First Published: The Call, Vol. 10, No. 6-7, August-September 1981.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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In order to advance the struggle for Marxist-Leninist unity, the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (CPML), League of Revolutionary Struggle (Marxist-Leninist) (LRS) and Revolutionary Workers Headquarters (RWH) have agreed to initiate this call for a public political debate in the U.S. Marxist-Leninist movement. We hope all U.S. Marxist-Leninists will participate in this debate.
The debate will feature the publication of positions on six political questions that are essential in the formulation of a line and program for the U.S. revolution, over a period of approximately nine months. The CPML, LRS and RWH, in consultation with others, call for debate on the following topics, beginning with the first topic on October 15, 1981, and the others following at six week intervals.
1. The nature of the current period of the U.S. revolutionary struggle and the tasks of communists.
2. The national question, including positions on the Afro-American national question, Chicano national question, Asian national questions, the Puerto Rican national question.
3. The question of labor and trade union work.
4. The woman question.
5. The international situation.
6. Party building and organization.
The first topic, the nature of the current period and tasks of communists, should include analysis of the objective conditions in the U.S. and internationally, the communist movement, and the tasks of communists in this period.
We encourage groups and individuals to write positions on this first topic approximately 10-15 single-spaced, 8 by 11 inch pages in length. We encourage this guideline for length because length will determine somewhat the character and extent of detail of the position papers. Position papers on the first topic should be published October 15, 1981.
For the remaining topics, we urge that positions include theoretical views, programmatic demands and strategy and tactics, and summarization of practice wherever possible.
The publication of positions will be the responsibility of each group (or individual). This opens the debate to any group (or individual) that wishes to participate, rather than having some groups establish committees, editorial boards or other organizational bodies to decide who can or cannot participate.