1. The social, political, and economic problems that plague the majority of the US people are ultimately rooted in the system of private ownership, individual accumulation of wealth, class rule, and savage selfishness: capitalism.
The most transparent expression of this unjust system is the division of our society into two major classes: those who must seek employment to live and those who employ and exploit the others.
The underlying class contradictions of capitalism have not changed since capitalism appeared on the world stage. The world is entering a period when these contradictions are becoming more and more evident. The divisions between rich and poor in the world become ever wider. The effects of pollution and climate change are growing.
Resistance to American domination is increasing in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The class struggle in the US and the European Union promises to intensify.
2. We live in the era of imperialism and resistance to it. The U.S is the strongest imperialist country on the planet today, though it is economically challenged by other countries and blocs like the European Union.
While most nations have freed themselves from being controlled outright, imperialist states still rule other nations through colonialism. This includes the US which holds Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and US Virgin Islands under colonial subjugation.
Nevertheless, the resistance to American domination is increasing in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The class struggle in the US and the European Union promises to intensify.
3. Marxism-Leninism and its concepts of class struggle, state-monopoly capitalism and imperialism remain the best guide to understanding our world, that its aim of socialism — that is, a society based on productive property democratically owned and controlled by the workers for the benefit of all people — remains our goal, and that the Leninist prescription of a “party of a new type” remains the best guide for successful struggles against capitalism.
4. Because of the historic legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and continuing racial inequality and discrimination, that we have not entered a “post-racial” society. To the contrary, the struggle against racism and for real racial equality remains a central task of Communists. We believe compensatory actions, affirmative actions are essential elements on the path to erasing the legacy of slavery and the national oppression that came in its wake.
The fight for racial equality for other people of color as inextricably linked to the historical right for freedom by the African-American people.
5. As residents of the main imperialist power, U.S. Communists have a special obligation to fight against the military interventions, electronic spying, CIA operations, drone attacks, torture, and other affronts to peace and human rights conducted by the U.S. Government. For the same reason, we have a special obligation to build international solidarity with Communists and others abroad fighting for peace, human rights, national sovereignty and socialism.
6. The struggle of workers and for workers’ interests remains the fulcrum for changing the world and that the cutting edge of this struggle remains the trade unions. Communists must not only resist the erosion of collective bargaining and union rights but must struggle within the trade unions for a program of class struggle unionism. Our notion of class struggle unionism does not grant the employers’ right to a profit. Nor does it separate the struggle of members for a contract from the larger issues that impact the community, the nation, or the world.
7 Many of the institutions of modern-day capitalism — the criminal-justice system, the media, cultural production, the party system — are in profound crisis. Millions now see that the two-party system sustains corporate power and is an impediment to majority rule. Democracy requires building political independence of the two-party system.
8. In an era of deteriorating economic conditions, cutbacks in education, health and social services, environmental crisis, and rising right wing and religious fundamentalist ideologies, class struggle takes various forms. Communists not only need to join these struggles, but also bring to them a class perspective. This includes the struggles of women, gays and transgendered people, students, the aged, and immigrants. It also includes the struggles to preserve the environment and protect privacy, voting rights, and civil liberties.
9. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European socialist countries represented the greatest setback in the history of workers’ and peoples’ struggles. Though these countries were not without problems, the Soviet Union represented the strongest curb on imperialism, the greatest support for the economic well being of workers everywhere in the world, and the greatest aid to countries and movement struggling for national independence and socialism. The collapse of the Soviet Union has caused many communists or former communists to become confused, cowardly and ashamed of their own history.
10. The Communist Party USA, in spite of its glorious history and many decent members, has irretrievably lost its way. It has abandoned most of its former ideology and organization, forsaken the struggle against racism and international solidarity, eschewed change in the trade unions and action in the streets, and tried to channel all discontent into support for the Democratic Party.
11. As the crisis of capitalism deepens, as people’s economic uncertainty and suffering increases, the right wing may continue to grow, but we believe one of the reasons for its influence is the lack of a left-wing alternative. The best answer to the unrelenting rightward drift by the Democratic Party and much of the leadership of the trade unions and other organizations is to rebuild a real left movement and political independence around such issues as peace, equality, economic justice, environmental protection, and class struggle trade unionism.
12. As Lenin taught, and the history of the communist movement has proven, the two greatest impediments to successful struggle are opportunism (giving up principles for short-term gain) and sectarianism (a dogmatic unwillingness to work with others because of differences). We believe that resolving differences in tactics is achieved through engagement with others in the crucible of struggle.
