Maoism in the Developed World

However, disagreements developed between the majority of the RU and the other groups in the Liaison Committee. These somewhat paralleled the differences within the RU itself, between the Wright group and the majority led by Bob Avakian. The Black Workers Union, for instance, argued that each ethnic group within the new party should concentrate on working particularly among people of its own ethnic background. As a consequence of these disagreements, the Liaison Committee finally disbanded.

Formation Of The Revolutionary Communist Party

The majority of the Revolutionary Union, together with some elements from the other groups that had originally formed the Liaison Committee, went ahead with the idea of formally establishing a party. In June 1974, the RU put forward the bases on which it thought the new party would be established.

The first basic principle proposed by the RU was that “the Party be based on Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung Thought.”

The second was that “The central task of the Party once it is formed is to build the revolutionary workers movement and the proletariat’s leadership in the united front.”

Insofar as the question of the role of the Blacks in the revolution was concerned, the RU proposed that “The genuine communist Party recognizes that the oppressor nation must not impose a forcible solution to the question of separation … the multinational proletariat and the minority peoples’ struggle against national oppression and for liberation.”[51]

Finally, the RU suggested that “the Party operate on the basis of democratic centralism.”[52]

In preparation for founding the new party, the RU “set about the task of contacting and struggling with various forces in Marxist-Leninist collectives and groups and advanced forces in mass organizations moving toward Marxism-Leninism", although without a great deal of success. As Kingel and Psihountas put it, The RU even made some attempts to meet and struggle with the October League in hopes that there was a chance that their revisionist lines had not been consolidated yet into a thoroughly revisionist world outlook.”[53]

The one group that did join the Revolutionary Union in organizing the Revolutionary Communist Party was one headed by Mickey Jarvis, consisting largely of ex-SDS members, and with its strength largely on the East Coast.[54]

The RCP was finally founded “in the latter part of 1975.” The founding congress “forged one Party with one line. This was concentrated in its Main Political Report and especially the Party Programme and Constitution”[55]

Bob Avakian, who was elected Chairman of the Central Committee of the new RCP, said in his closing speech to the convention, that “It was in the course of struggle that, in order to discover the cause of the evils they were fighting against and the means to end them, and in order to deepen, broaden and advance this fight, these forces took up the revolutionary science of the working class, Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung Thought.”[56] He likewise said that “the formation of the Revolutionary Communist Party marks the second time the Party of the working class has been formed in this country (the CP was founded in 1919). And this will be the last time! The Revolutionary Communist Party must not and will not go revisionist.”[57]

Break Of The RCP With Post-Mao Chinese Regime

After Mao Tse-tung’s death and the purge of the Gang of Four by Hua Kuo-feng in October 1976, the Revolutionary Communist Party broke with the post-Mao Chinese leaders. Until Mao’s death, there was no evidence of a break of the RCP with the Chinese regime. On the occasion of the death of Chou En-lai, earlier in 1976, the RCP had said that “In this moment of solemn reflection, we strengthen our resolve to unite the universal practice of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung Thought with the concrete practice of United States revolution in solidarity with the revolutionary struggle of the peoples of the world.”[58]