the formerly oppressed, Avakian has also analyzed the negative aspects of this experience. This has involved critically examining both political and philosophical conceptions that guided this first wave of socialist revolution. A scientific summation of this experience, and the criticisms of it, requires a recasting and recombining on the basis of a materialist and dialectical outlook and method, in accordance with the need to continue revolution—advancing to communism.

Out of this work, Avakian has developed a new synthesis. This new synthesis has many dimensions—encompassing philosophy, politics and strategy. In its political conception of socialist society, this new synthesis is solidly based on a full appreciation of the essential need for the proletariat, in a concentrated way through its vanguard party, to lead and to firmly hold onto state power, without which all the gains of the revolution will be lost and all the horrors of capitalism will be back with a vengeance. But it also involves new conceptions of how communist leadership and revolutionary state power should be exercised—in order to give full expression to the all-around liberating potential of socialist society, and to maximize, at every point, the transformations toward communism. This envisions that, along with building on previous socialist forms of involving the masses in the administration of society and exercising power, a much greater degree of ferment and dissent should characterize socialist society than previously—not only because it is important for there to be real liveliness, but to serve a process of involving the broadest masses in the deepest possible wrangling with issues, in order to get at the truth more fully and to advance the masses’ understanding, involvement and capacity to enter into, and transform, all spheres of society. While the former capitalist exploiters will not be allowed rights to organize for their return, opposition among the broadest masses to various policies and even to socialism itself will not be suppressed—it will be debated and struggled over—as long as that opposition does not take the form of organized attempts to overthrow the socialist state.

This new synthesis also involves a greater appreciation of the important role of intellectuals and artists in this whole process, both pursuing their own visions and contributing their ideas to this broader ferment—all, again, necessary to get a much richer process going. The socialist state, including the army and the courts, must be responsible to the party; but they must also be responsible to a socialist Constitution, which the party must not seek to “go around,” and which must guarantee basic rights and legal procedures, along with characterizing the basic forms of the socialist state and economy at a given stage of the revolution. The aim is to provide a legal framework for a given stage of ongoing revolutionary transformations under socialism, and for people, by having clearly spelled out and institutionalized rules and rights, to have ease of mind and liveliness, along with some “space.”

In short, in this new synthesis as developed by Bob Avakian, there must be a solid core, with a lot of elasticity. This is, first of all, a method and approach that applies in a very broad way. It is based on the scientific understanding that reality is, indeed, real—and it consists of particular forms of matter in motion, each with a specific identity—but at the same time every particular thing is moving, changing, interacting with other things at different levels. A clear grasp of both aspects of this, and their inter-relation, is necessary in understanding and transforming reality, in all its spheres, and is crucial to making revolutionary transformations in human society.

This method and approach appreciates the need for leadership—including identifying times and circumstances when clear and firm conclusions can and must be drawn, and leadership given directly and very decisively. It also means identifying times and circumstances when you cannot and/or should not do that. This is an approach to leadership that also appreciates that there are many circumstances in which a much greater degree of “elasticity” is not only possible but very necessary—leadership that appreciates the need for, and encourages, broad initiative, creativity, contestation of views and ferment. There is no such thing as solid core with no elasticity, or all elasticity without a solid core. In exercising revolutionary leadership, it is necessary to learn while leading, and to lead while learning. It is necessary to both work to expand a leading core (which itself is continually going through changes) and necessary to encourage elasticity to the greatest degree possible at a given time—while keeping a clear “eye on the prize” of revolution and communism through all this….

As Avakian himself has summarized it:

This new synthesis involves a recasting and recombining of the positive aspects of the experience so far of the communist movement and of socialist society, while learning from the negative aspects of this experience, in the philosophical and ideological as well as the political dimensions, so as to have a more deeply and firmly rooted scientific orientation, method and approach^* with regard not only to making revolution and seizing power but then, yes, to meeting the material requirements of society and the needs of the masses of people, in an increasingly expanding way, in socialist society—overcoming the deep scars of the past and continuing the revolutionary transformation of society, while at the same time actively supporting the world revolutionary struggle and acting on the recognition that the world arena and the world struggle are most fundamental and important, in an overall sense—together with opening up qualitatively more space to give expression to the intellectual and cultural needs of the people, broadly understood, and enabling a more diverse and rich process of exploration and experimentation in the realms of science, art and culture, and intellectual life overall, with increasing scope for the contention of different ideas and schools of thought and for individual initiative and creativity and protection of individual rights, including space for individuals to interact in “civil society” independently of the state—all within an overall cooperative and collective framework and at the same time as state power is maintained and further developed as a revolutionary state power serving the interests of the proletarian revolution, in the particular country and worldwide, with this state being the leading and central element in the economy and in the overall direction of society, while the state itself is being continually transformed into something radically different from all previous states, as a crucial part of the advance toward the eventual abolition of the state with the achievement of communism on a world scale. (“Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity,” Part 1)…

Communism: a living synthesis

As Bob Avakian has expressed it, communism is an integral philosophy and political theory at the same time as it is a living, critical and continuously developing science. It is not the quantitative addition of the ideas of the individuals who have played a leading role in developing it (nor is it the case that every particular idea, policy or tactic adopted by them has been without error). Communist ideology is a synthesis of the development and especially the qualitative breakthroughs that communist theory has developed since its founding by Marx up to the present time.

And as communism, in theory and as a revolutionary movement, picks itself up and goes forward into the challenges of the times, our party, the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, takes to heart the following from Bob Avakian’s book For a Harvest of Dragons:

“In the final analysis, as Engels once expressed it, the proletariat must win its emancipation on the battlefield. But there is not only the question of winning in this sense but of how we win in the largest sense. One of the significant if perhaps subtle and often little-noticed ways in which the enemy, even in defeat, seeks to exact revenge on the revolution and sow the seed of its future undoing is in what he would force the revolutionaries to become in order to defeat him. It will come to this: we will have to face him in the trenches and defeat him amidst terrible destruction but we must not in the process annihilate the fundamental difference between the enemy and ourselves. Here the example of Marx is illuminating: he repeatedly fought at close quarters with the ideologists and apologists of the bourgeoisie but he never fought them on their terms or with their outlook; with Marx his method is as exhilarating as his goal is inspiring. We must be able to maintain our firmness of principles but at the same time our flexibility, our materialism and our dialectics, our realism and our romanticism, our solemn sense of purpose and our sense of humor.”

for the full unexcerpted appendix